I stepped up to the Fisher F75

Sounds like you are getting the hang of it,keep practicing.

Charlie Tuna said:

Ok, so I finally bit the bullet and bought a used F75. Came with a small coil and the regular one. I been playing today with the regular coil and had a few questions. With the pin pointer feature, it measures inches, but from what part of the coil? I'm thinking maybe from where the coil attaches to the shaft? To do an auto ground balance you press and hold the trigger forward while you raise and lower the detector correct? Does the level of sensitivity effect the depth an item can be detected? What are the benefits of using the 6.5 inch coil vs the 11 inch? Is there a difference in depth between the two coils? I just screwed around in the sand and wood chips at parks and came up with $2.72. All in all I'm a little disappointed I didn't get this machine figured better then I did today. But in the sand in volleyball pits I was digging pennies at 5 inches with ease. The deepest I shot today was 10-12 inches on a bottle cap in the sand on a volleyball pit. Just to see what she is capable of. Any help is appreciated. I think if I can ever figure this detect out I'll be very happy with it.

Charlie

Click to expand...

I'm a newbie to the F75 also (just got one), but I have a detecting buddy that is an old hand with it. I had the same pin-pointing question. As I understand, the point on the 11" DD coil, is the dot (little smaller than a dime), right in the center of the coil, just up in front of where the stem attaches.

I believe that most coils are supposed to pinpoint in the center. I got a 5" DD (round) coil, and that seems to pretty much be in the center, but it's such a small coil, not hard to find the target.

Still, many people simply pin point off the toe of the coil. Once I locate a likely target, I like to back off a bit, then approach the assumed location, swinging the coil right and left. When you just begin to detect the tone, the toe is now crossing the target, somewhere at the front of the swing path. Now visualize that line, where the "toe" of the coil was swinging on, or mark it on the ground, with your toe. Then move around 90 degrees, and approach the target along the line you just marked, from either end. When you you first begin to detect the tone again, you will have located the target exactly, where the two swing paths have intersected. After a bit of practice, you won't have to mark the first line. You will be able to visualize it and then come back from the side to find the exact intersection (spot). It's easier to practice this with a small coil, till you get the hang of it.

You may want to set up a target in the grass at home, and practice this. Then once you start finding the intersecting spot, then swing your coil over that spot, using the F75 pinpoint feature, and you should see the shallowest depth, when your get the center of the coil, right over the spot, where the lines intersected.

As I understand, you are correct on the auto Ground Balance feature.

As for the small coil vs the large coil, you'll find the small coil good for picking out targets in areas with lots of undesirable trash around. It's simply that it is checking a smaller area than the large coil, so you don't get as many readings, crowded together.

Also, as I understand the depth situation on the two coils, I believe that the depth a coil can read is somewhat related to its diameter, or maybe toe to heel, hence, I don't think your small coil will read as deep as your large coil.

I'm sure others with chime in here. Hope this helps you a bit....

Charlie Tuna said:

Ok, so I finally bit the bullet and bought a used F75. Came with a small coil and the regular one. I been playing today with the regular coil and had a few questions. With the pin pointer feature, it measures inches, but from what part of the coil? I'm thinking maybe from where the coil attaches to the shaft? To do an auto ground balance you press and hold the trigger forward while you raise and lower the detector correct? Does the level of sensitivity effect the depth an item can be detected? What are the benefits of using the 6.5 inch coil vs the 11 inch? Is there a difference in depth between the two coils? I just screwed around in the sand and wood chips at parks and came up with $2.72. All in all I'm a little disappointed I didn't get this machine figured better then I did today. But in the sand in volleyball pits I was digging pennies at 5 inches with ease. The deepest I shot today was 10-12 inches on a bottle cap in the sand on a volleyball pit. Just to see what she is capable of. Any help is appreciated. I think if I can ever figure this detect out I'll be very happy with it.

Charlie

Click to expand...

This thing is one of the most powerful and deepest detectors on the planet...it takes time to learn to harness all that power but it can be done.
Technically the sense can make it deeper, but so can the thresh settings and there is a relationship between these two.
Thresh low and sense high can get you deep but so can thresh high and sense low.
Both sense and thresh high can get noisy but learn to deal with that sometime and take some classes in learning the Chinese language because you will need it.
Not necessary to do that either if you don't want to, the sense setting is way more powerful than you might believe and does not work like the volume knob on a stereo...at all.
50 on the sense is not 50% power, 33 is not 1/3 power and 10 is not 10% power...all are way higher than what they seem.

The thresh is almost like another gain setting on this thing, get the thresh and sense balanced just right for you and your noise threshold whether that would be noisy or quiet and you will be amazed.


Set the sense to 1 and the thresh to 4-5 or higher and look for some deeper targets to prove this.
Forget boost, use DE for now as you learn because it will be quieter.
I dug targets at 12-15" in good soil using the big DD coil and DE.

There is a little circle imprinted on the top of the 11"DD coil just past the rod connection that is actually the middle of the scanning field when using the pinpoint feature.
I use the wiggle and pull back method with that coil which is pretty much just as accurate.

The smaller coil is probable a little less deep than the big one but not much.
I use the small round sniper DD and that thing is very close to the depth of the big DD.

DIGGER27 said:

This thing is one of the most powerful and deepest detectors on the planet...it takes time to learn to harness all that power but it can be done.
Technically the sense can make it deeper, but so can the thresh settings and there is a relationship between these two.
Thresh low and sense high can get you deep but so can thresh high and sense low.
Both sense and thresh high can get noisy but learn to deal with that sometime and take some classes in learning the Chinese language because you will need it.
Not necessary to do that either if you don't want to, the sense setting is way more powerful than you might believe and does not work like the volume knob on a stereo...at all.
50 on the sense is not 50% power, 33 is not 1/3 power and 10 is not 10% power...all are way higher than what they seem.

The thresh is almost like another gain setting on this thing, get the thresh and sense balanced just right for you and your noise threshold whether that would be noisy or quiet and you will be amazed.


Set the sense to 1 and the thresh to 4-5 or higher and look for some deeper targets to prove this.
Forget boost, use DE for now as you learn because it will be quieter.
I dug targets at 12-15" in good soil using the big DD coil and DE.

There is a little circle imprinted on the top of the 11"DD coil just past the rod connection that is actually the middle of the scanning field when using the pinpoint feature.
I use the wiggle and pull back method with that coil which is pretty much just as accurate.

The smaller coil is probable a little less deep than the big one but not much.
I use the small round sniper DD and that thing is very close to the depth of the big DD.

Click to expand...

I wish I understood how the sensitivity and threshold worked together. That, I truly do not understand.

When you mention using the 11" DD COIL and DE, are you referring to the default process # dE ? Just curious, I'm new to the F75 also.

Currently, I'm only using the Discrim side of the menu. I am running in Discrim Mode, Sensitivity 70, Discrim 15, nothing notched, #Tones 3, Process #PF. I don't really understand the options over on the All Metal side.

Reef Runner said:

I wish I understood how the sensitivity and threshold worked together. That, I truly do not understand.

When you mention using the 11" DD COIL and DE, are you referring to the default program# setting, dE ? Just curious, I'm new to the F75 also.

Currently, I'm only using the Discrim side of the menu. I am running in Discrim Mode, Sensitivity 70, Discrim 15, nothing notched, #Tones 3, Process #PF. I don't really understand the options over on the All Metal side.

Click to expand...

Understanding the thresh and sense relationship can sometimes be as difficult as understanding women and how they think.

Ok, maybe not that difficult because that is impossible, figuring out this thing is actually way easier.

DE is default setting, a speed setting and is probably the best choice to learn this thing with.
It is blazing fast as most Fishers are in the rapid recovery area, if you have FA process which the upgraded ones do that is even faster by about 1/3.
Learning this thing DE will do everything you need it to, there is plenty of time to try FA in the future if you have it.

PF setting is supposedly for plowed fields, just another combination of different settings and programming from the factory but i am not exactly sure what it does.

Boost is another setting you might have.
Some of the original ones didn't but most of the newer versions that came out over the last few years did have this.
This is nice to have in some situations but even if you don't I wouldn't worry...DE is still deeper than you might believe.
I dug targets from 12-15" in good soil using the 11" DD coil and got targets on many more I never went after at those levels because I was in public parks...using DE.

If you have boost it was originally designed to hover inches over the soil like over corn stalks and other vegetation and still get deep.
Putting it on the ground it can be used to maybe get a bit deeper than DE but it is usually noisier because it is affected more by EMI.
It also needs a slow coil sweep because it is a slower process than DE.
It takes samples or snapshots of the deeper regions and is not as continuous as DE is so if you go too fast it negates its deeper abilities.

The thresh has been described as an halfway open door at 0....open it up to the more positive numbers and you can see more things in the next room both smaller and deeper.
Close it down by moving the numbers higher into the negative and you can see less and less targets on the other side of that door....the targets you can pick up start getting cut out as you go higher negative, the smaller ones and the depth you can pick them up at.
The object is to find the right balance for every site to get the deepest, see the most and for most stay the quietest.
Different combinations of these two setting will definitely affect the noise level you hunt at, plus different conditions at sites might entail changing settings.
What works quietly at one might be noisy at others.
If I use multi tones I hate turning the thresh higher than -1 because it causes those tones to sound weird to me.
In the lower 1,1F, 2F and I assume 1N if you have that it doesn't affect the sound if the tone much at all.

There might be two completely ways to set yours that might accomplish the same things.
Thresh at 5 and sense at 40 might get you just as deep and see everything that thresh at -3 and sense at 85 would...maybe.
I have tried all kinds of combinations and almost everything works but I love to tweak and find the most optimal settings if I can.
If I find more than one way to do the same thing even better because they all get filed away for the future because you never know what will work the best at New sites or at sites where EMI problems come and go.

Basically think of the thresh as another gain or sense setting.
There is a vid out there with a member here using a similar F70, the 11" DD coil hitting an 8" nickel in his garden with thresh in the + 5-9 level with the sense set at...1.

In all metal you can adjust the sense and the thresh in that mode too.
Disc gets deep but all metal might get even deeper, bump up those two settings in that mode and it can get noisy but this thing should still stop all the noise and jumping and tell you it found something deep down there in some way.
Also if hunting like this in all metal bring a shovel if you hunt in good dirt especially.

I hunt in both disc and all metal, I tweak all the time and got used to lots of noise, settings with no noise, listening to the threshold tone and in disc without it.
As I said it all seems to work and almost every hunter out there has their favorites...and they all can be totally different from each other.

The factory settings are good to learn on, great actually and good for all around hunting in most normal sites and conditions.
Learn to tweak them for specialty situations, mineralization, heavy iron infestation, heavy trash or really high EMI to name a few and the sky is the limit.

Whew, talk about overload. That will take several readings to begin comprehension.

First, no, I do not have boost. It's the Fisher 75th Anniversary Gold Edition, which they just recently put out. It is not the Ltd edition, with boost, or whatever, but does have DST, I think it's called, which has something to do with noise elimination. Again, what little time I've had it, I am just running in the Discrim Mode, Sensitivity 70, Discrim 15, nothing notched, #Tones 3, Process #PF. A friend of mine with an F75 told me the PF process was good on uneven terrains, as a plowed field, and he runs that all the time. That's why I happen to be there. I don't really understand the options over on the All Metal side yet, so I've never changed anything over there, and I don't know what they are set on, or how to change them. Are those settings still working, on whatever they are set on, even though I've never messed with them?

Anyway, I only had my new F75 a week or so (2 outings), and the 11" coil went bad, and I had to return it, so I'm still waiting for that to be replaced.

Reef Runner said:

Whew, talk about overload. That will take several readings to begin comprehension.

First, no, I do not have boost. It's the Fisher 75th Anniversary Gold Edition, which they just recently put out. It is not the Ltd edition, with boost, or whatever, but does have DST, I think it's called, which has something to do with noise elimination. Again, what little time I've had it, I am just running in the Discrim Mode, Sensitivity 70, Discrim 15, nothing notched, #Tones 3, Process #PF. A friend of mine with an F75 told me the PF process was good on uneven terrains, as a plowed field, and he runs that all the time. That's why I happen to be there. I don't really understand the options over on the All Metal side yet, so I've never changed anything over there, and I don't know what they are set on, or how to change them. Are those settings still working, on whatever they are set on, even though I've never messed with them?

Anyway, I only had my new F75 a week or so (2 outings), and the 11" coil went bad, and I had to return it, so I'm still waiting for that to be replaced.

Click to expand...

You have DST, FA,1N but no boost so don't worry about it.
All metal is different probably my favorite way to hunt, but all will come in time with experience and practice.

DIGGER27 said:

You have DST, FA,1N but no boost so don't worry about it.
All metal is different probably my favorite way to hunt, but all will come in time with experience and practice.

Click to expand...

No problems, I'm definitely not worrying about no "boost", and Yes, I know it will take time, I suppose I'm just rushing things

I signed up for your class, over in the Fisher F70 (F75) Owner's Club. Hope that was ok ! See ya there

Reef Runner said:

No problems, I'm definitely not worrying about no "boost", and Yes, I know it will take time, I suppose I'm just rushing things

I signed up for your class, over in the Fisher F70 (F75) Owner's Club. Hope that was ok ! See ya there

Click to expand...

Ask questions here or there...happy to pass on any advice that can help.

Well I am back to square one. There was almost a F75 buried in the creek. After two hours of adjusting and trying to make it shut up from random shreaks and digging several false holes the Bounty Hunter saved the day. The only thing i can think of is the soil is far to erratic for the machine. The ground went from the 40s to the 80s. Any suggestions on a detector without all the adjustments and hoo haa like a Bounty Hunter Quick Silver that will give better results for depth?


Charlie

Charlie Tuna said:

Well I am back to square one. There was almost a F75 buried in the creek. After two hours of adjusting and trying to make it shut up from random shreaks and digging several false holes the Bounty Hunter saved the day. The only thing i can think of is the soil is far to erratic for the machine. The ground went from the 40s to the 80s. Any suggestions on a detector without all the adjustments and hoo haa like a Bounty Hunter Quick Silver that will give better results for depth?


Charlie

Click to expand...

I have used a top end Fisher from the mildest best soil in the country to some of the nastiest, mineralized iron filled devil dirt you can imagine...it handled it all effortlessly.
Your dirt is NOT your problem.
Could be as simple as a bad coil, could be something else but it is not your soil.

Did you do a factory reset before or during?

Charlie Tuna said:

Well I am back to square one. There was almost a F75 buried in the creek. After two hours of adjusting and trying to make it shut up from random shreaks and digging several false holes the Bounty Hunter saved the day. The only thing i can think of is the soil is far to erratic for the machine. The ground went from the 40s to the 80s. Any suggestions on a detector without all the adjustments and hoo haa like a Bounty Hunter Quick Silver that will give better results for depth?


Charlie

Click to expand...

Well, we've been busy, back here on your topic. Sorry to hear that you had a bad day in the field. I feel your pain. I was quite confused when I first cranked mine up too. As Digger says, it's just going to take some time. Hang in there..

It came with two coils and both operate roughly the same. I didn't try a factory reset. I had to put a slight discrimination on. It never quit screaming without a discrimination. Kept dialing down sensitivity to the point it wouldn't pick up a nickel unless it was 2 inches away. Then I would switch modes and start again. I kept resetting the auto balance. It kept throughing high grade signals way deep. I went be later and scanned the bottom of the hole with the BH and no signals but the F75 was dead set there was something there. The area is high alkali adobe with a lot of fossils and with the huge difference in soil readings I figured it may have been picking up minerals in the ground. I was getting the hang of it in the city park. But something is different in the Wyoming deserts. This thing is a mess.

Do a factory reset
Do a factory reset
Do a factory reset
Do a factory reset
I cannot stress this enough...
Do a factory reset.

Anytime you mess around with any notches, use it after buying it used or lend it out to anybody else or at any hint of bad behavior of any kind do a factory reset.
Many have gone through problems like yours and other kinds of kinky behavior, vowed to sell it immediately or toss it in the trash but we're told to do a factory reset and they did.
Pretty much all was right with the world after.

Mounting two different coils with the same behavior happening proves it is not a coil problem.
It is not your soil, either or don't assume so...if other brands work fine in this situation the F75 shouldn't have any problems.
Gotta be something else, if your electronics are not fried in some way it is some sort of programming hiccup which can usually be cured if you....wait for it.....yea, you guessed right...
Do a factory reset!

I can't tell you how many have picked up one of these dirt cheap from a frustrated first owner, found it it was all messed up, did a reset and ended up with a fantastically fine perfectly working close to new as you can get unit.

Sounds like a combination of super high soil minerals with changing ground.

No ground tracking available,,,,on F75,, can be a bear of sorts.
Requires patience at the very least.

Hot soil can do real damage depth wise to the detector,,,,nonferrous targets even 5" down may yield iron ID and tone to boot.

In the detectors defense I did dig a couple small shallow things when it would throw a consistent signal in between its continued whining. I need to think about this one. All the levers and adjustments is a lot more then I figured it would be, and I'm electric savvy enough to replace a starter or change an outlet, but not good with electronics (I think all phones should have cords and old circular dials personally). It has a few other things I don't really care for about it, severe bouncing signals (maybe the way it was set), no depth reduction from deep to shallow at the push of a button, it seems rather horrid to pin point. I'll try a factory reset if I chose to keep it, but I've got some thinking to do about if this is the machine I really want.

Charlie

Charlie Tuna said:

In the detectors defense I did dig a couple small shallow things when it would throw a consistent signal in between its continued whining. I need to think about this one. All the levers and adjustments is a lot more then I figured it would be, and I'm electric savvy enough to replace a starter or change an outlet, but not good with electronics (I think all phones should have cords and old circular dials personally). It has a few other things I don't really care for about it, severe bouncing signals (maybe the way it was set), no depth reduction from deep to shallow at the push of a button, it seems rather horrid to pin point. I'll try a factory reset if I chose to keep it, but I've got some thinking to do about if this is the machine I really want.

Charlie

Click to expand...

OMG....you will try a factor reset only if you decide to keep it???
Fixing it first and trying to see if you would enjoy using a detector behaving exactly as it should before deciding is not an option ?

You might not be a match for this thing at all, but nobody would be if it is acting this way.
A reset should fix all your problems, the factory settings it will then be set to will be totally different than what you have experienced so far and probably simple to use the way it should be...or close to it.

108 miles back up there one way. May not get another chance to dig this year. Doing a factory reset here where it works won't tell me if it works up there. So need to consider after using one if I really even want all the knobs switches and adjustments. I don't understand how any of them work.

Do these frequently have random chatter when they are set right? When you hit small pieces of tin, etc is it common to have a signal bounce from the 20s-80s or is that in the settings as well? Thanks.