I stepped up to the Fisher F75

Charlie Tuna said:

From what I have read and watched I think my game plan for hopefully next week is as follows, anyone feel free to offer advice or correct me on what would be "simplest" to learn while I play with this and figure out what I need to do. After a reset, and maybe a quick scan or two to see what happens, I believe for simplicity I should run this under the default setting with no notch and zero to little discrimination if I discriminate. Set my tones to 3 so it is similar to what I am working with. And if I run in all metals, run in motion mode with 0 threshold. Keeping the sensitivity at around 60-70 and doing a GB if necessary. Does that sound like the easiest settings to pick up and learn this system. From what I read many of these settings are "recommended." Maybe this is how they factory reset? Thanks.

Charlie

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Set the thresh lower into the negative numbers...maybe -2, to -4.
Much quieter than 0 thresh or positive numbers.
The higher thresh numbers can get you deeper but the noise factor starts to come into play if you are using some higher sense numbers..even factory levels.

0 disc will be noisier than just a simple move to 1.
The quietest settings with EMI around will be with the disc set between 5 and 20...then you can adjust the sense and thresh to make it even quieter.

This thing should still pick up deep targets in decent soil even with the sense down low down to 1-30 sense...in rough soil maybe higher a little.
That is how I know something is really wrong...you said you turned down the sense and couldn't pick up I think it was a nickel past 1-2".
With everything working right even if you set the sense set at 10 or less a nickel can be picked up way past that.

If you set a notch anywhere, even accidentally, just reversing the process might not get rid of that notch even though the slashes on top of the screen say you did.
The only absolute way to clear out notches of any kind in any area is to do a reset.

You have time to learn to push the settings to the higher ranges, take baby steps, not leaps.
Take time to get used to it...once it is running correctly.

The noises were a big set back for me. Stopping and looking at the detector every few inches took a lot of time. I was thinking that negative in the threshold might be best, but wasn't sure. I'm not sure how it will reset yet, but wanted to have a game plan for the simplest place to start. I'll see how she works if I can get out with it. Thanks.

Charlie

Well we did a test. I did the reset. I didn't find anything impressive or deep. But I have only dug 3 caps before today in a period of years. I ended up digging two percusion caps today. Just about the time I thought it would work good I went through that flat hard white adobe basin and the detector went ballistic again with 80-99 readings way deep that thr pin pointer won't read. I never touched the notch. The continuious high squeeks never stopped with the sensitivity set higher then 20 but I couldn't pick up a 223 casing I found on thr surface deeper then 4. I was running in default mode. Tried to Fastgrab over and over again. Doing a couple resets. Even tried a manual ground balance. Automatically it balanced from the 40s-70s. Manually the 30s is where I set it. After walking over a half mile in the flats I gave up and traded detectors again. I noticed it gots patyicularly squeaky in sink holes in the adobe. Only thing I can think is that this is picking up a mineral that I can't figure out how to weed out. The only thing I could think is setting the notch at 80 to maybe cut out these strange tones. It was almost like detecting under a power line. Any thoughts? Thanks

Charlie

Strange behavior indeed. I too have times that it seems like my F75 is just spewing out signals at random, and nothing I do seems to quiet it down, short of changing locations. It's definitely picking up something from somewhere, but I never know what it is. Hope you find a solution for your problem.

Oh, the 80 notch won't work. I'm pretty sure that the top notch you can set on the F75 is 61-65 (upper zinc).

Well, there went my only idea. I didn't mess with the notch. I think that 65 would probably cut out a lot of cool bigger stuff that may be out there (spurs, buckles, maybe a large cartridge casing, etc). It had a factory reset of 1 so I left it alone. Like I said I didn't hit anything really deep with it. But I did dig a lot of small chunks of lead and brass. I think she was working good till I hit that hard flat and it just lit up with deep deep deep high tone signals (mostly, there were a couple low ones too.) Some you can track to a location, many you can't. Only thing I can think of is a mineral I haven't figured out how to weed out.

Charlie

Well you may be right. There may be something in the soil there, that it doesn't like. From what you are saying, sounds like it does good, till you get in that particular area, adobe or whatever you called it.

So, if you go into that area, and the machine goes berserk, can you exit, the way you came in, and make it quiet again ???

Today, I was out hitting a school yard that I frequent on weekends. Out in the playgrounds, the F75 is quiet as a mouse, unless you are over some kind of target, but with the F75, if I get within 50-75 feet of the school building, mine starts going berserk. I turn around, and walk away from the building, and once again, peace and quiet.

Now I know this is something that the F75 is picking up, because I used to hunt this same location with my AT Pro, and I would go right up to the building foundation without problems. Dug many quarters within 6 ft of the building. Only thing I can figure, is that these F75's are just more sensitive to whatever ?

It is definitely weird. I tried it in a different area today. While still adobe, is has sand and other material (similar to the other place where it was calm and peaceful), but was having hell using it due to the amount of small tin in the area. I will say this for the F75, it is super sensitive. Well, I have hunted this place for a few years and turned up 3 percussion caps with a Bounty Hunter Quick Silver, and I found 2 in one day with the F75. Maybe coincidence, but maybe, just maybe this machine is super sensitive (also found small brass pieces and lead pieces with it like crazy). The weird thing is is when it has its "moments" and it decides there is something there, a lot of times the pin pointer will not read anything. And when it does it doesn't read solid like there is an object you are nearing. I know there is a huge amount of fossils and such out there. The creek near by changes colors in different places from the minerals in the soil. Unless there is a giant silver plate 10 feet down, this has to be a mineral that the detector picks up on. I'm not sure . This machine may not be for me as much as I hate to admit it. While I like the small targets I am having hell finding them. I have never even touched a pin pointer and would rather not carry one if I can avoid it, but it almost seems to be a necessity for this machine. There are things I like but I really need to do some more soul searching/research on this machine. I bought it for this area and areas like this. If it won't quit beeping I am moving at a snails pace watching it. I start to tire of doing this after a while so I quit and maybe I am walking over a double eagle. The sensitivity of this thing is mind blowing. But I may be taking a RPG deer hunting.

Charlie

Any thoughts on what the deal may be with the detector? Or suggestions?

Charlie

Charlie Tuna said:

Any thoughts on what the deal may be with the detector? Or suggestions?

Charlie

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It is sensitive, but not so sensitive that other detectors act close to normal and this does not at any site.
Not due to anything in the ground, anyway.
The thing can false when some metal is in the area, not even under the coil either, but there is behavior and indicators that can tell you this and that you shouldn't dig.
Turning it down some should cut out most of that and still pick up targets fairly deep easily, fossils are rocks and not usually hot rocks so I doubt that is your problem.
EMI can cause craziness, but turn the thresh into negative numbers and sense down...even to 30 or under and that should quiet it down...and still get way deeper than an inch or two.

I hunted an area in a park near the edge with the most intense, constant, throbbing and pulsing EMI nutzy behavior I ever came across at any site before or since and still was able to get mine completely silent with really low settings and still find old dimes in a sea of trash with the big DD coil.

Gotta ask this...after doing a factory reset do your settings change to sense 60,then disc. 15 notch 1, proccess DE to confirm factory reset has actually happened?
If not this thing is not being reset.

Having a BH and another brand act way better in any site and not being able to set this thing to compensate and act just as calm does not make sense.
It just doesn't.
That is part of what all those upgraded features are there for, not just to go deep and ID well at depth but to help conqueror problems...any problems.

If you buy a Corvette that can go fast but can't get the thing to run under 80 mph so you can drive down your neighborhood streets and get to the store all that power would be useless, and so would the entire vehicle unless racing is all you plan to use it for.

It is possible it is acting perfectly normal but you just don't have the skills to see it or set it or understand it yet...or that might not ever happen.
It could be too much for you, too noisy and jumpy for you but that also sounds odd to me that turning it way down can't get it to work much better, quieter, normal like other brands and models...but that is also way out of the ordinary if this is what is happening.
If you can figure out how to turn it on you should be able to use what we have told you so far to get it to work much more normally.
Anybody should be able to set this to work correctly in any site with just a little bit of common sense and knowledge...anybody.

If you have successfully got it to reset and you tried two coils with the same bad behavior and can't get it to calm down with low settings or can't pick up targets more than an inch or two away on any settings the only logical thing to go to is consider the electronics have a problem that you can't fix.
Circuit boards do go bad, it is rare but it happens.
I assume this was bought used so the next thing is to call Fisher, talk to Felix or hopefully someone else that has some common sense and is technically proficient and tell them what is going on.
Ask for Felix...not everyone that answers the phone there knows what they are talking about every time sorry to say.
That is free and they might recognize and have an answer for this crazy behavior that you are seeing that others never had experience with in the slightest.
Without one of us being there and actually putting our hands on it to put it through its paces, make sure that the reset and settings are actually doing what they are supposed to do and see exactly how it is behaving at this specific site and can make a judgement using our experience that it us acting normally or way out if whack I don't think any of us can help much more than we have tried to do already.
I wish you knew what we know, that would make things much simpler and easier to determine if yours is good but set wrong or it is actually sick and needs help.

Time to get the professionals involved.

DIGGER27 said:

Gotta ask this...after doing a factory reset do your settings change to sense 60,then disc. 15 notch 1, proccess DE to confirm factory reset has actually happened?
If not this thing is not being reset.

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Hey DIGGER27,
Not sure what model F75 Charlie has, but I believe there are several different sets of "Reset or Default" numbers. I have two different "downloaded" F75 manuals, and a hard copy edition that came with my unit, and they all show different default settings.

Manual #1
Sensitivity 60
Disc Level 10
Notch 1
# of Tones 3
Process # dE

Manual #2
Sensitivity 60
Disc Level 15
Notch 1
# of Tones 3
Process # dE

My Manual (hard copy)
Sensitivity 80
Disc Level 0
Notch 1
# of Tones 2F
Process # dE

This last set of numbers, from "my manual", coincides with the actual reset numbers on my machine. My F75 is one of the new "special edition" machines that was put out as a Fisher 85th anniversary edition, and included the following new features:
> Ability to activate and deactivate DST Mode (Digital Shielding Technology) for the ultimate in EMI Suppression
> FA (Fast Process) – Improved Target Separation
> Three new levels of FeTone®: Iron Audio Off, Low or Medium (complements existing “High” setting)
> Adjustable Audio Pitch now in the Discrimination Mode
> Embedded Serial Number – Serialization now stored electronically

So, I guess we need to get Charlie to reset his unit, then write down the default settings and share them here, so you can figure out which machine he is dealing with, or at least what the default settings are supposed to be (?).

Reef Runner said:

Hey DIGGER27,
Not sure what model F75 Charlie has, but I believe there are several different sets of "Reset or Default" numbers. I have two different "downloaded" F75 manuals, and a hard copy edition that came with my unit, and they all show different default settings.

Manual #1
Sensitivity 60
Disc Level 10
Notch 1
# of Tones 3
Process # dE

Manual #2
Sensitivity 60
Disc Level 15
Notch 1
# of Tones 3
Process # dE

My Manual (hard copy)
Sensitivity 80
Disc Level 0
Notch 1
# of Tones 2F
Process # dE

This last set of numbers, from "my manual", coincides with the actual reset numbers on my machine. My F75 is one of the new "special edition" machines that was put out as a Fisher 85th anniversary edition, and included the following new features:
> Ability to activate and deactivate DST Mode (Digital Shielding Technology) for the ultimate in EMI Suppression
> FA (Fast Process) – Improved Target Separation
> Three new levels of FeTone®: Iron Audio Off, Low or Medium (complements existing “High” setting)
> Adjustable Audio Pitch now in the Discrimination Mode
> Embedded Serial Number – Serialization now stored electronically

So, I guess we need to get Charlie to reset his unit, then write down the default settings and share them here, so you can figure out which machine he is dealing with, or at least what the default settings are supposed to be (?).

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I believe his is not a DST unit so from what I have read from other F75 owners these factory settings are the same as my F70 on most of the older models...or should be close.

The key is after he does a reset did the settings change or did they stay the same as before this procedure?

DIGGER27 said:

I believe his is not a DST unit so from what I have read from other F75 owners these factory settings are the same as my F70 on most of the older models...or should be close.

The key is after he does a reset did the settings change or did they stay the same as before this procedure?

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Yep, yep! I believe from some of his earlier post, the numbers did indeed change. Not sure what they changed from, or what they changed to, but that would surely be interesting to know.

The reset took it to the first specs mentioned. 60, 15, 1, DE, etc. I left it on DE and never played with notch. I lowered the discrimination is about 5-10 or if I was in an area I knew was hit and miss finding stuff I set it at 1. The sensitivity seemed to run pretty good at 60ish. I was in some hills with powdered adobe and sand and it was running like a detector should (with the exception of one hill giving off those weird signals.) I went out through the flats, as I approached them it started mildly acting erratic and when I got in them it was all over the board. It would still find metal. Just would not stop peeping. I did a couple resets, did a couple GBs, and tried to take the sensitivity lower. At about 20 it stopped being as erratic, but I had a depth off a object (coin or shell casing, can't remember) comparable to me BH if not less. It was not fond of the area for some reason. Not sure why. Other areas it worked like a champ, the percussion caps are proof. I haven't called Fisher yet. I wanted some advice so I kind of have a clue. I've ruled out the detector, to an extent. The things I can give details on besides fossils, minerals, etc in the adobe was the surface is baked extremely hard, there was mud a couple inches down held in the soil, the FastGrab shows anywhere from the 50s to the 80s, the one time I tried a manual GB it seemed to like 35ish though, but it shut up for 2 seconds and went back to weirding out. Everytime I went to GB whether auto or manual it would stop for a couple swings and start back with a couple beeps and go right back to its shenanigans. It is thick grease wood. I'll agree that I wish I was better with a machine and better at trouble shooting. I've got a good idea on my BH, but with this I'm lost. Not sure exactly what to do now. Thanks for the help guys, I really do appreciate it.

Charlie

A thought, how small of gold with this pick up? Reading really high I am thinking it isn't small gold, but I know we have a very large deposit around here of leaf gold. But it blows around and is in super small pieces. They haven't figured out how to effectively harvest most of it. I know guys who get a couple nuggets but most won't pan out like gold. Just a stupid thought, maybe this machine is so sensitive it is reading this? All I know is while some signals fade out, others you can say for certainty is is under the coil as it stays constant in an area. They read mostly extremely high 85-99 and all read very very deep. Some won't even register of the depth meter. When you go to use the pin pointer most won't even bounce back and read like there is any metal there.

Charlie

Charlie, when you mention "percussion caps", are you referring to "empty shell casings / brass" ? Just curious about what you are finding, out there in the West..

I am referring to the standard Army musket caps. The bonnet style. Depending on where you go out here you can find stuff from the same eras as back east. It just takes more patience and homework.

Charlie Tuna said:

I am referring to the standard Army musket caps. The bonnet style. Depending on where you go out here you can find stuff from the same eras as back east. It just takes more patience and homework.

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Still not sure. Got any pics ?