3500 v F1A4 Jack Lange stage 2
- Thread starter trents99
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Help Support Prospecting Australia:
Hi fellas
I also have the f1a4 with the JL modifications...I am very pleased with the buy..have found gold ...altho nothing huge....This machine is very quiet in highly mineralized soils of WA and near power lines .
I find using this machine with the 11in commander mono is pretty deadly...I was not happy with the earphones so I purchased a $200 dollar set which made a huge difference as my hearing in right ear is around 60%.
I use timings on 2 and switch to medium size targets as a rule.
It is very easy to ground balance with the button on handle.
I discovered a fault not long after I purchased (I have had the machine for approx. 12 months now) I wasn't receiving a signal...sent it in to get fixed and they found a fault with the flexi lead
from the coil .....fixed it at no cost and now she purrs like a kitten.
Just the 1 hangup...it is very heavy when using the bigger coils so you need the bungee cord from detector to harness...and carry the control box on your belt..the pouch supplied flops around a bit so modify it to fit snuggly
Carry a spare set of batteries ....it will start warbling when your batteries run low...about 6 to 7 hours .
I hope that has been a help......cya later
I also have the f1a4 with the JL modifications...I am very pleased with the buy..have found gold ...altho nothing huge....This machine is very quiet in highly mineralized soils of WA and near power lines .
I find using this machine with the 11in commander mono is pretty deadly...I was not happy with the earphones so I purchased a $200 dollar set which made a huge difference as my hearing in right ear is around 60%.
I use timings on 2 and switch to medium size targets as a rule.
It is very easy to ground balance with the button on handle.
I discovered a fault not long after I purchased (I have had the machine for approx. 12 months now) I wasn't receiving a signal...sent it in to get fixed and they found a fault with the flexi lead
from the coil .....fixed it at no cost and now she purrs like a kitten.
Just the 1 hangup...it is very heavy when using the bigger coils so you need the bungee cord from detector to harness...and carry the control box on your belt..the pouch supplied flops around a bit so modify it to fit snuggly
Carry a spare set of batteries ....it will start warbling when your batteries run low...about 6 to 7 hours .
I hope that has been a help......cya later
It's good to hear some news from a F1A4m2 user. I have one as well and enjoy the build quality and quietness.
Laid up at moment but into it again asap.
Cheers Jaros
Laid up at moment but into it again asap.
Cheers Jaros
I had a brief play of an F1A4 recently. This one was standard, no mods. Here's a few thoughts:
Very stable threshold - seems more stable compared to the Sd2100 from what I remember
Very nice signal response - similar to a 2100, better than a 2200
Better than expected balance, considering there's 4 x D Cells stuffed in there
Audio output is very quiet - putting in a 1/4" socket would be the "must do" mod, and running an external booster or powerful headphones would help a lot.
Does pick up ground noises as you'd expect from a pre GPX model, but because the target response is so sharp, ground noises are easy to ID/ignore.
Did a quick comparison using a 0.3g test nuggie, in medium ground, against the 5000. The 5000 went a touch deeper but there wasn't much in it, and I did have an 11" mono on the gpx. The 5000 response was much louder, so yeah an audio booster and speaker would he a good addition to the F1a4.
Very stable threshold - seems more stable compared to the Sd2100 from what I remember
Very nice signal response - similar to a 2100, better than a 2200
Better than expected balance, considering there's 4 x D Cells stuffed in there
Audio output is very quiet - putting in a 1/4" socket would be the "must do" mod, and running an external booster or powerful headphones would help a lot.
Does pick up ground noises as you'd expect from a pre GPX model, but because the target response is so sharp, ground noises are easy to ID/ignore.
Did a quick comparison using a 0.3g test nuggie, in medium ground, against the 5000. The 5000 went a touch deeper but there wasn't much in it, and I did have an 11" mono on the gpx. The 5000 response was much louder, so yeah an audio booster and speaker would he a good addition to the F1a4.
Thanks for that Nenad, that is exactly what i have done with my treasuremate audio booster and it is a vast improvement.
Thanks for your comparison with the 5000--tis what i thought.
Jaros
Thanks for your comparison with the 5000--tis what i thought.
Jaros
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AuMan said:To state that there are controls on the box that are not connected is a pure lie. If anyone can produce a genuine JL level 1, 2 or 3 that has controls that are genuinely not connected and have not been tampered with, I will pay you $5000.
The funny thing is the bloke who bags the mods on the JL machines was offered the opportunity to do them in the beginning, but declined the offer. I put in a hell of a lot of time reverse engineering the circuits to create the mods, only to have them copied by that bloke and have him charge a small fortune for them. Not bad 'eh?
The other thing is you can buy a JL machine with the peace of mind that if something goes wrong with the machine(not just the mods) it WILL be repaired and if it does come back for repair any other improvements that have come about since that machine was done will also be applied.
It really disappoints me to learn of such rubbish that is posted behind the closed walls of facebook. These people really should be ashamed of themselves. How about they come here and say it to my face where I can reply.....
AuMan
Ps, the copiers are always no less than 3 steps behind
No offence brother, but to reverse engineer something is to copy it. all be it in a way that you know and understand how it works.
Hmmmm, well not quite, to copy it would be to reverse engineer it then from that reverse engineering, produce a "clone". The reverse engineering is purely so I can fully understand every aspect of the circuit and ensure that just about anything can be repaired and make sure that the mods have no negative effects on the operation.Wintersnake said:AuMan said:To state that there are controls on the box that are not connected is a pure lie. If anyone can produce a genuine JL level 1, 2 or 3 that has controls that are genuinely not connected and have not been tampered with, I will pay you $5000.
The funny thing is the bloke who bags the mods on the JL machines was offered the opportunity to do them in the beginning, but declined the offer. I put in a hell of a lot of time reverse engineering the circuits to create the mods, only to have them copied by that bloke and have him charge a small fortune for them. Not bad 'eh?
The other thing is you can buy a JL machine with the peace of mind that if something goes wrong with the machine(not just the mods) it WILL be repaired and if it does come back for repair any other improvements that have come about since that machine was done will also be applied.
It really disappoints me to learn of such rubbish that is posted behind the closed walls of facebook. These people really should be ashamed of themselves. How about they come here and say it to my face where I can reply.....
AuMan
Ps, the copiers are always no less than 3 steps behind
No offence brother, but to reverse engineer something is to copy it. all be it in a way that you know and understand how it works.
As for the copiers being no less than 3 steps behind, well I'll happily admit I'm a lot more than 3 steps behind Minelab!
AuMan
P924 said:
G'day John,
Well if you are using a small coil, the best setting to have it on for finding small gold that the gpx's have missed(and won't even see) is the "fine" timing and "tiny" on the frequency switch. Start out with the gain at the fp setting and get a gauge for the ground conditions. In mild ground you will be able to turn the gain up until the ground starts to become noisy or the detector does not want to ground balance properly, then back it off a little(ground balance after adjusting the gain). If the gain is set too high you will get a lot of ground noise. If you are detecting white pipeclay heaps turn the gain up as much as you can stand.
Another neat trick is if you are in noisy hot variable ground and you are finding many ground noises, in the fine timing, switch the channel select switch to ch1(ground balance whenever you move this switch). The detector will be much more settled on the ground and still extremely sensitive. I found a 0.03g bit a couple of weeks ago doing this, sure its not big, but better than none! However then knowing that there was gold at the particular spot I slowly worked out from this spot and then pinged a 0.13g bit very close by from about 4" depth. Both bits were quite obvious. The other timings are not as sensitive as the tiny timing in ch1, in their ch1's. Channel one in the sd2000/2100 and 2200 is not very sensitive, but is quiet in bad ground conditions. In the f1 "fine" timing, it has taken the quiet ground trait and maintained sensitivity.
Also start out with your battery output voltage down low, if the ground conditions allow you can use higher voltage which seems to brighten up small targets more.
When your detecting an area, go low and slow, overlap each swing, just like you are painting the ground.
Good luck out there!
AuMan
Au man is it worth upgrading the mod2 to the mod3? I'm not interested in the battery mod just settings ect,ect, thanks.kim
Just got back from Nundle, no gold ,just wire,steel &old bottle tops,just did around the old church at bowling alley. Ground very hard,so couldn't dig too deep. The F1A4 ran well,I ran the timing in tiny.The frequency in small then tiny. The vol up,gain just past std. & the threshold fairly high. Next I have to get a crow-bar. P924
Awesome mate glad to here shes running sweet
glad to here shes running sweet
Not hijacking the thread but:
The difference between L2 AND L3 is that it has a newer charger and the current drain goes up from 800mA TO 1.5A. The extra "juice" makes the L3 search deeper.
That is the explanation I received. More powerful and deeper seeking--- $600.00. dearer as well.
Jaros
The difference between L2 AND L3 is that it has a newer charger and the current drain goes up from 800mA TO 1.5A. The extra "juice" makes the L3 search deeper.
That is the explanation I received. More powerful and deeper seeking--- $600.00. dearer as well.
Jaros
You high jacker you :lol:
Sorry couldn't help myself.
Twapster
Peter
Ill be taking my F1A4 Mod 2 around Ophir this weekend, so will be able to report back soon!
That's great Twapster can't wait for the results. Good luck mate.
Jaros
Jaros
Giddy up twapster.go gettem.
Twapster
Peter
Reporting back, while I didn't hit any yellow was very impressed on finding ridiculously small pieces of wire deep in the ground with the F1A4,......I guess that's what they were made for, the Xterra 70 made no noise on these targets (did have it dumbed down to avoid ground issues), but the F1 twanged on these like a coke can. The only issue was constant pea size iron stone 6 inches down making the detector sound like I was on a 5 ounce nugget. Starting to hear the difference in tone but def need more practice. The F1 is super sensitive to the small stuff using the 8 inch stock coil.
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