Chase Goldman

I know you can notch out ferrous IDs, but what I am saying is that you have to lower the ferrous discrimination breakpoint to do that (i.e., you can't notch out target ID's that are already discriminated out) which means that any of the non-notched, typically ferrous, targets between -5 and 0 (i.e., above the new ferrous/non-ferrous breakpoint) will now sound off as non-ferrous tones, right? What am I missing? Thx. Sorry, just trying to learn how this works because it is hurting my head. Lol.

Lowering ferrous volume is a good approach if you want to run AM continuously. Though, unless I am reading the manual wrong (I don’t typically go in and mess with custom tone settings), I don’t think you can notch out individual TIDs within the ferrous discrimination range, you have to change the ferrous/non-ferrous breakpoint from 2 to -6, but then you will be hearing anything above -6 all the time (even with all metal off) and it will have a non-ferrous tone in 50-tone based on the ferrous/lowest non-ferrous tone delta setting. Just a consideration if you choose to go down that route. I think lowering iron range volume is your best bet.

ORX should give you a good idea of mineralization level. Suggest run tracking GB in high mineralization or highly variable ground phase conditions. Two additional suggestions, (1) try running All Metal only when you need to interrogate a target, (2) use the threshold feature to allow you to "hear" the threshold dropouts associated with discriminated iron during normal ground scanning, that alternative approach really helps counter the ear fatigue that is common when otherwise operating solely in AM. HTH.

First of all, need to know if you are running an 800 or 600. Recovery speed of 3 on the 800 is pretty low and may introduce ground noise, however in the 600, recovery speed is max. Ground noise usually manifests as unstable -9 to -6 readings. Is that what you are observing? Also, the default for field 1 is 2-tone = low tone for ferrous and high tone for everything else. However, for field 2, tone default is 50 tones which means you will get lower pitch tones even for non-ferrous conductors. Unless you are clearly swinging over a ferrous target (repeatable mid to low negative numbers i.e., -5 to 0) do not worry so much about finding a silent spot to GB. (If you have default disc cut in you wouldn't know anyway, unless the auto GB failed because a target was actually under the coil). The different frequency profiles between Field 1 and 2 will mean they will react to the ground differently and resilt in different levels of ground noise for the same default GB setting. Regardless, after a sat GB in any mode the ground noise should abate unless there is a significant change in ground phase over short distances (which is typically the case in mineralized ground) or you have changed settings that can increase ground noise, such as lowering recovery speed or are running with very high levels of sensitivity. If you find yourself having to frequently rebalance to get rid of ground noise, you might want to consider using tracking GB. Every region of the country can have areas of high mineralization. Problem is, Equinox doesn't have a mineralization meter so you have no direct indication of ground mineralization and cannot infer mineralization solely from the displayed Equinox GB number. You need a detector with a mineralization meter, a geologist, or anecdotal evidence from other detectorists who frequent the same area to know if the sites you are detecting are mild or hot. HTH

What a dilemna, seems like a real first world problem . It often seems like the best target is either the first or last one dug. Lol.

Ha. It was not as hard core as you might think because only went barely toe to ankle deep into the the tide line slush and the air temp had risen into the balmy high 40's by the end of the hunt. But until things thawed out during midday, the tideline water saturated sand was the only place where I could get my scoop to penetrate because otherwise it was frozen solid unless completely dry. Snagged the requisite clad, sinkers, and other junk and the gold was a small locket or pendant without a stone (rats). Pretty sure it is solid and not plated, but haven't cleaned it up and looked close enough to find any markings. But the main point in posting was to commend Steve for a quality shaft that took some punishment off the bat (cold, wet, icy conditions) and came out unscathed. The overall light weight of the shaft afforded a medium to long detecting session with the large coil with minimal arm fatigue, no flex, and solid shaft locking. Still mulling counterbalance, but at least I convinced myself now it is a luxury vs. necessity in my case based on the outcome of the detecting session. Good job, Steve.

Testimonial: Quality shafts. Christened one last week in some brutal conditions, 4 hours straight with the large coil and snagged some gold in the process. I'm sure the new shaft had something to do with it.?

What software version?

The update improved coin on edge performance in Park1 which is also the deepest mode for high conductors. Detecting coins on edge was never really a problem for Park 2 or Field 2 before the update which are optimized for mid-conductors and low profile targets like jewelry and on-edge items. Which is deeper? Who knows, perhaps Park 1.

All I can say is make sure the Equinox is truly in paring mode and not just looking for the headphones you previously paired with it. To do that you need to hold in the wireless button for at least 5 seconds. It will then look for a WM08 for about 30 seconds and then start searching for a bluetooth transmitter. Good luck.

Please let us know when you figure that one out. It's kind of a cruel practical joke nature has played on detectorists About the closest I have found is telling the difference between an irregularly shaped target like a jagged piece of aluminum and a nice round ring or mid-conductive coil (US Nickel). They may all ring up with similar numbers in the mid-teens (that is why I do not worry about precise TIDs, I am just looking for viable ranges in TID numbers). If you train your ear, the AUDIO is the key. You can get a LOT more useful information from the quality of the audio tone than you can get from a number flashing on the screen. In 50 tone mode, the tone frequency will correspond to a unique Target ID number, but the quality of the tone will vary depending on some of the physical characteristics of the target such as shape, orientation, and even density or mass. Listen for solid "ping" tones without a lot of distortion indicating the symmetric magnetic field lines associated with a round target vs. scratchy, sharp or even muted/flat tones associated with light weight targets such as irregular strips of aluminum. On the other hand round junk or nearly round junk like pull tabs or round aluminum freshness seals from fruit drinks sound awesome. Basically, if you want to find the gold, you are going to have to dig your share of junk to get to it.

It is similar to the Deus silencer feature and I have also turned that off on my Deus based on Tn Sharpshooter videos demonstrating how silencer can cause masking and one way signals of non ferrous targets near ferrous objects.

I purposely did not get into Iron Bias in my previous posts because I don't know what to do with it. I think it affects detectability more than depth, actually (it certainly doesn't help depth). What I mean by that is with it on, you will tend to get worse masking or one way hits on non-ferrous targets in the vicinity of iron. It is kind of like turning down recovery speed for iron targets only without any of the benefits (i.e., increased depth or less clipping of target signal at depth). Like most filters, it just seems to mask the things you want to hear in addition to the things you don't want to hear. Discrimination filters have their place (including helping to prevent down/up averaging of non-ferrous signals in the presence of iron), but iron bias seems to be there because ML figured out they could do it with Multi IQ (note that iron bias is not even present when operating in single frequency) but did not at least articulate the down side. It seems to be a setting that has no benefit other than to prevent SOME falsing but with a lot of down side IMO. I am not even sure having it set at low values is beneficial, so I agree with you it is IRON BIAS = 0 for me too. It is definitely something to be aware of in Park 1 AND the Beach and Gold modes.

Hap - as an experienced FBS detectorist, you should just go with your detecting instincts. Don't try to overthink or over tweak the Equinox - focus mainly on selecting your best case detecting mode for your site conditions and target objectives, getting the machine to run quiet (noise cancel, GB as necessary, adjust sensitivity accordingly AND perhaps dial back recovery speed for depth), focus on the audio and dig all repeatable targets. What it all boils down to for you, I think, is that the lack of depth related modulation with Equinox is throwing you off and you may also just be in a "slump" where your coil is not getting over any really deep silver. Also, I will say that I think a good FBS machine (eTrac, CTX) is a good compliment to the Equinox, so I would hang to an FBS. Under "ideal" conditions (low ferrous trash, low mineralization), the FBS machines will go deeper than Equinox and will give a more accurate ID at depth on high conductors. The Equinox, though, is no slouch and is much more versatile and effective for many more conditions, situations, and targets than FBS. HH

Jeff - 100% agree and in my epic length post also mentioned, that in mineralized soils the "2" modes will likely have an advantage for all target types at depth vs. the "general" case (mild soil) where the "1" modes and lower frequencies will dominate at depth (especially for high conductors). Note that hammered silver or small silver (e.g., trimes) due to its size, thickness, and also, in the case of hammered silver, variable silver purity, will often ring up as a mid-conductor which also favors the higher weighted frequencies ("2" modes). Thanks for clarifying that. Like I said, the thing about detecting is there are truism's but not many absolutes.

Hap, One other thing I noticed as I was going through your compendium of quotes and advice posted above. You quoted someone as saying: “I found that there isn't a real need to turn up the sensitivity to a high setting to get good depth. To a large part, the sensitivity just amplifies the audio response. The difference in depth between say 18 and 22 sensitivity settings is not noticeable if you're using good headphones. Also, I prefer using 50 tones so the need for tone breaks etc. on the 800 would be a big waste for me” I look at sensitivity a little differently and some testing I ran at the beach last fall following the firmware update kind of opened my eyes regarding sensitivity and depth with Equinox. More about that below. The key to Equinox is optimizing the signal-to-noise ratio. So think of the things that increase or decrease signal (e.g., sensitivity) or that increase or decrease noise (e.g., sensitivity). The following are truisms, but just like everything in metal detecting, there is always a tradeoff, caveat, or "it depends" YMMV involved. Lower frequencies penetrate deeper (raw depth) but do not necessarily result in maximum effective depth because that is dependent on soil condition, target conductivity (including corrosion), size, shape, and orientation. Higher frequencies excite mid conductors (gold, lead, brass, aluminum, nickel) and resolve smaller targets better than lower frequencies (due to the smaller wavelength of higher frequencies). This means that with all things being equal (soil condition, EMI, coil size, sensitivity, target size/shape/orientation) a higher frequency can detect a mid-conductive target deeper than a low frequency. However, the deepest mid-conductor that can be detected by a high frequency is still likely shallower than the deepest high conductive target of the same shape/size/orientation that can be detected by a low frequency. In other words if I had two dime sized targets - one consisting of gold and the other consisting of silver. I can probably detect the gold target deeper at 40 khz than I can at 5 khz. However, that 40 khz gold target depth will likely be much shallower than the max depth at which I can detect the silver target at 5 khz. Even though lower frequencies can penetrate deeper overall (more "signal") they are also more susceptible to EMI than higher frequencies (more "noise"). Higher recovery speeds result in greater target separation but may impact depth. However, there is a limitation on how much depth you can gain by lowering recovery speed, because the resulting slower swing speeds may result in higher ground noise which limits effective depth at low recovery speed. So a lower recovery speed may increase depth ("signal") but that may be offset by increased ground "noise". You should run sensitivity only as high as you can to maintain stability to maximize depth. Just cranking up sensitivity for the sake of maximizing the "signal" in the name of depth only serves to potentially increase the "noise". Does that mean you should never crank sensitivity? No. If you can get away with 22-23 or even 25 sensitivity without increase "noise" and chatter - then by all means use that higher sensitivity, there is typically no downside (unless there is a lot of ferrous trash - more on that below). Conversely, if you have to lower sensitivity into the teens to get rid of chatter, then do so. But be advised, the thing I found that was eye opening in my beach tests is that lowering sensitivity even down to 15 REALLY affected depth capability. I was testing various types of targets buried at around 8 to 10 inches in the sand and I found that many mid-conductive and even some small high conductive targets were on the edge of detectability at that depth even at low frequencies. Lowering sensitivity to 15 definitely made some 8 to 10 inch targets completely disappear. I was very surprised that lowering sensitivity from 20 to 15 in dry sand caused a depth loss of 3 to 5 inches or more. In other words, I respectfully disagree with whoever said above that lowering sensitivity from 22 to 18 has a negligible affect on depth. You should not hesitate to lower it if you need to get rid of chatter, but don't fool yourself in thinking that there is no noticeable difference in depth. Finally, one case where it might be useful to lower sensitivity in the absence of EMI/chatter is when you are detecting in highly mineralized and/or thick ferrous trash conditions. Depending on the target of interest and soil conditions, you should choose your best mode (e.g., a "1" mode for silver or a "2" mode for mid-conductors, or consider just using a "2" mode for all target types in moderate to high mineralization). Select the appropriate coil or recovery speed based on target density (the smaller coil does not necessary separate better, recovery speed is the main factor in separation, but you will have less targets under the coil with a small coil which makes for better target acquisition). Finally, consider whether you should lower sensitivity to prevent the mineralization and thick ferrous target density from overloading the coil which may allow some partially masked shallow keepers to emerge from ferrous trash muck. Use of the pinpoint feature, single frequency, number of tones, and suppressing discrimination (horseshoe button) can also have varying effects on how well you hear the signal from the desirable targets but I reckon to a lesser degree than proper ground balancing, mode selection, sensitivity setting, and recovery speed. Anyway, every situation is different. The detectorist who understands the various tradeoffs between sensitivity, frequency, recovery speed, swing speed, discrimination, and even ground balance is the one has a leg up on those who are just guessing about what the settings do and are kind of wandering around in the wilderness, figuratively and literally. HTH

Jeff, I don’t recall nor can I find where the manual recommends Park 2 or Field 2 for “deeper” targets. It does say the “2” modes are more suited for more difficult “conditions” (e.g., mineralized soils, high EMI, mid conductor and small target sensitivity can be enhanced) which makes sense for the higher frequency weightings of those modes. But higher frequencies are naturally attenuated more by matter which means that they simply cannot penetrate as deeply as lower frequency signals. For raw depth, the “1” modes dominate in general, especially for high conductors simply due to physics, though under some specific circumstances (e.g., mineralized soil) the “2” modes can have higher effective depth. So if the manual says that the “2” modes are more suited for deeper targets, that would leave me scratching my head. Can you point me to the page in the manual where that is written, thanks.

You are so right. In fact, some might argue that it is even more than that depending on soil conditions. The air gap really causes a lot of signal loss so you might even be losing MORE than an inch for every inch off the ground. Scuff that coil scuff plate, that is what it is there for. BTW - agree with Cabin Fever. The Equinox has minimal modulation with depth. That means if it can be detected at depth, it will still come in pretty strong, just as aluminum cans sound like a 2-inch quarter. The only caveat being coins on edge or at the edge of detectability will have unreliable TIDs. But the tone volume will still be fairly loud even if the tone ID is incorrect or unstable. The only mode that may give you squeaker audio is gold mode because it is VCO pitch based and has a true threshold that enhances the ability to discern super weak signals if set properly. As far as high sensitivity drowning out signals. My deepest coin finds have come in the wet sand of the tide line - several 15+ inch nickels at 25 sense (Beach 1) and the signals were unmistakable normal volume tones, not squeakers. HTH.

Awesome. Great minds...ha ha.

Steve, Nice DIY shaft adapters for the control head. I am still looking for the shaft adapters mentioned in one of our "favorite" blogs. (Lol) https://md-hunter.com/minelab-equinox-shaft-adapter-another-shaft/ Goes to the trouble of describing them and showing a pic but no links or mention of where they can be obtained. Someone in the comments section noted that they look like motorbike handlebar accessory adapters. BTW Steve - with three Equinoxes, besides a specialized usage micronox grabngo machine, large coil machine, and stock configuration. You can also have one running original firmware and another running the upgrade (less falsing vs. better edge-on performance). The "G" Man

Hmm. I don't understand why the sticker is inducing fear in submergence. Is that because there is no warranty coverage there or something? I thought ML stood behind their detector if it became water damaged as long as users were using it in accordance with the instructions and depth limits.

If you wiggle off the end without going into pinpoint mode then you eliminate the issue of multiple targets under the larger coil causing the built-in pinpoint function locking-in on an off-center target. On the beach, just scoop a bucket full of sand and get it on the surface and it is much easier to find and recover the target and move on. It does not have to be a precise pinpoint for recovery as you are not tearing up the landscape. I mainly only use built-in pinpoint to get a bead on the size and depth of the target due to the lack of modulation in the search modes vs. pinpoint for recovery purposes. HTH

Let us know whether the detector does better for you once you find out what the material is.

Not the same ones. He described a right angle connector and that they were $46 shipped from CA. The linked ones are a straight connector, $43, and shipped from FL. Those were the only ones that popped up when I entered his search terms, also, so I suspect the ones he was referring to are out of stock or no longer being sold. Nevertheless, the linked ones should work fine. Personally not a big fan of wearing earbuds when getting pounded by the surf, but they are an option.

Great - let us know how it turns out. Earbud APTX-LL phones are hard to find at any price. Last supposed APTX - LL headphones I ordered online did not pair up with the bluetooth "+" mark on my Equinox. You never know for sure until they are paired up and you see the plus sign. I have not found any non-APTX-LL BT phones to be usable due to the delay.