Equinox 600 - Not finding much?

TheCoilist

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So, I can find a TON of pull tabs, aluminium, iron, and a piggy banks worth of pennies, copper and zinc.

I have found 1 nickel, I have found a handful of quarters, and about 10-15 dimes.

I have NOT found any silver.

My brother who has been detecting with me is finding all the quarters, dimes, some of which have been silver, right next to me and BEHIND me with his AT Pro.

I RARELY see a VDI on the screen over 25 and those 25s are not constant, they usually bounce between 21-25 and almost always are a penny.

Anyone else having these issues with the Equinox? I am a bit disappointed. I have been running in Park 1, and maybe it's my settings, but I believe I am on Iron Bias 3...

Any input would be super helpful! We've been to a couple sites we only had one shot at and I feel like a LOT has been left behind... I have a about 100hrs on the machine so far and I feel as though it has been kind of a waste so far.
 
Switch over to single frequency instead of multi and try field 1. Try 10 kHz. Just give it a shot and tell your brother to get over to another spot so he will quit taking your goodies!!
 
The next time your bro has a really, really good high conductor signal, have him point out the general area and see if you can find it with the Nox. Conversely, when you have one of those bouncy penny signals, have him scan it and see what he gets. The AT Pro will either average it out to a solid number or report it as something sketchy just off of a good penny signal. It might not hear it at all. The Nox is making you decide.

For this reason, many long-time detectorists will tell you to detect more with your ears than strictly by the numbers.

So, maybe your bother is spending less time digging pennies and is therefore scooping up a greater percentage of the highest conductors.

Your brother might also just be good with the AT Pro and getting a bit lucky. Have a "back to basics" moment and take a look at your swing technique....speed, coverage, height, range, etc... Maybe what you're doing is fine to hit the shallow, flat quarters, but isn't working for 6 inch deep (silver) dimes sitting a bit on edge in a bit of trash.

A setting of 3 on a 600 is like 6 on the Nox 800 and that's a bit high if you are expecting to squeak out sketchy, deep silver signals. Go to 2 if that's not what you're using. You'll hear more sketchy high tones the more you drop your iron bias, so you have to use other info to decide whether they're worth digging. But, if you find the silver coins really aren't all that hidden, then stick with a higher iron bias to quiet things down until you've cleaned the place out and then go to settings for deep and masked coins.

The 21-25 bouncing pennies on the Nox is widely reported. Deep copper pennies that have been in the ground awhile can go even higher and not even bounce. That's annoying if you want to cherry pick clad dimes and quarters on a playground, but more or less fine on any old site where I'm digging every decent high conductor anyway. (I'd rather have the AT Pro with the 5x8 coil on a tot lot clad hunt for dimes and quarters. It's pretty much beep and dig without fooling with any settings or looking at the screen.)

If you start skipping those bouncy penny signals on the Nox because "they're probably pennies" then you are going to miss other coins (and jewelry).

For the Nox, I've decided it's a feature and not a bug. The Nox simply gives more information and you have to use experience to know what to do. Even in Default Park 1, if the copper penny is a bit crusty or tarnished, then it's going to show up in the VDI. If it's sensing anything from 20 to 25 off of a single coin then it'll tell you. Fast refresh. Minimal averaging of VDI. Data from multiple frequencies. It's not going to "lock on" to a single number like the AT Pro does unless the target is giving off consistent info. It would rather err on the side of telling you what it does know and let you decide. So, while it might not lock on, being able to tease out more information means learning how to pinpoint and see the shape and separation of multiple adjacent targets.
 
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Haha find a better spot. The spot isn’t the issue as I’ve said with the other machine making finds that my detector has completely missed.

I have swung over his areas before and after he’s dug then. Clad dimes are often in the 24-25 range. The merc dimes are about the same range until after they’re dug and then they’re a bit higher.

Quarters are upper 20’s when dug. But again, the part that bugs me is I dig almost anything over 17. I’ve had Indian heads and wheats in the 17-19 range. But in a lot of cases when I get a dime signal or something in the higher 20’s and check the iron levels it bounces a LOT. It will bounce down to -5 a lot and then to 1 and back in the teens and twenties. So I’m assuming it’s settings related.


Is there a way to reset all the settings to default again and start fresh? I will say I’ve found more dimes and such on a beach in beach 1 mode then I have ever in Park mode. I’m trying to love this machine and my stored AT Pro is waiting to be unleashed again. Lol I’m forcing myself to use the NOX but it’s such a downer. Haha
 
Haha find a better spot. The spot isn’t the issue as I’ve said with the other machine making finds that my detector has completely missed.

I have swung over his areas before and after he’s dug then. Clad dimes are often in the 24-25 range. The merc dimes are about the same range until after they’re dug and then they’re a bit higher.

Quarters are upper 20’s when dug. But again, the part that bugs me is I dig almost anything over 17. I’ve had Indian heads and wheats in the 17-19 range. But in a lot of cases when I get a dime signal or something in the higher 20’s and check the iron levels it bounces a LOT. It will bounce down to -5 a lot and then to 1 and back in the teens and twenties. So I’m assuming it’s settings related.


Is there a way to reset all the settings to default again and start fresh? I will say I’ve found more dimes and such on a beach in beach 1 mode then I have ever in Park mode. I’m trying to love this machine and my stored AT Pro is waiting to be unleashed again. Lol I’m forcing myself to use the NOX but it’s such a downer. Haha

My friend has a Nox 800 and I have a Racer 2..The land we detect over is not overly productive in terms of hammered silver coins but its is full of trash of one sort or another.

We are getting a broadly similar success rate, but he digs a lot less junk, in fact he digs a lot less, than me but we end up with comparable results on silver.

Compared to the Racer, he seems to be able to tell trashy iron in the form of bits of old chain ect where as the Racer 2 (and myself) tended to be fooled more often.

Some time next year I plan to upgrade to a Nox, (unless Makro bring out a true multi frequency machine in the mean time)

So I would say that if you are not finding silver with Nox, its not down to the machine, rather its either the settings or you, or combination of the two...
 
I did a factory reset yesterday afternoon and took it out with the default settings. This made a HUGE difference. However, I did only take it out in my backyard which is cleaner than the parks. BUT it was picking up signals in the ground for dimes and quarters (ironically all I found, no pennies) in the correct range.

I did also have ground balance set to tracking though. This was something I did not have set previously with my other settings before the factory reset. I wonder if the GB tracking makes that much of a difference??


For reference, my backyard is 10 acres and the dimes and quarters I found were actual finds. Not test coins.
 
I did a factory reset yesterday afternoon and took it out with the default settings. This made a HUGE difference. However, I did only take it out in my backyard which is cleaner than the parks. BUT it was picking up signals in the ground for dimes and quarters (ironically all I found, no pennies) in the correct range.

I did also have ground balance set to tracking though. This was something I did not have set previously with my other settings before the factory reset. I wonder if the GB tracking makes that much of a difference??


For reference, my backyard is 10 acres and the dimes and quarters I found were actual finds. Not test coins.

Sounds like you are moving the right direction....

FWIY, I *think* most people over here manually ground balance each time they go out; that is certainly what my friend does...



I also think its a good idea to noise cancel at the start of each outing ...With the 800 I believe you get the choice of doing an auto or manual noise cancel, but with the 600, I think its auto only...
 
Sounds like you are moving the right direction....

FWIY, I *think* most people over here manually ground balance each time they go out; that is certainly what my friend does...



I also think its a good idea to noise cancel at the start of each outing ...With the 800 I believe you get the choice of doing an auto or manual noise cancel, but with the 600, I think its auto only...

Always noise cancel for sure.

And as for ground balancing, I generally do manual, but soil conditions here literally change every few feet. Could be on soil then sand within a couple feet. Michigan is nothing but a giant sand dune essentially.
 
I have the Equinox 800. It does great on nickels ( over 200 in one park ) but not so good on clad or silver. I use other detectors that for me do better on them.
 
I did also have ground balance set to tracking though. This was something I did not have set previously with my other settings before the factory reset. I wonder if the GB tracking makes that much of a difference??

I use tracking ground balance if I'm on a large property and moving fairly slow around it. The recommended procedure is to do the auto routine when you first get started and then switch to tracking. Otherwise, it could take a few minutes (or longer?) for the tracking to adjust to the present conditions.

If you're jumping from spot to spot or moving quickly across what appears to be different soil conditions, then it's a good idea to stop and do the auto adjustment and go back into tracking. I rarely remember to do this.

Frankly, I don't notice much difference when I play around with the ground balance setting on the Nox. Maybe that's due to the multiple frequencies. The ATPro has a noticeable difference in the audio and VDI readings when the ground balance is adjusted, so I did the auto ground balance throughout hunts.
 
I have the Equinox 800. It does great on nickels ( over 200 in one park ) but not so good on clad or silver. I use other detectors that for me do better on them.

Strange how you guys are struggling with silver with the Nox.

Below is a hammered penny from the early 1300's...

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Its a little smaller than a modern US One Cent and probably about half the thickness..

I found this particular coin with my Racer 2 but my mate has found similar with his Nox as have many other Nox owners over here...

Many have also found "cut halves" and "cut quarters" of these coins which are really small....

All in all both the 600 and 800 have good reputations for finding these which is one of the reasons these detectors are so popular over here...
 
There is a widely known issue with coins on edge with the NOX. I checked my software and I am running 1.7.5 which is apparently the latest firmware.

I don’t necessarily think that was my issue, but it totally could have been in some instances at the older parks. Everyone pulled silver except me. come to think of it, I don’t find many coins on edge anymore. I did with the ATPro.
 
I worked with ground balance when I got my 600, and here in Texas, it made no noticable difference whatsoever, running factory settings and multi freqs. I quit doing a GB and I quit running auto GB with all of my machines. I might in single frequency. I keep it simple...Run Multi-Mode. I have found several new silvers in my old spots soon after getting the 600.

Multi mode with this machine is very forgiving, excellent in fact.

Drop the recovery speed from factory 3 to 2 and leave the other factory program settings alone. You will get results. Coin sized targets read better with that slower speed setting of 2.
 
I worked with ground balance when I got my 600, and here in Texas, it made no noticable difference whatsoever, running factory settings and multi freqs. I quit doing a GB and I quit running auto GB with all of my machines. I might in single frequency. I keep it simple...Run Multi-Mode. I have found several new silvers in my old spots soon after getting the 600.

Multi mode with this machine is very forgiving, excellent in fact.

Drop the recovery speed from factory 3 to 2 and leave the other factory program settings alone. You will get results. Coin sized targets read better with that slower speed setting of 2.

The ground in Texas is definitely different ground than here in Michigan. Didn’t have my NOX when I lived in Texas, but even the ATP acts different here compared to Texas. I have to say I don’t miss Texas ground... clay bed at 8” was nice because most items were on top of that layer, but didn’t like the mineralization in my hunting areas. Lol

Is the default recovery speed 3? I didn’t check what the default settings were for recovery. I may drop it down if it is.
 
Sounds like a the factory reset got you back on track. Park 1 default IB is 6 and recovery is 5 (on the 800) and i have had no problem finding deep silver. The newest fw 1.75 resolved the silver-on-edge issue in park 1/field 1, so no issues there either.

I rearely use anything other than park 1, and i only change tones from 5 to 50, noise cancel, and GB set to tracking.
 
What do you guys recommend for freshwater beaches? Beach mode specifically says saltwater.

Park 1 still optimal for freshwater hunting?
 
Unless a person has a lot of changing ground conditions I would not run with ground tracking on. Just noise cancel and ground balance.

If a person is hunting in trashy ground they need to hunt in Park2. That's iron or modern trash. I would not use Park1 for anything but very clean areas. I think I have found almost all my silver with the Equinox running in Park2.

The Equinox is without a doubt one of the top 4 detectors made. If a person hunting with an Equinox is getting out hunted by an ATpro on a regular basis it's because they don't know their machine. The Equinox is a great silver machine and in some situations I think it's the best silver machine.
 
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