As I recall, the Garrett Freedom II Coin Commander was made from 1984-1986. I bought one new from a Garrett dealer located in Pocatello Idaho in 1987 and still have and use it. At the time, I had operated a friends near the top of the line Garrett in 1982 finding in less than an hour my first wheat and a mans gold ring but never had enough time on it to be proficient prior to acquiring the Freedom II. For me still being new at it and no one around to give pointers, I struggled greatly at times while putting in the time to try and learn the sounds, what they meant, and what all the knobs did. At least for me back then, there was not an awful lot available to gain a knowledge of MD'ing theory and what the labels of each control really meant. I learned the machine though and would buy it again if still in production and needed one to replace it. It uses 3 each 9-volt batteries stored in the arm rest. I'm surprised that Garrett did not do at least the same with the Scorpion that you have to take the control box apart to change them out. The coil is about a 7 1/2" round Deepseeker 5.5 kHz. The wing nut and bolt to attach the coil to the stem appear to be brass with one steel flat and one lock washer.
I'm not sure if during it's production, there were some changes. My original Owners Manual is missing, at least I can't find it and the Dealer had also given me a cassette tape to go with it. On-Line, a 5 page manual (does not resemble the original I had) of sorts can be down loaded. My unit has the 4 knobs (Trash 1 and Trash 2 Elimination, the Audio (On-Off), and Ground Elimination), and one 3 position toggle switch (Detection Depth, Max-Normal-Min). All knobs but the Audio on my unit are marked for Initial Settings. What I find interesting in the download, there is no mention of the Ground Elimination control knob and the Detection Depth switch. What I found is, you have to download the manual for the Freedom I Coin Commander to read about the Ground Elimination control (a switch) but the Detection Depth switch is still not mentioned. My original manual explained this toggle switch and as I recall, had a picture of it. The current On-Line manual does describe a Power/Detection Depth Control knob that is nowhere to be found on my machine. My S/N has only one number that matched any of the years the Freedom II CC was made and it ends with a 6.
Most of the time, I've run it in the Initial Setting positions and in some instances, run it with no discrimination. The Detection Depth switch I have always left at Normal. Just have not played with it much and unit seemed to detect just fine. To be honest, I've never played with the Ground Elimination setting beyond the Initial Setting where you raise the coil away from the ground about 2-3 feet and then finger activate at the handle, the 3 position rocker switch into the upper position to adjust for precise pin pointing. When you read the instructions, it reads very much along the same method one would use to Ground Balance. I'm in a very mineralized area and have not had any difficulty detecting. It has been a very good machine and has provided me many hours and years of enjoyable detecting. I would not be aggressive with excess pull on the finger rocker switch. In years past, I've heard of guys breaking them while using too much force while pin pointing or switching between Trash 1 and Trash 2.
Learning the sounds is the trick with this machine. Most of the multi tone and display machines have taken much of the rewards of learning a detector away. No pain, no gain. Semper Fi
bill
