White's Pulsescan TDI Breaks the Rules!

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi,

The following is a “Power User Tip” from Steve Herschbach. It is not in the White’s Electronics TDI Owner’s Manual, and White’s Electronics` cannot be held responsible for any claims made in this post.

From Steve H – I’m passing this along in good faith as information I have discovered, but which others have discovered first. Many thanks to George, Reg, and of course Eric. But please understand my findings are preliminary, and can certainly be improved on by those of you willing to take on the challenge.

5/19/2008 posted by Steve Herschbach:
“But an experienced ground balancing pulse induction (GBPI) user can use the tones in some circumstances to dramatically reduce the amount of iron and steel. Reduce, not eliminate. Repeat that several times - reduce, not eliminate iron and steel compared to a dig it all PI approach.”

I was wrong, totally wrong. I first learned with a PI that you just dig it all. Then I learned to separate tones with ground balancing pulse induction (GBPI) detectors.

Since 5/19/2008 I have learned how to use a GBPI unit and not dig ferrous targets! Tonight I spent two hours in the turf, and dug 18 coins and three pieces of aluminum. And frankly, the aluminum was iffy. The coins were no doubt. Not one ferrous item.

What about depth? I’m digging silver and older coppers from areas long since deemed worked out. How deep? Deep enough a 1000 other detectorists with the best VLF detectors left them behind. I am not exaggerating and actually I am understating this. If you do not believe this I can understand and frankly I’m not out to convince you. I do believe depth is relative and so do not look to me for inches. With VLF versus PI units it is all about ground mineralization. Results will vary by location, and so quoting figures is an exercise in futility. All that matters to me is I am making good finds with ease, and in the end the only person I need to convince is me.

Rick K said it best “What interested me was the obvious speed and ease of the whole process. Silver from a "hunted to death" site at good depth and with no mumbo-jumbo about faint or ambiguous sounds.”

Yeah Rick, you got it right. Others reported it, and I’m just confirming it.

I have a Pulse Induction detector that allows me to pass 99% of the iron targets. But there are a lot of tricks involved. My “WOW” moment took a couple hours to hit but now I’m taking to the TDI like a duck to water. You have to hunt by ear, and for me that is a good thing, as that is how I learned to hunt years ago. I’m glad the meter is gone because it gets between me and the detector. This is a detector for those who are willing to forget all they learned with VLF detectors and more for those who have been detecting a long time. Frankly, nobody knows all about what the TDI can do yet. It is a new frontier.

If you think this is hype, I can understand. I was not really able to believe what George and Reg were telling me. Eric Foster and White’s Electronics have produced the first pulse induction metal detector that can reject iron if the user knows what they are doing. This is a real advance in metal detector technology.

I am 90% sure I know what I’m doing. But just lastnight I learned how to separate shallow coins from deep. Every time I go out I learn something. The TDI is the most fun I have had from a detector in ages. It has me detecting until late in the evening and up early the next morning.

Steve Herschbach

[Quix Ten]

Steve, this is sounding better and better! I've got no experience with a PI machine and am mostly an inland hunter, but this machine sounds very intriguing.

Can you make some educated assessments/guesses at the machine's suitability in areas with lots of iron trash? I love the idea of plucking some old, deep silver that has been missed because of nails/whatever. With practice, might the TDI be the ticket?

[Keppy]

Steve, Could i do with the Infinium what you are doing with the TDI..?

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Guys,
No, you can't do it with any other PI as of yet. I am talking about wavinf all sorts of iron and steel trash under the coil and getting absolutely no signal. And then waving coins under the coil, and getting a signal. Try that with the Infinium.

Yes, two days ago I hunted an area full of iron trash and dug not a single iron item.

I'll post more details soon.

Steve Herschbach

[Keppy]

Hi Guys,
No, you can't do it with any other PI as of yet. I am talking about wavinf all sorts of iron and steel trash under the coil and getting absolutely no signal. And then waving coins under the coil, and getting a signal. Try that with the Infinium.

Yes, two days ago I hunted an area full of iron trash and dug not a single iron item.

I'll post more details soon.

Steve Herschbach

Steve are you going to post here on Tnet. how to set the TDI up??.....Jim

[extractor]

Can the TDI be tuned to find iorn targets, if that is what ya are looking to find?

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi,

You want iron. OMG,can the TDI or any PI detector find iron!! The neat thing with the TDI is I think you may be able to select what size of iron you want. So dial out the tiny stuff and get the big iron.

Steve Herschbach

[TreasurdiggrNY]

Hi Guys,
No, you can't do it with any other PI as of yet. I am talking about wavinf all sorts of iron and steel trash under the coil and getting absolutely no signal. And then waving coins under the coil, and getting a signal. Try that with the Infinium.

Yes, two days ago I hunted an area full of iron trash and dug not a single iron item.

I'll post more details soon.

Steve Herschbach

Hey Steve,
So the only difference is the Infinium is telling you there is iron and the TDI has a switch so you don't hear it? Does the switch totally shut down the TDI from reading iron or does the machine still see it but the switch blocks the signal? I was also wondering if you tested the processing speed between the Infinium and the whites nugget hunter/ TDI in a trashy area and what you found.
Thanks,
Glenn

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Glenn,

Any detector that discriminates out items still "sees" them. Discrimination is by definition teliing a detector to not respond to certain items it is detecting. The TDI is no different than any detector in that regard. It has settings that allow you to tell it to not respond to most iron and steel.

I did not directly compare the Infinium and TDI for recovery speed.

I have a lot of respect for the Infinium. Do a Google on my name and "Infinium". But in a target rich environment the Infinium is hard on the user. It makes a dual tone for each target, and so right there generates twice the sounds that you get with the TDI. And you cannot get it to ignore targets of any sort. The end result as a user is a constant barage of signals which you must metally sort through waiting for the "good" one. Coins on the Infinium are a lo-hi tone, and the vst majority of non-coin items are a hi-lo tone. So you listen to tons of hi-lo tones waiting to try and hear the reveral to lo-hi. And unfortunately many larget iron items also generate a lo-hi tone, so you still dig plenty of ferrous items that the TDI would ignore.

Steve Herschbach

[Indasurf]

The machine sounds real promising. I wouldn't use it near any water because one dunking would be real costly.

It would be great if a smaller water version did become available.