using a tf 900

[leafmould]

i want to search in some caves for japanees gold, and after reading many posts and getting info from dealers went for a tf900, i've only done a couple of tests so far but it just screams at everything all the time, i know the mineralisation is high here (thailand) but so far i;ve only got it quiet with ground reject up full and tone down low but still like this it registers only a foot above a shovel and large buried axe head but also at nearly every bush, leafand rock, i even went into the jungle today away from every bit of junk and scrap and got nearly naked, but still hard to figure it. thankfully the mosquitos were all on the beaches
whats the secret to using this beasty i'm of to the location tommorow and my caving/climbing friend aint around too long so we cant dig every blip.
i promise to post the pics when i find it, i,ve heard there could be 2500 tons, they were gonna buy there way through india with it.
phil

 

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[tagasilay]

Hi Phil,

The tf works perfectly fine over hear in the jungles of the Philippines, must be the same over there in Thailand. to make it user friendly, set all knobs at midpoint, sensitivity, ground reject and tone adjust. Since you are new to the machine, switch to autotune(slow). if the machine "behaves" or emits a steady tone or treshold then your fine, just reduce the tone till you hear a slight hum, then your good to go. confirm metal signals by crossing the target, you should get good signals from both approaches ie north-south vice versa. Now it the machine behaves erratically, you should ground balance it by setting the autotune button to the center, pump the machine up and down(1ft from ground to 2 1/2) if the meter indicates an increase, adjust ground reject to positive, keep doing this till tone is steady....whew, its in the manual. For more complex operation of the tf realde and gflores can help...but its a good machine. you can give me a ring, its easier to explain ground balancing over the phone, my mobile is 09173014487, i can help you with basic tuning. I case you decide to call, have the machine beside you preferably outdoor so a i could talk you into ground balancing.

God bless,

Jose

 

[leafmould]

thanks for the help,
i've been out in the woods and as well as getting a fever i,ve been getting more profitiant, the thing that was getting me pissed was it seems to react to wet vegitation, high plants and bushes etc, also air tests on small (shovels knives) stuff didnt look promising, i try on motor bike and its good, i guess i go for the big stuff.
phil

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

O HI O: It will react that way to any anomally IF you are in the "cave" mode. the answer is to practice interpretating the reactions, or switch to the all metal mode.

Check to see that you are using the low freqency.

If you are looking for metal, do as Tagasilly suggested.

Personal suggestion, use the all metal search mode for large csches down ot 20+ ft.

Tropical Tramp

 

[tagasilay]

Hi Phil and Realde

I forgot to tell you to keep it steady in motion, if you bump vegetation, it will react. Hi Tropical tramp, how i wish i could get the tf to go deeper even more than 10ft, all i can get it to reach is arround 5=6ft. for a practice drum. I have been practicing at all metal the tips you and gflores have thought, maybe someday i would get it. could you give me examples of your actual target depth experiences for my reference?

God bless,

Jose

 

[leafmould]

hi,
the testing i did was pretty basic, a large axe head 4 by 6 inch and a couple o kilo of iron bolts about two feet /600mm deep on a beach and no reaction. thought about salt interfearance, if any, so moved to the jungle but the same axe 6 inch deep and got same signal as a bush! then went to the cave to search but had little time searching and no time digging but got some very strong readings, i see tomorrow if the thai guy who was watching and i couldn't be rid of started to dig and found anything! problem with being in a cave i see is i'm allways pretty close to the walls so ground readings could be coming from the walls, o course my(sic) cashe could be side ways or above even so problems allways.
an air test, just waving it about close to a concrete beam with rebar worked about 4 feet away and a small honda bike gave 5/6 feet, it definatly seems the biger the object and the more dense- solid metal rather than drums etc are more noisy and i agree about the smooth operation smoothing out the signal reaspons. i havent begun to play with the cave mode yet, seems silly as i'm in the cave to start with
i.ve no idea how deep the cashe's are i'm looking for, hopefully i see in the next few days 8)
good luck and indeed god bless
phil

 

[gflores71]

I have a 12 inch copper frying pan buried at 1 meter or little more than 3 feet, and I have no problem detecting it with the tm 800 that is the same as the TF 900. Two boxes are sensitive to up-down movement specially if not ground balanced correctly. You need to balance it as best as possible and run it WITHOUT auto ground balance, you will need to periodically press the button to tune the threshold but you will get more depth. Also remember as mentioned above that when you bump the antenas against anything the detector will make a noise, and sometimes end up out of tune. When using the detector near walls or in a cave, the detector will not work properly due to the surrounding mineral, so not the best tool inside a cave. Inside buildings also unreliable since it will detect laterally thru walls.

Cave mode is much weaker and I only use it to distinguish between iron made objects and non iron, since the threshold will decrease over the object if it is iron based.

Good luck