Recovery Speed And Ground Balance

[mcjtom]

4 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

These are the type of questions that I do not like to answer since I have very different ground conditions and dirt samples from others

I understand, but was it totally random or the GB correlated somehow with the Recovery speed?   

I have a more general question as well: with the Nox GB correction scale going from -9 to 100, the proper value will depend on the type of mineralization?  Is the scale generally going from salt, to maghemite, to magnetite (lower GB values to higher GB values), or the other way around?  

p.s. Or maybe there is no such monotonic correlation between the Minelab MF GB correction scale and the mineralization type progression as traditionally defined?

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/6031-equinox-ground-balance/page/2/#comment-63454

p.s.s. If there is a trend, my uneducated guess would be that in general, increasing the recovery speed, moves the GB values on the ML scale a bit lower and vice versa to balance the same ground, in the same circumstances ...

[mcjtom]

On 8/26/2023 at 4:06 AM, Jeff McClendon said:

Just to be sure, I did a quick test with the Equinox and Legend. This was done on three different dirt samples that I keep for testing in 14" gold prospecting pans. One sample has moderate iron mineralization=4 bars on Deus 2 mineralization graph. One has moderate to high iron mineralization=6 bars on Deus 2 mineralization graph and one has very high mineralization=Deus 2 mineralization meter is maxed out. 

Jeff, your three soil samples: do they differ in the type of mineralization as well?  For a given recovery speed, do they grab-GB to (much) different values?

[Jeff McClendon]

57 minutes ago, mcjtom said:

Jeff, your three soil samples: do they differ in the type of mineralization as well?  For a given recovery speed, do they grab-GB to (much) different values?

All three have magnetite mineralization along with hot rocks. Using recovery speed 5 for all three samples, the least magnetite mineralized sample ground balances between 10 and 13. The moderate to high magnetite mineralized sample ground balances between 3 and 6. The most magnetite mineralized sample ground balances between -2 and 1. 

[Jeff McClendon]

1 hour ago, mcjtom said:

Jeff, your three soil samples: do they differ in the type of mineralization as well?  For a given recovery speed, do they grab-GB to (much) different values?

All three have magnetite mineralization along with hot rocks. Using recovery speed 5 for all three samples, the least magnetite mineralized sample ground balances between 10 and 13. The moderate to high magnetite mineralized sample ground balances between 3 and 6. The most magnetite mineralized sample ground balances between -2 and 1. 

[mcjtom]

Cheers!  And the last question: did increasing the the recovery speed tend to make the grab-GB correction values a little lower or higher, in general and in your tested soils? 😁

[Jeff McClendon]

9 minutes ago, mcjtom said:

Cheers!  And the last question: did increasing the the recovery speed tend to make the grab-GB correction values a little lower or higher, in general and in your tested soils? 😁

Buy an Equinox and test for yourself.

[Valens Legacy]

I know that I am not the person to give advice to someone else because I am still a newbie at detecting.

When I have had a chance to use my detector (Nox 800) I always re- ground balance about every 20 feet when I am in a creek bed, because I know that the soil has changed in the area and I could have a false reading. I have only been able to get out with the detector about 4 times this year, and so I always use the factory settings and ground balance often.

I really have not had the need to change things with the detector to locate what I  have been looking for.

I hope that you get the answer you are looking for, and hope that I will learn more when I read some of the responses.

[kac]

Out of curiosity, try setting recovery to lowest value.

Ground balance it over an area with no targets.

Set recovery speed to highest value.

Re-ground balance over same spot and see if the numbers change.

[mcjtom]

7 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Buy an Equinox and test for yourself.

It's an interesting issue - any insight from you or other Equinox owners would be enlightening.

[Jeff McClendon]

25 minutes ago, mcjtom said:

It's an interesting issue - any insight from you or other Equinox owners would be enlightening.

As I said earlier, I don't like to answer such specific questions about the three random soil samples I use for my own personal testing. The way my detectors behave over them does not represent anything remotely "general". This could really be random behavior that is not representative of other's results. I am not going any further with it since I don't want anyone running away with what I say in a positive or negative way.

Steve H. said it best "A good habit to get into is anytime you change anything, ground balance again. Takes seconds, can't hurt - why not?"