Equinox Fe Vs Fe2, Set At Zero?

[bklein]

Thanks! I missed that!
”Adventures with Jim” YouTube tutorial Tuesday just suggested FE 0 not same as FE2 0. 
With the brief testing I’ve done, I’m thinking a lot of guys are missing targets using higher settings.  Not due to the response of the target itself - due to nature of sand/soil and or nearby iron targets.

[TripleT]

So, if it only works in multi, why, then are 4 & 5 kHz sensitive to aluminium nuances?

I guess this means more testing...

[Badger-NH]

1 hour ago, TripleT said:

So, if it only works in multi, why, then are 4 & 5 kHz sensitive to aluminium nuances?

I guess this means more testing...

Why are you interested in aluminum nuances? Are you trying to avoid digging aluminum? That has always been a waste of time to me. If you don't dig the aluminum, you'll miss the gold and many other good targets. Also, those pull tabs could be masking even more good targets.

My testing has shown 4 & 5 kHz to favor the high conductors. That could be why low conductors like pull tabs might have more of a sound variance in those frequencies.

 

 

[Chase Goldman]

4 hours ago, bklein said:

Thanks! I missed that!
”Adventures with Jim” YouTube tutorial Tuesday just suggested FE 0 not same as FE2 0. 
With the brief testing I’ve done, I’m thinking a lot of guys are missing targets using higher settings.  Not due to the response of the target itself - due to nature of sand/soil and or nearby iron targets.

Nope.  I’ve tested masking in F2 at default settings and it is not an issue.  Not true for FE which did have issues.  It is a feature that is a side benefit of Multi IQ that should be utilized to your advantage to counter ferrous falsing that all machines suffer from and not something to “fear” in the unlikely case it will CAUSE masking (as opposed to the target being masked regardless of the IB setting).  I am still probably going to dig the iron anyway just to get it out of the way, at least with iron bias I won’t be fooled as frequently into thinking it is non-ferrous and can make the on-the-fly dig/no-dig decision with high confidence.

[EL NINO77]

From my point of view .. if you have Iron bias FE set to 0 and Iron bias F2 set to 0 - so it's hard to find any difference between them in signal quality ... in this case it means that the iron bias at Equinox is Off ...
  
However, the large difference between Iron Bias FE and F2 is set when you change it to setting 1 ... in this case the setting Iron Bias F2 already wins in terms of separation or signal quality ...- the difference is strongly visible ...

[Badger-NH]

1 hour ago, EL NINO77 said:

the large difference between Iron Bias FE and F2 is set when you change it to setting 1 ... in this case the setting Iron Bias F2 already wins in terms of separation or signal quality ...- the difference is strongly visible ...

That doesn't sound right.  Why/how would Iron Bias affect separation? The iron signal hasn't changed in relation to the targets around it. All Iron Bias does is change the tone of some iron by leaning one way or the other in relation to its conductivity. The masking of adjacent targets isn't affected at all.

As you raise the IB, iron tones improve while non-ferrous tones get slightly worse. It's a trade off. That's why many keep it set at 0.

Iron Bias means that as you raise the setting, the detector is more bias in favor of iron identification.

 

[EL NINO77]

Here it is necessary to realize, that the use of Iron bias brings a certain compromise in detection ... for example, with a higher setting of Iron bias you can better distinguish certain iron, but it is usually at the expense of impaired separation..good signals in iron ..

 

However, it is also clear that the low value of setting iron bias F2 to 1-3 will continue to retain good separation properties.

[Badger-NH]

I wouldn't really call that separation.  I'd say it has more to do with target ID accuracy.

If you want better iron ID, raise the bias.

Lowering the setting will improve your non-ferrous signals but in doing so, iron targets might give off more high tones.

 

[EL NINO77]

Iron bias is primarily a silencer of short signals ,,, and not for nothing fho some manufacturers refer to as a silencer ,, or as a iron mask ,, or *Bottle cap reject ...because it can eliminate the very short beep of the color signal at the iron signal ...

[GB_Amateur]

22 hours ago, Badger-NH said:

Why are you interested in aluminum nuances? Are you trying to avoid digging aluminum? That has always been a waste of time to me. If you don't dig the aluminum, you'll miss the gold and many other good targets. Also, those pull tabs could be masking even more good targets.

If you're more interested in old USA nickel coins than gold jewelry then it helps a lot.  Last year in 311 hours of park and school detecting I dug 1423 pull tabs (all types but half of those were beaver-only and half of the remainder were the smallest ring+beavertail).  Maybe 10% did I dig trying to clear the way for masked good targets.  Those 90% that I dug thinking they might be good were all centered somewhere in the 12-13 sweetspot (on the ML Equinox) for USA nickels, with some spillover to 11 and occasionally 14.  I probably ignored at least 5000 (not kidding) that were above USA nickels, where modern pulltabs and the larger ring-and-beavertails hit.

IMO, any detecting session needs to keep in mind both site and goal(s) of the hunt.  Around picnic shelters and tables the number of pulltabs can be daunting.  If I'm at a site which had activity in the 1800's (or earlier) then I definitely am not going to be so selective as many coins from that century ring up from about 6-7 to 19 (what I like to think of as the location of most aluminum trash, exception being the larger pieces, especially aluminum screw caps around 22-23).  And at a site where there don't seem to be many pulltab hits I'm more likely to dig the 14-19 region to see what else might be there (e.g. gold ring if I'm really lucky).

What does this have to do with Iron Bias?  Not much, at least directly, from what I know about Iron Bias.