EQ800 70+ Coin & Jewelry Targets Sampled 1700's - 1900's

[CharlesUpstateNY]

I'll post the TID's for the 70+ targets shortly, first some observations lets start with targets ON EDGE.

Setup - Sensitivity 22, Recovery speed 3, Multi across the board. All other settings factory presets. Coil suspended 28 inches off the ground, inverted bottom side up, lower rod removed. Rest of machine off to the side secured to my mobile work bench. Tests conducted outside. This is a pure air test, no soil mineralization no coil movement variances so lets be clear you won't get results this good in the field That said compared to the same tests using an Explorer SE Pro the EQ CRUSHED the poor SE Pro.

For on edge testing I did a go/no go test at 8 inches with targets straight up on edge. I either got a tone or not, lets start with a tough one a Seated half dime, PASSED dang! Barber dime PASSED. Thin woman's 14k gold band PASSED. Large man's 14k gold band PASSED.

1. Twilight Zone - the EQ likes coins on edge with that flat surface more than hollow rings. It likes thin rings more than wide chunky ones which is weird. Park 2 produced a better signal with more accurate TID swing to swing than Park 1. Park 2 tone was also more accurate vs Park 1 was bouncing around in TID and tone, Park 2 more consistent TID and tone. Perhaps due to Park 2 using more high frequencies for small jewelry per the manual.

2. Twilight Zone - Park 1 produced a QUAD tone, high/low space high/low as the target passed over the coil. Park 2 only produced a double tone high space high tone. From the manual it looks like Park 2 is using/weighted for some higher frequencies and it could be that on edge Park 2 is just hitting the target with more magnetic field lines and getting better target information back.

3. Spock Mind Meld - don't forget this, the short 2-3 inch wiggle style coil swing over the target DOES NOT WORK with on edge targets. The center of the coil is like a mostly dead zone, the tones peak like 2 inches to either side of the center of the coil. So if you try to wiggle swing over an on edge target its not going to work well. Look for the double or quad tone combination and this dead zone behavior to identify targets on edge.

4. Super Weird - I did some experimenting with lower recovery speeds hoping to find the equivalent of LONG TONES on the Se Pro. I confirmed someone else's observation that the EQ really does not have a long tone equivalent. I'm not sure its even semi long tones, it will pick up flat targets somewhat off the outer edge of the coil but not far. Now here's the super weird part, it picks up targets on edge much farther out from the coil than flat targets. Inches farther So whether beach or inland hunting if you are getting a hit on something well in front of the coil then see the on edge type tone behavior that's another clue. I guess if I had to chose one or the other I'd want a bigger signal for on edge targets vs flat since they are more difficult so there's that.

 

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[CharlesUpstateNY]

Depth Observations - Christ almighty the EQ air tests deep...wait for it...IN RECOVERY SPEED 3. I noticed a significant drop off in depth when using the factory default recovery speeds. After some quick smoking testing at the higher recover speeds I switched to recovery speed 3 for all tests.

1. I'm going to have to invent some kind of a new depth test. I setup an 11 inch depth test and everything blew past it even a 3 cent silver was close at 9.5 inches. Half dimes passed the 11 inch depth test. A partially worn seated half dime was topping 12 inches in Park 2. Park 1 was about 1 inch less.

2. TONES ARE KING on the EQ at more extreme depths where the TID becomes highly unstable or you don't even get a TID in Park 2 you still get mostly the correct high tone swing to swing. NOT true for Park 1, both the TID and tones become unstable and bounce around much sooner than Park 2. Ditto for Field 1 vs Field 2 with Field 2 more stable, deeper, more accurate vs Field 1. For hunting with the EQ at greater depths pushing the machine's limits, trust the tone.

3. That's not to say even deeper depths are not possible with an EQ. That's certainly true on an SE Pro. The absolute maximum depth achievable on an Se Pro, that's some spooky freakish stuff. But from what I have seen so far the EQ lives up to Minelab's claim of more accurate at deeper depths. At least in air tests. Time will tell how much deeper it can go.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

TID's Park 1

Copper

17?5 King George Copper Fair - 27
1786 New Jersey Colonial (large cent) XF - 31
17?? Massachusetts Colonial (large cent) Good - 30
1799 US Large Cent Good - 29
1821 US Large Cent Fine - 28
1853 US Large Cent XF - 34

Bronze

1865 US 2 cent piece VG - 22
1864 US 2 cent piece XF - 22

1875 IH cent XF - 19
1875 IH cent worn but glossy - 18
1892 IH cent AU - 19
? IH cent corroded green slug - 19 I would have bet that one would have been lower.

Brass

2 Piece military coat button late 1800's XF Cond - 24
2 Piece civil war coat button, a bit smaller, more corroded, dug inside a civil war fort - 16

Lead

Musket ball .70 inch - 19
Musket ball .45 inch - 16

Nickel

1858 Flying Eagle Cent XF - 17
1859 Fat IH cent XF - 16-17
1860 Fat IH cent XF but corroded - 16
1865 3 cent nickel XF - 9

1876 Shield nickel Fine - 13
1900 V nickel worn -12
? V nickel very worn - 12
1919 Buffalo nickel cleaned - 13
1928 Buffalo nickel heavy corrosion - 12
1943 Silver war nickel - 13 I was really surprised the TID was the same as regular nickels, weird.

Nickel Steel - Silver thumb wheel with a steel threaded screw, 19 on the silver flat, 9-11 from the side silver plus the steel

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

TID's Park 1

Gold

1913 $5 gold US - 18
1908 $2.5 gold US - 15
1853 $1 gold US - 12
Small 14k gold chain with small lobster claw clasp - mostly no TID but got a tone
Small 14k gold chain with a smaller round clasp - not able to detect in Park 1 though Beach 1 hits on this
Large mans 14k gold ring - 21
Thin womans 14k gold ring - 12
Large 18k white gold religious medal - 13
Tiny 14k gold stone surround - barely detectable with no TID in Park 1, Beach 1 hits better on this with a bouncing TID
14K gold post earring - 2
10k gold earring - 2
14k gold nugget charm - 11 to 12

Silver

1921 Morgan dollar XF - 37
1751 Spanish 8 Reale XF - 37
1776 Spanish 8 Reale XF - 36
Ring thin but wide band - 28
Ring thin but even wider band - 29
1828 Bust half - 32
1958 Franklin half - 34
1784 Spanish 1 reale very worn - 24
1952 half dollar very thick coin ring - 37

1833 Bust dime - 25 (these are a tad larger than other silver dimes)
1835 Bust half dime - 21

1841 Seated dime very worn - 21
1843 Seated dime very worn - 22
1854 Seated dime fine - 25
1874 Seated dime XF - 23
1875 Seated dime fine - 24
1875 Seated dime good - 25
1875 Seated love token fine - 24
1883 Seated dime XF - 26
1886 Seated dime XF - 25
1841 Seated half dime worn - 21
? half dime love token - 18 carved on both sides, thin

1900 Barber dime XF - 26
1905 Barber dime XF - 25

? Spanish half reale super worn - 20

? Unknown dime worn smooth both sides no details - 21

1853 3 cent silver XF - 17
? 3 cent silver very worn - 16

Small heart earring Tiffany - 23
Butterfly earring back - 3 to 4

 

[vferrari]

Quote: 2. "Twilight Zone - Park 1 produced a QUAD tone, high/low space high/low as the target passed over the coil. Park 2 only produced a double tone high space high tone. From the manual it looks like Park 2 is using/weighted for some higher frequencies and it could be that on edge Park 2 is just hitting the target with more magnetic field lines and getting better target information back."

Yes. All search profile Multi IQ's are unique and are weighted/biased to different frequencies in their spectrum even though the multi signal is comprised of all 5 base frequencies. That is primarily what gives each search profile its "personality" with user setting defaults a lesser secondary effect and accounts for the different response to edge on between Park 1 and Park 2. The higher frequency weighting of Park 2 vs. Park 1 means that it is better able to resolve the smaller profile presented by the edge on target's EM field when illuminated by the detector.

Also, don't sleep on the (unknown) impact that the iron bias filter has on non-ferrous targets. For comparative testing, I would have iron bias set to 0 which is not the default setting in Park 1 but is the default setting in Park 2.

Finally, lowering recovery speed will improve depth, as long as the ground conditions support it (e.g., beach sand). I have found that running recovery speed nearer to the default in mild to severe mineralization cuts down on ground feedback noise as is mentioned in the manual. So it is a signal-to-noise tradeoff in the field.

Thanks for the detailed testing and results.

 

[sprailroad]

You put a lot of work into that Charles, Thank you.

 

[Tommybuckets]

Very informative. Thanks man, your efforts are much appreciated.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

Also, don't sleep on the (unknown) impact that the iron bias filter has on non-ferrous targets. For comparative testing, I would have iron bias set to 0 which is not the default setting in Park 1 but is the default setting in Park 2.

I hear you V man but for my air testing iron/soil mineralization is moot. I took your advice on this round of testing, went with the Minelab defaults except for giving sensitivity a 2 point boost, recovery speed 3, and using 50 tones. New machine to me so walk, run, fly.

 

[fuceye]

wow....thanks for all that info. its not every day you see someone that commited to such a task....

now, get out there and swing that puppy. dig like your 12 and looking for china. be a mad detectorests.

 

[vferrari]

I hear you V man but for my air testing iron/soil mineralization is moot. I took your advice on this round of testing, went with the Minelab defaults except for giving sensitivity a 2 point boost, recovery speed 3, and using 50 tones. New machine to me so walk, run, fly.

You missed my point, the IB filter could still affect the depth measurement of a non-ferrous target in air. Just as cranking discrimination up to 40 on the Deus will affect air test results on a non-ferrous target. Maybe not, but I don't actually know. Did you run a dime out to max air depth in Park 1 with and without Iron Bias? It would be good info to confirm it had no effect.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

You missed my point, the IB filter could still affect the depth measurement of a non-ferrous target in air. Just as cranking discrimination up to 40 on the Deus will affect air test results on a non-ferrous target. Maybe not, but I don't actually know. Did you run a dime out to max air depth in Park 1 with and without Iron Bias? It would be good info to confirm it had no effect.

I have yet to run any max depth tests. I had a test fixture setup to test up to 12 inches and most targets were blowing past that so I gave up for now testing max depth. I have not given any thought to testing IB yet. I guess when I do I will most likely first test using the factory preset IB to establish a baseline so I have something to compare to when experimenting with IB.

The EQ has so many settings and modes that pretty quickly things got out of control. I started off intending to test 70 targets, in 6 modes, at 2 different recovery speeds (default and 3) thinking I could finish that over a weekend. Then realized that's 840 tests lmao. So my first round of results are just for Park 1.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

More testing and observations.

Noise Channels - I put this one to bed there is no change to TID I tested all 19 noise channels and the TID was the same for all 19 channels. I checked because on the Explorer Se Pro TID does change depending on which noise channel is selected.

TID Change Mode to Mode? - I'm not 100% sure on this because I didn't specifically run a test for this yet. But when I first started testing I had intended to test all 6 modes and ran a few targets through this. TID seemed to be very consistent mode to mode for a given target, at a shallower depth where you get a good solid reliable tone. A silver dime that read 25 in Park 1 read 25 in all the other modes. I want to say the tone in 50 tone was also consistent across the 6 modes. Maybe the EQ is just that good or maybe they are normalizing the TID's and tones across modes in software given the different weighting of frequencies across modes, doesn't really matter. The good news is the consistency.

Park 1/Field 1 vs Park 2/Field 2 - I may have mentioned this before but Park 1 and Field 1 gave me far less consistent TID with the TID bouncing around pretty good 3-5 points with occasional TID's even further off the mark. Yet at that same depth Park 2 and Field 2 produced very steady TID's. At more extreme depths Park 2 and Field 2 TID's changed, but didn't really bounce. In Park 2 and Field 2 a silver dime that was a solid 26 TID at 8 inches, at 11 inches the TID dropped to 25, at 12 inches 24. But really didn't "bounce" around several TID numbers at a given depth like Park 1 and Park 2, the TID just got lower.

Note: Almost all these targets were dug out of the ground. I mentioned it because they all have the typical oxidation and corrosion you would find in a dug target so the TID's should be closer to what you will find in the field. No halo's of course, that halo of leached out silver and copper in the soil. Explorer users will get what I'm saying about target halos. Not dug targets are the Morgan dollar, the gold coins, and that Franklin half dollar.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

Cleaned up, grouped and sorted for use in the field. Its larger than it looks here and readable when you save it locally.

 

[DigDeepNow]

Very nice job. Very helpful.
Thanks!!

 

[Molewacker]

Charles,
Thank you for your detailed testing in our NW devil soil!

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

Charles,
Thank you for your detailed testing in our NW devil soil!

Yeah no tests yet in our nasty soil, due to the 99 freaking degree weather lol.

 

[vferrari]

Since the composition of war nickels varied significantly, you may find that war nickels may ring up slightly higher or lower than 13 as you come across them, but yeah weird that it rung up right at 13 like any other nickel. An abridged version of the chart without listing every single coin in your impressive finds collection would be nice (e.g., I get it, all your seated dimes ring up b/t 23 and 26), Charles. Just jealous. Lol.

 

[CharlesUpstateNY]

Since the composition of war nickels varied significantly, you may find that war nickels may ring up slightly higher or lower than 13 as you come across them, but yeah weird that it rung up right at 13 like any other nickel. An abridged version of the chart without listing every single coin in your impressive finds collection would be nice (e.g., I get it, all your seated dimes ring up b/t 23 and 26), Charles. Just jealous. Lol.

I tried to select some that were XF, some worn, some very worn to see how it would ID each. I'll be posting pictures of the coins tested in a few days so people can connect the dots between TID variances with condition of the coin.

 

[vferrari]

I tried to select some that were XF, some worn, some very worn to see how it would ID each. I'll be posting pictures of the coins tested in a few days so people can connect the dots between TID variances with condition of the coin.

I got that. I was mainly poking fun. The chart is great for the record. But for "field use" a more compact chart might be helpful now that you have the results. I'm not a big TID guy anyway. If its above 22 and not 39/40 (likely large or iron wraparound) with good tone, I'm digging. Buttons and miniballs 16 to high teens. Solid 13 probably a nickel. Will dig around 13 and snag my share of pull tabs, unless the tone is distorted indicating bent tab, bottle caps bounce and have ferrous tone, but might get some gold or a fatty or a war nickel. 6 through 11 on the beach, looking for gold there but will scoop a few freshness seals until I get that hollow tone down.

I know treasure is just about anywhere in the spectrum and don't fret over a 24 vs. a 28 TID, in the field.

The test data is great stuff, and not just for the OCD digger that has to know what every TID for every corroded target is (or those who can't/won't move beyond 5 tone audio), but for what it tells you about detector response. Frankly, I almost wouldn't be disappointed with a 10 tid number scale number and 50 tones, but TID bounce is important, too. So I wouldn't actually go that far. Thanks for testing.

 

[sprailroad]

A lot of work, time and effort there Charles, great stuff there, really helps, been working in Park 1, because I am so new with the 800, but will be going to Park 2, and you have given me some good, really good information to keep in mind. I really put great value on what you and some others have put out there for us. Thanks fella's.