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Underwater With The Equinox 800


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I’ve taken the equinox underwater with the Hungarian headphones twice now and I think I’ve experienced the best and worst scenario for the equinox.

 

Firstly I went into a popular rock pool which I’ve detected successfully with one of my Pulse Induction machines (ATX) with decent success although I did ok, I had to greatly reduce sensitivity and increase pulse delay for it to be stable but still it was enough to find about 60 coins and a few rings in this small pool HOWEVER, the equinox was very very unhappy in these conditions and struggled to signal when the coin was placed on the rocks which was 2- 3 inches on our 10c coins (which is very similar in size and conductive to a nickel and therefore general gold ring territory) but when detecting purely through salt water it was capable of 7-8” on the same coin (just estimating but it was MUCH more than over the rocks)

I messed around with sensitivity, discrimination, different modes (was using beach 2), sweep speed, swing height, ground balancing with tracking on and off, recovery speed as well as testing to see if the test items would register in all metal (if they came up as iron) to no avail, I don’t know what kind of rock it is but detectors clearly don’t like it.

Next outing was a sandy beach with sandstone rocks and clay base which the detector functioned adequately over.  I only used beach 2 and found recovery speed 4 is good because swing speed is slower under water so theoretically gives more depth, the sensitivity couldn’t really be run over 14 (I was 2m deep in salt water) at this location apparently but 10c targets were recoverable from 8” 

The Hungarian headphones aren’t very loud underwater (even to my 24 year old ears) which seems to be a theme with the equinox so I believe it COULD be that the 3.7V lithium battery is insufficient to run these kind of Piezo’s but I’m far from an expert.

Anyway, the nox went well and found some smaller than usual gold pieces ?

 

Today’s treasure:

BF88F257-1FA8-444F-8B62-A04AA0EAAD7A.jpeg

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Great report. It sounds like detecting in Hawaii - the hot rocks there give VLF detectors fits and are good at hiding targets that only a PI can reveal. Obviously finds can be made but it can be a noisy go deciding what signals are good and which are not. Much as I like the Equinox for water hunting it will not replace a PI for the worst stuff.

Personally I would recommend a higher recovery speed in hot rocks. Your problem is not absolute depth but relative depth, and a higher recovery speed will reduce noise and let the machine see targets between and next to hot rocks better.

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11 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Personally I would recommend a higher recovery speed in hot rocks. Your problem is not absolute depth but relative depth, and a higher recovery speed will reduce noise and let the machine see targets between and next to hot rocks better.

Thanks for this bit of expertise info. Helps us rookies!

strick

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Id say you found more than a few pieces of gold.   

The Nox, much like the CTX, prefers speakers like the audiosears over the piezos.   But those speakers arent cheap so not many use them they arent as easy to seal either for water hunting.   Not many phones perform well underwater for a lot of reasons either.   To me .... its more about finding a pair of phones that are properly sealed for constant dunking.   Its bites ...... but the cheap ML yellows do do that..... but dang i hate those things.   We may see MAL or GGA soon ..... but i think there wont be a big change in sound.

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While I like the Hungarian yellows, I need something with more sound blocking. I don't dive and these have no sound blocking at all.  In fact, they seem to amplify the noise from boats, jet skis and even the wind.  I bought one of the adapters a while back and am seriously considering converting the Koss QZ-99's over.

 

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1 hour ago, Jackpine said:

While I like the Hungarian yellows, I need something with more sound blocking. I don't dive and these have no sound blocking at all.  In fact, they seem to amplify the noise from boats, jet skis and even the wind.  I bought one of the adapters a while back and am seriously considering converting the Koss QZ-99's over.

 

They are easy enough to pop apart, just pull the squishy part and the rest pops out with it or use a flat head to get in there.

You could probably stuff some foam in there or other material for sound blocking.

Had another cracker day yesterday and my first SCUBA with the equinox, had so much fun too! ?

here is yesterday’s top treasures:

 

C4FAE396-E5D7-49D9-97D2-CC2E841AADDA.jpeg

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23 hours ago, dewcon4414 said:

Id say you found more than a few pieces of gold.   

The Nox, much like the CTX, prefers speakers like the audiosears over the piezos.   But those speakers arent cheap so not many use them they arent as easy to seal either for water hunting.   Not many phones perform well underwater for a lot of reasons either.   To me .... its more about finding a pair of phones that are properly sealed for constant dunking.   Its bites ...... but the cheap ML yellows do do that..... but dang i hate those things.   We may see MAL or GGA soon ..... but i think there wont be a big change in sound.

I’m thinking about attempting some alternatives for water use, I’ll post them if they ever come into existence

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17 minutes ago, Edsped said:

They are easy enough to pop apart, just pull the squishy part and the rest pops out with it or use a flat head to get in there.

You could probably stuff some foam in there or other material for sound blocking.

Don't use foam to insulate (unless closed cell) if you are using them underwater, you won't like the smell after a period of time. Applying silicon to the  inside of the ear cups will help and not stay wet when out of the water. Taping over the vent and drain holes helps some too, just remove the tape IF using them underwater.

Cliff

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17 minutes ago, cdv said:

Don't use foam to insulate (unless closed cell) if you are using them underwater, you won't like the smell after a period of time. Applying silicon to the  inside of the ear cups will help and not stay wet when out of the water. Taping over the vent and drain holes helps some too, just remove the tape IF using them underwater.

Cliff

Ok good to know! 

Dont want smelly headphones ?

 

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36 minutes ago, cdv said:

Don't use foam to insulate (unless closed cell) if you are using them underwater, you won't like the smell after a period of time. Applying silicon to the  inside of the ear cups will help and not stay wet when out of the water. Taping over the vent and drain holes helps some too, just remove the tape IF using them underwater.

Cliff

I just tried pulling them apart and it isn't happening  I'm not going to attempt further risking damage.

So the Koss phones are getting modified and if they work out I'll sell the Yellows.

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