Flowdog

Hi Dan, Beautiful display you have posted - again. ? I am curious about the average depth you are finding these relics? Also, if you might share a brief summary of the site conditions and the settings you use to meet the challenges. I hope your streak stays strong. Curtis

Hi Dave, I was hoping you would engage in a problem-solving dialogue. As a new detectorist I have found the collective knowledge of this board helpful and its members forthcoming, courteous and understanding. One of the many reasons I like detecting is its a puzzle needing a solution. Perhaps your encounter in tough salt water conditions has an Equinox solution that if solved, could propel your detecting experiences to a higher level than you have attained thus far? Just a thought. Curtis

Currently I am hunting in an area that requires enhancing signal separation over depth. I am curious about any noticeable reduction of iron falsing with lowered recovery speed. On the other hand, It is very helpful to know that if ever I hunt in a low mineral target-sparse site, depth may be possible at higher recovery speeds. The additional info about high recovery speed with respect to small gold nuggets could not be timed better. Thank you. Whenever I move to nugget hunting I will keep that in mind - after I get comfortable hunting in the Gold mode presets.

Thanks for the clarification and reiterating the "slow down in thick stuff" advice. Separating out Tx/Rx from the recovery speed adjustment setting helped me connect the multiple explanations in this thread (and other linked threads) regarding the Recovery setting. The last sentence written in the quoted response above is a bit unclear to me, so I wanted to simply say that my take away is - adjusting recovery speed alters, via software code, the time it takes to fully process a target into both TID & audio signal. At that point the processed target is "cleared" and the next detected target is similarly processed. Swing speed should allow optimum use of the recovery speed setting selected. Sine waves need not apply. ?

El Nino77, The EQ functionality you laid out immediately above has details not easy to locate. Would you please site your source(s)? I have combed Google, Minelab, DP, Treasure Talk, various blogs, and the ML manual, and cannot find papers with details such as yours that perhaps might be available to study at my own pace. I am not looking for intellectual property, or Trade Secrets, but documents with the operational depth of the type you kindly posted. If sources such as you access are confidential and proprietary, I'd appreciate if you would let me know so I don't waste my time in futility. Thank you for the response and any study materials you are at liberty to throw my way. flowdog

Thank you, dewcon4414, I very much appreciate your response to my ill-conceived question. I am considering getting a set of piezo speaker headphones. Truth is, my last post exposes some inaccurate notions I have about what I have read about Recovery and Equinox. I purchased two books specifically about Equinox and some of the material does not mesh (in my brain) with the information contained in Equinox Essentials links, etc. My resulting confusion is on full public display. Trying to keep on-topic is almost an art unto itself, especially when a confused rookie is trying to isolate a single operating feature that does not function in isolation. I apologize to the board for wandering off the rails. Sometimes silence is an act of kindness. Thanks ALL. Time to go get a lot more swing time and way less book time.

I am going to grab this opportunity to further explore Recovery while it is fresh and to nudge this thread a bit further hopefully. A couple of questions still dangle that came to mind while I was last in the field detecting and experimenting with recovery: FYI, before this particular post, I reread all of the Recovery-related links in Equinox Essentials and the cross-linked Treasure Talk authored by Steve along with all the responses on that site. Much more meaningful to me now that I have some literal skin in the game. The answers I seek may have been in this information, but I did not find them. I ask my remaining questions in an attempt to get a more nuanced understanding of Recovery without wandering into the weeds - too far. Does the Recovery speed adjustment set a fixed number of Tx and Rx cycles over a given period of time (something like the variable speed conveyor belt analogy Steve wrote elsewhere)? Or is the recovery cycle tied to target-dependency - suppressing sampling (cycling/responding) only once per target regardless of the recovery speed setting? Taking Steve's conveyor belt analogy a bit further, let's say that on that belt there were many different sized targets ranging from very tiny to very large. By running the belt at a fixed speed with a higher recovery cycle rate (6-8) does the operator give the machine a latent capacity to rapidly respond to the various target sizes only fully utilized when encountering targets in close proximity? Or is the recovery cycle rate setting a fixed number of Tx/Rx recoveries over time, essentially forcing the machine to cycle more than once on a large target? The reason I ask is when I recovered the biggest non-ferrous items pictured above e.g., the lead and beer can, I noted that I had only received a single dig me audio tone - just as with the smallest non-ferrous item. Size did not seem to matter to the machine in this regard. I wonder if the machine is designed to self-limit recovery rate even at the highest settings until it processes a condition it identifies as the next target, or does it continue a forced recovery cycle rate but is designed to not introduce an identical and redundant response even while processing multiple samples within the same target? My ears and eyes perceived a single response per target. I am wondering how Equinox pulls off this act of auditory mercy so I may better understand its language. Thanks again Steve for all you have written on this subject. And to all those who have either authored posts or responded along the way.

That is precisely what I experienced. If I slowed recovery I found I was missing tones that were more distinctly audible over the same targets in faster recovery. The density and the machine forced me to increase recovery and to slow my swing way down in order to take advantage of this Equinox power talk. Trying to anyway. The layers of targets - ferrous over or next to non-ferrous -produced tones that made this an enjoyable challenge, especially when I would finally isolate a tone I believed would be worth digging. At that point, I could use the meter. However, until I could isolate a good tone the meter was confusing and seemed out of synch with the tones that were within my ability to distinguish. TID became useful when I managed to narrow the audio. Some of the smaller bits were inadvertently collected in the process of going for a non-ferrous target. The other ferrous stuff was just plain smarter than me. Keying on recovery speed coupled with some sensitivity adjustment now makes some sense to this neophyte. After a few more sessions in this iron labyrinth, I will be moving on to what I hope to be choicer permission I was kindly granted. I gotta say this: I feel fortunate to be starting on the Equinox - like walking on the shoulders of giants past and present. Quite a platform you guys have collectively assembled!

I received conditional permission to MD on a site that has interested me for years because of first-hand stories I have heard. It is my first such site and I have spent about 15 hours of headphone time there, spread over 3 hunting sessions. Many nails, lots of other “trashy” stuff. Interspersed among these were some modern coins and a copper? relic (not pictured) found on my first outing, and other non-ferrous items. I am using Park 1 and have kept pretty close to the default settings but yesterday I ventured into Recovery speed - just so happens the topic of this thread. It seems to my ear that at a recovery of 6 (default) and moderate swing rate the Nox will respond to targets fast enough that the rapid distinct bursts of audio are difficult to separate, isolate and locate. When a desirable tone is heard I retrace and slow my swing in an attempt to lock its location. Yesterday, during my last hour or so, I intentionally sacrificed any notion of depth and experimented bumping the recovery between 6-8 and slowing my swing. I also reduced sensitivity to 15. Even with the settings changes, I was digging miscellaneous non-ferrous bits up to 4-6 inches - no obvious loss of depth compared with prior time spent on site. I include a couple of pictures from yesterday to better display the site I thinly described (and shorten this post by 2000 words). How would others suggest I best apply the Recovery setting to swing speed? Site specifics aside, does a higher recovery speed necessitate a slower swing rate to advantage or does it allow for a faster swing to cover more ground? Or both? Or other? 186 to 1 ... your favor. Do my aluminum bar stock, and silver (plated) unicorn, and a beercan-sized hunk of lead count? ? Ferrous - Penny for size Non-ferrous

Hey Dan, do you know if Apple covers laptops damaged by drool? Very nice job you did staying with your parking lot hunt. Like you said, "amazing."

The cost will be not much greater than the price of a coil. Amazing.

Normal cousin - maybe when he is walking? But ahhhh, if from your point of view THAT is normal, then Klunker, to maintain your crazy prospector status, you must think your Jeep's roll bars are there to take fall line shortcuts to your prospecting sites instead of those pesky rutted roads. Good story btw.

Hello Skate. I am pleased to make your acquaintance with this post. It's stories like yours that create genuine goodwill that this family will share for many years and will ripple to many people. Your actions benefit all of us. The detectorist community holds the bar high when it comes to respecting various rights and laws. You just raised it a bit higher yet. Curtis

If Zagg works as well on the Nox as it has on my iPad I highly recommend using that product. I'll simply say that my iPad2 - that has been dropped, wet, packed, and kicked around is old in every place BUT the screen - thanks to the Zagg cover. It stayed in place for years without forming bubbles. The cover material itself eventually scratched so I removed it and found a perfectly preserved screen beneath. I also am exploring which cover to buy to encase the control unit after I put on the screen protector. Great idea Dan. How's the reflexion compared to the shiny stock protectors? Those old iPads were never any good in direct sun with or without a Zagg cover.

The understatement of the year! Fantastic way to live an afternoon. Congrats on your finds. BTW, where did you catch that fish? ?

Thx for the link Steve. I had already looked it over and made my last "ghost" remark with it in mind. I will be absolutely clear to tie this up - legal access in the middle of nowhere is equally important to my enjoyment while detecting as if I were down the street on a vacant corner lot. A valid claim is private property - no matter how remote the location. Period. Even if I had permission, I would still fly under the radar to the extent possible. I do not like advertising my whereabouts by nature I suppose. I am also aware of a larger responsibility to my fellow detectorists everywhere. As a long time fly fisher, I am not averse to presenting myself at the owner's door seeking permission to fish. I am not in waders when I do this. ? In 49 years I have been told "no" exactly once. I just thanked the rancher for his consideration and left. No difference here. I'll leave it at that so I don't stray across topics. Any further questions I have along the topic you linked, I will continue there.

What a fantastic exercise in discovery this thread has been for myself and hopefully others as well. It is like breaking loose from limitations of inexperience and the coming together of my own thought process. I am very fortunate to have taken up a new hobby at this time. I realize both my fortune and challenge to have a tool like the Equinox as my first detector; finding and interacting with a group such as you all are; having the benefit of so many collective experiences and the resultant wisdom this board provides with grace, unselfishness, and kindness. Metal detecting is probably my last new hobby and it fills me with excitement to be exactly where I stand this very day! Final kudos to Steve for creating and maintaining this board. Obviously a labor of love. Chase, I read you loud and clear. Your final summary confirms and connects so many aspects that I questioned and is fully accepted with as much goodwill with which it was no doubt offered. I am confident that I can approach a site and reasonably work through many of the problems it may present. I will be stumped along the way. I will dig more trashy signals at the beginning, but with some successes to buoy my spirit and energy farther along the curve, I hope to become an efficient operator of my detector. Please do not hesitate to suggest or assign me any homework you may ascertain as beneficial to my education. I will follow through no matter where it may lead. Lastly, your prioritizing great permission before great technology hits the bullseye. How can I concentrate on hunting with maximum focus while knowingly being somewhere illegally or without permission? I am fortunate to know many folks who may open some of their lands to me because of previous interactions. Now it is on to the most important aspect of all ... researching and possibly gaining great permissions. In the meantime, I plan on being a nugget hunting ghost.

Hello everyone. I hope you are all having the best kind of day. I want to thank you for the time and effort to give my question some attention. At this point, I am fine soaking in your ideas, experiences, and the years-long experienced pearls of wisdom to the best of my ability. It is the very least I can do. As I read and re-read responses I realize that I need to take into the field much of what you have offered, or will hopefully continue to offer, and create my own context of which Mode and Search Profile works best for not only the location and possible targets that day but also best suited to my hearing, and other personal attributes unique to myself. There is no precise answer really until I take it to the dirt. I do not believe in shortcuts. Too much of value is passed en route to a quick end. I do believe in efficiency. I am not trying to shortcut my work but I am trying to understand how to efficiently approach a new site and use my detector to help me analyze it. After reading Steve's post above, and after rereading for the 3rd or 4th time Steve's post in Minelab Treasure Talk blog about preparing for his latest UK hunt, is where the question on the table first penetrated my skull ... (AM I ALLOWED TO POST THE LINK?) I finally understand Multi-IQ technology as a spectrum of frequency weightings rather than the more nebulous F!,F2,P1,P2,B1,B2,G1,G2 stock profiles. For myself, that helps to simplify some things - not everything. If I may quote from the Treasure Talk post I referenced: "How does a person determine what settings to use on a detector when going to a totally new location, one where both the soil conditions and trash/treasure mix are unfamiliar? It appears that most people seek settings on the internet that serve as a starting point at least. This is certainly one approach and one that can work well lacking any other way to go. I personally rely on my detector telling me what settings it wants to use. Rather than tell it what to do, I listen to what the detector is telling me and go from there. I do this by seeking to balance two different aspects of the detector that matter most to me. First, there is the amount of noise or chatter I want the detector to generate in response to the ground. The number one choice I need to make up front is in determining what Field Mode I wish to use, i.e. Park Mode, Field Mode, Beach Mode, or Gold Mode. In general, I would rate the modes going from “hottest” to “most well behaved” as follows: Gold Mode Park & Field Mode 2 Park & Field Mode 1 Beach Mode 1 Beach Mode 2" It is Steve's reference to conversing with his Equinox that hit me hard. So, I conversed with my Nox. It isn't properly repeatable what it said to me! So I switched weightings (languages?) to Gold 2 and slowly hunted in a straight line - liking the Nox's inflections more. I scored a 25 signal in almost liquid mud around 5 inches in ground that jumped to the magnet and loaded with railroad iron trash. The little silver button. Yes! But really, to be honest, no real methodology. Lost in an infinity of possible choices, which raised the initial inquiry I posted. Perhaps I should have asked, "in what language do Steve - or any of you gentleman and gentleladies - converse with your detectors when first arriving on a new hunt site?" After rereading EVERYTHING, I have an inkling of the broad personal, technical, detector-taming, and target-oriented nature of the answers I seek. It ain't English for sure. We speak of iron grunts, clippery tones, dragging, chatting, tweaking settings, no free lunches, target sounds small or deep, stable extended tones, coil control matters a lot, etc. I do not have much to add, but will be awaiting test vids, or anyone else who can shed some light on how they achieve tuning (and what their personal goal is of choosing a Mode and the overall tuning process) as they approach a new site to hunt. You all are awesome and although I am at the beginning of the learning curve you treat my questions with respect. That will help myself and hopefully others get over the hump. Thank you for that. Curtis

Hi Chase. My first moved topic, so I apologize for trying to tie one of your previous quotes to this new topic for some continuity that I think is on point. My apologies to Steve as well if I am doing something I shouldn't. Prior topic quote: "One of the mantras I use to optimize Equinox setup is to stay as close to the defaults as I possibly can and to maximize the signal to noise ratio. Avoid doing things that raise the noise floor along with signal sensitivity (like cranking sensitivity too high or lowering recovery speed too low as mentioned previously). Let me know if you want to go into the different properties of the various modes (Park 1/2, Field 1/2,. Beach 1/2, etc.) and what conditions and targets they are optimized for." Thanks for the guidelines. They are solid and consistent with the previous "CHEW ON THIS" voluminous reading suggestions you made for me a few weeks ago. ? That reading lead me, in part, to Steve's 2018 UK hunt blog and learned that his Mode and settings choices were a series of considered tradeoffs that very narrowly scored him a beautiful Celtic gold relic - a perfect example of his thought process while considering that the "no free lunch" realities may either come home to roost or fly the coop. Steve also "categorized" the Detect Modes almost in the same way you did - Multi-Q frequency weighting, then single frequency operation as an alternative. Based more on characteristics from Gold being hottest, Park and Field 2 - hot, P&F 1 tamer to Beach Modes - lowest frequency weightings. I may be off track yet again but it seems that the main difference in both of your site assessment approaches regarding Mode Selection and settings seems to be one of focus. Your method of Mode choice seems to be primarily target-dependent with subsequent setting adjustments for the environment; Steve's seems to emphasize choosing a Mode that first offsets to an extent possible quieting ferrous, ground, and other problem signal generators. Kind of a "tune it and the targets will come" method. Either way is logical, assumes good coil control practices, but leaves me wondering how to analyze a new area to hunt while still keeping settings as close to FP as possible as your mantra suggests? I may just be talking about two sides of the same coin!? If so just lay it on me! Is there a substantive difference in your approaches? Soon I want to try to nugget shoot. So the GOLD Modes are clearly going to be a challenge to run as Steve suggests - counter mineralized conditions with essentially barely audible AM with no discrimination rejects as a perfect goal - if possible. If not, the no free lunch tab will be paid in losses but in keeping with your mantra of staying close to ideal as possible as my guide. But, staying clear of the goldfields for a few weeks, I want to learn closer to home. I'd like to continue relic and coin hunting in some very specific previously occupied sites. Those are my target priorities. The site conditions are unknown to me. I just want to find a method that I can use to determine with the Equinox what information a site presents to inform which is the closest FP Mode and subsequent setting decisions in keeping with not straying unreasonably far from preset - if possible. Should I first swing the coil in All Metal to listen, then choose a Mode, then noise cancel and finally GB? Or pick Mode by target? In an orderly approach to site assessment, is there a "preferred order" to achieve max performance when tuning the gain, recovery, IB, threshold properties, etc.? The Iron infested site I have tackled really is bewildering in the sheer scope of possibilities (infinite?) to this rookie. It felt wonderful to locate and cross-confirm a solid 25 TID in that muddy mess and dig a small nonferrous button. However, I like to harbor the hope that a machine-based methodology can be applied to a site assessment instead of unlimited random trials and errors over a protracted period while I slowly graduate from the school of hard knocks. If I was 50 years younger I suppose the tenor of my question would be very very different. Tick tock. I wish I could make a simple point and must apologize to anyone reading this for any agony caused by my lack of brevity. It is too new for me to be concise. HH to all.

Interesting. Do your hunts generally take place encountering essentially the same overall conditions targeting coins on most hunts? Or do you modify Field 2 settings to whatever extent away from FPs to tune your machine to your tone preferences in a given location no matter the environmental matrix you are working? If so, it would seem that sometimes Park 2 may barely need a change from preset while other times in very different conditions, you may end up very distant from preset to achieve what you want. Almost a different animal than Park 2 - yet still be Park 2? That would seem to blur some of the lines among Mode choices useable with 5 tones. I like simple but know that in no remote way do I have the skills to make one Detect Mode "rule them all." However, I may just give your method an honest effort. Thanks.

Edit Steve H - moved from this thread It's been about 3 weeks since starting this new hobby (and asking my first newbie question.) I feel as if I have survived a 3-week full body and mind mugging. Nevertheless, I gotta say this about asking questions on this board: expect answers that put the ball in your court and that will require a complete and diligent research effort. BTW, my Lake Tahoe 50th anniversary was lovely, but hunting was awkward. Private beach, snowing hard, limited time (that's why I am still married), but I managed to find one target - a 2011 zinc at the water's edge in Beach Mode 1 thanks to Gerry in Idaho's suggestion. First lesson: get permission. I was the only person on the beach due to the weather I guess. I felt that I was in a reverse fishbowl because all the cottages' windows were open and I felt the many eyes watching this fool attempting to look as if he knew what the hell he was doing "out there." I should have asked if the rules disallowed detecting on the beach. Never again. Just too uncomfortable. However, my first dig = coin. That equation would disintegrate over the next 3 weeks. No more coins in the next 50 digs. Sorry if this is too garrulous but I am truly infatuated and am getting to a question regarding the various Detect Modes and under what conditions to use them as hinted earlier in this post by Chase Goldman. Meanwhile, closer to home, I decided to detect in an iron graveyard. I dug an entire railroad rail. I had to squirm off the end because my pocket full of rare earth magnets had me pinned to the rail. Many spikes - vertical and horizontal. I actually lost more things than I found. Then going back to find the things I lost became a priority for a couple of days. That and trying to arrange my implements in a comfortable and easy-to-access way. I found my lost items and am fast approaching a carry system that works ok for me. I do not dig as many full-length rails, or spikes, or wire. I even found a small (silver) button in Gold 2 modified, a brass showerhead, spent bullet, and a copper clasp among the iron infestation. Meanwhile, I have read the above-suggested materials. This, of course, leads to more reading material. Mind expanding and numbing at once. Age-related dichotomy no doubt. So, getting to it, Chase (or anybody else) ... do I dare ask ... for YOUR overview of the 800's preset Detect Modes that may be an enhancement to the Manual description. Most importantly, I think what I really want to hear about is when detecting a new area (they are all new to me) are there unobvious methods you use to pick a certain Mode over another? How do you analyze a location using Equinox as your guide? Some of Steve H's postings suggest how to tune/detune for gold hunting or even using Park 2 modified for hunting gold. His suggestions give me some feeling and insight into the flexibility of the various modes in crossing over from their labeled purposes as configured preset. Yes! It is time for me to STOP! And tune my hearing aid.

That was not just a home run, it is a grand slam ... a great writeup befitting the beautiful finds. I am happy for you. Thanks for posting all about your awesome day. May you have many more in your future hunts. AS usual, the replies are also informative and enjoyable too.

Hello Chase, Thanks for the comprehensive response and for helping to keep me on the straight and narrow. As I was reading your transformer analogy the flashbulbs went off. I will get some field time under my belt before I take my curiosity much further into theory just yet. What are the "few basic concepts" that you refer to? If I can see open ground and I am not in violation of hotel beach rules, my plan is to stick to FPs and to follow Minelab's basic instructions: select mode, perform noise reduction and if necessary, ground balance, go hunt. Get my new spade dirty so I can begin to relate what I may uncover to what the sounds and meter are saying. As for your offer to clarify the properties of the various modes, I will surely touch base with you after I have had a chance to reassemble my thoughts along the lines you correctly steered me, coupled with some real time experience. Thanks again for your generous post. I am obliged and a bit overwhelmed that you would take as much time as you have to lend a hand. Curtis

Today is my 50th anniversary. My Equinox 800 is my wife’s gift to me. Tomorrow we brave the snow and head to Lake Tahoe to celebrate. As I get prepared for my first hunt, I have been repeatedly reminded to stick to the default modes. I plan to do just that. However, my technical side has a curiosity of its own. It is my understanding that the power of the transmitted field is fixed by battery voltage. Beside changing frequency from Multi to individual frequencies, which settings impact coil transmission properties? On the reception side, which settings impact signal reception qualities? Do any settings impact both transmission and reception? Do any settings work together in the normal course of tuning and balancing for ground and trash conditions? For example, does a change in "Recovery Speed" setting change equally both the number of transmissions and receptions or is processing done only on the reception side? Sensitivity? Iron bias? What I am unable to find in documentation is a basic guide to all settings affecting transmission only; receiver only; both. I am enjoying the reading, but there are a lot of places for information to hide. So I apologize if this information is easily found by most, but since I may be near information saturation, I could have easily skimmed by it. Thanks, Curtis

Hi BH. I appreciate your kindly welcome. I believe with about 98.6% percent of my soul that metal detecting is the next great and interesting experience in my life. Really happy that this forum exists. It seems like an oasis. Back at YOU BH, all of the luck you sent my way, and I raise you double the luck!!