F5 Ground balance question

[justforfun]

I have a question about GB, because I have read enough posts to know how important this is especially when deep coin shooting. First of all the soil I hunt in usually registers 2 bars on the FE meter. When I try to find a clean patch of soil to GB my F5 constantly chatters. So I tried what Mike Hillis suggested in one of his old posts about using the pinpoint and I think that method helped...... but is it normal say if you GB your machine usually around 55 in AM and then say go to disc 12... gain 85...thresh pos 5...2 tones... and when I start the swing I notice the PHASE VALUE readout under the FE meters usually falls down and fluctuates around 12-30 and stays there the whole time I am hunting. So then when I stop and go back to AM and GB again it's usually around the mid to upper 50's which is usually normal for our soil. I seem to remember last year when I used it the numbers were always pretty close once I set it. I usually have the gain around 12:00 and threshold at -3 when GB as the manual suggest. It's not a real trashy area either. What am I doing wrong? Although I did find a 1942 wheat about 6 inches down, so that made up for the frustration with the GB, and it was just like Mike said it would be a HIGH TONE WHISPER and it only read 2 bars on the confidence meter between 80-82 which surprised me to see it was a wheat.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Mike would bs best to ask about this as he is "THE MAN" with the F5 but I will add this. Anytime you make any adjustments to your machine you should reground balance your machine before hunting again. Have you Tried doing a frequency shift to get cleanest channell?

 

[sqwaby]

If your GB is set way positive you will get a lot of chatter. Next time try turning down the GB (manually) till it aligns with the actual readout when swinging the coil.. Sounds to me like your running pretty hot on you settings, set the sens to about 50-60 and the thres at zero or 1 and see if its runs smoother

 

[justforfun]

Will try that and see what happens...thanks.

 

[justforfun]

Ok, will try this too and let you know the results...thanks

 

[Occupant]

I think sqwaby gave some good advice. It does sound like you have the F5 set mighty hot. I often run mine at 0 Threshold and 35 to 40 gain and it runs smooth and finds plenty deep. The way I Ground Balance is to use the pinpoint button to find a clear spot of ground, then pump the coil with the Phase Lock button pushed till the two sets of numbers match. Then forget about the phase numbers. They are only meaningful when pumping the coil. You can always check ground balance now and then by pumping the coil. No need to change your threshold and gain settings when checking ground balance. Just go with what settings you are running at the time. It's really quicker and easier to do than it is to explain it
HH
Roger in VA

 

[Woodchuck]

Turn detector on in AM mode like manual says. check for clear ground,set to sllght threshold of 0 press and hold phase lock pump coil up and down, when phase lock numbers and gnd balance numbers match release button pump a few more times.At that point you should hear no variance in threshold hum as coil goes up and down.Your good to go set your gain,disc,tones threshold etc. to what you want to run.I run threshold positive 0 and up what ever your ground or area will tolerate for the sensitivity. remember your GND and phase numbers only work while coil is moving.I only reground balance if there is a big difference between the numbers or if soil conditions change.Why are you running negative three ? you will be missing stuff.Mile Hilliis recommends not running F5 like that unless there is a reason.Also there is a vid that shows you how to ground balance.The F5 is one of the easyest detectors to GB IMHO

 

[justforfun]

Thanks for the input Woodchuck, the reason I was running a neg 3 was that was what the manual suggested for GB. I usually go to a pos number if there isn't alot of trash after GB. The reason I was running a high gain was I thought the higher the gain the deeper the seek. The thing I notice is after I set the GB and I start swinging the coil the numbers are real far apart on the grd data readout and where I have the GB set especialy when I am using disc mode and I didn't know if there was an explanation for this or if it was normal. I have watched that video over and over and also read alot of old post. Lots of good info from experienced folks.