Fisher F5 Erratic Signals

[Digger 45]

Hi Mike i have been following your post, and maybe you can help me. I'm currently waiting on a reply from Fisher.

My F5 with the standard coil works great on the bench and if a coin is laid on the ground, but anything buried and the meeter jumps all over the place. I purchased a new 11" DD coil and it does the same thing. I have run in many combinations of low gain to high gain -3 to +4 on the threshold, nothing seems to make it work consistently.

On a quarter buried 3 " first pass is 4, second pass is 72, third pas 15, fourth pass is 25.

This happens at different numbers with other coins but never settles on lets say 70 or 72 for a quarter. Sometimes it reads in the high 90's, i had one and i dug it and it was a small piece of pipe.

In the discriminate mode it works a little better but won't pickup a quarter at 3" at all, no sound or readout.

Seams strange that this is with both coils, both are the push in connector. I purchased it about a month ago and thought it was the screw in type and called Fisher but they refused to change it over saying that they were not doing it anymore, i talked to Daniel.This was before i purchased the new 11" coil.

I will keep reading your post but if you have time i would appreciate your thoughts

Thanks Larry

 

[crusher28]

I had the same problem with my f5. Sent it back to fisher and they replaced the coil with the screw in type. Seems to me that the push in type coil wire gets crushed when pushing in and out of the detector. Never had that problem again.
WORKS GREAT NOW.

 

[onbrake]

Send the machine back to Fisher you have a 5 year warranty.They will fix it.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Hi Larry,

I would think if you had a coil wire or connector issue it would also manifest the same on all the scenarios not just one. By the way...I have the plug in style connectors and haven't had any issues.

So it works fine on the bench. Gives proper TID.

And it works fine with the coin on top of the ground. Gives proper TID.

But with the coin a few inches under the ground you are not able to get a proper TID.

So lets trouble shoot it. Dig your quarter up. Use your pinpoint mode and find a patch of clean ground about a foot and a half square. Dig that square up like you were going to plant something in it down to around 8". Check it again for any metal with your pinpoint mode. Remove any metal you find. Turn your threshold to all the way down to -9. Set your Gain to 85. Then manually ground balance your F5 over that square of mulched up dirt. Record your ground readouts (phase and FE304 meter readings and share them with me. Bury your quarter at 3" Use your pinpoint mode to center your coil directly over and then sweep it. Do you get a repeatable number? It should read somewhere in the 80s. It you do, bury your quarter at 5" and pinpoint it again and sweep it. You should again get a repeatable TID.

Whats the point? You need to rule out target masking from other metals and ground minerals. Using the pinpoint mode to find clean ground rules out the target masking potential. If your ground has any magnetic minerals, just digging the hole to bury the quarter can cause the ground to mask the quarter and affect your readings. You were ground balanced over a undisturbed spot and then are trying to detect a target in a spot where the ground minerals were disturbed, it can and will, mask your coin signal, thereby affecting the TID. By creating a larger area of disturbed ground and then ground balancing directly over this disturbed area, you will be properly balanced to that spot and the coin should sound off properly and display properly.

If you get good TID readings after doing this, then your detector is fine.

If after doing all this, you still can't get a repeatable target id, then your detector is sick and needs a trip to the doctor.

Let us know how it does.

Good Luck
Mike

 

[Digger 45]

I will try this out, thanks so much for the advice, i really like this detector and will respond as soon as i can, probably in the next couple of hours

 

[Digger 45]

Ok here are the results with the settings that you prescribed,and after clearing the dirt of all metal, gr & phase 71-71, FE meter at low, at 3" after pin pointing and then sweeping readout was 45,6,78,40.

I then buried the quarter at 5" gr in balance FE still at low, pin point and the sweep with read out at 71,36,55,71

Not much difference than before.

 

[Mike Hillis]

It will need a trip to the factory.

Bummer.


HH
Mike

 

[Digger 45]

Thats kind of what i thought.
Thanks for you help and knowledge, i will be sending it in for some help.

 

[kevdawg]

is this typical for the f5.I was considering on getting one soon.they sound like a good detector.I am new to detecting I have a bounty hunter for now. I keep complaining to the president of the metal detecting club that i need to get myself a better detector but when i show him what i have found for the day/weekend he keeps telling me I'm doing fine with the one i have.here is some pic of some of my better finds well i guess my pic are to big to upload not shore how to reduce them.this is the only one small enough to fit.

 

[Digger 45]

Great Service from the Fisher gang, thanks to Felix he has replace the f5 with a new unit, replaced both coils and it works great.Once again it is so great to deal with a company that understands customer service.

If you are thinking of purchasing any fisher products this is a good testimonial of the backing you get with this good company

Thanks Felix for your great service

Larry

 

[Mike Hillis]

Sometimes it happens.
HH
Mike