Determining ground mineralization with the V3i

[wagon wheel]

Sooooo…it appears to me that understanding and determining the mineralization of the ground you are detecting when setting the different adjustments for the V3i are key to optimizing the machine’s ability to “go deep” for those old coins…below the 6” mark. Can/will some of you folks who know the V3i and have this process of determining ground mineralization down pat share with me in simple terms the process you use so I can in turn try and establish the mineralization number of the ground I detect here in Eastern Utah and other locations as needed. I have read the manual...but... :confused: :confused: Much thanks…

w.w.

[CyberSage]

This is a great question. I use my DFX and Jeff Foster's method described in his book. I don't know how to do it with the V3/V3i.

[rcsnake]

By highlighting the Ground Tracking box on the Live Control Bar and then pressing the zoom key to bring up the ground probe screen. Raise the coil in the air (but must be free of EMI) Highlight zero if not highlighted and press enter. Then put the loop on the ground in an area free of trash or targets. Then read the screen as it will show the VDI number of the ground, signal strength of the ground at each freq if you are in the 3 frequency mode and the phase in degrees of the ground. This should give you idea of how strong the ground is and what the vdi of the ground is. The Rx gain setting and which coil is being used will effect the strength readings of the ground. A reading of say 5% is weak ground well a reading of 25% would be considered strong.

As far as selecting the best filter goes it would be good to find a deep target or somewhat deep target and then adjust your sense levels the target is just barely picked. Then change your filters and see which one picks it up best for your sweep speed that you like. It might be a good idea to vary your sweep speed to see the speed that needs to be swept for that particular filter that you have chosen to test. Some people like to bury a coin to do this but I prefer to use a target in the ground that has not been disturbed by digging.

The bandpass filters are more sensitive to sweep speed of the coil than opposed to the High pass filters. Also the bandpass filters may help some with EMI if that is a problem, however it will not solve that problem completely.

The High-pass filters are not so sensitive to the speed of the coil but can pick up more EMI. The higher the filter the better the detector may deal with ground noise and maybe some chatter from iron.

Myself about the only two filers I use in my area is the 5hz Bandpass and the 5Hz High-pass filter as I find these two does the job for me. And then I adjust my Rx gain for the ground and it usually ends up anywhere between 6 and 12.

Hope this provides you some help on the machine.

rcsnake

[wagon wheel]

Oh, to be able to ultimately understand this machine and maximize its use in my soil...I may even be able to get >6 depth eventually. Now I can't wait for the ground to warm up so I can give all this new (to me) info a try on the V3i.

Again, much thanks to all for your willingness to share. thumbsup01 thumbsup01

w.w.

[CyberSage]

Just what the doctor ordered rcsnake! Thank you so much for sharing this information. Your input and knowledge are greatly appreciated here. I'll give this a try tomorrow.

Jack

[giant056]

Thanks for that Info RC thumbsup01

[little man]

hey thank you :clapping: :clapping:

[MartinL]

And then I adjust my Rx gain for the ground and it usually ends up anywhere between 6 and 12.

Elementary question here maybe, but what event tells you when RX gain is optimized in your setting process(I'll maybe catch flack for asking this question I bet.) I too, ALSO want to compliment you on your posting. Many questions have been asked about high pass filters, band pass filters and ground probe operations on that other site and I've never ever read even a glimpse of information nuggets like yours here. Page numbers to read, bfd. I sure am glad I found this site ;-) martin

[rcsnake]

Elementary question here maybe, but what event tells you when RX gain is optimized in your setting process(I'll maybe catch flack for asking this question I bet.) I too,



The setting for the Rx is determined by the type of ground it is by and how much trash and iron is in the ground and how strong the ground is. The Rx gain being to high can create problems with nails and make them chirp and sound off like a good target and reducing the gain some in this type of site seems to help me some. Also when the ground is really wet it seems like those nails and iron targets really like to sound off. But I usually start at a Rx gain of 9 and go from there, but here lately l have been around 7 due to the old sites that I have been hunting is real trashy. The real sensitivity to targets comes from the Disc sense so run this up but keep the detector stable. I usually run mine around 87 to 92.

But back to the thread topic the Rx gain and choice of loop will see the ground differently and and when approaching a signal strength of 15% or higher I usually turn it down to around 8 and 7, however for target free areas I sometimes turn it up to 12 to help on those gold chains as I do like to look for jewelry. That just keeps the wife happy when I find it and then I am more likely to be allowed to go hunting more. This are the setting that I like to use for the Rx gain but in your area you may find it to be different and the type of area you are hunting. But with these setting I have not found depth to be a problem.

rcsnake