CHAPTER 3 Basic Settings

This chapter covers some of the basic set- block menu. However, when a Live Control
tings of V3i including sensitivity, discrimina- item is selected, pressing the VIEW button will
tion, audio, and ground balance. It does not access a more detailed menu:
cover any settings which alter the fundamental
operating mode of the detector. See Chapter 4
for operating modes.
The menu screens presented here are all
accessed from the 6-block menu, like this:
[press VIEW]

In some cases, the 6-block menu and the

Live Control menu are the same. In other cases
(as with the Audio controls above) there may
be difference. In general, the Live Control
menus have more settings than the 6-block
menus.
Tip: The Live Control Bar is the collection of
buttons across the bottom of the screen.
Each button is called a Live Control Item.
Each 6-block menu contains the most common Each item consists of one or more set-
settings for that category. For most of the fac- tings. Press VIEW for any Live Control
Item to access a Live Control Menu for
tory programs, these six categories can also be
that item. Keep in mind that the detector is
found in the Live Control Bar. The pop-up set-
“live” while accessing the Live Control Bar,
tings for each item in the Live Control Bar but is suspended when you enter a Live
usually has a subset of what is found in the 6- Control Menu.

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 Spectra V3i Advanced User’s Guide
been modified, whereas a “” symbol indi-
cates changes have been made but have also
been saved. A “±” means that changes have
been made and not saved. If you make changes
Programs to a factory program and decide you want to
restore it to factory settings, simply select
This was briefly covered in Chapter 2. V3i has Restore and you will see this screen:
9 preset factory programs:

Select the name of the program you want to

• Coin & Jewelry - Accepts most common restore, then TAB down to the From selection
coins, along with rings and jewelry. and choose Library Program to retrieve the
• Salt Beach - Coin & Jewelry using salt sub- original factory settings.
traction mode. Another quick way to restore a program is
• Relic - Mixed mode, no Tone ID, no VCO. from the Live Control Bar. Select Program and
press ENTER+MENU and a small pop-up
• Prospecting - Optimized for nugget hunting. appears:
• Deep Silver - Optimized for deep silver.
• Meteorite - Accepts most iron.
• High Trash - Fast recovery response for bet-
ter trash separation.
• Hi-pro - Advanced Coin & Jewelry.
• Mixed Mode Pro - Advanced features includ-
ing Stereo mixed-mode.
A tenth program, called Common, allows you Select Restore Defaults to restore the currently
to make certain settings (such as volume) com- selected program. We will cover V3i’s memory
mon to multiple programs. This is covered in structure and program levels in Chapter XX.
Chapter XX.
Tip: Program changes are automatically
Notice that Coin & Jewelry is preceded by saved when V3i is turned off. If you
a “” symbol, Relic is preceded by a “±”, remove the battery pack instead of press-
whereas the other programs have a “” sym- ing the OFF button, then program changes
bol. The “” symbol means a program has not will not be saved.

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 Spectra V3i Advanced User’s Guide
Three things can limit the maximum gain
setting. The first is external noise, such as elec-
tro-magnetic interference (EMI) including 50/
60Hz mains and RF. EMI typically shows up
Sensitivity as erratic operation and noisy audio. Secondly,
in highly mineralized ground excessive gain
Once you select a basic program you may can cause the input amplifier to overload or
need to adjust the sensitivity settings. Most of operate at close to overload due to the large
the V3i programs are set up with nominal sen- ground signal, limiting the available range for
sitivities, but some (notably the ‘Pro’ pro- target detection. Finally, the quality of the loop
grams) are set up a little hotter. null can also push the input amplifier toward
overload. White’s V-compatible loops are
Most users believe sensitivity should be designed to minimize null limitations, but
run as high as possible. In some cases this is third-party loops typically have wide variances
true, but if you find the detector is noisy and in the quality of the null which can require a
falses a lot you probably need to turn it down.
lower Rx Gain.
There are three primary sensitivity settings,
plus a boost mode. Selecting Sensitivity from EMI affects the lower end of the signal
the 6-block menu takes you to the following range, which more directly impacts target sen-
menu: sitivity. Both ground signal and loop null affect
the upper end of the signal response range,
which usually results in a quicker overload.
Ground signal and loop null affect target sensi-
tivity only so far as the Rx Gain must be
reduced to prevent overload.
Tip: Always address EMI noise by first
adjusting the transmit frequency offset.
See the Frequency section for more info.

All-Metal Sensitivity
All-Metal Sensitivity (sometimes called
Selecting Sensitivity from the Live Control Bar
DC sensitivity) determines the responsiveness
gives you this:
of the all-metal channel. Only target signals
above the threshold cause an all-metal
response, and a higher all-metal sensitivity set-
ting will increase the all-metal audio response
rate to targets. This setting affects all-metal
modes including pinpoint and mixed-mode,
but does not affect normal discrimination
Rx Gain
mode. Setting this too high will make the all-
Rx Gain (sometimes called preamp gain) metal audio chatter. See Chapter 5 for a more
sets the gain of the receiver’s input amplifier. detailed discussion of audio responses.
In most cases, you want to set this as high as
possible and still maintain stable operation.

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 Spectra V3i Advanced User’s Guide
Discrimination Sensitivity
Discrimination Sensitivity (sometimes
called AC sensitivity) determines the respon-
siveness of the discrimination channel. This is
a threshold level, so only target signals above Audio
the threshold cause a discrimination response.
Setting this too high will cause noise and fals- Selecting Audio from the 6-block menu
ing in the discrimination audio. See Chapter 5 gives this screen:
for a more detailed discussion of audio
responses.

Tx Boost
Tx Boost is transmit boost. When enabled,
it triples the transmit voltage applied to the
loop (from 10V to 30V) and increases the
depth. Using this feature has two major draw-
backs: it can overload some loops (reduce the
Rx Gain), and it quickly drains the battery.
There are two common uses for Tx Boost. Selecting Audio Level from the Live Control
One is when hunting an unusually “clean” area Bar gives you this:
where most targets have been cleaned out, and
only deep targets remain. TX Boost typically
gives about a 1” depth increase. The other is
when EMI noise is severe. Reducing the Rx
Gain reduces EMI but also reduces target sig-
nal strength. Applying Tx Boost increases tar-
get signal strength but does not increase EMI
noise, so Tx Boost in combination with Target Volume (or just Volume) sets the audio
reduced Rx Gain can be used to improve sig- volume level for target responses (the beeps).
Audio Threshold (or just Threshold) sets the
nal-to-noise.
volume level for the threshold tone, which is
A note about loops: V3i uses induction- the constant “hum” heard in the absence of a
balanced loops which rely on a “null” target. In these menus, both target & threshold
between the transmit coil and the receive volumes are applied to the audio output you
coil. The quality of the null may determine are currently using: speaker, wired head-
the point at which the detector overloads, phones, or wireless headphones. If, for exam-
especially when running Tx Boost along ple, you set the volume while using the
with high Rx Gain settings. Null quality
speaker, then plug in a pair of headphones, you
varies loop-to-loop, so some loops may
may need to readjust the volume for the head-
overload at lower gain than others.
phones. The advanced Audio menu includes
individual settings for all three audio outputs.
The Tone submenu allows you to change
the individual tone frequencies. We’ll cover
this in more detail in Chapter XX. The Tone ID
selection allows you to turn on/off the multi-

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 Spectra V3i Advanced User’s Guide
tone target response system. By default, Tone mary method of setting up the discrimination
ID is turned on in the factory programs. The pattern for V3i.
Wireless Headphone selection lets you enable
Selecting Disc. from the Live Control Bar
and disable wireless headphone use, plus set gives you this:
options. This is covered in Chapter 5.

Discrimination
Again, this is a scrollable list of VDI's in
Selecting Disc. from the 6-block menu which you can individually enable (X-ed) or
gives this screen: disable their response.
Other settings will be covered in subse-
quent chapters.

Frequency
Selecting Frequency from the 6-block
menu gives this screen:
For now we will only cover the first item. The
V.D.I. Accept menu item can be used to enable
and disable target responses for individual
VDI numbers. Selecting this option pops up
the following:

The only control we will cover in this chapter

is Frequency Offset. See Chapter 4 for discus-
sion about frequency modes. The Frequency
Offset control provides slight offsets (5 steps)
to the selected frequency(ies) and is useful for
This screen lists all the VDI numbers from minimizing EMI from power mains and RF,
-95 to +95, each with a selection box. A box and for minimizing interference from other
that is X-ed enables that VDI response, an detectorists. In general, adjust the offset up or
empty box disables that VDI. This is the pri- down to find the quietest setting.

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 Spectra V3i Advanced User’s Guide

Ground
Tracking
The Live Control Bar version of this con- Selecting Ground Tracking from the 6-
trol (above) makes finding the quietest offset block menu gives this screen:
easy. Select Transmit Frequency and highlight
the Offset box. Next, with the loop held in the
air, pull/hold the trigger to enable pinpoint
mode. EMI interference will be heard as repet-
itive audio noise, and the pinpoint bars will
bounce around like this:

Selecting Ground Tracking from the Live Con-

trol Bar gives you this:

Continue to hold the trigger while adjusting

the Offset to find the quietest setting. The pin-
point bars should be minimal and steady:

AutoTrac and LockTrac select between

automatic and manual ground balance. Auto-
Trac is the default in most programs. If you
select LockTrac, the Live Control popup will
change slightly because Soil and Speed are
only valid for AutoTrac:

Release the trigger and you’re set.

Tip: Be mindful of personal electronics you
are carrying. There have been reports of
cell phones causing EMI problems with
detectors.
Ground tracking modes and options are
covered in detail in Chapter 4.

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