my first Year with the Prizm III

[Pulltab Parson]

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't been around in a while, life has been keeping me quite busy. I did want to give you all a quick run down of my first year with the Prizm III.

I must say right off the bat that it's a mixed review. For the most part the Prizm III has ran well, but it is (in my opinion) lacking in some areas, this could probably be fixed by going to a more expensive detector.

I do like the turn on and go feature, this gets you up and running right away, but then the frustrations begin. I mainly ran the Prizm with the iron discriminated and the sens. up a few notches below top, this seemed to work fairly well except Iron was not always discriminated. The detector would still give off a tone even when the item was discriminated. I would dig and still find iron. this was quite and is quite frustrating when your detector should be overlooking those what have been discriminated.

as I continue to detect the detector would still go off intermittently, I would decrease the sensitivity to try and adjust for this but it would actually decrease my ability to detect deeper items that others would find. the detector is not consistent in its readings (i.e. it doesn't always call a penny a penny or a quarter a quarter. . . you know what I mean) often it would detect a specific item, show a quarter, then I would switch to all metal and the only thing that would show is iron, I would dig and sure enough . . . . a nail. This has happened more times than I care to mention and it has become quite frustrating. I don't ask for perfection, especially in a low end model but at least give me some consistency. The other problem I have found is the single tone, I know that some like this feature but it just has added to my frustration level.

On the flip side, the pinpoint if fantastic, its always where it says it is, this has been consistent.

I thought perhaps there was something wrong with the detector so I had the local rep take a look at it and he couldn't find anything wrong with it. This led me to believe that this is just the way this model is.

I have considered upgrading to an M6, but with the price, I'm not sure I'm going to stay with Whites. I know there
are some great detectors out there that are just as good but at a lower price.

I'm sorry to say that I have not been completely satisfied, but again this is a low end model (you wouldn't think for $300 dollars).

 

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[khouse]

It's a fact even with high dollar detectors your detector can beep on large and or rusty iron when it's disc. out. Second is it sounds like your ground balance is off. Find a clean spot with no metal using the PP mode. Then raise your coil up about 6 inches and lock the PP button on. Then bob your coil up and down without touching the ground. Your listening for your tone to change as you do this. As you lower your coil to the ground does your tone get higher or lower? What you want is the tone to stay the same. If you need to adjust the GB there is a way to do it. First locate the two small rubber plugs on the bottom back corners of your detector. One is for threshold and one is for GB. If you call Whites they will walk you through the adjustment. Then your detector will be set up for your soil.

 

[Pulltab Parson]

I thought that the Prizm line was all automatic ground balancing, is this not the case??

 

[The-Bone]

Toby,
don't be too disgruntled...ALL machines sound off periodically on items that are notched out. It doesn't matter if they are $300 or $1200 units....the people with the $1200 units just say they are digging all items so they don't miss gold

 

[Pulltab Parson]

I found the answer to my question at:

http://forum.treasurenet.com/whites/index.php/topic,2912.0.html

This seems to be the fix if this is what I need, but I must confess I'm a little sketchy on the details

 

[khouse]

Toby,
If the plug is loose when you put it back in just apply a little silicone to it. The pot can be turned easily without being damaged. The damage is done when you try to adjust it past it's built in stops. Then it can crack. That pot is tiny like 1/4 x 1/4 inch. You will need a jeweler's screwdriver. I couldn't remember which side the GB was on but as you found it's on the headphone side. It has been 2 to 3 years since I messed with one. But as long as you don't crank on the trimmer hard you should be able to do it. Just move it a tiny bit and retry it until you get it. This will help with TID and better depth due to being able to use more sensitivity.

 

[Mainedigger]

Toby....I also used the Prizm III for a year, I did have some of the same problems you had but it wasn;t all the time. I think alot of it had to do with soil conditions etc. I ran it with just iron discriminated out and the sensitivity one notch down from the highest. No detector is perfect on its id'ing of items, my experience with the Prizm was it was fairly accurate but not 100%....but for the most part it was acceptable. I did find that if I was getting a quarter reading with the Prizm, then 95 out of a 100 times it was a quarter. That signal was the most accurate and reliable on the Prizm in my experience. I upgraded to the M6 this past Spring and love it, however it also isn;t 100% on its id'ing, altough I have not too often dug iron when it says it is something else. Tehe M6 does go a little deeper and isn;t as jumpy in areas due to the ground balancing, but even with that there are some areas where it acts erratic due to soil conditions. I could not run my Prizm on the beach at all for it was very errratic, where the M6 with its beach mode works like a champ on the beach in dry sand..haven;t really tried it in wet sand as of yet. I did use it on the beach when it was cold (30's) and alot of frost in the beach and it was erratic.
I loved the Prizm and found alot of good old coins and jewelry with it as I have with the M6...I was and am thrilled with both detectors and would recommmend either to anyone.
It basically comes down to knowing your detector and knowing what it is telling you, and also knowing that no detector is perfect and you will have your share of mis reads and dig some junk. I think you;d be happy with the M6, and if you can;t afford it for a while then the Prizm III is a great detector as well that will find you lots of goodies at good depths. Whatever detector you get you can not expect miracles from it for all are limited in some extent and none are perfect, it's just a matter of finding one that works best for your techniques and areas of detecting.

 

[Pulltab Parson]

OK guys,

I made some ajustments and becuase the weather here in Northwest PA is actually nice (no snow if you can believe it) I went out yesterday and within an hour or so came up with 9 coins (1 quarter, 1 dime, 1 nickel and 6 pennies) all of which read accurately on the Prizm. I also pulled out about a few pull tabs all of which read pulltabs (I duge them because I wanted to make sure that the detector was reading correctly, which it was). The park I was in is close to the center of town so I'm certain that it has been deteced pretty hard, so I'm quite pleased with the results.

Thanks everyone for the help!!!

 

[khouse]

Toby,
Did you adjust the GB?

 

[Pulltab Parson]

No, I didn't; actually I was too afraid I'd screw it up so I took the detector apart and cleaned it, put in new batteries and decreased the sens and increased the discrim. This all seemed to help but I do plan to change the GB, I just need some one who would actually know what their doing to help me.

 

[nahabit]

hello friend! Here in Russia I have the whites prizm 3 too, and very often when I search with disc. I find the big iron (track from tank, helmet, cauldron and etc..) even if I using the only discr. And my personal advice- do not use the WP3 during the rain, my detector does not working during the rain or if the hight-grass are wet.

 

[vegasmtl]

I have been using my III since December, and have had great results. I did find however that the "repeatable" signal is key. The machine will tone once as is disc's out the iron. The soil here is very mineralized, so I get goofy signals. I have found that it is pretty accurate with nickels and pulltabs. I have a unique issue here, as the yen is different in compostion to US coins, so I dig everything. Wet soil will cause it to read items at 4", but they are at 2" or so. I have found overall that I like the machine, but I wish it would go a bit deeper. Keep at it! And, don't disc out those pulltabs. I pulled a .925 chain out of the sand, signal said pulltab.

HH
vegasmtl