Equinox Ground Balance Disabled In Beach Modes?

[FloridaSon]

On 3/5/2018 at 10:27 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

On clean ground excessive nulling means you need to check your ground balance and sensitivity setting. An incorrect ground balance will throw off lots of ferrous signals, and if you have these rejected the machine will null constantly. Check the ground balance first. If this does not fix things, you may want to reduce the sensitivity setting. Excessive “blowback” from ground signals can cause target masking.

Related question Steve,

noticed the OP was on the beach. I was speaking with Minelab repair tech trying to troubleshoot chatty NOX 800 on my Florida Beaches and he mentioned Minelab had disabled the ability to auto or manual ground balance in Beach 1 or 2. The controls still work and it looks like it is doing it but the setting is locked by ML? 

Can you comment on this for beach mode?

 

Best regards

[Steve Herschbach]

7 hours ago, FloridaSon said:

Related question Steve,

noticed the OP was on the beach. I was speaking with Minelab repair tech trying to troubleshoot chatty NOX 800 on my Florida Beaches and he mentioned Minelab had disabled the ability to auto or manual ground balance in Beach 1 or 2. The controls still work and it looks like it is doing it but the setting is locked by ML? 

Can you comment on this for beach mode?

 

Best regards

My note was more generic in nature and not aimed at Beach Mode specifically. That said, I am not aware of any “disabling” of ground balance in the Beach Modes. I would think the regular beach hunters would have noticed such a thing and been all over it way before now. I honestly do not know as beach detecting has been the area I know least about on the Equinox. I just did a "quickie test" and it does appear changing the GB setting while in Beach Mode affects no change in ground response. I will drop a note to somebody that knows more than I do to see if I can get a comment.

One of our forum members also commented on Findmall that he thinks Beach Mode is "locked" into a "0" setting.

"11. Beach mode -- despite higher frequency weighting -- did not offer improved detection of high conductors, as I thought it might. One reason, I believe, may be that because ground balance is "locked" to zero in beach mode (which I did not know until today), and with my test-garden dirt balancing in the high 40s to high 50s, this was too much of an "offset" from the fixed "0" balance for beach mode to "shine" in this case (my guess)." (emphasis added). This was posted to several forums a year ago.

The latest version of the Equinox Owner's Manual still mentions ground tracking as a potential option in Beach Mode on page 41. "Tracking Ground Balance can also be useful when using Beach Mode 2 underwater at the beach (in salt water)."

Equinox For Beach & Water Hunting

[Chase Goldman]

I am checking into this also with ML repair folks

(See Keith’s response below...)

[FloridaSon]

Thanks fellas, 

appreciate your work on these questions.

[Keith Leppert]

I can say that for sure that the ground balance does indeed work in all modes, including both Beach 1 and Beach 2.   I'm told that the way it works is different in each mode, which is why the number displayed is not the same from mode to mode.   In some cases the number may not vary from zero, but this does not mean that the balance is not working as designed.

[Steve Herschbach]

And from "the man":

"We have not changed the GB on any of the modes since the launch of the detector. GB is definitely not locked in any modes on Equinox."

[ColonelDan]

Agree with Steve's note from ML.  99% of my hunting is on Florida beaches and the GB works as ML rep states...Beach mode is not locked on 0.

Just the view from my sandy foxhole!   ?

[flakmagnet]

I beach hunt frequently. I've never had an issue with GB in any of the Modes.

[FloridaSon]

Thanks everyone, and phrunt, this was told to me by an authorized minelab repair tech when I sent my NOX in. Not the internet as you were wondering. I appreciate all of your confirmation; helps me tremendously.

 

Best regards all.

[dewcon4414]

Keith.....then that didnt change with the UPDATE as a way of making it quieter in the water?    Some machines have a factory set GB for beach hunting...... why because they may not always GB.....that can be the case here in Fl.    I normally hunt with the default GB 0, but i have GBed in the wet sand ...... the obvious problem is its also GBs to the salt and a higher concentration of minerals that are LITE UP.   It may not be working....... but i sure get different GBs from the dry...... damp...... and wet sand.   I also believe the salt content in the wet sand WILL change as you get deeper in the water.