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Eqx Update 2.0: Conditions Change Significantly


ColonelDan

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Excellent info, Dan.  Thanks.  F2 4-6 depending on site conditions and objectives does seem to be shaping up as the sweet spot and appears to be consistent with and somewhat supports the ML choice to set the F2 default to 6 for all modes.  I think I am leaning towards 5 too for most conditions but need to get more swing time in.  Bottom line I too think update 2 is a keeper overall and no longer feel the need to keep 1.5 on my backup Equinox.  They are both updated to 2.0 now.

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5 hours ago, ColonelDan said:

I hit Cocoa Beach Friday and the conditions were much changed and improved over my hunt on Daytona Beach last Sunday.

During that Sunday hunt, I reported my observations of the 2.0 update focusing on the F2 function. You can read it here:

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/10845-my-observations-of-eqx-update-201-and-iron-bias-f2-at-daytona-beach/

There was a lot of EMI on the Daytona beach that Sunday and the overall conditions were such that I found the sweet spot sensitivity settings ranged from 13-16. At Cocoa Beach, the conditions were markedly different which allowed me to range from 18-22.

Regarding the F2 function, I found the sweet spot centered around level 5 at Cocoa. When I first arrived at the beach, I buried my test sticks to determine the best combination of sensitivity and iron bias.

image.jpeg.7847deb2081af4ecdb8777fe52d5c644.jpeg

 

I define the sweet spot as that which gives me good separation on two distinct targets...a bottle cap and a gold ring...the bottle cap giving me a distinct iron grunt and the ring a nice mid tone. Sensitivity was set at 20 and F2 at 5. Anything higher than F2 at 6 and the gold ring was masked..a single tone. Any thing lower than 4 and the bottle cap increasingly rang up as a fairly good target...again, a single tone.

Throughout the morning, I dug several targets that my EQX told me were bottle caps just to validate the F2 function...and by golly, each time the target was indeed a bottle cap!

During the remainder of my hunt time, I trusted my 2.0 EQX and never dug another bottle cap unless it was one of those pure aluminum twist off caps and of course, pull tabs...they both still sound great...something we’ll just have to live with at this stage of metal detecting technology.

Bottom Line: For those new to beach hunting, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to “dial in” your settings as conditions do change from beach to beach. Secondly, I have great faith in the F2 function for the beaches I hunt.

Excellent experiment Dan. Can you confirm how you did the experiement, I can read it two different ways. - Were the two sticks/targets buried at the same time when you tested, if so how far apart? Or where you just testing F2 on one stick/target , and then replaced it with the other and tested that? What mode was this done in, I assume  Beach 1 or Beach 2?

Anyone have a suggestion how the results would change if in Field2

Cheers.

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I bury the sticks together about 2 inches apart.  This time, the ring and cap were at the same depth...about 6 inches deep.

My test is always done in the mode I’ll be using.  In this case, Beach 1 and 2.

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Great thanks Dan - Were you using AM?

Also. Some people report that Iron can screw pinpointing, Did you use pinpoint mode at all, and was there any difference between the location centres with pinpoint compared to "normal" wiggle/cross centring?  

Cheers

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I hunt the dry sand in AM.  I found disc works best in wet and surf.

I use PP and have had no adverse effects in iron but again, that’s on the beach and we don’t have as much iron trash as on land.  Our trash is mostly bottle caps, can slaw, pull tabs, and aluminum by far. Sometimes we have iron trash but it’s the above that gives us the most trouble.

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Thanks for the update and interesting read, I will try to get the update for me to learn.

I had a problem on the download, and read some of the articles about the problem and I will try again when I get back home from TN.

We are on a hunt of a life time if we should find what we are looking for.

 

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On 10/5/2019 at 7:36 AM, Chase Goldman said:

Excellent info, Dan.  Thanks.  F2 4-6 depending on site conditions and objectives does seem to be shaping up as the sweet spot and appears to be consistent with and somewhat supports the ML choice to set the F2 default to 6 for all modes.  I think I am leaning towards 5 too for most conditions but need to get more swing time in.  Bottom line I too think update 2 is a keeper overall and no longer feel the need to keep 1.5 on my backup Equinox.  They are both updated to 2.0 now.

Chase maybe i misunderstood the 2.0 update or you..... i believed it didnt change but a few things and if your detector had 1.5 those settings didnt change?  I believe you would have to go back and update to the second version....... THEN the 2.0 for those changes.   Am i wrong.... were all the updates now combined with 2.0?

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Dew,

The 1.75 update fixed a bug related to the the user profile button an inadvertent resets of settings.  It also appeared to improve Equinox response to high conductive coins on edge.  The drawback, real or imagined, was that this hotter response on small profile high conductive targets also increased the propensity of falsing when using the small coil with sensitivity cranked.  As a result, I kept my primary machine updated to the latest software but kept my backup 800 on the original software and would use that machine in situations that called for the small coil.   

Since the introduction of version 2.0, I think the addition of the F2 iron bias setting, I think that any falsing associated with the small coil can likely be overcome with the proper setting of the F2 iron bias setting without as much risk to non-ferrous masking.  In other words,  the mid-level settings of F2 are very effective at reducing falsing of mixed ferrous without having to overdrive the bias curve to the extent that you start masking non-ferrous targets in the proximity of ferrous, though you can certainly do so by cranking F2 to 6 or higher.

As a result, I no longer see any reason to keep version 1.5 around on ANY machine so I have upgraded both my 800's now to version 2.0.

Hope that makes sense.

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