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Legend iron filter how to

Jtracss

Full Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2022
Messages
152
Location
South Florida
So the sites i detect are beaches littered with iron, i dont think i have ever not heard iron on a swing, that bad.

I have been playing with the IF settings and I can unmask items other than iron at IF 4. I have been turning ferrous off (1-10) entirely and listening for faint repeatable signals, than locking on it by small wiggles back and forth.

Need some guidance on how to properly use the IF on the legend, best uses, and practices.

Thanks all

Edit: Recovery speed is middle of road at 5, stability is 1.
 
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The short answer is, you lower the iron bias to the point that you occasionally get iron falsing, or as much iron falsing as you can tolerate.

The long answer is, iron falsing is when a detector identifies a ferrous object as a nonferrous object. Since ferrous objects contain a small amount of nonferrous properties that the detector does notice, then it's possible to lower the iron bias so low, that even that small amount of nonferrous in the ferrous object, will cause the detector to identify the ferrous object as nonferrous.

BUT, when lowering the iron bias, it's especially important to recheck the hole and what was removed. Reason being, there may very well be a nonferrous object there, and if you missed it by finding the ferrous object but not rechecking then you will incorrectly come to the conclusion that the detector was iron falsing.
 
I have just picked up the Legend and I am not following the Iron filter setting. Coming from a T2 you relied on recover speed for unmasking a object. I understand that everybody's sites are going to be different and adjustments will vary. But this seems confusing to me when comparing videos to reading the forums and the manual to what is going on.

In watching youtube, there is a English gent going by Englandshistory and he says for his fields he is setting the iron filter to 2 and adjust the stability for getting rid of the falsing. If the stability does not get ride of the falsing then he adjust the iron filter up a notch. Based on what I have been reading this seems way too low a setting and opposite of how I think the iron filter is working. It would seem to me that you would be getting more iron showing up as a good target with a lower iron filter based on the manual. I have also seen videos of people putting nails on coins and are able to read the coin so should we always be using the iron filter adjustment?

I have not had really any time on the Legend yet so I have only left the iron filter set at the default of 8. What determines when I should be adjusting this setting? If you have iron in the ground at your site should you start out with a mid range setting trying to keep good targets from being masked?
 
I have had my Legend since last March. The iron filter, iron stability and now (v1.10 software) bottle cap rejection settings for me are still a learning process.

There are some places I hunt where targets like steel crown bottle caps are all over the ground. If I choose to make those targets sound only like iron by raising the bottle cap setting to its max and by leaving the iron filter setting on default 8, I will possibly miss some non-ferrous targets that are being partially masked by those near surface steel bottle caps.

If I instead, set the iron filter and bottle cap settings on their minimum settings, I will dig some steel bottle caps but I also may hear those desirable, partially masked non-ferrous targets separately from the bottle caps with a recovery speed setting of 5 or 6. For shallower iron/steel targets, the Ferro Check feature has also worked very well for me.

Other places I hunt have deeper iron/steel targets in the 6" deep to edge of detection depth range that are more sparse. I sometimes crank up the iron filter to 3 or 4 at those places and take my chances.

I have used the same strategy at some beaches where the steel bottle caps and other iron targets are spread out more and are easy to identify with the Legend if they aren't too deep.

I don't hunt using the default 8 iron filter setting. Most of the ground I hunt on has moderate to high iron mineralization and using those higher settings will cause most targets to at least have some iron responses.

I would rather dig a little iron and lots of non-ferrous targets. Using the default 8 iron filter setting, I would be digging few or no targets because they all sound like iron here.

These iron discrimination features give me lots of flexibility and choices. They are not meant to be perfect, fool or experienced user proof or totally accurate.
 
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Ray,

Yes, the recovery speed is a critical setting for unmasking, but the IF is for unmasking in ferrous trash when the nonferrous and ferrous items are too close for the recovery speed to make any difference. That happens a lot in iron infested sites.

IMO, the Stability setting for the IF control is unneeded. It's supposed to be a fine tuning control for the IF, but holy smokes, 8 or 9 settings for an iron bias control is way more than enough for fine tuning. As such, I just leave the St at mid level 3 all the time, and just use the main IF settings.
 
Ray,

Yes, the recovery speed is a critical setting for unmasking, but the IF is for unmasking in ferrous trash when the nonferrous and ferrous items are too close for the recovery speed to make any difference. That happens a lot in iron infested sites.

IMO, the Stability setting for the IF control is unneeded. It's supposed to be a fine tuning control for the IF, but holy smokes, 8 or 9 settings for an iron bias control is way more than enough for fine tuning. As such, I just leave the St at mid level 3 all the time, and just use the main IF settings.

Do you use higher IF in iron infested sites? 5-9 or lower 1-4?

To add i leave my ST at 1 and dont have any issues and get the most depth at level 1.
 
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The lower the IF, the higher chance of iron falsing, but the much higher chance of unmasking a nonferrous target that is masked by a ferrous target.

I change my IF based on the site, but it is always set no higher than 4.
 
I feel that some people get confused with the IF, as to it,s a descending mark with 8 being none and reducing you are actually increasing IF. I may be wrong but it took me awhile to understand that 5 or 4 is more filtering.
 
I feel that some people get confused with the IF, as to it,s a descending mark with 8 being none and reducing you are actually increasing IF. I may be wrong but it took me awhile to understand that 5 or 4 is more filtering.
There may be a difference of interpretation here.

With 1.09 software, an iron filter setting of 8 is the maximum setting and that setting will help iron targets sound the most like iron with iron tones being the most prevalent along with minimal or no non-ferrous falsing. A setting of 1 is the minimum iron filter setting and that setting will help iron targets to have some iron tones along with some non-ferrous tone falsing depending on the target and direction of swing.
 
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To add i leave my ST at 1 and dont have any issues and get the most depth at level 1.
Speaking of depth:

I did some air testing comparing depth with different recovery speeds, and depth with different sensitivity levels.
In many instances with all detectors, sensitivity has to be reduced due to EMI or ground conditions.

For the sensitivity test, I used the 6” coil, a silver dime, M3, and the default of 5 for the recovery speed.

30-10”
29-9.5”
28-9.5”
27-9.5”
26-9”
25-9”
24-9”
23-8.5”
22-8”
21-7.5”
20-7”
19-7”
18-6.5”
17=6.5”
16-6”

For the Recovery speed depth test, I air tested with the 6" coil and a silver dime. I was indoors and using 22 for the sensitivity.

RS=Recovery Speed, DF=Depth on Flat dime, DE=Depth with the dime on Edge.

RS / DF / DE

1
/ 10" / 8"
2 / 10" / 8"
3 / 10" / 8"
4 / 10" / 8"
5 / 10" / 8" (default recovery speed)
6 / 9" / 7"
7 / 9" / 7"
8 / 8" / 6"
9 / 7" / 5"
10 / 6" / 4"
 
There may be a difference of interpretation here.

With 1.09 software, an iron filter setting of 8 is the maximum setting and that setting will help iron targets sound the most like iron with iron tones being the most prevalent along with minimal or no non-ferrous falsing. A setting of 1 is the minimum iron filter setting and that setting will help iron targets to have some iron tones along with some non-ferrous tone falsing depending on the target and direction of swing.
so judging by what you said here, it sounds like I want my IF to be higher 5-9 (5-8 in V1.09) in an iron infested site?
 
Here is a video of South Coast Detecting using ver 1.08 and the iron filter.

When he goes lower on the IF setting the iron is discriminated out but not the coin. The high up on the IF setting then you hear the iron.

So is the IF suppose to discriminate out the iron?
 

Here is a video of South Coast Detecting using ver 1.08 and the iron filter.

When he goes lower on the IF setting the iron is discriminated out but not the coin. The high up on the IF setting then you hear the iron.

So is the IF suppose to discriminate out the iron?
"The high up on the IF setting then you hear the iron".

The IF doesn't normally have any association with how much iron is heard. How much iron is heard, is dependent on what discrimination pattern is used, and what the first tone break is set at. For example, if those nails typically give an ID of 4, then he would have heard the nails (without the coin) if the tone break was set less than 4 and the discrimination pattern used was Ground or All Metal.

"So is the IF supposed to discrimate out the iron"?

It's more like, "The IF determines if the detector should give you a ferrous signal or a nonferrous signal, based on the ratio of ferrous and nonferrous in the detection field. The ratio itself doesn't change on any given target, but the IF settings changes the ratio point that determines if the detector will tell you if it sees ferrous or nonferrous.
 
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"The high up on the IF setting then you hear the iron".

The IF doesn't normally have any association with how much iron is heard. How much iron is heard, is dependent on what discrimination pattern is used, and what the first tone break is set at. For example, if those nails typically give an ID of 4, then he would have heard the nails (without the coin) if the tone break was set less than 4 and the discrimination pattern used was Ground or All Metal.

"So is the IF supposed to discrimate out the iron"?

It's more like, "The IF determines if the detector should give you a ferrous signal or a nonferrous signal, based on the ratio of ferrous and nonferrous in the detection field. The ratio itself doesn't change on any given target, but the IF settings changes the ratio point that determines if the detector will tell you if it sees ferrous or nonferrous.
Actually, according to Minelab…….and I bet Nokta does something similar in their Multi modes…….the only return signals that are processed are non-ferrous. That is why using the lowest iron filter setting of 1 may produce more nonferrous falsing on iron and steel targets and fewer actual iron audio responses using the A or G discrimination patterns.
 
so judging by what you said here, it sounds like I want my IF to be higher 5-9 (5-8 in V1.09) in an iron infested site?
I can’t tell you what to do.

At some beaches I have used an IF setting of 3 or 4. Most of the time I keep IF on 1 or 2

On turf I also usually keep IF on 1 or 2.

I don’t mind digging some iron. A setting of 1 or 2, turning 90 degrees and using Ferro Check on shallower targets usually works well for me.

I definitely have not used a setting higher than 4 so far.
 
Actually, according to Minelab…….and I bet Nokta does something similar in their Multi modes…….the only return signals that are processed are non-ferrous. That is why using the lowest iron filter setting of 1 may produce more nonferrous falsing on iron and steel targets and fewer actual iron audio responses using the A or G discrimination patterns.
If that's how they do it, that's fine. The point I'm trying to make, is that the IF is dependent on how much of a nonferrous signal is detected. So for example, a nail or a nail and coin, will have "X" amount of a nonferrous signal, and it's that nonferrous amount which is important to the IF.
 
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