Equinox & Electric Livestock Fence

[Richard Williams]

I'm new to the forum. Just purchased an Equinox 800 which is supposed to ship in 2 weeks. I'm curious if anyone has used the Equinox around electric livestock fence? I have a site here in Western VA that has produced some great colonial and Civil War relics. I've pounded it with an XP Deus, AT Pro, T2SE, Nokta Fors Relic and a Racer 2 - all of them performed reasonably well but I know there's more there. Lots of iron and the areas I hunt are surrounded by electric fence. Drives every detector I've used there crazy. I've read conflicting comments about EMI and I can't wait to see how the Equinox functions at this site. Any settings suggestions, comments, thoughts? Thanks!

[Chase Goldman]

Richard,

Welcome to the forum.  Having come from the Deus myself, the Equinox is quite a capable beast and you will enjoy it.  I have found both detectors have their own pluses and minuses and plan to hang on to my Deus with its HF coils for certain situations but will be mostly using the Equinox for now to get proficient and also because it has proven itself to out perform or at least match the Deus in most of my detecting scenarios.

I have dealt with various forms of EMI with the Equinox.  I also own a Deus, GPX, and various other detectors that have suffered under various interference conditions.  Here are my suggestions on how to approach the issue:

First eliminate any sources of self-imposed interference.  For example, put your cell phone, if you must have it with you, in a pocket opposite from the side you swing the detector (i.e., left pockets if you swing right handed). You may want to check and see if your pinpointer causes interference.  If you can change the frequency on your pinpointer to eliminate the interference do so, because you really can't do much about it on the detector other than the noise cancel process described below.  In fact run through the below process in your yard before you get to the field so you can gain familiarity and also because you may have some sources of interference right in your back yard (e.g., wifi or fluorescent light fixtures, or a transformer box, nearby overhead transmission lines) that can help you get used to setting up the machine in a manner to eliminate them.

First thing you do is select your search mode - you need to do a separate noise cancel on each mode because the external interference will affect the modes differently.

Once you have performed your AUTO noise cancel and if you are still having interference - the 800 (vice 600) also allows you to manually select a channel (via +/-  buttons) if you are not happy with the results of the auto noise cancel. Keep your coil in the air during either Auto or Manual noise cancel to eliminate ground effect noise.  I have availed myself of this feature a couple times especially around power lines and other detectors such as PI's that can drive a VLF nuts.  You may still have noise at this point, I will get to that in a sec.

GB if necessary.

If you are still having external noise based falsing, lower sensitivity.  Don't be afraid to lower it from the 20 default to as low as 13 to 15 if necessary.  You will still get plenty of depth and in fact, sometimes lowering sensitivity even in the absence of EMI related falsing helps clean things up at trashy site.  So experiment with this. 

After you have lowered sensitivity as low as you are reasonably comfortable with and you still are experiencing interference based falsing then you may have to face some more unpleasant realities and start notching out lower conductivity segments to see if you can get the falsing to stop.  This may mean that you give up on nickels, gold, or brass buttons, but if it saves your ability to at least detect silver vs. no detecting at all, then it may be worth it.  Maybe you can retain the lower conductivity options and notch out the high conductivity segment, there are no pat answers when it comes to EMI.

If notching is not palatable, then you may want to try going into single frequency mode.  Typically, the higher frequencies are less susceptible to EMI.  Of course, by limiting yourself to single frequency you are eliminating the advantages of Mutli IQ, again we are talking tradeoffs to at least enable your to get some detecting in (making the best of a bad situation). 

Note that going to single frequency, specifically to the high frequencies then you are biasing yourself to the mid-conductors which sort of the opposite of notching out the low and mid conductors I recommended above.  Depending on your desired targets you can make the call to "pick your poison" so to speak and choose whether to notch and stick with Multi IQ or go to single (high frequency) and focus on small mid-conductors.  Also, JUST like the notching discussion, don't be surprised to find that in some cases the lower frequencies work better from an interference standpoint - this is unusual but possible depending on the source of the offending EMI.  Again there are no pat answers.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with noise cancel, GB, segment notching and how to go to single frequency by reading the online manual then practice once your machine shows up.

HTH

[olddog07]

G day Richard  Equinox 800 and electric fence don't get along same as most other detectors tried everything i knew i could to stop it from flashing .

 

[Chase Goldman]

52 minutes ago, olddog07 said:

G day Richard  Equinox 800 and electric fence don't get along same as most other detectors tried everything i knew i could to stop it from flashing .

 

Recognizing there are some EMI situations that cannot be completely overcome even when pulling out all the stops.  Even though the Equinox is chirping away, I have found I can still hear strong targets over the din.  Would appreciate any comments you may have on my layered, progressive noise reduction approach above.  Which above did you try in your situation and that were most effective even if they didn't completely eliminate the noise and, more importantly, what did you try that I did not cover.  Thanks.

[GKman]

17 hours ago, Richard Williams said:

I'm new to the forum. Just purchased an Equinox 800 which is supposed to ship in 2 weeks. I'm curious if anyone has used the Equinox around electric livestock fence? I have a site here in Western VA that has produced some great colonial and Civil War relics. I've pounded it with an XP Deus, AT Pro, T2SE, Nokta Fors Relic and a Racer 2 - all of them performed reasonably well but I know there's more there. Lots of iron and the areas I hunt are surrounded by electric fence. Drives every detector I've used there crazy. I've read conflicting comments about EMI and I can't wait to see how the Equinox functions at this site. Any settings suggestions, comments, thoughts? Thanks!

Hi Rich

I have! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Equinox did not suffer from the terrible interference that my CTX experienced after the farmer had an electric fence put in for his cows.

With the CTX no matter anything I did it would make so much noise. I found with the Equinox after a noise cancel it was nice and quiet. It was amazing how far the interference from the fence would go across the fields making it a real pain to detect large parts of the farm. I actually have a video of the sound that I would hear on the CTX attached in the link below. I actually am going back to this site this morning and if I find any different results I will update my response.

 

[Richard Williams]

7 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Richard,

Welcome to the forum.  Having come from the Deus myself, the Equinox is quite a capable beast and you will enjoy it.  I have found both detectors have their own pluses and minuses and plan to hang on to my Deus with its HF coils for certain situations but will be mostly using the Equinox for now to get proficient and also because it has proven itself to out perform or at least match the Deus in most of my detecting scenarios.

I have dealt with various forms of EMI with the Equinox.  I also own a Deus, GPX, and various other detectors that have suffered under various interference conditions.  Here are my suggestions on how to approach the issue:

First eliminate any sources of self-imposed interference.  For example, put your cell phone, if you must have it with you, in a pocket opposite from the side you swing the detector (i.e., left pockets if you swing right handed). You may want to check and see if your pinpointer causes interference.  If you can change the frequency on your pinpointer to eliminate the interference do so, because you really can't do much about it on the detector other than the noise cancel process described below.  In fact run through the below process in your yard before you get to the field so you can gain familiarity and also because you may have some sources of interference right in your back yard (e.g., wifi or fluorescent light fixtures, or a transformer box, nearby overhead transmission lines) that can help you get used to setting up the machine in a manner to eliminate them.

First thing you do is select your search mode - you need to do a separate noise cancel on each mode because the external interference will affect the modes differently.

Once you have performed your AUTO noise cancel and if you are still having interference - the 800 (vice 600) also allows you to manually select a channel (via +/-  buttons) if you are not happy with the results of the auto noise cancel. Keep your coil in the air during either Auto or Manual noise cancel to eliminate ground effect noise.  I have availed myself of this feature a couple times especially around power lines and other detectors such as PI's that can drive a VLF nuts.  You may still have noise at this point, I will get to that in a sec.

GB if necessary.

If you are still having external noise based falsing, lower sensitivity.  Don't be afraid to lower it from the 20 default to as low as 13 to 15 if necessary.  You will still get plenty of depth and in fact, sometimes lowering sensitivity even in the absence of EMI related falsing helps clean things up at trashy site.  So experiment with this. 

After you have lowered sensitivity as low as you are reasonably comfortable with and you still are experiencing interference based falsing then you may have to face some more unpleasant realities and start notching out lower conductivity segments to see if you can get the falsing to stop.  This may mean that you give up on nickels, gold, or brass buttons, but if it saves your ability to at least detect silver vs. no detecting at all, then it may be worth it.  Maybe you can retain the lower conductivity options and notch out the high conductivity segment, there are no pat answers when it comes to EMI.

If notching is not palatable, then you may want to try going into single frequency mode.  Typically, the higher frequencies are less susceptible to EMI.  Of course, by limiting yourself to single frequency you are eliminating the advantages of Mutli IQ, again we are talking tradeoffs to at least enable your to get some detecting in (making the best of a bad situation). 

Note that going to single frequency, specifically to the high frequencies then you are biasing yourself to the mid-conductors which sort of the opposite of notching out the low and mid conductors I recommended above.  Depending on your desired targets you can make the call to "pick your poison" so to speak and choose whether to notch and stick with Multi IQ or go to single (high frequency) and focus on small mid-conductors.  Also, JUST like the notching discussion, don't be surprised to find that in some cases the lower frequencies work better from an interference standpoint - this is unusual but possible depending on the source of the offending EMI.  Again there are no pat answers.

Be sure to familiarize yourself with noise cancel, GB, segment notching and how to go to single frequency by reading the online manual then practice once your machine shows up.

HTH

Thanks so much for that very detailed response and the suggestions! I will definitely try these.

[SittingElf]

Easy solution... Sabotage the voltage generator on the fence!  LOL!

[Richard Williams]

35 minutes ago, GKman said:

Hi Rich

I have! I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Equinox did not suffer from the terrible interference that my CTX experienced after the farmer had an electric fence put in for his cows.

With the CTX no matter anything I did it would make so much noise. I found with the Equinox after a noise cancel it was nice and quiet. It was amazing how far the interference from the fence would go across the fields making it a real pain to detect large parts of the farm. I actually have a video of the sound that I would hear on the CTX attached in the link below. I actually am going back to this site this morning and if I find any different results I will update my response.

 

I hope that's the case with my site! The pulsing of the fence, as you know, sends both low and high tones to most detectors and you have to "sift through" the chatter to separate a "real" signal. The other units did ok after I spent some time with them, but it really slowed me down. Looking forward to your follow up!

[Richard Williams]

Just now, SittingElf said:

Easy solution... Sabotage the voltage generator on the fence!  LOL!

Ha! The farm hand told me I could cut it off, but sure enough, if I did that, the whole heard would get out!

[Cal_Cobra]

Last weekend I was hunting a spot that apparently a few years ago has some kind of electrical underground device installed, as many years ago I could hunt that spot, and then any detector I took there would loose it's mind due to EMI.  Last weekend I took the EQ800 there in hopes that it might do OK, did a few noise cancels, and it didn't start to stabilize until I dropped the sensitivity way, way down.  I didn't detect it as I figured that the reduced sensitivity wouldn't be enough to get the coins that I know are going to be 8" + deep there.  Maybe I will try it again my next time there.