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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/19/2019 in all areas

  1. Just gonna add for anyone you guys have freaked out with this discussion you can also just turn the thing on, noise cancel, adjust the sensitivity and go hunt. Other than playing around a little bit with modes I haven't changed anything and it works really well. I've spent 90% of my time in park 1, no changes, and been very pleased with the results. I plan on experimenting with some of that someday, but it isn't necessary to have a very effective detector. I know you guys know that, but someone just learning about the equinox reading this may get the wrong idea.
    4 points
  2. Hi Chase, I agree with you that the threshold is different in the Gold modes and does effect performance. At least from my experience prospecting it continues to null on any discriminated numerical target IDs rejected and it will get a bit unstable when running in ground grab/manual ground balance while encountering changing ground conditions. I have yet to notice any effect on weak signals since the Nox threshold tone and the actual target tone are separate and can even be set on different pitches which is actually a really good feature. For this important reason, the gold modes on the Nox are definitely a type of Mixed Mode. Jeff
    4 points
  3. Winning bid of $200! That's got to be a deal! I paid like $448 the first time I had one.
    3 points
  4. As users know, there are a lot of setting options for the Minelab Equinox 800 (ditto for the 600, although not as many). But how many affect the detector's performance and how many fall in the category of ergonomics? I'm going to divide the settings categories into three groups: those whose adjustment is standard fare, those whose adjustment procedure isn't obvious but can clearly affect the performance, and those which are more/less ergonomically oriented. This is just my simple classification. You can redo my calculations if you feel that one or more features belong in a different category, or if practically you can ignore a range of settings. So here goes: 1) 'Standard fare' adjustments: a) Noise Cancel, b) Ground Balance. 2) Performance affecting options: a) Detect modes, b) Operating frequencies, c) Sensitivity (Gain), d) Recovery Speed, e) Iron Bias. 3) Ergonomic settings: a) Overall Volume, b) Threshold Level, c) Threshold Pitch (audio frequency), d) # of Target Tones, e) TID breaks, f) Target region tone pitch (audio frequencies), g) Target region tone volumes. Let's start with category 2 above and include all possible settings. The first two combine because not every frequency option is available in every Detect Mode. By mode: i) --> iv) Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, Field 2: 6 + 6 + 6 + 6. v) --> vi) Beach 1, Beach 2: 1 + 1. vii) --> viii) Gold 1, Gold 2: 3 + 3. So total mode and frequency options is the sum of all these = 32. Next is gain, of which there are 25 possible settings. Then recovery speed = 8 settings. Finally Iron Bias = 10 settings. Thus we now can mulpultiply these: 32 modeXfrequency * 25 gains * 8 recoveries * 10 IB's = 64,000 possible setting combinations! Can we simplify? I think somewhat, yes. Although there are 25 gains settings, probably the lowest 10 can be left off for 99% of search locations. So replace 25 with 16 and were down to 41,000 (rounded). Now I feel better. 😁 Correction: Chase Goldman (response later in this thread) points out that Iron Bias setting only applies to Multi-frequency, not to the single frequency selections. The 64,000 number above (assuming 25 gain settings) is actually 20,800 and the ~41,000 (assuming 16 gain adjustments) decreases to ~13,300. There are a lot of ways to play around with this number. Some will say that gain is simply a 'standard fare' adjustment since you set it to the highest level that background noise will bear. But that is oversimplified in a trashy environment since targets (particularly ferrous vs. non-ferrous) are affected differently. The flipside is that ground balance sometimes isn't optimally set (at the neutral point) and forget. Native gold detectorists sometimes find better performance when adjusting a few ticks off neutral. Number of target tones (and also target pitch and volume) can play into performance in a practical sense since the human brain can take advantage of (or be adversely affected by) these. You can think of (and set) the Equinox 800 as a simple detector. Just choose your favorite mode and then go with the defaults. This isn't new, the same can be done with the White's V3i (although if that's your plan with the V3i then save a few buck and get the VX3). But to get optimal performance you need to adjust the detector to the conditions, particularly site. There's a lot of space to cover and it's not surprising that 1 1/2 years after its release people are still finding settings that beat (in certain environments) the canned (manual suggested or otherwise determined) settings.
    3 points
  5. For those who skipped the first post this is an Equinox with the 6x10 coil from the Gold Monster. No, it won’t function, but a coil like this would help take the Equinox up a notch as far as gold nugget detecting. Others have noted a desire for an open spoke type style as preferable. I’m fine with either. I just wanted to revive this thread to say I’m still hoping and dreaming......
    3 points
  6. Some additional photos of the gold, including close ups of the largest one which I believe shows some remnants of crystal character. Quite rare in Nz
    3 points
  7. Hey. The girl lost her wedding ring in my city. Posted by .. help !!! Hello, the wedding ring was lost, if someone found it, please return for a fee. Just helped .. Found it and gave it to the girl. found on the playground )))
    2 points
  8. I had a Vaquero with a Cleansweep coil at one point. Nice little detector, and I even found some gold nuggets with it. Good luck with yours!
    2 points
  9. Bill's outing. There we go. Thanks Steve. I was just messing with Rob.
    2 points
  10. I just read a thread about mono vs DD coils that 'expanded' the usefulness of your 'test stand' features for users. The first 2/3s of it required slow, deliberate reading (just like overlapping a coil) in order to get to the truth of a swing and what I should be hearing. (The last 1/3 is more he said/she said which is a distraction.) The thread talks about the coil field (I liken it to a nerf ball) but when swinging any coil over your 'test stand' the weak fringe targets should lead to the centered targets which means 'dig me' vs ground noise!
    2 points
  11. Skookum, Thaks for the article and I am still thinking about what to do with the penny. Right now I have placed it in a very small amount of mineral oil to try to keep it in it's current condition. I am going to look into your method and then decide what to do in a few days. I would rather work with some knowledge on this and try to test it on something of lesser quality first. I know that it feels lighter than similar pennies and that the edges feel thinner, so you can probably tell that I am a little scared to do to much to this coin. Once again thank you for the information. Valen
    2 points
  12. Interesting take. Note that IB disappears and cannot be adjusted when in single frequency mode so it can't be directly multiplied the number of settable frequencies so that chages the total number of combinations by an order of magnitude. In fact, I have previously argued that when you go to single frequency in any of the Park or Field modes you are essentially setting the detector up in a single mode as without Multi IQ you basically take away the "personality" of those modes. Another "special case exception" - Note that with gold mode, threshold is true threshold (unlike the other modes) and it's setting is key to performance for weak signals. Similarly, 50 tones obviates non-ferrous tone bin breakpoint settings. Finally, black sand/mineralization overload transmit power reduction in the Beach modes can affect performance. But point taken on the shear number of settings combinations.
    2 points
  13. Sounds like a great way to preserve the coin for mounting and passing on to his grand kids as planned.
    2 points
  14. That green patina is quite unique and called verdigris. I can't quite see it cleary enough, but it doesn't look like you have much brozne disease. Maybe there is a little bit of it around the edges. There is a cool way to remove bronze disease, and preserve the patina, but it will put a matte finish on the coin. The phrase you'll often read online is to NEVER CLEAN YOUR COINS! Because, yes, cleaning your coins in any way can obliterate their numismatic value leaving you with nothing more than melt value. But, a lot of the coins I get here in AZ have already been nearly obliterated after having rolled around in our sandy, salty soil at extreme temps for decades. Some times you just want to have a bit of fun cleaning your coin. Most people would probably agree that if the coin is of little or low value, then it doesn't really matter what you do with it. (If it's a valuable coin and you wiped the dirt off the face to see the year and mint mark, you probably just bricked it, anyway.) Just like some people here love that green patina, you might like it looking as close to original, if possible. A year ago, I dug up a 1900 IHP with so much corrosion that not only would no one else have ever bought it, I didn't want to keep it that ugly, either. One way to remove bronze disease is to soak your coin in a sodium sequicarbonate solution. You can make this by dissolving roughly equal parts sodium carbonate (washing soda) and sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) into filtered water. If it's really bad, it can take several treatments with toothbrushing and soaking to remove all the crust. One nice thing about this method is that it can save the color of your patina. However, if the bronze disease is severe, it will remove it right down to bare metal. In that case, you might have to repatinate the exposed areas with a sulfur compound. Once you're done removing the bronze disease, you have to remove left over traces of water or it will happen, again. You can do this by soaking it in acetone. Afterwards, seal it with microcrystalline wax (e.g. Renaissance Wax). Again, just be wary that if you do this a lot of purists might start seeing red. Nonetheless, I've found restoring coins to be a fun part of the hobby that melds both art and science to a pleasing degree of personal satisfaction. Here is a resource I really like. http://www.metaldetectingworld.com/cleaning_preservation_coin.shtml. Good luck!
    2 points
  15. On Friday had about an hour and a 1/2 to kill between calls. The heat has been unbearable so I went to a local swimming hole And using my Excalibur with 8" coil had one of my best and shortest hunts ever. The bracelet and ring are 14K the little ring with this pink stone is silver the men's wedding band is junk.. Strick
    1 point
  16. I started this project 2 or 3 years ago (so long I can't remember). Spurred on by recent field experiences and also a recent thread on Equinox settings I've finally finished it. I don't know if it's a completely new idea. I call it a 'test-stand' as opposed to 'test garden' just to distinguish it from the standard test gardens many of you either already have or at least are familiar with. There are other similar variable depth test gardens out there (seen on YouTube). This one has the advantage of continuous depth capability. It also allows 3-d target orientation angle (similar to pitch, roll, yaw of airplane). It's based upon the 30-60-90 triangle (remember that from geometry/trigonometry class in high school?): Here is a sketch which shows how to implement this concept: Shown in the sketch, buried at an angle, is a PVC pipe. A test target can be slid into the pipe a distance 2*d which will result in it being located at depth d. I used two sections of pipe (ID = 1.57 in., OD = 1.90 in.), side-by-side to allow me to put neighboring targets in the ground with some option of how close the two targets are separated. Think of this as burying a double barrel (side-by-side) shotgun with the stock end deep in the ground. All you see are the ends of the two barrels. The concrete (bag of Kwicrete) locks the pipes in place. Here's a closeup of those extruding barrels: Besides the tape measure (units of inches) you also see a hand-graded scale at left which I'll explain shortly. Here is an overall view: The two PVC caps, attached together, are for keeping water, dirt, and varmints out of the pipes when not in use. You'll notice a 1.5 in. diameter wooden dowel rod inserted into one of the pipes. More detail on that shortly, but the target is inserted into the dowel near its end and then the dowel is slid into the pipe. Holes for locating pins (you can see one of those -- gray plastic -- inserted to register the intended depth) are 1 inch apart leading to a depth resolution of 1/2 inch. (Again, refer to the 30-60-90 diagram to understand the relationship between insertion length and actual depth into the ground -- a 2::1 ratio.) Next I show the business end of the dowel rod: The black foam fills the chamber and holds the target (in this case a silver dime) in place. The hole in the dowel is actually lined with a plastic film canister (remember those from 35 mm film days?) which has been modified to conform to the circular cross-section of the dowel and thus be able to fit into the pipe. The second slightly smaller) large hole was put in there originally for a second target but so far I haven't used it -- likely of limited value. You can see the registration holes. The first one has a red '2' (difficult to see) just above it; the next (representing 2.5" depth) isn't labeled; the third one has a '3'; etc. These represent the resultant depth of the target when a registration pin is put in that hole and then the rod slid into the pipe until the registration pin keeps the dowel from going deeper. Although the chamber packing material can be made up of many materials, I chose ethafoam (polyethylene foam) high quality packing material. You typically find this in higher end electronics packaging such as with desktop computers. More commonly it is white but in this case I used black. I initially cut plugs with hole saw (see next photo) and then trim with a pocket knife as needed to fit the pipe: Ok, so now you're still wondering what that specially graded (homemade 'yardstick') is for. Again, referring back to the 30-60-90 triangle drawing, the 3rd side of the triangle is also related to the depth. It is squareroot of 3 times the depth. (Squareroot of 3 = 1.73.) That yardstick will indicate how far downrange (along the ground surface) that the target is located. This helps when you get an iffy response on your detector and want to confirm or deny that the surface location of the target is consistent with its depth. The units written on the scale are associated with the depth of the target. You can see from the sketch above that the max depth is 15". The largest common US coin that will fit the chamber (with some force...) is a half dollar. I didn't keep track of the cost but it's probably $30 or so, mostly for the PVC pipe and caps and the dowel rods plus a bag of Sacrete. (I'm counting labor as free. 😁) OK, now that I (finally!) finished this test-stand it's time to get busy making measurements. I'll be posting those here on the forum as they become available.
    1 point
  17. Hi guys and girls, My wife is due to give birth to our second child next weekend so I thought I'd squeeze in a quick trip up to the local gold field to find some gold. We'd had a fresh dusting of snow on the higher hills the day before and so my very pregnant wife, daughter and mother in law decided to tag along to try and find some snow. We drove up to the same spot I last went to on our claim with my 2yo daughter. I was dropped off at the creek and the ladies continued on up the hill for a snow/picnic adventure. We arranged to meet back at the road in 1.5hrs time. The spot I chose has a 1.5m high gravel/clay Bank resting on bedrock. Flooding has exposed the bedrock at the base and on our last trip we were successful in finding gold by removing the remaining material off the bedrock and detecting the nooks and crannies. This time I applied the same method and soon found my first piece of perhaps 0.3g. There were some very large worms in some of the gravely clay which were very impressive! Some almost half a meter long! So I managed to get 6 pieces for one hours digging and detecting. The largest was 1.6g and the total weight was 3.2g. A perfect quick mission before baby arrives. Alas the ladies didn't find any snow. Cheers
    1 point
  18. And no offense was taken. I could have started out with a disclaimer instead of waiting until the end. Often, though, it seems like beginning with a defensive statement taints the rest of the post. If people only read the beginning and then exit they miss that last part. In this case I trusted that wouldn't happen. From the 'early voting' 😁 it appears others agreed with the need to explicitly state the simplicity aspects of the detector as you did. So you provided a valuable service.
    1 point
  19. True, you did say that, but the rest of the thread was pretty intimidating to my simple beginner mind. No offense was meant by my stressing the obvious in case anyone needed it. 😀
    1 point
  20. You shouldn't do that. I think he is getting old.
    1 point
  21. I will honestly say I had a Vaquero for over a year and could actually hear and know pencils eraser ends before digging. I've always thought Tesoro's had one of the best if not the very best audio in the detector industry.
    1 point
  22. 1 point
  23. Wow! Not so simple by anyone's descriptions or calculations. I think your paper is an attempt by Dave Johnson to take the complicated science and reduce it to a few words as he says. Maybe this is really the 'artful' part of what we do. Most participation events or creations we do as humans requires both art and science. I'm hoping some of these details will help to recalibrate my personal algorithms. Now, if I could just hear it! haha I'm finding my hearing requires me to equalize the pressure on each side of my eardrums much too often even without elevation changes. Translation: I'm getting old. Thanks for the mind tease. I hope someone like Andy or Jason sees it.
    1 point
  24. I use it and actually found their map the most accurate concerning the area I'm currently working, it showed a road that no other online mapping source did.
    1 point
  25. Yes, this is a very handy website. But as you have found, you still need to go through google earth and review different time frames. And even then, you never know how much the bushes or roads have changed from the past satellite pics.
    1 point
  26. Thanks for the link, Mitchel. I went back and reread it (probably need to do that again) and, yes, once the new (May 2019) replies start talking about the X-coils the informative discussion gets derailed. Being the contrarian that I am, though, I'm reminded of Dave Johnson's article: http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/SearchcoilfieldshapeApril2012.pdf where he warns: So to say what happens when you swing a target past the searchcoil of a simple motion discriminator requires computation of at least 26 variables. I doubt anyone has ever attempted to compute such a thing, although it’s theoretically possible. In any case, nobody will ever draw a picture of it. Kinda like quantum physics. You can get a pretty good idea of what's going on with a good verbal description, but to really understand it you need to get into the weeds (higher mathematics). Just like detecting. It's hard to swing a detector in the weeds, but sometimes that's where the really good targets are hidden. 😁
    1 point
  27. Thanks that helps. I did start testing Lowering recovery speed at beach. Will see how it goes.
    1 point
  28. 1 point
  29. Yes, many people here including myself have used it. One of the owner/operators, Clay Diggings (Barry) is a very helpful poster in these forums. Here are his recent posts.
    1 point
  30. Oops. That's a big one, something like a factor of 8 (correction, 3). Good catch. (Note: calculations have been corrected in original post to reflect this.) Is recovery speed adjustable in single frequency?
    1 point
  31. Thanks for your kind remarks folks, this gold is from the Marlborough region in the South Island of NZ.
    1 point
  32. 1 point
  33. This is a little premature perhaps since we are still waiting to see any accessory coils at all for the Equinox detectors. First up will be the 6" round DD followed by the 12" x 15" DD coil. What next? I think the Equinox has genuine potential as a gold nugget detector, but that the open spoke coil designs slated so far are not optimal for that purpose. Plus, some relic hunters etc. want something narrower than the stock 11" coil but do not want to give up the ground coverage as much as the 6" round coil does. Minelab has a couple molds for elliptical coils. There is the 5" x 10" DD coil for the X-Terra but that coil is not fully waterproof and too buoyant for water use even if it was. The better option in my opinion is the newer 6" x 10" coil made for the Gold Monster. The Minelab Gold Monster uses the exact same lower rod/yoke size as the Equinox, meaning the coil, coil bolt, and even the coil connector are already the proper size to fit perfectly to the Equinox. Here is my Gold Monster 6" x 10" DD coil mounted to my Equinox 800. As I said, a perfect fit. The Equinox version might weigh more due to more windings required for Multi-IQ but the coil as is weighs less than the 11" coil. My Equinox with this coil mounted weighs 2 lbs 13 oz or 2.81 lbs, slightly less than the 2.96 lbs with 11" coil. It does make for a little better balance. For nugget detecting in particular a solid bottom coil helps prevent snagging on rocks and stubble. I imagine the farm field hunters would love the coil for similar reasons. Anyway, I have no hints that this will happen but I am going to be referring to this thread over and over until it does. With a mold in hand half the work is done, and with the extreme popularity of Equinox no good excuse for this not happening. I personally think it is a requirement for Equinox to be all it can be as a prospecting detector and for many other uses also. Nope, not going to turn it on to see what happens!! Anyone who thinks this is a good idea and wants to aid in the lobbying effort has my express permission to use these photos in posts on other forums, etc. The direct link to the first photo is http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2018_04/minelab-equinox-with-6-x-10-dd-coil.thumb.jpg.07f2d166da68ca4c6e39bf21759c7c4f.jpg Click photos for larger versions....
    1 point
  34. I would be much more excited about that than the 6 inch round coil. It's also the coil I always used with the Lobo. I'd buy one.
    1 point
  35. Putting the discrimination all the way up can actually cause strong non-ferrous targets to blank like iron, so that is not advisable. I keep the ironnreject at 7 or less and, yes, the DD coil is what you want in order to be able to use iron reject discrimination. My advice to you is to set up tge detector with timing set at normal, abs all other settings at defsult. GB set to manual, find a quiet channel with auto scan, GB, and bury some typical relic targets: minie balls, round balls, j-hooks, buttons, high conductivity coins, etc. AND square nails (bent, straight, corroded, and just nail heads) and get used to the audio. HTH.
    1 point
  36. For beach hunting you can set the IB and RS appropriate to target conditions (higher recovery speed for max target signal separation in thick trash or lower for a tad more target signal elongation/depth). Lower RS is more susceptible to ground chatter, but that is not really an issue on the beach unless you have black sand. IB is pretty useless IMO. It may reduce falsing a tad but at the expense of masking non-ferrous near ferrous targets (which sort of defeats the purpose of running at a high recovery speed). If there is not much iron to deal with, then just leave it at the default (since masking is unlikely). If you are worried about masking then dial it down to 1 or 0. The salt signal really has no bearing on why ML chose the default settings of RS and IB in the beach modes. Bottom line is don't be afraid to do some on-the-beach experimentation by tweaking these settings away from the defsults to suit the target situation and ground conditions, but do so with knowledge of the tradeoffs, some of which I described above. HTH
    1 point
  37. That gold bug is almost 10 years old and still going strong. Have yet to find a way to kill it. 100s of trips under its belt if you include land based relic hunts.
    1 point
  38. Just thought... it would be interesting if the technology ever came about where you could run one detector as either a VLF or a PI (orZVT). What machines would you combine? I would go GPZ and Equinox
    1 point
  39. Here is how I look at the GPZ-7000 and proper settings. I have 4 very educated and highly Successful Expert Field Staff members who are accomplished nugget hunters & all find more gold than most owners of the machine, including myself, that makes 5 of us. Each of us find plenty of gold and do better than most....but we all have a little difference in our Settings. Which one is right? Lunk has the most bass-ackwards Settings of any of my staff, but he finds the most pieces. Spencer seems to find more deeper and larger nuggets than the others of us. I try to split the difference and go for a "Happy Medium". JP's Settings are what gives him confidence and Success is Australia and I would never try to say he is wrong. His success is proven and he does it for a living. There is no 1 Setting that is the best for all kind of gold at all depths and all soils. I'll try JP's settings this fall at Rye Patch and if I feel it gives me an advantage...then you'll certainly see me change. But it will take much time to test over many undug nuggets of different sizes at different depths and soils to see if there is in fact a better or worse outcome. Either way, this thread adds flavor, opinions and options for us all to try. Good luck out there.
    1 point
  40. 1 point
  41. I am sorry to hear that but good to know. Unfortunately nothing is 100% these days. Though by the way you are wording it you seem to be saying you paid with money orders and got ripped off? That I can see easily happening and I would not expect the Post Office to do anything about that. I mean that if you take a Postal Money Order they are generally safer than, for instance, a certified bank check. I still do not and won’t worry about taking Postal Money Orders, just did this week as a matter of fact. But mailing them as payment is no safer than mailing cash and I did not mean to imply otherwise. I still prefer PayPal overall as long as you don’t purposefully override the built in protections by opting for family and friends to save a few bucks. Completely defeats the purpose of using PayPal in my opinion.
    1 point
  42. Have you tried going to the all metal mode [horseshoe button] when these jumpy numbers happen? I work in one tone and when I seem to get targets that try to ring-in and try to repeat, I have gone to all metal mode and the target then locks in, usually in the minus 0-9 area. But I have also noticed that a jumpy conductive target has also locked in better in all metal mode. At least at the beach. Dave
    1 point
  43. Hi Jin, not directed at you either, your entitled to ask. It's more in reference to General rumor mongering especially on social media. JP
    1 point
  44. I can live with an open coil that has a closed scuff cover option. Win for everyone!
    1 point
  45. Kind of funny that for PI detectors we brag about big nuggets, and with VLF the bragging rights go to the smallest nuggets. Great stuff JP and you are officially the very first person to ever post pictures of gold nuggets found with the Equinox!
    1 point
  46. JP - I assume you left that nugget right where it was because, well, its not a relic.
    1 point
  47. Here in the UK the internet broad band providers are using wireless microwave mini dish transmitters to provide broad band connection to remote farms, the dishes are mounted close to the main telephone lines on the main highway and I have been detecting on the fields close to the relay dish for many years but this spring time my Equinox and my mates Deus was going berserk and it was then that I noticed the newly installed microwave relay dish, we had to vacate the fields as the noise was unbearable, I later tried my CTX-3030 on the same fields and the noise was the same. .
    0 points
  48. Dang, I almost missed this post because of the DD question... I love the good information, I love the drama...and I love it when the teacher has to step in and quiet the students. such fun fred
    0 points
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