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Metal detecting beaches, rivers and other water related areas.
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I woke up this morning to a fully charged Equinox and rain. I spent about an hour or so attempting to understand the manual and practicing in the garden. No luck there beyond assembling it and linking the bluetooth headphones so I took it down to the local beach for a spin. Considering that the conditions were such that I wouldn't usually have bothered detecting at all I actually did ok below the high tide mark.
I already knew that the beach mode is rubbush, it completely kills the depth, so I stuck with Land 1 with the sensitivity on maximum. No coins were deeper than about a foot and many a lot shallower but the signals were unmissable and unmistakable. Several of the fishing weights were a bit deeper but again the signals were a very consistent 20 (until I started fiddling with the controls anyway. ). Shallow stuff gives a very disconcerting double signal although the numbers are still constant and the numbers and/or signal for most trash is not very stable at all. One very welcome feature of the Equinox is that it completely ignores the highly mineralised imported igneous sea defence rocks which most other machines struggle with.
I found about £8 and a shed load of fishing weights in a couple of hours plus not too much trash. It was all somewhat differend than I am used to and I don't think that randomly pressing buttons necessarily helped much but I am still in no doubt that there is one heck of a machine in there somewhere.
I should be out on well detected pasture tomorrow so it will be interesting to see how that goes.
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Looks like you had a good day, certainly finds the lead and the coinage has started to pay for the new detector.
Good Luck for your inland detecting tomorrow.
Cheers
Dave.
It is starting to sound like a promising machine .... I wonder if you can plug it into a computer and overclock (set it beyond designed capacity ) it ? On second thoughts, walking around like Mr. Bean after his go on a Van de Graaf generator is probably not going a good idea though
[A foot in wet or damp sand is good though, especially if it gives a good ID .... I always read UK beaches were over-detected, do people just leave the lead behind or something, because the only places I find so much lead are where I know no one has been for quite a while .... maybe no one detects towards the low water because they figure the water is so cold few people venture in ]
Hello Fred,
Thanks for your initial findings on the 'Nox' (did you just set adopted short name for it)?
The real 'proof of the pudding' will come to light once you've had a couple of 'sweeps' over more familiar ground. Cheers Fred, looking forward to your next trial outing. Regards ss47
It is starting to sound like a promising machine .... I wonder if you can plug it into a computer and overclock (set it beyond designed capacity ) it ? On second thoughts, walking around like Mr. Bean after his go on a Van de Graaf generator is probably not going a good idea though
[A foot in wet or damp sand is good though, especially if it gives a good ID .... I always read UK beaches were over-detected, do people just leave the lead behind or something, because the only places I find so much lead are where I know no one has been for quite a while .... maybe no one detects towards the low water because they figure the water is so cold few people venture in ]
Todays beach was imported sloping shingle which is moved about by storms and then put back in place by bulldozers to stop the sea giving my house a fashionable, if somewhat unwelcome, beachfront look. Detecting on it tends to be hit or miss. The grossly overdetected sandy beaches are a bit further away.
A foot on a coin is OK on shingle but would not be very special on sand, however, that was only my first outing and god knows what most of the settings actually were. I do agree that the omens are good though.
Overclocking sounds interesting. I was a bit mystified that the number and sound target ID on the Nox was either pretty stable or there was nothing there at all. That is different than another machine that I am familiar with where the signal just gradually deteriorates away to nothing and suggests to me that the potential depth on the Nox has been deliberately limited or curtailed by the programming.
It is starting to sound like a promising machine .... I wonder if you can plug it into a computer and overclock (set it beyond designed capacity ) it ? On second thoughts, walking around like Mr. Bean after his go on a Van de Graaf generator is probably not going a good idea though
[A foot in wet or damp sand is good though, especially if it gives a good ID .... I always read UK beaches were over-detected, do people just leave the lead behind or something, because the only places I find so much lead are where I know no one has been for quite a while .... maybe no one detects towards the low water because they figure the water is so cold few people venture in ]
Todays beach was imported sloping shingle which is moved about by storms and then put back in place by bulldozers to stop the sea giving my house a fashionable, if somewhat unwelcome, beachfront look. Detecting on it tends to be hit or miss. The grossly overdetected sandy beaches are a bit further away.
A foot on a coin is OK on shingle but would not be very special on sand, however, that was only my first outing and god knows what most of the settings actually were. I do agree that the omens are good though.
Overclocking sounds interesting. I was a bit mystified that the number and sound target ID on the Nox was either pretty stable or there was nothing there at all. That is different than another machine that I am familiar with where the signal just gradually deteriorates away to nothing and suggests to me that the potential depth on the Nox has been deliberately limited or curtailed by the programming.
That is an excellent assessment Fred, and puts my understanding of the subject of detector effectiveness to shame. I stick to the one machine and to one program .. on the basis that my brain would otherwise go into information over load. All that said ... your reputation is built on a record of finds that is ... second to none... which means that your assessment and suggestions are "up there" in my book!
It is starting to sound like a promising machine .... I wonder if you can plug it into a computer and overclock (set it beyond designed capacity ) it ? On second thoughts, walking around like Mr. Bean after his go on a Van de Graaf generator is probably not going a good idea though
[A foot in wet or damp sand is good though, especially if it gives a good ID .... I always read UK beaches were over-detected, do people just leave the lead behind or something, because the only places I find so much lead are where I know no one has been for quite a while .... maybe no one detects towards the low water because they figure the water is so cold few people venture in ]
Todays beach was imported sloping shingle which is moved about by storms and then put back in place by bulldozers to stop the sea giving my house a fashionable, if somewhat unwelcome, beachfront look. Detecting on it tends to be hit or miss. The grossly overdetected sandy beaches are a bit further away.
A foot on a coin is OK on shingle but would not be very special on sand, however, that was only my first outing and god knows what most of the settings actually were. I do agree that the omens are good though.
Overclocking sounds interesting. I was a bit mystified that the number and sound target ID on the Nox was either pretty stable or there was nothing there at all. That is different than another machine that I am familiar with where the signal just gradually deteriorates away to nothing and suggests to me that the potential depth on the Nox has been deliberately limited or curtailed by the programming.
we have similar here sometimes, the imported sand and shingle can be empty through to holding older objects, it is always a guess.
I don't think overclocking the processor would do more than speed up recovery, but I imagine that the voltages, power and frequencies are all handled by the onboard computer, the signal processing definitely. I don't think overclocking the actual hardware ( coil etc.) would be too wise, but I think if the possibility exists, someone somewhere will try it. What will be interesting though is if people get around to actually managing how any signal is processed directly... that is to say instead of managing it with screen options they edit the exact thresholds to emphasize very particular traits that give the required results in their specific environment. I hope someone will design an interface to attach that graphs the signal... sure it can be done...I don't expect it is completely necessary but the more people know about their machine the better they will do... as long as it is not at the expense of time detecting .
With the CTX maybe, but a foot on the G2 with a clear ID is about its limit, on damp but not wet sand.
The only other reason I can think of of for why the ID just outs, is that they might have really stretched the ability to maximum, after which there is just no readable signal... so it goes straight to tone only for a base signal and no ID In a sense, better a tone but no ID than one with a false ID?
Twit wrote: Sat Mar 24, 2018 6:16 pm
With the CTX maybe, but a foot on the G2 with a clear ID is about its limit, on damp but not wet sand.
The only other reason I can think of of for why the ID just outs, is that they might have really stretched the ability to maximum, after which there is just no readable signal... so it goes straight to tone only for a base signal and no ID In a sense, better a tone but no ID than one with a false ID?
It is very early days but I think that what they have done is gone for a programmed cutoff. If their algorithms can't ID it then the signal isn't passed on for the user to make up his (or her) own mind about. Bear in mind that so far I have had two hours experience using only the preset modes so, as with all their other detectors, there is likely to be a lot more lurking in there if you can but find it.
You have quite a few finds there Fred, £8 in change as well. would you say that the machine does well did well on a beach that has been done before many times or was it just a normal day for beach detecting.
Cant wait for the pasture review and wish you all the best with teh new beast.
Deus xp WS4, 11 inch coil, Nokta pinpointer, Solid spade
I already knew that the beach mode is rubbish, it completely kills the depth.
Curious to know why you think that. It has certainly not been my experience. Maybe it is due to different mineralisation of your beaches.
HH
Minelab Equinox 800
Minelab Excalibur 11
Garrett AT Pro International
Garrett Sea Hunter MK 2
Garrett Propointer.
Makro Waterproof Pointer.
Flask of coffee / brandy
Plenty of fags
A lot of patience
Boandtia wrote: Sat Mar 24, 2018 8:20 pm
I already knew that the beach mode is rubbish, it completely kills the depth.
Curious to know why you think that. It has certainly not been my experience. Maybe it is due to different mineralisation of your beaches.
HH
Bear in mind that I was either in my garden or on sandy shingle when I tested the beach mode. In either case this wasn't a fair test of it's beach capability which was almost certainly designed around sand. Certainly the in air depths in the Beach modes are not very impressive but Minelabs are reknowned for getting better depths in the ground than they do in air. I intend to give the machine a thorough workout over the next few weeks so we will see how it goes. In the meantime I would be very interested to hear if you have tried Field 1 or any other nonstandard settings on the beach and what you thought?
). Shallow stuff gives a very disconcerting double signal although the numbers are still constant and the numbers and/or signal for most trash is not very stable at all. One very welcome feature of the Equinox is that it completely ignores the highly mineralised imported igneous sea defence rocks which most other machines struggle with.
.... maybe no one detects towards the low water because they figure the water is so cold few people venture in 
