Tones

[dewcon4414]

Lets talk tones a bit.   Most of us i dare say adjust our Nox 800 close to the machines we are used to hearing.   Like foil being a low tone and quarters very high.   Im starting to play with both the bins ... and tones.   I want to see how iron affects the second bin with a higher tone....... and if i notice any advantage to using the tones that stop us all for gold hunting.   EVERYONE stops at a high tone..... even if its a penny i bet.   Im thinking about making my second bin 25 and dimes and above lower ..... say 10ish.     Im looking to optimize those tones that we typically hear that stops us in our tracks.    In the water .... a low tone in the second bin can get lost with the mineral tones...... but i catch a 25 tone even if its weak thrown in there and moving slow.   I run my bins right now as follows:

Bin 1....up to 0.   Bin 2.... up to 11.....  Bin 3...... up to 17..... Bin 4 ..... up to 22.  and of course everything else in bin 5.

Think gold.   But ..... im still looking more for a target first and foremost.   I have noticed that the headphones can make a difference....... on my piezo ones they have a little more modulation IE when set on 25 for a quarter..... targets sound smaller..... could just be because the coin is round.   Not so much with speakers ..... all targets have the same volume to me.   The two things ill be testing ..... is will the higher tones affect small targets more and will minerals bleeding over to the second bin make it to difficult to hunt this away.    We have the tone adjustments........ but not to many play with them.   Seems to be a set and forget if it sounds close to our other machines......... which a good many times are optimized for coin hunting.  I may have to swap phones on and off as well.    I noticed during my playing around ...... using say a quarter and adjusting the tone from say 10 and slowing moving it up as i swung the target across the coil..... that the tones for me affected where the coin disappeared.   Again...... might be the phones....... but as my buddy pointed out (dang him) im old and maybe its my hearing lol.

[dewcon4414]

Did some playing in the dry/wet sand today since the water was really kicking out there.   Heres how i set up my tones......

Bin 1....2.  Bin 2...... 20.  Bin 3.......16.  Bin 4....... 22.   Bin 5 ....13.

It seem with Bin 2 minerals hitting a little higher kind of gives you the sounds you get when iron falses on other machines.   Oddly .... mybe its my hearing ...... but i liked dimes/quarters hitting at 13 over 25.   Buddy asked me........ why not just hunt in 2 tones.  I do that too, but you are really just setting one tone..... non-ferrious.   Ive tried it with high tones...... and after awhile its gets to you...... kind of like nails on a chalk board....... real low its music that puts your mind to sleep.   The 5 tones seems to break this up in my mind.  Cant get in the water until Monday to see if i like what salt and minerals sound like with these combos.   All of these tones seem to really stand out  to me.  

[Tom Slick]

After reading your posts, I finally figured out that you were talking about where you have set your tone breaks. The "Bins" thing kind of threw me for a bit.  I usually set my 5 tone breaks at  2/11/13/22 , with the tones set at  1/6/20/15/25. This makes the nickels jump out almost as high as the dimes and quarters. 

[dewcon4414]

Are you gold hunting?   I don’t really find a crazy amount of targets in the water in the 1 or 2 digit....so I include them and pick up some small gold.  I’m trying to concentrate on those areas where most gold fall and Change up the tones to better suit my hearing.  

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, Tom Slick said:

I usually set my 5 tone breaks at  2/11/13/22 , with the tones set at  1/6/20/15/25. This makes the nickels jump out almost as high as the dimes and quarters.

To drive home your distinctions, there are three audio setting menus for the Eqx 800 (not in the order they show up in the menu...):

1) Tone breaks,

2) Tone volume,

3) Tone (audio) frequency.

For landlubber coin hunting (I don't get in the water...) I come very close to sharing your breaks, Tom.  -9 --> 0, 1 --> 11, 12 --> 13, 14 --> V, V+1 and up.  ('V' means variable because it can be as low as 17 and as high as 21, depending upon my expectation of finding Indian Head pennies).  I run 'all metal' (no blocking out any metal range).

12-13 is the US nickel sweetspot and I assign both high audio frequency (just below max) and high volume.

Higher than V are the high conductor (copper and silver) coins.  That zone gets max volume and max audio frequency.

The three 'trash' zones have tone volume and audio frequency set from low to medium.  For example, lowest bin (iron) gets lowest tone frequency and lowest tone volume.  1 --> 11 ('foil') gets a bit higher in both.  14 --> V (poptop, Zincoln) is assigned a bit higher in both, but well below nickel zone.

I haven't yet been to a site where I thought I might find gold coins, 3 cent pieces (either kind), silver 5 cent pieces.  There you need to be in jewelry mode and open up everything from high single digits up.

[Jeff McClendon]

Hi,

great topic since I really depend on the tones more than the display.

I set up a user profile on my 800 for semi-trashy park hunting that would probably work at beaches too. I have the first notch at 10 with iron disced out up to 4 and 5 through 10 have the lowest tone 1.  All of the 10K gold I have found so far has come in between 5 and 10. Second notch is at 13 for tone 2. Most of the 14K gold so far has come in between 11 and 14. Third notch is at 18 for tone 3 and most of the 18K gold so far has come in that range 14 to 18. Fourth notch is set at 23 for tone 4 and most of the 24K gold I've found has come in between 18 and 23. Tone 5 takes care of the copper penny, dime, quarter and silver range. I tried to set the tones so they sound very harmonious like a major chord with octaves since I am a musician and I can't stand listening to dissonant tones (like some of the factory presets on the Nox 600 in 5 tones) for very long.  

Jeff

[dewcon4414]

I see I’m not the only guy who put some real thought to their settings.  Jeff I’ve found lower digit gold than you....but u are pretty accurate on the gold.   I could likely cherry pick and disc a good bit.....but I like surprises.....you just never know what people drop.  The tone.... freq and volumes can make all the difference on those deep targets.   Some of the tones can just make you brain dead......

[Cal_Cobra]

I've forced myself to hunt in 50 tone, and so far I've getting pretty used to it.  In an uber trashy area it may not be the best option, but for relic hunting, it's been working out.  I have noticed one oddity, large iron tools (axe heads, chisels, etc) at a site we were digging a few weekends ago were coming in around 14, that's not iron wrap around, so it struck me as a bit odd?

[Jackpine]

9 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

I've forced myself to hunt in 50 tone, and so far I've getting pretty used to it.  In an uber trashy area it may not be the best option, but for relic hunting, it's been working out.  I have noticed one oddity, large iron tools (axe heads, chisels, etc) at a site we were digging a few weekends ago were coming in around 14, that's not iron wrap around, so it struck me as a bit odd?

I have left several 15's (axe heads) leaning against the base of trees at the lumber camp I have been hunting.

[Cal_Cobra]

1 minute ago, Jackpine said:

I have left several 15's (axe heads) leaning against the base of trees at the lumber camp I have been hunting.

Wonder why their ringing in at that TID range?  I don't recall that phenomena before the firmware upgrade?