Badger-NH

Notching refers to accepting/rejecting certain targets in the ID scale. Learn how on page 49 of the manual.

Unlike metal targets, false signals will not repeat the tone over the same spot. Just swinging the coil over it should confirm if there is no target there.

20 kHz might have a slight advantage on lead but if 10 or 15 kHz are quieter, I'd choose one of those. On musket balls, the differences will be trivial. Musket balls are very dense targets. The detector will easily pick them up.

I don't know about your phone. I guess if it is causing interference, you could not carry it on you.

5 hours ago, Hello said:

 

Thanks for the info Badger-NH.

The fields are located in Sweden.

I should always Noise Cancel and Ground Balance?

But I read on the manual about park 1-2 and field 1-2: "Field 1 Multi-IQ processes a lower frequency weighted multi-frequency signal, as well as using algorithms that maximise ground balancing for soil, to achieve
the best signal to noise ratio. "

It maximise ground balance and gives the best signal noise ratio? Does it not mean that it performs ground balancing and  Noise Cancel automatically if I select these modes? Why do I need to do Noise Cancel and Ground Balance then?

How do I notch the noise from hots rocks out? Aha from Recovery speed 4, to 5-6 to notch the noice from hots rocks out?

Hmm, I want ta have as much depth as possible, because I do not know have deep the bullets may be, if they are still there after 300 years. But as you wrote if the noise is to much, and make noise about everything, then I guees it will be hard finding it anyway. How much depth do you think I will loose by lowering the sensitivity?

Sounds good about Gold mode, would you say it will go deeper than the field mode?

You are misunderstanding what the manual says. Yes, the processes do help maximize the ground balance allowing you to hunt at 0 GB in normal conditions. If you don't hear any false signals coming from the ground, then the machine is okay, you don't need to ground balance.

A false signal is one that is caused by the ground and not a metal target. False signals are random beeps caused by the ground conditions. They move around and cannot be pinpointed. If you are experiencing ground noise, that is when you need to do the GB procedure.

Ground balancing does not affect depth or performance. All it does is help keep the machine quiet over noisy ground. I have a habit of doing it even when I don't need to because it only takes a few seconds. It's your choice.

Don't confuse ground noise with EMI which comes from the air. Noise Canceling may or may not help with EMI. Again, I Noise Cancel it anyway. Why not? It's easy.

Recovery speed has nothing to do with notching. Notching means discriminating out a specific ID number or group of numbers.

If your detector is quiet and stable, you can raise the Sensitivity for more depth. If the sensitivity is too high it might get noisy. In that case, lower the Sensitivity to help quiet the machine.

Gold mode may go deeper in some situations.

Getting max depth and performance out of the Equinox takes many many months of practice. It took me over a year to really begin to understand it. You are better off to stay with the basic settings at first and only move forward as you begin to understand what the settings do.

Lots of things can cause a detector to be noisy. Only when you figure out what is causing the noise will you be able to know what settings might help. Hunting less noisy sites will make the learning process easier.

3 hours ago, Hello said:

Thank you Badger-NH. So all modes are as good at finding musket balls on fields, would you say?

Just using single frequencies near powerlines, and use Field mode or Park mode, it does not matter, would you say? No special settings needed, no ground balancing or noise cancelling or the like?

Hello, I was adding my advice to what had already been posted.

You should always Noise Cancel and Ground Balance. They aren't settings. You don't set them. The NC and GB procedure will set them for you.

My Equinox will pick up EMI from power lines as far as 500 feet away depending on how much electric current is running through them. I generally find I can set my sensitivity higher near power lines using the single frequencies.

If Multi is too noisy, 15 kHz is a good all around frequency to use. 10 kHz leans more towards silver. 20 kHz leans more towards gold or lead. If necessary, pick the frequency that is quietest. The differences are minimal.

Looking at your field, I would use Field 1. Set the Sensitivity as high as it will go as long as the detector remains fairly stable and quiet.

Use a Recovery speed of 4 to 6. Setting it at 4 will get more depth but if there is a lot of iron or hot rocks, you may need to raise it to 5 or 6 for better separation. If there is an extreme amount of iron, like multi iron targets within every square foot, you might need to raise it to 7 or 8.

Hot rocks can be a nuisance. Ignore them as best you can. If they all ID the same, you could notch them out.

Lowering the sensitivity will give you less chatter from the ground but will also lessen your depth.

I don't recommend Gold mode until you know the machine better but by all means give it a try. Use Gold 1, Multi-IQ, single tone, all metal off, Tracking GB off. If I find I'm digging too much trash, I like to raise the discrimination to 10 or even 20 sometimes. Gold mode gets great depth and the targets really jump out at you, but it takes some getting used to and isn't appropriate for all sites. I use it in the woods where there is very little iron trash. Occasionally fields.

MA stands for Massachusetts.  I'm in NH which is New Hampshire. They are both states in the USA.

What part of the world are your fields located?

Hello, the best advice is to read the manual a few times. 

Power lines can cause a lot of interference. Using the single frequencies instead of Multi might help quiet it down.

Good looking field. There should be some nice coins and relics out there. Musket balls are pretty common. Every field has them. You don't need any special settings to find musket balls.

In my test garden, Multi does not perform as well as the single frequencies. I'm starting to feel that Multi may only have a depth advantage in mineralized ground and possibly iron situations. Another advantage would be that Multi covers a wider range of metals but at a slight loss of overall depth in mineral free ground.

I'm not claiming this to be fact. It's all just speculation derived from my test garden results. I don't understand the electronics anywhere near the level of some of you here.

Lately I've been hunting in the single frequencies and have been happy with the results. 4 kHz does seem to have something special going on with it because it's the only frequency that will pick up the 12" silver dime and 15" silver quarter in my garden.

High frequencies are best for gold. Try running 20 or 40 kHz.

Field 1 is deeper than Park 1 in my test garden.

Thanks Raphis and Chase. I think that helps to further confirm and simplify what Steve said.

Thanks Steve, I may have to read that a few times to fully understand it. 

From what I've gathered so far, it appears that the Equinox GB numbers do not directly carry any useful information about the make up of the soil and should not be used as a reference to mineralization levels.

Is that correct?

Most of the sites I hunt have very mild ground. I typically leave my GB at 0 most of the time. When I do take the time to Ground Balance, I usually get single digits with occasional numbers in the teens.

Do the GB numbers reflect the levels of mineralization in the soil? Do soils with high mineralization have higher numbers? The manual says nothing about it.

7 hours ago, xlbsa said:

我非常喜欢这样的金属探测器！希望它能早点来到中国！

Translation -  "I like this detector very much!  I hope it can come to China soon!"

Hi xlbsa,  您必须等到我得到我以后。 😁

18 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

What do you do at beaches that are loaded with iron?

More then like this..what I did yesterday..Someone asked if I hunted the spot I got the 2 small 14k women's engagement rings with the AQ yet....

Not hunted that beach with the AQ yet,... Yesterday was a scouting mission. I marked off where not to hunt with the AQ and where to hunt with it. And I guess your wonder how I marked the area off being I'm shoulder deep in the water......they have crab pot trap buoy's..between buoy's 1 thru 3 is good but once I start going into area 4 to 5 lots of iron.......Between buoy's 1 to 3..maybe 4 pieces....and I marked those pieces of iron by digging a few scoops of the sand. Since the sand is hard packed there.........  any soft sand area I encounter later I pass by knowing I've been there and it's not good target...... Yesterdays Gold rings were small and all found in area 3 to 4, each crab pot is about 70 to 80 feet a part. I love this time of year for those crab pot buoys are life savers. I just walk out to where I left and start. Last year they pulled all in Oct and I was lost!

Wouldn't the AQ in tone/mute be useful at sites like that, or would the Equinox be a better choice?

I would not take the AQ blindly into a spot with out first getting to know it better

Every beach is so different and there make up.......... I would suggest getting to know it with a Nox, CTX, or Excal. Then trying to do as I do...I have two places just waiting for the AQ...but conditions have to be calm...so I can hear the faints...I got the battery time now so if I can stay on these spots and a few more come fall and super low tides I should be able to do good, I hope.

And a side note..All it takes is one wrong wind storm to waste all you know..we had a storm around March 13 to 15 that devastated one of the spots I hunt..I'm still trying to rebuilt the map in my mind with landmarks and any areas that stand out..like pilings, high iron area's, cuts, bottom matrix,....anything......

Was there a lot of iron at these sites?  Were you hitting iron on every swing?

2 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

 I would not be basing my buying the AQ on it's discrimination abilities. It's not the Nox, CTX or Excalibur. 

I'm done testing for "myself".... others may chime in..

The closest I got to testing the disc side of the AQ is testing something I may encounter while hunting..A piece of crab pot as the iron..then a gold ring..I was impressed and know what to dig if I come across this odd signal...Mute mod, swing left Iron signal, swing right a good target possibly. And doing a full swing, left to right covering the same area. Mute mode only...I don't like the tones mode.

I would buy the AQ even if it had no tone/mute modes.

What do you do at beaches that are loaded with iron? Do you just avoid those places?  Wouldn't the AQ in tone/mute be useful at sites like that, or would the Equinox be a better choice?

I'm still waiting for a tone/mute mode depth test.

10 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Above being said.................. the one problem I have with the "AQ" it's audio blasts when I move the detector to the side to dig and there is another shallow target under/near the coil........ I mean it is loud, and since I use the head phones I make (skullies)  which the DB rating (sound level) is 15 plus over anything out there..............I get blasted if the "AQ" comes near the scoop, moving it a side to dig.... hitting another target..Or the AQ going back into the water......Not complaining, just one of my things that I've not seen anyone else talk of.... that I can fix..while I am making a battery for it.

Are you getting blasted because of the headphones you are using or are you also saying that you have to run the volume super high to hear the faint deep signals? That would be a major annoyance for me.

One thing I like about the CZ20 is that I can hear every sound the detector is capable of making without having to raise the volume above a comfortable level.  I never get blasted by shallow targets or large pieces of metal.

30 minutes ago, Tony said:

We also have many $1 and $2 coins which are lost in their thousands on the beaches and in the water. 
I usually average $1500 per year with these coins alone and they give a good indication of how popular a beach is and by their condition, a recent drop or not.

 

Wow, that's cool that coins are still popular down there. I wouldn't mind finding $1 and $2 coins. The dollar coins never caught on in the states.

People don't carry coins much in New England anymore. Money has been replaced by credit cards.

Twenty years ago we used to find $5 - $10 each hunt. Now you'd be lucky to find 5 or 10 coins.

2 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

I think all metal detector should be waterproof by now.......

Waterproofing is a good thing as long as it doesn't add to the cost of the detector or inhibit my choice of headphones and the ability to change coils.

It's funny how many people seem to automatically think that everyone will be using the AQ for water hunting.

Nobody water hunts the beaches north of Cape Cod.  That's because our large tides leave so much wet sand that the water beyond that is too insignificant to bother with.  Even that is accessible without getting wet on the monthly negative tides.

We have no need for detectors to be waterproof at our beaches.

38 minutes ago, ALEXANDRE TARTAR said:

The impulse AQ is not performed by bluetooth if you use an external module.

It is affected by bluetooth only if the engineering puts and a module in the enclosure

All detectors are affected by bluetooth if the module is in the enclosure, only many detectors are not sensitive enough to see it.

I see now.  Thanks, that's good news.

12 minutes ago, ALEXANDRE TARTAR said:

A bluetooth module is not that easy to integrate because the detector is so sensitive and stable, that a bluetooth module on the card brings additional noise quite easily. 

Sometimes you have to make the right choices increased sensitivity or wireless headphone.
I preferred keep the maximum sensitivity on this model.

That's unfortunate that the AQ is affected by Bluetooth transmissions. I was hoping to go wireless.

I rarely use wired headphones anymore.

I used my Trond on the wet sand for a year with my Tarsacci and never had any problems. I plan on using it with the AQ as well.

It's not likely to ever get wet so I'm not too worried about it.

2 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Thank You, and sad I did fill it but it drained down to about half way. I was surprised there was that much in the tube when I pulled it and dumped it out. I Should have got that on video but it was unexpected.  

Sorry, I didn't see where you said you had filled it.  I just assumed the tube would hold water.

There are two ways to do it.  Cap and seal the tube so the water doesn't leak out or drill the tube full of holes to let it fill to the surrounding water level which should be about the same as where the water and tiny waves meet the sand.

15 inches in Mute mode is fantastic.

Does depth affect the detectors ability to mute targets?  What I mean is, would a muted shallow target still be muted at 15 inches?

I still say, filling the PVC pipe with seawater might more accurately simulate real wet sand conditions.  It would be interesting to see how that would affect the signal if at all.

We should guess like they do on The Price is Right.

Closest to the actual date without going over gets a free Impulse unlimited.

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Trust me, things have already been said on forums the last couple years that have set the AQ up for unrealistic expectations. See example here.

Steve, you completely misunderstood my posts. You jumped to the conclusion that I was clueless about Pulse Induction and the Impulse. 

I've been casually following the development of the Impulse AQ for many years. It's getting so that in order to post here, a person has to give a long explanation of what they know in order to be understood. Try not reading between the lines so much. I know very well that the Tone ID on the Impulse is very crude compared to a VLF. I also have owned two PI machines and understand the tone quality involved when discerning targets.

I was just trying to understand what these Tone and Mute settings do and how they perform. Maybe I didn't communicate it very well.