Ground Tracking With Equinox

[Chase Goldman]

3 hours ago, Busho said:

No mate, there was no tone at all. I just was seeking an answer which you just gave now, but didnt in your first response. So I clarified my question and repeated it. You have placed a false construct upon my second post based upon your realisation that you had not answered my initial question. It's you who are exhibiting a "tone" as you put it. Have a good day and thanks for your time.

 

I was just attempting to provide some helpful info in my first post and was taken aback at your response which came across like I was somehow wasting your time to a degree.  Sorry you took offense at me pointing that out.  Not something I am used to receiving when I reach out to help someone out on this board.  At least I got three thumbs up from some of the other readers.  Lol.  Anyway, glad my follow up post helped to answer your questions more thoroughly.  My apologies and moving on...

I have spent more than a year on this board trying to help folks demystify this Equinox beast.  It is a really different animal than any previous ML machine and certainly from most other non-ML machines.  The way GB and GB tracking works on this machine is also way different and the way ML describes the various GB modes in the manual and elsewhere leaves a lot of ambiguity and confusion as evidenced by the number of times GB tracking and AUTO GB questions come up.

As I reread through some of your posts I think I might see were some of the confusion and frustration you are having is coming from, and it may not necessarily be from a defective tracking algorithm on your machine.

I said it before, but I am not sure I was totally clear - Tracking GB DOES NOT sense GROUND PHASE changes.  It senses MINERALIZATION changes.  While it is true that MINERALIZATION is generally the greatest contributor to GROUND PHASE and is also perhaps the most important constituent, other soil properties can cause the ground phase reading to change.  Even if ground phase does change, if it is not a result of mineralization, then 1) tracking will not necessarily pick it up and 2) it does really not matter UNLESS you are getting a lot of ground noise while in SEARCH mode (manifested by a lot of ferrous grunts and -9 to -7 TID readings while swinging with NO DISC AKA HORSESHOE "mode"). 

Also, I believe based on my experience that tracking will not do anything if you are stationary and pumping in ground balance mode, even if you have manually introduced an artificially high phase imbalance because tracking does not do anything unless you are SWEEPING the coil and it senses a MINERALIZATION change.  That certainly won't happen if you are standing in the same place just pumping the coil.   Since Equinox does not have a mineralization meter, you cannot infer the degree of mineralization change solely from a change in ground phase reading, you need to listen for ground noise as I described above, during normal search mode swinging and to be totally sure, need to use a separate mineralization meter, if you have access to a detector that has one (XP Deus, Fisher F75, and others).

So all this talk of ground noise you are hearing while in GROUND BALANCE mode (indicating a ground phase mismatch with the balance point) is not necessarily all that relevant unless you are also getting a lot of ground noise (as I described above) during normal swinging in your search mode which is indicative of magnetite mineralization that tracking is somehow not responding to.  Remember also, that tracking responds relatively slowly vs. the auto gb response but should make the ground noise go away after several swings. And like I said before, Multi IQ in the Equinox does a pretty good job of compensating for a less than ideal ground balance (up to a point), regardless.

However, if SEARCH MODE GROUND NOISE is not going away while in tracking mode or is not responsive to a mineralization change, then yeah, you might have an issue with tracking should get it checked out by reaching out to ML support.

Good luck and I hope you get tracking GB resolved to your satisfaction.

[Steve Herschbach]

OK, here is a test you can perform. I literally just did it.

Get a hot rock and place on ground. Go to the Ground Balance setting and manually run the setting all the way to max 99.

Now turn on tracking and wave (not pump) over hot rock. The GB number in my case plummets immediately on my rock (yours will be different) to about 25. But then it slows down and settles further over a longer period of time. I got bored and quit at 22. It appears the system tracks very fast when out of whack, but the closer you get to wherever the machine wants to settle it gets slower and slower to track. Makes sense if you think about it. It jumps quickly into a big change, but is slow adjusting on ground that is only moderately variable.

Note that if the machine is set too hot for the ground tracking is no magic solution. If you can't get the ground to shut up manually adjusting the ground setting then going to tracking does not add extra magic power. All tracking does is help with variability. It may be (I am speculating here) that if the machine is essentially overloading then the tracking may not work properly.

I am not saying the Equinox is a great ground tracker. I have not used it enough in tracking to have a solid opinion on that. I prefer to stay in manual so much that I often just kind of forget tracking is even an option. I hunt a lot of tiny gold and so tend to distrust tracking on whisper signals.

[Chase Goldman]

So if Busho's out of whack number doesn't adjust after sweeping (on mineralized ground) in GB mode or otherwise, he might just have a tracking issue.  Will try to get out there and run some tests tomorrow and on an archeological survey outing I have planned in a few days.

[EL NINO77]

I agree with Chase .., with Equinox you won't find classic ground tracking, Equinox has its own ground tracking solution ...- balancing the ground balance.

Watch yt video with subtitles turned on for now, and you'll find answers to many queries.

 

 

[LowTide]

10 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It appears the system tracks very fast when out of whack, but the closer you get to wherever the machine wants to settle it gets slower and slower to track.

This is very much the way the X-terra ground tracking worked.  Adjust to one setting extreme and add in a stopwatch, then you can characterize the algorithm on different soil types.  It slows down when approaching optimum to make sure that you don't track out targets as you are moving over homogeneous ground.  The one place any type of tracking system will have trouble with is Hot Gravel Beds since there are hundreds of variable pieces of ground under coil.  Best to go into manual GB and do a power ground balance along with an adjustment of sensitivity to achieve stable response.

[Busho]

On 5/25/2019 at 6:28 PM, Chase Goldman said:

I was just attempting to provide some helpful info in my first post and was taken aback at your response which came across like I was somehow wasting your time to a degree.  Sorry you took offense at me pointing that out.  Not something I am used to receiving when I reach out to help someone out on this board.  At least I got three thumbs up from some of the other readers.  Lol.  Anyway, glad my follow up post helped to answer your questions more thoroughly.  My apologies and moving on...

Good luck and I hope you get tracking GB resolved to your satisfaction.

No worries mate. I'll put it down to my end as a misunderstanding due to differences in our ways of communicating in your and my cultures. 

Now, ill start anew. Thanks again and from you're info which I appreciate and others here, I will recheck everything and report back how it all goes. To everyone, much appreciated for the feedback and suggestions, to the Boss Steve too. Lots of bad weather here at present and some work to do, but thanks and Ill let you all know how it goes.

Cheers to you all. As Arnie said "ill be back" 

Apologies for any, well, you know, I'm sure you get it. 

[Chase Goldman]

Busho - agree no worries.  I think the key is that you need to sweep vice pump to get GB to change when in tracking gb which is different than when doing an auto/manual gb.  Ideally, combined with a change in mineralization to trigger the tracking response.  Good luck.

 

[Busho]

14 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Busho - agree no worries.  I think the key is that you need to sweep vice pump to get GB to change when in tracking gb which is different than when doing an auto/manual gb.  Ideally, combined with a change in mineralization to trigger the tracking response.  Good luck.

 

Cool mate, all good. Maybe this thing does things a bit different to all the others I've had over the years. Im not quite an old dog yet, but Im still open to learning some new tricks. Next week when Im out I'm gonna treat it different, try all the recommendations from you all and report back. Again, appreciate all the input. 

[Busho]

Hey all, sorry I didnt get back sooner or when I said. Some things came up, family, work that took all my focus away. Kept meaning to get back but thing after thing took all my attention. But, many had given help and info, yep some I took the wrong way, but have not forgotten. Anyway, my EQ. Box, coil, all checked and done. So, like I said have owned a lot so wont bore you all with it all, but will admit im not a know it all. So here it is with the EQ where I am, all checked, box n coil where a I live. 

Tracking here where I am in Central Vic Aus, compared to Gt's, Ft,s, XT,s, Eurekas........ below them all. That's why I was so questioning about the EQ's tracking. In a nut shell, it's tracking here is weak, almost non existent. But! You can get it to. Lets say you are using it, walking about, check the balance by raising/lowering. It's out. Raise and lower it from several inches above the ground to actually bumping the coil on the ground physically, "bang" on the ground. It will now balance using Auto Track Balance. Anything else nothing will happen other than a few number changes. Lets say you check and are in 70! But do a manual bal and it goes to 30! Go back to 70 for trial manually. Now, go into Auto Track bal. Raise and lower the coil but as you lower it actually bang the coil to the ground surface. Now it will balance to the same level as it would have done doing a ground balance but only raising and lowering the coil from several inches above the ground to a couple above it without touching the ground, the same you would have done with every other VLF before this EQ! In our hot ground here in OZ in central Vic, for the last couple of month's, this GB procedure, has proven Spot On. Treating it like all previous VLF non PI's has been a total failure using Auto Track/Auto GB. 

Cheers Guy's.