Equinox Fe Settings Poll

[Steve Herschbach]

Do you use the Fe setting, F2 setting, both, or none? Follow up posts explaining your poll vote will provide important information. I'd ask people make a little extra effort on this one. The poll is for your benefit. Thanks.

[F350Platinum]

New with the equinox 600, but I have run it pretty much exclusively on Field 2, on the recommendation of a forum member whose settings are published in Andy Sabisch's book. 😀 I realize that the Equinox isn't a one trick pony, but it has yielded excellent results with a minimum of trash digging in the farm I'm hunting. It's a best conditions scenario.

Oops noob error :ducks: I don't use any of the iron settings at all. 😀

[Steve Herschbach]

And please everyone with an opinion, vote in the poll at the top! It makes tabulating answers way easier. There is an option for not adjusting the settings at all (you are using whatever the defaults are).

[Jeff McClendon]

When I use the iron bias feature on the Equinox I use the F2 settings.

For everyday coin and jewelry hunting I use Park or Field modes with F2 from 0 to 4 depending on the type of trash in the area.

Relic hunting I may use F2 from 0 to 5 or 6 depending on how much iron is in the ground.

Gold prospecting in Multi I use 0 or 1.

[afreakofnature]

I mainly use F2 so i can turn it off when nugget hunting.  I said I use both because I leave the Fe at its default setting when using other modes.  Honestly I really need to learn more about this setting but just have not yet taken the time because I have been successful with the defaults!

[GB_Amateur]

I've mostly been hunting parks and schools for old coins with the Minelab Equinox 800.  My experience is primarily in those sites for those targets.  I've logged 700-750 hours under those conditions.  I've upgraded the software each time a new version has become available.

I've experimented with the Iron Bias settings.  My method has been to compare the detector's response at the minimum (0) and maximum (9) values.  I've done this with both FE and F2 for the same (unknown) targets before digging.  I can't say that I discovered a lot other than that rusted crown caps tend to show a big difference between F2=0 and F2=9.

For me, crown caps aren't much of a problem (not a frequent trash target -- maybe averaging digging a couple per hour) in my sites when they show up in the USA 5 cent ('nickel') zone of 12-13.  I've found that I can use Field 2 (50 tones) to identify them reasonably well (by differences in TID's between Field 2 and both Park 1 and Field 1) without having to tune the iron bias settings.  (I tend not to dig TID's between 14 and 18 due to the plethora of aluminum trash, particularly complete and partial pulltabs.  So if crown caps were to ID there I have been ignoring them -- i.e. not digging.)

I've done some experimenting with other targets, while still buried and thus unknown.  I have not found either FE or F2 (again, comparing detector response at their extreme setting values) to be a reliable indicator of iron/steel nails -- and nails can be a much bigger problem for me (due to being plentiful in many old sites) than crown caps.

For the most part I've stopped changing iron bias and keep it set at F2=0.  I have noticed a tendency for deep (7"-8" in my moderately mineralized soil) to give iron tone hints, even at F2=0, but more so with non-zero values of F2.  The effect is subtle but noticeable.  That has driven my decision to keep my iron bias setting at F2=0.

[Steve Herschbach]

27 minutes ago, afreakofnature said:

I mainly use F2 so i can turn it off when nugget hunting.  I said I use both because I leave the Fe at its default setting when using other modes.  Honestly I really need to learn more about this setting but just have not yet taken the time because I have been successful with the defaults!

I've changed it to one choice only. We are trying to narrow things down to your number one choice..

[Dances With Doves]

f2-0 for coins and f2-7 when the   bottle caps get numerous in my finger lake when  I am hunting gold.

[Chase Goldman]

I use F2 exclusively.  I start with the default (which is 6 for all modes on the 800) and adjust accordingly for the conditions at hand (usually it ends up between 4 and 6).  I don't sweat iron bias masking with F2 like I did with FE.

[Valens Legacy]

Since I am still a newbie with detectors I decided to use only the factory settings so that I can learn the tones better.

Once I master that step I may try to learn the other settings and create my own program for the 800 settings that I wish to use.