Experienced DFX users, please read. I have a question.

[Stormtrooper154]

OK....Here is the situation. I have been running my DFX hard since I have had it. 3 months and 36 trips out with it, so I am sure I have ran it at least 100+ hours. A majority of my finds have come from 4-5" in depth and I run the machine as hot as I can for the area I hunt.

Here is what happened today. My hunting partner and I placed a merc dime in a 8" hole and covered it up so I could run my machine over it. I understand that the coins Halo was not there, but I wanted to see what it would come up as. I ran my DFX (Pre-amp Gain = 4, AC = 78, DD-1400 Coil) over the planted silver coin and it didn't even break the Threshold

My buddy ran his stock Explorer SE over the hole and he got a silver signal that bounced around a little bit, but he said it was a digable target. Now, we unearthed the coin and moved it up to 5" then put the plug back on. I ran my coil over it and I got a choppy signal that was bouncing around in the 92-94 range, no where that a silver dime should hit at 5". He ran his explorers coil over it and it rang out loud and clear.

This has really got me upset and I am about ready to put my DFX on E-bay and get a Minelab. But before I do this, I would really like to hear from you guys. Please remember that I am in Oregon and our soil is very mineralized here.

Thanks!

 

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[bomber]

try dfxonly.com

 

[Danimal]

Storm...are you just hanging a few settings on a stock program? Also, AC sens below 80 I don't think is considered "hot". I am not experienced w/the DFX yet, but have friends who are. Are you using tone ID? Did you check for the 8" dime in pinpoint? It should have rung up clearly in non-motion. You can also try mixed mode.

 

[Stormtrooper154]

Storm...are you just hanging a few settings on a stock program? Also, AC sens below 80 I don't think is considered "hot". I am not experienced w/the DFX yet, but have friends who are. Are you using tone ID? Did you check for the 8" dime in pinpoint? It should have rung up clearly in non-motion. You can also try mixed mode.

Tone ID was on. I consider a AC setting of 78 out of 85 with the pre-amp cranked up to 4 out of 4 pretty hot for our ground conditions here. Regardless, even using just the stock programs, I should have no problem hearing a dime at 5". IMHO

The program I am using is the same as the coin/jewelry program with the changes to the pre-amp, ac sen, vco on, tone id on, sweep speed lower.

It did pick the dime up in pinpint mode, but I don't hunt using pinpoint mode...I would be digging every piece of metal known to man out of the ground LOL

 

[Danimal]

Storm...are you just hanging a few settings on a stock program? Also, AC sens below 80 I don't think is considered "hot". I am not experienced w/the DFX yet, but have friends who are. Are you using tone ID? Did you check for the 8" dime in pinpoint? It should have rung up clearly in non-motion. You can also try mixed mode.

Tone ID was on. I consider a AC setting of 78 out of 85 with the pre-amp cranked up to 4 out of 4 pretty hot for our ground conditions here. Regardless, even using just the stock programs, I should have no problem hearing a dime at 5". IMHO

The program I am using is the same as the coin/jewelry program with the changes to the pre-amp, ac sen, vco on, tone id on, sweep speed lower.

It did pick the dime up in pinpint mode, but I don't hunt using pinpoint mode...I would be digging every piece of metal known to man out of the ground LOL

I'm pretty sure running in mixed mode allow both the DCpinpointing depth along with discrimination from AC. A lot of sounds to contend with, but hey...
I have had great luck using a program by Jeremy (JerDFX) that is a modification of the HiPro program
TARGET VOLUME 48-63 63
AUDIO THRESHOLD 0-42 10
TONE 0-255 173
AUDIO DISC. ON/OFF ON
SILENT SEARCH ON/OFF OFF
MIXED-MODE ON/OFF OFF
AC SENSITIVITY 1-85 81
DC SENSITIVITY 1-60 45
BACKLITE 0-6 0
VIEWING ANGLE 1-50 25
RATCHET PINPOINT ON/OFF OFF
S.A.T. SPED 0-10 10
TONE ID ON/OFF ON
V.C.O. ON/OFF ON
MODULATION ON/OFF OFF
AUTOTRAC ON/OFF ON
TRACK VIEW ON/OFF OFF
AUTOTRAC SPEED 1-20 8
AUTOTRAC OFFSET -10 +20 0
TRACK INHIBIT ON/OFF ON
COARSE G.E.B. 0-255 Auto
FINE G.E.B. 0-255 Auto
DISC. EDIT -95-+95 Accept -40 to +95
BLOCK EDIT -95-+95 Reject -95 to -41
LEARN ACCEPT ON/OFF OFF
LEARN REJECT ON/OFF OFF
RECOVERY SPEED 1-40 28
BOTTLECAP REJECT 1-20 1
HOT ROCK REJECT 0-20 10
SWEEP SPEED 1-20 7
GROUND FILTERING 2-6 4
VISUAL DISC. ON/OFF OFF
ICONS ON/OFF OFF
V.D.I.SENSITIVITY 0-99 85
DC PHASE ON/OFF OFF
GRAPH AVERAGING ON/OFF ON
GRAPH ACCUMULATE ON/OFF ON
FADE RATE 1-14 11
PREAMP GAIN 1-4 4
2 FREQUENCY (BEST DATA) ON/OFF-ON
2 FREQUENCY (CORRELATE) ON/OFF-OFF
VDI NORMALIZED ON/OFF ON
1 FREQUENCY (3kHz) ON/OFF OFF
1 FREQUENCY (15khz) ON/OFF OFF

Note that it has AC sens cranked up to 81. I have even gone to 82 and been able to not be driven insane. When run like this the DFX does NOT sound stable and is warbling and chattering all over. BUT...when over a legit target (and machine is not just chattering due to minerlization, etc) it will give a decent VDI and signagraph reading on deep stuff. That's one reason I hunt in pinpoint...just to find individual targets (helpful in trashy spots) then once I center on the target, I flip to AC discrim and hover over the target just slightly moving the coil side to side (maybe 4-5 inch) and get a nice tone and VDI.
Now when running like this in normal motion mode, it DOES tend to drive you nuts hearing all the sounds. I also have found that when running with the AC sens cranked up close to max you need to GB more often.
Hope this helps...but the first suggestion was correct. They know a LOT more over at DFXonly.

 

[Mike Silver -gold]

Storm I to have just got a DFX also. I have a Specturm also. I know for sure if you hunt in the coin and jewelry mode,even modified pre amp and sens turned up, You will still have to turn your bottle cap reject down to 1. Try it ,you won,t get any depth at all with the bottle cap on the factury setting. I tryed it and got about 5" max . Turned it down to 1. Cranked the preamp to4, sens to80.Dc sens to 50. I was getting 9" on a quarter. Good luck . On the DFx only site a guy put in a setting called the deep missel. He got 125 silver coins in 2006. Some are seated and he got a caped bust. some at 9".

 

[Stormtrooper154]

Yeah....It just opened my eyes when I couldnt even hit a dime at 5", regardless if the halo was gone. And I had my machine cranked up! My buddy had no problem picking it up with his minelab. I have already secured an Explorer SE and will have a lot of learning to do, but I want deep stuff! I have hunted many, many old sites and out of 1200 coins, 2 are silver. For hunting 1830's type sites, it is kinda depressing. My buddy nailed 4 silver coins in one day at the same site on the same day. Lucky, Maybe...But he has done it a few times now when I was hunting with him.

I just hate thinking off all the ground I have ran my coil over and the deeper coins that I have missed..uuugghhhh. My buddy has had his minelab now for a while and is going to set it up for me and teach me how to use it, so Learning should go quickly. Not to mention I have had the EX2 before and liked it.

 

[kd8hf]

If you don't have the "Jeff Foster" book, Digging Deeper with the DFX then you are
missing a lot of great information regarding the understanding of your machine.

I have had my DFX settings too high and could not pick up a 5 lb cannon ball sitting on
top of the ground. Once I got the settings right "Bam" there it was but it does take
a significant amount of time to learn this machine.

I sure would not give up on it just yet.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Yeah....It just opened my eyes when I couldnt even hit a dime at 5", regardless if the halo was gone. And I had my machine cranked up! My buddy had no problem picking it up with his minelab. I have already secured an Explorer SE and will have a lot of learning to do, but I want deep stuff! I have hunted many, many old sites and out of 1200 coins, 2 are silver. For hunting 1830's type sites, it is kinda depressing. My buddy nailed 4 silver coins in one day at the same site on the same day. Lucky, Maybe...But he has done it a few times now when I was hunting with him.

I just hate thinking off all the ground I have ran my coil over and the deeper coins that I have missed..uuugghhhh. My buddy has had his minelab now for a while and is going to set it up for me and teach me how to use it, so Learning should go quickly. Not to mention I have had the EX2 before and liked it.

I think you gave up too quickly. I've been doing a lot of comparing of downloaded manuals and owner's sites and the DFX is a complicated but very capable unit. I'm pretty sure once you get up the learning curve a ways it's a wonderful tool. As is the Explorer. The people who love each are the ones that have "paid their dues" and learned their machines and the settings for their conditions.

I've pretty much settled on the Sovereign as my next detector as it is a deep machine that has all analog dial settings. It's an Uber Musky that I am used to with better ground balance, penetration and a notch feature. You can see all your settings in a glance instead of scrolling through 45 screens. I can't remember that many things and sometimes the bells and whistles are more bother than worth. Your ideal settings on Wednesday may be not the best for Thursday or Friday in the same spot.

When you're trying to solve a problem by testing you alter one variable at a time. With 45 adjustments I'd run out of daylight before I had the perfect balance. Now granted, 30 or so are only user preferences, but 15 performance variables is still a wad of futzing to do. But on the days you get all the planets in alignment and ducks in a row . . . watch out.

 

[spez401]

Im going to agree with bomber and kd8hf...

The two best pieces of information you will ever find on the DFX are www.dfxonly.com, and Jeff Foster's book, Digging Deeper with the DFX.

The only other thing is time. The DFX has sooo many settings and options, it is pretty tough to figure out once you start changing them all. Every change you make to one setting affects the others. And the ground you're dealing with probably isn't helping at all.

keep at it, and good luck

steve

 

[Stormtrooper154]

If you don't have the "Jeff Foster" book, Digging Deeper with the DFX then you are
missing a lot of great information regarding the understanding of your machine.

I have had my DFX settings too high and could not pick up a 5 lb cannon ball sitting on
top of the ground. Once I got the settings right "Bam" there it was but it does take
a significant amount of time to learn this machine.

I sure would not give up on it just yet.

I have read the book 2 time, cover to cover. It does have a lot of great info! My point to this is I am really sad that a $1100 machine with a $250 dollar coil couldn't pick up a dime at 5" even using the stock program! I just have a feeling that I will do better with a different machine, thats all. Maybe if the ground wasn't so mineralized it wouldn't be an issue.

 

[patpall22]

Storm, I understand that you have made your decision I'm now wondering why your machine couldn't pick up a clear signal at 5 in. 100+ hours is plenty of time to learn the DFX so I trust you Know it pretty well. I would try the same test in the same spot with the stock coil. maybe your machine is a lemon? I have logged about 300+ hours on mine, and wold be quite pissed off too if I couldn't get the sweet tone of silver a 5 in. If you are still looking for an answer, I would ask this Kid. http://dirtjournal.com/ his Name is Tim and I ran into this sight when I first decided to get my DFX. He would help you resolve this problem better than I could.

 

[erikk]

I nave a DFX and ran it for about 300 hours with every program I could find and I have the "Book" Finally went to the EX2 and I CAN read a merc at 12 inches. I regularly dig quarters at that depth. Bottom line-I have 2 ex-2's and use the DFX as my 3rd back up. .02

HH

 

[Mike Silver -gold]

Storm Minelab might be a better detector I,ve never owned one. I took my DFX out for the 1st time today. I used the DSM program as listed on the DFX only sight. I got a few newer coins and a 1937 Merc. It was 5 and a half inches. No big deal I know. But I had it running HOT. I still say the key is the bottle cap reject. I had it set at 1, and I didn,t find 1. Why the preset has it set for 4 is beyound me. It totaly kills your depth. Runing hot 4 preamp 85 ac ,did not seem to give me much static. I love it.

 

[bazinga]

That's a lot of different settings to play with... geez... and everyone says the Explorer is difficult to learn! Right out of the box it can go deep and even deeper once you learn what settings to change based on your surroundings. And there are just a small handful of things to play around with.

 

[EDDE]

100+ hours is plenty of time to learn the DFX so I trust you Know it pretty well. I would try the same test in the same spot with the stock coil. maybe your machine is a lemon? I have logged about 300+ hours on mine

no matter how much time you put on a machine
there is always room to learn it better
Ive got prolly over 1000 hours and I'm still
learning tricks techniques dos donts settings etc

 

[erikk]

Amen...

 

[Nashoba]

TARGET VOLUME 48-63 63
AUDIO THRESHOLD 0-42 10
TONE 0-255 173
AUDIO DISC. ON/OFF ON
SILENT SEARCH ON/OFF OFF
MIXED-MODE ON/OFF OFF
AC SENSITIVITY 1-85 81
DC SENSITIVITY 1-60 45
BACKLITE 0-6 0
VIEWING ANGLE 1-50 25
RATCHET PINPOINT ON/OFF OFF
S.A.T. SPED 0-10 10
TONE ID ON/OFF ON
V.C.O. ON/OFF ON
MODULATION ON/OFF OFF
AUTOTRAC ON/OFF ON
TRACK VIEW ON/OFF OFF
AUTOTRAC SPEED 1-20 8
AUTOTRAC OFFSET -10 +20 0
TRACK INHIBIT ON/OFF ON
COARSE G.E.B. 0-255 Auto
FINE G.E.B. 0-255 Auto
DISC. EDIT -95-+95 Accept -40 to +95
BLOCK EDIT -95-+95 Reject -95 to -41
LEARN ACCEPT ON/OFF OFF
LEARN REJECT ON/OFF OFF
RECOVERY SPEED 1-40 28
BOTTLECAP REJECT 1-20 1
HOT ROCK REJECT 0-20 10
SWEEP SPEED 1-20 7
GROUND FILTERING 2-6 4
VISUAL DISC. ON/OFF OFF
ICONS ON/OFF OFF
V.D.I.SENSITIVITY 0-99 85
DC PHASE ON/OFF OFF
GRAPH AVERAGING ON/OFF ON
GRAPH ACCUMULATE ON/OFF ON
FADE RATE 1-14 11
PREAMP GAIN 1-4 4
2 FREQUENCY (BEST DATA) ON/OFF-ON
2 FREQUENCY (CORRELATE) ON/OFF-OFF
VDI NORMALIZED ON/OFF ON
1 FREQUENCY (3kHz) ON/OFF OFF
1 FREQUENCY (15khz) ON/OFF OFF

I had NO IDEA ANY machine was this complicated!
I think I'd throw a $1200 dollar fit and throw it in the ocean it if I had to do all of that and reset it all in different types of soil.

GOOD LUCK MAN!!!!
~Nash~

 

[DFX-SE Gregg]

First of all, I have looked at depth tests and seen the explorer is deeper. I got my DFX in Nov 06 and love it! I also notice your numbers and mine are very close! I did not count my exact trips but have them on a log. More ironic Stormtrooper>>>I too have only found two silver coins...>one roosey and one Merc! But this week I broke out of the pre set programs a little more than usual, I have been bumping my pre amp up to 3, other small changes. This week I found a silver wedding band and a silver bracelet! So I would have to agree with almost everyone here! Including yourself....I think the explorer is deeper, never had one...just by reading different depth tests....but I also agree with the others who said you have not given it enough time!!!

Oh and this>>> I do not agree on giving programs and saying that is a quick fix!!! As you mentioned soil conditions, coil size and several other factors make a big difference...but I think it is learning the detector that makes the user better! I have actually found myself backing off on ac sensitivity...Not juicing it to the high heavens with pre amp gain at 4 squealing like a pig!

So not sure what your plans are with the DFX....but looking at your numbers which look great...obviously depth was your biggest concern and finding silver! Well I know depth is hard for me and I know why....I am using a smaller coil to separate out trash a ton better...so using the 5.3 Eclipse coil...which I love...my deepest hit has been a dime at 7.5... With the stock coil mainly being in the closet! I had it on today depth wise I would say in any preset program anything over 7-9 inches would surprise me! Good luck!!

 

[Nicksan]

Well, I buried a Quarter and a penny 5" deep in different holes, packed it down and could not pick up either with my MXT, M6 or prizm IV. I have no idea why, but I hit pennies at 6" all the time while hunting. They have been buried about a month now, Every so often I go over them with not even a broken tone, kinda bizarre.