funny noises

My CZ-3D sounded funny today. When I put it in autotone to ground balance it wasn't making the constant, smooth hum. It was more like skipping ... like a
d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d ... like a pulsation, but there were no power lines around me. I turned off my machine and tried it again, but it did the same thing.

and it didn't perform right. I did good with it today, but it didn't perform right. A clad penny bouced to a tab and a nickel came in as a tab. Very strange. In fact, I found a ring, and that came in a solid tab.

Any ideas? I hate the thought of sending it back again.

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Hi Snowy,

Your ring is probably reading correctly. Larger rings usually register as "tab". As far as the clad penny..... if it's a copper penny .... mid-year 1982 or older..... it should register as a 'high-coin' with high-tone. If it is a Zinc penny ..... mid-year 1982 and newer...... they can easily register as a tab when they have some corrosion.
Now.... your unstable detector that is pulsating in all-metal/auto-tune mode; Try this exact same test,,,but at a different location. Say; at home in the yard.... or about 1/2 mile from where the problem is occurring. If the problem repeats with consistency at different locations.... the unit is defective. If the problem goes away, you were most probably encountering electrical interference.

GLAD you did much better today!

Tom

Thanks, Tom. I'll be checking it out Saturday afternoon after work. I leave here when the sun comes up and get home at about 9, but Saturday is my early day. I planned a group outing for my forum, to be held on Sunday, and I want to be sure things are working properly, otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do.

I'll test it in the yard Saturday evening before I hit that park again before sundown and I'll report back then.

Thanks!

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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

Well, Tom ....

I don't know what to say. I tried the detector just to test the sound tonight in my yard. I set it to ground balance - disc on autotone, ground balance at 10, sesnititvity on 10. Turned it on, volume at 10. It kinda sounded the same. I wish I could describe it. It could be compared to a wasp maybe? Only not quite so smooth. I get the ground to 5 but it's kinda hard to tell where to set it because it's not smooth ... like when you hold down a key on an organ. I turn the sensitivity down until I can just barely not hear the tone. Set the disc and I got lots of falsing.

I didn't have a lot of time to play so that's all I got to do. I had to make up finger rolls, pack the cooler, etc, for my forum hunt tomorrow. I'll be in a high trash area tomorrow so I'll have to run the sensitivity down at 3. I'll play with it at the hunt and see how it performs.

My detector hasn't been choppy like that, but it has always been difficult to get above 3 or 4 with the sensitivity. If you think it needs to be sent back, will First Texas still honor my Lifetime Warranty from Fisher? I sent it back once. I hate the thought of sending it back again. I'll have to suffer through until the end of November before sending it back because it's my only detector and I've got too much ground to cover at that foundation on top of that mountain. I can't pass up any time.

I'm not sure how First Texas is handling the Fisher warranties. After all, it's one of the main reasons I bought the 3D. Besides the fact I thought it was the perfect detector for me.

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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

OK ... This is very strange, but today at the group hunt one of my members brought along a "portable garden" ... this was so cool... I'll post a pic what it looks like. It's like a long piece of packing tape with items placed on the sticky side 18 inches apart ... a walking liberty, rosie, buffalo, tabs, foil, etc ... then another piece of packing take placed over the other strip so both sticky sides adhere to each other.

Tom, I tried my test with this strip and I got an extremely high sensitivity level without falsing. While I was trying it a vehicle drove by me in the parking lot and my detector started sounding like it did when it sounded wrong ... the strangest part is that out in the field that day there is no electricity in the vacinity ... the nearest line is a good 100 feet away. Anyway ... back to the portable garden test .... I ran the coil over every target in salt and enhanced. The buffalo, in good shape, rang in as tab in both modes, and it did one bounce in the enhanced mode. This didn't seem right to me. Any thoughts?

Then, when we got to the site I expected something different because it was a high trash area, but here's what happened ... I ground balanced and got my sensitivity to 6 or 7. Again, as far as falsing was concerned, there really wasn't any. I should have turned it down to about 5, but I was experimenting.

I've gotta say that NOW I'm impressed. I've learned more about my machine in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 3 years. I'm glad I scaled back to 50 hours of work. Maybe I won't take that promotion.

Here's a glimps of the "portable garden."




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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.

You are still not in-the-clear yet...... and I'm not sure how First Texas is handling Lifetime Warranties. I still believe they honor the warranty.... but I have received a few PM's from folks of whom were charged a fee for repair of lifetime equipment. I have attempted to 'buffer' FTP on these issues.... but maybe I should forward all of them to FTP/FRL.

Keep that learning curve going on the 3D. --- Now... a question about the Buffalo nickel. was it a dirt-corroded nickel or was it's color a new looking non-dirt exposed nickel. IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE! CZ-3D is for real-world dirt conditions!

Tom

Ahh .... The Buffalo was shiny, but not new. Worn. Looked possiblhy found and cleaned, or possibly part of someone's collection but not put away and handled a lot.

The Buffalo coming in as tab really threw me because every nickel, even the buffalos I've found, rang in as high coin in the enhanced mode.

In my earlier post I mentioned a clad penny and nickel runging in as tab or coin/tab bounce. I wanted to clarify your comment on that situation. The penny was quite coated with corrossion but not green. The nickel was also in the same type of soil. I think what's happened here is someone is dumping their ashed from a woodstove or fireplace down at the edge of that field where I found the nickel and penny. It would appear this has been donw for years and it's leached into the ground along the fence on that side. Perhaps these coins came from his ashes.

Please keep me posted on the warranty. I've heard the detectors sold under Fisher would be grandfathered, but if that's not true I'd like to know what I'm facing.

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Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.