Pinpointing with F5 help

[Cibola]

Hello all,

I just recently bought a fisher f5 and love it. It is a great machine to use. The only area I am struggling with a bit is on pinpointing. I know to start on the side of the target, press and hold pinpoint button and move coil to where sound is the loudest.

Also read about tuning it to a smaller area by repeating that procedure. Just wondering, should the target then dead center in the open area of the coil? It generally seems to be pretty close. Do any of you have any tried and true methods for pinpointing with this machine that you could share with me?

Would appreciate any help or insight. In general cant find much info on this machine. Thx all

 

[Alimo88]

I can help if it's the same as the F2 which I think it is. And I LOVE getting this part done properly. It's a passion of mine within the hobby
And you should learn this skill well because it saves time and protects the grass
Pinpointing is a lot like spot ground balancing

So you find an object and lets say its a coin. (well done on finding the coin)

Hold the coil off the ground at waist height and PRESS AND HOLD the pinpoint button. Now it is tuned to free air

Lower the coil to over the coil and tone will sound and the VID will kick in with a number like 12. As you get more central to the coin, the volume will increase and the VID will lower to a smaller number like 3,2,1 or 0.

Personally I go by tone volume alone because I'm looking at the ground. Tone volume is only inverse to number shown

When the volume is pretty loud release the PP button. If you didn't move the coil at all and pressed the PP again you would get the same volume and same number on the VID because it's sort of now tuned to your "ground with coin" spot. The detector is spot balanced.

So move the coil slightly away from the general coin area and PRESS AND HOLD the PP button again. The volume will be lower and the number higher again. Search again and continue to centralize the coil over the coin. Volume goes up again number goes down. Once again, when the volume is loud release the PP button. Move the coil away slightly from your new smaller target zone. PRESS AND HOLD PP and zone in again to an even more precise spot on the ground. now you should be looking at markers on the ground like leaves or twigs or whatever.

So PRESS AND HOLD zone in Release. Move away slightly, PRESS AND HOLD zone in RELEASE. Move away slightly. repeat.

Sometimes you get it so well done you need to press the coil into the grass just to get the volume going again. This is when you are really fine tuned to the coin.

So when you have pinpointed pick your chosen spot on the ground Get your rounded of probe, stick it in the ground and bingo you hit the coin HOPEFULLY

And you can go a PP step to far and too accurately and you need to come out a bit and sort of start again.

Hope that helps, let me know

 

[sqwaby]

I don't use the pinpoint feature, I just x the target and dig, the retune is fast enough that you can do it this way with a little practice.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Cibola, you are correct. The F5 pinpoints right in the open area just in front of the rod. If it will help you, take a golf ball and roll it back and forth in the open area of the coil and you'll see the coil center a little clearer. Then take a piece of chalk or something and mark that center circle if you need to. That will be your pinpoint area.

Also, on shallow targets, you can pinpoint with just the toe of the coil. Don't use the pinpoint mode. Just leave it in your hunt mode and wiggle the coil sligthly back and forth as you pull the coil back and when you loose the signal the target will be just on the rim of the transmit coil (outer loop).

Alimo did a great job explaining the "detune" process.

The manual also give the x y axis method. You pinpoint the target on the y axis, then turn ninty degrees and pinpoint it on the x axis.

HH
Mike

 

[Cibola]

Perfect. Thanks for all the helpful advice. Working much better now