Iron Filter And Stability Settings

[HerrUU]

I'm trying to learn what the iron filter and stability settings do and how I can use them to my advantage. This is what Nokta explains on their website : 

Quote

Iron Filter (IF) setting ranges between 1-8 and the default value is 8. Default value 8 is the same as the previous versions (v1.05, v1.07) Legend with no iron filter setting.
Lower IF setting will increase the probability of ferrous targets to be classified as non-ferrous targets and vice versa.
Stability setting (st) is the fine tuning for the IF setting.
When the IF is set to 8, the st setting will be inactive in the Park, Field and Gold Field modes.
When the IF is set to any value below 8, the St setting can be activated by pressing the right or left button and can be adjusted by using the + and - buttons.
NOTE: The st setting in the beach mode is different than this new st setting!

This has me a bit confused, why would I lower a setting so that the separation between ferrous and non-ferrous becomes less clear?

[Digalicious]

This is the best way I can describe iron bias:

There are instances when a detector can't determine if it is seeing a ferrous object, or a nonferrous object. For example, if a coin is beside a nail(s), then the ferrous signal is strong and the nonferrous signal is weak. As such, that strong ferrous signals dominates, and the detector will give you a ferrous tone and ID. In other words, the coin is missed.

In that example, as you lower the iron bias (iron filter), it starts to allow that nonferrous coin signal to dominate and the detector will give you a nonferrous tone and ID. However, the caveat is that since even ferrous contains some nonferrous properties, then if you go too low on the IF, then some nail(s) on their own, will give a nonferrous tone and ID (known as ferrous / iron falsing).

You want to go as low as you can on the IF to get the best unmasking in ferrous trash. How low? Well, the default of 8 is too high. I lower it to the point that I just get the occasional ferrous falsing. I typically run my IF between 1 and 3, and leave my St at mid level 3. I leave the St at 3 because I think the main 8 IF settings are more than enough.

[Jeff McClendon]

6 hours ago, HerrUU said:

This has me a bit confused, why would I lower a setting so that the separation between ferrous and non-ferrous becomes less clear?

Would you rather take a chance and dig some iron that sounds like non-ferrous along with real non-ferrous targets with the iron filter on 1 OR avoid digging any iron and non ferrous targets that are nearby with a higher iron filter setting causing only ferrous audio responses that you can forget about and walk past?

[Tometusns]

17 hours ago, HerrUU said:

I'm trying to learn what the iron filter and stability settings do and how I can use them to my advantage. This is what Nokta explains on their website : 

This has me a bit confused, why would I lower a setting so that the separation between ferrous and non-ferrous becomes less clear?

I use the factory default iron filter setting and I'm very happy with it.

 I did try lowering it to some of the recommended settings but all I did was dig more nails and iron. I just can't buy in to the "You're gonna miss targets hiding in the iron unless you lower the iron filter setting". I've found more coins hiding in iron with the factory default iron filter setting than any machine I've ever owned. 
 So to answer your question " why would you lower a setting so that the separation between ferrous and nonferrous becomes less clear " 
 I don't.

 Good luck with how ever you decide to set the iron filter.

 
 

[Digalicious]

Here's a short video from Iffy Signals showing the value of an iron bias control.
 

 

[HerrUU]

17 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Would you rather take a chance and dig some iron that sounds like non-ferrous along with real non-ferrous targets with the iron filter on 1 OR avoid digging any iron and non ferrous targets that are nearby with a higher iron filter setting causing only ferrous audio responses that you can forget about and walk past?

I don't mind digging the occasional iron because sometimes there's interesting stuff to find that way like old agricultural relics. The fields I search were already fields when the Romans entered Belgium. Not that you'll find anything pre-Roman but you never know 🙂

[HerrUU]

Coming back to this, with the new update we now have a setting of 9 on the iron filter. Does anybody know what the advantage is? I saw on youtube somewhere that this would cancel out shotgun shells but I'm not sure.

 

[Digalicious]

I don't get that level 9 either Herr. Sheesh, level 8 already means a lot of missed good targets in ferrous trash.

If I were on a site that's driving me crazy because of shotgun shells, I certainly wouldn't raise my IB. I would notch them out. Then again, what type of shotgun shells is Nokta referring to? I don't know much about shotgun shells, but a quick Google search says they can be made of both ferrous and nonferrous metal. 

 

[JCR]

I tested the IF & shot shells yesterday evening.  Traditional all brass shot shell heads are not effected even at the new 9 setting. The newer steel base shells like on cheap Dove loads are knocked completely out at IF 3. I will have to look to see if I have any of the brass plated steel ones. I did not try the Bc adjustment on them.  What I did see was that IF 9 will completely knock out some big falsy iron like big headed bolts, so it is a pretty strong filter. The Bc filter will do the same with flat rusty cans & sheet tin pieces at mid settings, so it is a pretty strong filter also. This was running Field M3 Sens at 20.

I'm glad to have these new controls but I don't think I will ever use more than low settings. The Legend is very good at telling iron even if it falses and the Ferro Check works very well. As long as I can hunt by ear to ID the iron I will keep IF & Bc very low.

[HerrUU]

I had some time to test the Iron Filter with several targets, from pure iron (rusted) to shotgun shells and several good sounding targets (musket ball, coin, WW2 ammo). I'm going to be very honest but I don't see what this filter does? If I put it at 1 or 9, it gives the same signals on my Legend. Which made me wonder : what does it precisely do? 

Having no clue to it's use, I just set it on 4 at the moment being the middle of the settings.

The same goes for the Bottle Cap reject by the way, tried it on several bottle caps (I'm a homebrewer so I have a few laying around 😉 ) and ok, it masks them but doesn't this mean at the same time that other, perhaps more interesting things as some modern currency, are filtered out too? For this setting, I leave it at 0. I rather dig a bottle cap and be sure that other, more valuable targets are showing up, than set it too high and miss the good stuff.