The Equinox sucks

[fwcrawford]

Thx earthly.

New machine. Latest software. 50 tones. The tone on the quarter was that of a penny. Andy S. FE 0. Rec speed 4. Sensitivity 24.

If the weather is fine, I might go back out to that plug with quarter and play some more.

When I bought my detector it had version 1.75 installed.
I updated to version 2.0 which had been out for a few months.
Later on when version 3.0 came out, I updated to that version, but noticed soon afterwards that to me something was different about the way it reacted to targets while using multi frequency.
At first I thought it was my imagination since it was summer and I was not getting out much due to the heat.
I mentioned this to another forum member and he agreed that to him, something was different too.
We both reverted back to version 2.0.
Not saying this will help you out, but I’m sticking with version 2.0 for now.

 

[Trailduster]

I've had a lot of luck lately using the 6" cool om previously hunted with the 11" coil grounds.

IMO, it may be a separation issue with the larger coil.

I've found way more silver with my Nox 600 than I ever did with a f70 and all my pre 1900 coins are Nox finds.

There is a reason many seasoned old timers have 3 or more machines and coils. They all do something different.

 

[Ronstar]

Flip side of the coin if you will…… before we left yesterday, and as I was working my way over towards Jeff, I hit a slamming quarter signal again. Now I was just over this area a few days before and pulled 4 wheats. This time I was attacking at a 45 degree angle from earlier. I’m thinking how the hell could I have missed that signal?? Showed 4-5” deep so went in, saw silver and round…...

Ends up its a either a drawer pull or the end of a shift knob, end was about the size of a quarter and most likely chrome. I shut down and walked over to Jeff who was just filling a plug back in and said dont look. I slipped the knob down in the hole to about the 4-5” level and asked him to check. By this time he has switched to the CTX and starts the dance around the plug. He is telling me he is getting quarter signals and they were high numbers as well (I cant hear as he has headphones on) but he said it was definitely a digger. He had that look like “did you find another keeper of some type?” I dug the knob back up and said well at least you got high tones as well.
I would rather dig and be nothing than not suspect and miss the biggie! Odd things happen and I guess we live and learn. The more you Nox guys add advice I would also be leaning towards a factory fault…..

 

[JimmyCT]

Flip side of the coin if you will…… before we left yesterday, and as I was working my way over towards Jeff, I hit a slamming quarter signal again. Now I was just over this area a few days before and pulled 4 wheats. This time I was attacking at a 45 degree angle from earlier. I’m thinking how the hell could I have missed that signal?? Showed 4-5” deep so went in, saw silver and round…...

Ends up its a either a drawer pull or the end of a shift knob, end was about the size of a quarter and most likely chrome. I shut down and walked over to Jeff who was just filling a plug back in and said dont look. I slipped the knob down in the hole to about the 4-5” level and asked him to check. By this time he has switched to the CTX and starts the dance around the plug. He is telling me he is getting quarter signals and they were high numbers as well (I cant hear as he has headphones on) but he said it was definitely a digger. He had that look like “did you find another keeper of some type?” I dug the knob back up and said well at least you got high tones as well.
I would rather dig and be nothing than not suspect and miss the biggie! Odd things happen and I guess we live and learn. The more you Nox guys add advice I would also be leaning towards a factory fault…..

Give it the big RESET
It may very well straighten things out or not at all. Good luck Jkline and keep us posted

 

[utmike]

Bad coil? Do you know anyone else with a Nox? Maybe try borrowing and switching coils and see if there's a performance difference? If so, I'd be on ML's @$$ to be sending a replacement considering warranty and your investment. I've been pretty happy with my 800 & it's held up in the few side by side tests I've done with my Etrac. Hope you end up ok either way keeping or selling!

 

[bootyhoundpa]

I’ve been on both sides of this debate…. I struggled to use the Nox with confidence…and still do at times.. ( have you see my horseshoe collection lol)I find it easily be thrown off ID scewed by ground or surrounding targets..I also find it difficult to find that exact optimal setting..so far I rarely am able to take the sensetivity above 21 or 22 .. I often find myself hunting in 5khz or 10 kHz as the multi frequency makes everything sound good..it has paid for it self already and I don’t regret buying it.. for micro jewelry hunting in fresh water it’s absolutely killer with the right settings and the 6” coil.. I am amazed at while hunting in freshwater in a heavily hunted area with few targets that often times when I do manage to dig a tiny target out of the sand there is quite often another tiny target that was somewhat masked by the 1st target.. it’s no secret that the Etrac is killer on silver.. I would suggest lowering your sensitivity one digit at a time and or try 5 or 10 kHz on that silver to see if you can’t get it to hit…. Seems like the fellows in Connecticut do very very well and can run strong settings than I can not but that could possibly be contributed to soil that the nox has an easier time seeing through..

 

[Ronstar]

Ok. Everybody shut up now as I was kinda hoping to pick up a slightly used Nox 800 dirt (pun intended) cheap.

 

[fwcrawford]

Ok. Everybody shut up now as I was kinda hoping to pick up a slightly used Nox 800 dirt (pun intended) cheap.

 

[Silver Saver]

One of my coils went bad for my etrac. It would only detect half the normal depth and gave similar lower TID readings. Silver half would read around 38 Co. Not saying that's the case here, but a defect is possible

 

[jkline]

Well, I've experimented, two days in a row, same plug, same site. Factory reset. Loaded the earlier software version as somebody mentioned earlier.. Programmed Andy S. In the original plug the Nox will still not give a single hint there is a silver quarter therein. CTX and Etrac hit it. It is interesting that iron readings are heavy: FE25-27 CO46-47. There is a large nail in that hole, 3" from the coin, but I suspect there is also something bigger and deeper.

I played with all settings: speed, FE bias, etc. Didn't make a difference.

Other places on the same property, the nox will hit the quarter when it is alone in the hole. Adding a rusty bolt, varying angles to the coin, 3" from it, one might miss the quarter depending upon how you come upon it. Those nails somewhat mask that there is a goody in the hole, and completely drop the vdi,. but an experienced swinger will get it, if they are taking their time and overlapping swings.

For you Nox guys, I'm telling you that you are missing things as there are certain situations where silver gets totally cloaked to this machine. If I keep swinging it, I will dig anything above a 19 that is more than a couple inches deep. In this case the 19 it was giving me was an iffy/scratchy tone in all directions. Not a single blip of a high tone. So I would keep an eye out for that.

This experiment also showed that i've been right digging one way high tones, if they repeat at 90 degrees.

I'd like to keep the machine, as the mrs is interested in learning to detect, but the F75 seems a safer bet: it is light and for the kind of detecting I do, it is, imo, a superior machine.

So my experiments are done. Really a hassle hauling two machines around. If you have other quality machines, give it a try. When that machine finds silver, put the coin back in the hole and grab the nox. Every now and then you'll be like... "Wtf?"

 

[Ted S]

I'll tell ya what...You have seen some of my silver I have found with the Equinox 600. I will take my Explorer SE with the 10x12 SEF coil on it to a place or two for a couple of hours in each location. Weather permitting of course. Sound good? Ted

 

[Ronstar]

I went back there yesterday with the Sharpshooter coil. Found another game token pretty close to this infamous plug that neither of us found earlier and at 4”. Older token I’m thinking (maybe 70-80s) and appears to be copper slightly larger that a nickel. Why now and not then? Why one coil and not the other?

I spent two hours swinging the small coil. Two memorials, one clad dime, and one ‘57 Rosie. All in an area we already have searched and re-searched. Maybe the place has demons……..

 

[jim tn]

jkline, I'm thinking there is something kinky going on with your rig. Not saying you aren't right, but I've dug 2 silvers with my Nox that had a rusty nail with the silver dime and another that had a rusty screw with the dime. No silver quarters, however. Also, 4-5 items of clad, including quarters, with rusty pieces co-located. Of course, I don't know what I may be missing if I can't hear that somethings there! Mine also hits coins on edge nicely, too. Good luck! HH jim tn

 

[fwcrawford]

Well, I've experimented, two days in a row, same plug, same site. Factory reset. Loaded the earlier software version as somebody mentioned earlier.. Programmed Andy S. In the original plug the Nox will still not give a single hint there is a silver quarter therein. CTX and Etrac hit it. It is interesting that iron readings are heavy: FE25-27 CO46-47. There is a large nail in that hole, 3" from the coin, but I suspect there is also something bigger and deeper.

I played with all settings: speed, FE bias, etc. Didn't make a difference.

Other places on the same property, the nox will hit the quarter when it is alone in the hole. Adding a rusty bolt, varying angles to the coin, 3" from it, one might miss the quarter depending upon how you come upon it. Those nails somewhat mask that there is a goody in the hole, and completely drop the vdi,. but an experienced swinger will get it, if they are taking their time and overlapping swings.

For you Nox guys, I'm telling you that you are missing things as there are certain situations where silver gets totally cloaked to this machine. If I keep swinging it, I will dig anything above a 19 that is more than a couple inches deep. In this case the 19 it was giving me was an iffy/scratchy tone in all directions. Not a single blip of a high tone. So I would keep an eye out for that.

This experiment also showed that i've been right digging one way high tones, if they repeat at 90 degrees.

I'd like to keep the machine, as the mrs is interested in learning to detect, but the F75 seems a safer bet: it is light and for the kind of detecting I do, it is, imo, a superior machine.

So my experiments are done. Really a hassle hauling two machines around. If you have other quality machines, give it a try. When that machine finds silver, put the coin back in the hole and grab the nox. Every now and then you'll be like... "Wtf?"

You mentioned in this post along with the other things you did, that you adjusted iron bias FE while testing
Are you referring to FE or F2?

 

[jkline]

@fw-- I did FE and FE2. Each from zero to four. It didn't make a difference on the 'invisible' quarter. In other plugs, the higher the FE, on both, the less distinguishable the quarter was.

I seemed to be getting the best results with very low FE/FE2 and a recovery speed of 4.

 

[fwcrawford]

@fw-- I did FE and FE2. Each from zero to four. It didn't make a difference on the 'invisible' quarter. In other plugs, the higher the FE, on both, the less distinguishable the quarter was.

I seemed to be getting the best results with very low FE/FE2 and a recovery speed of 4.

Ok.. just curious.
I can understand the signal being better with a lower setting.

 

[Ted S]

@fw-- I did FE and FE2. Each from zero to four. It didn't make a difference on the 'invisible' quarter. In other plugs, the higher the FE, on both, the less distinguishable the quarter was.

I seemed to be getting the best results with very low FE/FE2 and a recovery speed of 4.

I run my 600 in F2 iron bias 0 with a recovery speed of 2. That would equal 4 on your 800. Do you have EMI where you hunt? If so go to Field 2. It helps quite a bit! Good luck to you whatever you decide to do! I'm pullin for ya!

 

[JimmyCT]

Keep in mind the following:
F2 level 4 = Fe level 0
In other words, F2 level 0 is actually -1 which is less iron bias then originally planned. This was to help even unmask in iron even better. I have witnessed super results in the field of permanently leaving iron bias at F2 level 0.

 

[MattBullSummerville]

In staying neutral as I can…… how often do any of the detectors leave the factory with internal faults? I was sitting there as Jeff went over the coin and nada, just zinc/penny read. We even put the quarter on the surface which he said gave a slightly better response. I did find in the hole, with the hand held, what appeared to have been a steel nail too. I’m wondering if it shouldn’t be returned to the factory for a reprogram? On the other hand, I’ve seen guys driving their favorite make of cars that obviously are having issues and still claim its the best automobile ever made.

I would suggest trying different coils and see if the same result happens. No 2 stock coils coming out of the factor are exactly the same. Could be that he has a bad coil. Did not see what coil he was running but try switching it up and see what happens.

 

[silvercoinboy]

I normally hunt in a 1000+ year old planted field that also had numerous 500 pound bombs explode in it during WWII. I run my speed at 6 and FE at around 6/7. if I go to all metal I literally get 5-10 hits per swing, there is that much iron there. Now it does not filter out the big chunks, but I regularly find small targets in a hole with multiple pieces of iron. This field has been hunted before over the past 30 years by German metal detectorists, and I am managing to pull out small silvers, coppers, and the gold coin.

Page 51 of the Nox manual talks about the elements of recovery speed in allowing the detector to see through a junk littered search site. Your speed of 2 is lower than I ever search (usually 5).

Often times the signals change when you go another direction. I recommend if you are in a good area, you re-search at a 90-degree path from your last pass through. The small coil is great because it limits the signals under the coil that the computer has to sort through

The advantage of the Nox is not super depth, but the ability to sort targets if you set the speed, and. Iron bias to match your conditions