Chase Goldman

FWIW - Equinox waterproof design issues notwithstanding, since the Equinox control pod headphone jack has an internal seal, theoretically, you actually don't have to use the official Equinox adapter cable to ensure control box waterproofing. Nevertheless, using the official adapter cable ensures the cable connector at control box end is waterproof. This is borne out by the following excerpt from the Equinox user guide:

Nokta also makes CF lower shafts as an accessory for Simplex. https://www.noktadetectors.com/accessoire/simplex-lower-shaft-carbon-fiber/

Should pair to both. The Greens will normally receive from the detector, but when you power on the PP, they will switch over to the PP. When you switch off the PP, the headphones switch back to the Detector. At least, that’s how it works with my Simplex/Pulse Dive.

The ML's are NiMH's.

That's actually a false but pervasive urban legend/myth with many variations including the one you cite: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pull-tab-recycling-dialysis/ But because the myth was so pervasive, charities such as Ronald McDonald house accept the massive donations of tabs they continuously receive anyway (and as you can see from Chuck's link above some even promote it) and turn them over to recycling centers. A van full of tabs gets them about $50 minus the labor and gas needed to load and transport them. Definitely not a significant moneymaker for them but since the tabs keep getting donated, they don't turn them away. So Jeff, keep going and fill that truck up with the tab baggies so you can get your check from the recycling center.

All they can say is no if you give it a shot to have them repair it.

Is the coil beyond its 2 year warranty period?

Can iron audio be turned off in AM mode?

My comment: Way to ruin a perfectly good machete'. Maybe he has found enough gold now to get a decent shovel and scraper. The Phillipines are supposedly sitting on the second greatest gold reserve in the world but the mining industry is severely regulated by the government. Doesn't appear to be gold bearing soil, but who knows...probably fake.

I noticed this too, and then zoomed in on the photo and realized they just have the cable wrapped back on itself, it is not actually connected to the control pod.

Since the first batch of Equinoxes are about to exit their warranty period in a few months, I would be VERY interested to know what they charged for a pod replacement. That might start becoming "a thing" in a few months as units fail electronically or due to water intrusion out of warranty.

If it is salt or brackish water, you might be seeing changing salinity levels in the water. In that case, going with tracking could help.

The problem I have seen with single frequency detectors in highly mineralized soil (namely Deus) is that they up average and then wrap into iron. Then the signal disappears beyond the edge of detection. The Tarsacci I am testing now (USA made, btw) seems to never wrap to ferrous before the edge of detection. That means, that when it says non-ferrous, it means non-ferrous and seems to punch deeper than my Deus. Still need to test it against Equinox, though. Will have to wait for a couple weeks until I can get back to the hot dirt and verify it can deliver on what it appears to promise, so far. Not as versatile as the other popular detectors mentioned in this thread so I am not recommending it to the OP, but I think it is worthy of being in the conversation.

Ok. I see what you are saying but that setup doesn't work for me because I search in mixed mode. I set disc at 0 so that way I can readily, audibly differentiate the iron from non-ferrous by whether or not I hear the disc tones with the AM tone. I zero in on the target at that point, interrogate it using pinpoint and make a dig decision. No "ting" it is probably ferrous. One-way ting, iff, probable ferrous - interrogation necessary. Solid two-way ting plus ID let's me know probable non-ferrous and mid or high conductor (doesn't matter much to me though as I am digging all solid non-ferrous hits and iffy one-way hits depending on the TID behavior). So setting disc at 0 or possibly a high notch in the non-ferrous range are essential to my MO in the fields. I was getting some deep stuff bouncing up in the 25+ range. I had limited time to experiment with all settings. Black sand appeared to have little effect but I honestly did not do a deep dive on whether the setting made a difference. I live in the region so I visit Culpeper 2 to 5 times a year to detect. When I get back down there in a few weeks, I may have you help me contact Dimitar. It just makes sense to try things out while I am on site. Abenson who also uses the Tarsacci will be there too and we plan to meet up and compare notes.

Thanks, Dew. Dew, did you mean disc +30 vice -30? I thought of that but decided against it due to the up averaging I was seeing. I wanted to make sure I was not knocking out 27’s and 28’s high tones because I was swinging and pausing by ear not TID and some legit, non-ferrous was getting pushed UP into the wraparound region. It was not something that bugged me all that much but thought I would list it. Coil bump is the thing that really gets me and there really is no field situation that is as smooth as wet sand. Every little sprout sticking out of the ground seemed to set it off. Now that I half-way know what I’m doing, I can better understand what you, Steve H., Dankowski, and Keith Southern are saying about the machine and have gone back and re-read posts better knowing the Tarsacci language. I don’t see the MDT replacing PI’s at Culpeper, especially not with an 8” coil, but it does seem to be a viable non-PI alternative with decent depth and a lot easier to swing. I am not quite ready to say it is the best non-PI alternative until I get a lot more Culpeper swing time with mine. May not have a final verdict until next Spring. But for now, it seems to hold a lot of promise. To be clear, I know what drives the price point (small scale garage shop operation), but this is a niche machine with basically two tricks - excellent salt beach performance and apparently great mineralized dirt performance. That’s basically it. There are a lot of cheaper and more versatile machines out there that I would recommend over the MDT for mild dirt relic hunting and coin and jewelry shooting on turf (e.g Equinox). And Deus would be my first choice in Bed o’ nails situations. But the hot dirt niche the MDT has carved out may probably allow it to ultimately earn a spot in my relic hunting arsenal sitting between Deus and the GPX. With my Equinox being an agile multipurpose machine on the relic hunting rung just below the specialty Deus/MDT/GPX trio.

Actually, I did thank him, over a week ago, so I am missing your point.

Ok, but for the benefit of the OP, XP stands behind both designs with a warranty as fully waterproof coils. Good point. I thought of this also, but felt it was not that big of a deal for mid-conductive gold targets that even though the target IDs increase, they don't get jammed up at the top of the scale like high conductive targets such as silver. Having ID norm for the 25 khz setting with the X35 can be a useful advantage vs. the un-normlized HF coils (Side note ORX normalizes both X35 and the HF coils), though I would not likely use that frequency for high conductive targets.

What are you hoping to use it for? Apparently does well at challenging beach situations (variable salt, black sand) as Dew attests and in mineralized ground (my situation). See my review here. Wouldn't use it simply to coin or jewelry detect in high aluminum trash conditions because IDs are a little bouncy. Reliable ferrous/non-ferrous target discriminator.

I am still learning the ropes but my thoughts so far after testing in a few gardens and a full fledged relic hunt in hot ground: Ergonomics - weight and balance - very good. It is well balanced and a joy to swing. Like it better than my Equinox in this regard. User Interface - OK, but a little quirky. No intuitive logic to the menu system but everything is at least on one screen, no diving into multiple sub menus like Deus. There really are not many settings anyway - Frequency, Volume, Threshold Disc, Tone Mode, Sensitivity, GB, Salt level, Tracking & Black Sand. Use of a highlight box to show the active parameter being adjusted works but is sometimes hard to pick up. Just takes a few outings to develop the requisite muscle memory to do the keypress combos without having to think about it. Setup - Turn on, pick your frequency, adjust volume, sensitivity to lessen chatter, adjust disc as desired (I reject all ferrous and use mix AM + Tones > this clearly differentiates ferrous from non-ferrous), set threshold, and the GB (single pump while holding GB button and release at the end of the vertical stroke), finally set Salt and Black Sand Preferences (this is a bit of trial and error on land vs. the structured beach setting methodology). Performance - In very hot dirt the Tarsacci easily outperformed the Deus. I was able to hit a minie ball at 8" in maxed out mineralization as measured by the Deus Fe3O4 mineralization bargraph. Dime at 5" no problem. Deus barely registered the dime as "a target" in Gold Field but no clue as to ferrous/non-ferrous. The Tarsacci locked on as clearly non ferrous but up averaged the TIDs and were a little bouncy. This totally impressed me. Did not have a chance to bounce it off an Equinox. I suspect the Tarsacci would win on the ferrous/non- ferrous ID but not sure by how much. Liked how non-ferrous targets at the edge of detection did not simply default to a ferrous hit. They appeared to maintain non-ferrous tones at max depth. My setup: Disc at 0, Threshold -2, Sense max (+8), Tone Mode - Mix, GB (750 to 850), Freq 12 or 18 khz, Salt in the mid 40's, Black Sand off What else I liked - Excellent Pinpoint implementation. If I got an iffy hit that bounced between ferrous and non-ferrous, I used pinpoint to center the target, went back to detect mode and wiggled over the target, that usually resulted in minimal falsing and a pure ferrous (or non-ferrous) response depending on the nature of the target. Pinpoint also showed the classic dumbell field effect on long, narrow ferrous targets (making it falsely appear like two closely-spaced, discrete targets, with the actual target residing midway between the dumbell targets). I like not having to worry about it in the rain. Wish wireless was integrated, preferably something like BT LL that would enable use of wireless, weather resistant phones. What bugged me: Coil bump sensitivity, ferrous high tone falsing, bouncy TIDs in general (see below), no logic to setting up Salt level (non-salt beach site) and no easy way to adjust for desired effect. Wouldn't use it simply to coin or jewelry detect in high aluminum trash conditions because IDs are a little bouncy and the pure disc-only 3-tone implementstion is audibly limited and does not complement the bouncy visual IDs well. Conclusion: As a pure ferrous/non-ferrous target discriminator in a low-non-ferrous trash environment and for decent detection of non-ferrous at depth in high mineralization environment, I like it so far (as long as you are not in a bed o' nails situation, despite decent recovery). Will be trying to get a comparison against Equinox at a mineralized relic site in the near future. What I'd like to see: More accessory coils, obviously. Wireless integration - I used a BT low latency dongle. Some logical guidance on how to set Salt balance away from the beach. Lower price point. More to come in a few weeks when abenson and I meet up at DIV.

Oh, thank goodness, Cal. I thought you were posting something about my old girlfriend, Early Moonshine. Hard work = great finds.

At the frequency of interest (~28 khz) they are about the same. But note the X35 coil can be adjusted from 23.5 to 27.7 khz, the HF coil is 26 to 31 khz. So you can go slightly higher with the HF coil, plus you have 54 khz. For pure prospecting I would go with the HF, for jewelry its a wash. If you want max high conductor depth, it is the x35 because it can be operated down to 3 5 khz.

By George, I think you've got yet another KG there Cal! Nice.

George - Glad you are enjoying your new detector!

Check the diameter and thickness. If it was broad struck (i.e. without the retaining collar that provides the reeded edge and keeps the planchet from spreading during the strike), then the diameter will be greater than 24.3 mm/0.955 inch and it will be less than 1.75 mm/.069 inch thick. If it is not wider and thinner than a normal quarter then the reeds were removed somehow after it left the mint. If it is a broastruck error then it coukd be worth $10 to $15 depending on the condition of the quarter.

Glad to see you back at the forum Garik!