Garrett American S-4 ADS- dust collector or useful tool ?

[FWest]

Does this old unit work well for any particular use ? I guess what I'm asking would it do any better at finding things at the beach or woods or ? than an F70 ?

I found it at a yard sale recently for almost nothing. It does work and does not seem to require any movement to detect. The coil and connector have been duct taped but seem to be function.

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[vlad]

no.
But here is the owners guide:
http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/hbby-manuals/American-S-4.pdf

 

[jtalley007]

I started in 1973 with a Garrett master hunter and it was bulky.

These units came out later so much lighter. They are good for 4-5" and I found a lot of coins with mine.

Old TR units worked well around iron and mostly were not affected by EMI that plagues modern digital machines.

These would be good to get a child started, most coins are within its range,

Hope this helps

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Like jtalley007 says: they are way-outdated by today's standards. That is essentially a slimmed down model of a Groundhog. A VLF/TR machine. The advent of motion discrimination (which Garrett finally entered into in 1982-ish) was initially fast motion swing. Thus although they handled minerals better, and went deeper, yet they were more prone to masking. Thus as you've noted: The TR disc. requires no motion. Thus some old-timers preferred that (at least for certain applications).

But very soon (by the mid 1980s) the motion-required was being slowed sseeooo far down, that ... by today ... you barely need a crawl. Thus minimizing the potential for masking. And thus relegating any TR discriminator to the dinosaur pile. The all-metal mode might be ok on the wet-salt beach, if you care to "ride the knob" of perpetual ground balancing. Because if it's like the Groundhog, it has a pleasant growl in the all-metal VLF mode. Still though, scores of machines today will spank it even on the wet salt beach.

 

[FWest]

Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Sven]

Just to satisfy your curiosity, take it out to a schoolyard and have some fun.
Maybe a Dino but, they will still find stuff.
As long as the threshold tuning doesn't drift, your good.
Had one a few years ago.....................

 

[John(H)]

Would be good for use at a Tot Lot.