Equinox GB Tracking & Silver... does Minelab admit to problems with it?

[Iron Buzz]

A friend just asked me about something she had seen on Faceook about using ground balance tracking causing them to miss silver. Supposedly Minelab has acknowledged the problem and recommends not using it. At this point, I'm very skeptical but said I'd post it here to see if anybody else has heard about this.

This is a screenshot of the guy's claim:



(Disclaimer: I haven't watched the video yet, myself)

 

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[smokeythecat]

I don't know anything about this, however any given machine operator can overtweak a machine to miss a Mack truck in the fast lane on the interstate. Someone I knew had a Minelab and was missing huge silver coins because it had been set to ignore signals that high due to the desire to miss aluminum cans. A change to the settings fixed that.

 

[vferrari]

This has not been my experience. I use GB tracking extensively and Smokey can back me up that it hasn't hampered my ability to detect silver or other targets when we've detected together.

 

[Donut]

If I recall Minelab recommended using it for gold even on the older model exterra 70.
auto tracking allows ground balancing on the go when the ground mineral change and try’s to cancel it out so the detector can operate on mineralized soil. Targets are minerals !! If you pass over a target to many times it can cancel that target out even on gold. But when detecting you can detect in varying ground and I think have deeper targets.
if it dose null a target out you had just run the coil over your shovel or scoop and go back over it.
So I don’t think there is any problem.
don’t hold me to all this.
Doug

 

[cudamark]

If I recall Minelab recommended using it for gold even on the older model exterra 70.
auto tracking allows ground balancing on the go when the ground mineral change and try’s to cancel it out so the detector can operate on mineralized soil. Targets are minerals !! If you pass over a target to many times it can cancel that target out even on gold. But when detecting you can detect in varying ground and I think have deeper targets.
if it dose null a target out you had just run the coil over your shovel or scoop and go back over it.
So I don’t think there is any problem.
don’t hold me to all this.
Doug

I've tried to over-sample and get my Nox800 to cancel a non-ferrous target, but, try as I may, I can't get it to do it. It's just not a problem with an Equinox, so, don't worry that you're swinging too many times over a target and losing it. In my area, messing with the ground balance in not necessary. I use the standard 0 setting and don't have any ground noise. I've run manual and auto also, and don't find any difference here.

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Noise cancelled, auto gb, reducing sensitivity, slowing swing speed. From my experience anything you can do to help the Nox operate smoother will optimize its magical powers.

 

[smokeythecat]

And Minelab admit to something like that? I don't think so.

 

[pulltabfelix]

And Minelab admit to something like that? I don't think so.

I agree with Smokey. Minelab will admit to a defective machine (like mine had a leaky display). But I have never heard them say anything about some of their features and not working as designed.

Once I thought my 800 was defective. Since I was doing some air test and could not get it to see a dime any deeper than 5 inches. They guide me through my settings and we found I had my sensitivity set way low for some unknown reason. Maybe the cat did it. Cats are curious creatures. But when I set the sensitivity up to 20 and the 800 performed as expected. Needless to say, I felt a little foolish at that discovery. But it taught me a good lesson to carefully run through all my settings and assume nothing before a hunt.

 

[smokeythecat]

The cats surely did it.

 

[cudamark]

The cats surely did it.

Yup, gotta be careful with anything that has a touch pad. My sister's cat has many times activated the self cleaning oven or turned on the TV.

 

[smokeythecat]

Mine just surf the web, help with my typing or turn the computer off.

 

[ARC]

Mine just surf the web, help with my typing or turn the computer off.

I was thinking that the replies made here were your cat and not really you even.

:P

 

[Bquamb]

Funny how I see this posted here as I was a part of this exact thread on FB.

Encountered a bit of resistance and was affirmed by Jim that he was told by ML that it was repeatable... Which in all my tests wasn't UNLESS I was trying to find a target like his over top of Iron, OR in a hole that was uncovered which every machine tends to struggle with.



Let me know if My reply was inadequate but I've had one since launch and have played with it quite extensively in gold rich areas, dry sand, beaches, high mineralized and red clay like areas and have almost always found a silver if it was there and in fact my coil passed over top.

 

[Iron Buzz]

This has not been my experience. I use GB tracking extensively and Smokey can back me up that it hasn't hampered my ability to detect silver or other targets when we've detected together.

That has been my experience, as well. That said, though... you never know what you may have missed.

 

[McKinney_5900]

Any machine running auto trak ground balance can cancel out good signals if you linger over good targets. I never run auto.

 

[cudamark]

Any machine running auto trak ground balance can cancel out good signals if you linger over good targets. I never run auto.

Like I said, try to do it with the Equinox. You can swing over a small non-ferrous target for 10 minutes and it won't cancel out.

 

[vferrari]

Like I said, try to do it with the Equinox. You can swing over a small non-ferrous target for 10 minutes and it won't cancel out.

So tired of having to repeatedly say this, so I'm glad you are doing it instead, Cuda. Lol.

 

[vferrari]

That has been my experience, as well. That said, though... you never know what you may have missed.

Agreed, but I know it had nothing to do with running tracking GB. If anything, it helped in the variable soil I was running.

 

[HighVDI]

205 silver coins in 2019 running tracking. Worked fine for me. I did hear it could be a hit or miss issue with machines but who knows.

 

[CarsonChris]

Auto ground balance is recommended by minelab. Auto tracking is recommended for gold modes. I used auto tracking for the last year. I’m going back over some of the areas I previously hit and I’m pulling out a lot more leaving auto tracking off. Also, auto tracking will consider the iron items in the ground as mineralization and your ground balance numbers will climb. I believe this causes more falsing.