First Run With My Equinox

[Skate]

The merc was found about 3 inches down with a pull tab right next to it. I've been over that spot with so many other detectors myself and yet there it was. It was masked all this time and as I took the time to investigate the signal the tone got clearer and the ID read a consistent 26-27. I was saying to myself "I bet this is a silver dime, Steve's diagram says so." Then the next thing you know out pops the merc. It was really a sight to see. The 1940 silver quarter rang loud and clear in another area of pull tabs but the VDI was a little more spaced (31-35) and I figure that's because it was deeper.

Another thing that may or may not be helpful to hunters is that the Nox hears everything in the ground. In contrast with my XP deus, it heard lots of things but even it seemed to lack the separation that the Nox has. To me, more separation means you hear more things. I'd been trying to clean up an area of my park over the past 4 months of any and all targets so that when i got my nox and ran over it I could look for deep and true targets. Much to my surprise what I thought my deus had cleared the nox just revealed more of. To me this means that in places you've previously hunted out with other machines you likely have, you've probably reached those machines capacity in that area. I think it must be the multi-frequency that opens up these older areas at least that is what it appears to me to be. 

I wish I was more technical minded as maybe I would understand it better and be able to relay it to you in a cleaner way. I think the average hunter is going to have fun but the serious hunter is going to be on fire. Today will be a good test for it as I move to an area where it used to be a farm camp of old small homes from the early 1900's that have long been bulldozed and gone and is now a nursery. I've hunted it for 6 years now and I always pull something out of the ground amongst the iron and trash. Hopefully I'll thinkk the nox is still all that after getting out there. 

[Steve Herschbach]

4 hours ago, Jackpine said:

Based on George's observation of them hitting at 19 I'll definitely be dropping the bottom end of T4 down to 18 so IH's come in at the higher pitch.  In the end I'll more than likely set up the tone regions to resemble a 3 tone mode which is my preference for old site hunting.  Or you could make T4 an old coins region by adjusting it to signal on say 17-24 only,

Absolutely. In my more detailed information I explained that rotted zincs and Indian Head pennies would read lower. It is very easy to create a four tone or three tone mode by manipulating five tone mode. But only on the 800 - the 600 lacks that capability.

[Steve Herschbach]

30 minutes ago, Skate said:

I wish I was more technical minded as maybe I would understand it better and be able to relay it to you in a cleaner way.

Personally I prefer your style Skate compared to reports that get overly technical. I delve into that stuff, but the reality is that when I hit the ground I could care less. All that really matters to me is what a detector does and how it acts. Sometimes knowing what goes on under the hood can aid in this, but most people really don’t care how the car engine works. They just want to know how comfortable the car is and how fast it goes, how it handles the curves. I get a far better sense of that from reports like yours than I do from nail board tests and discussions of frequency weighting.

In other words I do think your presentation is the “cleaner way” and that most people appreciate that. I do! 

I have had a high confidence factor in what would happen as experienced detectorists got their hands on Equinox. I saw right away something different is going on here and I had to believe other experienced hands would see it also at some point. The novices are operating in a vacuum in that regard.

[strick]

16 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Personally I prefer your style Skate compared to reports that get overly technical. 

It's a treasure hunters report not a test pilot report. Thanks for the report Skate...cant wait to get my hands on one of these...the small coil I have a feeling is going to be a real game changer for some of us.  

strick 

[Xergix]

It would also take a diagram for crown caps, bottle caps, pull tabs and more 

[Jackpine]

6 hours ago, Xergix said:

It would also take a diagram for crown caps, bottle caps, pull tabs and more 

People litter in Tuscany? I'm shocked.

[Chase Goldman]

10 hours ago, Skate said:

Another thing that may or may not be helpful to hunters is that the Nox hears everything in the ground. In contrast with my XP deus, it heard lots of things but even it seemed to lack the separation that the Nox has. To me, more separation means you hear more things. I'd been trying to clean up an area of my park over the past 4 months of any and all targets so that when i got my nox and ran over it I could look for deep and true targets. Much to my surprise what I thought my deus had cleared the nox just revealed more of. To me this means that in places you've previously hunted out with other machines you likely have, you've probably reached those machines capacity in that area. I think it must be the multi-frequency that opens up these older areas at least that is what it appears to me to be. 

Skate - Great report and follow up but this part is really interesting to me.  I don't want to turn this into a Deus vs Equinox thread because this is not the forum so if you feel more comfortable just PMing me with a response, but I have to ask since you put it out there.  I have too always thought of the Deus as a machine that will tell me practically everything conductive that is in the ground, ferrous to silver, up to it's depth limit.  However, I found there is no one mode that allows this with the Deus.  To "hear" everything I basically need to hit a spot 3 ways - Full tones, with no discrimination, Gold Field with no Iron Reject, and then if I want to leave the iron in the ground I can use a discriminating pitch program to unmask non-ferrous targets hiding amongst the iron.  I have recently found that the HF round coil works best at this.  I always felt I was running partially "blind" with multi-tones and any discrimination.  It appears you are getting the same "feeling" (in reverse) by running your Equinox over a familiar site that you have pounded with the Deus.  My question is simply this, how did you have the Deus set up when you were clearing your park area and what type of coil were you using.  Knowing this will give me an idea of how the Equinox "hears everything".  Not having run time with Equinox, I am obviously not in a position where I am willing to say that I am rocking Noxtradamus all the way and selling the Deus.  I always planned to keep the Deus after the Equinox arrives because I think it still has some fringe capabilities that the Equinox may lack at very high frequencies and still like the low profile and light weight allows room for my Pez dispenser of Advil while not having to eat as much of it.  But you and TNSS are really finding some things out about the Equinox that eclipse the Deus in ways I thought the Deus could not be eclipsed.  Primarily in ability to separate ferrous and non-ferrous targets.  As primarily a relic hunter, this capability is important to me.  So I just want to make sure I am on the same page with you on how you wielded the Deus.  Thanks.

[MontAmmie]

32 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Noxtradamus

[bado1]

Excellent report, Skate! 

My first hunt was much the same as yours... minus the two silvers ( I did find a silver plated spoon). In 2.5 hours I found 50 non ferrous targets most of which were coins! Super trashy site. The Equinox is unbelievably fast. When the threshold is brought up (Park 2) you truly can hear everything in the ground including the nulls in the threshold from disc'ed iron. I'm looking forward to my next hunt.

 

Dean

[Skate]

4 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Skate - Great report and follow up but this part is really interesting to me.  I don't want to turn this into a Deus vs Equinox thread because this is not the forum so if you feel more comfortable just PMing me with a response, but I have to ask since you put it out there.  I have too always thought of the Deus as a machine that will tell me practically everything conductive that is in the ground, ferrous to silver, up to it's depth limit.  However, I found there is no one mode that allows this with the Deus.  To "hear" everything I basically need to hit a spot 3 ways - Full tones, with no discrimination, Gold Field with no Iron Reject, and then if I want to leave the iron in the ground I can use a discriminating pitch program to unmask non-ferrous targets hiding amongst the iron.  I have recently found that the HF round coil works best at this.  I always felt I was running partially "blind" with multi-tones and any discrimination.  It appears you are getting the same "feeling" (in reverse) by running your Equinox over a familiar site that you have pounded with the Deus.  My question is simply this, how did you have the Deus set up when you were clearing your park area and what type of coil were you using.  Knowing this will give me an idea of how the Equinox "hears everything".  Not having run time with Equinox, I am obviously not in a position where I am willing to say that I am rocking Noxtradamus all the way and selling the Deus.  I always planned to keep the Deus after the Equinox arrives because I think it still has some fringe capabilities that the Equinox may lack at very high frequencies and still like the low profile and light weight allows room for my Pez dispenser of Advil while not having to eat as much of it.  But you and TNSS are really finding some things out about the Equinox that eclipse the Deus in ways I thought the Deus could not be eclipsed.  Primarily in ability to separate ferrous and non-ferrous targets.  As primarily a relic hunter, this capability is important to me.  So I just want to make sure I am on the same page with you on how you wielded the Deus.  Thanks.

I was running the Deus in 14.4 V4 5 tones. It's Andy's program. I also ran it in 28.8 but never higher. Reactivity set at 1. Using the 9.5 elliptical. This is going to sound kind of weird but the Deus sounds linear but the Equinox to me reports things to your brain differently. I found a barber dime today that had iron on the left and aluminum on the right from the angle that I could hear it. Each signal was repeatable in the row when I swept it with the coil. It was like the right side of my brain heard the aluminum, the middle part heard the barber and the left side of my brain heard the iron. 

I also don't want this to become an Equinox vs Deus thing as the deus does many things well and I'm pretty proficient with it. To me it just was at it's limits and the coins I found were beyond the deus to find. What I love about Steve's forum is it isn't about detector wars but folks learning. I'm looking forward to you getting yours because I think you're going to be amazed and I'll benefit as a result.