Anyone else tried their Equinox in the water yet?

[flgliderpilot]

I did a long water hunt yesterday and the machine worked ok. Pinpoint was a little flaky in the water.. sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. It was definitely useful for discovering that your target is a crab trap and not a deep ring, but sometimes it would sound off on everything except the hole. Most of the time it could be coaxed into working.

I had a bunch of targets disappear on me, even after re-scooping the hole several times, but they seemed to be light items, pennies and pull tabs. It's possible they drifted. It's very sensitive to foil so I found myself digging the smallest little bits of foil or can slaw. In the water is where it's not fun digging these sorts of targets.

In the end I came home with some quarters and a tungsten band. The usual. Nearly all my targets came up in the first scoop, but I think that's because the bottom was fairly hard.

The machine does chat a little in the water. I noticed if you rotate the machine between 11 and 1 o'clock, it will false loud every time at 1-2. If you are aware of this it's not a problem though.

Not enough time yet to determine how it compares to my CZ-21, but it was certainly easier to carry on the walk back.

Oh and got hit by a sting ray for the first time. Luckily it was not a big one but it still hurt pretty bad. Hot water worked great.

 

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[fuceye]

The whole detector sinks if you let it go?

this works for me...

​

as for pinpointing under water....? I never use it. I let the detector and scoop work in concert. pinpointing something when I can.t see the coil most of the time just waists time. I prefer the surf to fresh water but do most of my water hunting in fresh water.

 

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[dewcon4414]

Lookindown..... this machine was designed to hit on smaller low conductors. In the water it can get chatty especially in the low areas such as hard pad ... it tends to hear more of the minerals/flakes of aluminum concentrations. Anything designed to find smaller gold than the Xcal or CTX is going to obviously pick up more tiny trash as well. In the dry sand ..... yes you can dig a lot of gum wrappers lol. Really can get some unbelievable tiny high conductors like copper. But like any machine you learn whats its saying and there are ways to calm the noise. This machine dont need the threshold..... disc to -2 quiets it a bit..... as does moving the recovery speed UP. The lower recovery the longer the tones.... and if you are in 50 tones it can sing.

 

[lookindown]

Waiting on a three pound CZ21....come on Fisher.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Waiting on a three pound CZ21....come on Fisher.

Will never happen unfortunately.

 

[toddbbq]

I noticed this weekend on my EQ800 in the water that it overloads a lot. My settings are beach2 recovery 4 sensitivity 18 and ground balance on tracking after first manually ground balancing. The overloads don't appear to reset so I switch thru modes to get it to clear. Anyone else notice this or is it just me?

 

[Rick K]

3# CZ - never. 3# more advanced multifrequency detector from Fisher/Teknetics - a certainty.

When? Sadly, that’s not certain.

 

[flgliderpilot]

I noticed this weekend on my EQ800 in the water that it overloads a lot. My settings are beach2 recovery 4 sensitivity 18 and ground balance on tracking after first manually ground balancing. The overloads don't appear to reset so I switch thru modes to get it to clear. Anyone else notice this or is it just me?

That is not encouraging. I haven't noticed this yet, but I haven't hunted black sand yet, and honestly I wasn't looking for it. I'll keep an eye on my screen next hunt.

I would be interested in a depth check once the overload icon appears. Does depth significantly decrease?

You sure that icon doesn't actually mean DANGER STING RAY? lol

 

[toddbbq]

I think I figured out my overload problem. I think it happens when I line up my t-rex scoop behind the coil while on a target. It would be great if Minelab would update the equinox to somehow let you know that it is overloading like the CTX. So after every target I am going to look at the screen to see if the overload icon is there and if it is I think I can just hit the user profile button then go back to beach2 and clear the overload. Will try this out this weekend and report back.

 

[flgliderpilot]

I think I figured out my overload problem. I think it happens when I line up my t-rex scoop behind the coil while on a target. It would be great if Minelab would update the equinox to somehow let you know that it is overloading like the CTX. So after every target I am going to look at the screen to see if the overload icon is there and if it is I think I can just hit the user profile button then go back to beach2 and clear the overload. Will try this out this weekend and report back.

Hey this is a great discovery. I had an issue once where I was hunting and suddenly all signals just kinda went faint. I couldn't hear as much as I could before. Now I'm wondering if I had gotten too close to my scoop and the machine went into overload and stayed there. I'm doubting it though, I think it was my waterproof headphones acting up after getting wet.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Revisiting this thread after another 10 hours of water hunting.

The Equinox just kills in the wet sand, but in the water it acts a little wonky.

Sensitivity needs to be turned down as low as 18 or even 16 to get it to stop falsing. It will still false a little You must notch out 1-3 or it'll false every time you rotate your wrist... that eliminates chains. You definitely must hunt in 5 tone or less. 50 tones will act crazy.

Targets, unless very shallow always sound iffy. Broken, a hint of iron, etc. Determining size is difficult. You can pinpoint, but it also acts weird in the water and takes some retries. There is no audio indicator of overload, so you don't know if your coil is sitting on the target (the CZ-21 will scream at you to let you know you are contacting it).

I have a real problem with solid hits just completely disappearing. I realize this is often aluminum drifting in waves, coins on edge, etc, but I have never had soooo many disappearing targets until now. Are they all bits of foil? I dunno, but it's maddening.

Yes, it is far more sensitive for small gold, but here's the thing: Really small gold isn't worth much. Is it worth spending 10 minutes per hole chasing every tiny bit of foil in the WATER with the possibility that it's an earring?

So, I've decided to keep the Equinox on the beach, and go back to the CZ-21 in the water.

 

[flgliderpilot]

Well today I water hunted with my CZ instead of my Equinox, chest mounted. Within 10 minutes I was wishing I had chosen the Equinox. Clunky, awkward, heavy, chest harness kept riding up, cables getting tangled.

And I found zero.. after 2hrs, all I had was a spoon. Worst hunt to date since I got the equiniox... and this time I was not using it.

Things that make you go hmmm?