Chase Goldman

Did you try sweeping side to side as suggested in the manual. Tracking likes to continuously see the ground and it is looking for changes in ground mineralization as you sweep. If it does not see a change in mineralization (even if the ground phase is off), then the auto tracking algorithm will not engage. A vertical pump may not do it. It is also designed to react slowly so that it doesn’t overreact to ground condition changes. The best thing to do is do an auto or manual GB to get it close then engage auto tracking. If you notice it getting out of whack even in auto tracking then re-GB. When in auto tracking you should only have to do this occasionally if at all compared to leaving it fixed. When it is all said and done, though, don’t obsess over the GB numbers. For Equinox, the difference in performance between say 30 and 70 or even 0 and 70 is incremental (compared to other detectors) when in Multi because Multi IQ does such a great job compensating for a less than ideal GB anyway. Unless you are hearing a lot of ground noise when in All Metal, I wouldn’t fret about about the GB setting. HTH

Eventually, when you come across and understand what iron bias does, you'll see a similar thing. 4 settings for the 600 vs 10 for the 800, but the max setting of 4 on the 600 equals 6 on the 800. Other differences you will notice include limitations on non-ferrous tone settings, limitations on single frequency selections, lack of the user profile button, lack of backlight adjustment, lack of included wireless audio accessories (but the 600 is wireless ready), etc. These are all nice, but not necessarily essential "missing" features on the 600. The 600 is a very capable detector in its own right, so you shouldn't be discouraged once you start realizing what you can and cannot do vs.the 800. Definitely peruse the Essential Info thread and for a more comprehensive look at 600 vs. 800 features see this forum link in the essentials thread and Steve's Minelab Treasure Talk artcle on the subject, here. Welcome and happy hunting with your 600.

Yes.

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.

Sounds like a great way to preserve the coin for mounting and passing on to his grand kids as planned.

Thanks, Fred. Appreciated.

This^. I was going to respond similarly, but you beat me to it. The target orientation variabity and lack of direct contact with the soil are problematic, but still better than an air test IMO. Can't wait to see your results.

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.

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

If by mixed mode you mean true all metal audio simultaneously combined with discriminated audio and/or visual ID, probably about 5 or 6 brands have mixed mode models. In other words most of the Top brands have at least one VLF mixed mode detector. Whites probably has the most models with it (including the V3i, MXT, abd DFX), Garrett has at least one (AT Gold), First Texas (Fisher F75 and Teknetics(see below)), and Nautilus. That includes brands that have audio mixed mode and those that have all metal audio and discriminated vdi. If you want to know more than just how many brands have it and a more detailed breakdown by Steve then read this article. Things haven't changed much since Steve wrote that article, but some additional detectors not mentioned in that article that have True and Pseudo mixed mode include the Teknetics T2 (similar to the F75), Teknetics Omega 8500, XP Deus (Gold Field mode), and Minelab Equinox Gold Mode with Disc off (the last two are debatable, I suppose). Not sure about Nokta/Makro, but they likely have it in their latest models.

Did I see Sponge Bob down there? Nice recovery, CD. That's serious detecting.

Agree, do not clean it.

Not an issue. The screw-in connector is not meant to be the 100% waterproof seal. The jack itself is sealed with an o-ring internally to keep water from entering the housing (think of the non-watertight plastic dust cover that covers up the jack when no headphone is connected). The extra threads on the headphone connector ensure positive engagement of the plug into the jack, keep debris out of the cavity, and will mostly keep moisture out, better than the dust cover piece. Be sure to thoroughly rinse and dry the headphone jack cavity area with freash water if you notice any salt water intrusion into the area to prevent corrodion over time.

Since no Equinoxes can be out of warranty at this point, they should accommodate you as long as you have a valid serial number.

Fred the button has 2 modes. A single press of the button simply turns on the radio and you should see either a wifi symbol or bluetooth (bt) symbol or bt+ symbol flashing in the upper right corner of the display as it tries to connect to the last device it was paired to (presumably your WM08). If you want to put it in pairing mode, you have to hold down on the button for 2 seconds and then place the wm08 in pairing mode too. Since you reset your detector, you will have to re-"pair" the wm08 as I just described: turn on detector, hold down radio button for 2 sec (wifi wm sumbol shoukd flash in upper right hand of display), turn on wm08, press pairing button on wm08. It should lock in and pair within 30 seconds. If you are getting no wifi or bluetooth flashing symbol after holding tge radio button for 2 seconds, then the button or radio are likely broken. Good Luck.