Chase Goldman

It appears he did though he hasn't posted since the firmware update in September and hasn't visited the forum since December, so you're unlikely to get an answer.

You are getting some good advice from folks here. If your detector was over sensitive at the beach, there might be anbequipment isdue at play. Highly suggest you take someone up on their offer to meet with you to compare detectors. As far as the "CW gold" adventure, sounds like fun. Always up for detecting new places so we'll look into that down the road once we get your detector working for you you. I'm in Virginia, not too far away for a TN adventure. Keep us apprised of your progress.

Not sure it can get much simpler than the 600, but I guess it can get cheaper, but that would be some really borderline build quality. The “Meh”. ? Wake me if it turns out to be something more sophisticated than the Equinox.

Yeah, it’s been pretty much already established as an entry level detector. Not even the same universe as any PI detector like the 4500 nor even mid to high end VLFs. There will be a huge market tho. ML knows what they are doing from a marketing perspective.

The only thing that surprises me about the above is the wet salt sand part. Deus chatters like two gossips at a church picnic in the wet sand for me and the Equinox blows it away there because I have to turn sense down so far on the Deus. But everywhere else, Deus can go toe to toe with the Equinox with the edge to Deus in thick iron. I go with the hot hand relic hunting. If I feel either is not cutting the mustard, I have no qualms switching off. Lately, Deus has had the upper hand relic hunting. Next time it could be Equinox. Who knows. They’re both great machines.

Hey we're making some progress, but still have questions... I reckon the beach you went to was fresh water? If so, just keep the detector in Park 1, because the Beach modes are designed to cancel out false signals due to salt, so should primarily be used at salt beaches or in alkaline soils. Beach will still work in fresh water, but you may unnecessarily lose your ability to recover deeper targets as a result of the programming used to compensate for salt. But my main question is why did you keep sensitivity dialed down to 11 at the beach? Was the detector noisy at the default sensitivity setting of 20? Generally, beach mode is the most stable mode and can be run at relatively high sensitivity settings. The combo of beach mode and the super low sensitivity setting of 11 could explain why you were only recovering shallow targets. Also, were you hearing hundreds of targets at the beach? Did you try test targets at the beach? Not sure what you mean by target to 5. Do you mean 5 tones? Park 1 defaults to 5 tones. Try to refrain ftom using you tube settings until you learn the machine and understand what the settings do. You should be able to get away with Park 1 at all the default settings save for doing a noise cancel and auto ground balance and the only adjustment being sensitivity to reduce chatter as necessary and should be good for 99% of the detecting situations you will routinely encounter. Use beach mode at a salt beach if you go to one (will work better than Park 1 unless you just stay in the dry sand). Also, when you were unable to recover targets in your yard (dug down and nothing was there), how did you pinpoint the target location? Do you have a handheld pinpointer? How did you pinpoint and recover targets at the beach? At this point, my suggestion is for you to find out if there is a nearby detecting club or metal detecting dealer that can introduce you to some experienced local detectorists to show you the ropes. If I lived closer, heck I would road trip your way and do it myself as I have done a lot of instruction on detecting basics and courses focused on specific detector models.

First of all, thanks for taking the time to fill in some of these details. Unless your machine is broken (unlikely, but still a possibility at this point), I think we can help you but we will still need some more info. I gather from your response regarding your brief Bounty Hunter pipe locating experience that you have very little general experience metal detecting for discrete, small in-ground targets. Lack of basic metal detecting skills can be somewhat at play here. That can affect your expectations and I think that may be also affecting how you are setting up the Equinox and interpreting the Equinox signals and can be causing difficulties in communicating the issues you are experiencing. I also don’t doubt your local conditions are contributing to your issues. So I will have to ask you some more questions to attempt to figure out what is going on. For example, need some more clarity from the above quote - dug down and what? Were you able to recover any targets? If so, what were they? Were the strong signals two ways (I.e., equally strong when swinging right to left and as well as left to right?). Full reset was a good first step. What mode/settings did you PRIMARILY use after you reset the machine? What exactly did you set “manually”. I usually advise not making any manual settings adjustments on the Equinox when starting out (other than auto noise cancel and ground balance if needed), and use Park 1 at the default settings and learn the machine with that mode exclusively. The reason is that each mode (Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, Field 2, Beach 1/2, Gold) behaves differently and if you are new to Equinox and especially metal detecting, you can become quickly overwhelmed switching modes because it can be like you are learning 3 or 4 new machines at once, not one. And believe me, you don’t want to be learning more than one machine while also learning how to metal detect. You can take it one step further and just hunt in single frequency (10 or 15 kHz) as Steve suggested to take even more complexity out of the equation until Equinox starts to click for you. If you have adjusted settings away from the defaults, suggest you factory reset and start again with a clean slate and use my suggestions above on the mode and frequency settings. Make sure you are using the default discrimination settings to filter out iron and ground noise. Mode? What did the display numbers read for each target? Have you tried any other locations. Local parks or other large farm fields? BTW, veteran metal detectorists typically need 100 hours swinging a machine in the field before they feel comfortable about what the machine is telling them about buried trash and keeper targets. What have you found? You should sample some trash test targets in addition to coins to help you differentiate trash and keepers and so you can see how they display and sound. Doubt brick pieces would cause your issues. What makes you think bricks are in the ground? Have you dug any bricks? Did you run the coil over recovered bricks to see if the detector responds to them? Any Overhead power lines in the area, electric fences, invisible dog fences, noisy power transformer? Yes, sorry for using the acronym. VDI stands for visual display indication. What numbers were being displayed when these 100’s of signals were being heard? You may also hear the similar term TID which stands for target ID. Every target gives a fairly unique ID number. Knowing what ID numbers are displaying on your 100’s of target signals in your yard can help us decipher what those might be. High conductors like copper, silver, and clad coins will ring up in the 20’s and 30’s. Some larger aluminum objects like beer cans can ring up here, too. Mid conductors like nickels, small aluminum, brass, and gold jewelry will ring up in the low teens or single digits. And iron targets (unless large targets like pipes and horseshoes) will ring up as negative numbers. From what you are describing, your problem sounds different than Bethany’s soil issues which are primarily affecting detectable target depth, but they could be related. See if you can fill in the above gaps and hopefully we can get this machine clicking for you.

Also, you should avoid intentionally running your detector flat. Lithium batteries do not like to be repeatedly run to minimum voltage as this reduces overall lifetime. Although the Equinox likely has protection circuits to switch off the battery output before it gets into the detrimental low voltage region, you should avoid doing this if you can (sometimes it is obviously unavoidable for marathon field detecting sessions). Ideally, you should simply recharge after each use unless you are going to keep the detector in standby idle storage for a significant period of time several weeks, in which case, storage at 60 to 75% capacity is ideal.

Thanks! I know I put it sonewhere but can't locate it. Thought I put it on a clud drive, but no luck.

First of all, welcome to the Forum! You can really help us help you by giving us a little more information and context to try to figure out what is going on with these 100's of signals and false tones when you turn on the detector as to whether they are EMI (electromagnetic interference) caused noise, ground noise, or trash target noise, ferrous falsing, or a detector problem that requires repair. What are the VDI's? Have you tried to recover any of the target signals and what did you find? How much experience do you have detecting and using different types of machine besides your Bounty Hunter (model?) People are always going to be uncomfortable at first with a machine that behaves differently than the machine they are used to using. Detectorists hate change. What are you doing in your back yard - looking for random natural targets or do you have a test garden? Have you tried test targets on the surface and buried in the ground to see if you have gotten the expected target response? To see if you get reasonable depth? What is your soil like in your yard, is it clay, is it mineralized? What is the ferrous and non-ferrous trash density in your yard? What modes are you using? Do they all behave the same way? Do you fundamentally understand the different modes, how they behave, and when they should be used? Did you noise cancel? What type of ground balance did you do - Manual, Auto? Did you try tracking? Did you try single frequency to see if that helps before taking sensitivity all the way down to 11? Are there significant nearby Electromagnetic noise sources such as power lines, Wi Fi transmitters, cell towers etc. Do you have your cell phone located near the control head while you are swinging the detector? Filling in some of these blanks will help us help you diagnose what is going on. Also, it is doubtful just because you are in central Illinois your issue stems necessarily from the same unusual soil issues the OP was having so I suggest you reply by starting a new dedicated thread but that you new post contain some of the answers to the above questions. Hope we can help.

Solved! (I think). After some playing around with Equinox I think I figured this one out. If you noise cancel, you will see the "progress" bar graph make its way around the VDI/Disc Pattern circle as it tests all channels. If you attempt to move on to a new setting or go back to detect mode while the bar graph is present, then you will have to hit the button again. However, if you wait a second or two for the bar graph to disappear, then only one button press is needed to switch back to detect mode or move on to the next setting menu item (ground balance). I tested this out and I can make it do either repeatedly depending on whether or not I wait for the bar graph to disappear. It is a little quirky behavior, but if you know what is going on, it is really a non-issue. Bottom line, give it a second or two after completion of the noise cancel before you press any buttons and you won't have to press that button twice. Problem solved. Let me know if you are seeing the same thing I am. Would like to put this to bed for Deep1 so he can get some detecting in with his Equinox and be spending less time with ML repair and the post office.

I usually press the detect mode button vice the detect/pinpoint button to exit out of the settings menu. The manual states you can use either. I have never seen the double press issue when doing it either way, but most of my experience is using the detect mode push button. Don’t know if that has something to do with it. Since pinpoint is probably the most used button on the panel, I will take advantage of any opportunity to avoid pressing it if I don’t have to (by using an alternate button press method). Those control panel membrane switches are probably the weak link from a long term wear perspective.

I use 1.5.0 with the small coil (it seems to be less hot and helps with small coil "falsing") and 1.7.5 for everything else. I have a backup machine for salt water use, so have the luxury of being able to have two machines with different firmwares available. I am doing the above because I can, not because I have done exhaustive testing to characterize the actual performance diffrences between the two versions. So far, in actual use I have seen very little to differentiate the two versions. Therefore, unless testing (if I ever get around to it) reveals a significant performance difference (unlikely), I plan to eventually single up on 1.7.5 because I know that addresses the known User Profile inadvertent reset bug. HTH

"I'm gonna try and drown mine as I'm getting close to the end of my warranty strick" Warranty is three years, so unless you have a time machine, no need to rush...lol. But you might as well find out. ?

If it were easy, there would be a hell of lot more people out there detecting. The other key is knowing where to detect to improve your chances. Read up here and elsewhere to get those clues and how to read the beach or parks or wherever you are trying to find them for the most likely locations. Whole books have been written on that topic alone.

Unfortunately, it can happen, though rare. The good news is you will get a brand new unit.

Some key 3030 features such as pitch hold and 2-D discrimination patterns I would like see in a future, higher-end Multi IQ based detector.

These APTX-LL transmitters work too: TaoTronics 65ft Bluetooth Transmitter/Receive https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076BMT9BY TROND Bluetooth V5.0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01B4W40VC/

I like the geotech site, but a completely different audience, for sure. I have an engineering degree yet feel grossly under educated visiting there. Lol.

The coil will also fold back flat against the shaft. This gives a more compact profile but you add the distance between the shaft attachment point to the BOTTOM edged of the coil in overall length (a few more inches). Plus the coil and lower shaft can be easily slid off the main stem and oriented however you want for packing. It is all pretty compact. I have fit the whole thing into a carry on for flight no problem with out disassembly other than sliding the lower shaft and coil off the stem so I can pack each separately in my bag as convenient. In the field, I externally strap it onto my day pack until I reach my destination.

Which coil?

Caveat - you can make those adjustments IF you have an Equinox 800 but not if you have an Equinox 600. Just to be clear for the Equinox 600 users.

If you are constantly having to rebalance the machine to restore detection depth or eliminate ground noise then tracking makes sense. Simply listen to what the machine is telling you. If it is becoming unstable then it is either EMI (noise cancel/reduce sensitivity) or ground noise. If the latter, rebalance or shift to tracking. I have found tracking works well whenever there is enough mineralization in the ground to cause variations in ground phase and there is no appreciable downside. The tracking is not so overly responsive to in ground targets that it will distort the settings or null out targets (however, see below regarding gold prospecting and tracking). Otherwise just do an initial auto or manual GB for each mode you are using at a site and swing away. Low mineralized sites or dry white sand or sandy soil, you can get away with the default of 0 but make sure GB is actually set to 0 because Equinox will retain the last used GB setting. Thing is, you won't know what the ground phase is unless you have been there before or attempt a GB in the first place so I just auto pump GB and swing away as a matter of routine regardless of the site. Shift to tracking as necessary based on how the machine is behaving. Prospectors tend to keep tracking off even in gold mode because they say it can null out micro gold. I have no experience to refute that claim as the smallest targets I recover are percussion caps and button shanks.

The essence of what detecting is all about, all that matters is whether the find (and the story behind it) is special to you. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I have a pair of on the ear "backphone" style that are water/sweat resistant they need a beta firmware update that you can get here and can read more about them in that Equinox forum thread. A link to the Amazon page is here. I would wear them in the rain but probably not the ocean. They work pretty well but are a little on the pricey side. Quest makes a wireless headset that supports BT APTX LL based on the specs though I have not yet confirmed this as I do not own them. They are also water resistant and can be used in the rain and since they have protective o-rings, I would be comfortable taking them into the ocean for the occasional splash Here is a link to the Quest page. Again these are a little more pricey but none of the other "generic" BT APTX LL headphones available that I know of have any weather or water resistance whatsoever.