Picked up a Nox 800
- Thread starter Coinboy
- Start date
woodbutcher
Forum Supporter
Wow,you got a good trade there. Good luck with your new machine
The only detector I have sold that I really miss is the Simplex. Great detector for the money.
The Equinox 800..........try your best to really study the online manual even though there is a lot in there about hunting European sites.......... Also check out Detector Prospector Minelab Equinox Essential Information and ask Steve H. or Chase Goldman a question or two on that site. Let them know who you are and how old you are, too.
Setting up your Equinox 800 is pretty simple for normal detecting. Park 1 with default settings is a great way to start with Park 2 and Field 2 being much more sensitive for deeper and smaller targets. The Simplex is a pretty hot detector for hearing a lot of what is in the ground. The Equinox is even more sensitive. That is why Park 1 or Field 1 to me are the easiest ways to get going. Just turn it on, do an automatic noise reduction with your pinpointer turned on so they won't interfere too much with each other, ground balance or not depending on your soil, turn up the sensitivity from 20 until the Nox gets noisy or not and have fun. Use the horseshoe button to check for iron. Most of all, practice on the targets you usually find before you go out and learn how they react and what responses they give you especially iron and aluminum trash. Be patient with the pinpoint function, it is very sensitive and can be frustrating. Practicing pinpointing with the Nox is a great way to learn it. If you turn it on in your house you may need to run sensitivity down to around 10 or less since it will respond to all of your EMI sources.
As for depth, your soil conditions are the only limiting factor. The Nox 800 will easily detect 11" or deeper coin sized targets in mild dirt even using totally default Park 1. I would leave the advanced settings like tone options, recovery speed and iron bias alone for awhile. Just use 5 tones and have fun. Good luck.
The Equinox 800..........try your best to really study the online manual even though there is a lot in there about hunting European sites.......... Also check out Detector Prospector Minelab Equinox Essential Information and ask Steve H. or Chase Goldman a question or two on that site. Let them know who you are and how old you are, too.
Setting up your Equinox 800 is pretty simple for normal detecting. Park 1 with default settings is a great way to start with Park 2 and Field 2 being much more sensitive for deeper and smaller targets. The Simplex is a pretty hot detector for hearing a lot of what is in the ground. The Equinox is even more sensitive. That is why Park 1 or Field 1 to me are the easiest ways to get going. Just turn it on, do an automatic noise reduction with your pinpointer turned on so they won't interfere too much with each other, ground balance or not depending on your soil, turn up the sensitivity from 20 until the Nox gets noisy or not and have fun. Use the horseshoe button to check for iron. Most of all, practice on the targets you usually find before you go out and learn how they react and what responses they give you especially iron and aluminum trash. Be patient with the pinpoint function, it is very sensitive and can be frustrating. Practicing pinpointing with the Nox is a great way to learn it. If you turn it on in your house you may need to run sensitivity down to around 10 or less since it will respond to all of your EMI sources.
As for depth, your soil conditions are the only limiting factor. The Nox 800 will easily detect 11" or deeper coin sized targets in mild dirt even using totally default Park 1. I would leave the advanced settings like tone options, recovery speed and iron bias alone for awhile. Just use 5 tones and have fun. Good luck.
AirmetTango
Forum Supporter
Traded a Simplex for an EQ800? Straight up? And the Equinox works?? You, my friend, just scored a fantastic deal! Well done!! 
Set up for the EQ is going to vary depending on soil conditions, etc, of course, but for my area, I tend to start with the sensitivity around 22, F2 IB usually at zero, recovery speed starts at 4. Those settings get adjusted depending on what actual conditions I encounter on-site. I seem to get the best depth out of Park 1 & Field 1 for silver coins/high conductor targets, while Park 2 & Field 2 give better depth on lower conductors (nickels, buttons, etc). Overall depth difference between modes isn’t big - you can dig pretty deep targets regardless of which mode you’re in. I’ve had interesting results experimenting with Beach 2 on dry land, as well.
Good luck with the new machine!
Set up for the EQ is going to vary depending on soil conditions, etc, of course, but for my area, I tend to start with the sensitivity around 22, F2 IB usually at zero, recovery speed starts at 4. Those settings get adjusted depending on what actual conditions I encounter on-site. I seem to get the best depth out of Park 1 & Field 1 for silver coins/high conductor targets, while Park 2 & Field 2 give better depth on lower conductors (nickels, buttons, etc). Overall depth difference between modes isn’t big - you can dig pretty deep targets regardless of which mode you’re in. I’ve had interesting results experimenting with Beach 2 on dry land, as well.
Good luck with the new machine!
hddeuce03
Full Member
For me, it's normally Park 1 default unless I'm at the beach.
ToySoldier
Forum Supporter
Good info so far.
My advice is to experiment, especially before you dig what you think are good deep targets. See how low you can go with sensitivity and still get a solid hit. Listen to the different modes. Learn how sensitivity, iron bias, recovery speed, and specific frequencies interact with each other.
Read the manual over and over to learn the advanced options for setting the advanced audio. If you follow this excellent video walkthrough for setting up a coin shooting audio pattern then you'll understand the basics of what is possible and then come up with your own custom ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ur0FfDDKUo
Use the user profile mode to your advantage. Instead of constantly cycling through menus to check a target with different settings, save those settings in the user profile. You can toggle back and forth with one button. For example, if you're somewhere with a lot of bottle caps and aren't inclined to dig them all, use the user profile to save settings that will easily reveal a bottle cap. Basically, copy over your regular detecting mode to the user profile and then change that profile to 10khz, all iron audio on (if it wasn't already), and a deep tone for iron (if it wasn't already). A bottle cap will will read much different between Multi Freq and 10khz. Personally, I don't find a lot of bottle caps. I usually have my user profile set to toggle over to settings I find useful when shallow trash/iron gets dense.
Have fun!
Awesome information, thank you!
metaladdict
Elite Member
I run mine in park 1 recovery speed 5 but sometimes 4
Where there's lots of rust I run F2 at 9.
That's just me, Happy hunting!
Where there's lots of rust I run F2 at 9.
That's just me, Happy hunting!
Martin_V3i
Elite Member
"I run mine in park 1 recovery speed 5 but sometimes 4."
That is what I always done. I don't mess with iron bias.
medicchief
Forum Supporter
Sounds like the GAS symptoms I used to get (guitar acquisition syndrome). I guess I suffer from DAS (detector acquisition syndrome) now. I've got the fever to get another NOX 800, even though the ergonomics and I didn't get along before....HH!
davidlhyde63366
Forum Supporter
Way to go on the new machine , hope you really like it.
GroundSweeper
Forum Supporter
Nice trade CB! Nox is a fun machine. Try all the presets at your locations and go from there, I like F2 and 50 tones, but I like tones (coming from a Compadre).
GKL
Forum Supporter
Congrats on getting the Nox 800 !!!!
In case you haven't seen them yet here are some short but very helpful tutorials on the Equinox series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpymZHu8sv5nwrk34ID53OxszE8fjuDFC
(they cover both the 600 and 800)
In case you haven't seen them yet here are some short but very helpful tutorials on the Equinox series:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpymZHu8sv5nwrk34ID53OxszE8fjuDFC
(they cover both the 600 and 800)
MTtrashdigger
Elite Member
Good luck with your new detector, It takes some time to learn and I still have a lot to learn about mine before I will consider myself anything but a seasoned novice. After 2 1/2 years of using it, I still rarely leave Park 1 but I customize it in this fashion:
Park 1 5 tones
Sensitivity settings are set anywhere from 17-23 depending on soil condition and composition, and EMI.
Tone 1 is set at -9 through 10 (iron and foil range). Set tone pitch at 1, Set the tone volume to 4.
Tone 2 is set at 11 through 13 (Nickel range). Set pitch to 18. Tone volume at 25.
Tone 3 is set at 14 through 18 (Pulltabs, beavertaisl & canslaw ). Set tone pitch at 6, Set tone volume to 10.
Tone 4 is set at 19 through 22 (IHP and Zinc penny range). Set tone pitch to 12. Tone volume at 25.
Tone 5 is set at 23 through 40 (Silver, clad and copper coin range). Set this to maximum pitch (25) Tone volume at 25 as well to make targets in the this zone scream at you.
Recovery Speed: 4-7 (adjust to match the site you're detecting).
Set recovery speed lower to get more depth but you need to slow your swing considerably to get good target separation in dense trash.
Iron Bias: 2 or 3. You can set this to your preference but keep in mind, lower settings may cause you to dig more falsing iron signals. Higher settings may make you miss good targets that are near iron. For me, a setting of 2 or 3 seems to be a good compromise but I am fooled often by deep, rusty wire and nails.
Frequency -hunt in Multi
Use horsehoe button to check for iron and
And investigate deeper inconsistent high tones with 4 khz. If it stabilizes in 4khz, and it pinpoints consistently, dig it for sure.
This setup works well for me. I hunt a lot in old trashy parks that sometimes have a few unsavory characters hanging around in them, so I need to stay visually alert. With the widely set combinations of volume and tone pitch, I have learned to hunt more with my ears. I still look at target ID numbers but only when checking an interesting tone.
Good Luck !!
Park 1 5 tones
Sensitivity settings are set anywhere from 17-23 depending on soil condition and composition, and EMI.
Tone 1 is set at -9 through 10 (iron and foil range). Set tone pitch at 1, Set the tone volume to 4.
Tone 2 is set at 11 through 13 (Nickel range). Set pitch to 18. Tone volume at 25.
Tone 3 is set at 14 through 18 (Pulltabs, beavertaisl & canslaw ). Set tone pitch at 6, Set tone volume to 10.
Tone 4 is set at 19 through 22 (IHP and Zinc penny range). Set tone pitch to 12. Tone volume at 25.
Tone 5 is set at 23 through 40 (Silver, clad and copper coin range). Set this to maximum pitch (25) Tone volume at 25 as well to make targets in the this zone scream at you.
Recovery Speed: 4-7 (adjust to match the site you're detecting).
Set recovery speed lower to get more depth but you need to slow your swing considerably to get good target separation in dense trash.
Iron Bias: 2 or 3. You can set this to your preference but keep in mind, lower settings may cause you to dig more falsing iron signals. Higher settings may make you miss good targets that are near iron. For me, a setting of 2 or 3 seems to be a good compromise but I am fooled often by deep, rusty wire and nails.
Frequency -hunt in Multi
Use horsehoe button to check for iron and
And investigate deeper inconsistent high tones with 4 khz. If it stabilizes in 4khz, and it pinpoints consistently, dig it for sure.
This setup works well for me. I hunt a lot in old trashy parks that sometimes have a few unsavory characters hanging around in them, so I need to stay visually alert. With the widely set combinations of volume and tone pitch, I have learned to hunt more with my ears. I still look at target ID numbers but only when checking an interesting tone.
Good Luck !!
pescadore
Elite Member
Congratulations on your new machine. I hope you enjoy it.
Excellent information, thank you!
Ronald68
Full Member
The Equinox Series Handbook by Andy Sabisch is a great resource for the Equinox user!! Congratulations on your new Minelab!!!
