Whites Spectra V3!! I'm coming back to the Hobby!!

For starters,,,if your model description is correct,,,,this particular model was and can still be upgraded by White's to a V3i model.

Reports originally were V3 model suffered more so form EMI,,hence the upgrade.

There are menu changes that were incorporated along with the upgrade.

Some folks do run the V3 detector and haven't elected to upgrade.

Myself,,,I have not had V3,, did have V3i.

I sold mine.

Very finicky detector to use IMO,,to get the most out of.

Does have programs already loaded so you can turn on and hunt.

Screen is very nice,,,unit does use substantial battery power.

If you happen to get wireless headphones (they came with them) they too use what seems like a lot of power.

Many,,many settings,,,and some the settings are more for just screen layout, etc,,not performance.

Will take some time for you to get your arms around.

A good operators manual was never really done by the manufacturer IMO.

Some of the folks that did get and try to use,,,,did through trial and error finally discover a lot of things that would work,,,and make it perform.

Not a lot of current/recent posts on detecting forums about either the V3 or V3i.

But I am sure some folks will respond.

Not to drive you away from this forum,,,but IMO the findmall detecting forum had the most and best info concerning operation through settings changes.

I wish you luck with your new detector.

Will take a lot of patience to get very proficient with it.

Key settings,,,not to high on RX gain,,6-9 will do a lot of times.
Recovery delay-- driven by coil size,,stock coil try 60-75
Ground balance -- needs to be proper,,,consider balancing and locking tracking ground balance.

Using 3 freqs will not be as deep as single freq.
Tx boost,,,stay away from it until you are somewhat proficient,,a battery hog,,best used with high EMI,,,meaning when you are stuck using lower RX gain,,hence txt boost will get back some of your lost depth.

Swing speed,,,to detect targets,,,detector settings will drive your swing speed.

Cheers.

Use coin / jewelry program ..
Turn tone ID on
Turn V.C.O pin pointing on
Recovery delay at 70
Ground balance

Go detecting

I have only hunted with Whites machines and have gone from IDX pro to the M6 and now the V3i. The V series is a lot of machine with numerous settings to play with. Here is my take pros and cons after over a year of use.
Pro
The preset programs are user friendly and for the most part turn on, ground balance and go.
Each program is like having a different detector...Tones, Display etc..
You will get a lot of information both on the display and through the headphones. This is where the learning curve starts.
Rechargeable battery system.
Wireless headphones are awesome!
3 frequencies at one time!!!! Or in the Deep Silver mode one frequency.
Deep! I have placed in the top 3 in all three deep hunts at my club since getting the V3i.
Great on salt beaches...runs super quiet.
Con
I found it a little heavy at first
Can be chatty in trashy areas due to it running all metal and discrimination modes.
EMI can be an issue but adjusting the settings will help eliminate it.
Finding the sweet spot for your conditions and hunting style...swing speed/ recovery delay was an issue for me.
MY ADVICE
The Whites site has a forum dedicated to the V3 and the members have put together the answers to almost any question you might have. Search it first.
Plant a test garden in a clean area so you can play with the programs and settings to get familiar with them.
Start with the coin and jewelry program.
Make your first hunt at a location that you know has been pounded but would likely have fresh drops. (my first real hunt was at a fresh house tear out and I nearly lost my mind)!
The 4x6 coil is awesome and a must have if you plan to hunt trashy areas.
Be patient...this is not a "two knob" machine and will take a while to get the hang of and then master.

Alright!! Thank you Porschee914 for the feedback! I'm super excited to get
Out Friday! Although I hope this wasn't to much machine for me to dive in with again! Will for sure run coin/jewelry as another member above recommended how as far as pounded areas I'm going to guess are biggest oldest park is whew I'll head Friday! Then I'll have to go to an area I went with my f2 years ago it's about
A block radius where numerous homes had been demolished back in the 1950s found some cool junk thee with the f3 some old tootsie cars cap
Gun metal etc. would like to test it with a better detector. I know the one I'm getting is a Spectra v3 it might even be the v3i I need look at the paperwork again! I can't wait currently at work!! Thanks again everyone above! Highly appreciated!!



SKMKSMetalHead

The side of the battery will tell you what it is ..

V3i

V3(i) Has a round sticker with the I in it <--- upgraded V3

V3 has a small 3

VX3

Spectra vision

Do an integrity test on the coil right away, especially if it's the stock D2 10". That coil had it's problems. I would advice not running it over Rx10 until you get a good feel got the machine. I'm running 8 and happy.

The test:

1. Set the Rx Sensitivity to 15(Max) and hold the coil at waist level with TX Boost off. If it overloads, it's bad. If it doesn't overload with Boost turned on at Rx15, that's even better!

There's other things to add but you've already heard many here already. It would be a good idea to call Whites and have the ser# checked being it's from a pawn shop.

I'll help any way I can. I've run a V3i since 2010.

I think it's a really good machine. I've got one and I have an MX sport

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

There are tons of videos on YouTube on this machine

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I forgot to say earlier,,,don't know about a V3,,, but V3i can be password protected.
Meaning,,,in order for you to input or change the personal info loaded,,password is needed.
White's when they get a u it for service,,,I think they compare this info,,with the sender's info,,if different,,,,whatever is in the screen(person wise)... They get called to say we have a detector with your personal info loaded.


If yours is,,,,you will probably need to call White's.
It could be hot too,,as alluded to above.

Welcome back! Sorry to hear of your F2 getting lifted.

Thanks you!! I am all but jumping up and down waiting for Friday! Regardless if the ground is froZen I am determined to have a good first ru. If anything else lots of clad lol! Ya sadly it was lifted right off my back porch and we had are suspicions it was my sisters x.... at any rate my good karma is repaying itself! An as a update the Whites detector is actually a V3 or vx3! Anyhow the lil bro to white vx3 and the reviews are all amazing anywheee I look into this....can't wait

Important things to note about the V3i:

Set the backlighting to 1. I think the default is 20. This kills a battery life pretty fast. Backlight does not need to be set high in most cases.

If you have the wireless headphones, set the power low. You don't need high power. It kills the batteries.

Read. Read a lot. Read the users manual and then download from the internet the advanced-post-book.pdf - this pdf is chock full of information about what the various functions of the V3i are. I was floundering until I read it.

The V3i is a powerful machine. It is very flexible and can be tuned to any ground conditions. However, due to its power, people just getting the machine tend to crank up the power regardless of the ground conditions and complain they can't find stuff and that the machine is horrible. I was one of those people who cranked the power up too high, though, I didn't blame the machine. After reading the advanced posts book and learning about the downside and affects of running too hot, I was less ambitious in my Rx/Disc/AM settings.

The down side of the machine is that it is very flexible and can be tuned to any ground condition. This means there are lots of proverbial knobs, levers, dials, and buttons to play around with. This is very daunting for some people who are not willing to spend the time learning what they do and what effects they have on the performance of the detector. If you are not willing to spend the time understanding what the machine does, you will never get the most out of it.

I have been using mine for a year and a half now and I am still learning things - some by reading, some by trial and error, some by careful testing.

There is so much target information available with the V3i. I don't think I could use another detector because I would feel like I wasn't getting enough information to judge the quality of a target.