Mark Gillespie

Spoke to soon. Doesn't seem to be working.

It must have been a very bad crash or they had a cyber attack of some sort. http://forums.whiteselectronics.com/

I remember back in the day when I received a phone call from Gene Scullion (owner of Badger Metal Detectors) before he went to work for 1st Texas. He was so excited to inform me that Fisher had released a detector (F75) that was a total game changer. Mark, you must have one, it will change everything, it will open up your old sites to new finds. I trusted him completely and ordered a new Fisher F75 and he was 100% correct in his statement. Prior to this purchase I had either owned or borrowed the very best VLF machines on Earth. I immediately took the machine to these hunted sites and revealed a huge amount of good targets that the other machine could not respond to. I know there are many loyal hunters that will stick to 1st Texas no matter what, but I change to the machine that will outperform in the real world. Since the F75 LTD I have found 2 machines that have excelled in my area, but I still have the Fisher F75 LTD for a backup.?

Just saying. Imagine where 1st Texas would be, if they'd not latched on to the Manta and the developer in France. They were in bad need of something new. Rather, still desperate for something to set them on top again. Just saying.

I've found gold rings that read very low and in every case there was a slight break the ring. Applying pressure to the ring while sweeping in front of the coil brought the numbers back to where they should be. Some obvious and not so obvious. Take a little time and pull slightly on the ring to see if it has an unseen break.

Without spending huge amounts of money, I've yet to find a single pair of wireless ear buds or head phones that will perform as well as the stock headphones that come with the EQ800. On some of these units the lag time is totally unacceptable, way to slow, not useable.

I usually get to the coast once a year. Last year I took the Equinox and had a great time. Found 4 ear ring post, no rings or silver coins but that was not the detectors fault (the beach had been built up from the storm the prior year. Year before, I took the TDI SL wrapped in a large zip lock bag and found more stuff, silver and rings to boot. I truly love a PI at the saltwater beach, but I could never afford such a costly machine to hunt 4-5 days out of a year.

By, what I understand this is mostly a beach hunter. Seems like the big competitor for the Pulse is The deep salt capabilities may be hard to beat.

They are well built machines. I really liked mine. The audio is super nice.

I've bought from Brian, he's very good to deal with.

Jim, there's a lot of useful information in your test document. It's opened up a lot of thoughts for me and my machines. Thanks for taking the time.

Very interesting information. Thanks.?

Very interesting post. Thanks for the extra insights as to your testing. The statement "Best depth was with the target moving vertically toward the coil. That was one of Reg's rules for the testing" is exactly the same technique I used. I can't explain why I did my test that way instead of sweeping the coin across the coil horizontally. There is a very noticeable different voltage if I use a fresh set of alkaline batteries. Good to see you noticed a improvements of about 20% while using the large coil.

Wow, I've been collecting Jefferson nickels since 1970 and I didn't know about the Henning nickel.

Thanks, I have one rechargeable battery that has gone bad. Taking my time and cutting the glue loose I can see the case has the capability of holding different kind of batteries with some modifications. I"m looking into both the Panasonic and Westinghouse batteries. It might be of interest, the voltage of a freshly charged battery pack is only 11.5 v that is lower than using new AA batteries in the optional battery pack by quite a bit.

Good example of the TDI Pro version. There might be something wrong with my SL version, but I can't obtain the depth of the PRO version.

That is my own observation using the standard 12" dual field coil with a steady threshold hum. I can squeeze more out of the machines if I can tame the EMI but sometimes that can't be done.

Careful reading of some of Carl's writings the original TDI and the SL version use the same board and components. Same circuit regulation and possible outputs. He admitted the original TDI was quite a bit more sensitive in terms of depth over the SL version. The main exception is the amount of current applied to the coil TX circuit. All things staying the same, the TDI might air test (no EMI) a target at 16" verses the SL version (no EMI) 12". This difference amounts to 25%, which is more than enough, to pursue improved battery voltage related improvements.

Wow, Mike, awesome ring. I'm sure you found it in a high traffic area. The F75 LTD is a goo machine too.

Is there anywhere on this site that has the research or post made from Reg Sniff pertaining to TDI depth in relation to battery voltage? I remember somewhere that stated the reason the original TDI had greater depth capabilities was the increased voltage of the batteries not necessarily the model number. It also had information in relations to voltage limits/performance issues. Just thought I'd ask.

Yes, you are correct, GB off is deeper and that is the option I take at the beach.

The 12" dual field is by far the deepest coil I've used on my TDI but the heaviest too. Amazingly the Super Pulse 350 and the 7 1/2 Dual field have about the same depth capabilities. If you don't mind digging deep holes at the beach the 12" is super. But more importantly is hunting areas where the sand is not more than 12" over top of the hard shell pan areas of the beach. Look for areas where the sand has washed out small gullies. If you're hunting in the very wet sand area where you actually start sinking while standing still, that might not be the best area especially if the hard pan area is 2' down (the heavy gold items will sink until they hit something to rest on). There is a lot to be said about these two areas. Hope to take my TDI back to the beach this year. Gold, here I come.

Have you done any air test with this coil? I know a lot might say that an air test gives a false impression, but it is a very good starting point for depth capabilities. I will say, I've found most TDI coils all get about the same air distance with the exception of the 12" dual field.

Awesome pieces of history.

Finally got to hunt an old home site yesterday evening. The elderly gentleman had given me permission to hunt all his property and he had kindly given me a little history of the different home site that were on the property. I listen intently to every word to obtain as much information as possible of each locations. One of the sites was a home assembled using wooden pegs. He proceeded to explain that he tore the home down and burned the balance then proceeded to get a dozer to grade the property and fill in with dirt. He did explain that anything there would be over a foot deep and he was correct, I couldn’t find anything that would date the property to the early 1800’s. The second site I hit yesterday and even though I didn’t find any nice relics I had a lot of fun just hunting. Moving around in the area I noticed a section where the Equinox would give many false high tones. Knowing this usually meant iron I opened up the screen and every sweep revealed multiply low tone iron signals. After a while I decided to start digging these low tones that gave an ID of -3 and found my answer, cut nails. Wow, that means I’m on an old site, yes, excitement overwhelmed me for a few minutes. Noticed the Ole man walking up the field to where I was I waited for his arrival. Knowing he would have more to say and the very first thing out of his mouth was, “have you dug any cut nails yet?” My answer, yes sir and handed him one and the story unfolds more detail of the site. He said when he was a child there was only a few foundation rocks left of this house, no wood but only the rock foundation. That was 80 years ago and he estimated the site may have been 200 years old. At that point I got extremely excited at what might be here until the very next statement from the gentleman. “Mark, I had the site leveled many years ago.” “But I pushed all the dirt to level the lot in one direction and I would guess your best bet of finding anything would be along the banks of the hill.” Well, yet another let down, a site dozed, that destroys the originality of where and what could have been found. But I’ll continue to hunt while I can and digging cuts nails is still fun. "Nails provide one of the best clues to help determine the age of historic buildings, especially those constructed during the nineteenth century, when nail-making technology advanced rapidly. Until the last decade of the 1700s and the early 1800s, hand-wrought nails typically fastened the sheathing and roof boards on building frames. These nails were made one by one by a blacksmith or nailor from square iron rod. After heating the rod in a forge, the nailor would hammer all four sides of the softened end to form a point. The pointed nail rod was reheated and cut off. Then the nail maker would insert the hot nail into a hole in a nail header or anvil and form a head with several glancing blows of the hammer. The most common shape was the rosehead; however, broad "butterfly" heads and narrow L-heads also were crafted. L-head nails were popular for finish work, trim boards, and flooring. Between the 1790s and the early 1800s, various machines were invented in the United States for making nails from bars of iron. The earliest machines sheared nails off the iron bar like a guillotine. The taper of the shank was produced by wiggling the bar from side to side with every stroke. These are known as type A cut nails. At first, the heads were typically made by hand as before, but soon separate mechanical nail heading machines were developed that pounded a head on the end of each nail. This type of nail was made until the 1820s. By the 1810s, however, a more effective design for a nail making machine was developed; it flipped the iron bar over after each stroke. With the cutter set at an angle, every nail was sheared off to a taper. With the resulting nails thus all oriented in the same direction, it became possible for the same machine to automatically grip each nail and form a head in a continuous mechanical operation. Nails made by this method are known as type B nails. Cutting the nails leaves a small burr along the edge as the metal is sheared. By carefully examining the edges for evidence of these burrs, it is possible to distinguish between the earlier type A nails and the later type B nails. Type A nails have burrs on the diagonally opposite edges, while the type B nails have both burrs on the same side because the metal was flipped for each stroke. This kind of evidence can be used to establish the approximate period of construction or alteration of a building. Type B cut nails continued to be the most common through most of the greater part of the nineteenth century. With the rapid development of the Bessemer process for producing inexpensive soft steel during the 1880s, however, the popularity of using iron for nail making quickly waned. By 1886, 10 percent of the nails produced in the United States were made of soft steel wire. Within six years, more steel-wire nails were being produced than iron-cut nails. By 1913, 90 percent were wire nails. Cut nails are still made today, however, with the type B method. These are commonly used for fastening hardwood flooring and for various other specialty uses."