Whites TDI PRO OZ Series

Is there a current Whites metal detector repair agent in Australia?

Adrian,
Not sure if they are still in business but Gold search Australia at Dunnolly were the agents for Whites.
Unfortunately the website appears to be down at the moment so cant confirm either way. http://goldsearchaustralia.com/
The last activity on Facebook was Oct 3.

Not that I know of. Is there something wrong with the one you just got Adrian? Did Gold Search shut their doors?

Yes I am pretty sure that the Conductivity selectors are not setting the detector up correctly.
It seems to be OK in the All metals setting but the High and Low conductivity settings are unusual.

I have read a lot of reports re the TDI and I find it difficult to believe that the one I have is not faulty.
I went to an EMI free area this morning and the only diff was that I could set in a higher Gain setting.

If the tecta is set up for small gold with the Low conductivity setting then it will find small gold from approx 10 g down to about 0.15g near the surface but it will not respond to some larger deeper nuggs.
If it is set up for larger gold in the High setting then it does not respond to small gold up to 10g near the surface (within a few inches)

To use the tecta for beach work the H and L conductivity selections are very iffy and will miss some quite large rings of gold or brass. It will miss 8g 22k gold rings in the Low conductivity setting at any depth.

If the conductivity settings are working as per specs then I see very little purpose in their existence and that it is best to use the detector in the All metals selection and dig all targets. There is no point in checking to see if a signal is High or low conductive with the selectors because they are far too unreliable as they are.
As the detector stands at the moment I consider my Infinium and Sand Shark and 2300 to be better in all aspects for beach work in Australia.
    If you are using the TDI anywhere in any country it is essential that you know what metals are being detected or not detected in the High and Low Conductivity selections otherwise you could be doing a lot of swinging for zero return.

These tests were done in my back yard with gain at 3 and using a small mono to cut down the EMI...... Coins were all Aussie junk metal coins.

In Low conductivity.
 5, 10 & 20 cents give a strong signal but the fifty cent is very weak.
Small gold of 0.15g to 4.75g gave a good signal . A 7.8g 22 k ring did not signal.

In High Conductivity
there is zero signal on 5, 10, 20, and 50 cents .  1 and 2 dollar coins give a strong signal. A 6 inch rusty knife gave a strong signal.
  All of the above items signalled well in All Metal Conductivity.

So I am not sure now, maybe this TDI is working as it is supposed to. One thing is for sure though and that is, if you are using the TDI OZ at the beach then work in All Metal and dig everything.

Cant help with the settings Adrian, to long ago since I had and used my TDI. I could never really get my head around it, I did find my first bit of gold with it cant remember the weight it was about the size of a match head and only just heard it and it was on the surface! the target tone was about or close to the threshold sound. I was not getting any boot tacks or lead shot, maybe I had it set up wrong? Then I got the Z.

I have since sold the TDI and got the Equinox for the beach and now starting to do parks, the beaches seem to be drying up a bit up here.

Cheers

HI Pete.

I think the only way you wouldn't find boot tack is if the tecta was turned off or in High Conductivity mode . To get the match head size stuff you would have to use Low Conductivity  or All metal mode.
Just got back in from a bit more fiddling with this beast and I think I have changed my mind to, it is working ok.
The problem is me and my expectations from using other PIs. The TDI is slightly different.
It does have a bit of a dead spot in the timings where Australian 50 cent coins are concerned. They come in weak no matter what timing selection is set.

Depth is very good judging by the depth of the stuff I have been finding in the back yard using the 6 inch mono. Ground balance is no problem over some solid iron stone slabs that I have here. A bit more practice and I will have this thing under control.

Sounds like you have it sorted, Like I said I just didn't stick with it I think they are a good machine when figured out.
I think my problem was coming from a minilab Explorer SE running on the beach and dead smooth threshold, and then got TDI Pro Oz  I had never used a PI detector before and went out to Georgetown
and couldn't under stand why it wasn't running like the explore, oh well live and learn. Hope you have fun with it.


Cheers Peter

Pretty hard to beat an Explorer or any of the BBS and FBS detectors on the beach if you need discrimination.
      have used a few diff tectors for beach work and my old Sov XS is still my best beach discriminator type. But most single frequency VLF machines that operate in the 2.4 to 15khz range, do not respond well to small gold chains and broken rings etc. For some reason the BBS and FBS detectors that run frequencies up to 100khz are not good on small gold.
      Aside from that, Most single frequency metal detectors that run at 19khz up to 45khz or so  will respond well to most metal items inc very small gold and if it will GB down to wet salt sand then you will do well at the beach. I have always pushed the Gold Bug Pro DP for beach work if you don't need water proof. This detector has a disc mode but it is not good over wet sand, the VLF mode has full TID in the All Metal Ground Balance mode and is the mode to use on the beach.

Something I noticed with the TDI tonight is that using the 6 inch mono; Even with a Gain setting of 1 that killed all of the EMI in my house, Low Conductivity,  Max Volume and Threshold dead smooth plus Delay at 10usec; the detector still responded well to a 0.15g nugg at approx 3 inches in air and through a solid 3cm thick 2kg slab of iron stone......Very surprising.

21/10/18  10:45am

Tested the TDI response on some light weight gold chains and I would place it somewhere between my Spectrum XLT and 2300 for sensitivity. OK but not as good as I was expecting.

In "Low Conductivity" Mode.
TDI did not respond to these items




Did respond to these items.



And these. AU


Did not detect these  Ag & AU items. Rings are sil and 3 x 18k gold rings. The bangles are gold coloured aluminium.


The items that did not respond in the Low Conductivity mode did respond in the High mode.
So you can see that to find all good targets with this TDI at the beach it is still necessary to dig all targets and search in the All Conductivity mode.

You could of course be selective and just target specific items at the expense of missing some pretty good items.
   It was interesting that some lead sinkers of similar size could either be detected or not detected in the Low Conductivity mode....Maybe some were not pure lead.

Most of the 9k to 18k gold rings that I have are detected in the LOW Conductivity setting and produce a High tone while some 9k gold/sil alloy rings detect in the High setting. and give a low tone.
22k and largish 18k gold rings are detected in the High setting and produce a low tone as do most of my sil rings.....So you can once again see the necessity to hunt in the All Conductivity setting in order to detect all good items.

bicter wrote:Adrian,
Not sure if they are still in business but Gold search Australia at Dunnolly were the agents for Whites.
Unfortunately the website appears to be down at the moment so cant confirm either way. http://goldsearchaustralia.com/
The last activity on Facebook was Oct 3.

Just received word from Whites Electronics  USA that Gold Search Australia Dunolly is in the process of moving and may possibly be contacted through
goldsearchaustralia@gmail.com

A good report on the Whites TDI Pro Oz. Never did try mine on the beach, I think in the gold fields I was hunting a bit in low and all metal but mostly in low it seemed to run more stable in low.

Good report Adrian

Cheers Peter

From what I can figure, hunting for gold in the Low mode will find small gold with a High tone along with some rusty gold field rubbish. This mode will only respond to very large nuggs if they are close to the coil.
Gold hunting in the High mode will ignore all small gold. This mode will only respond to fairly large bits of gold and give a Low tone.  In either case, for the best chance of finding gold you must still check all signals whether they be high or low tone irrespective of the mode. Also it seems that certain levels of  ground mineralisation  can shift a tone from high to low and visa versa. Just to make the game fun.

26/10/18.
Hope to give the TDI a good try out this weekend, but as of now I feel that this metal detector is a great gold machine and a very deep seeking salt beach machine with excellent sensitivity to small gold items and coins..
You need to know and understand the three Conductivity modes and how they effect the response to different metals. The All Conductivity  zero Ground balance mode will have you digging  deeper than you want to. So whenever possible , this is the mode to use at the beach or use the GB  and the All conductivity mode if the sand is a bit noisy.....Careful use of the Gain, Pulse delay, Ground balance  and Volume controls will result in a smooth threshold over most ground types inc high mineral black sand. I was able to set the Gain, Delay and ground balance to run a dead smooth threshold over a 4 kg bag of pure magnetic black sand and still hit hard on all Aussie coins and a 4.7g gold nug. Coil used was an CoilTek 6 inch mono.

Just an opinion, I am very new to the TDI.

The TDI OZ is a fairly impressive detector and I  find it odd that of all the bazillions of metal detectors for sale on Ebay that the TDI is the least represented.
Must be so good that nobody wants to part with theirs.

Suffice to say that I will continue to use my Infinium in the water at the beaches and the TDI is my new wet and dry sand PI.(nudged the 2300 aside) and The Gold bug Pro DP when I want to find small gold chains and other jewellery items at the beach....All this will be when my bloody knee replacement has come good. Recovery is a bit slow for my liking.

Tried a 12 x 15 inch Commander mono on the TDI OZ today.
   Air test distance (for what it is worth) on an Aussie 20 cent coin was approx 3 inches better than with the stock 12 inch mono...It could have been more because I could not use max gain due to excessive EMI. Ditto with the stock Mono.
    Response to sub gram gold was poor for the big mono and was not unexpected for this size coil.

A 6 inch CoilTek mono gave quite good results on gold down to 0.15g. An 8 inch mono might be a better size for small nugg. When hunting for gold with this detector, Setting of the gain, ground balance, threshold  and timing correctly is critical for the TDI to find tiny gold. A smidgen out on the delay or a tad too jittery threshold and you may miss some nice lil nuggs.
     I have an eleven inch ML mono on the way. Will be interesting to see how that one performs.

      I was a bit hesitant in purchasing the TDI and admit that my first and immediate impression of the machine was a tad negative but it took less than 24 hours to realise that I had my hands on a very deep seeking PI and when operating over salt-water beach conditions with the stock 12 inch mono in the All conductivity pure PI non GB mode it is I feel, deeper detecting than the ATX, Dual Field, sea hunter , sand shark,   and second only to certain pretty good tectas  when fitted with similar size coils. I am not referring to gold field conditions.....So don't get me started.

Just my opinion and not gospel

04/11/18
Tried an 11 inch Commando mono with the TDI today.
Works very well and provides a much more even response across the total coil face to small gold and with sensitivity to small gold very close to that of the Coiltek 6 inch mono. and slightly better than the stock 12 inch. The 11 inch is about
250g heavier than the 12 inch.

The stock 6 inch Super pulse mono is good on sub gram gold and for a small coil, achieves nice depth on larger targets . The CoilTek 6 inch mono is excellent and also has a much more evenly distributed response pattern across the face of the coil.