Equinox 600 Trouble With Audio Stutter

[bklein 42]

I have an EQ600 with a full set of coils. I was at Laguna yesterday with the large coil. I am using bluetooth earbuds that have been recommended by others. There was a lot of black sand where I was hunting. I was having the detect audio stutter like it was overloading bluetooth or the headset although I played with the detector audio and couldn’t reduce the stutter. There also seemed to be indications of a bad coil connection at the coil. Wiggle it a bit and you hear a crackle.  Never got a full disconnect though. I later ran all metal and maybe the stutter was less not sure. In disc I was stock settings masking zero and below.  But that should be a nice audio cancel - should hear good targets without them being chopped up. I found stuff but it was a miserable detecting experience. I played with recovery speed and went between beach 1 and 2 modes.  Tried messing with ground balance types too.  I found that if I was in black sand areas pinpoint would help me locate possible targets and I’d just dig them without much clue from Lcd ID or tone (running 50 tones).  I didn’t have the other coils with me to test. I tried sensitivity 17 on up. Normally was 22/23.  I was experiencing bad latency with the earbuds that I don’t remember being an issue with the 11” coil.  Just a real test of my brain the whole day.

[bklein 42]

Just looked up the earbuds, Soundpeats Force, atpx, not aptx ll.

So that's one thing explained. 

[afreakofnature 635]

If you don’t have your coil plug or headphone cover on tight and water gets in that might be a problem.  I have that happen just from rinsing off my detector. I sent it in because I thought it was a problem and they found that there was a little bit of water in there. They dried it out and it works fine. So make sure you have those on tight before going to the beach or rinsing your detector. 

[bklein 42]

I tried it at a different beach yesterday with miccus aptxII headphones but its inconclusive whether it fixed the stutter.  No targets but did have black sand. I spent about 40 minutes trying to get the phones to pair. Eventually bluetooth did not even come up as an option on the screen - just wifi would cycle on and off with the activate button. Had to do a hard reset, then it worked. The loudness of a good target was close to the loudness of bogus sounds when sensitivity is set too high.  Even with sensitivity set at 20 some of those come through.  Some cellphones were causing trouble even though they were at least 50 feet away.  My friend was there with his EQ800 and found a couple rings in the first half hour he was there. I spent so much time on setup that we didn’t get much time to compare.  He had an 11” coil. There was a zinc penny he could hear well but I just would get a null in the threshold.  We’ll have to give a comparison another try or I may just let him borrow mine for an outing and see what he thinks of it. I also need to test for an open in the coil. I did not get the issue when flexing the connection to the housing but did at the coil itself - but on this second outing I really didn’t get the chance to look at this again.

[GB_Amateur 5,100]

3 hours ago, bklein said:

My friend was there with his EQ800 and found a couple rings in the first half hour he was there. I spent so much time on setup that we didn’t get much time to compare.

Can you set yours up as close as possible to his?  Also, have you tried operating with just the external speaker to see if the issue persists?

Also, have you tried using the ML80 headphones to get another debug datapoint?  (Oh, those aren't stock with the 600 but maybe you can borrow from your friend.)

 

 

[Joe D. 2,107]

   Since you have all the coils, try one of the others to see if the problem repeats! If all else fails, and it's under warranty, email ML with the issues, and get a repair order number! Than mail the pod and the "problem" coil, no shaft parts! They will test both the coil, and pod for problems! If you have the ML wireless headphones and a wm08 module, they will test those too! Tunaround should be less than two weeks!

   I've been thru 3 coils and 2 pods, all replaced under warranty! Service has been great! Good luck!👍👍

[bklein 42]

Thanks, I surely will spend more time debugging this. Right now I’m overwhelmed with some family matters - little time to mess with it.  I’m hoping my friend will volunteer to give it a try on one of his future outings.

[midalake 411]

On 4/5/2021 at 9:38 AM, bklein said:

Some cellphones were causing trouble even though they were at least 50 feet away.

A few ideas and a fix.  Are you running a coil cover?  Have you cleaned it? If a beach has black sand it could only take 10 minutes to have enough black sand under the coil cover to give problems. 

Cell Phones- 100% fix An aluminum shield that goes over my pod protector. 

 

 

[midalake 411]

On 4/3/2021 at 9:41 AM, bklein said:

I was at Laguna yesterday with the large coil. I am using bluetooth earbuds that have been recommended by others.

In all reality. There is not a set non corded phones made that should be used at the beach [that I am aware of].

Get yourself a pair of -25db ambient sound shielding corded headphones and increase your comfort and finds. 

[Joe D. 2,107]

Midalake,

   Can you elaborate on the wireless headphones that don't work for detecting beaches?? My ML's for my 800 aren't the best, or most comfortable, but they do work fine at the beach, for the most part, when it's not too hot! Although I do like my wired Tony E's for comfort, and the water!👍👍