XLT Programming Experiment
The first time I went metal detecting I was 16. I bought a White?s Coin Master and was very excited to try it out. I had my girlfriend with, she lived in a old farmhouse and that was the first place I wanted to search. I fired up the detector and walked down the sidewalk to get to the grass, as soon as the coil left the concrete, a loud beep was heard. I passed the coil over the spot again and again it beeped. After finding something to dig with (if I remember right, it was a large spoon) about 2 inches down, face up was a silver half dollar! Four more feet down the sidewalk was another beep, a ten dollar gold eagle, what a way to start!
The whole family found a use for the metal detector, my parents owned a excavating company so it was used to find water pipes. My brother had a girlfriend with a temper, so we looked for a tossed class ring, twice. I had that Coin Master at least 10 years. Finally it was crushed by a bulldozer, while left on the ground after finding a water line.
Computers and work replaced the excitement of metal detecting so for 10 plus years I was out of the hobby. Remembering how much I enjoyed the hobby, I saw a metal detector at Wal-Mart (Bounty Hunter 202) and thought that it would make a great hobby for my son and I to enjoy. After digging hundreds of holes with only a few coins, my son lost interest and along with that, so did I.
I am now a single parent and have every other weekend to myself. I remembered fondly the searching for coins and the trill when I did find a old coin that would have never been seen again if it not for me digging it up. I have to admit that searching for newer coins has no interest to me at all, I would rather have 1 Indian cent then 20 dollars in new quarters.
After my parents passed away, I was asked to look over their coins and to give an estimate of what they would be worth. Realizing that about half of this coins had that little tint to then that distinguish them as ?dug coins?, reminded me of finding those coins and the excitement that I had finding them, I broke out the Bounty Hunter again. After a few hours, I remembered how much I like the Coin Master, and I knew that White?s still made detectors so I started looking on the internet to see what products they now offered. After finding the location of a local dealer, I went to see the offerings.
I went looking for a DFX and was talked out of the DFX in favor of the XLT. The XLT was to perform better in my area than the DFX, I would like to have some feedback from you if you do own both as to your preference. I am now a proud owner of a XLT. The features that interested me the most, was the programming and the learn reject. After searching on the Internet and reading the book ?Spectrum Secrets? by Kevin Mulrooney, I decided to run a little bit of a scientific test that would provide me with more information on the programming capabilities and help me learn the machine.
The Experiment:
Another trip to the local Wal-Mart provided the materials I needed for the test, four different colors of golf tees. I marked out three spots with differing situations. The first area was my front yard. I chose the front yard as the house is not that old and I know that there would be a few newer coins and lots of trash is the form of tools and pull tabs. The second area was behind my back yard, the area has always been farm land and should be very clean. The third area was my parent?s yard, I chose their yard due as they owned a welding shop and the house was very old and the yard full of metal.
The Programs;
I would use three programs for the test. The first program would be the Coins program that is pre-loaded in the detector. The second program was the coin program from the ?Spectrum Secrets? book mentioned earlier. The third program was from a lady from Ohio that I found on the internet (http://www.dragonbbs.com/members/ww5389/xltprog.htm).
The Front Yard:
The front yard was a real challenge as it is packed hard and is very rocky. I marked out a spot about 20 by 10 feet. The first try was going to be with the Bounty Hunter 202. After a 10 feet I had 8 tees out, this seemed a little extreme so I upped the notch to discriminate more and went back over the area fresh. After the same 10 feet I still had 5 markers out. This was a little concerning as I really didn?t want to dig that many holes in the time that I had allotted. I them put the Bounty Hunter down and picked up the XLT with the ?Book Coin? program. I had 4 potential hits in the area, one Penny/Dime, One Quarter, One Dollar and one ?junk? reading just to make sure.
The next program I used was ?Carolyn?s Silver? from the internet. I had three of the four same markers, the exception was the ?junk? spot was not found and an additional spot marked 1 dollar was found.
While using the third program (the default ?Coin? setting), only two items were marked, the Penny/Dime and the 1 dollar.
The results after digging was the spot the first and second program found that read One Quarter was a zinc penny. The spot marked Penny/Dime was a top of a pop can. The spot marked dollar was a large flat peace of steel. The ?junk? spot the ?Book? program found was a small piece of metal about 8 inches down. One interesting thing happened while digging the area, while programmed with the ?book? program, the detector became very unstable. Turning the detector off, then back on, the detector was again stable and working well.
The Back Yard;
This was a very clean spot with only two spots identified by the ?Book? program, both reading a dime. The ?Carolyn?s Silver? program only produced a slight bleep on one of the spots. The ?Coin? program in the detector did not produce any hits.
One of the dine spots was the very top of a pop top that was buried about 3 inches down, the other was a Mercury dime!!
Parents Yard;
Two many hits to mention, but all of the programs found a spot with 3 pennies in it. The ?Book? program found a little more junk than the other two, but it was consistent that the junk (aluminum pop can pieces) was 5 to 14 inches deep.
Conclusions:
I liked the ?Book? program the best after changing a few setting to fit my preferences, I turned the threshold up to hear the hum, as I liked that better. The next program that I would use was the ?Carolyn?s Silver? program, I changed the frequency as I liked the higher tones better then the lower one. My last choice was the ?Coins? program from the detector as it did not seem to have the depth of the other two programs.
Please keep in mind that the results that I had is in my area only and soil mineralization and other factors can change these results.
Another thing that I discovered was that headphones are very useful as I could hear more with them on than I could without (dogs loved the one frequency I was using).
One last note would be on the Bullseye that came with the detector. Several times I was fooled into thinking that I had found the source of a signal when the Bullseye went off to find that any bumping or sudden movement of the Bullseye would result in it going off. Please let me know if this is normal!
I will do other experiments with other programs in the near future, and I also plan on making a baited area to assist in these tests.
All feedback is welcome.
The first time I went metal detecting I was 16. I bought a White?s Coin Master and was very excited to try it out. I had my girlfriend with, she lived in a old farmhouse and that was the first place I wanted to search. I fired up the detector and walked down the sidewalk to get to the grass, as soon as the coil left the concrete, a loud beep was heard. I passed the coil over the spot again and again it beeped. After finding something to dig with (if I remember right, it was a large spoon) about 2 inches down, face up was a silver half dollar! Four more feet down the sidewalk was another beep, a ten dollar gold eagle, what a way to start!
The whole family found a use for the metal detector, my parents owned a excavating company so it was used to find water pipes. My brother had a girlfriend with a temper, so we looked for a tossed class ring, twice. I had that Coin Master at least 10 years. Finally it was crushed by a bulldozer, while left on the ground after finding a water line.
Computers and work replaced the excitement of metal detecting so for 10 plus years I was out of the hobby. Remembering how much I enjoyed the hobby, I saw a metal detector at Wal-Mart (Bounty Hunter 202) and thought that it would make a great hobby for my son and I to enjoy. After digging hundreds of holes with only a few coins, my son lost interest and along with that, so did I.
I am now a single parent and have every other weekend to myself. I remembered fondly the searching for coins and the trill when I did find a old coin that would have never been seen again if it not for me digging it up. I have to admit that searching for newer coins has no interest to me at all, I would rather have 1 Indian cent then 20 dollars in new quarters.
After my parents passed away, I was asked to look over their coins and to give an estimate of what they would be worth. Realizing that about half of this coins had that little tint to then that distinguish them as ?dug coins?, reminded me of finding those coins and the excitement that I had finding them, I broke out the Bounty Hunter again. After a few hours, I remembered how much I like the Coin Master, and I knew that White?s still made detectors so I started looking on the internet to see what products they now offered. After finding the location of a local dealer, I went to see the offerings.
I went looking for a DFX and was talked out of the DFX in favor of the XLT. The XLT was to perform better in my area than the DFX, I would like to have some feedback from you if you do own both as to your preference. I am now a proud owner of a XLT. The features that interested me the most, was the programming and the learn reject. After searching on the Internet and reading the book ?Spectrum Secrets? by Kevin Mulrooney, I decided to run a little bit of a scientific test that would provide me with more information on the programming capabilities and help me learn the machine.
The Experiment:
Another trip to the local Wal-Mart provided the materials I needed for the test, four different colors of golf tees. I marked out three spots with differing situations. The first area was my front yard. I chose the front yard as the house is not that old and I know that there would be a few newer coins and lots of trash is the form of tools and pull tabs. The second area was behind my back yard, the area has always been farm land and should be very clean. The third area was my parent?s yard, I chose their yard due as they owned a welding shop and the house was very old and the yard full of metal.
The Programs;
I would use three programs for the test. The first program would be the Coins program that is pre-loaded in the detector. The second program was the coin program from the ?Spectrum Secrets? book mentioned earlier. The third program was from a lady from Ohio that I found on the internet (http://www.dragonbbs.com/members/ww5389/xltprog.htm).
The Front Yard:
The front yard was a real challenge as it is packed hard and is very rocky. I marked out a spot about 20 by 10 feet. The first try was going to be with the Bounty Hunter 202. After a 10 feet I had 8 tees out, this seemed a little extreme so I upped the notch to discriminate more and went back over the area fresh. After the same 10 feet I still had 5 markers out. This was a little concerning as I really didn?t want to dig that many holes in the time that I had allotted. I them put the Bounty Hunter down and picked up the XLT with the ?Book Coin? program. I had 4 potential hits in the area, one Penny/Dime, One Quarter, One Dollar and one ?junk? reading just to make sure.
The next program I used was ?Carolyn?s Silver? from the internet. I had three of the four same markers, the exception was the ?junk? spot was not found and an additional spot marked 1 dollar was found.
While using the third program (the default ?Coin? setting), only two items were marked, the Penny/Dime and the 1 dollar.
The results after digging was the spot the first and second program found that read One Quarter was a zinc penny. The spot marked Penny/Dime was a top of a pop can. The spot marked dollar was a large flat peace of steel. The ?junk? spot the ?Book? program found was a small piece of metal about 8 inches down. One interesting thing happened while digging the area, while programmed with the ?book? program, the detector became very unstable. Turning the detector off, then back on, the detector was again stable and working well.
The Back Yard;
This was a very clean spot with only two spots identified by the ?Book? program, both reading a dime. The ?Carolyn?s Silver? program only produced a slight bleep on one of the spots. The ?Coin? program in the detector did not produce any hits.
One of the dine spots was the very top of a pop top that was buried about 3 inches down, the other was a Mercury dime!!
Parents Yard;
Two many hits to mention, but all of the programs found a spot with 3 pennies in it. The ?Book? program found a little more junk than the other two, but it was consistent that the junk (aluminum pop can pieces) was 5 to 14 inches deep.
Conclusions:
I liked the ?Book? program the best after changing a few setting to fit my preferences, I turned the threshold up to hear the hum, as I liked that better. The next program that I would use was the ?Carolyn?s Silver? program, I changed the frequency as I liked the higher tones better then the lower one. My last choice was the ?Coins? program from the detector as it did not seem to have the depth of the other two programs.
Please keep in mind that the results that I had is in my area only and soil mineralization and other factors can change these results.
Another thing that I discovered was that headphones are very useful as I could hear more with them on than I could without (dogs loved the one frequency I was using).
One last note would be on the Bullseye that came with the detector. Several times I was fooled into thinking that I had found the source of a signal when the Bullseye went off to find that any bumping or sudden movement of the Bullseye would result in it going off. Please let me know if this is normal!
I will do other experiments with other programs in the near future, and I also plan on making a baited area to assist in these tests.
All feedback is welcome.
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