Whites DFX I Bought It!

[Jeff McClendon]

My Craigslist Whites DFX purchase happened successfully......... I brought it home, stock 950 coil and original 1.0 software with two battery packs, $250.  After making the mistake of turning it on in my backyard using preset Coin and Jewelry mode and listening to R2D2 have a heated conversation with me I almost called up the guy that sold it to me in order to return it. Then I had a momentous, cogent revelation and remembered that the DFX is simultaneous multi frequency, so I figured out how to get into the basic adjustment menu and lowered the AC sensitivity to 40. Whewwwww. Problem solved. In my house I have to run it at below 30 sensitivity but that is fine for learning how it works and learning how it responds to targets. I have to do the same thing with the Equinox. EMI in my area sucks!!!!

I really like this detector. I can usually tell in minutes of actual field use whether a detector is going to work for me in the short or long run. This Whites model looks like a keeper. My DFX has already been on two 2 hour hunts and even though I did not challenge it with super deep targets or with lots of trash (2 baseball/soccer field hunts) I can easily see both why this detector could drive some people nuts (in full tones) and why some people that I know personally, absolutely cleanup on coins and jewelry in the shallow to 6" depth with a big foot or SEF coil. I have seen them do it repeatedly at club hunts. It happened again yesterday at an impromptu wild targets club hunt......... I have the mighty Equinox and I am coming in second or third to a guy with a DFX in both quantity of coins and value along with good jewelry finds too and I worked my butt off. I did out hunt the XP and Garrett guys however......

The DFX has really good target ID and I particularly like the full tones (which I still don't like much on the Equinox and could not stand on the Deus) and all of the easily accessible settings. Now I have to learn what those adjustments do and how they may help in moderate to high mineralization. The in-ground and air testing that I have been able to do in the coin and jewelry mode and the prospecting mode with the 950 coil has been very comparable to my previous M6, MX5 and MX7 results. It will hit sub-gram gold ( .25 gram) easily in prospecting mode. It actually has more accurate target ID than the M6, MX5 and MX7 in my dirt and I really like those detectors except for their single frequency and slow recovery speed. I look forward to picking up a decent 10X5 elliptical DD coil for my DFX and maybe a small concentric down the road. Very impressed for an 18 year old detector

Jeff

[Steve Herschbach]

The DFX is a classic Jeff, glad I did not talk you out of it. And since you are into jewelry detecting, do check out Clive’s books on the DFX. His DFX Gold Methods is a real gem.

The SignaGraph simultaneous VDI display is the special sauce in my opinion. You know how Equinox rings make that special sound? On the DFX you not only get that sound, but a single, tall SignaGraph reading. Anything spikes outside of that single tall bar, probably not a ring. Though prickly targets like an oddball pendant you can’t count on that - round objects with a hole read pure and clean. The chart below is showing a ferrous response versus a coin response. A ring will be like the coin, just more to the middle or left side (lower VDI). Can slaw and foil tends to read like the ferrous that not as pronounced, just a low scatter with maybe a low peak. There are settings that affect the display sensitivity you can play with to enhance the differences. 

The V3i is an amazing machine, but once again I have come back to the DFX. I guess that means it has been one of my handful of favorite machines I can’t escape from even when I try.

[Jim in Idaho]

Congrats, Jeff! If you can, get yourself a copy of Jeff Foster's book "Digging Deeper With the DFX". Tells you all you need to know about using the DFX.

Jim

[locator]

Congrats on the new machine.

When my DFX arrived there was a booklet beside the user manual called "going places with the DFX". that was a nice read and helped to create a really nice program.

Going Places With The DFX.PDF

 

[locator]

While using the DFX I collected some DFX-programs from the net and added them to a sheet.

DFX_Programs.xls

[locator]

Just found it back and thought it may help a new DFX owner, and may be some old school ones, too. (forgot where I downloaded it...)

DFX-XLT-HANDBOOK-1.1.pdf

[havingstl]

Congrats on the purchase. I wish I could find some nice deals like that here in AZ!

[RickUK]

Well done for getting your new DFX,must admit mine has been dusted down again for when the new season starts again here in the UK,never personally liked the stock 950 coil,although i have about 8 coils for the machine the only 2 that i have basically ever used is the 10x6 elliptical and also my favourite the Jimmy Sierra 12'' Hotshot coil as i find that is about the same weight as the stock coil but does go alot deeper.

Although it has dual freq most user that owned the DFX always preferred to run the Land1 settings which for the most part runs in single 15khz and just suits our targets better,i guess its basically running like a MXT,but thats the way that i have run it for nearly 17 years.

For some reason the DFX never caught on here in the UK in the same way as across the pond,in my mind the main feature about the DFX is the Signagraph,someone mention buying the Digging deeper book,i bought a copy years ago and although in theory its often seen as the DFX bible i found it the hardest operating book for a detector going.So it basically just sits in the bookshelf gathering dust,the one that i did find helpful is the one that was written by Jimmy Sierra and given away free by Whites when the DFX was the top machine in the lineup.

One thing i did do is invest in one of the RNB battery packs and have had that a fair few years it just keeps going and going as my original Whites rechargeable battery finally packed up and the RNB battery offers a longer battery life and was infact also cheaper than the Whites one.

[JCR]

On 6/7/2020 at 12:02 PM, locator said:

Congrats on the new machine.

When my DFX arrived there was a booklet beside the user manual called "going places with the DFX". that was a nice read and helped to create a really nice program.

Going Places With The DFX.PDF 11.91 MB · 11 downloads

 

Had not seen this one before.

Thanks for making it available.

[chiil]

I picked up a few of these last year... great, runs forever with Lithium 18650 cells and I bought a separate charger for the cells on Amazon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285292247354?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=qPKu6nnjQWC&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=j1_eyyGOQFq&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Mine came from the Ukraine, and arrived without issue even with the on-going issues over there.