Equinox 600 Help Red Clay Soil

Mtc8966

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Mar 29, 2016
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Gang,

Still fairly new to metal detecting and never gave a lot of thought to my soil and how it affects the machine I use.

I buried a clad dime in my test garden about 7-8" deep. I made sure it was flat and packed soil tight around it. I also made sure the location was clear of any iron pieces, nails etc.

My equinox 600 can barely hit it in all modes. Signals come up and stay in the iron range in most directions. I can get a one way hit that registers high but it mostly reads as iron . I tried all kinds of adjustments. Iron Bias, Ground Balance, Sensitivity. You name it. The machine ground balances at 6 in Park 1 or Field 1. It just won't reach it.

If I bury the clad dime to a 4" depth it hits it fine. But 7-8" I it comes up as iron in most directions.


The soils is heavy red clay. Are these the effects of the red clay on my Equinox? Any ideas how to tune it for this?

I think the machine is fine because it does well in air tests. But it just won't hit dimes in my red clay test garden reliably beyond 4-5"

Any help is appreciated.
 
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I have a Nox 800, not the 600. Something don't seem right getting a 6. Are you sure the 6 is not the recovery speed? My 800 has never ground balanced that low even in more sandy ground. My ground ranges from 40's-50's mostly in Park2. I have red clay in a lot of places I hunt.
 
I have a Nox 800, not the 600. Something don't seem right getting a 6. Are you sure the 6 is not the recovery speed? My 800 has never ground balanced that low even in more sandy ground. My ground ranges from 40's-50's mostly in Park2. I have red clay in a lot of places I hunt.

Thanks for the reply. It GB's at 5-6 in Park1/Field1 and 9-10 in Park2/Field2.

I usually leave GB at 0 when I'm hunting in the field. But I thought I would see if it would help in this instance in my test garden. It didn't.
 
My Equinox 800s and the 600 I used to use all ground balanced between -3 and +9 where I usually detect here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado if I am in dirt that used to be igneous/metamorphic rocks and had high iron content. So, if you are in Southern USA red clay, it probably came from similar rocks from the ancient Appalachians and is full of iron. I use my 800 in NW Georgia a lot when I visit my parents and usually get ground balance numbers from 11 to 25 there in the Park and Field modes. So your 6 to 10 numbers are close.

What you are describing on a recently buried 7 to 8 inch dime sounds about right. My Equinox with the 11" coil will hit buried who knows how long 10" dimes easily. So the recent burial of your dime results in mineralized dirt sounds about right since recently buried targets in mineralized dirt will not be detected well by any VLF detector. Also, your iron responses may well be the Equinox hitting iron targets that are too small for even a handheld pinpointer to hit.

I would go to Park 2 and reset it by holding down the mode button until you see it reset, keep it in default Park 2 Multi and hit the horseshoe button to accept all targets. Check for clear ground and ground balance as near your recently buried dime as you can and see what you get. If the ground feedback high/low sounds go silent your 600 is ground balanced. Make sure you are not in ground tracking by the way. Hit the horseshoe button to reject the iron range and try detecting your dime again.

I have a test garden that is very established but it is really mineralized dirt. I literally used a really strong magnet to remove as much of the naturally occurring iron around my buried targets as I could. My deepest targets are 6". Most single frequency detectors will not give any target ID on those 6" targets. They might give an extremely high tone or an iron grunt. That's about it. My 800s, my 600 and all of the Minelab Vanquish models will hit all of those 6" deep targets fairly easily even at 2/3s sensitivity with correct tones and numbers no matter what conductivity the target is.
 
Okay I'm confused here. I thought the higher number the higher the mineralization? If that is the case then even 0-20 would be really low mineralization. The lower the mineralization the deeper you can get right.
 
The Equinox and the XTerras had weird ground balance numbers. When I check ground mineralization on my Deus, Teknetics G2+, and Makro Gold Kruzer I get almost full bars of mineralization like 4 or 5 bars on the G2+ and Gold Kruzer. I also get really high numbers in the upper 80s to low 90s. Equinox and XTerra numbers were in the -3 to +9 on exactly the same ground.........? Default on the Equinox is 0. Default on the XP Deus is 90. Still confused like me too.......
 
The Equinox and the XTerras had weird ground balance numbers. When I check ground mineralization on my Deus, Teknetics G2+, and Makro Gold Kruzer I get almost full bars of mineralization like 4 or 5 bars on the G2+ and Gold Kruzer. I also get really high numbers in the upper 80s to low 90s. Equinox and XTerra numbers were in the -3 to +9 on exactly the same ground.........? Default on the Equinox is 0. Default on the XP Deus is 90. Still confused like me too.......

Actually today I was thinking about starting another Equinox GB thread after what happened on yesterdays hunt. Again I will emphasize in my ground the GB numbers range most of the time from 40-60 and most of the high ground is red clay. Now to the east in the bottoms it's sandy and GB are 20's-30's.

In my opinion if your using the default 0 GB your missing out on deeper finds. Numerous times I have got out and forgot to GB then remember later in the hunt and the machine wakes up big time. It happened Sunday. I forgot to GB cause buddies were already there hunting. After 15-20 minutes of clad and nothing good or deep I GB'ed, and then boom Wheats, Merc, Buff. I've had the same thing happen numerous times when I didn't GB initially, then did and the machine is totally different on deeper targets.

In my yard I just went out and checked a deeply buried quarter. With my 800 GB'ed in Park2 with the GB numbers reading 45 it hits the quarter well showing 28-34 with good high tone. I then lowered the GB manually to 0. While it still hits it a little the numbers are all over the place and the beep is much fainter. Again if your ground is mineralized much or even if it isn't I would not use the default 0 no matter what the manual says.
 
My Equinox 800s and the 600 I used to use all ground balanced between -3 and +9 where I usually detect here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado if I am in dirt that used to be igneous/metamorphic rocks and had high iron content. So, if you are in Southern USA red clay, it probably came from similar rocks from the ancient Appalachians and is full of iron. I use my 800 in NW Georgia a lot when I visit my parents and usually get ground balance numbers from 11 to 25 there in the Park and Field modes. So your 6 to 10 numbers are close.

What you are describing on a recently buried 7 to 8 inch dime sounds about right. My Equinox with the 11" coil will hit buried who knows how long 10" dimes easily. So the recent burial of your dime results in mineralized dirt sounds about right since recently buried targets in mineralized dirt will not be detected well by any VLF detector. Also, your iron responses may well be the Equinox hitting iron targets that are too small for even a handheld pinpointer to hit.

I would go to Park 2 and reset it by holding down the mode button until you see it reset, keep it in default Park 2 Multi and hit the horseshoe button to accept all targets. Check for clear ground and ground balance as near your recently buried dime as you can and see what you get. If the ground feedback high/low sounds go silent your 600 is ground balanced. Make sure you are not in ground tracking by the way. Hit the horseshoe button to reject the iron range and try detecting your dime again.

I have a test garden that is very established but it is really mineralized dirt. I literally used a really strong magnet to remove as much of the naturally occurring iron around my buried targets as I could. My deepest targets are 6". Most single frequency detectors will not give any target ID on those 6" targets. They might give an extremely high tone or an iron grunt. That's about it. My 800s, my 600 and all of the Minelab Vanquish models will hit all of those 6" deep targets fairly easily even at 2/3s sensitivity with correct tones and numbers no matter what conductivity the target is.

Thanks for the reply. I did try what you had mentioned and the results were the same. The coin pretty much rings up as iron at 7-8" no matter what I set it at.
Makes me wonder how much deep stuff I'm missing.

I'm going to pick up a bag of sandy loam topsoil at home depot and hog out a hole and bury the coin in the top soil and test the result compared to my native soil.

Thanks again.
 
Thanks for the reply. I did try what you had mentioned and the results were the same. The coin pretty much rings up as iron at 7-8" no matter what I set it at.
Makes me wonder how much deep stuff I'm missing.

I'm going to pick up a bag of sandy loam topsoil at home depot and hog out a hole and bury the coin in the top soil and test the result compared to my native soil.

Thanks again.

So, did you test your 7 to 8” dime in default Park 2 Multi with -9 to 0 rejected?
You should have been in 50 tones with a very high tone for the dime. If you only got iron responses you were not using default Park 2.
You can try the same thing with default Park 1 Multi.
 
So, did you test your 7 to 8” dime in default Park 2 Multi with -9 to 0 rejected?
You should have been in 50 tones with a very high tone for the dime. If you only got iron responses you were not using default Park 2.
You can try the same thing with default Park 1 Multi.



Retested to your exact specifications. (park 2) With sensitivity at about 23. G/B at 9.

Of all the things I tried this seemed to be the best combination. Gets some ok hits from one direction this way. When I start to move 90 degrees it starts to break up. I hit the all metal horseshoe and can again see the low iron numbers start to show up.

One thing I did too was start increasing my sweep speed and saw the numbers stabilize in the mid to high 20's.

I would call this a one way iffy signal but maybe the more experienced users would see it differently.

I never use Park 2 or Field 2. Maybe I should start. Maybe that frequency set is better for the soil in my area.

Thanks for the help.
 
What you are describing sounds like a relatively deep smaller high conductive target in freshly disturbed mineralized dirt. What negative iron numbers were you getting?

On a target like that which has the possibility to be deep silver, I will encircle the target with swings. It becomes a coin-toss in real world situations. I have dug dimes at 10" in mineralization that sounded really good with solid 24 to 28 numbers in every direction and I have dug slightly tilted or on edge shallower dimes in mineralization that sounded good in several directions, sound just scratchy and broken up in another and because there is lots of iron in my dirt, sounded like iron in one direction. Sometimes they are clad dimes, copper memorial or wheat pennies, or silver coins. Many times they are bent rusty square nails...

Park 2 and Field 2 have higher frequencies and at least one low frequency mixed together (like 5 kHz or similar) so those two modes are extremely sensitive on smaller and some deeper targets and may hit targets on edge or targets that are partially masked by iron targets or iron mineralization that Park 1 and Field 1 won't hit. That sounds like what you are experiencing especially when you add recently disturbed ground and freshly planted targets to the equation.

That is what makes the Equinox 600 such a versatile detector......you actually have at least three different detectors in one that can successfully detect in just about any situation.
 
I also struggle with a six inch silver dime with some machines in my heavy red clay test garden. That dime has been buried for a few years now. I now embrace that dime and use it as a standard to test other detectors with. Never used the Equinox though.
 
Out of curiosity, did you try beach 2? If you haven't, try it and don't GB. Beach 2 seems to hit VERY deep for me. My usual is Park 1 and I've hit dimes down to 12 inches...but not red clay.
 
Gang,

Still fairly new to metal detecting and never gave a lot of thought to my soil and how it affects the machine I use.

I buried a clad dime in my test garden about 7-8" deep. I made sure it was flat and packed soil tight around it. I also made sure the location was clear of any iron pieces, nails etc.

My equinox 600 can barely hit it in all modes. Signals come up and stay in the iron range in most directions. I can get a one way hit that registers high but it mostly reads as iron . I tried all kinds of adjustments. Iron Bias, Ground Balance, Sensitivity. You name it. The machine ground balances at 6 in Park 1 or Field 1. It just won't reach it.

If I bury the clad dime to a 4" depth it hits it fine. But 7-8" I it comes up as iron in most directions.


The soils is heavy red clay. Are these the effects of the red clay on my Equinox? Any ideas how to tune it for this?

I think the machine is fine because it does well in air tests. But it just won't hit dimes in my red clay test garden reliably beyond 4-5"

Any help is appreciated.

GB of 6? Sounds like a noise cancel number instead of a ground balance number especially in red clay
 
Folks need to ground balance their EQXs. Here’s a video I did adjusting GB and notice the effects.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sYdFzqIvF94

Watched your video, makes good sense. Question since I am new to the NOX600, have a pretty much preset recovery speed of 3 on the 600 I believe, how slow should I be swinging when looking for deeper targets. I noticed you were swinging pretty slow in that video. Thanks!
 
Gang,

Still fairly new to metal detecting and never gave a lot of thought to my soil and how it affects the machine I use.

I buried a clad dime in my test garden about 7-8" deep. I made sure it was flat and packed soil tight around it. I also made sure the location was clear of any iron pieces, nails etc.

My equinox 600 can barely hit it in all modes. Signals come up and stay in the iron range in most directions. I can get a one way hit that registers high but it mostly reads as iron . I tried all kinds of adjustments. Iron Bias, Ground Balance, Sensitivity. You name it. The machine ground balances at 6 in Park 1 or Field 1. It just won't reach it.

If I bury the clad dime to a 4" depth it hits it fine. But 7-8" I it comes up as iron in most directions.


The soils is heavy red clay. Are these the effects of the red clay on my Equinox? Any ideas how to tune it for this?

I think the machine is fine because it does well in air tests. But it just won't hit dimes in my red clay test garden reliably beyond 4-5"

Any help is appreciated.

With a slower recovery speed on my E 800 I get more depth.
 
Red clay in your state must have iron in it. That's hard for most detectors to deal with but Equinox should do well.
 
Watched your video, makes good sense. Question since I am new to the NOX600, have a pretty much preset recovery speed of 3 on the 600 I believe, how slow should I be swinging when looking for deeper targets. I noticed you were swinging pretty slow in that video. Thanks!

Try slow sweep and speed 2 on your unit. As long as soil is not too mineralized.
 
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