Jeff McClendon

Hi,

the Equinox will display the previous target ID number for a couple of seconds as you move the coil before it goes to  --  --  if there is no shallow target under your coil.  If you happen to immediately move over a deep target which is too deep for target number ID but is still detectable with audio you could go from a numbered target to a -- -- target in quick succession with a tone. You could get the same result if your coil passes over a target that is in the -9 to -1 range if those numbers are rejected for instance.

 I have never seen double zero=00 on the display, only one zero=0 which can be a target on the iron/small gold /small aluminum boundary. As was said previously, I would do a factory reset, pick default Park 1, properly noise cancel, ground balance and turn down your sensitivity to 13 - 15 and don't press the horseshoe button, then see what happens over an area that is easy to detect like tree bark, sand or gravel at a kids playground or in an area that is familiar to you with very few targets. Sounds like you were in a trashy area with some iron targets at multiple depths, swinging too fast and with too high sensitivity.........

Hi Idaho Peg and strick,

first, I left out a couple of important details. I like a threshold tone. For my ears there is a big jump in threshold volume level between 12 and 13 on the Nox 800 in Gold 2. So I kept it around there. It really helps with the faint targets, hot rock evaluation and determination of ground balance stability. I did not use tracking ground balance. I manually ground balanced (just a habit I guess) and the levels at both sites stayed between 1 and 5. Also, I hunted exclusively in Multi. 

Idaho Peg, I owned a Gold Monster 1000 for awhile (during the same time I was getting acquainted with the Nox). I found it to be an excellent gold prospecting detector. The two things I was missing on it were a threshold tone and the ability to manually ground balance. For me it was limited by being too automated. The Nox has outstanding numerical and audio ferrous/non ferrous indication with the press of the horseshoe button in any mode. It also has a much more accurate depth indicator (which I used) and an excellent pinpointer (which I constantly used). It also has so many ways to adjust and use its audio features that can really help in audio target identification support.

I am in my mid 60s. Even though I'm fit, I definitely do not enjoy digging dozens of deep holes looking for tiny targets with my GPX 4800 or my former Gold Monster and just relying on the intensity level of low-high, high-low tones, gold probability indicator left/right meter, my pick magnet and maybe a hand held pinpointer to speed things up. With those two detectors, cherry picking is very perilous. With the Nox 800 and even the 600 (it probably would have detected both of those nuggets easily in Park 2 or Field 2 multi) there is a whole lot of information gathering at my fingertips and ear drums that makes cherry picking a much safer activity if I am tired, have a long hunt ahead of me, want to mark very unlikely gold targets for later inspection or just want to dig obvious non-ferrous targets first. The Nox 800 gave me tons of easy to evaluate information, a 6" coil and -3 lbs weight, all options which I happily used. 

Hi,

I couldn't wait to get the Equinox 800 to Arizona for some gold prospecting especially since the area in Colorado where I live is frozen pretty solid. 

The first site I hunted was in the Little San Domingo Wash area which has been pounded by lots of people for over a hundred years. I used the Nox 800 exclusively in Gold 2 with the 6" coil due to an abundance of human metallic trash, with sensitivity at 15 to 16 (falsed over those settings) with -9 to -4 discriminated out, iron bias 3 or 4, recovery speed 4. Hot rocks were hitting in the -9 to -6 range and also sometimes in the 12 to 14 range with the classic boing sound just at the edges of the coil and almost nulling in the center. I dug every detected metallic target in roughly a 30'x40' area. Iron targets were consistently in the -9 to +16 range depending on depth, size and amount of oxidation.  Many of them jumped that whole range depending on direction of swing. When I was not using the horseshoe (all targets accepted mode) the iron targets would have very brittle, broken, clipped sounding audio and would be easy to identify just by sound alone. 100% of the time I checked those targets by pressing the horseshoe button and iron was suggested with -4 to -9 numbers included in the very jumpy target IDs. After digging each of these targets, (60 or so) iron was confirmed. I detected 19 non ferrous targets which all turned out to be lead, brass, aluminum or steel bird shot. Small lead, aluminum and shot gave beautiful evenly rounded tones and target IDs in the -1 to 4 range which were very steady and repeatable even after checking the target from a different direction. Larger lead and shell casings came in between 8 and 20 consistently with even, repeatable tones and solid numbers.

The two nuggets pictured were both found near other targets, which is probably why they were missed. The .5 gram nugget was 4" deep with an iron target about 2" away and above the nugget. I never heard the iron initially. I only heard the classic zip-zip with a solid 3 target ID. When the horseshoe button was engaged I could hear and see target ID evidence of the iron target too. The two targets were clearly and separately defined and easy to identify as ferrous and non-ferrous. I was really exited to find that small nugget attached to caliche in that situation!  The 4.5 gram nugget was 5" down, up against a large piece of hot volcanic tuft/basalt bedrock. The Nox 800 gave soft boings on the bedrock in several places near the nugget but the nugget screamed out a fantastic round signal at a rock solid 14. I thought it was going to be a 38 cal. or bigger slug. I was really surprised when I saw that first bit of gold peaking through the dirt!!!!! I lucked out on one other tiny picker at this location too during final clean up with the XP Deus.

I also got to detect near Stanton on some placer/pegmatite deposits with tons of hot and cold rocks, huge prickly pear cactus and my least favorite----cat's claw bushes=OUCH. I completely shredded a virtually new pair of gloves on those things along with my hands too. I didn't find any gold with either my GPX 4800, XP Deus or the Nox 800. The GPX 4800 is one deep machine and hunted beautifully in this rugged area. I dug several up to 1 foot deep, less than coin sized lead, iron and tin targets that could have easily been gold with a NF Sadie and stock 11" mono coils. Any thing bigger was just not very practical since this was a boulder strewn, thorny area with very little open ground. The Deus with 9" HF coil at 54kHz handled the hot and cold rocks fairly well and was reasonably quiet in Gold Field. It always gave excellent audio responses to detectable targets and gave a predictable horizontal XY graph line for buried iron targets and very angular zig zags on near surface iron. Lead targets had more of a rounded, almost cursive writing indication on the XY graph which looks a lot like gold responses. The Nox 800 with 6" coil in Gold 2 again gave very clear indications of what to expect from the targets under the coil and after digging, those indications were confirmed every time with no surprises. There was some nasty hot magnetic schist, cold ironstone and unbelievable amounts of magnetite which sometimes confused the Deus and especially the GPX 4800. The Nox dealt with them very consistently with the magnetite giving iron signals, the magnetic schist reading in the 12 to 14 range and the cold ironstone high pitched VCO screaming at 39.

Special thanks to Bill Southern and Tammy and also Rob Allison for their guidance during my fruitful trip.

The Equinox 800 proved to be an outstanding and very trustworthy prospecting detector!

Jeff

Hi,

I had my Deus with me (along with my Nox 800 and GPX) for 4 days of Arizona gold field prospecting. I used the Deus for the final cleanup on two patches. It worked great in the Gold field program and with a tweaked Fast program for discrimination. I used the XY graph for easy iron identification (horizontal line virtually every time). No trouble ground balancing or with hot rocks in either mode. The ORX should be similar. Other gold VLFs have major problems in these areas (from my personal experience). The only problem I had was being terrified to put that $400+ HF coil completely on the ground and whack it against rock formations, boulders, cactus and scrape a scoop against it dozens of times (I only used the bottom of the coil, way too scared to use the top!). I cringed every time it hit something!!!!!! Sticking it in a backpack was a dream, however. 

Jeff

Read today on another forum a report by Sven Stau that Quest detectors had abandon its North American dealers and market and that Jason Deng is no longer with Quest/Deteknix. European and Asian markets are still in place for now. So if you have Quest/Deteknix products, the nearest parts/repair/warranty service is probably in The Netherlands. Some parts are still available in the US from unsold stock. 

Bhogg,

you have asked a good question and the answers have been really awesome!!!!

NCtoad mentioned something that I have found to be almost always true. All of the ring sized gold jewelry that I have found except one ring have had a solid target ID that was a single number, no jumping around with a good solid tone too. These were all found in the 2" to 6" depth range in very mineralized soil. One gold ring I found had a platinum area on it and that number jumped around a bit. Deeper than that or a recent surface drop may give different audio responses and IDs. I have never found a square tab or modern pull tab that had only one number unless it was really deep (past 6"). Usually they are 11-12, 12-13 or 13-14 where I hunt. Lots of ring sized can slaw hits a solid 7, 8, 9, 10 or 11 however = bummer!  

mn90403 also gave you some great information concerning beach quarters and spills. Check those areas carefully. 

I don't get to beach hunt very often so most of my hunts are in public parks where I just can't dig everything since I can't use any kind of shovel and I can't possibly dig all of the trash so I have to use my ears and what's left of my brain to help discriminate. I know I'm missing targets but hopefully I'll get them next time..........

Jeff

Honestly for me the way to tell the difference is patience, perseverance and lots of luck.

My Equinox lets me know through audio modulation if I'm over deep, large aluminum, smaller multi surfaced shallow aluminum and shallow modern and square pull tabs. Pull tabs have slightly different target IDs on the Nox too. As all here have said, Gold jewelry can land anywhere from the high iron range to the copper penny/dime range depending on depth and the size and purity of the gold (10K to 24K). I make myself dig virtually every shard of aluminum, every pull-tab and lots of the pennys that my coil passes over hoping for my next gold ring..........

Jeff

Tesoro is on all of the advertisements to be one of the main sponsors for the Quartzite Gold Show next weekend Feb 8th -10th. We'll see........

Welcome to the forum.

The advice so far has been good. The Equinox 600 is a great metal detector. Three things you might want to do besides turn on and go in Park 1 (that is the best place to start according to most of us here) is change the default 50 tones to 5 tones,  learn how to do the automatic noise cancel of the detector for finding the best frequency to operate at in order to minimize EMI or electromagnetic interference, and to lower the sensitivity of the receive signal if the detector is still too noisy so that the noise, whether caused by EMI or ground noise feedback can be minimized. In most places sensitivity between 15 and the default 20 works great and there should be very little noise except for targets in default Park 1. I would worry about your batteries too with 10 to 15 days per year of use, so charge them at least every three months. Even in the cold of winter I use my Nox 5 to 10 hours per week!  I use it at least twice that much per week the rest of the year and I am just getting a good handle on it. Your only learning curve hurdle may be from not using it enough to remember how to operate it....... I suffer from that with some of my other detectors. Also, get a decent handheld pinpointer like a Garret, Whites or Quest.

good luck,

Jeff

Hi All,

thanks Happa54 for starting this topic. It really is a good one! Chase, I have only turned up Iron Bias when I have had to deal with difficult hot rocks in the -5 to -3 range when I'm using Park 2 or Field 2 for gold prospecting. I try to leave it alone at 0 in the Gold modes. I haven't noticed a difference in depth so far but turning it up does seem to slightly attenuate the signal of targets near by making them a bit harder to hear. I haven't found anything in the manual (YET) that says Iron Bias adversely impacts depth but it is some kind of filter so........

Jeff

The Whites Matrix M6 is a great detector. Even though it is well balanced it still weighs in at over 4 lbs. You can lessen the weight with some of the after market battery packs and smaller coils but 8 AAs really add some weight. On the other hand, two of my best friends (very fit women in the late 60s) detect with Whites Spectra V3is and claim that they are not bothered by the weight. They also have never used any other detectors!

Jeff

Hi Chase,

Page 24, Field 2 smaller targets (specifically mentions hammered coins i.e.. silver) at depth.  Realistically I think you are correct in your assessment of the normal uses for the 1 and 2 Park and Field modes in relation to lower frequencies go deeper and detect higher conductive targets better and higher frequencies cannot go as deep and detect smaller and lower conductive targets better. Where I live that just isn't the case. Lower frequencies just can't penetrate the mineralization like higher frequencies can. I think Happa54 is in SoCal where mineralization can be an issue at some places where he lives. I was just offering a possible solution at some locations.

Also, all of the deep silver and deep wheats that I have found where I live (past 6") have been found in either Park2 or Field 2. 

Jeff

Hi Happa54,

you are still using the Nox 600 right?  For deeper targets the online manual recommends Park 2 or Field 2 since both have their multi-frequencies weighted more toward the higher frequencies. You could also run recovery speed on the 600 at 2 for a little more depth and swing slow.

Maybe this will help,

Jeff

I've had a used 8000 for 6 months, hoping that I would figure out how to keep it from being so sensitive to EMI. I have not been successful so far. I took it out last week to four sites that I have hunted with my Nox 600, Deus and F44 with absolutely no issues. The Omega 8000, with two different DD coils, was so overwhelmed by EMI that I could only detect at one of the four sites no matter how low I kept the sensitivity (30 or less) and ground balanced often. It is a great detector obviously as is the 8500 from what I hear, but the susceptibility to EMI is not acceptable. Sadly, I'll be selling it soon...........

Jeff

Hi Kutabon,

that was a excellent reply. You live in an area where there are lots of good places to detect and you don't need a top of the line detector to be successful there either. I think San Antonio lets you detect in public parks and school grounds but I believe you need a permit which is no big deal considering how nice San Antonio is and all of its historic relic possibilities. You also have a metal detecting club there too. Metal Detecting Stuff is a good place to check out detectors, just outside of Houston in Woodlands I think. They carry all of the current Fisher detectors (factory is in El Paso, FTP, First Texas Products, another great place to visit if you are going there) and the Garrett detectors (another Texas product) along with the Minelab Equinox line and Whites too. They also sell used detectors at great prices. Check out their website.

Steve mentioned the Fisher F44 and the Minelab X-Terras.

I bad mouthed the F44 a bit in an earlier topic and after trying one out again and eventually buying it, I need to eat some of my words. It is a very good detector for the price and is able to punch pretty deep here in bad dirt central Colorado. I still don't like the buttons but it is light-weight, well made and accurate to 5" so far. My grown daughter and my Navy son used it when they visited recently and really liked it and had no trouble being successful with it after about 10 minutes of getting acquainted. The F44 and F22 really do have weatherproof control boxes and have water proof coils so you can submerge the coil and you can use the whole detector in a light rain if you get caught in one. I just carry a zip-loc bag or two to cover the control box. The one I tried out earlier last year either was not working correctly or I was just not interested in it really. FTP 5 year warranty if you buy new.

The Bounty Hunter Land Ranger Pro and its clone the Teknetics Liberator are excellent detectors if you don't have too much EMI in your area and the pinpoint button issue has been solved. The Teknetics Patriot/Fisher F70 are proven mid level detectors that would work well in your area. If you get one of these again buy it new, FTP 5 year warranty.

The X-Terra 305,505 and 705 are another excellent series of detectors. The 705 can keep most beginner and intermediate detector users busy for many years because it has so many nice features. There are some great deals on used ones out there because of the popularity of the Equinox!

good luck,

Jeff

Hi,

the ORX looks like a great detector if you don't already have the Deus (like me) with a high frequency coil. I can't see selling my Deus and buying an ORX just for the warranty.......otherwise my out of warranty Deus has everything the ORX has and a lot more. I'm taking it with me to AZ next week for some prospecting (along with my Nox 800 and GPX 4800). I've got to get out of snowy, frozen Denver for awhile. Reading forums and doing back porch testing is definitely getting a bit old!

Jeff

Hi,

That is good news. Rob and his wife are great people. They will go out of their way for their customers every time.

Maybe  he will be able to help White's tweak their 24Ks and TDIs for the Southwest desert prospecting area since he is a professional nugget hunter and trainer there. 

Hi,

welcome to the forum.

phrunt gave you some good advice.

Are you folks young or older and is the weight of the detector possibly and issue. Some detectors work great but are not exactly fun to swing for long periods of time because they are heavy or not balanced well. 3 lbs or less and adjustability are important to some people.

Since I live in an area of the country that has really difficult soil for detecting I'm also asking: where do you live (state or province) and what is your soil like (if you know)?

If you want to detect for coins and jewelry in parks and public land from the surface down to about 5" just about any properly working detector will do just fine.  If you want to go deeper for older coins and relics, detect on dry and wet salt beaches, detect in or under water, detect for gold nuggets, or you live in an area with really tough soil mineralization conditions, you will have a more exclusive and often more expensive group of detectors that can do those tasks.

So, think about those questions and get back to us when you can.

Jeff

Hi Jin,

I hear and read about stories like yours often especially from people that are new to detecting or are moving from a beginner detector to the Equinox. Usually, like you they have moved out of the default settings and raised the sensitivity too high or are hunting with the ferrous accept/ reject horseshoe button accidentally engaged and don’t understand why their Nox is messed up. I’m really glad you got some help and stuck with your Nox.

 I own and regularly use both the 600 and the 800. I keep trying to convince myself to sell my 600 which I had planned to do originally. I just can’t do it! The 600 is easily as good or better than any comparable detector out there!

Jeff

So DSMITH,

you would probably get better performance from separate coils according to Steve’s post and the info in the links he provided.

Personally, I have the stock Minelab concentric 7.5kHz coil and a Mars Sniper DD 18.75 kHz coil because I use my XT50 for fresh and saltwater beach detecting in the Southeastern USA and both coils are waterproof. The Minelab 10X5 18.75 kHz coil is not waterproof.

Jeff

HI

I have not heard of any problems with the aftermarket MF coils for the Xterra series. I think it is a matter of: do you want to buy and use a coil that is not sanctioned by Minelab. I don’t know if there are patent issues.

 Like was said here earlier obviously it is possible to create one coil that can operate at all three frequencies so why didn’t Minelab do that. It is either a technical issue and Minelab was not satisfied with the result or it was a way to sell more coils.............

Jeff

Hi,

I have not tried one of the Nel multi frequency coils for the X-Terra series. I have used Nel single frequency coils and they worked well.  I have owned or tried out both a 705 and Makro Multi Kruzer. I still  own an X-Terra 50.  The biggest difference (besides all of the amazing features on the Multi Kruzer that aren't on the 705) that I experienced between the X705 and the Multi Kruzer was my perception that the VFlex technology in X705 (except in All Metal Prospecting mode) filtered the discriminated receive signal so much and made the background so quiet, that I always felt very far removed from the detecting process like there was a big curtain between me and the incoming signal which I had very little control over.  In Prospecting Mode the X705 felt fairly immediate to me but I wouldn't call it a hot detector at all. In contrast, the Multi Kruzer was so hot, that even in its discriminated modes it had a crackle and spark to it that gave me that edge of your seat kind of immediacy. There was almost too much information to interpret audio wise and I had to struggle to keep up with it sometimes. After trying the Equinox 600 and 800 I chose them since they seemed to me anyway, to be a good balance between: I'm in the next room while operating the 705 and I'm literally inside the Multi-Kruzer.

Jeff

Hi,

great to have you on this forum!!! 

If you are planning on lots of beach detecting and gold prospecting with maybe some parks thrown in you have it covered with your ACE 250 and an Equinox 800 with the 11" stock coil and the 6" coil. In addition to what phrunt said the small coil lets you turn up the sensitivity more in high ground noise mineralization and/or high EMI situations just by its smaller footprint. Mine will easily detect coin sized objects to 7" in mild soil conditions and will hit .25 gram and even less sized gold nuggets and large pickers down to 4" in some dirt.  What I really like about the Nox 800 prospecting is its excellent handling of hot rocks. I just hear a little groan from most of them or nothing at all. 

I have not found the Equinox 800 to be a noisy detector if I keep the sensitivity around 18 in the discrimination modes and set my disc at -2, -1, 0 or +1. If I hunt with the horseshoe button engaged with nothing disced from -9 to +40 then I will hear quite a bit of racket especially in 50 tones. The beach modes have been very stable for me and if things get noisy I just ground balance, noise cancel again and/or turn down the sensitivity.

The only other detectors that can kind of do it all are the Nokta Anfibio or Makro Multi Kruzer. They are great detectors and they have a really cool vibrate feature which works well under water so you don't really need headphones. They do not have simultaneous multi frequencies and they do not have as high a transmit frequency as the Equinox 800.  There is also the new ORX by XP which can be waterproofed for the occasional water hunt by adding an inexpensive kit.

good luck,

Jeff

Hi,

Reno Chris had a good guess. That was my first thought too. It is hard to see the broken surfaces of the silver mineral. That would be key to confirming galena or hematite, goethite or something even more interesting. A clearer close-up photo would really help along with where you found it.

Jeff

Hi,

sorry you are having problems charging your Nox 800. Are you plugging it into a AC wall socket charger or are you using a slower USB port on a computer? One or all of the batteries could have completely discharged and could need to be slowly charged. Worth a try. Good luck.

Jeff