Chase Goldman

No, US nickels are typically a 13 on the Nox, but depending on the level of corrosion and composition (i.e., war nickels with silver content) even a nickel TID can vary on the Nox. Unless you are looking for a specific surface target (e.g., the twin of a recently lost earring or a ring with similar characteristics to a recent loss from which you can derive the exact TID) notching out all but a single TID is a really great way to leave a lot of keeper gold targets in the ground.

Once I got may hands on an ORX nearly two years ago, I realized that it was flawed but a much better setup than a Deus lite because of the information on the screen. At that time I had three must have wish list items that would make it a completely suitable replacement for the Deus - 1) A pitch tones mode, 2) A full tones mode, and 3) GB Tracking. Having the ability to navigate programs with +/- buttons like on the Deus, having a few more custom program slots and being able to independently adjust the silencer were additional desirable but lower priority wishlist items. After several outings with ORX, I like the ground grab feature implementation (much better than the Deus implementation) which effectively eliminates the need for GB tracking. If Orx simply had the option to go to full or pitch tones in the coins modes, it would be a Deus killer. Of course, XP will probably never implement those upgrades...because it would make Orx a Deus killer. Bottom line, i agree with Jeff, the lack of an ability to reall differentiate keeper gold targets from aluminum because of the lack of full tone audio nuances makes the Orx only a serviceable jewelry hunter. It can get the job done, but in a really trashy aluminum filled park, the task is made a lot more difficult because of the lack of full tones.

Addressing GB's original question - I am not surprised, as long as there some conductive path. You have to completely break the connection with a true air gap to significantly change the eddy current path.

I've switched to an alternate power source for the GPX that allows for AC or DC charge source (Doc's screamer). Even with the ML batteries, I always brought my 12 VDC cigarette lighter adapter charge cable with me just in case. But with variable voltage and wattage charging available using USB-C Power Delivery, I agree that a modern charging scheme that utilizes the ubiquitous USB-C PD charge banks on the go would make sense for a 2021 detector design.

Nice saves, Andy.

Dunno if you are in the US, but Metaldetecor.com has a smoking deal on an Omega 8500 with DD coil, small concentric and a Tek pinpointer, all for less than $400, FWIW. Couldn't resist since I have the G2+ as well and several accessory coils.

It does well on deep anything metal, you just won't know what it is until you dig it.

That ^

And on school grounds...

You're right - its just that there are no 18th century First Republic reales, and I am still search for my first 18th century coin. That 1/2 reale is the earliest coin from which I have been able to extract a date. I would say of the approximate 150 hours of swing time I got in over the past 12 months, 90% was at what could be considered relic sites. But not all the relic sites I have access to are CW encampment/battle sites or at least not documented assume. Probably 50% is at sites that are historically known battlefield, encampment sites, all the relic sites are on private permissions.

As an avid relic hunter first and foremost, the stuff in those pics are all modern iron and farm junk, cheeto nails, shotgun shells, modern casings and bullets that are not really deirable relics (unless you are a trained archeologist looking for context from the analysis - believe me as a detectorist volunteer at historic sites, I have bagged and tagged my share of nails and other obscure ferrous artifacts and know the difference). The reason they are in those containers is because I do comb through them to make sure the are indeed trash and not treasure. I have recovered a number of ferrous keeper relics and they don't end up in the junk piles, believe me.

Agree totally with this. It does do one thing really well (reliably IDs at depth - but mostly under ideal site conditions) and the seated save backs that up. I don't agree with calling it a boat anchor for this reason. But whether it is $1200 or $2500, that is a lot to pay for that singular capability. The ergonomic downsides of Nox have been capably addressed by 3rd party replacement shaft systems. And even with that additional expense, you are still ahead in the cost column (aftermarket mods can only partially address the CTX issues due to its integrated power module design). I can go low and slow with the Nox as well and similarly lock onto deep keepers with the Nox, though probably not with the same ID depth as the CTX so that is a good point. So there is always room for improvement. Nox is definitely not a perfect machine, either, obviously. Speaking for myself, I am not bashing the the CTX so much as making a commentary on the fact that it has seen its best days and a lower price point does not entice me to turn back the clock on technological capability and versatility which was the question (not whether the CTX is a good or bad machine but whether it is a good value at half the price). It is really not a slam but a reality check. In Multi IQ and future enhancements of that signal processing technology, ML has the ability to marry the best of both worlds and provide a CTX follow-on that maintains all the plusses of that design, while simultaneously addressing it's flaws and hopefully giving us great value in the process.

Nope. It basically does one thing really well (slays silver with its super precise TID at depth), other than that, heavy, slow, not that great in iron and with mid conductors, and unnecessarily complicated UI. Plus, the price drop would probably signal the imminent release of the Multi IQ variant which brings speed, versatility, and perhaps a lighter overall package.

I apologize for hiding it there. The bloody thumb part made me feel guilty enough to confess. Seriously though , perhaps a flash flood in the wash jammed it up in there and buried it. Who knows. In relic hunting, if you are not digging this you aren't really trying. And that's with a GPX wit iron reject...

They way you leave no stone unturned on land or in the water, it will happen...

Even though 2020 has been awful in a number of ways (a number of milestones in my immediate family were either cancelled or subdued including high school and college graduations and milestone birthdays and anniversaries, close friends and family were affected by the virus, and the list goes on) . But the nature of detecting as a naturally socially distant activity was one bright spot and an effective outlet for all the frustration encountered this year. Below are pics of my finds and site memories over the past 12 months (cheated a little as a few of these go back into the end of 2019). They were pretty much recovered using 3 main detectors - the Deus/Orx (using a number of different coils), the Equinox 800, and Minelab GPX 4800. A couple buttons were also recovered using the Tarsacci which has found a semi-permanent place in the first team detector lineup as well as the Nokta Simplex+ and Tek G2+ as the next tier in specialized situations. All of the below were recovered on private permission property or public beaches in the DMV (DC, VA, MD) region and PA. Enjoy the pics and looking forward to a better, safer, and fun 2021, especially with detector and digger in hand. I'll end it with my bucket lister of all time (so far...) - 1849 $1 Gold and a sequence of stills from the GoPro capturing the first moments of detecting magic. Hope everyone gets to experience similar moments in 2021 and beyond. Detecting is a magic mix of technology, relaxation, excitement, history, discovery, adventure, and most of all great friendship, fellowship and lifetime memories. Happy New Year Everyone! My first relic hunt in 98F heat (usually it is a spring/fall deal after harvest, before planting) but COVID delayed this hunt until the end of June. Still managed some keepers between downing about 10 pints of water including an improvised fishing weight from a carved lead CW minie ball bullet. My first Civil War Token below - an Army/Navy token with an image of the US Capitol Building US Cavalry bridle bit boss...a deep find made even more memorable and unexpected because I had to put the GPX DD coil in cancel mode due to severe electrical interference... My first 1/2 reale above, but Mexican First Republic not Spanish... Some nice old silver quarters below. That seated quarter was literally the first find of the day - it was a good omen As my last keeper of the day was my first dug Confederate Button...An Confederate infantry "Block I" Camp life at CW sites turns up a huge variety of finds...intricate flower button above, a partial harmonica reed, and a pristine campfire annealed square nail devoid of any corrosion. A .69 Caliber minie ball dug below - this thing will do some serious damage just getting thrown at someone, imagine it still travelling 360 feet per second AFTER travelling 1500 yards from the muzzle. Don't forget to take in the sights at the sites... A relaxing day at the beach finding...a 2 cent piece? An exciting day at the farm finding...my first flat round gold!

This topic was also discussed in the thread below. The bottom line was that even though Minelab's description of the multi frequency weighting was similar (i.e., both described as lower frequency weighted) we cannot conclusively say they are basically the same Multi IQ profile and behave the same (even if all the user settings were adjusted equivalently) without more detailed information from ML and they just are not willing to go into that level of depth regarding the DNA of MULTI IQ or even the various mode profiles probably for both marketing (mysterious "magic" or "secret sauce" processes backed up by marketing tech catch phrase terms used by most detector manufacturers like "DST" "vFLEX", "Multi-Flex" "Multi IQ" and "5Fx8" and vague or ambiguous pseudo tech speak and pretty diagrams seem to sell detectors) and competition (not wanting to give away the actual intellectual property to the competition).

Not really contrary, if it is truly just ground noise (e.g., due to mineralization), and not targets as determined by highly negative TIDs, you should be able to just ground balance there by using the pinpointer and not sweeping the coil to ensure you are and remain over a targetless patch while pumping. I also stated that there are patches of ground (did not define the size) where there can be targets continuously in your coil sweep, but like you said, even in that case you should be able to find a static spot somewhere between targets where you can GB. I personally, honestly do not think doing a ground balance over some can small slaw is going to really screw up the ground balance if you are in that kind of situation, better than not doing a ground balance at all if you are working with no disc. I think we are essentially saying the same thing just a little differently. Totally agree. As you get more adept at using the Equinox, you may find situations where encountering an iffy target in Multi might be enhanced by using a single frequency to "interrogate" (for example 4 khz if you suspect the target is a high conductor - high conductive target singles couple better with an induction balance detector at low operating frequencies, in general), but I generally wouldn't do a general search in single frequency unless forced to due to EMI. In single frequency, not only do you lose the advantage of multiple frequencies working for you for a wider range of target types and depths (vs. single frequency which sort of limits your target "vision" - analogous to, but not as dramatically, if your vision was limited to black and white versus color). Multi also helps under high salt or alkaline conditions, can compensate better than single for a less than optimal ground balance situation, and, finally, the iron bias feature is disabled when in single frequency.

OK, even though you say you have ground balance, I am almost certain what is going on here is that you are being fooled by ground noise, especially since it is happening at multiple sites. The thing that is cluing me in is that you are saying in no disc (horseshoe) mode you are having a tough time trying to find a place to ground balance. Ground noise sounds like iron when you have the horseshoe button on (no discrimination) and you don't have a sat GB so you fool yourself into thinking you have a ferrous target under the coil. What you need to do is just ignore the signal if what it is a -9 to -7 TID, or GB in disc, or use pinpoint mode to verify you actually don't have a target under the coil, and then definitely just do an auto ground balance wherever you are standing. If you are regularly hunting with horseshoe no disc mode without a proper ground balance it will sound like the whole site is littered with iron, that's ground noise. Frankly, no site is typically so littered with stuff that it is impossible to find a clean spot to GB (though some small patches of ground may have that problem), so the fact this is happening at multiple sites is typically a clue, you just have to do the GB again. Frankly, unless you are doing a GB right above a strong ferrous target like a horseshoe you are not really going to get a false GB setting, most GB noise will be eliminated and other than ground noise in no disc mode, having a less than perfect ground balance should really not impact non-ferrous target detection (other than those really deep non-ferrous targets that may have been down-averaged into ferrous TIDs. So just do a quick scan with the pinpointer, listen for silence and GB there. Remember that Ground Balance and noise cancel are not universal settings so you have to do a GB and Noise Cancel for each mode you use at a site before you use that mode. HTH. Known quirk with Equinox that ML has not been able to completely fix even with several updates. Folks just live with it, reset the GB and have another go. Minor annoyance. Make sure you have the latest 3.0 firmware update installed though as they do appear to incrementally improve it with subsequent software updates and frankly, I have personally seen no downside to having the latest firmware installed.

Welcome to the forum. Yep you are hooked and acquiring the Equinox 600 was a good move. It will take you to the next level with its ability to hunt in both multi and single frequency. Check out the Equinox forum here, especially Steve H.'s compilation Equinox Essential information post below. I live just up the road in northern VA just outside the DC beltway and have done a lot of CW relic hunting in the central and northern part of the state and was interested in exploring the peninsulas for the reason's you cited. I highly recommend Andy Sabisch's Equinox Handbook as a great resource and you can read about my personally recommended Equinox relic settings in that book on pp. 87 -88. Just post in the Equinox forum if you have further questions. PM me if you would like to meet up relic hunting or for some in person Equinox instruction down your way some time. I'm always up for a good metal detecting day trip. Tect O Trac is a good, inexpensive program but it does have some limitations. One program that I have found to be very useful with similar capabilities and more is OnX Hunt to which I upgraded from Tect o Trac. It is a more expensive subscription-based program (depending on how much information you want available) but it gives you property lines, public/state/local/federal property boundaries and registered property owner information as well as tracking, finds markers, and the ability to save photos of your finds as well as a host of other "information layer overlays" including weather. GL HH.

This is a good resource of information regarding pacemaker precautions: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/living-with-a-pacemaker-or-implantable-cardioverter-defibrillator-icd Bottom line, as said previously, the issue is mainly keeping your pacemaker out of the presence of strong magnetic fields. As long as you are not placing the MD coil on your chest, the emissions from the control unit and battery/amplifier unit are similar to that of a cell phone. HTH

Nice recoveries. Probing and popping at 6 to 8 inches. That's impressive.

The ML 12x15 coil was for coverage, not depth. It was only an inch wider than the stock Equinox round 11" coil. The MDT coil would be 4" wider than the current MDT stock coil, so it sure as heck should be deeper and hopefully more than 1" gained for that price. Won't help me in my hot soil sites though as that larger coil will just suck up more ground noise, so its counterproductive. Did manage to snag this cool flower button with the MDT at my favorite site, despite it being max mineralization bars on my Deus.

Gold is still nice even without the ice. Congrats.

Are you using the supplied adapter and confirmed that it is actually supplying charge current? You never mentioned how you confirmed that it was getting an appropriate charge current. Sounds like it is not for some reason, either a bad charging brick, bad charge cable, bad battery (unlikely because it showed 3 bars and powered up the detector) or poor connection at the headphone jack/charge port (most likely) which needs to be threaded on tight. If everything is hooked up correctly and charging, the front panel battery icon should show the unit is charging. BTW, not really a good idea to take lithium ion batteries to parade rest (full discharge) outside of normal usage because the subsequent high current initial charge just puts unnecessary electrical wear and tear on your battery that has a finite (though high) number of full charge discharge cycles available during its service life. Good luck and hope you get it sorted.