background image

23

9. Backlight

Used in dark conditions to light the display, 

improving visibility.

Select BACKLIGHT with the ARROW controls 

and press ENTER.  Use the ARROW controls 

to select the desired BACKLIGHT level. The 

BACKLIGHT level will be visible on the display.  

The current level is shown on the right side of 

the display. The graphic control knob shows the 

relationship of the current setting to minimum 

and maximum levels.  Minimum is 0 (no light). 

The maximum backlight setting will reduce 

battery life by as much as 50% depending on the 

type of batteries and how long it is used.  Lower 

BACKLIGHT settings will have signifi cantly less 

drain on battery life.

When the detector is fi rst turned on, it is 

normal for the backlight to be on during the 

opening display and BATTERY CHECK. If the 

BACKLIGHT is off, it will fade when the MAIN 

MENU  display appears. If the BACKLIGHT is 

ON, it will continue until turned off manually or a 

different program is selected. BACKLIGHT can 

be saved as part of a custom program, for example 

a NIGHT HUNT program.

When Backlight is ON and the TRIGGER 

is squeezed and released to begin searching,  

"BACKLIGHT ON" will appear continually on 

the display to warn you of the extra battery duty.

EMERGENCY BACKLIGHT - 

If in the 

dark you cannot see the display to turn the 

BACKLIGHT on, holding the TRIGGER and 

pressing MENU will bring up the BACKLIGHT 

adjustment screen. Release the TRIGGER and 

press ARROW 

up

 to select a level you can see the 

display.  Squeeze and release the TRIGGER to 

continue.

Tip - 

Use only when 

needed, and only as bright 

as needed, for acceptable 

display visibility.  Backlight 

use will decrease battery 

life.  The brighter the level, 

the higher the battery 

usage. Settings from 0 - 6 

are available.

CAUTION

If the instrument is turned ON and the 

EMERGENCY BACKLIGHT sequence is 

used, the BACKLIGHT will stay ON only 

while you stay in that program. Pressing 

MENU and selecting another program will 

turn BACKLIGHT OFF, if BACKLIGHT 

is not also ON in that particular program.  

If in the dark at the time the instrument 

is turned ON, you may need to squeeze 

and release the TRIGGER and then 

use the EMERGENCY BACKLIGHT 

sequence.  You can then fi nd the program 

you desire, press ENTER, press ENTER 

for Air Balance, and press ENTER for 

Ground Balance.  Use the EMERGENCY 

BACKLIGHT ON sequence a second time 

if the BACKLIGHT fades in that program.  

Unlike past Spectrum

®

 instruments, the 

DFX

 BACKLIGHT is no different than 

any of the other adjustments. It can be 

saved in the custom programs or short 

term volatile memory.  However, factory 

preset programs use the OFF (0) setting 

as a default (standard setting). Remember, 

"Hot Keys" do not work from a cold start 

(batteries just installed), see page 15.        

Chapter 4 DFX

 Basic Adjustments

Summary of Contents for DFX

Page 1: ......

Page 2: ... Discrimination 36 13 Disc Edit 13 Disc Edit 13 Disc Edit 36 14 Block Edit 14 Block Edit 14 Block Edit 38 15 16 Learn Accept Reject 15 16 Learn Accept Reject 15 16 Learn Accept Reject 39 17 Recovery Speed 40 18 Bottlecap Reject 18 Bottlecap Reject 18 Bottlecap Reject 41 19 Hot Rock Reject 19 Hot Rock Reject 19 Hot Rock Reject 42 20 Sweep Speed 43 21 Ground Filtering 44 Display 45 22 Visual Disc 45...

Page 3: ...TER BATT CHECK USE TO SCROLL CURRENT SETTINGS OR MAKE ADJUSTMENTS GROUND BALANCE ONLY WHILE SEARCHING HOLD THE TRIGGER AND PRESS BATTERY CHECK WHILE SEARCHING HOLD THE TRIGGER AND PRESS REVERSE DISPLAY WHILE SEARCHING HOLD THE TRIGGER AND PRESS PRESS FOR LIGHT DARK BACKGROUND RELEASE TRIGGER BACKLIGHT IN SEARCH MODE HOLD THE TRIGGER AND PRESS RELEASE TRIGGER PUSH AIR GND BALANCE IN SEARCH MODE PRE...

Page 4: ...s 1 Remove all parts from shipping carton and check the assembly page to make sure all parts are present 2 There are rubber washers between clevis lower rod and loop ears Use only nonmetallic washers fiber bolt and thumbnut to secure loop search coil to clevis lower rod 3 Unlock S rod camlock and insert clevis low er rod into curved S rod so that stainless steel spring clip buttons line up and lock...

Page 5: ...ll ing down on the front of each of the two latches on the bottom of the control box releasing the catch and hinging open the door The non rechargeable battery holder can use many different types of batteries including rechargeable This holder is designed for standard size penlight AA batteries which should be 50 mm 10mm Battery lengths shorter than this will likely cause problems with this power ...

Page 6: ...charging with the QUICK charge setting will damage the system Using the Standard Battery Holder 1 Slide open the battery holder lid decal side of battery holder by applying gentle upward pressure on the tab of the door so that it unlocks Slide the door away from the battery box exposing the cell positions 2 Remove any old cells from the holder Note the and positions of each cell and the and for ea...

Page 7: ... manufacturers or with other White s models may vary Charging 1 There is no harm charg ing overnight using the OVERNIGHT charge setting regardless of the battery s current condition However before charging with the QUICK charge setting determine battery condition by inserting bat tery into the instrument and turning the instrument ON If the instrument will not turn ON or if voltage tests eight vol...

Page 8: ...hen the bat tery reaches eight volts Like a personal computer there are times such as low battery conditions when the microprocessor of a metal detector becomes out of sequence with the rest of the circuitry This is often noted by peculiari ties in the nondiscrimination or pinpointing TRIG GER squeezed modes Symptoms may be blaring or silent non discriminate or pinpoint modes depth indication inac...

Page 9: ... be prompted to raise the search coil loop to waist level Press ENTER This air balances the DFX BEEP Next the ground balance prompt appears asking you to lower the search coil loop to the ground Press ENTER Ground mineral ization will be balanced out BEEP The last screen will be the live search screen You will hear the THRESHOLD hum Sweep the search coil over the ground and listen for a solid repe...

Page 10: ...s the detector makes As the loop is passed over metal that is likely trash the sound will be inconsistent Trash targets typi cally produce a shorter sputter type sound that is often broken or double in nature Place a steel pop bottlecap on the ground Pass the loop over it several times to become familiar with this sound at different loop sweep speeds Note that an aluminum twist off bottlecap canno...

Page 11: ...arget several times and look at the SignaGraph The SignaGraph automatically clears itself FADE RATE so that it doesn t fill the screen with information from past loop sweeps An operator has limited time to look at the SignaGraph If you want to look at the information again sweep the loop over the target several more times The fading of the SignaGraph information can be slowed or speeded FADE RATE t...

Page 12: ...N are displayed the target could be an Indian Head or zinc penny Dollar Large non iron can also produce this indication large brass jar lids IRON REJECT targets will produce only a SignaGraph if VISUAL DISC is ON IRON 95 ACCEPTED or VISUAL DISC OFF IRON 18 ACCEPTED or VISUAL DISC OFF Foil Possible ring 10 AC CEPTED or VISUAL DISC OFF Pull tab Pos sible ring 30 ACCEPTED or VISUAL DISC OFF Ring Poss...

Page 13: ...p pro vided with the DFX is a high powered 9 5 inch design This harmonically tuned loop s strongest traits are in the detection depth and ground cover age areas If pinpointing becomes difficult or criti cal refer to the Advanced Pinpointing Techniques on this page DEPTH SCREEN DISPLAYED WHEN THE TRIGGER IS SQUEEZED SQUEEZE TRIGGER Advanced Pinpointing Techniques 1 Targets that are near the surface ...

Page 14: ...tings discriminates re jects most common junk items like nails foil pull tabs and hot rocks and responds to most coins and large jewelry Use in lawns parks and playgrounds where lots of trash rejection is desired Coin Jewelry less discrimination less trash rejection desirable because of the high degree of variance found in jewelry alloys More digging required Good program for lawns parks and play ...

Page 15: ...press ENTER to change setting Pressing ENTER again changes back to the original setting press ENTER press ENTER RECTANGLE AROUND THE TITLE MOVES TO THE SETTING USE ARROW KEYS TO ADJUST THE SETTING UP OR DOWN ADJUSTMENT EXAMPLE TIP To quickly increase to maximum hold ENTER and press ARROW up To quickly decrease to minimum hold the ENTER and press AR ROW down ADJUSTMENT EXAMPLE 1 TARGET VOLUME How l...

Page 16: ...at feature adjustment screen last just prior to squeezing and releasing the TRIGGER for searching Then during searching press either ARROW to return directly to that adjustment screen Hot Key Shortcuts HOT KEYS will save time as they allow easy access from the search mode to the most needed adjustments They are painted on the bottom of the control box for field reference NOTICE HOT KEY shortcuts wi...

Page 17: ...sly saved custom program EEPROM is a special type of computer memory made for this purpose Electrical Eras able Programmable Read Only Memory Chapter 4 DFX Basic Adjustments 1 SQUEEZE TRIGGER 2 PRESS ENTER FOR PRESET PROGRAMS SCROLL DOWN WITH ARROW KEYS 3 THEN PUSH MENU Once all of the changes you desire have been made to any Preset Program or existing Custom Program squeeze and release the TRIGGE...

Page 18: ...you can replace it with a new program using the same procedure as described above The old program can only be erased when a new program is stored in that posi tion 8 You can NAME a custom program and at a later date replace the program while maintaining the same name Develop the changes first to any pro gram then use the SAVE method which maintains the old name while storing the new program To keep...

Page 19: ...ching Tip Select the loudest comfortable level lower with headphones higher without Settings from 48 63 are available 2 Audio Threshold The slight hum or background tone which is nor mally heard continuously during searching Select THRESHOLD with the ARROW controls and press ENTER The current threshold level will sound continuously The number designating the current level is shown on the right sid...

Page 20: ...quencies select high TONE levels high num bers Settings from 0 255 are available 4 Audio Disc The ability of the detector to reject trash by producing different sounds for different types of targets Trash is rejected by going silent or producing a broken cut short sound Valuables are detected by a smoother more solid sound Select AUDIO DISC with the ARROW controls use the ENTER control to turn AUD...

Page 21: ...non motion searching mode with SILENT SEARCH ON When SILENT SEARCH is ON the all metal pinpointing mode continues to produce a threshold This may not be noticed as once the pinpoint mode detunes for better target center locating the threshold is not present However releasing re squeezing and holding the TRIGGER with the loop at waist level a threshold will be noted Press ENTER Tip A threshold hum ...

Page 22: ...iminate program will produce a lower pitched beep High pitched or low pitched beeps are directly determined by the discrimination settings An operator can select discriminate settings through the selection of an entire Program or by adjusting the accept and reject V D I numbers in the Pro Options under Discrimination EDIT All Metal Channel When the loop is not in All Metal Channel When the loop is...

Page 23: ...by pressing either ARROW control Settings from 1 85 are availabLE 8 D C Sensitivity Used to select the sensitivity degree that the detector is responsive to signals while the detector is being used in non discriminate ALL METAL modes These are modes that do not require movement of the loop to respond D C SENSITIVITY fine tunes stability and pinpointing Select D C SENSITIVITY with the ARROW controls...

Page 24: ...lay to turn the BACKLIGHT on holding the TRIGGER and pressing MENU will bring up the BACKLIGHT adjustment screen Release the TRIGGER and press ARROW up to select a level you can see the display Squeeze and release the TRIGGER to continue Tip Use only when needed and only as bright as needed for acceptable display visibility Backlight use will decrease battery life The brighter the level the higher...

Page 25: ...rograms You may need to use the EMERGENCY VIEWING ANGLE PROCEDURE to see the display Select the program you desire use the ENTER control to enter Air Ground Balance then again use the EMERGENCY VIEWING ANGLE PROCE DURE if the display is unreadable VIEWING ANGLE is preset at average levels in the factory preset programs The display may be unreadable at either of the extreme settings in a particular...

Page 26: ...N OFF 24 V D I SENSITIVITY Response intensity to produce a display indication 3rd V D I digit 86 and higher 25 D C PHASE Measurement of ground or metal target during pinpointing 26 GRAPH AVERAGING SignaGraph information collects over multiple loop passes 27 GRAPH ACCUMULATING Emphasizes common or predominate SignaGraph 28 FADE RATE Clears or fades noncurrent SignaGraph information bars PREAMP GAIN...

Page 27: ... PRO OPTIONS back to PRESET PROGRAMS and BASIC ADJUSTMENTS The categories will only reappear if MENU is again pressed or at spe cific times during scrolling to offer short cuts From this point forward we will assume that you know how to use the MENU control the Arrow Controls to make a selection the ENTER control to enter or select that option the Arrow Controls to make adjustments and the MENU to ...

Page 28: ...d too far away from the target center OFF When OFF the signal will remain original size giving some indication of its size and shape Manual shrinking is completed by squeezing and releasing the TRIGGER several times as the loop is passed over the target Manual shrinking can completely eliminate the target If the target no longer responds after manual shrinking move the loop away from the target sq...

Page 29: ...uirement to modes which are ordinarily non motion It is also known to produce some variations in the responses to hot rocks rocks more mineralized than the surrounding ground which change with different speed selections Only enough S A T SPEED required to maintain stability is recommended Typically normal coin searching requires slower lower number speeds beach hunting and relic hunting require sl...

Page 30: ...eat for coin jew elry and relic searching Can be used in combina tion with MIXED MODE 4 V C O Voltage Controlled Oscillator produces a higher pitched tone the stronger the target becomes Voltage Controlled Oscillator is a feature that will only work in the non discriminate modes When it is ON the stronger the response the higher the pitch of the sound An excellent aid in pinpoint ing V C O will on...

Page 31: ... modes will produce the same volume of response on all detected targets regardless of depth The use of MODULATION allows for the singling out of deep targets in the standard discriminate mode It may save time by eliminating the checking of each target with the depth indication in the pinpoint mode Tips If you have excellent hearing and want to single out deep targets by their lower volume response...

Page 32: ...ion 7 Trac View When ON TRACK appears on right side of dis play when AUTOTRAC makes adjustments to the Ground Balance setting TRAC VIEW offers a way to observe Autotrack ing When ON TRACK will appear momentarily on the right hand side of the display just above the SignaGraph while AUTOTRAC is adjusting This information is valuable when attempting to determine an appropriate Trac Speed It may also ...

Page 33: ...nough track ing can result in the ground balance setting never catching up with changing ground TRAC VIEW is used to see how much tracking is occurring Generally a faster higher number TRAC SPEED is needed for more consistent ground conditions Slower TRAC SPEEDS lower numbers is needed for more inconsistent ground conditions TRACK appearing every three to five sweeps of the loop is the ideal settin...

Page 34: ...et is in dicated by a loss or slight decrease in the threshold as the loop approaches the ground in the all metal mode Tips Recommended only for experienced opera tors who fully understand ground rejection Settings from 10 10 are avail able G E B Trac section 10 Trac Inhibit Prevents AUTOTRAC from tracking the ground during target detection TRAC INHIBIT ON prevents the AUTOTRAC feature from alteri...

Page 35: ...ing To maintain a manual setting the Automatic Air Ground sequence must be avoided by squeezing and releasing the TRIGGER when and if the Air Balance instruction appears Air Balance instruc tions may appear during Basic Adjustment or Pro Options selections following the manual adjust ment When manually adjusting the Ground Balance it is necessary to make an adjustment in COARSE and or FINE then sq...

Page 36: ...E settings of 255 represent a ground rejection level similar to a V D I number of 10 This V D I range from 95 to 10 represents the ground rejec tion range of this instrument If ground balance either automatic or manual occurs near the 255 COARSE setting significant loss in sensitivity can be expected to targets which indicate in the V D I number range of 1 to 10 However manual ground balance doesn ...

Page 37: ...d in the Coin Program Each time a factory Preset Program is ENTERed all unsaved settings are overwritten by the factory recommended settings Only the Custom Programs will save your custom settings through Preset Pro gram selections Accepting a wider range of V D I numbers will have an impact on detection depth particularly for very deep targets that are difficult for the display to identify Positiv...

Page 38: ...o minus 30 to 40 may not be practi cal While ACCEPTing these minus numbers a reduced sensitivity setting may help eliminate some of these small bits of unwanted foil ACCEPTing all V D I numbers will produce the best overall detection depth however with the amount of trash in most areas searching with no rejection is seldom practical TONE I D is a more practical choice The idea of discrimination is...

Page 39: ...esire ENTER changes ACCEPT REJECT AR ROWS drag that ACCEPT REJECT status EN TER again changes ACCEPT REJECT ARROWS drag that new ACCEPT REJECT status etc BLOCK EDIT not only saves time if large sections of the V D I target numbers are to be changed it also allows peace of mind in the certainty of how all the V D I numbers are set In the same amount of time it takes to view all the V D I number s c...

Page 40: ...or reject then use LEARN ACCEPT to accept only that specific target If using a stan dard program and a specific unwanted trash target is being detected use the LEARN REJECT to change the pro gram to reject it If you do not return to the LEARN selection screen and turn LEARN OFF the detector will continue to learn AC CEPT or REJECT every metal target it encounters Selecting LEARN OFF after you have l...

Page 41: ... targets Slower RECOVERY SPEEDs do not work very well in high trash areas However they will have bet ter responses on very deep targets Slower speeds also have more definitive discrimination sounds A custom setting needs to be found that suits the preferences of the individual and the conditions in the area As a general rule the closer together the metal targets are in an area the faster the recove...

Page 42: ...ting is if an iron target is close to a good metal the high degree of bias against iron may cause the detector to cancel both responses Another disad vantage is that all targets iron and non iron tend to start sounding more broken at high levels of BOT TLECAP REJECT The operator needs to fine tune BOTTLECAP REJECT according to their prefer ences and the conditions being searched Some ground conditi...

Page 43: ...onse beep or reject 95 and not hear a target like re sponse from 95 target types The HOT ROCK REJECT features allows a com promise between total rejection or total acceptance of the 95 V D I indication Disc Edit Accept or Reject of 95 will only control the visual displaying of 95 with the Visual Discrimination feature ON To reject or accept 95 with the audio discrimina tion Audio DISC must be on a...

Page 44: ...ctorʼs sweep speed is designed into the electrical circuit and not adjustable The SWEEP SPEED of the DFX is adjustable in all settings except a GROUND FILTER setting of 2 A GROUND FILTER setting of 2 has a fixed not adjustable sweep speed An adjustment range from 1 to 20 is available 1 is the slowest ideal best performing loop or search coil sweep speed 20 is the quickest ideal best per formance sw...

Page 45: ... are contained within the computer soft ware allowing full user adjustment The DFX GROUND FILTERING has an adjust ment range from 2 through 6 At a setting of 2 SWEEP SPEED is not adjustable fixed Selection of 2 filters allows for the best perfor mance in high trash areas of medium to low ground mineralization Combined with the RECOVERY SPEED and BOTTLECAP REJECTION the DFX will pull some good target...

Page 46: ...elimi nating a large number of REJECTed REJECTed REJECT V D I num bers from appearing on the display The disadvan tage is that much of the visual display information will not appear for you to interpret questionable target responses Display section Tips Typically you re not interested in the REJECTed REJECTed REJECT target information Elimi nating it from appearing reduces or cleans up the display...

Page 47: ...he detector will become unstable and the display indications unreliable Low ground mineralization is typically a good indication that high V D I sensitivity settings are appropriate Heavy mineralization or electrical interference are conditions where a lower V D I Sensitivity setting is appropriate This feature is designed to allow adjustment of the display stability However because the instrument...

Page 48: ...e detector mea sures This in turn produces inconsistencies in the relationships of these features When considering specific numbers it is important to know D C phase is provided by the 15 kHz channel without normalization The V D I scale is distorted expanded in the lower end of the scale foil nickel and compressed in te higher end of the scale copper silver Display section Tips In specific ground c...

Page 49: ...oes not all the available information on the SignaGraph It averages the information received and shows this average on the SignaGraph When used in com bination with ACCUMULATE it has more infor mation to average which results in more accurate indications of trends FADE is suggested to clear the display of old information rather than excessive TRIGGERing Tips Most beneficial when used in combination...

Page 50: ...ng of 1 equals the least degree of fading A maximum setting of 14 selects a very quick fade rate The SignaGraph information will automatically clear from the graph quickly Ideally a Fade Rate should be selected that allows time to adequately view the SignaGraph information yet still clear the graph in a timely manner Tips Recommended for all but the SINGLE SWEEP mode Adjust the rate of FADEing to ...

Page 51: ...ever encounter an area where maximum PREAMP GAIN can be used Electrical interference may make it difficult to receive an Air Balance at high PREAMP GAIN settings Selections such as MIXED MODE or AUDIO DISC OFF may not allow as high a PREAMP GAIN level as other selections This is normal as some of these modes naturally see more targets and ground and they may still provide superior per formance and ...

Page 52: ...ree multifrequency options are automatically OFF To turn BEST DATA OFF requires the selection of one of the three remaining methods In other words an opera tor never turns OFF a multifrequency method they simply select the desired method and turn it ON all other methods are automatically turned OFF The MULTI FREQUENCY selection in use appears continuously on the bottom of the LCD display during se...

Page 53: ...isplay or dis crimination resolution in this foil nickel area of the scale DISC EDIT will have to be configured to take advantage of this expanded resolution The advan 32 V D I Normalization 33 1 Frequency 3 kHz 1 Frequency 3 kHz Operates at 3 kHz exclusive ly Provides for superior high iron mineral rejection and depth when salt is not present Also provides for better depth on higher conducting met...

Page 54: ...tory program to one of the EEPROM positions it is no longer a Factory Preset Program and thus will save for future use EEPROM stands for a special type of electronic memory chip Electrical Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory This memory chip allows the user to store up to four of their own programs for future use through battery changes and storage To use a custom EEPROM Program Simply 1 Turn t...

Page 55: ... is to dig all the aluminum lead and brass which can be tedious to the point of frustration in trashy areas Popular Performance modifications include Tone I D ON V C O ON Ground Filtering 2 for lower mineral areas 4 for more mineralized areas Auto Track Offset 2 Visual Disc ON D C Phase ON Re save any changes if future use is desired AC Sensitivity 65 1 Frequency 3 kHz Re save any changes if future...

Page 56: ... ON OFF AUTOTRAC TRAC VIEW ON OFF AUTOTRAC AUTOTRAC TRAC INHIBIT ON OFF COARSE G E B 0 255 FINE G E B 0 255 DISC EDIT 95 95 BLOCK EDIT 95 95 LEARN ACCEPT ON OFF LEARN REJECT ON OFF RECOVERY SPEED 1 40 BOTTLECAP REJECT 1 20 HOT ROCK REJECT 0 20 SWEEP SPEED 1 20 GROUND FILTERING 2 6 VISUAL DISC ON OFF ICONS ON OFF V D I SENSITIVITY 0 99 D C PHASE ON OFF GRAPH AVERAGING ON OFF GRAPH ACCUMULATE ON OFF...

Page 57: ... PINPOINT ON OFF S A T SPEED 0 10 TONE I D ON OFF V C O ON OFF MODULATION ON OFF AUTOTRAC TRAC VIEW ON OFF AUTOTRAC AUTOTRAC TRAC INHIBIT ON OFF COARSE G E B 0 255 FINE G E B 0 255 DISC EDIT 95 95 BLOCK EDIT 95 95 LEARN ACCEPT ON OFF LEARN REJECT ON OFF RECOVERY SPEED 1 40 BOTTLECAP REJECT 1 20 HOT ROCK REJECT 0 20 SWEEP SPEED 1 20 GROUND FILTERING 2 6 VISUAL DISC ON OFF ICONS ON OFF V D I SENSITI...

Page 58: ...pecialized circuitry can ignore the masking effect ground minerals have over metal targets Hot Rock A rock which contains a higher concentration of mineralization than the surrounding ground Matrix Refers to the total volume average of ground penetrated by a metal detector Menu Series of listings and prompts on a visual display designed to aid the operator in feature selection Metal Metallic subst...

Page 59: ... to the factory address soon after original purchase for the purpose of recording this information and keeping you up to date regarding White s ongoing research development The warranty does not cover damage caused by accident misuse neglect alterations modifications unauthorized service or prolonged exposure to corrosive compounds including salt Duration of any implied warranty e g merchantability...

Page 60: ...y trained and equipped They offer the same quality service as the factory Service before and after the sale is the cornerstone of our customer relations A Contact your Dealer There may be a quick simple fix or explanation that will prevent having to send the detector in for service B Double check the obvious such as batteries and try the detector in another area to be sure there isn t interference ...

Reviews: