Park 2, Iron tone break, you may want to know this.

[jayhop]

If you are using Park 2 you may already know this but I'm sure all don't.
In short, the VDI numbers in Park 2 on deep coins read very low.
I mean a VDI of 1 or 2 on a 10 1/2" to 12" silver dime.
If you set your tone break for iron up to 6 or so, those sliver coins won't be heard or will report as iron. Or if you ignore those low VDIs and are using Park 2 you will miss deep silver.
Why did I set my tone break at 6 ?
When I first got my equinox I did air test with different good targets, nothing I tested registered above a 7 in any mode.
So I set my tone break at 6. When I tested the different modes in my test garden Park 2 and Field 2 would not report a good signal on deep coins. Park 1 and Field 1 gave good tones and good VDI numbers.
I don't know why the VDIs are so different on # 2 modes.
I did a factory reset before doing the last updated, and when doing new testing I saw how deep Park 2 is. It slams my 12" silver dime like it was at 6 inches.
Park 2 is my new mode, I will just have to dig low numbers on deep targets and my iron tone break is set back to 0.
Numbers may vary in your soil but The idea is still the same.

 

[IDXMonster]

Firstly, I guess I would have to see the Equinox find a 10.5-12” silver dime...and have an idea that it’s a silver dime. Not thrashing your statement Jay, but I’ve found over time that unless you’re on a beach with pure wet sand, those depths aren’t feasible with any kind of intelligible ID. Air tests need not apply.

 

[jayhop]

In Park 1 and Field 1 those coin give a VDI really close to an air test. But the signals are weak compared to Park 2 and Field 2.
These coins were measured when buried last November except for the 12 inch dime . It was measured exactly 12 inches a few months ago.
The point of my post was to let people who use Park 2 know that the numbers on deep targets will read lower than Park 1 and that they could be missing deep silver if they ignore the low numbers.
Just putting the information out there, everyone can do their own test.

 

[mascard1]

I use the six inch coil all the time now....sometimes ..I cant believe how deep it goes?...gives me a Explorer warble on deep targets...I know it sounds weird...but it does?

 

[Dwayne2010]

In Park 2, Iron bias original and new setting maxed to 3 on the Nox 600, I am hitting a six inch silver dime no problem. Numbers in my soil are all around penny numbers, with occassional lower numbers around 13. For the most part, high teens to lower 20's. I listen to the sound now more then looking at the VDI. Who knows how many silver dimes I have missed lol. Now that I am reading your post, you make me wonder.

 

[jayhop]

I often wondered why people would use Park 2 and now I see why, it's really deep and has a better response.
And just to be clear, I could not duplicate my results with air test. The coins have to be in the ground at 10 to 12 inches deep, maybe shallower. I don't know about shallower coins because all my coins are at least 10 1/2" deep.

 

[Daniel Tn]

That's why it is always good to not take what you read as the gospel-set-in-stone rule of thumb, and to experiment for yourself.

In the field and in my test garden, I find that Park 2 don't give any worse signal than Park 1. I have coins and relics down to 12 inches in my test area, although I don't have a dime at 12 inches, I do have a nickel and a minie ball that deep. I do have a 10 inch dime buried. The dime gives numbers in the 20s, and the 12 inch minie gives numbers in the teens in both modes. I do see a bit of a difference between the Park and Field modes though. A big changer for me was in the newest update. By playing with the new iron bias settings, I can really clean up the signal on the fringe deep targets and make them solid signals with no iron bleed through. In my soil, that was the trouble...the deeper targets want to start reading with a lot of iron signal bleeding through. You can really hear it with the horseshoe button toggled to open the screen up. The newer settings lets me be able to clean that up...but I'm afraid that is also going to cause me to start digging deeper iron that now sounds good too, in which I wasn't digging before. I haven't been able to get out and hunt on land with it that much; just at the beach.

 

[jayhop]

I agree with you 100% that everyone should do their own test.
It may be the soil or it may be the way the coins are laying in the hole, I don't know.

What I do know is that both my 800s will hit all my coins better in Park 2 than Park 1. My settings in both modes are the same.

In Park 1 the VDIs are very close to air test numbers or they are higher. ( talking about deep coins )

In Park 2 the VDIs are much lower on the deep dimes and copper pennies than in Park 1. My deep dimes and copper pennies were reading between 1 and 12 in Park 2.

After reading your post I went to check my second Equinox and got the same results on the dimes and copper pennies.
The nickel and quarter numbers were almost the same in Park 1 and Park 2.

Thank you for your reply, I was hoping someone else would give their results to a simular test. I feel sure the result of exchanges like this will be that others do their own testing.

 

[jayhop]

I just looked back at Calabash digger video, Is the Minelab Equinox a deep machine??????

He's in Park 2 swinging on a 10 1/2"dime. It's hard to see but you can see it. His VDI is showing very close to what I said mine was on my deep dimes. Single digits to low double digits.

 

[Ted S]

Jay...The Barber dime I got about a week ago came in around 22-25. It was deep and I was in Field 1....I did have a good tone and it did repeat from most angles. It had a nice high tone.

 

[jayhop]

That agrees with what I'm saying.
Park 1 and Field 1 give better VDIs on deep silver dimes. I see very little different in these modes.

Park 2 gives gives a lower VDI on the deep ( below 10 inches ) silver dimes but a much louder and clearer audio report. If you have your machine setup correctly. (Key point )

Since the VDIs are lower in Park 2 on deep silver dimes you must not have your tone break for iron set too high. And you must not ignore the lower VDIs or you will be missing the coin.
The only way see what I'm saying is to do the test yourself on measured coins, or watch videos of guys testing in Park 2 on silver dimes at a measured 10 inches or deeper. Calabash digger has one where you can see the low VDISs in his video on his 10 1/2" dime.