So frustrated with my DFX

[lakillian]

So, I am thinking about selling it and buying another machine. I am thinking about the F75 or the Minelab Explorer II but I noticed they don't sell the EXP II anymore. Any help would be really appreciated. I live in an old house well 1910 and I am not finding anything under 5" deep and most of the time it is around 3". I know there are settings on the DFX that will get it deeper but I am an idiot and cannot figure it out LOL.

Thanks@!

 

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[rmptr]

I can't offer help, but have heard more than once that a DFX is complicated enough to defeat itself if adjusted improperly. There's a couple books that have been advised.

Someone should be along soon enough to offer direct help.

If it were me, I would bury my intended target at a depth I considered reasonable to achieve, then after a few weeks, commence to adjusting the machine 'til I did have a positive signal on it.

Not very scientific...
There's probably a better way.

Good luck!
rmptr

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

#1 - You can't find what's not there. Maybe it's just a coinless spot. I think I've found a total of three coins on my current 20 acres. As opposed to my old house where I found choice coins like silver Washington quarters, Mercury dimes & many wheat cents.

#2 - Practice on a known object and remove as many variables as possible.

Bury a few coins in you yard in a clear (of metal) spot and practice on them, changing one setting at a time on your detector.

One thing I can say about the F75. If you turn it on and use the default settings it will find coins. And, no matter how you mess up the settings, it only takes 10 seconds to reset it to the default setting: turn it off, hold the menu button down and push the trigger forward with one hand and turn it back on. Simple.

But it is "quirky" and takes some adjustments and getting used to. The good news is the menu is easy to understand and on the display at all times. You don't have to wander through pages and screens of choices.

If you try and run it hot it can be very busy and chattery. Using a car analogy - some roads have to be driven at 45 mph even though your tires are rated for 185 mph. You lose control on bad roads. Maybe for that reason the F75 is not a good beginner's model. You don't give a new driver the keys to a Ferrari. But at other times the F75 can be "opened up" and you can take advantage of the high gain circuits. I'm very pleased with my F75.

 

[lakillian]

#1 - You can't find what's not there. Maybe it's just a coinless spot. I think I've found a total of three coins on my current 20 acres. As opposed to my old house where I found choice coins like silver Washington quarters, Mercury dimes & many wheat cents.

See there is the point. I have 6 acres but I have only been detecting around my 100 year old house and the lot next to mine where there used to sit a house. There has to be coins there. There just has to be. I have asked around and was told that no one has ever seen anyone detecting here before. And there is a story that the person who used to own the lot next to us, before the people who owned my house at one time bought it, was rich and buried his money in his yard. I want to find it LOL. They did bring in dirt and lay it down to make it more flat... sigh I am frustrated.

Thank you for the information on the F75. I appreciate it!

 

[TORRERO]

I will be honest with you, I have owned and used 2 DFX's for more than 6 years, and I have had people tell me that
this is a complicated machine and that some people don't like it.

Personally I do well with them, and have found many nice items and many nice deep coins.

But another thing I will tell you is ...
Metal Detectors have been out for over 40 years and many many sites have been previously hunted, I tend to believe
if your not finding anything in a place you should be finding things, then its been hunted in the past
and you will likely get only a few targets and maybe no targets at all depending on how well the previous people hunted the site.

Think of it this way.... say for example I went to a Church 15 years ago and hunted it hard.... at that time I got lots of silver,
wheat's and such and it was a good producer, now today I make a new friend and he says...
I know this old church we can hunt and I know I have never seen anyone hunting there before...
and he has been a member for 10 years..... and he is the one too give permission..... we go and I say I have hunted this before.... oops... before you even went here....

You never really know the history of an old property...
My house was built in 1956 and I have an acre.... what did I get around my house.... ? Not much...
a few wheat's and 1 or 2 silver dimes....
I cross my driveway and into my neighbors yard and wow !! all these wheat cents (20 or more) a silver quarter and 4-5
silver dimes...
Do I think my old folks lost less here ? No...
I think someone else hunted this house before I bought it....

I have seen people on here argue the point that sometimes you will find nothing because "EVERYTHING" is buried too
deep for your detector to pick up.
I can not even consider an argument like this,
My opinion is...
If your not finding anything, then there is nothing there to find...

A few settings on your DFX might help as well..

1. Always run the machine in "Coralate" mode in the "Dual Frequency" setting...
(Best Data really seems to me to be very unstable and unpredictable for targets)

2. Put your "PRE-AMP GAIN" setting on 3, this is usually stable enough for most all soils... but gives good depth.
you can try 4, but it might cause instability and a lot of false signals

3. Set the Sense settings between 70 - 75 (not maxed but high)
(you may need to tweak this to make it more stable)

4. There is a second Sensitivity setting for your "Pinpoint mode" this must be set very high,
enough to pick up the deep targets when you pull the trigger for pinpointing....
In the past I have seen targets I have missed that were deep, simply because my machine would give me a deep signal and
I could not pick it up on "Pinpoint" and thought it was not there...
But it was my machine not set right..

5. Last thing, I always set me machines descrim to what I will call "No Iron" so I am picking up all targets in the range of
01- 93 with 94 & 95 blocked out because these cause a lot of instability and you never find targets that high...
with the machine set like that, as you walk, watch the numbers,
targets that are shallow will give you pretty accurate readings, but deep targets can be off by as much as 15 - 20 points.
That means a silver dime which normally reads 81 - 82 may read only in the 70's
deep copper pennies can read anywhere from 50 and up...
If I see my numbers jump around from 50's to 70's at 6 inches deep its a good bet its some kind of penny or dime.

Try these things and let us know if they help.
Richard

PS
I would advise against rushing out and buying a different machine, especially before you can be sure its the machine that is the problem and not that there are no targets where you are hunting ...

After 25 years of hunting and buying many different machines, normally about the only thing a New Machine gets you is.....
Well .... a new machine...
ha ha ha ...

 

[mark v]

I will be honest with you, I have owned and used 2 DFX's for more than 6 years, and I have had people tell me that
this is a complicated machine and that some people don't like it.

Personally I do well with them, and have found many nice items and many nice deep coins.

But another thing I will tell you is ...
Metal Detectors have been out for over 40 years and many many sites have been previously hunted, I tend to believe
if your not finding anything in a place you should be finding things, then its been hunted in the past
and you will likely get only a few targets and maybe no targets at all depending on how well the previous people hunted the site.

Think of it this way.... say for example I went to a Church 15 years ago and hunted it hard.... at that time I got lots of silver,
wheat's and such and it was a good producer, now today I make a new friend and he says...
I know this old church we can hunt and I know I have never seen anyone hunting there before...
and he has been a member for 10 years..... and he is the one too give permission..... we go and I say I have hunted this before.... oops... before you even went here....

You never really know the history of an old property...
My house was built in 1956 and I have an acre.... what did I get around my house.... ? Not much...
a few wheat's and 1 or 2 silver dimes....
I cross my driveway and into my neighbors yard and wow !! all these wheat cents (20 or more) a silver quarter and 4-5
silver dimes...
Do I think my old folks lost less here ? No...
I think someone else hunted this house before I bought it....

I have seen people on here argue the point that sometimes you will find nothing because "EVERYTHING" is buried too
deep for your detector to pick up.
I can not even consider an argument like this,
My opinion is...
If your not finding anything, then there is nothing there to find...

A few settings on your DFX might help as well..

1. Always run the machine in "Coralate" mode in the "Dual Frequency" setting...
(Best Data really seems to me to be very unstable and unpredictable for targets)

2. Put your "PRE-AMP GAIN" setting on 3, this is usually stable enough for most all soils... but gives good depth.
you can try 4, but it might cause instability and a lot of false signals

3. Set the Sense settings between 70 - 75 (not maxed but high)
(you may need to tweak this to make it more stable)

4. There is a second Sensitivity setting for your "Pinpoint mode" this must be set very high,
enough to pick up the deep targets when you pull the trigger for pinpointing....
In the past I have seen targets I have missed that were deep, simply because my machine would give me a deep signal and
I could not pick it up on "Pinpoint" and thought it was not there...
But it was my machine not set right..

5. Last thing, I always set me machines descrim to what I will call "No Iron" so I am picking up all targets in the range of
01- 93 with 94 & 95 blocked out because these cause a lot of instability and you never find targets that high...
with the machine set like that, as you walk, watch the numbers,
targets that are shallow will give you pretty accurate readings, but deep targets can be off by as much as 15 - 20 points.
That means a silver dime which normally reads 81 - 82 may read only in the 70's
deep copper pennies can read anywhere from 50 and up...
If I see my numbers jump around from 50's to 70's at 6 inches deep its a good bet its some kind of penny or dime.

Try these things and let us know if they help.
Richard

PS
I would advise against rushing out and buying a different machine, especially before you can be sure its the machine that is the problem and not that there are no targets where you are hunting ...

After 25 years of hunting and buying many different machines, normally about the only thing a New Machine gets you is.....
Well .... a new machine...
ha ha ha ...

Good post!

 

[John (Ma)]

I just sold mine, as I too have a hard time understanding it. Nothing against the detector, it just was not for me. I wanted something with nobs for tweaking and ended up with the Tesoro's which I really enjoy. Again, nothing wrong with the DFX and I had all of the books, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

 

[sniffer]

I have a DFX, at the LBH I found a piece of copper wire at about 13 inches, and at the Florida hunt, I found a ring at 4 inches. just because you're not finding something in your yard doesn't mean a whole lot, go to areas where you know people gather, park, school, playground and play with your machine.
people that find great things, have spent a lot of time learning how to use their MD.
read the books on your MD, and then after you do that, read them again, and then read them again.
the information given to you in those books is invaluable. don't try to speed read these books.
these are not fiction, they don't waste ink printing junk for filler words. so take your time and read them over and over again and if you have any questions or need some help, PM me I'll help all I can

Sniffer

 

[lakillian]

If your not finding anything, then there is nothing there to find...

A few settings on your DFX might help as well..

1. Always run the machine in "Coralate" mode in the "Dual Frequency" setting...
(Best Data really seems to me to be very unstable and unpredictable for targets)

2. Put your "PRE-AMP GAIN" setting on 3, this is usually stable enough for most all soils... but gives good depth.
you can try 4, but it might cause instability and a lot of false signals

3. Set the Sense settings between 70 - 75 (not maxed but high)
(you may need to tweak this to make it more stable)

4. There is a second Sensitivity setting for your "Pinpoint mode" this must be set very high,
enough to pick up the deep targets when you pull the trigger for pinpointing....
In the past I have seen targets I have missed that were deep, simply because my machine would give me a deep signal and
I could not pick it up on "Pinpoint" and thought it was not there...
But it was my machine not set right..

5. Last thing, I always set me machines descrim to what I will call "No Iron" so I am picking up all targets in the range of
01- 93 with 94 & 95 blocked out because these cause a lot of instability and you never find targets that high...
with the machine set like that, as you walk, watch the numbers,
targets that are shallow will give you pretty accurate readings, but deep targets can be off by as much as 15 - 20 points.
That means a silver dime which normally reads 81 - 82 may read only in the 70's
deep copper pennies can read anywhere from 50 and up...
If I see my numbers jump around from 50's to 70's at 6 inches deep its a good bet its some kind of penny or dime.

Try these things and let us know if they help.
Richard

PS
I would advise against rushing out and buying a different machine, especially before you can be sure its the machine that is the problem and not that there are no targets where you are hunting ...

After 25 years of hunting and buying many different machines, normally about the only thing a New Machine gets you is.....
Well .... a new machine...
ha ha ha ...

I did some of your suggestions and I found some things! I found a 1982 quarter and a penny I think. I also found a Junior Police badge and an old wall socket plate. It was nice pulling things up again. I have already went over the same area once before. I kept getting alot of 94.? readings but I ignored them. There were also a few 65-88's that weren't strong at all so I didn't dig them either. I don't know how to reject numbers. But I am not very book smart and reading a manual really isn't going to tell me much unfortunately. I have read the manual that came with the machine and posts but I don't understand it all. SIGH! Thank you for the settings again. I have to set them every time right?

Lori

 

[sniffer]

95's are junk, anything above 0 and are repeatable are worth digging
vdi's above 70 are at least a penny or better

 

[John (Ma)]

Those light 65-88's I would be digging! If nothing else you will learn what is what. With preset programs I did very well by getting to know the numbers. The way I had done that was to dig everything until I could memories specific numbers that did not amount to anything. I have got buttons pretty deep that were faint sounding and sometimes would not give repeated sounds. It boiled down to a gut feeling, sometimes junk, other timesbutton or what have you. What also worked for me was to determine wether to dig or not by sound and my location. Once I have decided to dig, I referenced the number.

 

[deepskyal]

I just sold mine, as I too have a hard time understanding it. Nothing against the detector, it just was not for me. I wanted something with nobs for tweaking and ended up with the Tesoro's which I really enjoy. Again, nothing wrong with the DFX and I had all of the books, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

I sold mine and went back to using my 6000Di Pro. Had the DFX for a year, just didn't like all the stopping, readjusting, rebalancing, etc. And my finds didnt change significantly from what I was finding with my 6000. I understood it, it just wasn't performing any better. Like John said...not my cup of tea.

I bought the Vision in March...now that's a user friendly machine. Maybe because I had experience with the DFX it seems easier...but it's a lot faster for me to change settings when the menu is right at your fingers instead of scrolling thru menus like before.

If it's too frustrating for you...get something else. This is a hobby to enjoy, not get all flustered because it's a technology nightmare to you. I'll still use my 6000...that things a hunting beast.

Al

 

[lakillian]

Those light 65-88's I would be digging!

So even if it is really faint and can barely hear it and it doesn't repeat every swing, I should still dig it?

 

[sniffer]

turn on your vdi when you pinpoint, that will give you a better idea of the # and then dig if it's a good #

 

[UTcoinshootR]

Those light 65-88's I would be digging!

So even if it is really faint and can barely hear it and it doesn't repeat every swing, I should still dig it?

Absolutely. If you can pinpoint it... dig it. Look at your signagraph too. ( The little bars under the vdi #.) If the bar is not in the iron range and you can pinpoint, then its a go. I would have missed alot of tokens if i didnt dig the 50's and 60's. If you dig a plug and the DFX says it is 5" and your hole is already 10 inches deep the object will likely be very big. Like the size of a coffee can lid. Good luck. I love my DFX. Now that I know it better I can usually tell you exactly what I'm going to dig just by the VDI and signagraph.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

I did some of your suggestions and I found some things! I found a 1982 quarter and a penny I think. I also found a Junior Police badge and an old wall socket plate. It was nice pulling things up again. I have already went over the same area once before. I kept getting alot of 94.? readings but I ignored them. There were also a few 65-88's that weren't strong at all so I didn't dig them either. I don't know how to reject numbers. But I am not very book smart and reading a manual really isn't going to tell me much unfortunately. I have read the manual that came with the machine and posts but I don't understand it all. SIGH! Thank you for the settings again. I have to set them every time right?

Lori

Great to hear. I believe there are books (at least one) on how to use the DFX. It's a great machine and you should give yourself time to learn.

I found a "Jr. Deputy Sheriff" badge last year at a "desanctified" church that is up for sale. I'm in this for coins but the surprises like that make it all the more fun.

 

[Schrecky]

The advise TORRERO gave you is what I would say too. What program are you using? The "canned" programs are set up very conservatively so not to cause a lot of problems for a noob. Upping the Preamp and AC will get more depth. Your DFX should be more than capable of the type of hunting you want to do. Mine works great in those settings.

You might also get advise at www.dfxonly.com

 

[Tin Nugget]

If the DFX is an issue I doubt the Explorer or F75 will make you happy. I tried out a DFX and Minelab 7 years ago and said, no, not for me. Got an MXT, quick EASY adjustments, plenty deep and still using it today.

 

[lakillian]

The advise TORRERO gave you is what I would say too. What program are you using? The "canned" programs are set up very conservatively so not to cause a lot of problems for a noob. Upping the Preamp and AC will get more depth. Your DFX should be more than capable of the type of hunting you want to do. Mine works great in those settings.

You might also get advise at www.dfxonly.com

I use the jewelry/coin mode. I made the adjustments that Torrero suggested and I went back out beside my house and pulled up a 1982 quarter and a penny not sure of the year. Also a junior police badge and an old metal wall socket and plate, plus a nail, foil and a piece of metal. So it did work for me but it is raining and I haven't been able to get over to the yard next to my house yet. Waiting for the rain to go away!!

 

[nixologist]

The faint,one way signals are a signal for a deeper target, I would dig them.You can make the changes you want and store them in one of the program spots so you wouln't have to reenter them each time you hunt.