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Neil Jones Beach To Land :-(


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2 hours ago, Relics&Bones said:

"why would you take someone's settings that are being used on a different continent" Because there are quite a few on this continent using it with success. I posted to see if there were folks here w/experience that could advise me on what I might be doing wrong. Isn't that part of the reason for the forum?

Welcome aboard,

As Steve has said other peoples settings which they have setup on their own soil type and location is of very little use on other soil types (Land or Sea Shore), from what I can make out from your first post you are in the States ie. on an iron infested colonial site  as we don't have colonial sites here in the UK and Neil who I have met does not encounter iron infested fields like your location so for a start his "Iron Bias" setting would not be of any help for your detecting situation and Neil runs all of his detectors on full throttle (Sky High Sensitivity) and no "Discrimination" and he doesn't do much beach detecting if any.

To find your best settings for your Equinox, first of all read the manual to learn what influence each of the settings can make to gain the best settings for your present location / land type, you may find that the main controls the Noise Cancel, the Ground Balance, the Sensitivity, the Discrimination, the Response and the Iron Bias settings when tuned correctly will make the detecting in your location more pleasurable and quiet.

Good Hunting      Randy Dee

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1 hour ago, Randy Dee said:

Welcome aboard,

As Steve has said other peoples settings which they have setup on their own soil type and location is of very little use on other soil types (Land or Sea Shore), from what I can make out from your first post you are in the States ie. on an iron infested colonial site  as we don't have colonial sites here in the UK and Neil who I have met does not encounter iron infested fields like your location so for a start his "Iron Bias" setting would not be of any help for your detecting situation and Neil runs all of his detectors on full throttle (Sky High Sensitivity) and no "Discrimination" and he doesn't do much beach detecting if any.

To find your best settings for your Equinox, first of all read the manual to learn what influence each of the settings can make to gain the best settings for your present location / land type, you may find that the main controls the Noise Cancel, the Ground Balance, the Sensitivity, the Discrimination, the Response and the Iron Bias settings when tuned correctly will make the detecting in your location more pleasurable and quiet.

Good Hunting      Randy Dee

.

Thanks Randy. I'm not new, but for some reason, could not get logged in as before and could not reset PW. Who knows? Nonetheless, that's the kind of comment I was looking for. For some reason, I had the impression that the Jones program WAS for iron infested sites. I do have a very "clean" Civil War site here in VA that I'll be visiting soon. I'll try it there and see how it does. Thanks so much.

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I can relate, R&B.  I too have been too quick to latch onto the settings of others.  But I think, in the long run, I learned some valuable lessons.

On 10/29/2019 at 2:56 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

Here is another related issue... the differences between all of us as regards not only experience levels but true hard wired brain differences. This is a fact. Two “experts” running the same detector in the same location can come up with two very different combinations of settings. They can both do just as well making finds, and each could try but not like the other persons settings.

So true.  This thread reminds me of a recent post by Mark:

As has been said many times, there are three main characteristics of metal detecting:  1) the site, 2) the detectorist, and 3) the detector (in that order).  Only when you put all three together can you find the optimal settings.

Sometimes I wish this endeavor were easier, but then I realize it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

 

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I have no problem using other peoples settings as long as I know WHY the settings are what they are.  I like to experiment with things to see if they work for me.  But if I don't have a clue as to why a person is setting their machine up the way they are that means one of two things to me - either they don't know the machine or I don't know the machine.  I have to figure out which of those it is and learn accordingly.  You also need to know what those settings supposedly can do for you over and above what you already use.  This goes hand in hand with understanding what the settings do in the first place.  Because you can't understand how those settings can help if you don't understand WHY the person putting the settings out there did what they did.

I like the thought of experimenting with beach on land, and plan to do it a little next week, but that is because I understand what Beach 1 and 2 are supposed to do in their "normal" beach environment.  They are low frequency biased modes (hence best suited to detecting higher conductive targets), they are also not very "reactive" or "hot" so that they can function in a stable manner in salt conditions.  They compensate for black sand and ground phase variability by using an overload function to reduce transmit power and in the case of beach 2, the transmit power is further reduced by default.  All these things may have advantages in mineralized soil.   As far as the specific settings are concerned, I do not put too much stock in carbon copy settings.  I saw a video walkthrough of Neil's settings done by someone else and they are dictating specific ground balance settings (1) and noise cancel channels (4) which is totally ridiculous if you know what is going on because those are site specific settings.  I get the 50 tones setting and some of the other tone volume setup settings, recovery speed and iron bias and will just set up and experiment with beach mode in my own way because I know what those settings do and how they affect target signals.  All I really needed to know is, "try giving beach mode a go on land and see how it goes".  The specific settings receipe is really immaterial to me.

Bottom line, if you don't understand the why's behind someone else's settings or what they bring to the table for your detecting situation, then you are just rolling the dice and hoping something good will happen, and we all know how that usually works out.

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And i believe everyone is saying those settings might not work in your conditions.  You maybe doing nothing wrong.  Toss um aside and do some testing on found targets with the various settings.   I have to say the pre-sets are very good....... and the manual is one of the best i think ive ever read.   i didnt need someone else writing another book to explain the manual and settings.  Programs are like a pair of pants..... one size does not fit all.   I see programs all the time .... but it seems i always find my own after trying them.

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  • 1 month later...
On 10/29/2019 at 11:38 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

All I can say is I have no use for or any interest in canned programs or other peoples settings. I learn my controls and set my machine as seems appropriate for my location and personal preferences. If one combination of settings worked for everyone, we would not need the controls. Minelab could just dial in the appropriate settings and just have an on/off switch and maybe a sensitivity control. In trying to do this Minelab came up with 8 separate programs or presets showing that one size can't fit all. The Equinox presets however in my opinion are among the very best designed for any detector, and the farther you get from the preset adjustments the less happy you are likely to be.

“Equinox presets however in my opinion are among the very best designed for any detector, and the farther you get from the preset adjustments the less happy you are likely to be.”

I can  vouch for that. When I got my 800 in March 2018 I tried to learn and use everything and probably wasted 3-6 months of hunting and basically got confused and frustrated with the 800.

 

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