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Equinox, How To Recognise Large Deep Targets?


drake

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Hi all,  based in West Aus and new to this detector. Actually, back into detecting after a 25 year break. 

 Moved back to Aus after a long time away, and keen to get digging.. By coincidence Im in the same area that the earliest European settlers, and convicts (Fremantle) lived in West Aus. So id love to find a part of the history , (which is only half as old as US, but i still think interesting.)  

Now..This detector is super sensitive and Very deep ability compared to my vintage Whites, to the point it annoys me on trashy ground.Im finding it hard to decipher if its actually a massive large target 2 feet underground, like a can or alloy car part or a coin. The id is same as many Aussie coins, the depth says the same, but it sure aint the same item!

Im not very good with machine yet,  but i noticed the depth meter isnt very accurate on large items and i dig a massive hole to find a deep buried can instead of a coin. Any advice from your experience  would be much appreciated

cheers,

 

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I agree, pinpoint and in particular one of the Gold modes you give you a decent indication to size and depth.

Pinpoint may be quicker if it locks on first time, Gold mode always works even in heavy trash.|

In pinpoint mode, a coin sized target will always be a small, tight pinpoint about 1" wide, while a can will generate a response across it's whole length.

A small shallow target in gold mode is pretty obvious with it's quick sharp kinda of "whippit" sound, a small deep target will just be a quick somewhat quieter response without much inflection. A can should be obvious as well. ?

Others have mentioned something about 50 tones making targets sound small, so it could be that one of the other tone modes offers more inflection, I don't know you'd have to experiment.

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Another note on the depth meter, it's probably like the discrimination in that it assumes a coin size target.

It is understandable that properly working machine to misidentify a huge piece of metal, due to how the technology works.

I often thought metal detectors should have a second discrimination range for checking big targets. If you think its deep iron, click a button to switch to "Large size disc" then check it again. This would have the effect of bringing the numbers back down and in line with the small targets, so that a can would have the same number as a tab when checked with the large size discrimination.
This should also correct the depth meter to a degree on larger objects.

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thanks all for quick response..looks like New Zealander asleep now,  the Americans up and awake, and me - off to bed while reading the comments.

 

I got the Equinox 600, because it was on special here for $790 ($570usd) so no gold option unfortunately.

Not familiar with all sounds yet, Probably only spent about 30hrs with machine, so ill try advice with listening to pinpoint sounds and suggestions above thanks.

It makes sense to trial at home on the lawn first a bit more. Ive been overwhelmed by the abundance of signals blaring at me in trashy areas, and some signals are ridiculously deep. Bottle Caps galore too.

-anyone know why dont metal detectors incorporate Sonar frequency for depth reading, like echo sounders on boats that tell the depth accurately? Im sure theres an obvious answer.

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Check out this thread, too:

 

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Hi Drake,

You said you have the 600 right?  For practice and to gain more confidence try Park 1 when hunting coins/jewelry with sensitivity around 10 to 15 and use the default 5 tone mode for a while. You can only change the frequency of the lowest tone and you can't change where the other tones occur on the scale. Those 5 tones are pretty good though.

 Big targets like cans and pipes will have a big detection area when pinpointing which will be way larger than coin size. Most coins will give a short abrupt response when detecting and especially pinpointing. If you get a really loud signal that indicates near the surface and you dig that far and find nothing, recheck and make sure it isn't a really big target. When coins are on or very near the surface they can sound more spread out and can be hard to pinpoint with the 600 and 800. A good handheld pinpointer will solve that issue. Coins may only read in one direction at depth +13CM, and have sketchy target ID numbers. Bottle (crown) caps will often give double or triple hits with jumpy numbers and will be slightly longer signal in duration than coins depending on their orientation in the ground. Screw caps really suck and can sound great unfortunately.

The 600 will detect .5 gram ( at 5CM where I live) and larger gold nuggets quite well in Park 2 and Field 2 especially when using the semi all metal mode with the horseshoe button activated for even a bit more depth on low conductors. Keep the threshold barely audible in Park 2 and Field 2 for prospecting. You can try 2 tones also for prospecting and look for target ID numbers between -2 and 20. You can set your low tone 1 to end at -3 and dig anything above that up to 20 or so. You want to make sure that minus 2 is not disced out in the Park 2 and Field 2 presets.

good luck

Jeff

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Thanks all, advice taken on board

Cheers Jeff, tried it this morning on the beach and found more success,  (ie- not wasting my time digging 2 feet down to find an old piece of chain.) the specifics you gave were handy, ive read them over a few times, also availed myself of a pin pointer too,

You said “Coins may only read in one direction at depth +13CM, and have sketchy target ID numbers”  However im thinking you meant cans right? Because if coins also give a sketchy id too, then ive got no hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Drake,

hopefully others will be able to give you some advice on deep coins soon. I can only tell you what I have experienced. I live in eastern Colorado. Our soil is full of naturally occurring iron, volcanics, and lots of other trace minerals from decomposing granite. So, detecting anything coin sized at a depth of 13Cm/5" is really tough for most VLF detectors. The Equinox 600/800 are one of the detectors that work pretty well here. I can at least get some kind of signal and target ID from deep coins but like I said there is so much trace iron that it is hard to tell if I'm detecting deep iron or a coin. You will have to experiment on those one way beeps and see what you find. Assuming you are in Park 1,  American 25 cent coins usually have target IDs between 27 and 32 if they are not too deep. The deeper they are the more likely they will only beep in one direction and I will get nothing or a drop in the threshold in the other swing direction. I can also get slightly higher numbers (or lower sometimes) in one direction and really low numbers in the other sweep direction.  I hit the horseshoe button and check for iron. I am almost guaranteed to get some iron low tones because of our soil. I also move 90 degrees from my original sweep and sweep the target again after I turn up my sensitivity some to see if I can get a two way beep. You can use a really small sweep for this. If I keep getting 27 to 32 in one direction I will probably investigate especially if I am fairly certain it is a coin sized object because of its size when pinpointing. Hopefully you are allowed to use a shovel where you are. Here in Denver I can only use a screwdriver which makes deep coin popping fairly time consuming. So I usually save those targets for later and dig the shallow stuff first so I can hear the deeper targets more clearly when I come back to that site on a future date. Most of my friends here that have found really old coins have always had to make the decision to dig or not based on one way beep targets that sounded really iffy.

good luck,

Jeff

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