flakmagnet

I agree, it is interference-by-smartphone. All you have to do is switch the phone to the pocket furthest from the detector. I did it and the "bursts" disappeared.

TedinVT I wasn't talking about sealing the coil itself, rather I was saying shall I seal the coil cover to the coil? Anyway thanks for the comment.

I am soliciting suggestions on A. whether to seal the coil cover on the 800, and B. if yes, what shall I use. This is the amount of sand in the coil after an hour at the beach. It is like this each time I go and I don't mind cleaning it out but I'm wondering if this is the way to go or not.

Nope, when you say it like that Steve, it's not complicated. I have had good luck with Park 1 using Dirtfishing's tone breaks and switching to all metal when I want to check uncertain tones. I will switch to learning Park 2 next time out.

Good write-up Chase. You have put your learning to work right away. Thank you for your useful observations. The Equinox works.

I think there are a lot of us who owe DirtFishing a big thank you for taking the time to make a video of how to set up the tone breaks. I know it would have been weeks if not more before I figured out how to do this.

Steve those last two posts are gold. I am a fairly experienced detectorist but I am not technical. The way you are writing about the Equinox is in language that works for me. I love a wide-open detecting style but with the Equinox I am starting in the presets and taking the time to learn what the machine is saying. If I don't do that I will never learn to hear what the changes mean. I am lucky, there is a fairly old-for-California park near-by where I have been able to find coins since the mid-70's. It is giving up rather amazing amounts of coins to the Equinox in the pre-sets. I start with Park 1 and then go back over it Park 2 to see what I have missed (not much up to now). Later I may try the Field modes and see what happens but right now the two Park modes are keeping me busy. I also live near the coast and have had eye-popping results on the beach. I still have trouble with deep targets in damp sand but I just dig everything that gives some sort of repeatable signal. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to put things in a way that a non-technical person can relate to. It really helps.

A magnificent find that you earned with your knowledge and your experience. Very happy for you.

Is that a shower cap or something over your coil? To keep sand out at the beach? Or....? (thanks for the video)

Not sure what long means to you but to recharge the headphones after three hours of use takes less than an hour. I have not used them longer than four hours so don't know how long it takes a charge to run down.

Steve I agree completely. Once I found that whatever changes in settings you make is retained when you switch the detector off, User Profile became far less important. And Chase I was meaning "Tone Breaks" when I was trying to describe where I had been making changes. I will learn this detector vocabulary yet.

Those finds are beauties. Nice going.

Chase, I could well be using the wrong description. DirtFishing's video explains it better than I can, (and what is the correct word for it?) Anyway, that is what I have been messing with. Sorry for the confusion.

Thank you! What I was thinking. Park 2 is what I want to try next.

Has anyone compared Park 2 with either Field 1 or 2?

Skate, I agree. It doesn't take a lot of time with the Equinox to know it's a very versatile and highly sensitive detector. I don't know it well - yet, but I have never just grabbed a detector, turned it on, and felt as though I wasn't going to miss much if the coil goes over it, even if I didn't know it as deeply as I want to.

That is a good article - I am finding that the numbers he lists correspond pretty closely to the kinds of numbers I am getting on the So. Cal. beach I am testing on. Anyone else from So. Cal. have numbers that are close to the article?

I have done the same thing Redneck, bumped the audio tones and volume higher in two notches I have fashioned; a notch around 13 (nickels), and a notch above 18. I have slightly lowered both the tones and the volume in two other notches. It makes targets jump out of the noise. I still dig lots of signals that seem to be ferrous just to make sure I am learning to hear the ranges different targets fall into...it's fun.

Hi Nuke-um, I don't feel qualified to share settings yet. I am in the 'play around' and 'learning' mode. This is a different kind of detector for me. I have used P.I.'s exclusively for the last 14 years in mostly highly mineralized ground. This detector is taking me into areas I have not hunted much, i.e. beaches and parks. Good luck on your end.

Another in a series of clarifying posts about these kinds of detectors Steve. Very educational. I am a" tone's" hunter. I love the sounds the 800 makes, am comfortable running it pretty hot and hardly ever look at the meter for depth. So far the tones give me a good idea of how deep the target is - but this is only on the beach so far. I really like that there are lots of possibilities for tweaking things to ones preferences once you learn the basics. Fun.

Good thoughts Mitchel, listening to the sounds the detector makes seems to be a big key with this one - it has a lot of sounds coming out of it. I also thought it was interesting to hear the amount of blanking that goes on when you run a little threshold. Continued good luck.

Okay, now that makes sense...

I actually want a bit of play in the shaft. I actually prefer it and have made it so my GPZ has a bit of play as well. I am constantly changing the angle of the coil and the play in the shaft makes it easy.

Hi Steve, that was a real help, thanks. It makes perfect sense, can't wait to try it.

I am by no means fully comfortable with my new 800 but I have read alot, watched the generous videos and played with all the bells and whistles so I decided to hit the beach this morning. There was no cut but there was a place near the embankment leading down to the sand that I know from years past has had a lot of people around it so I decided to give it a go. I was in Beach 1 with the sensitivity up a touch (22), but other than that I was planning to use the time to listen to how the tones corresponded with the targets. To my surprise I began to pick up good sounding targets right away. After two hours I had only worked an area about 40' by 40' and you can see the results below. Some thoughts: I had a hell of a time pinpointing. The pinpoint button was pretty good but all in all that was my biggest area of confusion. Where in the heck does a target 5 or 6 inches down hit on the coil? Anyway, that is definitely something I have to learn more about, I was terrible at it. Secondly; it is absolutely necessary to take the coil cover off each time you use the detector, especially in the sand. To my surprise I see that the coil cover is the only thing between the potting in the coil and the ground. (first full coil pic) I am a PI detectorist and so maybe I just don't know about vlf's but I was surprised to see the potting so easily accessed. After two hours of hunting, there was lots of sand under the coil cover and I am sure it began to affect the way the detector behaved. Anyway that's it. I thought I'd add a post for once instead of just reading everyone's contributions. Oh and P.S. - this is a killer detector and it made me look pretty good today.