Do You Utilize The Fe/co Meter?

[Digalicious]

I don't own a D2, but I do own and use a Legend that also has a FE/CO meter.

Anyway, I find that meter to be an excellent tool in identifying iron falsing. By iron falsing, I mean a ferrous target that produces a nonferrous TID and a good nonferrous tone, no matter how the coil is manipulated. When that happens with rusty iron, my FE/CO meter will show nothing on the CO side, and a few bars on the FE side. As such, it's very helpful in identifying true iron falsing. The FE/CO meter on the D2 should do the same thing.

So, for you D2 owners:

Do you use the FE/CO meter, and if so, how?



 

[UKD2User]

I prefer to use the XY screen, as it gives more info. I also use my ears and sweeping over a signal at 90 degrees to help make the dig/no-dig decision.

I only very occasionally get fooled by big lumps of rusty iron with holes and/or sharp corners.

PS I don't feel bad about digging the occasional bit of iron, because I know that it means I am less likely to be missing good targets masked by iron.

[F350Platinum]

I never used it on other detectors, just the depth gauge. I figure if you're getting a high tone it's probably saying non ferrous anyway, so I use the XY.

[Digalicious]

8 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I never used it on other detectors, just the depth gauge. I figure if you're getting a high tone it's probably saying non ferrous anyway, so I use the XY.

In another thread, you said, "I've often seen the reverse where I will get a solid and loud 85, and dig a cannonball or an axe head"? In that scenario, I'm wondering if the FE/CO meter will clearly indicate that the target is ferrous. Granted, you probably want to dig those targets, but let's say the D2 is falsing on a nail. Would the D2's FE/CO meter indicate ferrous?





 

[UKD2User]

2 hours ago, Digalicious said:

In another thread, you said, "I've often seen the reverse where I will get a solid and loud 85, and dig a cannonball or an axe head"? In that scenario, I'm wondering if the FE/CO meter will clearly indicate that the target is ferrous. Granted, you probably want to dig those targets, but let's say the D2 is falsing on a nail. Would the D2's FE/CO meter indicate ferrous?





 

I don't know about the fe/co 'horseshoe' because I don't use it, but certainly on a big, rusty, odd-shaped piece of iron the xy can be as misleading as the tones - only the size of the target gives a hint that it might be big iron.

[Digalicious]

7 minutes ago, UKD2User said:

I don't know about the fe/co 'horseshoe' because I don't use it, but certainly on a big, rusty, odd-shaped piece of iron the xy can be as misleading as the tones - only the size of the target gives a hint that it might be big iron.

Sizing the target is helpful, but what about the dreaded nails?

I'm going to assume the fe/co meter on the legend, works exactly the same way that it does on the D2. More specifically, it shows the ferrous and nonferrous content, and works independently from any discrimination.

When I'm in a nail infested site, I drop my iron bias to 0. I'm basically setting up my Legend so that I get the occasional iron false. That assures me that I'm getting the best iron unmasking possible. What happens then, is I'll start getting perfect nonferrous tones, and the ID will be a few digits below a nickel. Normally, I would dig that signal and expect a nonferrous target, yet in many of those instances, the fe/co meter clearly shows the target is ferrous, and contradicts the tone and ID. For some reason that I don't have a clue about, the fe/co meter has an ability to identify iron falsing in a way that tones and ID does not.

Thing is, I've never seen or heard (even when asked), a Legend or D2 user, use the fe/co meter in that way. 

[Skull diver]

@Digalicious

Yours is an interesting observation.

I understand your use of this filter on the Legend to avoid digging up some iron.

What I can tell you about the D2 is that to be honest it is better to trust the audio because in almost every mode it results in a "dirty" tone instead of a clear, stable, repeatable sound.

As always there is case and case.

Under excessive layer conditions, whether sand overburden or high grass, remember that the reading can be distorted on the coil detection limit.

Then you would get an opposite disturbance that declares a nonferrous target as ferrous, ruining the signal.

I tried to increase discrimination by decreasing iron sounds, but it produced no benefit whatsoever in fact the risk is precisely that of guaranteed masking already over 6 points if you are on a buildup point.

[UKD2User]

I think that the laws of physics tend towards the conclusion that:

1. Depth and/or ferrous mineralisation, or adjacent ferrous masking all tend to make things sound/look worse than they should; and,

2. Size and shape (holes or points concentrating electromagnetic flux) tend to make things sound/look better than they should.

All the clever tricks in software/settings cannot stop these effects, just minimise them in certain situations.

[F350Platinum]

16 hours ago, Digalicious said:

In another thread, you said, "I've often seen the reverse where I will get a solid and loud 85, and dig a cannonball or an axe head"? In that scenario, I'm wondering if the FE/CO meter will clearly indicate that the target is ferrous. Granted, you probably want to dig those targets, but let's say the D2 is falsing on a nail. Would the D2's FE/CO meter indicate ferrous?

Going to find out some things today, going to Culpeper. 🙂

I'll switch to the meter from XY to the horseshoe, maybe get some screen shots.

There should be some cannonballs there 🤔 Also it's the worst ground Virginia has.

[Digalicious]

Thanks for the replies guys 🙂

Every detector falses on iron occasionally, even with a high iron bias. Although the incidence of iron falsing increases dramatically with minimum iron bias, and I always run a minimum iron bias.

With your D2's in a nail infested site, have you ever used a very low iron bias, and started getting signals that have gave a good nonferrous tone and a low nonferrous ID, but it turned out to be a ferrous object? If so, that's the situation I'm talking about in which the Legend's FE/CO meter will identify the target correctly as "ferrous" (but not if the signal strength is very weak). It's that scenario with nails, or even large iron, that I'm curious to find out if the D2's FE/CO meter does the same. I'm curious not just because it might be a good method to identify iron falsing, but also because I really want to know how in that scenario, the tone and ID can contradict the FE/CO meter.