Help With Too Many Signals And Other

[Chase Goldman]

7 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Contrary (just a little) to what Chase said, there are places on this planet where sweeping the coil over the ground with nothing rejected (-9 to +40 accepted) even with a proper ground balance, will result in a ton of extraneous ground noise.

Not really contrary, if it is truly just ground noise (e.g., due to mineralization), and not targets as determined by highly negative TIDs, you should be able to just ground balance there by using the pinpointer and not sweeping the coil to ensure you are and remain over a targetless patch while pumping.  I also stated that there are patches of ground (did not define the size) where there can be targets continuously in your coil sweep, but like you said, even in that case you should be able to find a static spot somewhere between targets where you can GB.  I personally, honestly do not think doing a ground balance over some can small slaw is going to really screw up the ground balance if you are in that kind of situation, better than not doing a ground balance at all if you are working with no disc.  I think we are essentially saying the same thing just a little differently.

 

7 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

That applies to changing frequencies also. As a new user, I would leave it on multi unless EMI is so bad that multi is unusable. 

Totally agree.  As you get more adept at using the Equinox, you may find situations where encountering an iffy target in Multi might be enhanced by using a single frequency to "interrogate" (for example 4 khz if you suspect the target is a high conductor - high conductive target singles couple better with an induction balance detector at low operating frequencies, in general), but I generally wouldn't do a general search in single frequency unless forced to due to EMI.  In single frequency, not only do you lose the advantage of multiple frequencies working for you for a wider range of target types and depths (vs. single frequency which sort of limits your target "vision" - analogous to, but not as dramatically, if your vision was limited to black and white versus color).  Multi also helps under high salt or alkaline conditions, can compensate better than single for a less than optimal ground balance situation, and, finally, the iron bias feature is disabled when in single frequency.

[GB_Amateur]

You've gotten a lot of good advice although I hesitate to agree with all of it.  At the risk of not giving credit where credit is due (i.e. repeating something already said but not specifically acknowledging it) I'm going to start from scatch -- answering as if I hadn't read any of the other helpful posts.

1) The ML Equinox is a complicated detector.  IMO, the people who are able to turn it on from day 1 and understand it are rare, and those who can are extremely experienced with detectors in general or at least quite experienced in some of Minelabs earlier simultaneous multifrequency detectors (sMF).  It took me over a year and a half (~400 hours in the field) to get comfortable with it and now with twice that much time under my belt I'm still learning things nearly every time out.

2) You say it's quiet at the beach and noisy on the turf.  That's good evidence and (IMO) quickly points to two things -- ground balance and trash in the turf location.

3) Ground balancing isn't as critical on the Eqx (when in sMF) as it is in single frequency detectors because the detector itself takes advangate of the different frquencies (two of them, anyway) to adjust for the ground.  However, in my experience it helps to do a ground grab (not a term ML would dare use ) -- what they call automatic ground balance (pumping method).  That can be a challenge in trashy ground as you want to have the coil over a clean (just ground) spot.  If you're not sure, do it in more than one place that seem quiet and compare the values.  In my ground if I'm within 5 units on consecutive/multiple grabs I consider it balanced.  (That takes advantage of the sMF properties -- you don't have to be dead on like you do with some single freq detectors.)  And here's a tip going forward.  Mentally rememeber (or even write down) your ground balance values at sites in your area.  This can give you an indication if you're GB'ing over trash sometimes.  There are places (e.g. Denver) which wildly varying ground over distances of miles (maybe less) but for example in my area I usually get somewhere around 30, but not always (I've gotten 15 and I've gotten 60).  Also, ground balance for me is pretty consistent in the same site from one occasion to another.   Soil moisture may play a roll but around where I live that is minor (and we do get considerable ground moisture variation over the year).

4) I find the pinpoint function on the Eqx to be quite helpful but it's quirkly and it takes time to really figure it out.  A large effect (issue) is turning it on over a piece of metal.  Also, if you have a deep target with trash nearby, the trash can partially or completely mask the good target when pinpointing, pulling you away from the intended target.  I always try to pinpoint close (laterally, meaning front/back or left/right, not vertically) as I can.  Think of the center of the coil as the hotspot (because it is!).  For most targets if the coil center between ~3 inches away to the edge of the coil distance (5.5 inches) from the target that's a good place to hit the button.  That annoying muted sound happens to everyone, from what I can tell.  Sometimes just moving away from the target (not more than a coil radius) to quiet it and waiting a couple seconds will cure it and you can go back to over your target.  Sometimes you just have to exit pinpoint and start over.  Another annoying (to me, but obviously they made it this way because some people like it) is the ballistic effect of the pinpoint.  As you swing back and forth, somtimes (particularly noticeable on strong signals) is that the detector's 'brain' will intentionally adjust the volume.  If you have a quiet (weak) target signal with another loud (strong) one nearby the loud one can completely mute the intended target.  Reset (turn off pinpoint, then back on) and start over.

5) Don't expect good targets to fit into any simple pattern.  If coin-sized targets are near the surface it's easy to make rules to decide if it's a good one or not.  If a site is void of trash and every (even deep) target is alone/isolated then you probably also can makes rules of thumb.  But every site I know of (I don't hunt water or beach so this doesn't apply there, at least may not) has trash.  People (not all, but too damn many) intentionally throw trash on the ground but only accidentally drop 'treasure'.  As much as we'd like pristine detecting sites with only good targets, that doesn't happen on this planet!!  I have parks in which one expects aluminum trash (and s/he'd be right) but also find plenty of nails, screws, wire -- different kinds of iron trash.  Why?  Sometimes I can find a reason and sometimes I can't, but it's always there in every park site I hunt.  (BTW, I require a site to be over 50 years old because I'm after old coins.  Sometimes my parks were residential or agricultural before they became parks.  Regardless, they all have iron trash.)

I can't emphasize point #5 enough because it's the one piece of misinformation I've read on DetectorProspector.com forum, accepted, and then had to unlearn.  Consistent TID's (tonewise or digital-readout-wise)?  Nope.  Good signal from multiple directions?  Nope.  Lack of iron grunts hints) while sweeping over a target?  Nope.  Clean pinpoint?  Consistent readings from different modes?  Consistent tonal/TID tendencies when changing to single frequencies?  None of these tells you the target is good/bad.  Yes, for shallow/strong targets, probably.  Those typically aren't the ones I pine for.  It's the deeper and masked targets that pay in previously detected sites and their signals are the ones that are hard to figure out.  (If they were easy then the previous detectorists would have gotten them.)  Good coil control helps and is important but it doesn't make deep, masked targets magically sound sweet.

Be persistant and don't expect to master the Equinox early on, if ever.  It's like a race car.  Anyone can drive it on the Bonneville Salt Flats but take it to a crowded Watkins Glen and you'll separate the true experts from the pretenders.

[Dug D]

When I first started with my Nox too many signals drove me crazy, but yes there was/is that much trash. I didn't realize just how sensitive the nox was to small targets.  I backed off the sens to about 16/17 lowered the volume still ran in all metal, but air tested some coins to get a sense of the volume of a "good" target. (which at the right volume really stands out) About half or more of the trash disappeared with much of it at lower volume, I still dug trash but started enjoying the hunt with good finds.  At surprisingly low sensitivity in really trashy areas that had been hunted by our club quite a bit, I was finding wheats because of the great separation.