NOX 600 #'s reading high

tomme boy

Junior Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
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89
Location
iowa
I have had my 600 since Christmas. Been out with it many times and lately the #'s seem off. Copper pennies are reading 28-29. Dimes are reading the same. Quarters are 29-32. Zinc pennies are 19-21. The only one that is reading right. These are all clad coins. Have not found any silver yet to know what they read.

I am in Park 1 and 5 tones. I have not changed any of the factory settings. Usually running the sensitivity around 17-20 depending on where I am at. When I first got this it had the old program on it. So I downloaded to the newest version. I kind of like the older program as it acted more reliable for me.

It seemed to change from reading normal #'s to what it is now the last 3 times I have been out. This is the same ground I have been hunting before.

I hate to say it but my Teknetics Minuteman hits just as hard and gives me more reliable vdi #'s to tell what is in the ground. I am about to go back to it.

What would make the 600 change? Or what would I have to do to get it back to normal?
 
I wish I could tell ya. I'm having the same issue. Still... I have had Zink pennies read 30 at 2-3 inches deep. 60-70's copper pennies ringing up 26-27-28. I have done several factory resets. Uploaded the "New" program twice.

It seems to work fine for a bit after I do a FP. But after a couple of hunts, it starts reading funny again.

If you figure it out, let me know.
 
Oddly enough, mine starting reading high when I took it out a week ago in the cold.. Aluminium cans were showing up in the 22 range where I would normally find pennies.. I did an air test against Canadian coins and they don't register the same as they did last year after I did the firmware update.. Is it the temp, or perhaps the water saturation in the soil from all the rains we've been getting here?
 
Hi,
I have well over a thousand hours on both the Nox 600 and 800. It is great to be semi-retired! Honestly tomme boy, I do not see anything unusual about your numbers. They are fairly consistent with what I am seeing for coins numbers in my area. I have pretty mineralized soil that goes from extremely wet to extremely dry in a few hours sometimes, living at altitude with very little humidity. Any coins over 4" deep here or coins buried other than horizontal, will usually give slightly higher numbers. So will surface finds. At least from my experience, the published numbers: 13, 21, 25-26 and 30 for US clad coins are suggested numbers from air testing and for near perfect detecting conditions. I did not see any difference in target IDs after the update.

Jeff
 
Equinox is a good machine and if it says it’s a coin it’s usually a coin..The Visual ID is good Somtimes,other times it’s off..At least that was my experience..If your after superior visual ID then you need to get a Etrac..You will not dig any more pennies unless you want to.
But,and I’m sure of this,some worn barbers and mercs will fall in the penny range because I’ve dug them with multiple machines and they rang up as pennies.
Cherry picking is great but you will miss a lot of good stuff doing it.Somtimes it’s better to just go by sound.
 
I am using the sound. But I am also using the #'s. It seems that the copper pennies gained about 4 #'s from just a few months ago. I have had a couple that read 32+. I found nothing else in the hole. They were around 3-4" down. Then I air tested them and they read the same.

I have also dug some awesome sounding 30-31 that I was sure were quarters. But they ended up aluminum cans. I am skipping anything below 19 as it is always pulltabs of every sort or foil.

I will do a factory reset next time I go out. The newer version of the software installed OK. That was what I have been running on. The ground here is very black dirt. It is IOWA. Most of the parks I have been hitting used to be in the flood plain. So it is very dark rich dirt. Almost a peat.
 
I have also dug some awesome sounding 30-31 that I was sure were quarters. But they ended up aluminum cans.

With some practice, regardless of the VDI number, you will be able to tell the difference between an aluminum can and a quarter. The length of the signal tone and even the pinpoint function will clue you in on the size of the target. I'm not sure why the VDI numbers are showing higher though. Keep us posted.
 
I quickly discovered that ver 1.75 gave me a lot of elevated VDI numbers, and simply went back to Ver 1.5. To each their choices. I don't worry about half dollars on edge. The VDI numbers are more stable in 1.5, along with pinpoint accuracy. jm2c
 
I quickly discovered that ver 1.75 gave me a lot of elevated VDI numbers, and simply went back to Ver 1.5. To each their choices. I don't worry about half dollars on edge. The VDI numbers are more stable in 1.5, along with pinpoint accuracy. jm2c

I think you are right. I was more able to pinpoint before I went to the update. I noticed my holes got almost 2x the size afterwards.

I will go back to the old program before I head out next time to see.
 
I quickly discovered that ver 1.75 gave me a lot of elevated VDI numbers, and simply went back to Ver 1.5. To each their choices. I don't worry about half dollars on edge. The VDI numbers are more stable in 1.5, along with pinpoint accuracy. jm2c

If you follow the exact procedure I stated prior, you can run the latest software.

I noticed issues even going back to the old software if I didnt do the reset before and after loading ANY version of software.
 
If you follow the exact procedure I stated prior, you can run the latest software.

I noticed issues even going back to the old software if I didnt do the reset before and after loading ANY version of software.

I have doubled, even tripled Factory Presets during my test weeks when 1.75 came out. I'll admit that there was SOME brief improvements in pinpoint at times. Then the holes began getting wider again and the VDI numbers were jumpy on dimes,,,hitting quarter numbers.

Ver 1.5 has always been consistent. It simply keeps me a lot more confident on every trip out in the field.
 
Are you running in 5hz?

When I run "Multi" my numbers are where I expect them to be. If i run "5hz" they tend to be higher VDI than I am use too.

I agree with the reset/upload/reset as an issue too. Once I did that 1.75 ran like the improved version of 1.5 that it was supposed to be.

The only 2 other outliers affecting your numbers could be the 5hz programming, or if your coil cable isn't snug to the control base.
 
Sometimes I get normal numbers on one cent coins, 19-22 or so on zinc and 23-25 on copper...but other times in some sites they both get pretty high.
Don't know why, something in the soil I assume but don't quote me on that.

Lately I have been hunting in Field 2, Multi, mostly 5 tones, some tweaks to the tones and sections that make high conductors stick out.
Recently at one park near my house I was digging zinc and copper cents at normal numbers.
Two days ago I went to another park about 3 miles from my home and most cents, (the deeper zincolns and copper cents), were coming in high at 30.
Despite that quarters and most everything else seems to come in fine and and I found a silver quarter and half dollar on top of everything.

I don't really care where things come in all that much, I am more into the tones and behaviour than the numbers no matter how useful those numbers can be.
I can adapt if it gets a little weird.
 
I never think I am digging a for sure deep dime and it turns out to be a penny. Now occasionally I won't be sure to begin with and it's a toss up. But I can say for certain when I think I am digging a silver dime it usually is. In my ground for some reason dimes in the ground read higher than they air test.
 
I run mine in multi. I have a very bad back and knees. I try my best to cherry pick what I am going to dig. If the #'s are off I end up digging lots of things I do not want to dig at all.

I still have not made it back out because of my back. Hopefully soon. I just got back into this and I feel it may be attributing to my back issues. My first detector was in 1979 and was from Radio Shack. I used that thing on and off through the 80's and into the 90's. It was a simple one tone machine. I sold it at a garage sale and now I wish I just had it for memories.

Anyway this was my reason of concern.
 
Hi tomme boy
I can sure relate to not wanting to dig unwanted targets that appear to be good targets for many of the same reasons as you (back and knees are pretty bad). I have used lots of detectors and none are even close to perfect. The Nox and Deus/Orx have been the best for me so far. Luckily, I am still able to put in 2 to 3 hours daily when the pain isn't too bad. I hope yours gets better soon.

I really check the target carefully if I am not certain. I size it with the pinpoint function. If the Nox is giving really good numbers ( nickel and up) and the target is not coin sized when pinpointing and gives a long high pitched steady tone or if it gives some negative numbers when pressing the horseshoe button and detecting at a right angle to the original sweep I may move on. If the target is giving good numbers and shows itself to be shallow on the depth meter and I can't hit it with a 6" probe I will probably move on too. I can only do coin popping in my area. No shovels. Big deep iron, aluminum/tin targets are fairly easy to passover this way. Small coin sized aluminum can slaw can give a very high steady pitched pinpoint sound too. Most good coin and jewelry targets will give pinpoint tones that ramp up and down sharply from medium tone to high to medium and are usually shorter in duration than coin sized can slaw. Zinc pennys on both the Nox and Deus can be very frustrating since they just don't act right most of the time for me anyway due to corrosion. I dig them since many awesome targets come in around the same numbers. Shallower pull tabs almost always double or triple beep and will include an 11 or 14 depending on their vintage. Very shallow coins and rings will double beep too however. So far, after hundreds of nickels I have not dug one yet that didn't include a 13 in the target ID even when jumpy. All of the gold and silver rings and other coin sized jewelry I have found have just given one solid number with no jumping. Steel crown caps with foil are a major pain unless they show some negative numbers or iron tone depending on your setup. The ones without foil that have a little rust will double or triple beep and usually have some iron characteristics along with showing mostly 11 to 13 numbers that can also jump around out side that range in my area. Screw caps come in at 22 to 24 and sound great unfortunately. I usually come home with at least one.

HH


Jeff
 
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