v3i gives very inaccurate depth readings

[heavy-metal-head]

hello everyone. im new. Ive had my new v3i for a week now and I love it ,however I offen get very inaccurate depth readings on many different targets ,even air tests. I pump the coil 4 times for ground balance ,and still way off on target depth. is this normal for such an expensive machine? thanks, heavy-metal-head

 

[Rob (IL)]

No the V3i is very accurate. Did you match the detector to the coil you are using? Why would you pump it 4 times? Rob

 

[Ausibloke]

You say you "pump the coil 4 times for balance"..it may take a bit more than that!!
It can, in my experiance, take 15 to 20 pumps to get a good balance, are you listening for a smooth threshold before starting to detect or is 4 pumps all you are prepared to give it?
I don't have the V3i no upgrade yet.
The V3i I believe, has a control to set the coil in use...D2..6X10 etc..have you checked to see iff you have the right one selected.
Remember also that all detectors are calibrated for coin size objects, very small or larger targets will throw the depth readings off!!

Cheers.

Rob.

 

[jer4004]

No the V3i is very accurate. Did you match the detector to the coil you are using? Why would you pump it 4 times? Rob

The bottom of my V3 says pump 4 times for ground balance. Hopefully that's been removed from the V3i. It can take 10 to 15 pumps sometimes. He might be talking about the on the fly depth reading on the search screen that one is very inaccurate.

 

[heavy-metal-head]

yeah its the coil that came with it. the dd 10' ,and the menu shows it as that. nothing has been modified ,I dont see how I would need to dial the coil in from the factory settings.
As far as calibrating with the ground mineral ,it says on the bottom of the detector to pump 4 times while holding trigger and 'enter' , so thats what ive been doing. now if I pump it several times more am I looking for a steady sounding hum or low to no hum? I dont know how else to be sure if its calibrated. do i need to do it every time it powers off even if its the same ground?
thx for the replys.

 

[ak_1234]

pump until the audio changes are minimal while pumping it. Ideally the threshold should not change in volume (or frequency if you have VCO on) when it is properly balanced when approaching or leaving the dirt.

Are you looking at the depth display in pinpoint, or search? If you are seeing the inaccurate depth reading in search mode, that doesn't surprise me. Too many factors involved to have that number accurate - for one, if you sweep really fast, there won't be enough signal to get a good reading, if you sweep really slow, the filters will filter out your target signal and give a lower than expected reading... Pinpoint is your most accurate gauge as there is no filtering, and you're getting the maximum signal when stopping over your target. When entering pinpoint, make sure that you have the coil on the ground and not over your target. If you start pinpoint with the target under the coil, it will remove some of the target signal and therefore your depth will be off.

 

[Rob (IL)]

As stated the on the fly depth are not accurate. The accurate reading is in pinpoint with the trigger pulled.

You have to make sure the detector is set for a 10" D2 coil. You need to check. Just the same as you have to check that the VCO is turned on. You can't assume you need to check.

You need to know how to ground balance.
First you need a clean piece of ground. Check it with pinpoint mode to make sure the area is clean.
Pull the trigger, holding it, press enter.
Pump the coil until it goes quiet, if it takes 20 times then pump it 20 times.
Now check to see if it is balanced.
Use pinpoint and pump the coil. If it is balanced the sound will not change.

Now as you hunt watch the tracking. You need to find the correct tracking speed for you area.

As stated depth is for coin sized objects. Smaller targets will read deeper and larger targets will read more shallow. It is like this for all detectors.

I'll be gone hunting for the weekend. Rob

 

[jbow]

Pump the coil straight up and down, keeping it even with the plane of the ground.. make sure that there is no metal under the coil. 4 pumps means nothing... pump it until it sounds stable when it rises and lowers. You may never get it perfectly quiet but you will be able to tell the difference between a "wow" on the rise or lower to a stablitly on both... that is what you are after.

Size of the target matters, depth is based on coins.

I always pull the trigger first then press enter. Once I have a decent balance I release enter then release the switch... I think it matters but I am not certain.

Use a good pinpointer like the Garretts or the Uniprobe. I am using the V3 and on coins it is pretty accurate even with the SEF 8x6. If I am within a couple of inches I dont notice. If the target is off by several inches I usually stop recovery. Usually a coin VDI at several inches that turns out to be over 8 inches is a can or some trash.

Anyway... I hope you make good finds and enjoy your hunts... that is really all that matters. Don't get hung up on little stuff, just enjoy your hunting and after a while it will all click and you'll know what the machine is telling you even if the depth is off... something else will be telling you what is down there and how deep it is. After enough time you'll know almost every time what you are going to dig and how deep it is even if the detector says someting else... it is just a tool.. you are actually the detector.

J

 

[ak_1234]

I always pull the trigger first then press enter. Once I have a decent balance I release enter then release the switch... I think it matters but I am not certain.

J

Good writeup!

Yep, does matter. Pull trigger, press enter, balance, release enter, release trigger. (TEET) If you pull trigger, press enter, release trigger, release enter, it locks you into pinpoint. If you unintentionally find yourself there, pull and release trigger twice to get out and back to normal search. But, it's a way to lock into pinpoint without having to reconfigure your analysis screen to be pinpoint with trigger locked when you're probing around with your pinpointer (for those that have DX-1's).

 

[nw1886]

Never had an issue with the depth readings being accurate except with thin foil or a large mass. Always know this is occurring and dig accordingly. Coins/ significant jewelry....dead on always. Tiny jewelry is the same as foil....always shallower. Pop cans,plumbing parts...always deeper. Nature of the animal.

 

[awolf10421]

also it never hurts to have a nice home made 12" brass probe, and the 10 to 20 pump thing is very true, you find out the eventually .....all these sorts of things come to you sooner or later which make it fun in the end ....now what i would like to know is if its worth getting the upgrade to the Vi ???

 

[heavy-metal-head]

thank you for all the valuable info on this. I will perform all the advice but now my problems are big time... I was in the front yard palying around ,went to an area where its all rocks ,switched it to meterorite setting ,then pumped it several times over the rocks ,then when i went scanning for meterorite ,it starts making flickering and sputtering sounds ,and goes crazy with detecting anything and everything with the coil still. analize shows severe sqwiggly lines from all frequencys. its completely flipped out. ive tried evetything i know to reset it ,but everytime I turn it back on it does the same thing. is this a bad coil after all? can someone help before I hit the sack tonight? tech support is closed. thx

 

[nw1886]

Meteorite is a fairly wide open program and if you don't know what to expect it'll be a bear by the tail. That program is designed to be used in wide open "natural" environments and will sound off on every iron halo, EMI pulse, or anything metalic/ferrous like a house a fire. I personally haven't used it but just going in and looking how it is set up shows what it is set up for. Getting late here in Puget Sound so tomorrow some guys who do use it will be able to give you more specific parameters for it's use. (It won't be a back yard....or not an average one at least.) Bet some adjustments could make it manageable but would take it so far from it's intent to be less than "whole".

 

[ak_1234]

Liked nw1886's answer better so removed mine .

Long shot - how are your batteries?

Also, was it sounding off in the air or just when the coil was on the ground? If it also sounded off in the air, I would be suspicious of EMI from underground or overhead cables close by.

 

[TheMarshall]

hello everyone. im new. Ive had my new v3i for a week now and I love it ,however I offen get very inaccurate depth readings on many different targets ,even air tests. I pump the coil 4 times for ground balance ,and still way off on target depth. is this normal for such an expensive machine? thanks, heavy-metal-head

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Dear Heavy.

You cannot measure depth or distance using a metal detector on arbitrary sized metal objects.

Indications are RELATIVE.......to a one inch diameter coin.

The concept of roughly indicating the depth of an artifact, is based upon A TARGET'S DIAMETER - MASS and the DIAMETER OF THE SEARCH-HEAD.

There are other factors also involved, but why complicate matters further?

Check out other top line expensive detectors for comparison........TheMarshall.

 

[jbow]

Thanks Anne, I didn't know that. Locking pinpoint is a good function because sometimes if I hold the toggle too long I begin to apply more and more pressure on it . Locking pinpoint is a much better idea, if I need to use pinpoint for more than a few swings.

There are so many functions on the V3/V3i that I think i'll still be learning things a year from now... probably even longer.

Julien

 

[heavy-metal-head]

OK just got off work, got home ,and went straight to this forum. lol. tech support anywhere else is hard to find right now.
1st off i would like to thank each and every one of you who put in your 2 cents. all great posts for my learning.
2nd ,here is the update on my v3i behavior: last night as I posted above, that it kept giving me a wild sputtering noise and with the coil still it would rapidly detect anything ,while it was high in the air even, switching to analyze mode showed wildly ,rapid earthquake type readings from all 3 frequencies. I tried everything ,battery charge ,switching batteries ,restoring all programs, ect. nothing worked so I went to bed discouraged about my new v3i.

this morning got up , took it to work with me to call kellyco tech support (witch could offer me no actual tech support today), so i turned it on at 1st break ,sadly started doing to same thing ,tried ground balance again and it would flicker rapidly on the pinpoint meters while ground balancing making the fast sputtering noise along with the flicker again, just going nuts with detecting as well. so I turned it off and went back to work. Now ,heres the strange part. turned it back on at lunch time and it was totally fine. went to ground balance ,ect. and everything was working great. what gives?? I did nothing but leave it in a heating car while I was gone. lol. could this be a bad coil?? as of right now its still fine ,but I suspect it will do this again while I'm out hunting. sorry for long post ,but u guys know your stuff. -metal

 

[heavy-metal-head]

also ,wish I would have named this post MY v3i ,so as to not give this cool machine a bad reputation
even though mine is buggy its the rockinist you can own.

 

[heavy-metal-head]

got it figured out. I was too close to ground electrical/cables and box. looks like im just a silly rook. anyway the other good news is eveyones feedback helped my learn how to get much better depth readings. so yes, the spectra v3i kicks ass! having a blast with it. found 7 coins down in the creek by my home tonight ,gonna soak em in vinager and see if i get lucky with an old silver. thanks to everyone for the help. --metal-head

 

[slumpshooter]

First, as suggested above, check your battery, I have seen this to be the issue when everything goes whac-oh. battery should read 81/2 volts or higher, anything lower, the unit becomes unstable. Read your manual about battery life etc.
If one of your freq. is jagged our noise, then likely to be local interference. Try single freq. mode, don't use that freq. You're possibly experiencing some kind of local Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), power lines, transformer, local short wave etc. Try moving to another area, with a charge battery return to your back yard where you where before, does that help? Needless to say reducing sensitivity is also a cure for RFI issues, but none of us like turning that down much...