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Today I met up with a very nice person from this forum who took his time to check out my unit and give me some much needed directions. The detector is not a problem it just has someone who doesn't understands it yet. Yes I admit that I am not the smartest person when it comes to this, because I really have not tried it. What I am learning from this forum and it's members will help me learn this detector and make me better with it. I wish to thank everyone who has taken so much of their time for their insights and help.

I went back today with my daughter on our adventure. I'm not certain I am finding the actual town site. I hunted around for other possibilites close by and hunted a spot with a fair amount of glass on the ground. I ended up digging 6 or 7 bullets. Everyone I showed my daughter she said "oh wow" immediately followed by "you need to dig the gold now dad". I'm pretty sure she is convinced I'm just confused on what the goal actually is. We moved back to the site downhill from the mine and honestly I think I'm giving up on that spot. It's just covered in sheet metal, from small peices to several square feet pieces at all different depths. If I lived closer I would hunt areas just outside the sheet metal zones but it's 4 hours round trip. I think for now I'll just go another direction. My kid had fun till the thunder and rain started. Then she said "we need to get out of here dad". It was her adventure so we headed home. A good day, and enough quartz crystals she felt like she found treasure.

Well it's been 4 months on these Blackube AA lithiums on my Tejon and loving them! I am getting double the battery life with full power till they are drained. I did have an issue with one battery not taking a charge and Blackube immediately shipped me a replacement, who knows it could have been beat up in the postal. Anyone using these and relying on indicators on battery life might be thrown off though as they run at high power until they don't have any unlike traditional batteries that simply fade in power. Being lithiums they don't have a memory so if your going out for the day it doesn't hurt to top them off. They take about 2 hours to charge from fully drained. Now if they made 9 volts that would be cool.

It's great your daughter went and wanted to go. Finding something to do with your kids is probably the best find a dad could get.

OK, forum database upgrade/move completed. Gallery has been deleted. Menu selections at top or in right corner for phone users have been clarified (I hope). I want to add an advanced help section for subjects like posting photos and such later on. I decided against deleting inactive accounts since that ends up creating tons of "Guest" posts and probably lots of missing pictures in old threads. With what I have been doing the savings are not worth the disruption of the old threads so I'm leaving them be and who knows - they may come back! Performance seems to have picked up and I have actually reduced my costs by a small on-going amount so looking good for now I think. I am going to look into a new service that distributes the website across multiple nodes in the U.S. for even higher performance but will tackle that later. Thanks again everyone for your patience.

A interesting article with some good videos. http://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t26534-home-made-skid-plates-easy

I was going to post this in one of the X Coil threads, but it might be of interest to everyone. I bought a replacement ferrite ring since I left my ML ferrite in Arizona. It's one of the Doc's ferrites with the white backside (off Ebay), I did not realize they were not ML ferrites when I bought it. The OEM Minelab ferrites have a black backside. It would not balance on the X Coils at all and actually sounded like a screaming target (I didn't try the Z14) so I reported that to the coil manufacturer. He responded that the white backed aftermarket rings are not the same as the ML rings. So, as I normally do, I checked for myself, bought an authentic ML ring, and he was right. They are the same size, but the Doc's ring is 10 grams heavier (something I noticed immediately but did not have a ML ring to compare to until recently). It is also more magnetic. The Doc's ring is also conductive whereas the ML ring is non-conductive - the Doc's ring was reading about 38 ohms from side to side whereas the ML ring read infinity. And after I sanded the backs to get a fresh surface to check resistances on I noticed the ML ring looks dull and black as a ferrite should, but the Doc's ring looks shiny and metallic, like iron. So, clearly there are differences between the two rings. Thought people might like to know even if you are just using the stock coil, as I'm not sure how this affects the ground balance, but someone could be running suboptimally using this ring.

Any signs of historic habitation (such as glass) are good indicators of where to hunt. Glad to hear your daughter enjoyed the adventure. Quartz in the right form, etc. is valuable, as I'm sure you know. But the thrill of the hunt is often the greatest value and she seems to have discovered that already. Good fortune finding a successful hunting spot closer to home.

Chase, I agree with you except I think that Nokta/Makro detectors have surpassed the AT series so even at a reduced price the AT line won't support Garrett much longer.

You guys are too kind. Right now the Google Ads cover the direct costs, pay me $0.10 an hour for my labor, and enough left over to pay my water bill. I actually have thought about “what about when I croak”? It’s easy to be complacent there but hey, could happen tomorrow. So I need to make some sort of provision in my will about what happens then. The website has value and so worst case is my wife sells it to somebody with the caveat it keeps running. Don’t know, for now just hope I keep ticking! My father is 88 and could probably out hike many of you and Mom 80 going strong so the odds are decent I will make it until next year. Knock on wood!

I recently purchased these They are the proper 1.5 volt and lithium batteries. They work well in my Tesoro that tends to chew up batteries fairly quickly. Will see how they hold up. They should not fade in performance as regular Alkalines do. $20 for 4 is pretty good. Much less than the $80 I paid for my AT Pro lithium pack.

I hunt almost every day year round for 2 to 3 hours when the weather isn't below 25F or above 100F. It's good exercise, my dog gets to go too, and I get to detect!!!! I change up the pattern sometimes but 90% of the time I am hunting for coins and jewelry with my Equinox 600 with 11" coil or my Fisher F19 with Detech Ultimate 13" coil. Usually my Nox is in Park 1 or Park 2 discriminating -9 to +4 and my F19 is in disc mode, iron volume 11, tone break at 55, discrimination 35. Today, like most days I was concentrating on the pull tab, ring tab/beaver tail, zinc penny range looking for gold jewelry. That's roughly +6 to +23 on the Nox and 50 to 80 on the F19. If I am feeling pretty good I will dig anything in that range. I live in suburban Denver so no shovels, only screwdriver coin popping. It is really hot and dry here at the moment too, so I was only willing to dig shallow surface to 4" targets today so I wouldn't destroy the turf in the park I was going to. I was planning to dig lots of pull tabs, ring tabs, beaver tails and zinc pennies. If I dug a nickel, copper penny, dime or quarter in the mean time: Great! That definitely happened. I skipped over a few pull tabs/ring tabs and dug 41. Dug 11 pennies. So roughly 50 possible gold targets in 1 hour and 30 minutes. Amazingly enough before I recovered the 8 gram 14K gold ring ($240 melt value ?) the first thing in the hole was a beaver tail. It was actually on my screw driver - perfect bull's eye. I was NOT thinking "#$%%^^ another tab! I did what I usually do and rechecked the hole with my handheld pinpointer. The original target ID on my F19 with the Ultimate coil (thank you phrunt for constantly recommending it!) was a really steady 70 to 72 at 2 inches, so I was a little surprised with the beaver tail ring tab. Usually the numbers jump a little more just because of all the varying surfaces on the target when the beaver tail is still attached to the pull ring. So, I wasn't surprised that there was a second target (I was thinking maybe a zinc penny) but I was really happy that my remembering and practicing three important things payed off with a great ring. I don't find gold rings every time I hunt. I do find rings (junk and bling) at least 3 times a week along with earrings, chains, pendants etc. Some are gold or silver, most are bling. I would say that the ratio I experience between trash and jewelry is about 50 to 1. This hunt was right in line with that ratio. DIG PULL TABS/BEAVER TAILS DIG ZINC PENNIES RECHECK THE HOLE FOR OTHER TARGETS Jeff

19-20 on the ole Nox stamped 14k

Local park, E600 with 11" coil and running default Park2, got a 16 on the meter. There was a bracelet on the surface but hidden by the grass. I guessed it was copper. Searching the name on a tag hanging from the bracelet, Alex and Ani showed a wide variety of bracelets. I'll guess this one cost $28 or so. Then switched to Park1 Cherry Picking and found some recent drop coins.

Nokta/Makro has flat out said multifrequency is next and that it will be in the Simplex housing. So far they have been doing single frequency and doing it well, but it will take the leap to multifrequency and PI to take them to the next level. At that point lots of people who are still ignoring them will have to perk up and pay attention. To a certain extent they have simply been doing what I expected the Chinese to do for a long time. Ground balancing PI and multifrequency are higher level product though. Garrett has no multifrequency and First Texas has been years without any PI at all. That is what makes White's more disappointing from my perspective - they have had both TDI and V3i for a long time but instead of doing the OBVIOUS and taking the existing tech and making it into the smaller 21st type units we crave, they stood pat with their big box design far past the time when those designs have gone by the wayside. There are sound reasons why the big box White's makes sense from a certain perspective. I mean heck, I liked my old rotary dial phone because I always knew where it was! But times change and expectations with them, and the fact is those big box designs are starting to really look like dinosaurs compared to something like an Equinox or Simplex. I cannot imagine a younger person used to a cell phone wanting to show his friends a new MXT. The part many people miss is that these new detector in a sealed pod designs are easy to crank out at low cost in a modern production facility. White's is still essentially hand building detectors in a very old facility. That one thing alone means they are in a real bind right now compared to outfits leveraging 21st century designs and manufacturing processes. I've got a real soft spot for White's so people may mistake my words as criticism... it really is frustration on my part for wanting U.S. companies to succeed and feeling like they are clueless. Typical arrogance more likely; they have always thought they have known better than their customers what their customers want. Fisher and CZ is another example of sitting pat with an ancient analog design instead of translating to a new digital version. I very much like DigsAlot comment as regards Minelab and their arrogance for the same reason. They have had the tech lead for so long it has let them build some amazingly clunky product and basically just expect people to not only suck it up but praise them for it. There is not a serious water user out there that does not almost completely rebuild an Excalibur into what it needs to be instead of what it is out of the box. That's just one example in a long list of ergonomic nightmares from down under. But Equinox at least shows that maybe that tide has turned. We will see.

I see it this way. Tesoro is gone, whites is next without question. Not sure who will be next after Whites. Garret has other biz models to keep them afloat. But against Makro no company is safe, not even Minelab. Invent, update or die. Makro is making detectors the way we want them made. Minelab makes detectors the way they want and we are expected to deal with it. In this fast changing field that could be their Achilles heel. Just my point of view. Makro I am still looking for a PI the way I want it.

Hello Everyone Scott Ellis here, known as IRON MASK around other forums and detecting events. I run the minelabowners forum and I am the designer for the "Detecting-Innovations" "Tele-Knox" telescopic shaft for the Equinox. I am Canadian however I have been in Europe for 19 years and I have been detecting since 2010, currently own and Equinox 800 and a "dusty" CTX. I have some of my finds featured in the Equinox Handbook by Andy Sabisch. One of my best finds is a silver Roman Seal matrix that is now in a museum in Croatia. My oldest find is a piece of pottery from the Neolithic period and was a surface find. The season is just getting underway for us here in Europe and I hope to have time to get out and find the goodies. Good luck and happy hunting to all.

I was not so much thinking of the discrimination for use as a strictly 'iron target' device but also a feature of the coil that could be used to negate ground magnetism and hot rocks. It would make that coil undesirable to hunt for meteorites but could possibly allow for detecting on some of our ground with iron stones that stick very hard to a magnet when dug. I'd gladly skip digging 50 ironstones in favor of only hearing one or two nuggets of size! Mitchel

Do you have one of the stock Minelab ferrites Jin? They are a bit black colored on the back. I bought a replacement that wasn't made by Minelab, with a white backing, and the manufacturer said it wouldn't balance on anything but the stock ferrite. Sure enough, it screamed on the white backed ferrite and wouldn't balance it. I haven't tried the Minelab ferrite yet. Andy might be gearing up for some night detecting, dunno. But, here is a picture of my replacement coil/cable inserting into the middle shaft, no problems. Next to it can be seen the old coil cable being re-wrapped onto a 5/16" (~8mm) spindle as the manufacturer suggested I keep the coil and rewrap it rather than send it back. The newer cord is slightly blacker but I'm not sure if that means it's a different material or if it's just because my old cord is discolored from leaving it in the sun to rewrap twice before (this time I used a heat gun). Also, the patch I made in the upper right. Apparantly I still need to wrap it with a lot of layers of tape for strength according to the manufacturer. I think a few layers of adhesive shrink tube should work too though, if that's what Steelphase is doing?

G'day, mate, so you lot fancy yammering like an Ozbloke? Cheers!

YES, Gary, they can be sent in and converted to "CTX-style." $20 for the conversion. And, Steve H., you can also buy the leather ear pads for them, so that you can replace your old/cracked ones, for $20. Contact John Smith (the maker of the phones) -- johnsmith55@bellsouth.net. Leithan, thanks for posting this. Way back, when I used to use a Minelab Explorer, I was using the supplied Koss UR-30 headphones, and doing OK with them. But, I was advised to get a set of Pro Golds, and I finally did. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I then got a CTX, and so I got the CTX version of the Pro Golds. I LOVE the Pro Gold headphones. When I got the Equinox, I started with the wireless phones (I actually use a different-labelled version of headphone that is the same as the Minelab ones, in appearance, but they sound notably better, FWIW; the Minelab version is much heavier on the bass, and the tones aren't as clear/sharp). ANYWAY, while I continue to use the wireless Bluetooth phones, I have often wondered if I should hook my Pro Golds up to the WM08, and just see if the audio is significantly better than I'm used to with the Bluetooth phones. The Bluetooth phones are REALLY nice to use, being wireless and thus not tethered to anything, but if the sound is better with the Pro Golds, it might be worth it to switch. This thread stirs up the idea in my head again; I think I might give the Pro Golds a go, and see... Thanks! Steve

All you are telling me Rick is it’s not done if they are still able to make decent gains in performance by simply having a little more time. I’d rather they wait and get it truly tuned in rather than rush to market and have to mail it back later for the almost inevitable upgrade or bug fix.

The good news, if any, is that the tweaking of the electronics and software have been ongoing while all the other hundreds of details of getting the thing produced are being sorted out. For example, LE.JAG has posted about improvements to the depth in the iron ID modes so that now the depth penalty for using these instead of all metal has been reduced to a very small percentage. Since they announced long ago that a gold nugget PI was next in line, I would expect that this platform’s development has moved along so that the gap between the introduction of the “Aqua” and the “Terra” might not be so long.

No gold for me and it's not because I've not been trying...Been hitting some parks around my area and a couple beaches on the river. The ocean is only 1.5 hours away but still I find it hard to get to for some reason. It's nice to get into the water during the Summer...I was at a beach yesterday and dug about 20 sinkers with my excal.. low tide was around noon and Kids were following me around asking lots of questions...different type of detecting then nugget hunting but you got to work with what you have close to home sometimes. The crucifix is 925 the two rings are fake but look nice anyways

Skate, The Impulse is on the whole slightly less “fussy” than the TDI (I have had two of those). The controls are similar, but there are differences. One big difference is that there is no huge depth penalty like is found in the TDI when the TDI is in GB on mode vs. GB off. Below is a photo which was released after Fisher brought a proto to the Huge Outdoor Expo in Germany. Here is my best shot at explaining how it works. Please note that l have only used a prototype and that only for a few hours per day over three days. Volume and Threshold are pretty self-explanatory. Likewise Sensitivity operates pretty much like on any other detector. The two smaller knobs at the bottom are - on the left, the on/off, Batt test, noise cancel, all metal and two discrim modes - mute and tone. The right hand one sets the noise cancel position when in noise cancel and the pulse delay when operating in all metal or one of the two discrim positions. The start up routine is turn on to noise cancel, then rotate the right hand bottom knob till you get the quietest audio - there is no stop, it’s just a rotary encoder. Turn to all metal and set comfortable level of sensitivity, threshold and volume. The Sat Speed works much like the SAT or recovery speed setting on a VLF, longer signals with more depth perhaps or shorter ones to enhance the discrim function if you are using it. The Iron Mask Knob increases the effect of discrimination in the Multitone or mute iron ID modes (selected with the lower left knob). The Pulse Delay control is generally used at the minimum which conditions allow. Some circumstances may require a longer pulse delay to compensate for salinity, running salt water or other factors. The shorter the delay, the more sensitivity to ALL targets, not just to small ones. The SAT and Pulse delay interact to some degree so adjusting the delay may make you want to tweak the SAT. Unless ferrous junk is a serious problem, all metal is the quietest mode and the most straightforward to use. It also has the max depth (although the sensitivity difference between it and the ID positions has been steadily reduced as the successive prototype revisions were developed). LeJag, who has been the chief development tester, hunts in all metal and finds that he seldom needs to cross-check in discrim. - but he has been using PI’s for a decade and is an ace. In my limited use of a prototype last October in San Diego, I found the all metal or the iron mute discrim mode to be the most comfortable for me. None of the settings are super critical. The

Nice score on that ring.. I live in the bay area and still find tons of old style pull tabs..left by lazy detectorists who are disking them out... If someone thinks that they are that smart that it's for sure a pull tab they are only fooling themselves... Yes i'll pass on some targets when time is a factor but you gotta dig those tabs and old zinc pennies if you want the gold strick

I go about Ferrite balancing a bit differently to what is shown or advised, this is my own preference and is to do with Saturation noise and Salt signals, especially with the X coils because they can Saturate quite badly. Instead of the Octopus wobble I briskly (not too brisk) wave the coil over the ferrite from left to right under the blue sticker at the front of the GPZ 14 coil, this is with the Quick Trak button depressed of course. DO NOT scrub the coil on the Ferrite this is because there is always a bit of residual signal especially in Saturable ground, once the ferrite noise dissipates I release QT and pump the coil to one side (make sure you are in Semi-Auto GB mode), this then gives the GB accuracy as a DOD coil will always sound quiet from side to side even if the GB is out, once there is no noise up and down then come over the Ferrite again to check if there is signal and repeate the process using QT if there is. Pump the coil to one side again and check the Ferrite again. This whole process should take 20 seconds, eventually you will get no ground signal up and down (Ground Noise) and minimal signal over the Ferrite. If the ground has BAD Saturation signal the Saturation signal will be magnified up through the centre of the Ferrite thereby preventing you from getting the coil close enough to actually balance the Ferrite out fully, in other words the detector will be trying to balance out the Saturation signal and not the X signal off the Ferrite. I also recommend users adopt the GB configured to their USER button approach and to go into Manual mode when checking deep targets or committing to dig, leaving the GPZ in Semi-Auto will allow the GB to drift either through exposure to the pick whilst digging or just general drift through the coil not moving, either way the GB will be out which is not obvious unless you pump the coil. JP

I got a call from a friend who journeyed down this way so I meet up with him at an old park here in town. It's given up old coins a well as civil war relics. I wasn't prepared for what I was going to find. I dug an 1868 shield nickel! Wow! I was excited. Then just a short distance away I got another nickel signal. I hollered at Rick and said another shield nickel!! We were both laughing. His wife had come along so I told her she could have the rest of the area around the old Oak tree and I ventured off. Five min. later I hollered at Rick again " you're not going to believe this" it was another shield nickel. I have only found three shield nickels my entire life and to find three in one short hunt was just crazy! Anyways here's a pic of my finds. One round ball and three shield nickels. An hour and forty five minute hunt I will always remember. Tom

I've been back to the park twice hunting the same area. First trip some lead, a blank cartridge(it still had powder in it) and a trigger of some kind...the second trip zilch!!....lol. Going back and try a different area. Oh, my first shield ever came from this park.

Yes, I've seen some 11's mixed in, on some older ones. FWIW, I dug a 4" deep Jefferson nickel that was a perfect "12", and it's not the first time... Incidentally, I also dug a 1" deep 1925 Merc, that read 25/26 in the ground...??? It air tests a solid 25... ?? I am CERTAIN I skipped over this coin, in the past, thinking it was a shallow penny! ? Steve

Thanks Steve! Old nickels that I've found have many 11's mixed in with the 12&13's.

Nice set of triplets!!! It’s crazy how purpleish they get

Have a good 10-15 hours on the first charge on these batteries and they are still nearly full with no loss in power. Machine performance is like a fresh set of batteries. I am getting the same performance I get from my RnB pack I got for my AT pro at 1/4 the price.

My summer season consists of a lot of VLF detecting at some old tertiary channels with quiet ground and exposed bedrock. I’ve been using a Gold Bug 2 with a 6” coil for years and found thousands of nugglets with it for quite a few ounces. It decided to crap out on me and I thought it was time for a change after seeing a Gold Monster squeeze out some good gold from old ground. After researching I decided to go with an Equinox 800 I picked up from Chris Gholson. I can say it exceeded expectations with the 6” coil. I only had an hour to spend at an old patch that was hammered with GPZs, Gold Bugs and Gold Monsters. FIRST SWING popped out a gold bug caliber speck. In a half hour 4 more popped out and I decided to give it a try at a cabin site where I found some great relics and bottles and an 1872 seated dime and 1911 nickel. It was a wooded cabin with foundation intact and long period of occupation so the trash density is as high as you’d expect. I’ve hit it hard with an XP Deus but thought this 6” coil might have an advantage. The ground is incredibly hot, as in hot with a GPX and GPZ, it drove the Deus nuts and definitely was a chore with the Equinox but with patience I was able to get new and impressive targets. The cabin was built on gold ground and sure enough a foot away from where the nickel was found I picked up the biggest flake in the photo. It’s a flake at only 1.8 grains. I don’t know how this thing picked it up in that ground with that much trash. I also picked up a handful of birdshot lead and small copper sheet scraps amidst everything in the heart of the site. Needless to say this thing rocks. And yes it can find gold as well as a gold dedicated machine. It’s the first dual purpose detector I’ve ever seen that can perform at the top of the spectrum with both. No coins or relics this day but I only had a half hour to look and it found unbelievable targets in the most difficult of sites. I think it could excel on half dimes and $1 or fractional gold coins if they’re around. So many of my patches have cabin or town sites around them and now I don’t have to hike in two machines or spend the full day with only one. Can’t wait to see what more time will produce with this thing.

There have been like a dozen threads on finding gold nuggets with the Equinox and 6” coil since last year if you do some looking. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7468-my-tips-on-nugget-detecting-with-the-minelab-equinox/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/9606-tiny-gold-hunting-with-the-equinox-800/

I only used gold 1 and 2. 1 in the patch where the ground is beyond mild and 2 where it was hot as any. It’s a strange spot because even though the cabin and patch are only a couple hundred feet apart the ground is that different. The patch is solid bedrock and the cabin is about a foot of hot virgin soil on top of the bedrock. I will be playing around with the settings next time out but because this was day one with it and I only had an hour I just stuck with those settings.

Thanks for the report Mike.----I have been wondering how the Equinox would do nugget hunting (with the 6" coil).

I got a call early this morning to find a ring for a lady in Oxnard. Big diamond ring, silver is the metal, stamped .925. By the way I found it haha. Obviously using the nox. I'm curious what you think the Nox pegged it at.

THANKS, Skate! Appreciate the info. And a 2/3 on that ring? That makes NO sense to me! A pull tab of similar shape/size would ring up much higher than that! Steve

Ringfinders is owned and run by Chris Turner. I've got nothing but good things to say about it and him. It's international, there are folks all over the world. PM if you'd like more details. As for the ring and what it rang up as, a 2/3. The tone was solid but it consistently hit a 2, 3 and then settled on 2. It was in the sand and when it first sounded off I thought foil but I was going to dig no matter what but a 2? I thought this would help some of you who pass over tones/signals because of the way they sound or more importantly because of the way they SHOULD sound. If this was just me hunting at the beach I'm thinking tin foil all the way and might pass it by. I have no idea why a silver ring would sound off as this one did. Crazy.

Probably would depend on orientation in the ground but I’ll guess 17-20. I’ve seen similar thin silver bands with an ornate top ID in that tab to zinc range on other machines. Anyway, good job on the recovery. I’ve considered joining the ring finders but as I travel for work it probably wouldn’t be worthwhile at this point. Just not home enough to justify the expense.

Not visible in my photo because my coil didn't come with them.