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White's MX Sport And The Monte Nail Board Test - Various Coil Options Compared


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Not bad for stock settings I guess....

Would be interesting to see what setting was needed to improve the performance though. 

I will have to give that a try with my MXT and V3i with the different coils I have and of course the settings possible with the V.

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On 7/24/2017 at 8:27 PM, johnedoe said:

Not bad for stock settings I guess....

Would be interesting to see what setting was needed to improve the performance though. 

I will have to give that a try with my MXT and V3i with the different coils I have and of course the settings possible with the V.

John,

You can easily improve the MX Sport's by enabling REJ VOL (iron audio) at about 30 and also taking one point of iron disc off, just below zero. These were tweaks I made in the field when Monte challenged me to take this test that helped the coin pop out a bit better. His Nokta's had some adjustments made specifically for this test, and I was kind of surprised at how the MX Sport performed without doing anything special.

The whole point of this video was to show the detector's performance with this standardized test - even for people who's only adjustment is the power button. An expert can setup almost any machine in a specific situation like this, but the reality is that most people just want a turn on and go machine.

Tom

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On ‎7‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 2:24 PM, tboykin said:

His Nokta's had some adjustments made specifically for this test, and I was kind of surprised at how the MX Sport performed without doing anything special.

Tom

Not really, Tom. 

In addition to Tesoro's I had along, I used all three Nokta models I rely on, the Impact, FORS Relic and FORS CoRe.  They don't have a preset 'mode' or 'program' like some makes and models, such as 'Beach,' Coin,' Relic,' etc.  that have pre-configured Discrimination or rejection segments. 

Instead, these three models provide open, programmable modes such as 'GEN' or All Metal, 'COG' which is a Conductive Ground or Beach mode, and 'Di2' or 'Di3' which are simply Discriminate 2-Tone or Disc. 3-Tone modes.  In addition the FORS Relic has 'SWT' for Swift and 'DEP' for Deep modes.  The Impact has Deep and seven additional search modes, but all of them let the operator make adjustments on the fly to all their settings, plus any settings can be Saved as desired.

The main settings I have in ALL of my programmed detectors at turn-on are similar.  That is the Sensitivity, or Gain, is close to maximum, and the Discrimination is set to just barely accept nails.  That is because most of my hunting sites are iron infested ghost towns, homesteads, stage stops or any sort of old site of human activity.  Iron nails are quite common at virtually all of them and 90% of the time I like to hear the presence of iron so I can methodically work the coil around it to unmask keepers.

The other 10% of the time I might be really tired of abundant nails, or I am just doing some quick cherry-picking and I increase the Disc. level to just barely reject iron nails.  That is also a setting I use when evaluating ANY make or model in order to see how their performance compares with most Tesoro models on my Nail Board Performance Test.  I do have a Vaquero and Mojave which have broader Disc. adjustment ranges that adjust low enough to accept nails, which I can then reject if desired.  But I compare ALL detectors to my other Tesoro models that have the ED-120 Disc. acceptance range and, at their minimum setting, nails and most iron are rejected.

So all my Nokta units I demonstrated didn't really have any "adjustments made specifically" for Nail Board demonstration, they are just set to function as they would any other time I put them to use.  For example, the Gain on all three units in Di3 is at '99' and in the GEN or Di2 modes it is '95.'    The Disc. is set to just barely accept nails, so the ONLY changes I made from turn-on operation were to increase the Disc. to the numeric read-out where nails were just barely rejected.

The FORS CoRe and FORS Relic have pre-designed Audio Tones for the Low Iron Audio and a VCO enhanced High-Tone in every mode except Di3, and those are a set Low Iron Tone, a pleasant and clear Mid-Tone, and an even more distinguishable High-Tone.  I hear many detectors with a factory engineered audio tone that just isn't as pleasant or distinctive to me as I would like.

The Nokta Impact, like their sister company's Makro Racer 2, features Audio Tone Adjustment and that let me adjust the audio Tone (the Pitch or Audio Frequency) to a level that is best for my impaired hearing, and that provides a very clear alert of a target in that conductivity range.  Using any multi-tone search mode, be it 3-Tone, 4-Tone, 7-Tone, 8-Tone or even 85-Tone (which would be Di99 on the Impact) can result in a muddy or blended tone caused by the sample target, such as a coin, and the interference and response from the four adjacent nails.

That's why when I am searching most sites where only nails are the primary ferrous object I deal with, I favor any of the 2-Tone modes, where the fixed, non-VCO lower Iron Audio Tone can be heard, and the higher-conductive target sort of 'jumps out at you' with a VCO enhanced High Tone that you can't ignore.

So, no, my Nokta's didn't have any 'specific' settings made that would favor the performance just in that test.  They were basic settings at high gain and they work well.  I will say that I was pleased to see the White's MX Sport pass my NBPT which means getting a minimum of 6-out-of-8 hits.  I personally want a detector and coil in-hand that gives me no less than 7, and preferably 8-out-of-8 on that test.

While the MX Sport gave digable hits, I also have to say that the Audio Tone, for me, wasn't all that remarkable.  It was almost like a muddied-up Iron Audio, at least to me.  If those Audio Tones are adjustable on the MX Sport then I might find it more appealing when searching for a waterproof detector.

It was great meeting you in Idaho, and I really enjoyed the video you made.  Too bad White's didn't make their own 7" DD search coil for the MX Sport, and I really think they missed the boat by not using their 6½" Concentric coil.  As well as the 950 performed, can you imagine field performance if they worked up the 5.3 Eclipse (6½" diameter) Concentric coil for the MX Sport!

Monte

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Yeah Monte I agree, I have been saying for quite a while how hot the 5.3 is, The smallest bit of metal I have detected weighed 0.006 grams or 0.0002 ounces, It was less than 1/4 to 1/2 inch below the surface if that and took me over 20 minutes to find it, The 6x4 could not see it.

The thing I would like to see go from the 5.3 is the big empty void so the actual coil can be got closer to the ground, The 5.3 is the hottest Coil Whites make.

John.

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