Whites 5900 di pro sl.

[MichiganJason]

Just picked up a nice one and was curious what others opinions are of this detector.

 

[TerraDigger]

Its a really outstanding older analog unit. Maybe Monte will pitch in with some knowledge. He really likes this unit if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[Monte]

for many users, White's has provided a good array of 'almosts' through the years and the 5900 Di Pro SL fits in that bunch. At least in my opinion, and I am going to qualify that by emphasizing that I especially refer to the last 'CB' version (Composite Board).

To be certain there are some excellent currently produced models that anyone ought to consider, and I have and use several, but of the discontinued models of the moderate-to-fast sweep design, I rank my favorites as the XL Pro (or 6000 Pro XL) as #1 and the XLT a very close #2, and the 5900 Di Pro SL #3. There are only two reasons that it falls to #3 rather than be #1 for me, and those are:

1.. It has a larger and heavier control housing and with my bad back and health I want/need to use a lighter-weight detector.

2.. It uses the 4-C cell battery system and, being frugal, I prefer the 8-AA powered system.

If the XL Pro was made with a manual GB control than it would have been the #1 and an Auto-Trac

 

[MichiganJason]

It is the cb version. I have the 950 coil and the Blue Max 600 coils for it. I think I just need more time with it to learn the best possible settings. I notice that sometimes the depth is so bad that if I have a target in the plug I can't detect it from one end of the plug be it top or bottom depending on where it is...sometimes I have to flip the plug over. Not with coins though but have noticed it with junk and pulltabs. Somone suggested to me that I should detect in geb norm mode rather than geb disc to get better depth and to crank the signal balance to almost unstable.

 

[MichiganJason]

I was messing with it today and think it all boils down to ground balancing. No matter how much I read how to do it, it doesn't seem to work. I notice when I put all the knobs at preset and then turn it on and then turn the knob to geb norm it gets super loud right away til I squeeze the trigger. Then I release the trigger and lower the coil to the ground. I turn the geb knob right or left accordingly. I notice when I turn it to the right the threshold gets super loud.but stays the same tone from waist level to the ground. I have never used a manual gb machine before so that is part of the issue too. I wish they had a video showing exactly how to do it.

 

[Hombre]

Howdy Jason,

I've owned the 5900 CB for about 5 years, so I am still a newb at it, but I figured I would thow out there what I have learned about mine. First of all forget what the manual says about ground balancing from waist level, I use an 8" coil and can use a little hotter SIGNAL BALANCE than I can get away with while using the 950 stock coil. I start in the G.E.B. DISC.. mode, set the TUNER to a comfortable threshold sound, my Disc. at one mark below pre-set, my SIGNAL BALANCE just past pre-set at about 2 O'Clock to 2:30 O'clock on the dial. I use HOT ROCK ACEPT, unless I have hot rock issues (deeper setting) than HOT ROCK REJECT. Now, pull the trigger, this puts you in G.E.B. NORM. or pinpoint all-metal, search around in this mode for a clean piece of ground where there is no signals. Start your ground balance on this spot of ground that is 'clean' with no buried metal. Raise the coil about 8" from the ground and lower coil to 1" from ground, listen to the threshold hhhhhhhhhuuuuuummmm as you lower coil to ground, it should do one of three things, threshold stays the same, spot on G/B...... or goes silent, too negative, turn G/B knob slowley clock-wise as you are raising and lowering the coil. Pay attension to the downstroke of the coil, not the uplift. The threshold raises in tone, if it is a slight increase that is OK, but if it raises rapidly you have a too positive G/B, slowly turn G/B knob counter-clock wise. After you have made adjustments to G/B and it stays the same hhhhhhhhuuuuuuummmmm or if it raises just slightly, you are G/B'ed and can release trigger to go back to G.E.B. DISC. and hunt. Pulling the trigger puts you in pinpoint or G.E.B. NORM. Hope this helps, don't give up, I learned by trial and error.

PS: It is harder to explain in text than actually doing the Ground Balance, as I can have it tuned and ready to hunt in a couple of minutes.

 

[MichiganJason]

I tried what you suggested Hombre and when I turn the geb knob clockwise the threshold gets super loud....also when I raise the signal balance it seems that the needle hits 100 on every target. I think I should get something easier but I'm going to keep trying for a while.

 

[TerraDigger]

Jason....it may need service. Send it to White's factory in Sweet Home, Oregon. As of 2 yrs ago, may have changed, not matter how much repair work was done, the max cost was $175.00 on a detector. Ask for Todd when you call. He is a awesome nice person. Depending on what you paid for unit, but I think its worth repairing.

 

[MichiganJason]

Well I just tried again but this time I just used all presets and I was actually impressed. Detected a small fishing split shot at 7 inches...pinpointing was spot on. I guess I can handle just using presets. I don't think it's defective at all...I'm and just one of those people that has little patience and has trouble doing things from a book and usually need to be shown first hand. I think it may be due to my ADHD.

 

[Hombre]

I tried what you suggested Hombre and when I turn the geb knob clockwise the threshold gets super loud....also when I raise the signal balance it seems that the needle hits 100 on every target. I think I should get something easier but I'm going to keep trying for a while.

Jason

Just pull and release the pinpoint trigger, that will reset the electronics, with both circumstances.

 

[MarkCZ]

Jason....it may need service. Send it to White's factory in Sweet Home, Oregon. As of 2 yrs ago, may have changed, not matter how much repair work was done, the max cost was $175.00 on a detector. Ask for Todd when you call. He is a awesome nice person. Depending on what you paid for unit, but I think its worth repairing.

The detector doesn't need serviced, it was mine before I traded it to him, he's just not use to the manual ground balancing and I think all the knobs is a bit different for him.
If that detector would have had any problems I would not have put it up for sell or trade until I got it fixed.
The only reason I decided to let go of the 5900 is because I had made another trade to Dan_Pa for his XLT, at the time I thought the XLT would be a big upgrade to the 5900, but it some ways I'm thinking that's not going to be the case! but never the less I had to let go of something and not getting any money out of the 5900 that leaves me having to sell yet another detector to reclaim some badly needed cash, Bla. Bla....bla.......

Jason, when your ground balancing you cannot turn the ground balance control while the coil is on the ground!
I think you may have misunderstood me about hunting in GEB All Metal.

Like in an earlier post, find a clean spot in the ground, you can use the toggle to do that, then I switch to GEB All Metal.

Raise the coil a foot or so off the ground,

With it still in the air adjust the threshold until you have a good level of audible tone, (squeeze and release the toggle)

Now lower the search coil on the clean spot, listen to the threshold,

If the tone drops in volume, then raise the coil back up and turn the Ground balance control clockwise (in the air) just a bit then squeeze and release the toggle to set the detector to the new level of balance.

Lower the coil back down to the clean spot.

You don't adjust it while its on the ground, the idea is to air balance it, lower the coil back to the ground. When the minerals in the ground sound the same as the coil in the air, then the machine is ground balanced (balanced between ground minerals and the air)

Like has already been stated here,
One of three things is going to happen when your ground balancing, when you set it to air and lower the coil back to the ground the threshold volume will either,

Increase (if it does then reduce the ground balance control "counter clockwise")

Decrease (if it does then increase the ground balance control "clockwise")

Stay the same (if this happens then the ground balance control is good.)

Get the tone volume while the coil is in the air, listen for the tone volume to change as you lower the coil back to the ground. Raise the coil back in the air, adjust the GB control, squeeze the toggle, lower to the ground again and listen.
when you get it right as you lower the coil to the ground the threshold volume will not change or it will only change VERY little. The closer you get to No Change, the better its ground balanced.

As you lift and lower the coil from the ground and can hear a lot of change in the tone you can adjust the ground balance with the coarse adjustment (the base knob) when the tone volume gets subtle in change use the fine adjust knob.

If you have trouble getting it to ground balance then you still may have been over some deep piece of metal, move a few feet to a new spot and try it again.
Don't give up, before you go to wrap it around a tree just do what you did and use the presets that's why they are there so a new users can work out the different points of the detector and get use to it. Once you get the hang of ground balancing it you think back and laugh about it.

Its very easy to get a new or used detector and for awhile get the idea its BROKEN! its not.

Most every detector my older brother has ever gotten was broken! he had even sent some back claiming them to be broken. I remember one time he send a Whites back under warranty because he thought is was broken, they contacted him back and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it, the tech said that he even took it out detecting with it and that it was fine!

Another time I remember was we were out hunting and he had just gotten a Brand New Teknetics 9000/B. We made our plans to hunt an old church, we got there, got all set up, we split up and started hunting, in a little bit he came over with his detector pretty broken hearted as I remember and stated "I can hunt anything with thing its broken" (now that thing had a LOT of knobs) his wife was with us and she was just plain MAD!
As we studied things over for a few minutes one of us spotted the problem!!! there is one control that also has two other selections other that hunt, they were,
Battery test for batteries "A"
Battery Test for batteries "B"
And yep, it was doing exactly what it was suppose to be doing, displaying a battery test for one or the other batteries!
My brother was relieved, but his wife was done hunting!

Trust me, its not broken.

Back to actually hunting in GEB ALL METAL, not to start off with!
And not for coin hunting, relic hunters many times will hunt in All Metal.

I just use the GEB All Metal mode for ground balancing, once balanced I switch back to GEB NORM mode.

Enjoy your new friend!

Any questions just shoot me a PM!

Mark

 

[skookum]

High,
The most common problem is : new owners have not thoroughly read the manual for their detector, though some may have done that, but either do not follow instructions or fully understand them.
Simple as that - in most cases.
And the manuals for the 5900 or the 6000 are quite a handful to digest for a noobie.
Happy hunting
skookum

 

[5900_XL-1]

Good advice given here, except I don't totally agree with reading the Whites manual as superior over real answers from real people here. When you "turn the knob(s)", just gingerly move one knob ever so slightly, and then re-trigger for the next drop to the ground and repeat.Getting the hang of GBing the 5900 gets to be old hat once you do it several times. Finding a clean spot to GB is not as easy. Practice at home for a while. I do agree...a slight increase in tone at ground level is OK, and the 8" drop level makes good sense also. martin

 

[Monte]

As others have stated, and this is important ... Once you make ANY control adjustment, hold the search coil about 8" off the ground, PULL-and RELEASE the trigger toggle to reset the Threshold for any change updates, then lower the coil to about 1" or so and start hunting.

I also prefer the a thin-profile 8" search coil for general hunting, HOWEVER, if I only had a 950 and a 6

 

[Monte]

It is the cb version..

A very versatile detector with ample performance for most hunting needs.

I have the 950 coil and the Blue Max 600 coils for it..

Use the 9

 

[MarkCZ]

Back to actually hunting in GEB ALL METAL, not to start off with!
And not for coin hunting, relic hunters many times will hunt in All Metal.

I just use the GEB All Metal mode for ground balancing, once balanced I switch back to GEB NORM mode.

Enjoy your new friend!

Any questions just shoot me a PM!

Mark

Sometimes I'd like to kick myself in the fanny when I miss quote stuff like the above!

The above should have read,
I just use GEB/NORM (that is the GEB All Metal) for ground balance, once balanced I switch back to GEB/DISC mode (that is the discrimination mode) my my normal hunting.

Man, Monte sure puts a lot into his post!
Thanks Monte,

Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

Back on the broken detector faze.
My brother and I laugh and joke with each other when one of us gets a new to detector about getting past the "Broken Detector Faze" (or the broken detector syndrome).

The both of use has had a good number of detector and I believe at one time we thought all of them to be broken but I know for me I only had one that was actually broken, (my Coinstrike had a bad coil, drove me nuts I just thought I was having trouble getting past the broken faze LOL)
And I believe my brother (WV62) has had only one, other than in the beginning with a half dozen of "Jetco's".

Just last night I went through some of the broken faze with the ID Edge I trade for. In my mind you access ALL settings via the menu (the coinstrike is like that) Well, as much as I tried and tried I couldn't get to the notch settings, I pushed the menu button, I pushed the up/down arrow buttons and the notch function just wouldn't display, yep! its broken I concluded LOL! but as I reflected back on the possible "Broken Detector Syndrome" an pondered the situation a bit, I noticed that on the other side of the control housing is a button marked "NOTCH" well I wonder what that does DUGH! it turns out that the notch function is really just fine.
Now, I know that that sounds really stupid! and to a point it is, be I know that others has done the same thing, you have something clear in your mine and we get blind to a different reality, we will read it it the manual but not make the transition from one way we know it to be, to the new or different way that it really is.
Now, for others here last night was my first time to lay my eyes and hands on an ID Edge, fresh out of the packing and I just went at it the way I thought it to be, like the Coinstrike and in some ways it is, but in some ways it isn't.
Now, I'm ready for the next "broken syndrome" moments with the edge and I'm sure as simple of a machine as it is I'm still going to have those brain dead times with it LOL!

I already told of the time my brother went through the "broken faze" with that older Teknetics 9000/B well later in time I ended up with that detector, but shoulder to shoulder with him I don't remember me having to deal with the "broken faze".

But I do remember my first whites 5000/Di ser2 and the broken faze!
It was a hot summer day, it was family hunt,
use three brothers,
our dad, his brother (uncle jack)
I had the 5000, we were in town curb hunting.
Everybody was hunting way, but me! I turned this knob, that knob, turned it off, bad on. Took the batteries out, but nothing I did would settle it down at one point I just laid it down on the ground while it chirped and cracked and popped. I was MAD, and I knew that the Da** thing was BROKEN.
So I cussed, and ranted. Now that day was ruined, but in my fit I lost focus, my mind locked up and I couldn't see the tree's for the forest. To later find out that I didn't know how to deal (set the detector) for in town EMI interference.

That's why I said that once you get past the learning curve of the manual ground balance you'll look back and laugh!
You are off to a really good start because rather than having a fit, you just set up the presets and went about hunting

I have another multi-knob vintage detector, its basically the analog version of the Teknetics 9000/B
The point being is when you learn the way around analog controls and the manual settings of them it really helps as a BASE for understanding detecting as a whole.

Below is a couple of pictures of my OLD Tek 8500 (the controls on it are the same as the 9000) notice the control knob for "A" Batt, "B" batt, and OPA (OPA= stands for operate) My brothers broken day at the church was this control was set to one of the battery test positions, instead of "OPA" LOL!

The 8500 below has become my "Cherry Picker" detector.

HH
Mark

 

[MichiganJason]

Well after reading all of your responses I went out today and tried again. I finally got it to ground balance properly and was actually able to up the signal balance without it freaking out. I didn't find anything old but I am getting much better depth. I really appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to help me out. Thank you. One thing I really like about the 5900 is how the signal is really choppy over crappy targets. I was getting bottlecaps that registered in the quarter range but the signal was really crackly and choppy which is really nice because the main area I detect is an old campground that is littered with them. With my Coinstike and Omega I found that bottlecaps sounded just like coins.

 

[MarkCZ]

Well after reading all of your responses I went out today and tried again. I finally got it to ground balance properly and was actually able to up the signal balance without it freaking out. I didn't find anything old but I am getting much better depth. I really appreciate everyone taking time out of their day to help me out. Thank you. One thing I really like about the 5900 is how the signal is really choppy over crappy targets. I was getting bottlecaps that registered in the quarter range but the signal was really crackly and choppy which is really nice because the main area I detect is an old campground that is littered with them. With my Coinstike and Omega I found that bottlecaps sounded just like coins.

To help on the junk targets you can cross sweep the targets a few times at the normal sweep speed, then to help the discrimination circuits out a bit, do a couple of a little faster sweeps and you'll find that good target will only come in better! and the junk bottle caps will most of the time completely null out!

It sounds like your getting a grip on running the 5900, depth will come, and so will the good finds!

Good Luck With All Your Hunting!

Mark

 

[WV62]

MarkCZ's brother here, just like to say I think it is okay and somewhat natural to think that something is broken if you don't understand what is going on. Trying to read a manual and do what it says is pretty hard if don't even speak detecting at that point. The more you are around detectors the easier it is to work through the broken stage.

I went through the a broken 1270 just early last year. It didn't take to long to go through several things to check and see if it was something like a cable, batteries, coil, or just operator error. I went through all that and even changed locations, I handed it off to brother MarkCZ for a final check and it was actually broken. So in that case it did go back to FT for repairs and it was repaired and returned to me. Another check out and all was okay.

Bottom line I know MarkCZ wouldn't send anybody a broken detector and I have been with him on several hunts with that 5900. So I feel sure you have a good working detector.

I would suggest that you work on one problem at a time until you get some feel of what the detector is doing. If you are having trouble with ground balancing I would spend a little extra time and get that down before moving on to something else.

I would add some tips on ground balancing but I haven't used a White's detector in 20 plus years.

Wish you good luck with your 5900,

Ron in WV