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Equinox, Prospecting Work-around


Condor

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I spent the past couple days playing around with the EQ on some undug targets, some that I detected with the GPZ, then went over with the EQ.  My observations in Moderately Mild ground of Sunny Yuma.  Dropping the Sens down to 18 or lower didn't improve the bump falsing, but the targets disappeared.  Raising the Recovery Speed to 5 or higher knocked out 75 percent of the bump falsing.    If you raise the Recovery speed, you need to raise the threshold for low and slow or you won't hear the targets.  At a recovery speed of 5, you need a pretty good swing speed to make the micro nuggets sing out.  The smallest I found was .04 gram, the biggest was .48 gram.  I can't be sure what I'm losing in depth with the higher recovery speed, most of these targets are 1 to 2 inches.  Just like any new detector, it takes some time on the ground to get to know the nuances.  For most of my ground, a Sens of 23, Threshold 8 to 10, Recovery Speed 5 or 6.  On the hotter red dirt, Sens of 20 held up pretty well.  Park 2 got the bigger nuggets just fine, Field 2 nothing.  Bear in mind I'm concentrating on micro nuggets simply because there are more of them and I'm having fun finding something for my day out in the sun.   I'm liking this detector more every day. 

One you electronic geniuses can tell us why the higher Recovery Speed setting knocks down the bump falsing. 

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Default recovery speed for Gold Mode is 6 and that is the way I run it. Now I know why you were having so many bump issues compared to me. In my opinion reducing recovery speed below 5 is rarely a good idea with Equinox. 

Something weird about Field 2 not hitting stuff Park 2 will. If anything I might expect them to be the same if running in all metal or Field 2 to have an edge, not the other way around.

The following is cribbed from a much longer version here about the various modes but does mention some ideas worth nothing for nugget detecting.

IFrom the Equinox Instruction Manual page 22 (emphasis added):

Choosing the Right Detect Mode
Choosing the right Detect Mode is important to get the best performance for the environment you are detecting in. To easily get started, choose Park, Field, Beach or Gold* to suit your location. Search Profile 1 is suitable for general conditions. Search Profile 2 is optimised for more difficult conditions. Target sensitivity is enhanced, but extra noise may also result. Detailed descriptions of each Detect Mode are in the following pages.

*Equinox 800 only

When they say target sensitivity they are referring more to small target sensitivity than to depth, though the two are related.

minelab-equinox-search-profiles.jpg

 

The underlined portion above is further explained below in the portions detailing signal to noise ratios (click for larger version):

minelab-equinox-park-field-search-profiles-detail.jpg

Be sure to note and be very cautious about what they are doing with target id 1 & 2 as regards either shifting it into the ferrous range or blocking it entirely. For me and what I am doing I reverse those settings and even have been opening 0 up as a possible non-ferrous target. Maybe -1 also. Equinox seems to have nailed the divide between ferrous and non-ferrous but simply put I don't trust it yet (nor any detector really in that regard) and for nugget hunting in particular I pay very close attention to that range and what is going on. Micro jewelry hunters, fine gold chain hunters, etc. want to do the same because target id 1 & 2 is where that stuff reads, and possibly lower in high mineral soils. People that don't understand the last paragraph should ignore it entirely for now unless you really like digging trash.

The first thing I like to do is get away from the target zone, go wide open, and run the coil over the ground. Ground signals tend to exhibit in the -9 to -7 range. If the ground balance is off or sensitivity too high there will be constant puttering in that range. This is what I refer to as ground masking. It will exhibit more in Park 2 and Field 2 (and the Gold Modes) than in Park 1 and Field 1 and may have some bearing on which profile works best. You can try and find a better ratio of ground balance and sensitivity to alleviate the ground masking OR you can go the other way and jack the sensitivity up and then block that range from signaling. There may be advantages to either method depending on the ground and targets sought. The more ground masking you observe, the more important it is you keep recovery speed high to enable the ability to peek into areas of lower mineralization and between hot rocks. This in my opinion is the number one reason why Equinox can outperform BBS/FBS in high mineral ground. It is also where Equinox can outperform simple gold nugget detectors that have nothing more than ground balance to work with. The easiest way to toss that advantage away is run recovery speed too low.

 

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Yep, break out the Dunce Cap.  I had messed with that Recovery Speed setting the very first day over test nuggets and liked the way it sounded on a setting of 4.  I never thought to change it back, the machine stores your last settings.  Little did I know how bumpy it would make that coil.  With the factory default of 6, the coil is much better behaved, but still falses occasionally, certainly no where near what I was experiencing before. 

Belay all my previous complaints. 

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Recovery speed is also a ground filter - high recovery will more filter the ground signal .. - in more mineralized soil - it is better to high recovery speed ..in-low mineralized ground  lower recovery speed may be more deeper.... Now a short comparison programs  - air tests, the tests for gold 0.05gram-4.5mm O-segment.:Multi-F., sensitivity 20, recovery2: GOLD1 -11cm.., Gold2-13cm.., Park2-12.5cm... Test recovery speed  Park2 -gold 0.05gram -4.5mm-O segment: recovery speed 2-4-7: 12.5cm..-11.5cm..-9.5cm ...

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