TDI SL beginnings

It took two years of research and study, but finally purchased the Whites TDI SL for my bad ground areas. First visit, test garden....

Did some detailed work in my test garden yesterday using the TDI Sl. First results are very promising. Settings were, pulse delay 10, ground balance 7 ½, gain max threshold just audible.
I have a copper rivet buried at 7” about the size of the end of a pencil eraser a 6 ½” quarter, dime, nickel and penny along with each at 4 ½” deep in a different part of the test bed. In addition to these I purposely left nails where they were when I planted the garden over 7 years ago. Please keep in mind these were the depths when I put them in the ground, so the exact depth is not known after 7 years.
Starting off in high conductor mode each (except the nickels) gave a very good, smooth audio in every direction except the nails which gave a completely different sound, very much different. Keep in mind I’m still in a steep learning curve, by no means close to experienced but having a fantastic time on my journey.
After listening to the differences between the coins and nails I reduced the gain to about half and listen to each target again. I continued reducing the gain little by little until the deep coins and rivet ceased giving a audio response and that was about gain 3 ½. Raising the gain back to 4 and the coins gave a very faint, low volume tone.
Wanting to play a little I raised the pulse rate, re-ground balanced and checked each target with a gain setting of 6. The biggest difference came when the pulse rate was set above 20. The coins still gave a good audio, but the rivet, which is very small compared to the coins, became difficult to hear, very statically, extremely low in volume. All in all I had a very enjoyable evening, very educational.

First, actual hunt to the coal cinder fields yielded a wheat penny right off, 4 nails then another wheat. I was very pleased to recover these two targets in an area that stopped producing a long time ago. I've got a lot of learning ahead of me now.

Second hunting trip:
Went to an old school where the coal cinder waste has been dumped for years and hunted for 1 ½ hours. This area has been grid hunted for years and I was sure there were no goodies left to be found. Well wrong again.
GB to a little over 8, pulse 10, gain 10 and off I went; very first signal was a wheat penny at 4-5 inches and perfectly vertical. Wow, was I off on my pin pointing skills. Couldn’t believe how I could have missed that one because it gave a very good, consistent audio response from every direction. One thing I noticed, it didn’t give a double beep like a VLF machine would on a vertical coin.

Thought I had the sound of nails down, but was I wrong. Started digging nails, three to be exact, all sounded fairly good but I could tell there was something wrong, but I’m learning, so I dug anything that sounded remotely good.
A few minutes later, not more than 10’ from the penny, another signal that sounded different, not sure what sounded different, still learning. Wow, a silver dime and not quite 5” deep. Now I am wondering how I could have missed that one, not a clue yet. This small area of only 20' x 20' has quit producing any goodies and that was with the best VLF machines on the market today.
Well anyway, the next two targets were nails, then another perfectly vertical copper penny. Had a very good hunt, for an area that basically dried up over a year ago. Wonder what I'll find once I have a little time on this machine? One thing is very obvious, depth is not the problem where I hunt, masking................

Great reports Mark--please keep them coming on the TDI.

The biggest problem I had with nails were the ones that were tilted toward vertical. The head of the nail really wanted to respond.

Good read.

HH
Mike

Excellent! As a considerer of the TDI SL, myself, you certainly have my attention.
Look forward to more reports...and knowledge! Thanks.

Pleasant Garden, NC
AT Max, Nokta Impact, MX Sport, Nokta FORS Relic, GPX 4800, Infinium, Racer, Deus, F75SE, Nautilus DMC II (order of acquisition, last to first)

Does an archeologist argue with a plow? A bureaucrat with a bulldozer?

That's what I have seen with the nails to. If they are vertical they sound good. Thanks for the report on the tdi. I've got an sl borrowed and fixing to take it back. It was definitely An eye opening experience. I've got some 11" coins that my f 75 will not touch no matter how it's set up, the sl with the 7 in coil gets the coins Quiet easily w several different settings. I've never seen my 75 get the depths that some of you report and my ground is pretty mild. Don't understand that but I want a pulse machine and like the sl and it's very reasonably priced. Can Anybody chime in on the Garrett atx and how it compares to the sl? I called a guy who was selling his sl and he sure talked good about the atx.

Great report!

Bey

The future is almost here

LowBoy

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If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
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The nail thing is tough on any of the TDI models. I found it to be the hardest on the SL. To me, it sounded like the threshold recovery was sped up on the SL model. There was a trick I learned with the TDI/TDI Pro in which a nail signal would be shorter and chopped off vs a civil war bullet or coin signal, that was longer and more drawn out. On the SL, this sound is chopped down and the nails almost sound exactly the same as the coins or other non ferrous high conductors.

One trick that did stay consistent with all 3 models, is to use the small center hub of the stock coil. This is not exclusive to the TDI but it works pretty good on it. When you pinpoint a coin or bullet...mark the exact spot on the ground that it is, and when the coil is ran over that spot, the target center should be dead center of the little "hub" in the coil. Now move 90 degrees to the target and then run the coil over it again. If it stays in the same spot with a low tone, it will be a coin or bullet, or something high conductive. If it "moves" then 9 out of 10 times it is a nail. I discovered this one by digging a crap ton of nails when I first got the TDI. I would get good sounding signals and dig at where the target center should be...then when I was having trouble getting the target out of the hole, I found out I could move about 90 degrees to my hole...and then it was like I had mis pinpointed the target center by a couple/few inches, and the nail would be in the sidewall of my hole. Then it clicked on what was happening, after I dug a few bullets that were always under the center hub no matter what angle I came in from the target. So in the field, you would see me get a signal...and then "circle the wagons" around the signal. The whole time, I would be mentally marking where that target center was, and while circling the target, I was checking to see if it "moved" or not. It is quite effective on the TDI. Not fool proof but you'll dig about 3/4 less nails than before.

Otherwise, those first initial trips out with it, had me ready to wrap it around a tree:



VS the good:

Great report Mark and Daniel! I am still learning my TDI and have a long ways to go learning this machine. Probably the toughest machine to grasp what it is telling me that I have tried and yet has the ability to be one of the best all around machines ever designed. Great on low conductors and old silver coins, depending on how you set the machine up. The nails pinpointing off center at different angles I picked up on as well, but bent nails continue to fool me still.
Keep reporting as you learn on the TDI machines as I am sure there are many detectorists other than myself who find this machine both wonderful and frustrating to while learning what it is telling us....Stuart

The nails are all in the nuance of the report..

and its tricky..But doable...and needs headphones tuned to your heairng.. and controlled sweep speed and alot of patience..

Good read Mark..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Great info guys---Daniel that's a heck of a nail trick.