Sudden Chatter on Equinox 800

[sundown08]

Hi Everyone:

I am fairly new to metal detecting. My Equinox 800 is my first detector. I have had it out 3 times so far with good results so I am very excited about it but I have run into a bit of a problem. My first time out I detected a playground at the RV Park I live at for about an hour with good results. On Saturday (second time out) I was detecting a tent camping area in the RV Park that I live at. All was well for the first hour and half then all of sudden my Equinox started to chatter and jump all over the place. I tried noise canceling and ground balance but nothing helped. I turned the sensitivity down from 22 to 14 to eliminate the chatter but I am concerned turning it down that much will affect my ability to find targets. It got so bad that I just called it a day. On Sunday (third time out) I was detecting a park not far from where I live. Again at first everything was fine for the first hour and then all of sudden excessive chatter. Again I tried noise cancel and ground balance with no success. At the camping area there was no one around except a few kids. At the park there were lots of people fishing and picnicking. Both times this happened I was in Park 1 with sensitivity at 22. Also my phone was off and my pin pointer was off. I know that both of these can cause chatter. Anyone else run into this problem? If so how do you correct it? Could I have somehow pushed something to cause this? I am beginning to wonder if there is something wrong with my detector. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

Steve

 

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[Tommybuckets]

Were you near power lines? Electric "dog fence" gives off a bad signal that makes the machines go crazy. Check your coil connection n make sure thats not loose. I assume its EMI as you move into an area it worsens and if you back out it should settle down. Some spots near electric are almost undetectable. Hope that helps.

 

[vferrari]

It's likely external intermittent EMI from nearby cell phones, towers or wifi routers. Not much you can do about it because noise cancel does not pick up intermittent EMI well. You did all the right things. Other things you can try are manually noise cancelling by rotating through the channels to see if you can find a quiet one yourself or simply switching to another mode/search profile to see if it is less susceptible. If all else fails, try single frequency. Typically, the higher frequencies are less susceptible to EMI. HTH

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Also ddi you have your cell phone on you and was it turned on, that can cause a problem too. Try placing your cell phone in airplane mode and see if that helps, a few people have reported short periods of strong interference that this sounds like. Placing phone in airplane mood cured the problem.

If you have a cell phone on you and are getting short periods of strong interference try putting the phone in airplane mode.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Also did you have your cell phone on you and was it turned on, that can cause a problem sometime. Try placing your cell phone in airplane mode and see if that helps, a few people have reported short periods of strong interference that this sounds like. Placing phone in airplane mood cured their problem.

 

[sundown08]

Hi Everyone:

Thank you so much for the replies. Sounds like this is something that will happen from time to time. I did not have my phone with me. I also checked the connection of my coil cable. There were people in the area at the park who probably had cell phones so that could have contributed. Also there is WIFI at the Office in the RV park which could have contributed to the problem at the camp area. I was close enough to the office that this could have been a possible cause. Now that I think about it I am sure folks camping or living in the park have WIFI as well. I am going to start working on a method to minimize the EMI impact. I am going to try manual noise cancel the next time this happens. If that does not work I am going to try running single frequency. Can anyone recommend the best frequency for coins and gold? Any additional pointers would be very much appreciated. Again thank you all for the help!

Steve

 

[vferrari]

Hi Everyone:

Thank you so much for the replies. Sounds like this is something that will happen from time to time. I did not have my phone with me. I also checked the connection of my coil cable. There were people in the area at the park who probably had cell phones so that could have contributed. Also there is WIFI at the Office in the RV park which could have contributed to the problem at the camp area. I was close enough to the office that this could have been a possible cause. Now that I think about it I am sure folks camping or living in the park have WIFI as well. I am going to start working on a method to minimize the EMI impact. I am going to try manual noise cancel the next time this happens. If that does not work I am going to try running single frequency. Can anyone recommend the best frequency for coins and gold? Any additional pointers would be very much appreciated. Again thank you all for the help!

Steve

Unfortunately, high conductive coins like silver and clad are better detected at the lower frequencies that are more susceptible to emi and mid conductors like gold, nickel and brass are better detected at the high frequencies (that is why MultIQ is a great thing because it doesn't force you to choose a high or low frequency). Don't forget to switch modes to see if you can find a quiet mode before throwing in the towel and going single frequency. Park 1 is optimized for high conductors (i.e., weighted to the lower frequencies) and may be more susceptible to EMI. Park 2 and Fueld 2 are weighted to the higher frequencies as they are optimized for mud conductors like gold jewelry and brass relics (but will also hit on silver) so they may be a little less susceptible to EMI. Good luck.

 

[sundown08]

Hi Verrari:

Thank you so much for the pointers. I will defiantly check them out.

Steve

 

[nagant]

Another easy thing is to make sure your coil connection is tight, don't ask

 

[sundown08]

Hi Nagant:

I did check that and all is tight. Thanks for the suggestion.

Regards,

Steve

 

[ctdirtdigger]

All good information and VERY HELPFUL, I had the same thing happen between two buildings at a church complex. NOX 800 just went crazy and no matter what I tried couldn't quiet it down, although I didn't think of going Single Frequency. So thanks to everyone !!

 

[Tommybuckets]

Yes single frequency, lower sens, noise cancel, thats all you can do . You are doing it right lol.

 

[McKinney_5900]

Maybe this has been asked, "Did you happen to go back to the spot you first started to see if the problem went away?"

 

[sprailroad]

Sundown, the very same thing has happened to me with the 800, heavy, heavy chatter all of a sudden, but, only in certain areas. I did it all as well, noise cancel, auto GB, manual GB, different mode, single Freq', finally lowered sen. to 14 to quite it down, kept walking and then all was fine. Nothing around that I could see, (cell towers, overhead lines etc>) no cell phones, HAD to be SOMETHING in ground somehow. Has happened only in three places thus far, two certain places in one city park, and yesterday in a reservoir, just kept walking swinging the coil and must have left the "black hole" of ground area, because as I said it would then run quiet and sen. back up to 20-22. I to thought that it was something with MY machine only, or something wrong with THIS operator only, it's rare, but perhaps just the nature of this beast. I'm thinking that the EQ's are far more sensitive to it's surroundings than other machines I have had. Great machine though, even with that extreme chatter, as I was walking out of the "black hole", it still gave a shout out to a couple of pennies.