Omega question(s)

I'm trying to learn more about the Omega.---Keith mentioned on the (newer) Omegas, there has been an EMI shield sprayed & attached to the ground circuit inside of the housing & the older Omegas didn't have this.-----Has there been any other improvements/upgrades on the Omegas since they first came out?------Also, the red lettered Omegas being the latest ones out---what is the version # on them?-----As always, appreciate any & all input to these questions.----------Thanks, Del

Funny the Omega is coming up here lately in the discussion's...Thats one I have been wanting to spend some time talking about...

I actually picked up a 5x10 DD last nite off one of the forum's I hope to use on the omega and the G2...

Yes Del the red ones seem to be the latest one's...But I remember back in 09 there was some red ones too...I had one of the first ones and it was red too...then they went black ,now they're back red..I do like the red outlines it shows up a bit better when looking at all the black info..Sort of breaks it up..but just preferance...

Now I do Know for a fact the first omega's were not shielded inside...The One I have now and it's about 3-4 months old is shielded...It consist of a braided ground off the negative battery wire at the board ...it goes to the back of the case and it's debraided..(fanned out if you will) then it is attached to the housing dead center by means of electrical E.M.I. reducing spray..Sort of like rubbery black paint but it has metallic particles in it ....and also theres another jump from the braid to the coil connector on the housing...

The Omega I have Now is completely different form the first Omega I had in late 09....it was a true Chatterbox...This one is hot as a fire cracker...Depth has to be seen to be believed ...Why is it hot...? It's no hotter than the first it's just less susspect to E.M.I. so gain can be pushed higher allowing for more true target signal to be heard instead of chatter and signal...

Thats what I was getting at in an earlier Post...The way Dave J. designs the tek's with hyper gain once most of the e.m.i. is out of it they really can strut their stuff...

I am amazed at some fo the deeep iron grunt's I hear with the Omega that the G2 does not hear..

Another nice thing is when running in the max gain is the volume really does have alot of gusto...

A Omega and a G2 compliment each other extremely well...

Keith

Keith------That being the case that there was red lettered ones earlier on that didn't have the shielding in the control box that you are referring to--then black lettered ones--and now back to red (the latest out) and the ones that has that shielding.---And due to the fact that the Omegas don't have S/N's--(other than opening the control box to see)--how does a person tell which one they have (red lettered shielded or un-shielded)?-----I mean, isn't there a chance that a person could get an (earlier) red lettered Omega that didn't have that shielding--say,an early (red lettered) one that was left on a dealers shelf--and didn't have that shielding?------Can you by any chance tell by a version # that comes up on the screen? (like comes up on the G2 & GB------What version # is your hot new Omega Keith?------BTW, if you have any other info on the Omega that you would care to state on this post/thread----"fire away"!----------------Thanks, Del

Wow. I would love to have my Omega(black bars) run quieter around EMI. Wonder if FTP could upgrade it if I send it in to them. The Omega is a flat out fun machine to use, but EMI causes me to leave it at home too much.

When did you get your Omega, Beastdig?

HH
Mike

I purchased mine on October 19, 2010.

We need to find out when (what date) that FT started installing this shielding in the control box that Keith is talking about.

Interesting post guys, I have suffered with this problem on my F5 and have wondered why the control box has no shielding. Doesn't make sense to me to have the coil cable shielded(which is grounded at the box) and then the circuit board gets no shielding. I wonder if this fix going to carry over to the new F5's and other Fisher/Tech machines that suffer from EMI interference?

I wonder why shielding wasn't in place to start with when these machines started to be produced. Even Fisher's cz's had shielding, although not the spray on type.

Personally had an early Omega and indeed a chatterbox and construction was just Radio Shack type..

Several months ago purchased a f5 new and much improved and like the build also.

As far as shielding don't know but imagine if they upgraded one they upgraded both...anyone ever thought of serial numbers to tell an old one from a new one...

I wonder if any one of us has ever tried to modify one of Fisher's newer digital detectors to improve EMI susceptibility. Critter has posted good work showing how to take mass out of the Sovereign and it seems that there may be some potential (through trial and error) on the F7x platform. Maybe conductive spray on the inside of the housing? Maybe a foil ball wrapped tight around the coil connector? Maybe...

I got my Omega in July of 2010 and it has the red lettering. There are some spots like close to big power lines and school buildings that it does chatter. Going to the 3rd frequency, though, at least slows the chatter down enough to still run sen. in the 70's and even 80's. Where max sen. really counts, though, like woods hunting, old lots and house yards, fields and the like, I am pretty much always able to run 99 sen.. Keith, I will be very interested in hearing what you have to say about the 10" dd coil. HH jim tn

I had one of the early Omega's. I was able to get better depth with the 10" coil. The 11" just had too much chatter and I had to lower the sens. But with the 10", I could run the unit at a higher sens, which gave me more depth. I really liked the unit, very light and well balanced, Very simple to use as well. I also liked that it had the 1/4" and 1/8" phone plugs. this was a great add on. Because I wear reading glasses, I also liked the large
display. the Omega is not the deepest unit but it was very good at pulling targets out of trashy ground with the DD coil.

Tom in SC

Maybe someone can take a pic of the braided shield and how it looks on the inside.
This might turn out to be a DIY and help to those with stability problems.

Everytime I considered getting an Omega, I was turned off by phrase 'lay it on the ground it becomes unstable'.

So this is good news to me as I was reconsider.

The first omega did not have any spray shield....

The second Omega got some spray shield and also a yellow wire going from a spot on the board where a capacitor solder pad was left open..the wire goes to an pin on the coil connector....The first Omegas the yellow wire going to the coil connector pin come from a different spot on the circuit board..They moved it to this new spot on the newer model's..

The One I have now has this, plus an added red wire jumping from that pin that the yellow wire goes to...That added extra red wire is unbraided at the end and encased in the EMI reducing spray...

All 3 machine's have the same board...same revision number...Looks like the boards have never changed from the first run till now...

On My Omega...When you turn it on and hold pinpoint down a 03 comes up for a moment before switching into a pinpoint mode...

This is all I have...




Keith



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 08:06PM by Keith Southern.

Keith-----Thanks for going to the trouble of posting those pictures & the info you gave.-----That's going to help a lot of us that are interested in the Omega.----Now I got something in this regard to go on when my new Omega gets here Wednesday.---------Del

What do you guys mean by red lettering? Do you men the lettering on the detector itself or on the screen readout? Thanks. I had one of the first runs and didn't think to much of it. I sold it and bought another CZ.

The faceplate when the machine is off....some off them show red lines and letter's...some show black lines and letter's..



The one on the left is black...the one on the right is Red...


I will say this ...The omega with the stock coil does not have very much depth...It will not hit a 7 inch dime in my dirt with a stock coil....but the DD Bi-Axial changes the whole machine...

I am hoping when my 5x10 DD arrives it retains depth close to the 11 Bi-Axial and separates like the 5 inch DD..
But we will see...

One of the deepest pieces of brass I ever dug was with the Omega and Bi-Axial....it was a brass confederate sword scabbard ring...it was extremely deep..

Keith



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 11:11PM by Keith Southern.

I think that was one of the problems as I didn't keep it long enough for the 11'' DD to come out. To be honest I was kinda pissed because they offered the extra coil free as a summer special when it came out and us guys who bought the Omega before had to pay extra a month later for the new coil. I guess timing is everything.

I had the Omega and its was chattering everywhere I hunted except in the middle of a field. BackTo FTP and they stated it was functioning properly. If they are out with one that has fixed the EMI I will want to get another. Many great things about that model that I liked.

What was causing that crazy siren sound on some of those earlier Omegas when you went to ground grab GB?------Several guys was complaining about that to & that seemed to be on the earlier Omegas.----I had one & it did that but would (most of the time) come out of it when I kept pumping the coil.----I could gb with my other detectors in the exact same spot with no problem.-------From what I can tell, FTP must have "cured" that problem (siren sound doing the ground grab)--the last Omega I had--there was no problem (in that regard) at all.------Get this EMI thing figured out/whipped, I think we got one great little machine in that detector.-----Maybe all these newer out Omegas are better/acceptable with EMI---boy I sure hope so!

Just checkin here......are you sure that the siren sound during GB'ing happened on the Omega and not the Gamma? I know some of the early Gammas did that (as mine did also) but the Omegas came out later and I'd not heard of any of them doing that.

MY Omega did the siren-sounding Ground grab. I thought that it was because I was not Ground Grabbing correctly by notputting the machine in all metal and THEN Ground Grabbing but it would sometimes do it then too. It would also start going crazy for no reason. The VDI numbers and the griound balance numbers would just take on a life of their own and start flashing everywhere. This si IN my test garden where mnay other detectors would run quietly except when over a target. I sent mine back to FTP and they "fixed it" (the work order sheet said: "replaced headphone jack" and it STILL did it when they sent it back. Felix said to send it back again. They fixed it corrctly this time. But even after that, it still ran noisy with the stock concentric coil. But I sold it to DanielTN who put an 11 inch DD coil on it and he said that it transformed it. And that depth was much increased.
This is a good affordable detector. One online detector store, maybe more a I haven't checked) offers the Omega now with the 11 inch DD coil instead of that Concntric. I have been tempted. I wonder if the F5 has had all of these problems? And if it wouldn't be a better buy?

Thanks for the info, Kevin......I'd just not heard of that previously. So when they did get your O8k fixed, did they write what specifically they'd done that time such as maybe a new software version? I gotta admit, I saw early on that the 11" DD outperformed the stock 10" considerably, at least given the units I have or had so besides the 5"DD, I run the 11" on there much more often than not. I too was glad to hear when they introduced the various coil packaging options.

A little while back, Teknetics was looking for an early model (read 2009) Omega. I don't know if they found one, but if any of you guys have one purchased in 2009 give me a shout and I'll find out if they are still looking, and if so, put you in contact with the person doing the asking. I had checked with some people that I knew had bought early ones but they (like me) had sold them long ago and my Findmall post on the Omega forum turned up nothing.

HH
Mike

I get the overload sound sometimes when I try to ground grab as well. I thought that was the detector telling me I have a good ground balance already.

I took my Omega out on a woods hunt yesterday with a friend knowing it would be the perfect machine to swing in the heavy brush and try to pop out an old coin or relic. Not to my surprise I had to run it with either greatly reduced sensitivity or run the disc up into the low 60's to calm the chatter to a usable level while still hearing a consistent EMI ticking. Eventually I got annoyed with it and switched over to my Whites V3i. I could run my Whites with no issues in 3 frequency mode, and both of my friends detectors ran smoothly as well.

My Omega was my second detector purchase after my Fisher F2. I knew the upgrade would come with the knew responsibility of handling EMI and
ground conditions to get the most out my machine and wouldnt be the turn on and go F2 beginner style. I thought all the noise I was hearing with the Omega was just part of stepping up my game to run a better machine. After getting bite by the detector bug pretty hard last year I own several machines now and none of them have as bad of EMI problems. In fact, if I purchased my same Omega today I would have returned it.

Im glad that new Omega buyers are getting better EMI shielded machines for their money. Wish I did.

Sorry if this is one of those things everyone knows except me, but how do you determine that an O8 is early 09 made?

Past(or)Tom
Using a Legend, a Deus 2, an Equinox 800, a Tarsacci MDT 8000, & a few others...
with my beloved, fading Corgi, Sadie

BuckeyeBrad Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just checkin here......are you sure that the siren
> sound during GB'ing happened on the Omega and not
> the Gamma? I know some of the early Gammas did
> that (as mine did also) but the Omegas came out
> later and I'd not heard of any of them doing that.


Hi Brad----Yeah, that "siren sounding" was with an earlier Omega I had.--I got a large back yard & test garden in part of it.---Also have an area there that I have made especially sure is clear & clean of any iron etc. in the ground.---I couldn't balance the Omega in these areas (or most areas for that matter)--including in-field hunting areas--without that siren sounding bit.----Like I said, it would (usually) come out of it when I kept pumping the coil.----There was some discussion about this earlier on.---If I remember right, Monte said he had an Omega that did that also & his would usually come out of it when he kept pumping the coil to.------All this was with the earlier out Omegas & even then, it might have been a not too common thing---but some of 'em SURE did it.

I got mine in Feb or March of '09 and still have it.

Every Omega I have ever had (3) does the overload on ground bal...not all the time but sometime's..Never have determined what it is...

Not sure anyone could answer why it does it,,

One strong point about the omegas is they like deep large target's that the high freq machine's struggle with...Just today I took the Omega out and dug a couple pieces of large brass at the 14-15 inch range....one was the top of a lantern the other was an old school bell.....The G2 and other HF rig's struggles with these types target's...

I did also manage a deep dime...probably at the 9 inch mark. thats sounded great..read 83...

Last week I dug a couple 3 ringers at the 9 inch mark also...And half an parrot artillery shell pretty deep....

And that brings up another thing...In a house site area with lot's of iron I do dig alot of deep nails with the omega...they sound good usually from all angles except one...but in constant iron that does not help...So I do chase more deep nails with the omega compared to other modern machine's..

Is this a fault or attribute?I use High freq machine's so often that unless the nails are right on the surface I really dont hardly hear the deep nails...The Omega has no problem with the surface nails but the deep nails It is able to report well when comparing it to say the g2...the omega will give a good soft deep grount that the g2 will not even grunt on....

I notice the Omega does not like fresh burried item's .Like coins at depth...

I do think the Omega when ran wide open is a very powerful metal detector...more powerful depth wise than the G2 cousin...

I worry sometimes about the hit's that disappear totally or are only one way...seems to be iron mostly but nickle range items at depth can do this too if the dirt is bad..it will be there then it's not...I have had a concern about this since it was introduced...The DD Bi-Axial help's alot on the nickle range items though...

I can take iron on the test bench right now and go one tone zero disc and it wont hear it...But put it in all metal and it hears it and I.D's it.usually 39.

Tell me thats not weird....

I think it's tied into the ground Bal someway...

I can run the ground bal. anywhere I want in disc mode in my dirt with no falsing...not sure the disc mode ground balances all the way no matter the setting...I think it may stay in a window range no matter where it's at while in disc mode...

Keith