As an old Whites dealer I went to a 2 hour class on how to run the V3i. After a few minutes we could tell that our distributor aka teacher didn't know anything about it. LOL. We left 2 hours later being dumber than when we started. Whites best and simple coin and jewelry machine is the M6.
It's unfortunate that the next generation of this machine which was going to be called the V4 never saw the light of day. The engineers on the project got into a dispute over how much money they were going to get paid for completing it and at least two of them went over to Minelab. This probably explains why mine lab is far ahead of its competition in technology. White's attempted to bring in new people but the code that programming was written in was so complicated they could not figure it out. Garrett now has the patent on a technology that was part of this project known as "Sine wave splitting" . Rumor has it that this technology in a metal detector would give it the ability to definitively know the difference between pull tabs and gold. If the V4 had been produced it would have obsoleted everything else on the market.
I was testing prototypes for them during that whole V4 debacle...what a mess!! The V3i will always be with me. The firmware updates on new machines can sometimes screw things up for end users.
My old Whites Spectrum XLT really started to pay off after I got a good number of hours on it and kept going back to the manual and learning the key settings and when to use them to maximum effect. Although with only the concentric coil to work with in my hot soil, I could never run the gain up anywhere near maximum without having to go down in sensitivity. Once you learned these top end Whites models, they were quite successful in their day and still formidable for anyone willing to learn and apply all their key settings.
The vdi numbers on the high end Whites machines were razor sharp on relatively shallow targets like digging clad. The spectrums could id the difference between a dime and copper penny at almost 100%. And clad to silver. With a small coil you can cherry pick the heck out of a trashy park or school with those machines.
I owned the V3i for a while and even I'm impressed it passed with flying colors! The key to that machine is really knowing how to dial it in - It has so many settings that you really can mess it up from the start (hence the ground balancing is key) - That machine really was way ahead of its time. Even for a 15 year old processor it's recovery speed is excellent and no other machine on the market today will show you what freq. is hitting the target. Right before Whites went out of business I was working on a carbon fiber control box and shaft to try to get them to release a modernized waterproof version. I'm really shocked out how stable his runs near that EMI though - I used to have issues under powerlines and would run the Band pass in those situations. Paystreak has a much better memory than me though I used to forget how to navigate that menu system all the time. I really did like those Whites tones on coins though. That MX7 could have been a great machine for them. The MX5 is still one of my favorite machines I ever used in the parks. I'd like to see a Tesoro with a concentric coil in that soil.
Glow in the dark buttons, I want that! Garrett needs to exploit this tech and get us a new detector soon! We need to be able to see the Simultaneous Multi-frequency Weighting in real time and be able to adjust it to fit our needs.
The best target check machine ever. The info just in the pinpoint was great while park hunting or nice yards you only wanted to dig high probability targets. I tried to get it to perform in iron for years and wasn't smart enough I guess. But what cutting edge for its time and we may never get one with a screen like that from any company. I found during that time when it was new I spent far too much time making a did no dig decision.
I can pretty much guarantee that there will never be a better display on any detector in our lifetime. The engineering/development that went into the V3i is beyond amazing. The V3i is the closest metal detector resembling the IPhone...it truly is a smart detector.
Watch the Scannerguy1968 test of the V3i to see some more of its capabilities. I love this machine. It’s one machine that won’t be going anywhere until I’m pushing up daises. There’s also a secret code to this machine that gives you access to the engineers menu.
The v3i is phenomenal if you weather the learning curve. For an amateur who only goes out on an accession weekend, it may take many, many years…having a simpler machine like the equinox or legend is a fun alternative even while learning the v3i
Mixed mode stereo is absolutely amazing. If we had the FMF on the v3i and the faster processor....And lightweight and completely wireless. I can dream. I ran a 18x15 on the v3i, the swing bungi is a must have. It found some really deep coins and relics. My buddy was playing around with the 10" coil with tx boost and 2.5 single frequency and found an 1844 quarter at a foot deep. There is a place for this machine and thats to cherry pick and then the Deus 2 to clean up everything left behind.
So advanced for its day bro!! even for now.. could use an ergonomic redesign and some simplification in the user interface... but what an amazing machine Jeremy
Friend, I hope you figure that one out. Manual ground and fine tune the threshold. All bells and whistles off..razor sharp all metal only. No ground tracking or bobbing to ground adjust, pure manual adjust.
The great V3i, damn sexy, Ive had 2, miss mine. Takes some time but its a beast. 13" Detech coil.. HOOVER machine. Sorry I never went to your shop, I was in Dexter for 6 years. Ill find a EBay V3i sooner or later. RIP Whites!!
I had mixed results with the V3i. In mixed mode, good ground it would go deep, but I had a bad time with EMI as well, had to hunt singles. I also had lousy results on the wet salt. I was very excited when it came out., “wow, finally a nice competition for Minelab”, WRONG!. It did not like salt and target ID on the wet was awful, past 4” it wouldn’t ID a quarter. Beachunter ID stunk too. It’s a shame because I really liked Whites as a company, American family story, shame they’re gone.
V3i did not perform well on my beaches too. Of course I did not hunt with it much at the beach because it is not a waterproof machine. I have seen many people hunt at the beach and destroy their machine because it was not waterproof. Whites was 30 miles away from me. Shame they are gone!!
Makes me wonder too. I just cannot bring up the nerve to sell them. They have sentimental value to me. Some people collect guns, cars or tools. I collect metal detectors!!
lol. I have a V3i, VX3, MXT, MX Sport, TM808 and a GMX. I'll never sell any of them. There is something about White's machines. They're more like a scientific instrument for doing brain surgery in the dirt.... I love the Deus 2, the Legend, and the CTX3030, but they just don't feel like the White's machines. Call me old fashioned. Spent a year hunting fire victims homes in Paradise, CA for free, with an MXT All Pro using 4x6 shooter coil. It worked flawlessly. Great video by the way. Love your channel and honesty.
