Jump to content

Equinox Vdi Tones


pinpointa

Recommended Posts


7 hours ago, pinpointa said:

Hi Guys,

With the equnox can you accept everything and give the vdi you don't wan't a no tone and alot different tones to the ones you wan't. Like on the Whites v range.   Regards .

Not exactly. You can notch out any vdi you don't want but you can only customize tones in up to 5 pre-defined bins (5 tone mode).  50 tone mode you can notch out any VDI but you can only affect the ferrous/non-ferrous tone break and the range of the tone pitches in the non-ferrous range and the difference in pitch between the ferrous bin and the bottom of the non-ferrous bin.  It's all spelled out in the online manual on pp. 46-50 which you can download here.  A good summary overview of tone options can be found here.  Other Equinox essential information here.

.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If there's a VDI you don't want to see or hear, hit the accept/reject button in the upper right of the keypad. Not something I recommend in most cases. There's gold or silver at just about every number. I realize that some sites might be paved with a particular trash target that you want to avoid though......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

So I am a little unclear here, let me first say this hobby and the equinox are new to me, but I was out at an 1830’s Grist Mill Site this weekend and found mostly iron targets as expected along with a couple of crown bottle caps and beaver tail pop tops and I found that while in Field 1 ground balanced and noise canceled and sensitivity set to 20. I found square nails, and modern nails in the 19 to 35 vid range depending on depth. The 35 was about 4 nails an inch deep all together. I am not using anything other than standard program settings but I am coming to the conclusion that VDI numbers are a guide and not gospel. Yes the tin can rang up a 35 but so did 2 iron plates 1/2” thick 4”x8” one at 2” deep and the other at 6”.  

I did have a question for the more experienced, I noticed when I had clear ground to swing and then bumped a fern it would give a mid tone but when I pushed the fern out of the way and reswept the area the signal was gone, can a plant contact cause the false signal? 

B3110BB3-0E31-47E0-BD2C-4A34FA878406.jpeg

3974D5A6-6CBF-4C25-AB26-5535FCDF5CB0.jpeg

75F00340-35A6-4166-8DD8-2886581F0D5B.jpeg

572A55C6-8789-4546-9B70-09FE332B9E93.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Large iron will give high TID's (VDI's) on most if not all detectors.  You can resort to other more subtle indicators such as loudness of signal (on detectors with proportional audio), size of object, consistency of the TID, etc.  But even then you may be better off digging it up, because iron near good targets can partially hide or 'mask' the good target.  Deeper iron is even more of a problem since then it's not as loud and not as extended (as seen by the searchcoil).  The ferrous end of the detector's TID scale is basically for badly rusted iron or iron minerals that are magnetic but non-conductive.

Nails are also a problem.  The head of the nail in particular can look (to the detector) as a disk-like object and worth recovering.  Vertical nails (regardless of which end is up) also trick the detector.  Square nails seem to be even worse than modern circular cross-section nails.  I think part of that is becuase they were made with an alloy which is much less susceptible to rusting.

There are some adjustments that you can make (Iron Bias and Recovery Speed) on the Equinox, but those aren't panaceas, and if not done properly can even become a hindrance causing you to miss good targets competely.  There are many threads here discussing those two features, and this thread is a good index of threads that cover many aspects of the Equinox including those topics and many more.

TID's are most reliable when the target is disk-like and no other metal is nearby.  Even better when the target out-of-the-ground (e.g air tests).  Real detecting is seldom so simple.  Successful detecting is kinda like playing a musical instrument.  Anyone can make noise, but to make music takes a lot of observation, experimentation, and particularly experience.

Hang in there and we look forward to your next recital!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Chip CT said:

So I am a little unclear here, let me first say this hobby and the equinox are new to me, but I was out at an 1830’s Grist Mill Site this weekend and found mostly iron targets as expected along with a couple of crown bottle caps and beaver tail pop tops and I found that while in Field 1 ground balanced and noise canceled and sensitivity set to 20. I found square nails, and modern nails in the 19 to 35 vid range depending on depth. The 35 was about 4 nails an inch deep all together. I am not using anything other than standard program settings but I am coming to the conclusion that VDI numbers are a guide and not gospel. Yes the tin can rang up a 35 but so did 2 iron plates 1/2” thick 4”x8” one at 2” deep and the other at 6”.  

I did have a question for the more experienced, I noticed when I had clear ground to swing and then bumped a fern it would give a mid tone but when I pushed the fern out of the way and reswept the area the signal was gone, can a plant contact cause the false signal? 

Large ferrous gives off signals across the board, sort of a shotgun effect, including high tone coin type signals. If you notch out or block ferrous signals, all you hear are the high tones, so now you think you have a coin. The fewer tones you use, the more likely some ferrous will give off coin like high tones.

I avoid this by eliminating nothing and going purely by tones. There will be targets that are throwing multiple tones, and if these include 39 high tone spikes, it is almost always a ferrous target. Full tones reveals this best, but that may be too busy for some people. The key is to be able to hear ferrous tones instead of blocking them.

Too much sensitivity enhances ferrous high tone spiking. Lower your sensitivity.

The new F2 Iron Bias is particularly effective on these types of targets. Investigate it's use.

IMG_0441.JPG

IMG_0442.JPG

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys, I think GB_Amatur’s advice to dig it up may be the best with a site like I was at relics mostly iron not a lot of modern trash. But Steve you state to “listen to the tones” So if I hear you right you are saying that using 50 tones and when finding a large iron target will give the high 39 type tone along with the low -9 to 1 ferrous tone and by training your ear you can then determine the likely target of iron not silver or gold. Makes sense I guess I will need to start setting the tones to 50 and see if I can turn the noise into music.

Thanks again, I find the hobby to be challenging and will keep me coming back to get a bit better every time out. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Chip CT said:

Thanks guys, I think GB_Amatur’s advice to dig it up may be the best with a site like I was at relics mostly iron not a lot of modern trash. But Steve you state to “listen to the tones” So if I hear you right you are saying that using 50 tones and when finding a large iron target will give the high 39 type tone along with the low -9 to 1 ferrous tone and by training your ear you can then determine the likely target of iron not silver or gold. Makes sense I guess I will need to start setting the tones to 50 and see if I can turn the noise into music.

Thanks again, I find the hobby to be challenging and will keep me coming back to get a bit better every time out. 

50 tones best clues you in to the TID variability of the target (you will get the flutey sounding tones).  But you can always hear the "synchrony" of ferrous low tones in the ferrous bin along with a falsing high tone whether you are in two tones (Field 1 default), 5 tones (Park1 and Beach mode default) or 50 tones (Park 2 and Field 2) as long as you accept the ferrous bin or operate with the horseshoe button to accept all targets.

BTW - curious on why you choose to go with Field 1 at your grist mill site?  The various modes have sensitivities that bias towards certain target conductivities (even though they are all multi frequency modes).  Park 1 and Field 1 are weighted to favor high conductive targets such as copper and silver and large targets that default to a high conductive target response due to their sheer mass of metal regardless of the specific conductivity.  Park 2 and Field 2 are weighted to favor low and mid conductive targets such as gold jewelry, small targets, and typical brass and lead relics such as buttons and minie ball projectiles, nickels, and gold coins and small hammered silver coins.  Unfortunately, modern aluminum trash also falls in this range.

Use of pinpoint mode to "trace" the target footprint can give you a clue as to the size of the target under the coil.  So a high falsing large iron target will trace a very large target footprint vs. a coin.  Plus, you will get that telltale iron grunt in whatever search mode you are using along with the high false.

HTH

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chase, thanks for the clarification, I chose Field 1 more from lack of experience than anything. I figured I was not at the park where there would be more modern trash and clad but long grown over farm fields hoping to find some older coins or buttons. I did not get any coins but did get one ferrous button shank intact but crusted beyond being able to identify it. I figured the site to be mostly iron and planned to dig everything and found lots of iron as I speculated. What would you recommend for a site like this 1830 grist mill. I did detect the river and the side across from the mill now mostly wooded former farm field but the actual mill site is adjacent to a road where there was construction for the road that would have dug the site and foundation below along with all the modern roadside trash. 

image.jpeg.352f191ec02b9a939ef2e13e69292068.jpeg

EA7D06C9-8BC3-464A-A684-A1D2C0C78919.jpeg

A9DB96CB-B456-4225-9B93-447B794C1A80.jpeg

BE23C7CD-D2C5-42EA-A296-A6A13083EE33.jpeg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...