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XP Orx Vs Equinox 800 Vs GM1000 Hot Ground Austrália


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Gees those fellas put in a lot of work raking & clearing that site, you need a lot of patience to do that sort of detecting. 

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Really long over 1 hour video. Edited judiciously, it could have been just as informative in about 10 minutes length or less. Otherwise, it is a fairly good example of what those three detectors can do on small to medium sized gold in hot rocks and iron trash.

I don't agree with using tracking ground balance on the Nox unless it is absolutely necessary. If the mineralization had been so high that the GM 1000 and the ORX were almost unusable then I might have considered tracking ground balance for the Nox. Ground mineralization was not that bad. I think using the 11" coil plus tracking ground balance made the Nox slower in recovery speed and gave it less separation capability than using auto/manual ground balance and the 6" coil.

 

 

Jeff

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I am a firm believer in a good VLF and this video shows just how well they handle Hot Aussie Dirt, Trouble is in Australia is getting Guys to see that there is another world beyond PI machines,  The XP is a shocker and works very well and the NOX is a fantastic piece of kit and as always the GM is a keeper for sure.

Great Video and thanks for posting it, I enjoyed that,

J.

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4 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Really long over 1 hour video. Edited judiciously, it could have been just as informative in about 10 minutes length or less. Otherwise, it is a fairly good example of what those three detectors can do on small to medium sized gold in hot rocks and iron trash.

I don't agree with using tracking ground balance on the Nox unless it is absolutely necessary. If the mineralization had been so high that the GM 1000 and the ORX were almost unusable then I might have considered tracking ground balance for the Nox. Ground mineralization was not that bad. I think using the 11" coil plus tracking ground balance made the Nox slower in recovery speed and gave it less separation capability than using auto/manual ground balance and the 6" coil.

 

 

Jeff

In my experience with Equinox, ground tracking is either effective or ineffective at reducing ground noise, but I have never found it to be detrimental in conditions where it is not necessarily needed, provided that the detector was ground balanced in auto/manual mode at the start of the session.  Engaging tracking will have absolutely NO detrimental effect on recovery speed or target masking as actually responds rather slowly to mineralization changes.  Granted, I am not a prospector, but I do relic detect in really hot ground and manual ground and basically leave tracking on by default if there is any mineralization or ground phase variability whatsoever have not seen tracking to be detrimental.  I use gold mode frequently for relic hunting.  It is a default mode setting for gold mode, after all.   Now I cannot say the same thing for iron bias. Unlike tracking, Iron Bias is a filter that does affect detector response and I HAVE found it to essentially degrade recovery speed and exacerbate target masking in thick iron situations and generally leave it at 0 setting.  Just my take based on my experiences with EQ tracking and tracking GB in general which I also use with the Deus.

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Hi Chase,

I am still learning the Nox and its' very different functioning features when compared to other detectors.

In my little review of the YouTube video above I questioned the use of the 11" coil and tracking ground balance instead of using the 6" coil and auto/manual ground balancing relating to recovery speed and target separation. If the maker of the video had used a 6" coil and tracking ground balance he might have had little or no problem recovering two of the pin head sized nuggets he struggled to locate. I am certain that he would have had no trouble doing so with the 6" coil using auto/manual ground balance. Just as an aside, he continually claimed he knew how to operate the Nox. I never saw him properly ground balance the Nox he was using. He changed from multi to single frequencies repeatedly even after switching the detector off and back on and he never ground balanced before going into tracking.

I do not agree with your statement: Unlike tracking, Iron Bias is a filter. Personally, I think in the case of tiny gold prospecting in a carpet of hot rocks and magnetite that tracking ground balance is also a kind of filter at least on the Nox 800 in Gold 1 and Gold 2 modes

Here is a bit of what Steve H. has said about ground balancing in the Gold modes:

Ground Balance. The default is ground tracking on. Tracking attempts to keep up with and smooth out the variations in the ground. In doing so it has a filtering effect and can possibly tune out the slight audio variations that come not just from the ground but from very small or very deep gold. Tracking off is therefore the most sensitive setting, with adjustments made via the Auto (pump) method or manually.

So, I am still pondering this ground balance question and I appreciate your input. I am going to keep testing both at home and in the field. Just because Minelab has tracking ON as the default setting does not mean that it is ideal for me or that I should use it when I don't need to especially when I am using Gold 1 or 2 in multi frequency setting. 

thanks,

Jeff

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Thanks folks for setting me straight on small gold and tracking.  As I said, I don't prospect (yet), but it really was not detrimental for relic hunting in mild and mineralized ground.   For example, I had no trouble recovering tiny mid-conductive percussion caps in either soil situation with tracking engaged (about the tiniest relic target worth recovering, other than the button shank I recovered below), but I suppose those wouldn't be considered comparable to small gold targets. 

With all due respect to Steve's description, I still don't consider ground tracking to be a filter in the traditional sense, like discrimination or iron bias, as it is not directly acting on how a target signal is processed, it is merely setting the ground balance point reference and in that context, I have a hard time understanding how it can actually be detrimental to target detection. 

In fact, I have found that in low to mild mineralized soil, the ground balance point setting has little impact on the target signal even when it is manually set several points away from the measured balance point.  Will have to take a look at the impact in highly mineralized soil. 

That being said, I can understand how it might be perceived that way and frankly, it does make sense to just turn it off if it is not needed as there is no upside to using it, so no argument there

Great discussion. Thanks

20190219_083917.jpg

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?yep phrunt,

that button shank would equal a .50 to .75 gram nugget. It would hit pretty hard in Park 1 default  at up to 4" in my mineralized dirt in any ground balance mode. It would blow my headphones off in Gold 1 or Gold 2 at the same depth.

Jeff

 

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The question is will tracking actually react to and track small gold out in the absence of magnetite but it also doesn't help either.   I can see Steve's point that tracking could overreact to the ground variations due to hot rocks and magnetite.  All of this means tracking should never be used in any situation (hot or mild) whenever searching for milligram gold, so ML's default GB setting for the Gold modes should generally not be used.

Prospecting is just a completely different ballgame than what I do.

Thanks again Jeff and Simon.  I am always learning from the awesome forum members here.

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Hi Chase,

I really appreciate the opportunity to actually backup my field experiences with good old testing and study. Whenever you contribute to a forum thread, I always know it is time for me to check your ideas (which are usually right) against mine and do the research to find out why we might differ. I always learn something valuable!!!!!

thanks,

Jeff

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