Equinox users need help on soil mineralization depth question

Hope your all doing well.

Today I went to my back yard in the newly built elevated play set for my kiddos. The soil that was brought in is heavy thick red clay. Deus bar reads 33-45% on “dirt bars” and equinox ground balance reads 76.

I went into all metal mode and found a clean area and dug a plug about 10 inches deep and placed the dime flat and covered it up.

Running the nox in max sens, noise canceled, gb, and in park 2 (iron bias at 5) multi gave no response. Trying other settings like field 1/2, beach 1/2 etc.... nada.

Next up was the Etrac.. it hit the dime but struggled as a tiny nail must be in there as had an irony tone and jumping vdi.

Lastly using the deus and Calabash Diggers pitch program.. it hit it very well.

This test is not conclusive as I didn’t try other frequencies on the nox. I did try other deus settings amd outside 7.8 kHz it wouldn’t hit it.

If anyone had terrible red clay can you try the test?

XP Deus
Minelab Etrac
Minelab Equinox 800
Garrett Carrot
22 silvers, 2 silver rings, 1 Gold Ring -YTD 2018


Some of my random digs: [www.youtube.com]

Well,
I'll share my experiences.
In my ground Equinox will hit dimes deeper, but in order for Deus with 11" LF coil to hit, deep program must be used.

Did you try lowering iron bias?

If you are not at half scale on Deus mineral strength meter, the soil is not too bad actually,

6 ticks in mineral strength meter on Deus, Equinox is hitting my 9-9.25" clad dime.
Park 2 speed 6 and 7.
Speed 5 hits but it's dodgy.

My Etrac is not blazing saddles on this dime either. It does hit.

Don't lower your recovery speed for mineralized ground and don't raise your iron bias for it either. Iron bias is similar to the silencer setting on a Deus. In mineral you want quick snapshot style response. Detectors see the ground similar to how they see a carpet of nails or iron. In order to pick out non ferrous items from the iron, you have to use similar settings as you would in heavy iron. Bump the recovery speed up, drop the sensitivity down. Think of the old analogy of high beams in heavy fog vs low beams....thats what you're dealing with. In heavy mineral I like a recovery speed of 7. Iron bias as close to 0 as I can get it.

My buddy took his Nox 800 to Virginia on a relic hunt near Culpeper. He has a Whites TDI but struggles with digging iron on it. He normally just goes after low conductors on it. He brought the Nox in case it rained. He decided to play with it and ended up using it the rest of the hunt. Dug quite a number of civil war bullets and camp lead. Got a few buttons and other camp items. He said he was happy with how it handled up there...digging bullets 8 to 10 inches deep in disc mode is no easy feat for a VLF in Culpeper.

Can one of you guys help me? I got my Equinox yesterday, charged it up and set the bins up to suit my style of detecting. This morning after digging (cleaning) everything in the area, I dug three holes and planted a clad dime. a clad quarter, and a nickel at a measured 7 inches with coins flat. Did a noise cancel...auto GB showed 48...set to all metal...multi freq....iron bias 0....response at 6....sensitivity at 21 thru 25....I could not get a grunt on any of the coins. I tried everything made sure volume was set high on all bins (5 tones), changed response one digit at a time from 3 to 7...changed Iron bias from 0 thru 3...nada....Could not hit in my soil. Then tried my CTX3030...couldn't hit the dime or nickel but hit the quarter with good (46) high tone dig me signal. In my soil the CTX3030 struggles beyond 6 inches....I've dug several 7 inch dimes with the CTX3030 but always iffy signals that's hard to tell if it's a coin or rusty bent nail. Anyway I was hoping the NOX would get a tad deeper in my highly mineralized soil. I think it's going to do good in the trash but that's about all that it will help me. Any ideals to get another inch deeper? Didn't minelab advertise that this new technology was deeper than the FBS tech. in mineralized soil?

BamaJoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Can one of you guys help me? I got my Equinox yest
> erday, charged it up and set the bins up to suit m
> y style of detecting. This morning after digging (
> cleaning) everything in the area, I dug three hole
> s and planted a clad dime. a clad quarter, and a n
> ickel at a measured 7 inches with coins flat. Did
> a noise cancel...auto GB showed 48...set to all me
> tal...multi freq....iron bias 0....response at 6..
> ..sensitivity at 21 thru 25....I could not get a g
> runt on any of the coins. I tried everything made
> sure volume was set high on all bins (5 tones), ch
> anged response one digit at a time from 3 to 7...c
> hanged Iron bias from 0 thru 3...nada....Could not
> hit in my soil. Then tried my CTX3030...couldn't h
> it the dime or nickel but hit the quarter with goo
> d (46) high tone dig me signal. In my soil the CTX
> 3030 struggles beyond 6 inches....I've dug several
> 7 inch dimes with the CTX3030 but always iffy sign
> als that's hard to tell if it's a coin or rusty be
> nt nail. Anyway I was hoping the NOX would get a t
> ad deeper in my highly mineralized soil. I think i
> t's going to do good in the trash but that's about
> all that it will help me. Any ideals to get anothe
> r inch deeper? Didn't minelab advertise that this
> new technology was deeper than the FBS tech. in m
> ineralized soil?


Okay, which model Equinox do you have?
An 800 model a better choice for your area.
Why?
Speed 7 or even 8 will likely help you detect coins deeper.
You may field field 2 detect mode, using multi freq, speed 7 works pretty good.

If you have 600 model,, you are restricted to speed equivalent to speed 6 on 800 model.
And IMO by the sounds of your reporting with your CTX, 600 model can't be run fast enough to capitalize in your soil.

Iron bias setting, keep it set lower too. Like 2 or less.

You'll need to play with sensitivty level, not too high. Start at 20 and adjust up and down.

[www.detectorprospector.com]



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2018 02:57AM by tnsharpshooter.

Did you try it before you changed the tone settings? I ask cause a local friend did the same thing on his 800 and called me up saying it wouldn't hit anything in his garden and was quite disgusted with it. I first thought he might have a bad coil. Then when he brought it over, he had It all jacked up so bad i didnt even know where to start with it. I did an AMR on it and all was fine. He was saying he was noise cancelling and ground balancing too, but wasnt. He knew where to find the setting in the menu but instead of pressing the correct button, he was pressing the detect button which was just exiting him out of the menu and doing nothing, but he thought he was doing it correctly.

I like mine a lot. It's probably one of the deepest discrimination mode detectors I've ran to date, coil size for coil size in my soil. I've gotten deeper with some all metal mode VLFs and of course with pulse machines, but not many disc mode VLFs can reach on down there, and most will ID all over the place if they can. I've got 2 short videos of the Nox out now, and you can see it in action in my test garden on a 10 inch dime and in the real world hunts, pulling minie balls at my bullet site and silver dimes at a trashy home site. There might be an oddball number flash by every now and again on the ID but the majority of the time the numbers stay close to where they ought to be for the item that it is.

I've got the 800...I'm wondering about the coil also....before planting the coins, I did an air test that didn't look good. Test on a quarter was only about 8 inches. I'll try a reset and test again. I'm hoping I did something wrong. Thanks

[m.youtube.com]

TNSS, thanks for the air test video. After watching I decided to air test again before doing a manual reset. Setting as follow: multi freq....volume 25...all metal...5 tones....threshold 0.... Iron Balance 0...sensitivity 22 (above 22 was a little sparky). With this everything checked normal, about same as the youtube video. I think I did the first air test after saving a user profile custom settings. Must have been something wrong. Anyway I went outside to test my in ground coins at 7 inches with the following results: All settings same as above except noise cancel channel 8...GB auto set at 45. (NOTE: tried many setting changes for best result, the only thing that made any noticeable difference was changing the reactivity setting) With reactivity setting of 1,coins at 7" dime ...no hit, quarter has 1 way hit, nickel faint hit....reactivity 3, dime NH, quarter 1 way, nickel good hit bouncy ID, reactivity 5, dime NH, quarter 2 way bouncy ID, nickel very good with good ID, reactivity 7, dime NH, quarter good hit with bouncy ID. Thanks for the help. I'll have to retest with good settings in the field.

BamaJoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> TNSS, thanks for the air test video. After watchin
> g I decided to air test again before doing a manua
> l reset. Setting as follow: multi freq....volume 2
> 5...all metal...5 tones....threshold 0.... Iron Ba
> lance 0...sensitivity 22 (above 22 was a little s
> parky). With this everything checked normal, about
> same as the youtube video. I think I did the firs
> t air test after saving a user profile custom sett
> ings. Must have been something wrong. Anyway I wen
> t outside to test my in ground coins at 7 inches w
> ith the following results: All settings same as ab
> ove except noise cancel channel 8...GB auto set at
> 45. (NOTE: tried many setting changes for best res
> ult, the only thing that made any noticeable diffe
> rence was changing the reactivity setting) With re
> activity setting of 1,coins at 7" dime ...n
> o hit, quarter has 1 way hit, nickel faint hit....
> reactivity 3, dime NH, quarter 1 way, nicke
> l good hit bouncy ID, reactivity 5, dime N
> H, quarter 2 way bouncy ID, nickel very good with
> good ID, reactivity 7, dime NH, quarter goo
> d hit with bouncy ID. Thanks for the help. I'll h
> ave to retest with good settings in the field.


Sounds like you are making progress.
Good to here.
You are welcome.

Keep posting your results.
I love to read them, finds too.