Chase Goldman

Thinking about it from multi-day rally perspective, I wouldn't wholesale reject the increased capacity internal battery solution, but I think even if you give the upgraded battery twice the capacity which is probably the technological limit based on the battery compartment volume, you are still probably in the same boat relying, at some point, on an external power charge bank solution during a multi day rally. A 30,000 mAH charge bank can be obtained for less than $30 US and could conservatively be used to fully charge your Equinox 5000 mAH internal cell and wireless headphones up to 4 times over even accounting for the efficiency losses in the process of doing so. So I would have to see how much the RNB solution is being offered for to see if the value proposition vs. an external charge bank makes economic sense and is worth the trip vs. just bringing a high capacity charge bank in my MD gear bag. I am all for increasing the internal battery capacity to provide reserve capacity in the event you cannot recharge between detecting sessions, but have still never run into a depleted Equinox battery situation even after back to back, multi hour detecting sessions without charging in between. Regarding an AA solution (especially using rechargeable AA cells) mentioned a few posts back. Great compact design, but I am also not really seeing the practicality of that given the ready availability of high capacity external charge banks in a number of packages including watertight packages and also with associated solar charge capabilities. Finally, even though this has not been suggested recently, I am not really seeing the practicality of an alkaline battery pack solution either. I really try to avoid single use batteries in this day and age, if possible. Just not a good solid waste legacy and I am not exactly what you would call an avid environmentalist. This is directed more at those folks who try to focus on negative aspects of providing an internal rechargeable battery in a detector. I often hear those folks say they prefer AA or 9-volt powered detectors vs. rechargeable internal batteries because they can run down to the local convenience store and grab a pack of alkalines in an emergency. The fact is that cell phone charge banks compatible with Equinox are ubiquitous and can also be bought at that same convenience store nowadays. I really am a proponent of taking advantage of the live charge feature that ML has provided with the Equinox and doing so with Li Ion external battery solutions. Just my view.

Way to make a comeback splash. Great find and great story. A true old fashioned treasure hunt.

You definitely seem to be in the minority on this opinion of the TE phones' audio and it is the first instance of flooding damage I have heard for them, but thanks for sharing it. Would be helpful if you let us know which of the other six (!) Equinox compatible headphones that you own besides Tony's you consider to be the best waterproof phones of the lot and why.

Thanks. I know it sounds like folks were giving you "advice" for things you already did, but if you look back and read through your posts it was not clear that you actually had the detector's wireless radio and/or the headphones and WM08 turned off when you described no sound coming from the speakers (even though you stated you were resetting the detector, that would not do anything if either wireless unit were powered on and you never explicitly said you had ALL the wireless stuff turned off). If the radio is off or if both the WM08 and ML80 are off (even if the wireless radio is on), you should indeed have sound coming through the speaker. Every time I initially turn on the detector, even with the wireless radio turned on and headphones on initially, it takes some brief period of time to connect to the wireless headphones, during this time I can clearly hear the power on initialization tones of the Equinox and EMI/ground noise/Target tones through the Equinox speaker until the wireless headphones connect. By resetting the machine and the headphones you have eliminated any "intermediate" unstable states of the detector that could cause the speaker to be in an inconsistent locked-out state. I agree that it sounds like you have an on-board audio or speaker problem and that ML service is required for your detector. Clear and concise information is crucial to help the service personnel troubleshoot and repair your issue. I does sound like something the repair facility will be able to readily replicate but I would not leave anything to chance and lay out the following either in the note you send to them, or have it written down and available as a reference should they call you in the event they can't duplicate the issue. Summary description of issue (what I have gathered from your posts, correct any information that is incorrect or missing): No audio is coming from the Equinox Control Head Unit speaker. (Verify that this has always been the case even before you ever paired wireless headphones to the unit - this is important information as it shows that the speaker has NEVER been working from the get go). 1. You were able to successfully pair the Equinox to the wireless ML80 headphones and audio seems to be normal coming from them and the detector seemed to be operating normally. 2. Similarly you were able to successfully pair the Equinox to the wireless WM08 module and normal audio came from it with Equinox headphones plugged into it (True?). 3. Did you ever plug a set of wired headphones into the back of the Equinox control head unit, or ensure that nothing is plugged into jack on the back of the control head unit - doing this verifies two things for the repair folks, that: 1) you do (or don't)get sound out of the headphone jack (no sound would indicate an audio circuit issue and not just a speaker issue) and 2) verifies the speaker is not cut out solely due to something being plugged into the rear headphone jack. So if you DID DO THIS, provide that information to the repair center technician as well. 4. Upon factory resetting both the Equinox and the headphones you were unable to get the speaker on the Equinox to work regardless of whether the wireless radio on the Equinox was turned off completely, and/or even if both the WM08 and ML80 headphones were turned off. Having all these facts logically laid out and readily available for discussion or provided to the technician in writing should help eliminate unnecessary questions and the repair going down the wrong troubleshooting path when your detector arrives so you can get a repaired detector back in your hands as soon as possible. BTW - (for everyone reading) laying information out like this in a logical, complete but concise manner really helps the repair center folks (I've done tech support and the most difficult thing is not the actual technical troubleshooting but communication between the tech center and the folks having the problem). Communicating effectively helps you by eliminating ambiguous and unnecessary information and gets your detector fixed sooner. Also, If applicable, describe that you did any troubleshooting steps included in the manual to address the issue. In this case, there are no troubleshooting steps for no sound coming from the speaker other than making sure you have detector volume turned up. Which it was in this case, otherwise, 1848cal would not have been able to hear anything in the wireless speakers. 1848cal - good luck and hope you get your detector back soon. I know it is a annoying to have your detector not working properly right out of the box.

If you want sound to come out of the speaker make sure all the wireless receivers are TURNED OFF.

A little confused as to what you are trying to do. First off, why are you using both the WM08 AND the ML80? You only need to pair the ML80 headphones if you want use wireless. The WM08 is a separate wireless receiver you can use if you have a preferred set of wired headphones you want use wirelessly with the Equinox. So make sure you are connecting one or the other but don't try to connect both. If the Equinox sees the WM08 receiver is on it will try to pair with the WM08 instead of the ML80 (it will ignore the ML80 until you do a factory reset attempt to re-pair the ML80 again), so make sure the WM08 is off and you have reset the Equinox if you want to pair and use the ML80 headphones. Note that if the Equinox pairs with either the WM08 or the ML80 headphones, the speaker will be automatically cut off. The speaker will only work if it does not connect to any wireless receiver and as long as no wired headphones are plugged into the headphone jack on the back of the control unit. Hope this helps. Refer to pp. 54 through 58 of the user manual linked here for more details. HTH

I might almost consider getting a V3i solely for that ground reading feature. Lol.

Declaring one mode the best over another for any specific situation and target type is a study in futility because the best mode (or detector, for that matter) is the one that gets the job done when and where you need it to. For example, no single key mode attribute (e.g., depth, power, separation, optimal transmission frequency, iron rejection) dominates over the others. Depth may matter under some circumstances but may be irrelevant in others where separation may be king. The other thing to realize is that while there are significant differences between the modes in terms of their performance attributes and intended optimal uses, there is also quite a bit of overlap as well, especially between the Park/Field "standard" modes. This may be less true of the specialized beach and prospecting modes. I think one could take any one of the following modes: Park 1, Field 1, Park 2, or Field 2 commit to using just one of those modes full time and by simply adjusting the user preset settings as needed, could be successful in 90% or more of non-beach/prospecting detecting situations. I base this on my experience pulling deep silver with Field 2 and deep jewelry and relics using Park 1 and the fact that if you go to single frequency operation, there is little to distinguish Park 1 from Park 2 from Field 1 or from Field 2 other than the different user preset settings between them. The best one can do is take the information all the contributors here put out there based on collective tests and real world experiences and let users synthesize that information for their needs and circumstances which may mean a little experimentation and improvisation on the user's end to settle on the right mode and settings for the detecting situation at hand. So think of all the advice and test results here as general guidelines and a good starting point, but not absolute, incontrovertible fact. Detecting is all about balancing tradeoffs, there are no absolutes other than you will not find it if you cannot see it or have not put your coil over it, and a great permission is better than great equipment.

You might get more replies if you posted this in the Minelab general forum or detector comparison and discussion forum as this forum is geared towards just Equinox users which would only be a subset of those who use the pro find pinpointer.

I like field 2 over park 2 because of the way it sounds, I think the depth difference between the two is negligible.

Regarding depth in general - Park 1 without iron bias should be deepest on high conductors - that is just physics (frequency vs. depth) but the small actual raw depth differences between modes and the variability of all parameters not uner the detectorists control (mineralization, moisture, corrosion, target profile) makes it possible to show practically any mode to be deepest under the right condition. It is pointless to esyablish which mode is deepest, frankly. In fact, for raw depth on high conductors in ideal conditions, any mode using 5 khz single frequency should be able to perform best. Interested to see your test results. In the mean time actual finds don't lie. The .69 rammed minie and Parrot shell fragment in the pic below were recovered at 8 to 11 inches using gold mode at mineralized site in Virginia.

Beach mode is not really for freshwater beaches. It trades power (depth) for stability in wet salt beach conditions. Though beach mode will work, it is not optimal at freshwater beaches and you should use the mode suited to your main target of interest, just as if you were land hunting. This is how I stack up the modes for various situations and targets: Park 1 or Field 1 for high conductive coins/targets (e.g., silver jewelry). Park 2 or Field 2 for gold jewelry, nickels, brass and small targets and for hunting relicscwhich tend to be mid-conductors (brass and lead). I use gold mode when detecting in highly mineralized ground because it tends to penetrate mineralized ground better but is linited in depth overall becsuse it is high frequency weighted and high frequency signals penetrate into the ground less than low frequency weighted dignals due to attenuation For salt beach hunting I use Beach 1 on dry wet sand and beach 2 in the surf.

That's a sound approach.

Do you mean tracking? Auto is just manually pumping and letting the machine set the GB. Tracking is the machine tracking mineralization and adjusting GB on the fly while you seing away. If you are using GB tracking, that's good. Just be sure to auto or manually set GB at the outset so tracking can start doing its thing with GB already "in the ballpark" otherwise GB will be way off unill it can catch up which can take awhile.

No one machine can work miracles. I have a Deus and Equinox both and there are things that each one does better than the other and I have a PI for nasty hot soil. Glad you are getting the soil analyzed. No need to hold back on your background here, we can only make guesses about your experience level here if you do. Steve tends to keep the judging BS to a minimum. I think its perfectly sound for people to infer newbie when you only mention only the BH with no other context. Would have helped me focus my response to you better, knowing what I know now about your background. BTW Did you try Beach 2 like I suggested? Lower transmit power tends to provide a cleaner return signal in high mineralization, like using TX1 on the Deus.without having to lower sensitivity too much, like you had to on beach 1, and Beach 2 my balance the salt effects like beach 1. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Gold mode is unstable in wet salt and mineralized conditions. OP is reporting beach 1 works best, so I suggested Beach 2 which is designed to handle salt and black sand. But I suspect Gold mode will actually work fine because we are not talking wet salt conditions and suggested he try that as well. The OP is coming ftom an entry level BH to an Equinox. The BH did ok in his area so I don't understand why he is having such a hard time getting Equinox to perform and seriously doubt he needs or is willing to lay out the cash for a PI machine, but we will see how it goes if he ever responds back.

The answer is not that simple if salt is involved, also. But it is definitely something that the OP should be experimenting with as I suggested.

Those P caps mirror my experience with the 15" coil on wet salt beach conditions. Love the coverage and it has no problem with tiny targets. Even the 11" coil has impressed me with a few button shank finds (see below). I am sure the 15" would have pinged that button shank also based on the tiny stuff it hit on at the beach. I have not had much success with it in highly mineralized ground, though. I am heading out to the red, hot Virginia relic field dirt this week, and will break out the 15" coil at some point to see how it does there, perhaps even experiment with some test targets, but so far the 11" seem to deal with mineralized ground much better. Great finds, Dan. You are having quite a relic run of late.

I completely understand minimizing unnecessary, avoidable health risks, but if you are reacting to the latest media sensationalized news regarding airpods and other wireless headphones, take a look at this article for a less sensationalized perspective: https://www.health.com/condition/cancer/bluetooth-wireless-headphones-cancer Bottom line, there is just a lot of controversy, but not a lot of facts or concrete results from research and the total EMI field from RF radiation of all types basically overwhelms the energy a pair of bluetooth headset can pump into your brain, even from close range. Furthermore, the health industry is itself conflicted. Bluetooth or similar wireless technology hearing aids often widely prescribed and used, for example. That being said, there is nothing wrong with a better safe than sorry approach, though it might be less convenient. First of all, the 800 included ML BT phones DO come with a hard wired connection and cable in the headphone case. Have you tried that with your Equinox? Second, if you are concerned about having the BT transmitter/receiver next to your head, try using the WM08 wireless receiver. Your ipod earbuds should be able to plug right and remain stable since you are not putting any strain on the connection unlike with the control head, and you can still remain untethered to your detector and you can place the receiver in a place not near your head. If you are looking for wired earbud alternatives for warmer weather conditions, you might want to consider getting a modified pair of wired buds that also include the proper Equinox compatible screwed-in connector. Here is an example off ebay. That way you eliminate the having to use the ML adapter cable which also only has a 1/4" jack which is great for enabling typical detecting type wired headphones to be used with your Equinox, but I do not know of many earbuds that have the 1/4" plug, necessitating another adapter be placed between your earbuds and the ML adapter. The other advantage of the earbud with dedicated compatible plug connector is that they are waterproof which means you can use them in foul weather or even water hunting if desired. My personal preference is to buy a set of over the ear waterproof phones, many of which are designed to give good sound even when not water hunting (dedicated water hunting submersible waterproof phones often have to compromise audio quality by using technology such as piezoelectric speakers to enable them to be audible submerged). HTH

Allow me to think out loud here because there are alot of things going on with your post that are unusual, perhaps contradictory, yet very interesting. First of all, the Ground Balance reading on the Equinox cannot tell you anything definitive about how "hot" or mineralized your soil is. You need a separate reading of magnetite levels in your soil (usually called a mineralization or Fe3O4 meter) which only certain detectors (not Equinox) have built into their displays. The GB number on Equinox is just a RELATIVE ground phase reading to the internal baseline reference and that reference can change depending on what mode you are using because it varies with frequency and how the detector processes target signal phase changes. That is why you can get a ground phase reading in one mode (e.g., Park 1) that is completely different than the ground phase reading in another mode (e.g., Field 2) - on the SAME patch of ground and why you should always ground balance each mode you use, separately. Second, I am not a soil expert, but it IS unusual to see significant salinity levels and high mineralization AWAY from salt beach areas. Obviously, not impossible since much of the ancient US was covered by ocean (with the great lakes being a remnant of that inundation). And that unusual soil combination you describe certainly can play into the high crop yield you describe. Third, your test garden results have me scratching my head. If your soil content is relatively constant in the region you detect, including your home test garden, then there is no reason you should not be able to replicate your test garden depth results in the field. The test garden results are actually what I WOULD expect when comparing Park 1 to Beach 1, but your depth detection capability is MUCH MORE than I would expect in super hot/mineralized soil. Do you get a reliable Target ID at those depths, or just a repeatable signal that you discern as your penny because you know it is there? I detect in regions where magnetite levels peg the mineralization meter, and your ability to punch to much more than 6 to 8 inches to get a repeatable signal is really limited using a VLF machine. In addition, getting a reliable TID beyond 4 inches is also iffy. So basically, where I usually hunt for CW relics, you are lucky to get a signal at depth on a VLF, and if you do, you typically have no idea what it is until you dig it. You also might want to try to see how it does on a higher conductive silver coin vice a penny, since that seems to be your main target of interest as copper is slightly less conductive than silver. But, like I said, if your test garden soil is the same as your hunt site, then depth should not be an issue, especially Park 1, which should be the go to silver slayer mode. Fourth, you say you often get a repeatable signal, but you find nothing in the hole in the field. That is typically something you also see on salt sand + mineralized sand beaches. It can also be due to individual hot rocks. If you are not even finding falsing ferrous junk, like flat iron or bent corroded nails, then something else must be at play. BTW - does the repeatable signal typically come up with the same Target ID or does it vary across the range? Is the repeatable signal choppy (indicating that it might be clipped by discrimination or recovery speed setting)? Fifth, one aspect of your settings also has me scratching my head. Specifically, you have recovery speed cranked to 8, which greatly limits depth but it also results in the least ground feedback noise primarily because of the sweep speed it forces you to use to acquire a target signal. What happens when you lower recovery speed? Are you hearing more ground noise, forcing you to lower sensitivity? That combination of sensitivity 16 and high recovery speed means you are GREATLY limiting depth. Why do you say those settings are giving you the best results? Can you describe the targets you ARE recovering at with those settings and their depth? All that being said, I will take you word for it that your soil is highly mineralized and has higher than usual amounts of salt content as you seem very knowledgeable about your soil makeup. So based on the information you provided, primarily the unusual combination of salty black sand like soil, I am going to make an unusual recommendation for inland hunting. Specifically, the Equinox has a mode that is set up to "make the best" of the soil situation you describe. You were almost there by trying Beach 1. But as you noticed, you needed to run with lower sensitivity for stability. If your have properly noise cancelled and ground balanced your machine and removed other sources of EMI (e.g., cell phones) then the issue can be the nasty combination of salt and mineralized soil. The mode best set up to handle that is actually Beach 2. See if you can run Beach 2 stable at a normal level of sensitivity (i.e., 18 to 22). What Beach 2 brings to the table is stability under black sand + salinity conditions, but it is not magic and there is no free lunch. The Beach modes are set up to handle the salinity using the multifrequency signal processing component of Multi IQ (that is why you cannot run beach mode in single frequency). But unlike Beach 1, Beach 2 provides stability in salt + black sand conditions by sensing the mineralization level (even though it does not display it on a meter) and then dialing back TRANSMIT power accordingly. The impact is somewhat of a depth hit but you gain a lot of stability which lowers the noise floor enough that the resulting weaker detect signals at least can be heard above the reduced level of chatter. When the Equinox goes into this reduce transmit power mode, it flashes up a warning symbol on the screen. Typically, when that warning does appear, it will not disappear unless you are completely away from the source of mineralization. I wouldn't worry about it though. Especially if you find it has a beneficial effect on your performance. The other thing you should do if the mineralization level or Ground Phase reading is highly variable at your sites is to use TRACKING Ground Balance vice periodic manual or auto ground balancing. This prevents you from having to constantly rebalance and can help smooth out ground phase variations. So give that a shot in your test garden and on some of your hunts. and see what happens. Another suggestion, is to use Gold Mode. Gold Mode does not have tone ID but uses a variable pitch and threshold tone, the combination of which allows it to be very sensitive to small mid conductive targets (I know, not your target of interest), but it tends to punch through mineralization better than the lower frequency weighted modes. You can use either Gold Mode, not much difference between them except for recovery speed. I would suggest using Gold 1 with the higher recovery speed and then see if you need to adjust lower or higher to trade off depth for ground noise (MORE DEPTH with a LOWER recovery speed, but the resulting lower sweep speed results in MORE GROUND NOISE, resulting in diminishing returns. Increase the recovery speed if ground noise is an issue and also try TRACKING ground balance with this mode (which is the default GB mode). Finally, I would experiment with single frequency. If EMI is NOT a problem, see what you can do with 5 or 10 khz in your test garden (use Park 1) and see how it compares to Park 1 multi. Park 1 multi (preferred) or 5 or 10 khz are what you want to use if you are going after DEEP silver. You can try to go to higher frequencies to punch through the mineralization (at the expense of raw depth on all targets) but frankly I don't think mineralization, per se is your problem, at least not in your test garden based on the depth you are seeing. Try varying recovery speed too, to see how that affects your test garden signals. Other less likely possibilities: Are you sure EMI vice mineralization is NOT the issue or perhaps you might have a faulty Equinox coil/head unit? Perhaps EMI is low near your test garden resulting in less noise chatter and false signals. Do you get chatter with your coil in the air AFTER noise cancelling and with default sensitivity, especially in the field. If so, then either you have an EMI problem or perhaps and equipment problem with the Equinox or Coil, especially if it is intermittent or only happens after you have the Equinox powered on for some time (indicating a possible internal component thermal issue which usually results from a bad component or solder connection). Your sites are played out. Silver is one of the easiest targets to cherry pick under ANY conditions and just about any detector, like your capable, but entry level BH 3300 will find silver. I suppose you were using the stock concentric coil on your 3300 also, which is also not a coil type that is know for having good depth under mineralized conditions (which along with your test garden results also makes me wonder if your soil is truly highly mineralized). You recovered A LOT of silver for one year. I do not believe any area can be truly ever be totally played out (either the targets are deeper than technology can reach today or they are shallow but hiding amongst iron or non-ferrous junk). Are you still finding silvers with your BH 3300 but not with the Equinox at the same sites? As I asked previously, what types of targets are you recovering with your Equinox. You say you can find "anything" with the Equinox, yet you arrive at the settings that give you the "best results" supposedly because you have manged to recover SOMETHING with the Equinox, plus I cannot explain your good test garden results and your poor field results. So let us know what type of targets you are managing to recover and at what depth. Anyway, hope I gave you some food for thought that you might be able to use to diagnose the issue or improve performance with your soil conditions.

It is something ML has been doing since CTX to enable the speaker cutout circuit to work. Plenty of ML or third party adapters exist to enable standard wired metal detecting headphones to be used with the Equinox. Not going back to wired though unless I have to work in the water or heavy rain. The BT phones work well. See my response to your other post for pinout information and links to other relevant posts. HTH.

I have successfully paired APTX LL phones using BT 4.1, 4.2 and 5.0 with the Equinox and have not experienced any scratchy audio problems.

The Equinox has only been out for a little over a year. This forum was started a few months before the first production release of the Equinox so most of this information is current or applies to the Equinox universally.. ML uses a certain plug wiring scheme to enable the speaker to be cut out. If you use a third party set of wired headphones they need to be wired up as shown here to ensure the speaker properly cuts out. Since the headphone jack on the Equinox is recessed to enable the proprietary water tight plug to screw into the jack cavity, it is best to try to use wired phones that utilize the Equinox screw in type connector to ensure a secure fit. There are a number of relevant headphone threads that are linked in this convenient compilation thread put together by Steve Herschbach, the site's founder. HTH

Just a note, when you go to single frequency on the Equinox, you can basically throw the search mode designations out the window (except for Beach which cannot run in single and Gold which is a completely different animal altogether). Park 1 = Park 2 = Field 1 = Field 2 as far as signal processing goes because MultiIQ is what gives each mode its unique "personality". Other than the user adjustable settings (i.e., noise cancel channel selection, GB setting, tone and audio settings, recovery speed) there is nothing really to differentiate the modes in single. Even iron bias is disabled in single frequency. Doesn't explain the strange recurring signal problem. Just food for thought for those thinking of using single frequency from different modes.

Steve - Great you are able to take a break from putting together all those new rod system's. Still loving mine. Great finds.