Equinox 600 help. I can’t figure this thing out.

Squeaker

Full Member
Joined
May 6, 2012
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184
I’m getting really frustrated with this machine. To the point that I’m thinking of burying it so that it can become an artifact itself.

I’m hunting old (country) homesites and farm fields. My main place right now is hunting near a CW battlefield. I’m running with 5 tones, field 2, swing speed 2.

It seems like everything besides a few iron nails come up in the same 10-20 range. I’m also having trouble locking down a good target after the first pass. I’ll catch a good tone on the swing back, but when I try to find it again it is either nonexistent or sounds like garbage. And then if I decide to dig the garbage tone, I can’t pinpoint to save my life. There are so many beeps and blips that I can’t make heads or tails. And I really don’t think there are that many iron signals everywhere I go.

I’m really at a loss. I’ve been trying to learn this machine while still using my MXT when I get frustrated. The MXT finally quit so now I’m stuck with this thing. The bad part is I found a piece of an artillery shell last week with the MXT and now I really want to get back out and look for more.

Everything I found today was probably less than 3in deep. Except a gas line...


ETA:

What was Minelab’s reasoning for abandoning the conventional vdi and tone pattern of most every other detector. Just to be unique?
 
So, I'm not an equinox user, but perhaps it would help others help yourself, if you give a background on what you've used in the past.
 
So, I'm not an equinox user, but perhaps it would help others help yourself, if you give a background on what you've used in the past.

Do you mean what other detectors I've used in the past or what setting on this detector?
 
This is useful info on the scale...
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=280579

Also sweep speed can affect our signals, I have found.
There is a ton of iron out there, a friend that used Whites for decades got a Nox just to hunt in the beach but he tried it out at a few parks to get the hang of it.
He got a million signals, couldn't make heads or tails of it and thought it was broken.
He kept using it and came to find out all those signals were real, he just never got so many before.

Mine zeros in on most targets pretty well, your coil might be messed up, others have gotten theirs replaced and it straightened all of it out.
Could be it just isn't your type of machine.
Keep trying, maybe something will click.
 
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This is useful info on the scale...
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=280579

Also sweep speed can affect our signals, I have found.
There is a ton of iron out there, a friend that used Whites for decades got a Nox just to hunt in the beach but he tried it out at a few parks to get the hang of it.
He got a million signals, couldn't make heads or tails of it and thought it was broken.
He kept using it and came to find out all those signals were real, he just never got so many before.
Loop

Mine zeros in on most targets pretty well, your could might be messed up, others have gotten theirs replaced and it straightened all of it out.
Could be it just isn't your type of machine.
Keep trying, maybe something will click.

Thank you for bringing that thread up. I really wish I’d seen it before I made my purchase. I bought it sometime in late 2018 and have been trying to learn on it intermittently since then.
 
I’m getting really frustrated with this machine. To the point that I’m thinking of burying it so that it can become an artifact itself.

I’m hunting old (country) homesites and farm fields. My main place right now is hunting near a CW battlefield. I’m running with 5 tones, field 2, swing speed 2.

It seems like everything besides a few iron nails come up in the same 10-20 range. I’m also having trouble locking down a good target after the first pass. I’ll catch a good tone on the swing back, but when I try to find it again it is either nonexistent or sounds like garbage. And then if I decide to dig the garbage tone, I can’t pinpoint to save my life. There are so many beeps and blips that I can’t make heads or tails. And I really don’t think there are that many iron signals everywhere I go.

I’m really at a loss. I’ve been trying to learn this machine while still using my MXT when I get frustrated. The MXT finally quit so now I’m stuck with this thing. The bad part is I found a piece of an artillery shell last week with the MXT and now I really want to get back out and look for more.

Everything I found today was probably less than 3in deep. Except a gas line...


ETA:

What was Minelab’s reasoning for abandoning the conventional vdi and tone pattern of most every other detector. Just to be unique?

Alright squeaker let’s try to help you.
I have 800 model and am very famiiar with Eqx and relic hunting. Speed 4 on my unit equates to speed 2 on your unit.

So here goes.
My recommendations.
Park 2 default disc.
Sens 22/23.
Auto GB.
50 tones.
Speed 3
Multi freq.
Iron bias FE level 4.
Horseshoe disengaged.
Do noise cancel.
Sweep steady coil low.
Listen for signals.
Listen after getting signal with resweeps.
Does signal sound same or similar comparing sweeps?
If yes good sign of nonferrous.
Meter readings on Eqx likely to be more repeatable on nonferous targets or very close.
Using pinpoint, if you get a tight pinpoint another good sign of nonferrous target.
Broader pinpoint and where the pinpoint audio is blasting= good clue of iron. Not 100 percent yet good clue.

All you need to do is get over a few deeper finds.
Crawl before you run with detector.

I don’t know your ground mineralization. It is my opinion all new Eqx users of 600 stick with speed 3 for a while. If your ground mineralization will allow speed 2 for more advanced Use later on.

Hope this helps.
Eqx one of the best relic detectors out there imo.

Cheers.

Ps I have a YouTube channel.
Where EQx 800 is over some relics in the wild.
You’ll have to look through the videos via title as I do other vidoes using other detectors, bows, guns. There are some YouTube’s where I do EQX tests you may find helpful. Lot of commentary rolled in too.
Here is the directory link to my channel.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCnv03UJI2_meBXq3ZshE8bw/videos

Squeaker
Here’s a link that has the most consolidated Equinox info. You may find this helpful. Some of my info is listed i this link too. If this forum had a similar kinda thread/link I would direct you to it. It don’t. This is still a good forum though. My goal is too help you all I can.
https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/5979-minelab-equinox-essential-information/

Good luck.
 
I have an 800. When overrun by too many signals I immediately do the following:
  • Back off sensitivity
  • Noise cancel
  • Auto ground balance (not tracking)
  • Slow down
Hunting in a lot of iron is difficult. As you learn the machine it will get easier.

I typically use field 2 when relic hunting. Sometimes switching to a different mode and doing noise cancel/auto ground balance helps.
 
Also from MXT

I came over from the MXT as well. I got an Equinox 800 a year ago, and fought it for a year or so. I still don't feel like I am as good on the 800 as I am on the MXT. I ended up with a used Deus, and that seems much better to me. It's more intuitive than the 800 and automatic in the ways that I need it to be while being multi frequency.

The Deus is closer to the MXT than the 800 for me, but I still find myself wanting some good old fashioned knobs sometimes!

It happena that a machine just doesn't fit sometimes, and that's what happened to me. That's okay, it happens, don't be too hard on yourself.
 
Sounds like an iron infested area. I would suggest increasing your recovery speed to a 5, 6, or even 7.
 
Start over....factory reset. Then pick a default search pattern (Park 1 is a good place to start), noise cancel, and ground balance. If its making noise while standing still, youre in an area of emi, try turning the sens down. Dont change any settings until youve grasped what the detector is telling you. Don't switch into all metal (horseshoe button). Dig everything. It gets better, really it does.
 
The Equinox is a very good Machine but if you don’t have confidence it will never be.
It pick up more signals because it is more sensitive
If you sensivity is too high it can chatter more.
If you are getting only certain TIDs then other targets may not be where you are at.
Every site is different.
I’m looking for a 600 for a backup to my 800.
If you want to find less then get a machine that has less sensivity.
Also one way signal , the target may be on an angle or near something else.
I’m familiar with the 600 but if your in field 2 isn’t it in multi tone. I’d have to look at thr manual. But I think fired 1 is 5 tones
Doug
 
You have been given some great info here. I will try to give some more.

I stayed in Park 1 or Field 1 on my 600 for relic hunting for quite awhile. My dirt is pretty bad so I had to keep my sensitivity around 18 to 20 or at least low enough that I wasn't picking up a ton of ground noise (tiny clicks that barely register a target ID) or tiny trash that would register one. I kept the recover speed at 2 or 3 (600 settings), and lowered the iron bias to 1 or 0 so iron targets would not mask non-ferrous targets too much. I used a little background threshold tone which nulled (went silent) over rejected targets like iron. That way if I got a small sounding decent one way signal in the mid teens to high 30s but was iffy in the other direction and nulled the threshold, I would hit the horseshoe button shorten my sweep a lot and check for iron in the iffy swing direction.

Even in Park and Field 1 the Nox 600 and 800 will hit just about anything the size of the smallest bird shot or a 1/8th inch piece of tin at 3".......in Park 2 and Field 2 which are geared for even smaller or deeper targets that situation with hitting absolutely everything in the ground is even worse especially if the sensitivity is near max. I have used my Nox 600 in Park 2 with 2 tones for gold prospecting and it works very well even on tiny .05 gram gold which is 1/16 inch sized gold.

By the way, the older and very good X-Terra 30 to 705 detector series has virtually the same 50 segment target ID and similar tone system so the Equinox is not a departure from anything by Minelab.

So, I really respect TNSS a lot. He has helped me immensely with my Nox and Deus. Personally, 50 tones and Park 2 might be too much. 5 tones or even 2 tones in Field 1 might be better until you trust your Nox or don't and move on.

Jeff
 
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Thank you for the comments and suggestions everyone. I appreciate it. It will be this weekend again before I can test anything out. Hopefully I can come back and post with better results, or at least less frustration.
 
Start over....factory reset. Then pick a default search pattern (Park 1 is a good place to start), noise cancel, and ground balance. If its making noise while standing still, youre in an area of emi, try turning the sens down. Dont change any settings until youve grasped what the detector is telling you. Don't switch into all metal (horseshoe button). Dig everything. It gets better, really it does.

"If its making noise while standing still, youre in an area of emi, try turning the sens down."

Excellent point. These machines will still get good depth at sensitivity levels 15-17. "Mo power is not always Mo better." Keep that threshold calm when the coil is on the ground, motionless. I am mentoring a newbie with a 600 who's never detected, and the first thing he wanted to do was turn off the threshold HUM, as he called it.

I try and stop and plant my coil on the ground motionless, to check if chatter is still going on.

Great post!
 
Oh, and in case anyone was wondering my past MD use...

I went from- Fisher F2, MXT Pro, Garret AT Pro, back to MXT (gave AT Pro to a friend after I cracked the coil), then to Equinox 600.
 
If the beeps and blips are coming in low #s ie 1-3 and rapid fire, I've turned sensitively down, I've also been known to go ahead and notch out some of the low stuff and keep the sensitivity higher as well, like -9 to +3 or 4. Kinda depends on what I think the area holds, or what I'm after.
I'm willing to miss a few tiny items to quite the machine down and enjoy my time out.
 
I just moved up to the Equinox 800 about 2 weeks ago from a White's Spectrum XLT. The Equinox is a abstract concept - your either going to get it or not. I will say, that it is a very powerful machine right out of the box. As with any new device, job, etc. there is going to be a learning curve. These machines are highly sensitive to EMI - shut the phone off, leave it in the truck or put it in airplane mode. Don't hunt close to anything electrical; if your changing area in the field lower to higher elevation or sand to dirt then noise cancel, and ground balance.

I too started off in a field with tons of junk and it was driving me nuts - hitting targets and pulling junk. Moved to the beach and was digging empty holes that were ringing positive. Then moved to a different beach a couple days later on the same lake and was nailing it hitting targets upwards to 10" deep. Picking up stuff that the other 2 detectorists had missed a few days earlier. Today went with someone they thought the area was good - ton of targets but all junk. Turns out after walking around for a short time I realized that if there was anything good there it was buried under several feet and decades of DOT trash and litter bugs.

Take it in your back yard and practice; try different areas and in those areas try different modes - i.e. in a field use Park 1 or 2 as well as Field 1 or 2, etc. I'm 1 good day (lot of good stuff) out of 4 attempts (3 days of trash picking).

5 Golden Rules for the Equinoxs:
1. Read instructions
2. See Rule 1
3. See Rule 1 & 2
4. Practice & play - try different areas, standard settings, then start changing settings - do only one at a time so you know what the results are.
5. Use YouTube as a general reference - keep in mind that different areas of the country will react differently.

Don't get discouraged, get encouraged - you have a very powerful tool.
 
As a few have already mentioned, if the machine is chirping and beeping all over the place turn the sensitivity DOWN. In trashy areas you may need to run down around 16-18 and to learn your machine I wouldn't recommend going higher. Don't worry, you can still hit dimes at 8" with a sensitivity 16-18, Nox is a sensitive machine. Those not used to the Minelab tones and chatter have a harder time with the learning curve and a big help is to turn the thing down. I usually can only get my 800 to run without undue chatter at 20 or higher in wooded areas with few targets, have faith, it will still outhunt many machines at 16 sensitivity.
 
I want to sincerely thank everyone for the help and advice. I was able to pull my oldest coin ever out of one of my housites that I've been hunting for years. I'll post a new thread and link it there this evening.

Another question for Equinox 600 users, specifically CW relic hunters...

What numbers does an artillery shell fraent WITHOUT lead sabot come in at? I'm guessing most settings I used to find coins cancel out most iron?
 
speaking from experience coming from the AT Pro to the Nox 800.

1. first thought the 800 was broken due to so many sounds coming at me.
2. jumped in and tried to use all the advanced settings with not really knowing what they really meant.

So I bought 3 of Clive Clynick's book on the Equinox and one by Andy Sabisch.

Learned to ignore what other people were saying about settings you have to decide for yourself after your read and understand the above books.

Pick a mode like park1 or field2 etc that is most suitable for your type of hunting. Then adjust the settings just a little bit to tweak your detector to match what you are hunting.

Keep in mind you will not always get the nice clean signal due to the fact that a lot of hunting sites have a lot of ferrous and non-ferrous small pieces of junk co-located with the good targets. This will do two things: either mask your good targets or cause your good target's tid readings to differ from what you would expect.

the 600 and 800 take quite a few hours to learn. But start with the books. Be careful with forum suggestions from people with about as much experience as you have on your 600.

If that does not work for you move to a Vanquish 540 or Simplex+.
 
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