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Hello. I Wanted To Know If This Is Normal Behavior Of Equinox


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Welcome to the forum. Yes, it is very normal for new owners of the Equinox to post this very same question here about once a month.

Detectors are made to be waved over the ground, and holding up and shaking hard while pointing off to who knows what kind of electrical sources can display erratic behavior. The lower cable may also be moving due to the vigorous shaking, generating false signals. Best advice - don't do that. :smile:

There is a minuscule possibility you have a loose component in the detector causing the issue.

 
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  • The title was changed to Hello. I Wanted To Know If This Is Normal Behavior Of Equinox

Why would you do that?

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I've noticed that before on more than one detector.  I see in your video that you have fixed your coil cable very tightly near the end of the shaft.  You likely did this to reduce any cable motion and thus limit any artifactual noise.  However, when you rapidly bounce the coil on the end of the shaft, you can feel it causing a subtle flexion of either the shaft or a motion at the coil joint.  Oscillation of the (even tightly fixed) cable in the magnetic field might cause this noise artifact.  This is just my theory.  I'm not an engineer.  And, yes, I decided that since that motion wasn't typically used for detecting, I let it slide.  Everything has turned out just fine.

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1 hour ago, TedinVT said:

Why would you do that?

Old models I used to give a hard shake if I was diagnosing a problem. It did reveal if something was loose in the control box, not uncommon with old analog detectors with seated components. But these new surface mount circuit boards, almost unheard of, though connecting wires or cables could be loose.

I have a 30 year old Gold Bug right now that the audio cuts out, and a couple flat handed blows to the control box gets it working again. :laugh: Something loose in there for sure. I need to diagnose it but may just send it to Fisher for a complete tuneup out of laziness.

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2 hours ago, phrunt said:

Sounds like your Gold Bug 2 has dry solder joints. 

With the Equinox very little could be causing this issue if you're certain the coil cable is secured other than the internal coil plug not connected properly.  I can replicate your fault to an extent by purposefully having a loose coil cable.  If I remove my coil cable quickly and plug it back in I get the same erratic behavior while removing the coil cable too.   If I take too long to plug it back in the Nox shuts down with a coil error 🙂

opening-the-minelab-equinox-800-whats-inside-the-machine-00009.jpg.8df1e70888cc52e055e6ee98c39df347.jpg

opening-the-minelab-equinox-800-whats-inside-the-machine-00006.jpg.7e87bcf57a16ff38087df7fcfe0cbfdf.jpg

These little plugs tend to be very good and tight fitting so it'd be very unusual they would be poorly fitting, could also obviously be bad soldering on the other end of the that cable.

If you get that same thing happening in all different locations and you're 100% sure your coil cable is tight, I would be sending it off for warranty.

I heard them called "cold" joints. I used to find them by touching the joints with a toothpick and see if I can induce the issue. 

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1 hour ago, Johnnysalami1957 said:

I heard them called "cold" joints. I used to find them by touching the joints with a toothpick and see if I can induce the issue. 

A few years back I was interested in micro soldering. I went out and bought a 40X stereo microscope and a camera for my laptop. After practicing on a ton of old motherboards I got decent at R&R components and surface mount chips. Just to say I did it. Now my hands ain't so good so I just buy a new whatever. I still like to take stuff apart to diagnose though. I figure you love that stuff too. I think I spent more on the stuff to make the repair than I saved on the repairs or mods. I call it tuition.

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Hello . I have tested equinox a bit today. I noticed that the problem I showed in the video occurs when I have set ground balance. If the ground balance is set to 0 everything is fine with the eye detector. I will try to show the movie in a few days how it looks.
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