Does the new update help much with pinpointing?

[MassSaltH2O]

Hi. Does the new update help much with pinpointing? I am running the original build. Pinpointing is poor. I even have targets "disappear" on recovery. Not sure how a target can just disappear. Must be false signals from the outstart.

 

[MassSaltH2O]

PS. I was running with Tracking on. I learned that running with Tracking on can actually track out your target. So no more Tracking for me, except maybe when gold nugget hunting. Still, does the new update help much with pinpointing? Thanks.

 

[jmaclen]

both my 600 and 800 do not pinpoint well even after the update. The depth gauge is definitely more accurate in my opinion after the firmware upgrade and the target on edge and high conductor issues seem to be relatively resolved.

Very shallow to surface coin sized targets sound really strange and big sometimes when pinpointing. I have gotten used to that sound and now don't freak out when I hear it. What bugs me the most is having to repeatedly press in an out of the pinpointing function over what I know are good targets at medium depth 2" or more. I can get no pinpoint tone, a faint far away tone, a huge booming blow my earphones off tone or the correct tone for what I think the target is from experience. It is really annoying. Either I have a really bad right thumb (true) or the pinpoint button or the whole circuit is totally WONKY.

Jeff

 

[MassSaltH2O]

Yeah, I know Jeff. Same here. The Nox is an amazing machine, but pinpointing seems to be it's Achilles heel.
Not sure what we can do about this. I would say, avoid using auto tracking, and avoid using pinpointing. Even then, pinpointing manually is not that great niether.

 

[jas415]

I have zero issues with pin pointing. With with the small coil or the standard one. I run tracking ALL the time and have never experienced the 'disappearing target' the op referenced. Dont understand how auto tracking can make a target disappear. I have learned that if I take a plug out an there is no signal anywhere, then take another plug out. I do the 90 degree program, left right and center on the target in pin point then step 90 degrees either way and do another pin point. I it usually about an inch south east of the coil center on the first pin point.

The only issue i have ever had was on noise cancelling. I finally think i have a solution if it still is noisy after a noise cancel. I just reduce the resulting number or raise it one notch and do another cancel process. Almost always it will clean up and be quiet. once in a great while I have to do that two or three times but it will always clean up. I run sense at 23 all the time also.

What are your settings and program when you lose the target?

 

[Kossie]

I lost a solid tone (22-24) target last week beach hunting. I can't explain it. I run my Equinox in all metal mode, sensitivity around 20, with iron bias 2 and 50 ID tones. Due to the low iron bias it is not unusual that bottle caps of iron items initially give a great tone when the coil passes over them for the first time. The numbers drop or bounce around after multiple passes of the coil or pumping the target with the coil . The bouncing or drop in numbers convinces me that I'm dealing with trash (usually bottle caps, I have confirmed that countless times). The untraceable target I found last week was a solid 22-24. After a couple of digs, checking the hole after each scoop, the signal was gone both in discriminate and pinpoint. I cleared the hole, dug three more scoops, sometimes a tiny targets drops deeper in the hole just out of range of the detector. I checked the dug up ground and the surrounding. But no signal, no iron either. I filled the hole back up. Checked it once more but still nothing. I have no explanation, I guess sometimes something so inexplicable happens. Maybe it was a coin that rolled away over the beach after I emptied my scoop. One thing I´m sure about, it can´t be the character of the equinox or it or the Minelab company trying to fool me.

I have my equinox since last December so I´m still a newby to it. I think mine isn´t updated. I was frustrated the first hunts by the poor pinpointing and the size of the holes I dug. But I felt the same frustration when I started with other detectors of Minelab. I eventually lost the frustration and love the Minelabs. For me, the Equinox becomes more and more predictable and the size of the holes have shrunk. I´m glad I heard about the bottle cap trick so my treasure/trash ratio has improved. I never pay attention to the visual depth indicator, the pitch of the pinpoint tone gives me enough clues. The pinpoint accuracy decreases with depth but I don´t mind.

I can recommend pumping iffy signals and also checking holes in all metal mode.and digging holes deeper when signals are lost.

 

[LawrencetheMDer]

For beach hunting, about 50-70% of the time when you loose a signal it is because the target has sunk lower in the hole beyond detector range. This often happens when you have the scoop slightly ahead of the target and when you extract the scoop, the target, located behind the scoop, falls further down the hole out of range. This happens much more in sand than dirt, because the sand hole tends to fill-in, esp in the water. In a small portion of time, a corroded target will appear larger and detectable, because of the corrosion surrounding the target has spread out. When you disturb the ground/sand the corrosion dissipates leaving a smaller target that doesn't reach detection level. Also, esp in water, small light targets like aluminum, will blow away or float away after being uncovered. Finally, just weird stuff happens on the beach - I was about to dig a target in the water when the target swam away! I have detected a hook in a flounder at the bottom and when my scoop approached, the fish swam away with the target.

 

[MAKRO RACER POWER]

Ho talked about the new update ha . from 26/9/2018 until now have no any news of MINELAB about it . they have a smart mind and quite process and I'm sure at very soon they will fix all troubles with equinox machine . they have great staff and you know what the customers talking about it so don't worry guys . regards

 

[bklein]

It would be interesting to try second Equinox on a known disappeared target. In this thread you have someone saying pinpointing is faulty another saying it is fine. These kinds of things are common on many threads. They get written off due to soil conditions - but I really wonder.

 

[Sanderling]

Great fish story LawrencetheMDer! A classic. Your other observations are right on target (pun intended). I have had many similar experiences with targets "disappearing". If it still alerts in pin point I keep digging. Eventually it will be exposed. Corroded pennies are the worst, both spreading the target area out and giving me false TIDs. Dug many a penny that my machine told me was a dime or quarter.

 

[MassSaltH2O]

I'm glad to read that the pinpointing issue and "disappearing targets" are not just my experience.
One thing that I kind of notice from the replies on this thread is that it is mostly the beach/sand detectorists that regularly find this problem. Seems like the dirt diggers do not have this problem. So this may be a clue.
Salt water sand is one of the most diffficult ground to hunt in. I suspect that the heavy mineralization of salt water sand overwhelms the pinpointing algorithm of the Nox.
Other than on salt water beaches, the pinpointing function probably works fairly well. This is what I am getting. Both in the original build, and in the update.
Btw, in any ground, do not keep auto tracking on when trying to pinpoint a target. With each repeated swing over the same area, the auto tracking starts to treat a target as ground mineralization. So the target will eventually "disappear".