Problem With Equinox 600

[Tiftaaft]

6 hours ago, midalake said:

The pinpointer on the Equinox is a huge disappointment.  Learn how to pinpoint with the Horseshoe mode and stop all your headaches. 

I use both the "pull back" method and the pinpointer.. Sometimes the pinpointer will be silent over the target, if you press the button on top of the target (as GBA mentions), so starting to the side of the intended target as GBA states... helps.  I sometimes get a "muffled" signal... but a quick pinpoint off, pinpoint on button press brings back the full volume.  I have also noticed that sometimes coming out of pinpoint mode will "confuse" (for lack of a better way to say it) the Equinox, and the TID readings won't show with the tones.  Again, just a few button presses of the pinpoint and all resets.  Just some quirks that I quickly cycle through now that I know how to resolve them quickly.  I have found the pinpoint is very well centered to my coil/rod, so it is a useful tool for me.  The one caveat would be chasing bent iron... which has a tendency to throw the pinpoint away from the target... in those cases, when I have a nice solid pinpoint, then find myself chasing a signal off to the side of the hole... especially when deep... I can pretty much expect bent old rusty iron.  I should mention, I have been surprised a time or two to find a coin on edge doing that same thing... but more often... bent nail. 

~Tim.

[midalake]

17 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

I use both the "pull back" method and the pinpointer.. Sometimes the pinpointer will be silent over the target, if you press the button on top of the target (as GBA mentions), so starting to the side of the intended target as GBA states... helps.  I sometimes get a "muffled" signal... but a quick pinpoint off, pinpoint on button press brings back the full volume.  I have also noticed that sometimes coming out of pinpoint mode will "confuse" (for lack of a better way to say it) the Equinox, and the TID readings won't show with the tones.  Again, just a few button presses of the pinpoint and all resets.  Just some quirks that I quickly cycle through now that I know how to resolve them quickly.  I have found the pinpoint is very well centered to my coil/rod, so it is a useful tool for me.  The one caveat would be chasing bent iron... which has a tendency to throw the pinpoint away from the target... in those cases, when I have a nice solid pinpoint, then find myself chasing a signal off to the side of the hole... especially when deep... I can pretty much expect bent old rusty iron.  I should mention, I have been surprised a time or two to find a coin on edge doing that same thing... but more often... bent nail. 

~Tim.

Here in lies the problem. You just posted 19 lines of words and three paragraphs for something that should take 4 lines of print.

I hunt salt water only. The pin-pointer is completely unusable. 

So If one were to put objects on the ground and practice pinpointing in horseshoe it can easily be done and accurate. I dig off the rear of the coil, so I will find center and keep moving forward. 

Two tricks:  To narrow the location once you have found the target bounce the recovery speed up to  6-7-8. [horseshoe mode] 

If you really want to dig iron???  Move around the target until it does not double ring [horseshoe mode]  Then the iron will be centered. 

Done!  Dave

[Tiftaaft]

1 hour ago, midalake said:

Two tricks

Thanks Midlake.  I would rather be part of the solution, than the problem.   ~Tim

[GB_Amateur]

19 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

I sometimes get a "muffled" signal... but a quick pinpoint off, pinpoint on button press brings back the full volume.

Someone here (sorry to that poster as I don't remember who and am too lazy to search for it) mentioned that if you swing off to the side and wait about a second or so ("...one one-thousand...") this problem will self correct without requireing leaving and re-entering pinpoint.  I've since verified this multiple times.  As far as if that is quicker, I don't know, but it saves some wear-and-tear on the pinpoint button/switch.

19 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

The one caveat would be chasing bent iron... which has a tendency to throw the pinpoint away from the target... in those cases, when I have a nice solid pinpoint, then find myself chasing a signal off to the side of the hole... especially when deep... I can pretty much expect bent old rusty iron.  I should mention, I have been surprised a time or two to find a coin on edge doing that same thing... but more often... bent nail.

I agree with your observations but your last point is the rub, and typical of mental discrimination tricks:  "most of the time" isn't "all of the time".  Iron has several big advantages over non-ferrous targets and possibly the biggest is the population advantage -- there's way more iron trash in most sites than there are good targets.  So when pinpoint fails, it's more likely that is due to a piece of iron masquerading as a non-ferrous (possibly desirable) target, at least in large part because of its abundance.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure you dig these iffy (off-pinpointed) targets every time, just like I do.  😉

 

[Tiftaaft]

57 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Someone here (sorry to that poster as I don't remember who and am too lazy to search for it) mentioned that if you swing off to the side and wait about a second or so ("...one one-thousand...") this problem will self correct without requireing leaving and re-entering pinpoint.  I've since verified this multiple times.  As far as if that is quicker, I don't know, but it saves some wear-and-tear on the pinpoint button/switch.

Good point.  Thanks GBA.  

[GB_Amateur]

11 minutes ago, Tiftaaft said:

Thanks GBA.

You're welcome.  I spent 2 1/2 years resetting the pinpoint (as you) when I got that weak audio until I saw the recommendation buried in a recent post.

BTW, sometimes I get a bit carried away expounding upon a point someone makes (as with the off-pinpoint comments you posted).  There seems to be a spectrum of posters all they way from the dogmatic "this is the way it is!" to the "I don't really know what works."  I've noticed that you and I are at similar spots on the spectrum, building evidence for certain things we notice but at the same time not claiming they are universal experiences.  Since there are so many readers here with a vast range of experience I try to make sure that those with less time in the field understand that tendencies don't translate to sureties.  The more I detect the more I realize it's the subtle, even contradictory clues that often lead to the surprise finds.  That seems especially the case in locations that have been detected previously.

[midalake]

2 hours ago, Tiftaaft said:

Thanks Midlake.  I would rather be part of the solution, than the problem.   ~Tim

I don't know about a problem per say, but there is disappointment in the pin point.  After almost three years now recovering targets in Horseshoe mode I just can not see another way. 

I already hunt in recovery 6. I just wanted to point out for some who hunt lower recovery there are options to narrow that target you are looking at by bumping recovery to 6-7-8.   

A real game changer for the larger coil too. 

[Tiftaaft]

2 hours ago, midalake said:

After almost three years now recovering targets in Horseshoe mode I just can not see another way. 

👍

[Tiftaaft]

20 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Having said that, I'm pretty sure you dig these iffy (off-pinpointed) targets every time, just like I do.  😉

Thanks for the comments Chuck.  I was only trying to offer my experience, fully understanding that my experiences are neither absolute, nor the optimum... only mine.... and if that offers help for someone struggling, cool.  If not... a few lines of text cost nothing. For the most part, probably better off letting you, Chase, Midalake and others offer the constructive comments to posters.  I should just limit my posts to "nice finds!".  

By the way, related to the the quote above, I dug two old wheats last night at 8-9", using the 600 with 12x15 coil, park 1, recovery 4, F2=0, 50 tones, disc at 9 and below, iffy/scratchy signals both,  pinpointed, then horseshoe/back of the coil increased recovery as suggested, and walked 360 around both targets.  Had to chase them both between 3 and 4" off the center of the hole.  Again, my inability to properly center the target is likely the fault, but it was the experience I had. 

 

 

[GB_Amateur]

34 minutes ago, Tiftaaft said:

For the most part, probably better off letting you, Chase, Midalake and others offer the constructive comments to posters.  I should just limit my posts to "nice finds!".

Not at all, Tim, and if I've caused that then I made a costly mistake in trying to elaborate on what you said.  Your observations and reports of them are valuable and accurate, IMO.  Please continue posting those.

 

36 minutes ago, Tiftaaft said:

...I dug two old wheats last night at 8-9", using the 600 with 12x15 coil, park 1, recovery 4, F2=0, 50 tones, disc at 9 and below, iffy/scratchy signals both,  pinpointed, then horseshoe/back of the coil increased recovery as suggested, and walked 360 around both targets.  Had to chase them both between 3 and 4" off the center of the hole.  Again, my inability to properly center the target is likely the fault, but it was the experience I had.

The 12"x15" coil makes pinpointing more difficult (by any method).  I know some people (including me) have been surprised that  pinpointing with that coil works as well as it does, but AFAIK no one thinks it's as easy as with the stock 11" round let alone the 6" round.

Were you able to determine if those pennies were on edge?  "Recovery 4" on the 600?  I didn't know it went that high, or were you translating to 800 nomenclature (so actual value on the 600 was '2'?  (Minelab could have made it so much easier for 600 vs. 800 users to communicate if they had used the same numbers for Recovery Speed and Iron Bias.  And they still could have accomplished their "take away features for the 600" by leaving off some of the values, such as the odd numbered ones and the 8 of the Eqx 800.  That's effectively what they did.)