Equinox Ground Balance Settings

[mh9162013]

2 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

A good trick for me is to clear a small area of all targets, big enough for the coil with some space around it. I ground balance in that spot. Useful when there is iron everywhere.

But that doesn't address the situation where your ground conditions are changing as you move around during your hunt. Reground balancing in your new location may not be possible due to heavy concentrations of trash. This is a problem I face, at least. I've assumed there's nothing I could do about it, but now that I realize tracking GB might be an option...

[midalake]

1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

Simple, if you are hearing ground noise then you should rebalance.

Then one needs to be proficient enough to know the difference between Ground noise and EMI. 

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, mh9162013 said:

But that doesn't address the situation where your ground conditions are changing as you move around during your hunt. Reground balancing in your new location may not be possible due to heavy concentrations of trash. This is a problem I face, at least. I've assumed there's nothing I could do about it, but now that I realize tracking GB might be an option...

Don't overthink it or get too caught up in trying to have the machine perfectly balanced at all times. Small bits of non-ferrous trash are not really going to affect GB that much.  I've successfully GB'd while purposefully pumping over a pull tab.  Your target's ID might be affected by ground conditions (as well as orientation and adjacent targets) but doing a GB is not likely going to change the ID, just reduced ground noise and possibly increased target signal strength.

 

23 minutes ago, midalake said:

Then one needs to be proficient enough to know the difference between Ground noise and EMI. 

Like I said, if it is showing up as -7 to -9 signals, it's probably ground noise whereas EMI typically shows up in the non ferrous range and can't be zeroed out by a GB.  If I can't tell the source, I usually raise the coil and do a noise cancel then auto GB if I'm not running tracking.  

If, like you do, run tracking almost exclusively, then it's usually a non-issue (which is what you were probably inferring) and you mainly just have to be concerned with EMI.

[Jeff McClendon]

2 hours ago, mh9162013 said:

What do you mean, ground noise? Like iron grunts? I normally hunt in Park 1 or 2, so those are discriminated out.

With your buried clay layer, I would be ground balancing very carefully. That requires that you have nothing rejected when you ground balance. So, turn on the Nox 600, do a noise cancel, press the horseshoe button to accept all targets, find a relatively clean spot and do a quick ground grab. Once the Nox 600 has settled on a number you are ready to go. Press the horseshoe button to reject the iron range and go detect.

[mh9162013]

6 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

With your buried clay layer, I would be ground balancing very carefully. That requires that you have nothing rejected when you ground balance. So, turn on the Nox 600, do a noise cancel, press the horseshoe button to accept all targets, find a relatively clean spot and do a quick ground grab. Once the Nox 600 has settled on a number you are ready to go. Press the horseshoe button to reject the iron range and go detect.

I always ground balance with the horshoe button "on" (all targets accepted)...or at least I try to.

Although, when I ground balanced over that hole that boosted the GB number about 20 points, it's possible I didn't have all targets accepted. Hmm...

[strick]

10 hours ago, midalake said:

Then one needs to be proficient enough to know the difference between Ground noise and EMI. 

Umm with one the detector is moving and with the other it is not...hold your detector still and noise cancel or reduce the sens...ground noise occurs  while moving the detector over the mineralized ground...unless there is an earth quake this is how I have come to understand it.

strick

[strick]

9 hours ago, mh9162013 said:

But that doesn't address the situation where your ground conditions are changing as you move around during your hunt. Reground balancing in your new location may not be possible due to heavy concentrations of trash. This is a problem I face, at least. I've assumed there's nothing I could do about it, but now that I realize tracking GB might be an option...

Sometimes I will ground balance 40-50 times in a 2-4 hour hunt...if there is no clear area where I'm standing then I go and find one. I am assuming that in a park setting the ground is fairly homogenous...and you have no choice  since the machine is already out of balance so I go off a little ways to re balance...then come back to the spot I was hunting...Once in a while if it becomes too ridiculous having to re ground balance then I will switch to tracking...Tracking works great...there are areas in the foot hills that the ground is so variable tracking is best to use because you are re ground balancing every 3 feet. Ground noise is very loud in the park modes,  switching to field 2 will soften it up...early on with the nox I was confusing loud ground noise (sens turned up) as being nails...

strick

[F350Platinum]

I'm thinking the most important thing that has been written here is "Don't overthink the Equinox". Not only is that the first thing that was said to me by the dealer who sold it to me and subsequent people (thanks Chase), but in personal experience it's a fact.

If you're spending time worrying about your settings, you're not finding anything IMO. Ground balance helps but I didn't use it at all for a few months early on, and I dug a lot of great stuff.

[midalake]

2 hours ago, strick said:

Umm with one the detector is moving and with the other it is not... hold your detector still and noise cancel or reduce the sens... ground noise occurs while moving the detector over the mineralized ground... unless there is an earth quake this is how I have come to understand it.

rope

Yes, for some of us who have been around for some time understand this but for new people is needs to be mentioned. I think your example of  interference/noise is a perfect one!  If you are not moving your detector the interference is EMI. If you are moving your detector and you have interference it is Ground Balance issues or too much sensitivity.