Chase Goldman

13 hours ago, relicmeister said:

I’ve been wishy washy about whether I would get the 12x15 coil. UNTIL I started to see the early comments. Now there’s no question that I’m getting one. I’ve called around and it will take a month or so before I would get it and of course we’re now heading into the slow season as far as detecting goes. I’m glad I have the 6” for now It’s been making my favorite sites produce, though not without a tick bite just about every time I go into the woods. 

Slow season?  As a fellow relic hunter, the season is just starting to ramp up for me.  November is my ideal relic hunting month as the weather cools, thickets thin off, the creatures thin out, and the crops are harvested.  Would like to get my hands on that large elliptical for plowed field coverage.

On 11/1/2018 at 10:23 AM, Tnsharpshooter said:

Correct, higher mineral soil GB is key for depth using Equinox.

Tracking system on Equinox is too slow for some areas where ground changes faster.  Been there and done that.  Equinox runners when sweeping, you start hearing what I call little canary sounds in the background, check your GB.

BTW,  proper GB for depth more critical on higher conductors vs lower conductors using Nox.

FWIW, I have personally not found GB tracking on the Equinox to be too slow for proper tracking in rapidly changing ground phase conditions of high mineralization sites (e.g., Culpeper, VA).  It is designed to handle fairly rapid changes in ground balance due to both rapid salinity level changes and varable levels of high mineralization from what I can tell as ML recommends using tracking in salt surf detecting and tracking is the default GB mode for the Gold modes which presume you are in areas of high mineralization which is typically (but not always) the type of ground where natural gold is found.  In other words, if you are finding that you are constantly having to re GB the detector at a site, do not be afraid to use tracking GB.

That being said, I don't doubt that TNSS has found particularly nasty ground situations where tracking was not ideal.  As always there are limitations in the responsiveness of any automatic control system that relies on feedback from sensed conditions.  However, even if auto tracking is laggy, Equinox Multi IQ algorithms do an excellent job of compensating detector performance for less than ideal ground balance settings so the result is typically not loss of depth performance as you might typically see with other detectors but increased ground noise when in all metal (the canary sounds TNSS refers to) which show up as rapidly changing high negative numbers on sweeps.  That is why ML suggests you only need to ground balance if you are picking up ground noise (i.e., it is not a "required" quick start step if you refer to p. 11 of the manual).  So what I am saying is that the downside to using tacking GB in most situations is minimal.

Bottom line, for me, I often use tracking GB if there is some level of moderate mineralization present which I determine using my Deus as it has a mineralization bargraph or site familiarization.   Note that you cannot directly infer site ground mineralization solely by the ground balance readings on the Equinox, though high numbers can roughly correlate to high mineralization, without a mineralization meter you cannot be totally sure.  I would only advise against using tracking on non-mkberalized ground like white sand beaches as auto tracking algorithms typically work by continuously sensing changes in ground mineralization.  If there is no mineralization present, tracking will not work well or may give erratic readings under those conditions so I typically just use the default GB setting or do a quick auto GB.  As always with such things, YMMV.

Another thing, as Multi IQ is what facilitates the ability to detect with minimal degradation in performance with a less than ideal GB, I do recommend doing a manual/auto GB whenever operating in single frequency mode.

HTH

Tony does top notch work.  He modded a pair of Gray Ghost generic amphibians for me and went beyond the original quoted workscope on his own dime and replaced additional hardware to make sure I had a usable set of phones for the detector. Quality work and customer service.

On 10/22/2018 at 4:29 PM, staffydog33 said:

When are we gona see some videos on the 15" coil?

In particular side by side comparisons with stock coil.

 

I'm thinking the big coil is WAY to much money for a VERY small gain, if any at all.

 

Matt

 

The gain is likely more in coverage vs. depth and to some detectorists that is worth the money in saved time when searching a site because you may only have limited time to hunt it.

4 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

17" x 11" wow! 

Great if  you're a beach hunter or plowed field hunter I suppose, sucks for us relic hunters

Most of my relic hunting is done IN plowed fields vs. woods or trails.  Just the way it rolls out my way because we are generally detecting CW camps/engagement sites vs. remote outposts and those mostly happen to be located on farms 'round here.

That being said, I am in your camp, we really need something that falls between the 6 and 11 inch round coils, preferably an elliptical form factor, closed coil.

1 hour ago, unearth said:

17" x 11"??? I've heard only 15" x 13". What gives??

Yep, this is strange.  Either someone got their dimensions mixed up or a fourth OEM Equinox coil is in the works and has yet to be announced.  

20 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

I'm still wavering. Now I think I will be prudent and stay at 19. Sigh. 

Since it's a tone break and not a notch, I wouldn't overthink it or lose too much sleep on precisely setting that mid-to-high breakpoint unless you truly have the discipline not to ever glance at your display if you get a solid mid tone and walk on.  No way I could hunt that way, the more TIDs binned in a tone the more I am dependent on using visual TID as a crutch because the tone will sound more stable in that case, unless it just happens to cross the tone break, so I will be looking for a bouncy visual TID to make a dig decision.  BTW if you do get that flutey tone because you are crossing the high tone break, that's a big audio clue in and of itself (something Zincolns often do with the default 20/21 default high break fo 5 tones ).  So what I am saying is that even if you don't have that high break optimized, you will still have visual TID to back you up and may hear the tone jump the break to alert you to the fact that you may want to pay more attention to that target.

50 tones gives me a better audible feel for target ID stability which factors into my dig decisions. (Bottlecaps are typically flutey in 50 and sometimes even in 5 tones, but so are coin spills).  That's why I usually just default to 50 tones and be done with it unless I am taking a leisurely stroll through a park and punch up Park 1, default settings.  As I've mentioned previously, I'm inherently lazy and don't really like to spend a lot of time customizing tones.  That's just me, tho.  Again, I am not saying 50 tones is better than 3 tones.  It's better for me because of the way I use audio.  Not better for others who are looking to create more "stable" audio. It is a personal choice based on how you hunt (VDI vs. Tones), where you hunt (salt beach, fresh water, hot soil, parks, plowed fields, cellar holes, woods), and what you are hunting for (coins, relics, jewelry, gold).

Necklaces, pendants, love tokens, some were strung onto strings sewn into pockets so as to make it more difficult to lose your coins.

Thanks.  What was the metallic  composition of the test targets?

8 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

The smaller coils may have been a crutch for me and for this reason I'm glad I spent 175 hours with the Eqx 11 inch coil, even in my trashy hunting grounds.  But it's always better to have options.

That will be like night and day.  Way to train yourself for the benefit of the 6". There was a situation that I wish I had that 6" coil (restricted maneuvering) where the 11" was just too big.  Dunno if I will ever get back there but I was forced to use a PI with a small coil which worked, but was a bear to deal with, especially with the slow recovery.  I probably could have recovered a lot more targets in the same time frame with the faster Equinox (the targets were mainly shallow minie balls around old tree stumps, so the PI depth was not necessary, but the only tool I had for the situation).

9 hours ago, NAGANT said:

I smell Chinese auto translate

Actually, its Russian.  If you link back to the MD-Hunter blog and associated You Tube channel, you'll see MD Hunter has a second channel that has videos posted in Russian.  Regardless, it only took me a few seconds of reading the review to realize that I had just lost a few seconds of my life that I will never get back.  Lol.  I appreciate international reviews because the perspectives are so diverse due to the different types of target objectives and conditions encountered, so I have no preconceived notions based on where the review originated, but this review was so shallow and frankly bizarre (e.g., why is someone trying to tear apart a waterproof, factory-sealed housing and expecting it to remain intact?) that I just had to dismiss it and move on.

12 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Minelab must finally be opening the spigot.  Mine arrived yesterday and I got in 3 hours today (with success -- more details on Sunday when I have time to post them).

I gotta say that this is the first detector I've owned where I've used an 11 inch coil (compared to 6 inchers) a majority of the time, because I had no choice.  It was a great learning experience.  Do I wish to repeat that with my next detector?  No.

 

 

I take it you won't be getting the large Equinox coil then.  Lol.  I like the 6 inch coil as a specialty coil to exploit high density hot spots and restricted areas, but I can't imagine using it most of the time because I am typically relic hunting in large fields which favors coverage and depth over pinpoint separation.  I do enjoy hearing about all the different styles and types of hunting and the different approaches people take to detecting and use of their detectors.

9 minutes ago, Alluminati said:

I was wondering too, I took it to mean raise the Tone Break high enough to skip the caps that flash 10 TID. (I think he meant 4 gram chain and not 0.4 gram chain)

 

I think you're right.  Thanks.

On 10/9/2018 at 7:41 PM, cjc said:

That's true--new Beach modes seem to be better on the cap they are more in the minus digits--maybe a bit rougher audio as well.  That's kind of the lines Im thinking about for an Apendix in the new one a section just on some of the ways to settle the machie down so as to allow more Gain. Faster works, more Bias works, slower coil works....raised up coil works...slighly high TB base works (.4 gr. chains notwithstanding...).

cjc

Come again on that last one, Clive.  You lost me on the shorthand.  As a matter of fact, even though you and Dew have the ESP going, would you mind expanding what you were driving at with that last sentence without the shorthand? It has me curious and though I think I deciphered some of it, I do not have it all figured out.  Thanks.

Using the metal arm cuff that came with the Anderson shaft.  I like it.

I saw somewhere where someone used a mounting adapter that enables items to be attached to motorcycle handlebars as an adapter that can be used to mount the Equinox head unit to any diameter rod.  Search motorcycle parts shops to see what you can come up with.

2 hours ago, Andy2640 said:

Hoping it comes soon, the ground is gonna be frozen in the coming months.  Dont make me cry Minelab,  be nice!

Seems like you are doing fine with swing coverage with the 11", Andy (3 hammered's).  I would not get too emotional over it, frankly.  The price is what is probably going to make you cry more.  Lol.

Welcome both to the forum and to the Equinox.  A great all around detector that despite being multi-purpose does a lot of things better than many high end detectors I have owned.  

Jack gave you a great link on gold nugget hunting with the Equinox.  You mentioned a lake beach, so I take it you were detecting a freshwater beach.  In that case, I would recommend either Park 1 if you are focusing on high conductor finds or Park 2 or Field 2 if looking for small/mid-conductive targets like gold jewelry, nickels, or brass relics (though each of the above modes will still detect non-ferrous targets over the entire conductivity range).  The Beach modes were designed to balance salt beach ground conductivity conditions while trading off a little sensitivity overall and in the case of Beach 2, scaling back transmit power under black sand conditions and is overall both beach modes are most sensitive to high conductors, but have detected plenty of gold targets in wet salt sand and surf.  The result is less depth than you would otherwise be capable of getting in the Park and Field modes.  So I recommend only using beach modes only in salt beach or brackish water conditions.  

If you are already clueing into the audio subtleties of the various targets then you are off to a great start.  I am a firm believer that audio is key to this machine and the generally stable visual TID's are a good confirmatory backup to what your ears are telling you, so continue to learn that audio and give 50 tones a spin  (default tone setting on the "2" modes which are what I use for relic hunting since most relics are mid-conductors).  Once you get used to the EQX at its defaults then start to learn how the various settings affect performance especially recovery speed. Tweak it a click or two from the default on some targets to see its affect.  Lower recovery speed can result in increased signal for deep targets but the tradeoff is less separation, slower sweep speed and a potential increase in ground feedback noise which practically limits depth, so I recommend staying near the defaults.  Iron bias is an interesting filter that uses Multi IQ signal processing to reducing ferrous falsing but I have also found it to sometimes undesirably mask non-ferrous targets.  Also, investigate threshold and alternative tone settings.  I like the default tone setups but do use threshold, though it only serves to alert you to discriminated out targets by "blanking" when passing over them.  Finally, the ideal placement of the horseshoe button which gives you instant access to "all metal" but cutting out all discrimination and notches set is a great tool for target interrogation or for general searching when you want to "hear it all".  I especially like all metal for salt and freshwater beach hunting, especially in dry sand.

Finally, gold mode is a different animal altogether with VCO pitch-like audio (vice ID tones),  true threshold settings and maximum overall sensitivity that enables tiny target acquisition.  This is a good mode to experiment with even outside of nugget hunting.

Enjoy the Equinox and HH up there in AK.

HTH

I noticed bump sensitivity on the Equinox when GB was adjusted to high numbers.  During a relic hunt last spring, I started noticing bump sensitivity in a cornfield when bumping against corn stubble.  Thought I had a coil connection or coil issue as I could get noise simply by shaking the coil in the air.  Switched modes and noticed it didn't happen in the other modes (I think I was running Field 2 at the time).  Reset the machine switched to Field 2 again and no issues until I auto ground balanced again to a high number (>50) and the bump sensitivity returned.  I increased the GB setting on Park 2 from the default 0 to a similarly high number and got the same bump sensitivity in that mode, so I determined the hot soil GB setting was the culprit and continued on detecting.  FWIW.

On 10/3/2018 at 5:53 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I am a big fan of the F75 but if you get a large coil for it the absolute last one I would get is the actual Fisher 15" round coil. It is heavy and completely ruins the ergonomics of the detector. It also does not seem to add much for depth. I used mine once and got rid of it. I am not knocking Fisher here, just that particular coil. If you want a larger coil for the F75, go aftermarket.

Agree with Steve.  I had the exact same (negative) experience when I went for the 15" coil package deal when I had FT do the DST mod to my T2.  Loved the new T2 firmware but just could not swing that T2 for any appreciable length of time with the 15" DD boat anchor.  For the F75, the various 13" and up 3rd party coil options are much better bet in terms of retaining some balance on your F75 with some usable performance gain.  

Hopefully, the ML large coil will be a much more positive experience.

On 10/5/2018 at 9:24 AM, 57buick said:

Thats my point though. Why does silver not even ring a high number on the NOX? Whats the point of the NOX if it doesnt discriminate at all it seems like. Its just iron or not iron

Congrats on your first silver with the Equinox but...I am surprised that your big take away from what should be a positive experience is that the Equinox does not discriminate.  Huh?

28 is pretty much in the high conductor range so why quibble over a few digits.  I would dig that all day long.  Are you saying that because it rang up at 28 instead of 30 you wouldn't dig it or that it sounded like borderline iron?  As others have pointed out there are a myriad of of factors that can contribute to slight variations in VDI for a given target including soil moisture, mineralization, nearby targets, and target orientation, target corrosion.

I really having trouble understanding how you jump from a slightly low VDI on a high conductor to the Equinox "doesn't discriminate at all".  If you mean the VDI range is narrow, well that's true, but that helps with stability.  Coming from Deus that is welcome as the VDI numbers on Deus are far less stable so I actually prefer Equinox in this regard.  But even with the narrow VDI range, I can certainly tell the difference between small gold (single digits), pull tabs (teens), nickels at around 13, brass relics in the mid teens, minie balls in the high teens, Zincolns around 20,  Memorials around 22, Dimes around the mid 20's, Quarters high 20's to low 30's, Large Silver low to mid 30's.  Not even close to your "iron or not iron" assertion. 

And I personally don't really make my dig/no dig decisions based solely on VDI numbers because they actually tell you much less than audio can about the nature of the target, especially at 50 tones.  Some might argue that 50 tones tells you no more than 50 VDI numbers, and that is far from the truth.  A digital VDI display as implemented on the Equinox can basically just flash up a number.  You might be able to glean additional info from fluctuations, but that is about all you get.  The audio on the other hand gives you more than just a tone corresponding to the VDI, it also has other attributes that give you clues as to the nature of the target such as steep or shallow rise times, tone duration, "solidness" of the tone, tone distortion all help paint a more detailed picture of the target in your brain. A nickel, gold ring, bent beavertail, and crown cap that all ring up around 13 will each sound different even as they give off the same base tone.  Also, I have found that with both the Equinox and Deus you can get an accurate whisper tone on a weak signal target that will only show double bars on the display.  Anyway, my point is that despite the "narrow" vdi range of the Equinox, the audio really opens up the door on target ID.

Getting hung up on VDI numbers or tripping over the fact that they are subject to some slight variations will tend to keep you from unlocking some of capabilities of the Equinox especially regarding the benefits of tone ID.  As a fellow Deus user, I found that I was able to pick up on the Equinox audio nuances pretty quickly.  

I thought this issue sounded familiar and I see I gave you similar info back in July when you thought Equinox was basically a dig it all machine.  Seems your opinion regarding Equinox has not changed much after three months, so perhaps Equinox is not catching on for you and may just not be your cup of tea.  Nothing wrong with that.  If you still have your Deus, as I do, that is a great detector to fall back on.  And hopefully though my thoughts may be of little use or consolation for you the second time around, perhaps others can get some useful information from the discussion.  Good luck and HH.

13 hours ago, D&P-OR said:

That's not training the detector----it's training the detectorist.

Exactly!

12 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Although I personally have no need for a 15" coil, Minelab is sure dragging this out.  I wonder what the big delay is, it's actually kind of odd IMO.   

Not so odd, probably finishing up performance testing and then they want to run production for awhile to build up inventory so they can avoid the small coil issue where dealers were only getting one or two coils per shipment.  I think it's pretty obvious by now that whether or not ML realized how popular this detector was going to be, they simply did not invest in capitalizing their production facilities in advance to be able to meet that demand for the detector or its accessories.  They let marketing get too far out in front of the designers and production folks, probably because they have never had a detector as popular as say an AT Pro and were really unprepared to deal with the worldwide demand.  Getting inventory ramped up on the small coil probably squeezed production capacity for the large coil also.

11 hours ago, CrainRacing said:

A side note for the update, the ground is a lot less noisy in some cases, so much so that it had me questioning if it was on. 
But the moment you bump the coil it makes a ruckus of noise.

What was your ground phase number?  I have seen the coil exhibit bump sensitivity if ground balancing results in a high ground phase number.  Posting mode, settings, and sensitivity information would help also.  Unlikely you got water into the coil and if you did it would  likely not be quiet at all (i.e., you would likly experience more than just bump sensitivity) and it would probably result in a coil failure fault code.

4 hours ago, Nuke em said:

I have windows 7 but that wouldn't work for me either . So i got my windows 10 laptop out and that worked fine.

Just bought another 800 as a spare and will have to update that too when i get around to it.

Nuke - Maybe you could do some A - B comparisons pre and post update comparidons on some test targets and let us know if you see a difference before you update that 2nd 800.

Even though I'm a hear it all 50 tones guy, if I do go to "multi" tones, then 3 tones just makes more sense to me than 5 tones (or 2 tones).