Equinox 800 Help

[Vez]

I prefer park 2 and maybe dial sensitivity back to 18 as most farm houses I have hunted have a lot of iron.  Dig repeatable signals and trust your ear.  18 will get you 10" deep.  Ground balance on clean ground or if you dont feel comfortable doing that, set it to tracking.  GB makes a difference for me here in NE Ohio.  GL and HH!

[TedinVT]

I agree with using Park 1 as many here have suggested.  Minelab suggests starting in Park 1 when you are getting to know your new Equinox.  Sticking with the default settings is also a good idea when getting started with your new machine as they wok well. 

You will probably be finding a lot of iron around the old home site and the constant low tone beeping (if you have All Metal mode - the horseshoe - turned on) will start to wear on you after a bit.  If that's the case, go into Settings and turn the Tone Volume for t1 down from 12 to 4 (or whatever works for you).  This will quiet the iron tones down a bit, possibly making them more tolerable when in All Metal mode while still letting you know there's iron under the coil.  In heavy iron environments I'll usually hunt with All Metal turned off the enable it to check a questionable target signal.

My personal preference is hunting in 5 tones (Target Tone setting) for both Park and both Field modes.  One thing that drove me a bit nutty when hunting in areas where zinc pennies could be found was the toggling between 19, 20 and 21 signals, which most zincs produce, which also causes the tone to toggle between a lower frequency for 19 and 20 and the next higher frequency for 21 as the default tone break is between 20 and 21.  I moved the t3 tone break from 20 to 22 in order to keep zincs from toggling between frequencies.  I did the same for quarters with the new firmware, moved the t4 tone break from 30 to 31.  I made these changes for both Park modes and both Field modes.

Don't get too carried away with the target depth scale on the detector.  Depth accuracy is going to vary with target size, shape and metal type.  Use the depth scale as a rough indication.  Jeff mentioned the pinpointing issues.  My pinpointer is dead on right under the coil knuckle and it's deadly accurate.  Don't forget to turn the pinpointer function off before you move on to the next target.  You usually only make that mistake once? 

GL &HH

[Alluminati]

The only thing I might add to the other comments is that you can adjust the tone pitch so that it makes a higher sound on higher conductors. It makes the tones more familiar if coming from a FBS machine. It also makes a wider audio gap between iron and a non ferrous low conductor. (I use 50 tone FWIW)

You can also crank up the recovery speed when in the thick iron. That combined with the lower sensitivity will somewhat emulates a sifter mode that the Deus users utilize, minus the reduced TX power. It shrinks targets, reduces total targets,(Not necessarily a bad thing!) reduces falsing - just makes an iron patch more manageable upon first detect.

(Come to think of it, doesn't the beach mode have a reduced TX power? Perhaps that is another thread.)

[dewcon4414]

Yes beach 2 has reduced power...... but it also has a salt setting that you cant change and different algorithms and presets hed have to take a look at.

[Steelhead]

On 11/20/2018 at 2:33 AM, Jeff McClendon said:

Hi Steelhead,

Park 1 is a great suggestion. It will go deep with good separation. The preset sensitivity is 20 out of 25. Depending on the site that might be a bit too high if it is really trashy. Also, if you are looking for iron targets too, you can use the horseshoe button to check for iron and/or notch in a few more minus numbers beforehand. I believe the first audible tone can be heard at +1 in preset Park 1. Even with the stock coil you can get amazing recovery speed and separation with tiny left to right sweeps over your possible target. Test your pinpoint function before you get started to know where the hot pinpoint spot is on the coil. Even with the update mine is still off (to the right) up to about 1" from center sometimes and I still get weak pinpoint sound (ghosting) but a reset of the pinpoint button usually fixes that.

good luck

Jeff

Thanks for the advice Jeff.  Much appreciated!

[Cptbill]

Good luck, I agree to use park 1 or 2 to start. My son and I had a chance to hunt an orchard and we used field 1 and or 2 even though we were close to some building. The Equinox’s worked great and had good depth. I agree hunting close to a house or in the yard Park 1 or 2 would be your best bet. Hope to see you found some great finds.

[William P]

Hi Steelhead!

I'll add one more item to this already great list of suggestions. I too use Park 1 for most of my trashy coin-shooting hunts and this is a fantastic coin setup that is easy to configure and helps you out with tones .

Best of luck and happy hunting!

-Bill

[Steelhead]

Thx for all the great feedback.   So far I've found some great finds at this site.  Initially finding targets with the ctx then checking them with the Nox800 so I can learn the machine.  When I get some time I'll post some of the finds so far.  Thx again for all the help!

[Steelhead]

So I've had a little time over the past two weeks to detect the new 1800's permission with the ctx and Nox.  I'm primarily using the ctx initially because I'm used to it and then comparing the Nox on the same target so i can learn the tones and vdi.  I've attached a few pics of the finds so far.  The TD is on it's way to ANACS for authentication.   Found several toasted 1800's LC's and even found my first 1909 wheatie, no vdb of course.  I think the Nox will compliment the ctx quite well and most likely push the AT Pro to 3rd string or up for sale.  Any recommendations on a 2nd coil for the Nox?

[Chase Goldman]

Nice saves.  Have been reading about how Chinese counterfieters have been flooding the collector's market with really good fake TDs that anecdotally have even fooled ANACS (or at least they included fake ANACS certs).  Doubt a dug TD is a fake especially since the other finds were period consistent, but FWIW.  Glad you are getting it authenticated.  Was it an S mint coin or an Eastern region find?