Equinox Can Find Some Small Saltwater Gold

[cdv]

Sure isn't much to talk about and far from my biggest gold but yet it is noteworthy....... my smallest gold saltwater find to date, .32 grams hoop earring that was open. Took two scoops to get it out yet I can't say how deep it was, I could have just missed it with the first scoop but the size and the fact it was open tells me that this machine can hunt!

I've now found 4 golds in the past 6 hunts none over 2.5 grams for a total weight of 5.26 grams. Yeah, some real small stuff......

Guess I now have a real good test piece for new machines!

Settings: Beach 2, Noise canceled, GB on wet in Auto and then raised it 5, tracking on, FE Bias 3, Response Speed 5, sensitivity turned down until stable, 5 tones factory set, running all metal.

Lots of aluminum, pull tabs and a few bottle caps that fooled me....

Still lots to learn with the 800.

Cliff

 

[Chase Goldman]

Good find. Your GB settings description is confusing did you GB in auto, raise it 5 points manually and then set GB to tracking?  Why not just set it to tracking in the first place?  Thanks, sorry if I am missing something.  Still learning.

[cdv]

Chase, yes, that is what I did.......not to say it is what to do, just what I did. 

One would assume just putting it in tracking should be all you need to do once you ground balance. I'm still learning this machine too and to be honest , never did ground balance my CTX so it is all new to me.

Guess that over time, having it in tracking just would eliminate the additional 5 added after the Auto GB procedure.

Cliff

[Chase Goldman]

Yeah. That's what I was thinking.  What does adding 5 to the GB number do? Thanks

[Vez]

Wow Cliff!  On an open hoop too!  I think the reasoning behind setting GB then setting it to tracking was so that tracking had a starting point closer to what it would be running at is all.  I am not sure about the 5 over though :) 

[cdv]

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Yeah. That's what I was thinking.  What does adding 5 to the GB number do? Thanks

   The 5 over........ I read it on the internet so it has to be true and have a real reason behind it.....lol

 

Cliff

[sdbirder]

Here's a pic of my smallest saltwater gold find yet on the EQX 800. It took a while to recover as it kept falling through my scoop. Earring back, acid tested at 10k, .13 grams. VDI was 1 on Beach 1, 50 tones. I was amazed. I keep digging the VDI ones in hopes for a gold chain. 

Calculated Scrap Gold Value: $2.32

[dewcon4414]

Chase...... Tom Dankowski recommended if you are hunting in beach 2 in the water to add those extra digits.   If you GB on the beach in beach 1 you may get say 11....... then do a GB in beach 2.... you get a 4.   He recommended bringing your GB up in beach 2 by 5 digits to get some of that sensitivity back.   You can tell ..... it gets a little chatty to... but not like beach 1.... and obviously you can back it off some as needed.   Real learning process with this GB, iron bias and recovery speed to find the right combo in the water. 

OK.... Cliff you forgot to say if your Xcal and CTX would hit on that earring buddy.  Stop leaving me all the big gold.... lol.

[Chase Goldman]

22 hours ago, dewcon4414 said:

Chase...... Tom Dankowski recommended if you are hunting in beach 2 in the water to add those extra digits.   If you GB on the beach in beach 1 you may get say 11....... then do a GB in beach 2.... you get a 4.   He recommended bringing your GB up in beach 2 by 5 digits to get some of that sensitivity back.   You can tell ..... it gets a little chatty to... but not like beach 1.... and obviously you can back it off some as needed.   Real learning process with this GB, iron bias and recovery speed to find the right combo in the water. 

OK.... Cliff you forgot to say if your Xcal and CTX would hit on that earring buddy.  Stop leaving me all the big gold.... lol.

Dew, thanks for the background info on where that +5  possibly came from. 

However, not sure I am on board with that advice at all for a number of reasons. 

First, you should not have to fight against what the detector thinks the ground phase should be.  This is one of the more sophisticated ground phase detectors out there because it takes advantage of multi-frequency to get more than one data point. 

Second, I also hesitate to compare mode GB readings as each mode uses a unique Multi-IQ frequency weighting and signal processing algorithm. 

Third, GB reading, I believe, plays into the Beach Mode transmission power reduction algorithm to avoid over-driving the output power under black sand conditions.   It seems you could be chasing your tail by upping the GB phase manually.  Without knowing how that algorithm really works, afraid you could be chasing your tail or just make things worse by biasing the number high.

Fourth, upping the ground phase number seems contrary to my understanding of ground phase conventions on other detectors which simplistically look like a form of discrimination.  It seems to me biasing the ground phase number high should have just the opposite effect than what is desired because it would "discriminate more".  On the Deus, running a GB offset low (i.e., negative bias) would make it appear more sensitive, but at the expense of more ground noise. 

Finally, with ML not sharing details of what is going on under the hood per the discussions of points 1 though 3, it just doesn't make sense to me to push GB phase high manually as a given approach.  Experimentally, it MAY make sense in practice on a case basis, but it just doesn't sound right to me on a theory basis. 

I do wish ML would have given more control to the user in beach mode with the ability to go single frequency and with a switch to be able to turn off the power reduction feature (at least as far as the 800 is concerned).

[dewcon4414]

Chase.... im not sure they werent right about just being in multi freq at the beach with a salt setting.   Ive tried hunting in park and field modes.... multi freq.   IF we have a lot of moisture on the sand they can be difficult to hunt with.  I have been able to set them the same (tones, volumes, iron bias ect) way and it quiets them down a bit.   BUT i find myself going back to beach 1..... even thou field 2 and park 1 seems deeper..... doesnt help if you cant hunt with them easily.   Moisture just really seems to light the beach up in other modes.

All your comments seem right about raising the GB especially about loosing weak targets raising the GB.   But, didnt the manual say you get a symbol on the screen when the machine goes into Beach Mode transmission power reduction?  Ive never seen that happen on my screen yet.  

Me and Cliff have been discussing GB so  I talked to Tom about this ....... seems he was talking about adjusting the SENSITIVITY NOT  the GB up those 5 digits.   Which i had found i could easily adjust it up 3 already and keep it fairly quiet in beach 2.   Now .... i read an article that Gordon Heritage did ..... he recommended using the default 0 ALWAYS.  His reasoning was ..... because by balancing them they got very noisy because it make flakes more visible to the machine.   But on a beach thats kind of what we are looking for more sensitivity to smaller targets...... which means a little more chatter ... am i wrong?  

Manual.... vs Auto.... vs tracking on a beach.    To me... you really have to know what the machine is doing in order to manually GUESS at the GB.   In Auto the machine selects the best GB..... and if im correct LOCKS it and doesnt check the GB again...... which means you will have some parts of the beach.... like fluffy sand with nothing there that will be quiet.... and hard pan where it will be chatty.   NOW in tracking .......it adjusts constantly down fall here is depth/sensitivity over the fixed.... am i right?   Auto GB doesnt mean it auto adjusts like in tracking..... it just means the machine will select the correct GB and it stays there once selected.

A good many on the CTX ....... just grabbed the machine and hit the water without GBing.   I think we believed auto GB ment it was being adjusted ..... which was incorrect.   It just ment we were likely hunting in the default unless we or someone had done an auto GB on the machine.   Which is why sometimes ...... you wondered, are targets shallow today or am i just not getting the depth?

Also......GBing before you get into the water..... where should it be done?    Many say right near the water so it can identify the salt as well as the sand.   But isnt that where a greater concentration of black sand and in our case buried seaweed is?  

Thanks for the info Chase.