Some time back, I posted on some of the problems I was having with my new F2. I sent it in for evaluation, it has been repaired and I'm happy to report that performance is much improved.
I put the machine through some routine tests that I use on all of my machine (13 at last count) and here is what I found...
1) Airtests are an inch or two further out than before on most of my test targets (small lead shot, rings, coins etc. I keep charts on all of my machines on disc).
2) Now it will hit that 5.5" buried dime. Target ID is correct. (Before, it would sound like iron and the cursor would jump all over the scale).
3) Will hit pretty much every target in the test plot as well as any other machine. The targets it misses are the ones that only my Explorer can hit.
A couple of cons with what appears to be a 'fix' for one of them...
1) Target depth was still off in pinpoint mode. 5"+ targets would still meter between 3 & 4 with the coil dead-center over the target and touching the ground. This puzzled me, as the machine would accurately gauge distance with a coin on top of the ground and the coil up in the air... just seemed to go south with buried items.
I then found out that the depth readout was much more accurate if I held the coil abt an inch above the ground while pinpointing. In other words, don't touch the ground with the coil. This is a bit different from the way my other Depth-Readout machines work, but I can live with it. Doing this, a 5" deep target meters 5". Success!
2) Target separation seems decent/above average. Let me explain how I test my coinshooters:
I have a test card with two pulltabs glued 7" apart, with a dime centered between them. I'll pass the coil of the machine I'm testing over the 3 items with zero discrimination I will vary the speed and distance if need be and check for the best response... my better machines will give-up three distinct beeps, the F2 gives one beep with the large coil, two beeps with the small.
I will repeat the test at 'pulltab' discrimination (everything up to and including pulltabs disc'ed out).
My better machines will give-up a solid tone on the dime. The F2 makes no sound with the big coil. The tabs completely mask out the dime.
The small coil will give a two-way signal if I scan very slowly. This is superior target separation compared to my 250 with the 'sniper' coil.
Again, repeat at 'zinc-penny' disc. Results are the same with the small coil hitting well with a slow scan.
Now target separation is pretty big for me, as I pull in abt $400 - $500 a year in just clad. This is usually in pretty extreme modern trash. In the past, I sold my GTI 1500 and a Discovery 3300 for poor target separation etc.
I decided to try a couple of hours of hunting 'in the wild' after work yesterday.
I used the larger coil on a site that used to be a road-side rest stop. Plenty of trash there but I know that there should be plenty of coins left too. Long-story-short, I pulled abt a dozen coins to include a '53 wheatie and a Canadian penny. Spent around an hour here and this is the first wheat I've found here. Tall grass made for slow-going or I would likely have done better.
Next stop was the grassy area next to a ball field that I've thumped pretty hard with several machines. I wish I could say that I found a slew of coins that the other machines missed, but it wasn't to be. I found out, however, that I could scan up right next to the chainlink fence, without falsing with the sensitivity set at 4-bars. Tossing a coin next to the fence revealed that I would miss the coin if I walked straight along the fence and scanned perpendicular (as most do), but if I scanned parallel to the fence, it would hit coins much closer to the metal and uncovered a crusty clad quarter that I'd missed before. Knowing this, I reduced sensitivity to 2-bars and proceeded to find another clad quarter practically under the metal fence. One more quarter (which I had to swing short and tight to ID and pinpoint) was found, surprisingly out in the open, and then it was time to quit and head home.
My second 1st impression:
Fisher has attempted to introduce a full-featured for $200 that would be competitive with higher-priced offerings... it looks as though they have succeeded! I'm not too happy about the original performance issues (Dead coil, bad chip, armrest mounted off plane) but those have been corrected satisfactorily.
Garrett may have stolen a little bit of Fisher's thunder with the 250, which came out first, but a $200 machine with so many features is definitely good news for the hobby. Someone looking for an inexpensive first/backup machine could do worse, I'm thinking. Still getting used to that pinpoint-threshold sound that sounds unsettlingly like the Frankenstein Monster being brought to life...
That's all I'll say because that's all I know (for now). I will be using the F2 more in the future.
Skillet
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I put the machine through some routine tests that I use on all of my machine (13 at last count) and here is what I found...
1) Airtests are an inch or two further out than before on most of my test targets (small lead shot, rings, coins etc. I keep charts on all of my machines on disc).
2) Now it will hit that 5.5" buried dime. Target ID is correct. (Before, it would sound like iron and the cursor would jump all over the scale).
3) Will hit pretty much every target in the test plot as well as any other machine. The targets it misses are the ones that only my Explorer can hit.
A couple of cons with what appears to be a 'fix' for one of them...
1) Target depth was still off in pinpoint mode. 5"+ targets would still meter between 3 & 4 with the coil dead-center over the target and touching the ground. This puzzled me, as the machine would accurately gauge distance with a coin on top of the ground and the coil up in the air... just seemed to go south with buried items.
I then found out that the depth readout was much more accurate if I held the coil abt an inch above the ground while pinpointing. In other words, don't touch the ground with the coil. This is a bit different from the way my other Depth-Readout machines work, but I can live with it. Doing this, a 5" deep target meters 5". Success!
2) Target separation seems decent/above average. Let me explain how I test my coinshooters:
I have a test card with two pulltabs glued 7" apart, with a dime centered between them. I'll pass the coil of the machine I'm testing over the 3 items with zero discrimination I will vary the speed and distance if need be and check for the best response... my better machines will give-up three distinct beeps, the F2 gives one beep with the large coil, two beeps with the small.
I will repeat the test at 'pulltab' discrimination (everything up to and including pulltabs disc'ed out).
My better machines will give-up a solid tone on the dime. The F2 makes no sound with the big coil. The tabs completely mask out the dime.
The small coil will give a two-way signal if I scan very slowly. This is superior target separation compared to my 250 with the 'sniper' coil.
Again, repeat at 'zinc-penny' disc. Results are the same with the small coil hitting well with a slow scan.
Now target separation is pretty big for me, as I pull in abt $400 - $500 a year in just clad. This is usually in pretty extreme modern trash. In the past, I sold my GTI 1500 and a Discovery 3300 for poor target separation etc.
I decided to try a couple of hours of hunting 'in the wild' after work yesterday.
I used the larger coil on a site that used to be a road-side rest stop. Plenty of trash there but I know that there should be plenty of coins left too. Long-story-short, I pulled abt a dozen coins to include a '53 wheatie and a Canadian penny. Spent around an hour here and this is the first wheat I've found here. Tall grass made for slow-going or I would likely have done better.
Next stop was the grassy area next to a ball field that I've thumped pretty hard with several machines. I wish I could say that I found a slew of coins that the other machines missed, but it wasn't to be. I found out, however, that I could scan up right next to the chainlink fence, without falsing with the sensitivity set at 4-bars. Tossing a coin next to the fence revealed that I would miss the coin if I walked straight along the fence and scanned perpendicular (as most do), but if I scanned parallel to the fence, it would hit coins much closer to the metal and uncovered a crusty clad quarter that I'd missed before. Knowing this, I reduced sensitivity to 2-bars and proceeded to find another clad quarter practically under the metal fence. One more quarter (which I had to swing short and tight to ID and pinpoint) was found, surprisingly out in the open, and then it was time to quit and head home.
My second 1st impression:
Fisher has attempted to introduce a full-featured for $200 that would be competitive with higher-priced offerings... it looks as though they have succeeded! I'm not too happy about the original performance issues (Dead coil, bad chip, armrest mounted off plane) but those have been corrected satisfactorily.
Garrett may have stolen a little bit of Fisher's thunder with the 250, which came out first, but a $200 machine with so many features is definitely good news for the hobby. Someone looking for an inexpensive first/backup machine could do worse, I'm thinking. Still getting used to that pinpoint-threshold sound that sounds unsettlingly like the Frankenstein Monster being brought to life...
That's all I'll say because that's all I know (for now). I will be using the F2 more in the future.
Skillet
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