Jump to content

steveg

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,207

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Forums

Detector Prospector Home

Detector Database

Downloads

Posts posted by steveg

    "Iron Bias" What Is It?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    I can't wait to hear this.

    DEFINITELY, to me, sounds like some "secret sauce," so to speak, that I'll be interested to hear more about.  I have NO IDEA what it could mean, as I try to ponder...

    Might have to wait for Minelab's explanation...  UGH!  :)

    Steve

     

    "Iron Bias" What Is It?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    11 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

    Took a closer look at the NEW quick start guide and noticed a menu setting/adjustment I hadn't seen before called "Iron Bias".  600 allows three step adjustments (0-3) while the 800 appears to allow 9 steps (0-9).  The icon/brief description is across from the adjustable recovery speed setting on the guide on the bottom row.   Can Steve or anyone else explain this setting?  Thanks.

    Now THAT is interesting; hadn't noticed that.  I have heard NO ONE talk about it...

    VERY interesting, to me...

    Steve

     

     

    What Are Aptx Low Latency Headphones?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    I would love to have a "short cord" option for my SunRay Pro Golds, which would make my way of doing it even better, but...

    What I do is buy one of those arm bands that joggers use with their cell phones, called a Tune Belt.  The device slides inside, you slide it on your upper arm, and secure it with the adjustable Velcro strap.  I have used them for years while jogging, and I got one to use with my WM10.  Works great.  

    https://www.tunebelt.com/sport-armband-ab84/

    Steve

     

     

     

     

    What Are Aptx Low Latency Headphones?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    I think this has already been said, but is the port on the WM-08 1/8"?  If so, does anyone know of the "right" adapter to change it to 1/4"?  Stereo?  Mono?  Mono male to stereo female?  Something else, that is special or specific to the WM-08?

    Sorry for the possibly dumb question, but I know for the CTX, to get the unit's speaker to turn off when using headphones and plugging direct to the machine, it takes a specific connector, and if using an adapter, it needs to be mono male to stereo female, I believe).

    Steve

    Equinox Multi-IQ Technologies ( Part 3 )

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    This "Part 3" is really, really good stuff.  I can't wait for Part 4.  Kudos to Minelab for providing us this info, and I look forward to more -- from them, and from everyone here once the machines are in the hands of the many talented detectorists that frequent the forum.

    Gee, I wonder if a couple of people with the initials S.H. and J.P. had anything to do with the improvements to the gold mode (addition of Multi-IQ to that mode)?  ;)  And I wonder if these "last-minute changes" are part of the perceived "slight delay" in targeted release, from the initial target of late Dec., to the official date of later in January.  If so, while Minelab was making potentially significant last-minute improvements to the 800, the forums were ablaze with anger and tantrums and conspiracy theories...  LOL!

    Steve

    Why Would You Want The Equinox?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    8 hours ago, MrHusker said:

    Having been fascinated with metal detecting since an early age, it wasn’t until I was in my forties that I finally arrived at getting my first metal detector.  As with most people, I reviewed for what seemed to be months on what to purchase, and decided on an AT PRO.  For me at the time it was the “best bang for my buck”, and would handle all of our fine beaches in Nebraska.  Last year I was contemplating a new machine as I wanted to have some of the newer technologies.  The more I researched, I liked allot of the characteristics of the CTX 3030 and some of the characteristics of the XP Deus.  The only thing that kept me from a 3030 was price and weight…  I ended up buying a NEL Thunder for my AT PRO instead.  Since the breaking news of the Equinox 800, I have been anxious about getting my hands on this machine, as I know it is what I was looking for last year.

    Interesting, MrHusker!

    I have a similar story to you, in that I had been fascinated with "digging in the dirt" and "finding stuff" (be it interesting rocks, whatever), since I was really young.  And, at the same time, I had also developed a fascination with coins (my dad had a wheat cent collection that was fascinating to me).  And so, at age 12 or so, when I first saw my grandfather's blue-box White's GoldMaster collecting dust in the basement, shortly after he died, I just had to try it out!  I had no idea what I was doing, no manual, no idea what the knobs were for, but I DID find a few neat things in the yard, before the batteries died!  Since I couldn't afford to keep buying batteries, I sort of wandered off into other things I was interested in (golf, baseball, hunting, fishing...)  BUT -- that planted the seed, and the fascination never went away.  It was the place where my "interest in finding stuff in the ground," and my interest in coins, intersected...and it stayed with me all these years!

    As a result of that initial "seed" being planted, I ended up picking up an old Bounty Hunter unit, about 10 years ago.  I dabbled with it for a couple of years a time or two here and there, but that was about it.  However, one day, I happened to dig a simple, lowly Memorial penny; it was the first time I had dug a coin -- and that was it.  I was hooked!  Fast forward ten years, and here we are!  My only regret is that back in the early '80s when I was that 12-year old boy, living in Pennsylvania, that I didn't pursue the hobby immediately.  I can only imagine what all I would have found, had I started back then!

    Anyway, so, why do I want an Equinox?  Mainly to hopefully "fill in the gaps" and do the specific jobs that my CTX isn't quite as good at (hunting in heavily-iron-laden old home sites, picking through the very trashy sections of public parks, etc.) -- in other words, allowing me to better and more effectively fulfill that apparently inborn instinct to "find coins and other cool stuff in the ground!"

    Steve

    Equinox and Electrical Interference

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

      Multi IQ, however, I am very interested in especially how it is implemented differently in the varoius detecting modes.  That would give me some insight into, for instance, whether beach mode might make sense to run in certain mineralized soils (making this up for illustrative purposes).  Minelab has given some info but is definitely protecting their "secret sauce" for now.  Whether they are being secretive because they are still tweaking Multi IQ or because the info remains proprietary will determine whethervwe learn more about its inner workings in the future, I guess.

    Chase,

    I couldn't agree with you more, here.  I sure do hope Minelab provides this; nothing worse than having settings on a unit that are "briefly referred to" in the manual, but not explained -- in terms of what the engineer's objective was when designing the mode or setting.  On the other hand, if information was provided so as to help users to understand not ONLY what the mode or setting is designed to do, but why/how it's trying to do so, then a user might more easily be able to logically anticipate OTHER scenarios or conditions or objectives where using that mode or setting might be an appropriate choice.  Instead, we are left to stumble about in the dark, experimenting blindly with different combinations of settings and modes, and trying to eventually figure out "what works" in a given site, but maybe never really knowing "why," and thus -- not knowing how to determine when those same modes and settings might succeed or fail at a different site, or in a different scenario.  In other words, a manual saying "Park mode is designed for hunting in parks or yards.  If you wish to detect in a park or yard setting, switch to park mode" is next to useless.

    I know not everyone cares about such details, but I sure do -- I like to know what the implications are every time I push a button or change a setting, and how that button push or setting change might positively OR negatively affect OTHER settings or modes I might be running at the same time.

    "Black boxes," so to speak, are my bane.  When all the logic is withheld from the user, and instead happens "behind the scenes" -- with the end user simply told "do this," then there's no way for the user to understand in what specific scenarios the "black box" is best utilized, what possible "failure modes" exist (with respect to whatever the "black box' is trying to do), and how to adjust when whatever the black box is designed to do is not working according to plan...

    I guess that's my long-winded way of saying, "I agree with you, Chase!"

    Steve

    Survey: Whats Your Main Detecting Environment

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    Funny you should mention, Randy.  I just talked to a guy tonight on another forum who had received permission to a great site, where he was doing really, really well  A couple of guys caught wind of it, and "nighthawked" the site to death...unfilled holes everywhere, whatever trash pieces were dug were left there on the ground...

    Of COURSE the end result was, the guy lost his permission, due to the owner being angry about the damage done by the nighthawkers.

    That is just low, low, low...

    Sad that there are such "bad apples" out there, in it for nothing but themselves...

    Steve

    Equinox and Electrical Interference

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    2 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

    Bangs head.  Yep.  Missed that.  Again Deus paradigm, that noise reduction initialization is also done on the Deus but automatically on the Deus upon startup.  The advantage of having the button on the Minelab though, allows you to reengage the noise cancellation adjustment on the fly if site conditions change.  With Deus you would have to inconveniently power cycle the detector.  Regardless, though extremely effective, these noise cancelling features are not always 100% foolproof and the discrete frequency “trick” is there as an option.  Steve mentioned this in another post as one possible scenario where discrete frequency operation might be preferred to Multi IQ (that and Gold mode were the only scenarios thought up). With on demand noise cancel though, it should be rare you would ever have to use it.  Since the CTX only operates in Multifrequency modes, the term “channels” above must mean that slight variations in the multifrequency base frequencies are applied to find quiet modes.  Similar principle must be used for Multi IQ (think 5.1, 9.9, 15.1, 19.9 and  40.1 kHz vs. 5,10,15,20, 40 kHz. - in fact I bet Equinox almost never operates exactly at each of those base frequencies.  More speculation at MultiIQ secret sauce).

    Yep, "variations in the multifrequency base frequencies" is exactly how it's done (in FBS, anyway), as I understand it.  Just as you posted -- tiny "offsets" to the base frequencies...

    Steve

     

    The Equinox Your Pride And Joy A Case For It

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    17 hours ago, tsunamiscott said:

    I baby my equipment. Hard cases if I'm traveling in the truck, and padded backpacks for motorcycles. I usually use a protective cover like those offered by Thesaurus Detecting . The Equinox will be no different. Recurve bow cases work well with many different metal detector brands. I never store anything valuable inside a vehicle.

    Agree -- those Thesaurus covers are NICE...

    Steve

    Can I Be Critical Of The Equinox Here?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    Steve,

    You said it perfectly in your most recent post.  This forum is going to be a great, and very welcome, wealth of information, post-release.  It already has been, pre-release, though obviously what you have been permitted to share has been necessarily limited.

    Once it's released, and the need for confidentiality and silence has been removed, and users start posting experiences, experiments, tests, successes, AND failures, the collective of everyone here will be a treasure trove of information that should be invaluable to those who really hope to get the most out of the machine, and what it's capable of.


    Steve

    Equinox Battery Mah?

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    On 1/5/2018 at 6:22 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

    Who knew it was a disturbing subject. :smile: Actually the question was asked and my answer was “I charge nightly, never have a problem”. That said, I don’t see the harm in people exploring options. I detect a week at a time off the grid, and so power options always interest me. Of even more interest to me is the counterweighting concept, and in my mind there is no point in doing one without doing the other. So I am looking to make a coil counterweight - it just so happens it will double as a battery extender.

    Between my detector, cell phone, GPS, etc. I am getting one of these, which can also give me emergency jump capability when I am on my long trips alone out in the desert. It’s not for the Equinox per se, actually the GPZ that prompted it. That and a scary episode where I ran my truck battery dead trying to charge some stuff at a remote location. It ended up working out but was too close for comfort.

    https://www.amazon.com/NOCO-GB70-UltraSafe-Lithium-Starter

    299E7C96-1F46-4C88-B69E-C884F9C1BACA.jpeg

    As far as Equinox goes I have no doubt I will be rigging a counterweight for use with the 12” x 15” coil and it may as well be a battery pack also, so there you go. I won’t be using the beast above for that however!

    These things are amazing.  I have one -- not this brand, but something similar, and they charge ANYTHING -- they come with all sorts of cables/adapters, AND -- they DO jump-start!  I got a couple about a year ago, for my and my wife's vehicles, and for the first time, a couple of months ago, I had to use it.  A lady's car was dead in a convenience store parking lot, and so I had the chance to try a "jump" that did not involve the typical "jumper cables" method.  Worked like a charm.  Even though that's what it's "supposed" to do, I have to say I was a bit surprised when her SUV fired right up, using that little hand-held charger!

    While it's a bit large to use with the Equinox, as Steve notes, it's NOT too large for recharging your smaller recharger...

    Steve

    Depth Readout Vs Actual Depth Of Target & Pinpointing Tricks

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    The CTX does it, too, unless you switch to "sizing" poinpoint.  Coming from the Explorer, it takes some getting used to.  I didn't know about this "ratcheting" feature when I started using the CTX recently, and quickly noticed it being "different" from the Explorer.  I kind of "figured it out," and THEN I read about "what's going on," in Andy's book.  When I read about the "ratcheting," then what I was experiencing made sense.  Now that I understand this, I am interested in trying the "sizing" pinpoint mode on the CTX, as I assume now that it's more similar to the pinpoint mode on the Explorers.  

    One problem with this "ratcheting" mode  is that when there are multiple targets around -- it's trying to "adjust" and "ratchet" to several different targets, and sometimes you "lose" targets as they get "tuned out" by the machine reacting to another target nearby.

    Steve -- is the poinpoint mode ALWAYS in this "ratcheting" mode, or are there two modes, "normal," and "sizing," or something, like on the CTX?

    Steve

    Mercury Dime Teaser

    in Minelab Equinox Forum

    Posted

    "Pickens are getting slim," Jeff?  You wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?!  LOL!

    And yes, the "drowning duck" thing, I understand.  LOL!  I do love those tones now, though...

    I'm glad that the Equinox maintains some of the "Minelab tones," as I understand it from some of Steve's reports.  While I'm sure there will be differences -- i.e. the Equinox will have its own "dialect," I'm glad there's some "carryover" of the "language" from other Minelab machines.  It should "ease the learning curve" a tad, for those who have used Minelabs in the past, I'd think.

    Steve

×
×
  • Create New...