Minelab Equinox owners - Question

Been reading all the responses and thinking about each one. I can live with most of the Equinox physical characteristics, but would also welcome some ergonomic changes.

Originally I thought I would like to see an X Y, Fe Co type screen, but after comments and thoughts by Tom I can see that it would be kind of useless in the areas I hunt.

Don't want or need modulated audio either. There are plenty of hints with the audio that differentiate a deep target vs a shallow one, at least for me.

What I would really like to see if a higher range of sensitivity. I'm running at 25 most of the time as it is with very little issues. But for those EMI challenging areas I would like to see better noise cancelling abilities.

Also would like to see more ability to set the iron mask more negative than we can go now. That will help with both unmasking and depth. At least in my soil.

One thing I've noticed on my nox is iron ID changes a bit from mode to mode. We hunt a riverside cliff where the confederates where heavily pounded by Yankee artillery from across the water. My preferred mode is Park 1 95% of the time everywhere... However my hunting partner and I have found park 2 actually gives the desired larger fragments a higher tone in this scenario, which stops us in our tracks on these targets- while still giving more of a ferrous tone for nails and such.

There are indicators that these tone breaking larger fragments & shells are non-ferous; but it had me thinking; theres something behind the scenes in the Nox programming that causes the iron to respond differently in these modes....Could there be a mode/setting/adjustment that could offer more I guess "intelligence" for iron? This would be advantageous for the water hunters that hunt for iron as well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2020 05:00AM by deadlift.

Dan(NM) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'd like to see an overload feature along with better audio modulation.

Agree with the overload and better audio modulation. The modulation is decent past about 6-7” but before that, meh.

While we’re building out a wish list, personally I think the backlight on the Equinox 800 is pretty subpar, should have a lower brightness setting and if the screens going to be monochrome, please make the backlight red. Much easier on the eyes (there’s a reason the military uses red).

I've had my Eqx 600 over a year now, so I've had time to form some opinions on what could be changed and improved, plus some thoughts on what could be incorporated into the new 'high end' machine.
Starting with the hardware/mechanicals:

* The elbow cup/rear stand has shown itself to be weak. There's several reports of a broken upper section, it just needs to be made chunkier. The foam padding is too thin, and surely it could be designed to actually fit the plastic part. The lower 'stand' part at first sight appears to be heavily ribbed and strong ... except the ribs all stop on the centre-line, leaving it with no reinforcement at all. It will bend/break very easily along that line, as I discovered. The ribs should go all the way along, add ribs in the hidden part. I think the 'stand' part is a bit small, too. Make it wider on the new machine, similar width to the elbow cup section.

* Having the machine break down into 3 parts is a good idea BUT the 3 parts should be comparable in length, so it packs away neatly. Two short sections and one long one is poor design. Allow for the fact that a plain shaft will pack 'diagonally' relative to the bulky upper section. As I've done this re-design myself, I think the upper section needs to be 25mm longer ( between the handgrip and the camlock) , the middle section needs to be 30mm longer, and the lower rod 65mm shorter. Have 10-15mm less insertion overlap of the lower rod.

* The hole in the lower carbon rod for the locating pip has been seen to enlarge over time, with resulting minor misalignment. Perhaps if there was at least one 'spare' pip hole, the service life of the shaft could be extended.

* The coil-fixing nut/bolt are difficult to adjust. The combination of just two flats, and the closeness of the clevis to the coil body is awkward. Make the nut heavily knurled, so it can be gripped firmly regardless of orientation.

* Straighten up the Minelab logo on the coil decal, it's wonky and looks cheap.

* Please make 'solid' coil covers available for the 6" (and 11" too). An open 'spider' design is not good on a small coil that's going to be used in difficult terrain, bushes/scrub, tight spots with debris.

* The 6" coil is too big for a small coil. If there's going to be new coils made, make a solid 4.5" or 5", basically copy the Fisher/Tek one, and put ML logos on it.

* Make the new machine compatible with existing Equinox coils, and if possible, make coils for the new machine compatible with the 600/800 machines.

* I have big hands, so don't find the fat handgrip a problem, but I can see why some find it excessive. As the size is almost certainly related to the large (26mm diameter) 26650 Li cell inside it, I recommend changing the cell on the new machine to a 21700 size (21mm diameter). These are becoming increasingly popular in electric vehicles, so are well-developed. Capacities of 5000 mAh are available, almost the same as the better 26650's. Whichever size they use, ML should use their business clout to get high capacity cells sourced. Intermediaries like Shock-Li seem to do this for the vape industry. Allowing for the low drain of detectors, 26650's with a capacity of 6000 mAh are available.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2020 03:36PM by Pimento.

And my electronics/software thoughts:

* The On/Off power button has shown to be a weak point. A more robust switch is needed, maybe a custom version of the standard one with solid fixings, like a metal frame with through-hole mounting. Perhaps a custom-designed switch?

* The USB/charger cable should be 30cm / 12" longer, it would be more convenient for charging.

* On the current machines, have the search-mode selector give a distinctive double-beep when it returns to 'Park 1'. That way, it's easier to work out where you are with audio only. It's not always easy/convenient to see the screen, but beep-beep-biddip-beep would tell me I'm in 'Park2' mode. This audio cue should also be applied to other functions. Engaging 'all-metal/horseshoe'=> double-beep; disengaging => single-beep.

* Assuming the new machine will have more modes, 'Scroll-left' and 'Scroll-right' would be preferable to single-direction action.

* Have the detector give an audio warning of very-low battery, perhaps 30 minutes before the 'musical finale' & switch-off.

* Make the green LED indicate that battery charging is near complete. For example having a rapid-rate flash once the battery goes from constant-current to constant-voltage charging.

* Pinpoint button: it's the most important button to locate by tactile means. I've attached a small sticky-backed rubber button over mine, and it's a great help. Could ML think about making something similar as a standard feature?

* Pinpoint Mode: The unusual 'auto-cal' operation takes a bit of learning, and has its quirks, but it does work OK. But one thing I don't care for is the resulting lack of 'depth' information it gives the user. A conventional pinpoint mode will immediately inform you if a target is weak/deep, or shallow, etc. A good example is the Fisher F75's pinpoint mode. The Eqx really needs the option of regular VCO pinpoint mode. It would seem pretty straightforwards to achieve - use a short press for 'auto-cal' pp mode, or press and hold for a second ( or a bit less ) and it gives conventional VCO pinpoint. Use the 'single-beep' / 'double-beep' to alert the user which mode is engaged. A single short button push exits pp mode, as normal.
In regular VCO mode, have the '88' display indicate depth, calibrated for a US 5 cent 'nickel'. I'd prefer centimetres displayed, as the 1cm increment size helps with pinpointing. I find the 1" step size on the Inches scale ( eg. on the F75 ) a little blocky.
The standard Eqx jumpy flickering double-bargraph pinpoint strength feature is awful and unusable. Perhaps replace it with a non auto-calibrating indication, there's 25 bargraph points available, so it should be possible to make it have decent resolution, 0.5" / 15mm step size roughly.

* Non-motion / pinpoint hunting, for deep targets, hoards/caches: This seems to be something the Eqx is quite capable of, and only a few changes to the standard pinpoint mode are needed. A "Re-cal" function would be useful, and it seems possible to use the 'horseshoe' button to do this, as it serves no purpose in pinpoint mode. The '88' readout could display a sensitive 00 - 99 signal strength, plus if possible use -1 to -9 to indicate weakening signal, eg. drop in ground signal, either natural, or by the operator raising the search-coil too much.

* It's known the Multi modes use 7.8kHz / 18.2kHz / 39kHz ( Beach has 13 kHz too ) , and the machine is evidently capable of operating at 5Khz, 4KHz with conditions. So is it possible to gain anything by running a 'Low Multi' mode, such as 5.4k / 12.6k / 27k (same ratios), which could be better for the US-style milled silver coin hunting? Maybe ML have tried it and decided it gave no advantage, or worked less effectively, but I think it's good to query it.

* Unlike many people, I don't dislike having 40 points of non-ferrous disc resolution. However, I don't like the calibration of the ID scale. A mid-range '20' target is roughly a 5kHz target, and to get the '5th tone' 30+ ID, the target needs to be quite a decent size copper/silver item. It's quite a novelty for me to find 5th-tone targets.
It's pretty certain that Park1/Field1 favour the 7.8k frequency, so perhaps in these modes a 5kHz mid-scale target is OK, but the scaling needs stretching out so that real-world targets read in the 30's.
But Park2/Field2 seem weighted more to the 18.2kHz freq, and the ID scale should be calibrated accordingly. A US 5c 'nickel'( a 17kHz coin) should be a '20' target, with correspondingly different calibration over the full range.
Perhaps there could be some way of choosing between 'Legacy' ID scaling, and 'dual-scaling' tailored to the machine's mode?
( I haven't commented on Beach & Gold modes .. I don't have gold modes, for a start )

* I see some are wanting a First Texas style mineralisation meter, and I see the value of it. But the '88' display is capable of providing better info. I proposed how this could be done in another thread on here, but the 1/3/10/30/100/ scale is a bit blocky, and if you could resolve it to:10/16/25/40/64/100/ etc rather than just 10/30/100/, you could likely discover more about the land. I was originally thinking about it use on the ProArc-F75, but it could be relevant to us hobbyists.

* True all-metal mode is conspicuous by it's absence from the Eqx. Is it possible, in single-freq mode, at least? Multi mode all-metal is perhaps more challenging, but it should be considered.

* Stereo Operation: I hope the Eqx is stereo-capable, it seems likely. Its successor certainly should be. The standard 'Nautilus' mixed mode ( disc in one ear / all-metal other ear) would be an obvious implementation, but there are other potential uses.

* When you scroll through the options and reach the discrimination/notch function, it defaults to '-9', which is inconvenient, as it's usually the non-ferrous zone that users want to adjust. Can it be modified to default to '00', to save some button-pushing?

* The icons/labelling of the buttons/functions could do with some thought. There's too many pictures of search-coils with random arrows, lines etc around them.

see DetectorProspector Forum for a revised version of these two posts



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/2021 05:30PM by Pimento.

EQX does indeed unmask much better than FBS/BBS. M-IQ and Fe/Co are compatible; yet, is this the direction we want to go. Is there not better methodology!

Here's another mild-to-wild thought: What if we incorporated a Freq-n-Mode of 100kHz that could unmask substantially better in carpets of nails. , . , . , . , . , . , yet; would absolutely require a special coil (100kHz) in order to function at full-capacity. It would probably be around 6" x 10" elliptical DD size. Any of you remember (about 50-years ago) the 100kHz units? ....and subsequent performance in carpets of nails?

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> EQX does indeed unmask much better than FBS/BBS. M
> -IQ and Fe/Co are compatible; yet, is this the dir
> ection we want to go. Is there not better methodol
> ogy!
>
> Here's another mild-to-wild thought: What if we in
> corporated a Freq-n-Mode of 100kHz that could unma
> sk substantially better in carpets of nails. , . ,
> . , . , . , . , yet; would absolutely require a sp
> ecial coil (100kHz) in order to function at full-c
> apacity. It would probably be around 6" x 10" elli
> ptical DD size. Any of you remember (about 50-year
> s ago) the 100kHz units? ....and subsequent perfor
> mance in carpets of nails?

[www.detectorprospector.com]

NASA-Tom,

I don't know, obviously, if FE/CO is "the way you want to go, or not" but I can say that I feel that having the FE component of a target, along with the CO component, when running Explorers and the CTX, was a very helpful tool for interrogating targets. Perhaps, if it's not chosen as the "main" detect mode, it could be included as an "optional mode" for those who like what it offers (unless, there is a better way to display the info that may not be obvious to me at this point)?

I will try to explain why I liked FE/CO so much (and the corresponding tonal advantages). In my dirt, using FBS, it became obvious to me the specific ways in which a silver dime, which air tests 03-29, would read differently, when deep. The beauty was that the "29" conductive number (on a semi-isolated target) would remain remarkably consistent, to maximum depth -- generally keeping a 28 or 29 or 30 CO number. The SOIL effect (the degradation of the accuracy of the ID number), would manifest itself by yielding increasing [b]FE numbers[/b], the deeper the target was. So, a deep dime might read 10-28, 14-29, 9-29, 18-28, 06-30, 11-29, for instance, on successive sweeps using the "Minelab wiggle." IN OTHER WORDS, the effect of the irony dirt I hunt in was largely confined to skewing the FE number, while the CO number remained fairly consistent with the "air test value" of a silver dime. And that's important, in my mind, tonally, as I'll describe in a minute.

Meanwhile, on the Equinox, with no "FE" number present, what seems to me to happen is all of the "VDI skewing" effect of the "bad dirt" MUST be reflected in the single VDI number -- that effect being that it "up averages" the VDI very significantly.

Let's consider a deep, 1950s wheat cent. This target would read 04-27 to 04-28 in an air test on FBS; at 8" or so in my dirt, this coin might read 11-27, 13-28, 06-28, 08-26, 09-29, 14-28 in successive sweeps. However, the same target on the EQX might read 32, 34, 29, 30, 37, 38, 26, 33, 34, 25 31, 33 in successive sweeps on the EQX. And the issue there is, that is VERY similar to how a silver dime, or even a silver quarter, might read on the EQX (with of course that effect ALSO reflected in the audio output).

NOW, I want to come back to my point about the FE/CO behavior being important, in my mind, TONALLY. Again, it was always my impression that FBS was largely able to "separate out" the "VDI-skewing" effects of soil on a deep target, by largely confining that skewing of VDI to the FERROUS number ONLY, while keeping the CO number fairly pristine/accurate.[/b] And the beauty of that for me and my ears, tonally, is that if you are cueing your tones off of the CO number, this makes a DEEP silver dime (though quieter due to modulation) sound VERY SIMILAR to a shallow silver dime (since the CO number is remaining solid/consistent -- only varying by one or two values.) And in addition, I always surmised that with only a one or two number variation in CO on successive transmit/receive samples, that was tonally reflected as the "warble" or "tinkling" sound everyone remembers on deep silver, on FBS units. However, this "signature" sound is lost on the EQX, to my ears. And I've surmised that the reason is because VDI is too inaccurate at depth (due to soil effects), and so instead of a slight "warble" in tone, back and forth by a single tonal value, you get much larger bouncing of the tones (directly related to the bouncing of the VDI).

So, while there is certainly ALOT of "intelligence" in the Equinox tones, I do think that there is some specific "intelligence" LOST, as compared to what was possible in FBS. And that lost intelligence I refer to is two-fold, as I've tried to describe...ONE, is the much higher tones generated by a deep coin (pushing a wheat cent WELL up into the silver range), and also the loss of the "warble," as soil effects cause the target ID to "bounce" much more widely on a deep target.

Hopefully this makes sense; it was hard for me to feel like I described my point well...

Steve

tnss..... read it! Interesting perspective.

steveg....... Just curious. If I understood you correctly........ the EQX goes about an inch deeper for you.....in your dirt conditions..... over BBS/FBS. Are your findings (about the more 'splattered' and 'up-averaging' ID of the EQX) mostly within the confines of this max-depth (extra inch) that the EQX provides? ((( I ask because...... this is what is happening to me.....in my Florida dirt ))).

NASA-Tom -- to answer your question, let me preface by saying in my dirt, 9 1/2" to 10" is max depth, on a dime/penny. FBS was about 9" for me. So, to your questions, YES, I can achieve about an extra inch or so with M-IQ, but NO -- it is not ONLY that very deepest 9" to 10" range (i.e. beyond FBS depth) where the up-averaging occurs. Instead, I observe this (especially on a wheat cent) as shallow as 6" deep, at times, but it's pretty consistent once you hit 7" or so. Anything 7" or deeper will almost certainly up-average substantially, and I will also note that I am almost certain that this has become more pronounced on the newer software builds, as compared the original build my machine came with (Feb. 2018).

The ONLY little "tell" I have seen, that doesn't ALWAYS work, but usually, is if I hit an 8" to 9" silver dime, it will up average to where ALL readings are in the low to mid 30s. However a wheat cent at that depth -- while reading NEARLY the same (a large predominance of low to mid 30s) -- will occasionally register the odd mid 20s number ("proper" ID), as well as on occasion a high 30s number or two. Said a different way, if you sweep the target 20 times, and you essentially never see a reading below 30, it is PROBABLY silver, whereas if you sweep a target 20 times, and you see one or two readings mid to upper 20s mixed into the 30s IDs, it is more likely a wheat cent. In other words, the LOWEST reading you can coax out of a target on any one pass out of a couple of dozen sweeps, is more likely to be the "tell" as to whether it's copper or silver...

I am nearly certain it's the iron in the soil that causes this, and it sure did seem to me that with FBS, this "skew" in ID numbers was very successfully confined to occurring ONLY with the FE number.

It would also seem to make sense to me that in mild dirt (FL), this up-averaging would ONLY occur at max/fringe depth, whereas in more irony soil, it would happen over a greater range of depth...right?

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2020 04:00AM by steveg.

Steve the up-averaging is very pronounced, but as mainly a relic hunter, I actually like this and I feel that I do get that silver warble on deeper signals. Just got back from a ghost town trip and dug two nice silver coins (will post that later) and both had nice silver warbles, and were deeper coins at a heavily hunted site. For deeper coins, you can differentiate between pennies and silver dimes (or quarters) as the silver up-averages higher in my experience whereas IHPs tend to stay fairly low around 19. I'd have to go back and look at my records to see if this is consistent, as interestingly most of the sites I'm at pork out more silver then copper.

Now that said, relic hunting is much different then turf hunting, whereas at most relic sites you're going to dig any conductor versus a park where your goal is typically to cherry pick the deeper signals amidst the junk and modern coins. Perhaps when the next gen EQX is released the park mode could have a X-Y axis FE-CO graph and the field/relic mode(s) could do something different, more akin to what NASA-Tom was pointing out with the special 6" x 10" elliptical DD coil running 100kHz (which could also be applicable to a prospecting mode as well) and depict the targets in a manor more conducive to relic hunting vs deep turf silver hunting. What I'm not sure, just spit balling here.

i do! had a white's 4db @ 100khz.
saw right through nails no problem.
crap for depth only around 4" or 5" tops,
but back then ('77) "tons" of good stuff at those depth ranges, so didn't really matter,
as guys was "bustin'' it with 10 or 20 silver hits ''every" day! just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.

I liked the ability the FBS had with its screen to easily make patterns and it seemed very effective at knocking out unwanted trash.... obviously to a point like bottle caps. Targets did move around..... i believe old nickles sometimes jumped to the lower right corner. Big silver could down scale. But iron seemed to stay in its place for the most part. What hurt these machines was the NULL/recovery time. You also noticed right off going from the SE to the Etrac that the noise cancel reversed its self. What we used for say beach was the low end suddlenly became the high end on the Etrac. That was also the time IMO we lost the great wobble silver tone. However.... the Etrac eliminated the learning curve that the explores had. My concern might be having to process and display on a smart screen.... im a fan of KISS, it seems the more it has to do the more it takes away.

Cal -- yes, I agree with you that up-averaging is definitely better than down-averaging, and I can see how that would be especially true in relic hunting.

I also agree with you that Indian Heads do a much better job (for some reason) of not up-averaging, and staying around that 19 number. Some deep ones WILL up-average, for me, well into the 20s, but often only from certain "sectors" as you rotate around the target, for some reason. But yes -- it is generally the newer wheat cents, and copper memorial cents, that REALLY up-average...

Steve

steveg....... That's EXACTLY the data I was looking for. Yes..... it does indeed sound like there's a bit more natural iron in your soil...... causing the M-IQ technology to 'up-average'.
Also...... the EQX more readily finds tilted (or: on-edge) coins . , . , . , . , . , . , . which WILL 'splatter' the ID numbers terribly! But....... usually down-averaging.

Another mild-to-wild thought: "What if" we could combine Park Mode-1 & Park Mode-2 & Field Mode-1 into one Mode........ without any loss of performance of any of the three modes.

Combining Park1 & 2 ( or Field1 & 2) seems like one possible use for stereo mode.
I'm certain I brought this up some years ago in relation to the supposed 'dual-freq F75' machine, proposing it could run 13kHz in one ear, 39kHz in the other, if it ran 13/39k as its multi-freq system.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2020 03:48PM by Pimento.

I've noticed a lot of the same up averaging on high conductors in my soil as Steve has noted. As a relic hunter coat buttons, silver coins and large cal. bullets will up average on anything 7" or deeper. But when it comes to low conductors there is something different going on. When using Park 1 (I haven't used the other modes enough to notice) low conductors are usually ID'd by their highest VDI noted. For example if you sweep a target 20 times the highest number you can get usually indicates what the target will be. So most coin hunters will notice this with nickels (numbers are usually pretty tight too 12-13), rarely with anything else except as noted about IHP's. But as a relic hunter I notice this over and over. Small gold coins, pewter buttons, cuff buttons, round balls, letters, numbers, Hardee hat pins, etc. I've paid really close attention to this and have been pretty dang accurate in my prediction as to what I'm going to dig. Now cuff buttons can come in all over the place because some of them having tin backs, they range as low as 1 all the way up to 15. So just an example I get a deep target that I'm sweeping from multiple directions and it's flashing numbers from negative 9 to positive13 but mostly 10-13, it's almost always a small pewter button (they come in at 12-13) sometimes a cuff button but most cuffs are 1-2's 8-9's and 13-14's. Hope that makes sense and that's my soil can't speak for anyone else because I have both high iron and salt content in my soil.

Interesting.... seems a challenge with park and field 1 weighted being low freq.... and park and field 2 being high freq weighted. Field apparently handles coke better. Are they considering being able to turn salt on or off for all freqs?

steveg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Cal -- yes, I agree with you that up-averaging is
> definitely better than down-averaging, and I can s
> ee how that would be especially true in relic hunt
> ing.
>
> I also agree with you that Indian Heads do a much
> better job (for some reason) of not up-averaging,
> and staying around that 19 number. Some deep ones
> WILL up-average, for me, well into the 20s, but of
> ten only from certain "sectors" as you rotate arou
> nd the target, for some reason. But yes -- it is
> generally the newer wheat cents, and copper memori
> al cents, that REALLY up-average...
>
> Steve

I agree with the copper penny observations. For some odd reason (composition?) the IHPs tend to stay about where they should, but wheat cents and above are a different story with deeper ones up-averaging into silver dime territory. For relic hunting not a problem, but for deep turf park hunting, it's likely a different story.

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Another mild-to-wild thought: "What if" we could combine Park Mode-1 & Park Mode-2 & Field Mode-1 into one Mode........ without any loss of performance of any of the three modes.

Would have to see a proof of concept before saying yes to this.

Personally 85% of the time, I find Field-2 to be my go to mode, but if I'm finding that target audio is messy, switching to Park-1 or Park-2 typically clears that up. For areas with high alkali soil (common in the desert) beach mode works wonders in 50 tones.

Abenson,

I agree with you. Up-averaging is NOT the case, on lower conductors. As you said, on a nickel, for instance, the HIGHEST number is more likely correct on a deep target. I have hit a number of deep nickels, and they read as low as 11, but mostly 12, with an occasional 11 or 13 mixed in. In other words. NO up-averaging. I don't think I've ever dug a nickel (war nickels not included) that ever show a VDI of 14 or higher.

Said another way, deep mid conductors like nickels are MUCH tighter on their ID, even at max depth, and if ANYTHING, will down-average slightly with depth. It's only on copper and silver coins where this substantial up-averaging occurs (it's most pronounced on 1940s and 50s wheats, and pre '83 copper memorial pennies). For whatever reason, this happens less with the very old wheat cents, and less with Indian Head pennies, for whatever reason.

Steve

Abenson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've noticed a lot of the same up averaging on hig
> h conductors in my soil as Steve has noted. As a r
> elic hunter coat buttons, silver coins and large c
> al. bullets will up average on anything 7" or deep
> er. But when it comes to low conductors there is s
> omething different going on. When using Park 1 (I
> haven't used the other modes enough to notice) low
> conductors are usually ID'd by their highest VDI n
> oted. For example if you sweep a target 20 times t
> he highest number you can get usually indicates wh
> at the target will be. So most coin hunters will n
> otice this with nickels (numbers are usually prett
> y tight too 12-13), rarely with anything else exce
> pt as noted about IHP's. But as a relic hunter I n
> otice this over and over. Small gold coins, pewter
> buttons, cuff buttons, round balls, letters, numbe
> rs, Hardee hat pins, etc. I've paid really close a
> ttention to this and have been pretty dang accurat
> e in my prediction as to what I'm going to dig. No
> w cuff buttons can come in all over the place beca
> use some of them having tin backs, they range as l
> ow as 1 all the way up to 15. So just an example I
> get a deep target that I'm sweeping from multiple
> directions and it's flashing numbers from negative
> 9 to positive13 but mostly 10-13, it's almost alwa
> ys a small pewter button (they come in at 12-13) s
> ometimes a cuff button but most cuffs are 1-2's 8-
> 9's and 13-14's. Hope that makes sense and that's
> my soil can't speak for anyone else because I have
> both high iron and salt content in my soil.

NASA-Tom,

Point well-taken, on the "on-edge" or "tilted" coins. I get that, and would expect that.

I will note that as we have discussed before, I am living in Oklahoma, where our irony red dirt has always acted to skew ID numbers, on ALL machines; on F70/75, it was major down-averaging; the Gold Bug Pro/F19 is very good in this dirt, but slight down-averaging if anything, FBS units maintain good CO values, but increasingly high FE numbers on deep high conductors, and now M-IQ, which strongly up-averages high conductors at depth.

What I wanted to note, though, is that I am originally from Western PA. I travel back there often, and always do a good bit of detecting. And I will say that although there is no tell-tale red dirt in western PA, the EQX, interestingly, behaves very similar there, in that dirt, as it does here in Oklahoma. In other words, slightly deeper than FBS, very similar max depth capability, and strong up-averaging on high conductors (most notable in 1940s to early 1980s copper pennies, and secondarily on silver coins).

Steve

Just a quick note...... early Wheat Cents (compositionally)...... are nearly identical to that of a Indian Head Penny. (1909-1919).

NASA-Tom -- thank you for that tidbit. That explains ALOT...

Steve

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> steveg....... That's EXACTLY the data I was lookin
> g for. Yes..... it does indeed sound like there's
> a bit more natural iron in your soil...... causing
> the M-IQ technology to 'up-average'.
> Also...... the EQX more readily finds tilted (or:
> on-edge) coins . , . , . , . , . , . , . which WIL
> L 'splatter' the ID numbers terribly! But....... u
> sually down-averaging.
>
> Another mild-to-wild thought: "What if" we could c
> ombine Park Mode-1 & Park Mode-2 & Field Mode-1 in
> to one Mode........ without any loss of performanc
> e of any of the three modes.


I have a similar opinion ....

Posted November 6, 2018
Spectra V8...The effective frequency range of the multifrequency is about 1: 8, so I need 2core sequential multifrequency power transmitting unit with 2x range working together, 1.5khz-12khz and 12khz-96khz.., and user programs with different use of these frequencies ..resistente EMI ... Tx Bost...Display such as the Spectra and the two-digit TID -like CTX- which uses data from 2 core...Waterproof...weight 1.2-1.4 kg .

Wish list item for next gen EQX:

Trigger switch for PP and other potential uses!

I know it's likely a warranty red flag and likely adds to the manufacturing cost to route a mechanical toggle switch, but we are talking FLAGSHIP right? Heck if they could have it on a Makro Racer, a FLAGSHIP MINELAB should be able to do it too.

Cal_cobra Wrote:
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> Wish list item for next gen EQX:
>
> Trigger switch for PP and other potential uses!
>
> I know it's likely a warranty red flag and likely
> adds to the manufacturing cost to route a mechanic
> al toggle switch, but we are talking FLAGSHIP righ
> t? Heck if they could have it on a Makro Racer,
> a FLAGSHIP MINELAB should be able to do it too.


How about a Pinpoint Mode that works everywhere. Even on a Salt water beach!

Trigger PP is a GREAT suggestion. It's just so efficient, especially the old whites approach of pushing it forward and locking it in like a non motion all metal one way, and pulling back & quickly pinpointing on the fly without looking (I have to look & the nox)...It also really helps avoid scratching the face/screen of the unit w/crusty digging hands.

Not sure if it's been suggested in this long thread...But true a la carte selectable frequencies, furthermore- perhaps even allocating certain multiple bands as the user sees fit...Could multi mode be reduced to primarily using something like 5khz and 14khz when civil war relic hunting?

How many of you guys are using "50-Tones" on the EQX?