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White's Signagraph Display Explained


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  • The title was changed to White's Signagraph Display Explained

There are a lot of feature similarities between the XLT/DFX/V3/V3I/VX3.    I often reference DFX docs to help further understand my V3 features as many of the performance features are the same.....maybe setting differences but actual functionality is the same...ie. Hot Rock Reject for example.

Thanks for including this XLT information.   

HH
Mike

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I have a DFX. When I first purchased it I read the Owners Manual but much was over my head at the time. Purchased " Digging deeper with the DFX" by Jeff Foster. That helped a lot, and I was very impressed with that detector. I understand much more due to this site. Thanks!

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5 hours ago, Mike Hillis said:

There are a lot of feature similarities between the XLT/DFX/V3/V3I/VX3.    I often reference DFX docs to help further understand my V3 features as many of the performance features are the same.....maybe setting differences but actual functionality is the same...ie. Hot Rock Reject for example.

Thanks for including this XLT information.   

HH
Mike

I love these kind of tech notes, and often information detailed in earlier models is sometimes left out in later models as not "new" anymore. I'm pushing it as far as copyright goes reposting some of this stuff I have archived over the years, and which seems to have disappeared as time goes on. This was all on the White's website or in their informational pamphlets once upon a time, but is all long gone now. Anyway, I'm going with the "reposting for historical and informational purposes only" excuse because I hate to see this stuff get lost over time.

I just added the notes on Accumulate, Average, and Fade on a separate thread.

whites-xlt-metal-detector.jpg

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Thank Steve! makes me appreciate the $100.00 XLT i purchased in the pawn shop. asking amount was $250.00 but would not power on. While the salesman was busy with another customer i pulled the battery out and saw the corrosion inside the compartment. After i took it home i ordered a new battery for it and found it works like new. When i removed the coil cover it also had sand inside...just a bonus.

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A few updates made to the original post. I indicated that the SignaGraph display was originally developed for the White's XLT. Not quite. White's was a genuine innovator in digital metal detecting, with the first true digital model, the White's Eagle. As shared in Mark's notes, the original Eagle models had a very basic display. The SignaGraph first appeared in the last version of the Eagle, the Eagle Spectrum, the first White's detector to bear the Spectrum moniker. The SignaGraph was thought of as a "Phase Spectrum Analyzer", and that is where the "Spectrum" part of the name derives from. The Eagle Spectrum had the old larger control box powered by four C cells.

The Eagle Spectrum was very short lived however, as this is when White's was making the move to smaller control boxes powered by eight AA batteries. This set the stage for most everything else that followed, and the White's XLT was one of the first beneficiaries of the new design. The slimmed down Eagle Spectrum powered by eight AA batteries and with a better LCD display was renamed the Spectrum XLT, and then simply XLT.

Here is the ad for the new Eagle Spectrum touting the new SignaGraph display. Click for a larger version. And here is the Eagle Spectrum owner's manual, where one can see the basics of what later became the XLT, then DFX, and the V series.

whites-eagle-spectrum-ad.jpg

whites-eagle-spectrum-metal-detector.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Signagraph is one of the most useful visual signal indicators ever devised.  It's a very logical and elegant solution.  On analog metered detectors, the operator can watch the needle "flickers" over a bad target and mentally keep track of where the needle pauses for a split second as it passes over the target, which is a trick I learned with my 6000D back in the 80's.  The Spectragraph basically does this trick for you.  When I upgraded to the new XLT, I immediately took to the Signagraph because the logic was the same, just presented a whole lot easier

The V3i I use now, has the Spectragraph - a direct descendant of the XLT's and DFX's Signagraph.  As far as I know, the V3i is the only detector on the market ...er, recently on the market ... that has this Signagraph capability.  The MXT has the probability indicator, which at first glance is similar, but it actually operates on an entirely different principle.  One of the upgrades to the MXT that I badgered White's to do, was incorporate a true Signagraph into the MXT, which would have made the MXT even more killer.  

The Signagraph was and is a great idea, and one of the many reasons I will never part with my V3i.  With the V3i, you have so much control over the way Signagraph presents the information, which makes it even more useful and fun to use.  I wonder why the idea never really caught on with other detector models/manufacturers?  

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11 hours ago, Wayfarer said:

I wonder why the idea never really caught on with other detector models/manufacturers?  

More to the point, why did White’s abandon the concept after the V3i/VX3? I always wanted a 50 kHz XLT type nugget machine, but as soon as you say nugget machine they take away all the features.

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  • 3 years later...

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