Going from Etrac to Equinox

Denver Pete

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May 20, 2019
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Location
Denver, CO
I've been an Etrac user for a while and have now started using the Equinox 800. I wanted to get some opinions from others who have made this same transition. I've set up my Nox in a way that I feel makes it more Etrac-like. Anyone else doing this? I typically hunt old trashy parks for coins. The settings I've been using lately are:

Park 1 (weighted toward lower frequency for coins)
50 tones (sounds more like Etrac)
Tone pitch 25 (I like the squeaky high tones silver produces, like on the Etrac)
Iron bias= 0 (I want to hear everything. I feel using 50 tones gives you more information and helps you hear the iron)
Recovery between 5 and 7

Thanks guys! Happy hunting!
 
The Equinox is just a better detector for masked targets.
 
I love my Equinox 800 but it doesn’t replace my CTX. Still use them both regularly for different situations. For coin shooting a fresh permission I reach for the 3030. For cleaning up the last few targets from a trashy spot I grab the Nox. I run 50 tones on the CTX but prefer tone breaks on the Nox.


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I made that exact transition and I do not miss my etrac one bit. It only took 2 hunts before I was sold and I literally sold my etrac a few days later. I have found countless silvers and old pennies with my nox in areas I pounded with at pro and then etrac. I loved the etrac but I love the nox even more. It will take a little time to get used to the nox but once you find an old coin right next to a nail or other trash you will be sold. The nox separates and unmasks good targets like no other machine i have used including my ctx.

I use very similar settings as you although I did switch from 50 tones to 5 tones pretty quickly. I think that is more of a preference thing and everyone's ears are different. Good luck with your new machine!

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Park2 most of the time. Iron bias 0, recovery 6-7, 5 tones. I run with no discrimination. I have tone bins set to my liking. I actually bought a Nox 800 before I bought a used Etrac. I like the Etrac, but in my opinion it works best in really clean yards. In clean places I think the Etrac is a hair deeper than the Nox. I very seldom use the Etrac, but will occasionally in a non-trashy permission where I need to cherry pick targets.
 
I find that the Etrac is more sensitive to EMI than the 800. After using the Nox for a few hours and going back to the Etrac, the biggest difference I noticed was the recovery speed. The Etrac felt like a snail. However, I swung my Etrac around my honey hole that I thought I cleaned out pretty well with the Nox. Equipped with an 8”x6” SEF coil I managed to find 3 silver dimes I missed. They’re both great machines. A guy I hunt with has a 3030 and Etrac. The Etrac is his go to machine and he makes most of us other local guys look like amateurs when he’s swinging his “old” detector and finding things in spots we’ve all gone over already.

I have my Nox setup like my Etrac that I run in 4 tone conductive, open screen and FE line blocked out from 18 on up...

-Noise cancel when turning on
-Manually ground balance
-Park 1 or Field 1
-Accept target IDs 9-40 or 10-14, 17-20, 23-40 (depending on the site)
-Mid tone sound for IDs 1-15, medium high tone 16-20, high tone for 21-40
-Recovery 5 if not too trashy, 6 if average trashiness, 7 if super trashy
-Iron bias 0
 
The real power of the Equinox is the unmasking ability which if you know how to use it, nothing comes close. I still own my Etrac and will probably never sell it. I did sell my CTX. Your settings are close to mine, but keep in mind the very deep 8 plus inches masked targets will not jump out and say dig me. You need to pay very close attention to the tone, it is key. IF you get a high tone peep, concentrate on that spot very tightly warble the coil as you circle the target and while doing so if you are getting those sweet tones at times then watch your ID, it will be jumpy somewhat but if you see it constantly hitting some high numbers as you investigate ,,,, dig. My good target to bad target recovery is 80 percent or better. I recovered 38 old coins in an old park about the size of a large yard that had been totally pounded. My first trip there i used the CTX with 6, stock and 17 inch coils for a good hour and a half and found nothing, then switched to Etrac and used a couple different coils and found nothing. Then for my final couple hours i decided to use the Nox 800 and it probably took me a whole minute and a half to two minutes before i recovered my first barber dime there. Most of the targets i recovered in the two trips i made there were in second sampson shovel which puts them all deeper than 7 inches. Here is a video i shot back in my home town where i had pounded with the CTX and Etrac and lots of other machines. I use it for an example to show what to look for to dig. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2lImonx8nY
 
Trashfinder, good video. I have had some good finds doing the same teqnique in your video. But, I still have problems seperating iron falses from good targets. False iron gives a nice high tone and vdi. One thing I have done to rule out iron falsing is to stick my shovel in as if to dig, but just pop the ground a bit, to slightly loosen without taking any dirt from hole. If the signal is gone, Im pretty sure it is iron. I need more practice for sure, hate the thought of leaving good targets.
 
Trashfinder, good video. I have had some good finds doing the same teqnique in your video. But, I still have problems seperating iron falses from good targets. False iron gives a nice high tone and vdi. One thing I have done to rule out iron falsing is to stick my shovel in as if to dig, but just pop the ground a bit, to slightly loosen without taking any dirt from hole. If the signal is gone, Im pretty sure it is iron. I need more practice for sure, hate the thought of leaving good targets.

Thats good advice from Trashfinder. A couple more tips to weed out the falsing iron:

The tone should be consistent and repeatable. Even if you're only getting a tone in one direction, it should repeat consistently as long as you pass the coil over it in the same location and at the same speed. Falsing iron generally isn't very repeatable. Tone will be hit or miss. You may also notice that the pinpoint locations is a bit off from where you originally heard the tone.
 
Is there any Equinox settings that work better for unmasking coins in iron. Last night I switched to park 1 sens 22, iron bias 3, recovery speed 2, and pulled a dime out of iron. Exactly like Trashfinders video, but Im not sure about my settings. I have read where iron bias should be 0.
 
Is there any Equinox settings that work better for unmasking coins in iron. Last night I switched to park 1 sens 22, iron bias 3, recovery speed 2, and pulled a dime out of iron. Exactly like Trashfinders video, but Im not sure about my settings. I have read where iron bias should be 0.

A higher iron bias setting makes the signal on iron break up more. Its a trade off though. With a higher IB you'll dig less iron, but you'll also miss out on some good non-ferrous targets that are co-located with iron, because the machine will make those signals break up as well. I prefer to run a lower setting so that I can hear most everything and decide for myself.

In thick iron, I like to run Park 2 with recovery at 6 or 7, Iron Bias at 1 or so.
 
Just a note: When talking about the iron bias and recovery settings, it's important to mention if you have a 600 or 800. A recovery speed of 2 on the 600 is a 4 on the 800, for example.

Even after taking that into consideration, the defaults don't always line up between the two models. Running in default Park 1 on the 600 is actually different from running default Park 1 on the 800. For Park 1 and Beach 1,2 the 600's default settings have less iron bias than the 800. The 800 would have 4 by default in Park 1 if it was set up the same way as the 600, but the default is 6.

Except for beach 1, the recovery speed on the 600 is always 3 (a 6 on the 800). The 800 default recovery speeds vary from 5 to 7 in the same search modes.
 

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For all out extreme depth I still like the E-Trac, but I use the 800 exclusively now.

Lighter and far more sensitive to small gold convinced me to make the change.
 
.......Here is a video i shot back in my home town where i had pounded with the CTX and Etrac and lots of other machines. I use it for an example to show what to look for to dig. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2lImonx8nY

Excellent video! I'd watch videos like that all day long rather than the ones that just show find after find already in the hole and no swinging or numbers/audio. When that signal pulled itself together at about the 1:20 and 1:30 mark it was all over for that wheatie! That was also great how you recognized your first pinpoint attempt was the adjacent iron and not the coin.

About two weeks ago I found a Merc at 3 inches and the Nox hit it from about 30 degrees only. It was COMPLETELY invisible from the other 330 degrees around it. The only reason somebody else hadn't found it was either nobody else happened to walk in that specific direction or nobody had a detector that could separate it out, or both. I was 90% sure it was a coin and considered filming it pre-dig to have an example like yours, but so far I just can't get myself to spend time doing video.

Your video is also clear proof that the advice to skip digging targets if they disappear at 90 degrees is bunk when it comes to DD coils. That advice was meant for concentric coils...not DD coils. Sure, it'll help dig less trash with either coil type, but it'll also leave coins behind.
 
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