Time to work in a new mode?

pa-dirt_nc-sand

Silver Member
Apr 18, 2016
4,237
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South Western PA
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ACE 250 with DD coil
Equinox 600
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Metal Detecting
I’ve been swinging a 600 since early summer and with over a couple hundred hours under my belt. I feel that I am at about 80% mastery/complete confidence at this point. I really like the Nox.

Here is how I’m coming up with 80%:

*100% confidence in the iron at old cellar holes, Field2. Lowered sensitivity, mid recovery, iron on, no disc, slow short swinging. I spend most of my time here.

*90% confidence parks, mowed grass areas. Park1, sensitivity 22, disc’ing out 0-9 & 15-18, mid recovery. I spend less time here as I hate digging clad anymore...

*70% confidence beaches, did fine on dry and wet, need more practice in the water.

*50% confidence swinging the old park woods/farmsteads/fields. Areas where you want to cover a lot of area with big swings and targets very from silvers to gold jewelry to horse tack. So not wanting to disc out too much and looking to go deep as the ground is usually a combination of sticks, ruts, rocks and leaves so forcing swings at 3-4” over the actual dirt. If I use my Field2 setup in these areas I feel that I need to crank up the sensitivity to compensate for bigger faster swings that are higher off the ground, but then getting the cacophony of overlapping sounds rendering it basically useless. If I do my Park1 setting I do much better, but am missing good targets.

I have modes Park2 and Field1 open. Looking for advice on either of these to use as a solution to improving the 50% sites noted above.

Thx!
 

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pa-dirt_nc-sand

pa-dirt_nc-sand

Silver Member
Apr 18, 2016
4,237
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South Western PA
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🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
ACE 250 with DD coil
Equinox 600
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I decided to give Field1 a try this morning. I changed it to 5 tone and moved the recovery to the middle. Iron on and power at 18-20 depending on iron.

The site I hit was a 1840 house dot that was brick ruins in the city park woods until 1985 when it was leveled. It must have been a party place as there is old trash here like I have never seen. It was my first time here and I like to cover everything in 2-3 hours (front, sides, back yard, entry dirt road, down by the creek, around the well, and some other adjacent flat spots)

The Field1 experiment was very successful. It feels like it is tuned to hit high tones where the Field2 feels like it wants to hit mid tones. The Field1 high tones are much crisper and stand out better from the background than Field2 when working a large area relatively fast. My concern with high tones on Field2 is that they sound fleeting and too whimpy/flutey, easy to miss.

I dug a Sterling silver spoon handle, a LC and a few other relics. Now that I know which areas are the hot areas I’ll go back with Field2 and slowly look for keepers.

One more tool from this awesome detector!
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,377
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I decided to give Field1 a try this morning. I changed it to 5 tone and moved the recovery to the middle. Iron on and power at 18-20 depending on iron.

The site I hit was a 1840 house dot that was brick ruins in the city park woods until 1985 when it was leveled. It must have been a party place as there is old trash here like I have never seen. It was my first time here and I like to cover everything in 2-3 hours (front, sides, back yard, entry dirt road, down by the creek, around the well, and some other adjacent flat spots)

The Field1 experiment was very successful. It feels like it is tuned to hit high tones where the Field2 feels like it wants to hit mid tones. The Field1 high tones are much crisper and stand out better from the background than Field2 when working a large area relatively fast. My concern with high tones on Field2 is that they sound fleeting and too whimpy/flutey, easy to miss.

I dug a Sterling silver spoon handle, a LC and a few other relics. Now that I know which areas are the hot areas I’ll go back with Field2 and slowly look for keepers.

One more tool from this awesome detector!

Makes sense, field 1 is weighted for high conductors similar to Park 1, but two-tone and no iron bias. You changed it to 5 tones and lowered recovery speed, so you basically turned it into Park 1 but perhaps with a lower recovery speed and without Iron Bias (I think - see my question below). Lack of iron bias would eliminate iron masking and that might contribute to your success. Lower recovery results in a little more depth and less clipped tones. Field 2 is weighted for mid-conductors. Did you have field 2 set up at 5 tones also instead of 50 and Recovery at 2 vice 3? If not, all of those could explain the clipped high tones in Field 2. When you say "Iron On" what does that mean - you applied iron bias or you had no disc in the iron region?

When you go back - if you want to focus on deep high conductors (copper and silver coins) I would suggest your Field 1 setup. If you want to focus on mid-conductive relics (brass buttons, minie balls, gold) then go with your Field 2 setup.

HH
 

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pa-dirt_nc-sand

pa-dirt_nc-sand

Silver Member
Apr 18, 2016
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South Western PA
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ACE 250 with DD coil
Equinox 600
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Makes sense, field 1 is weighted for high conductors similar to Park 1, but two-tone and no iron bias. You changed it to 5 tones and lowered recovery speed, so you basically turned it into Park 1 but perhaps with a lower recovery speed and without Iron Bias (I think - see my question below). Lack of iron bias would eliminate iron masking and that might contribute to your success. Lower recovery results in a little more depth and less clipped tones. Field 2 is weighted for mid-conductors. Did you have field 2 set up at 5 tones also instead of 50 and Recovery at 2 vice 3? If not, all of those could explain the clipped high tones in Field 2. When you say "Iron On" what does that mean - you applied iron bias or you had no disc in the iron region?

When you go back - if you want to focus on deep high conductors (copper and silver coins) I would suggest your Field 1 setup. If you want to focus on mid-conductive relics (brass buttons, minie balls, gold) then go with your Field 2 setup.

HH

I’ve been running all modes in 5 tones and recovery in the middle. Some day I’ll take the leap and try 50 tones.

In Field2 I run with “iron on” meaning Horseshoe button on. I kept Horseshoe on for my Field1 experiment. My Park1 setup has a bunch of the typical trash VDI’s disc’d out and I don’t run with the Horseshoe in this cherry picker mode.

I thought each of the modes had different frequency algorithms. I have not messed with the iron bias or threshold.

Thx
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,377
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks PA.

While ML is not revealing any secrets as far as the underlying Multi IQ tech is concerned and how it is applied across modes, we can only guess based on the information provided in the manual, on their website, and actual usage.

Multi IQ is actually comprised of two things. The multifrequency transmit signal (which is a combination of two different frequencies, the combination is determined by the mode setting) and the post processing of the received target signal.

From the manual we know that Park 1 and Field 1 are weighted or optimized to hit larger targets and high conductors better (i.e., the frequency weighting favors the lower frequencies and the processing favors the characteristics of high conductive, round targets - i.e., copper, silver and clad coins)

Similarly Park 2 and Field 2 are weighted or optimized to hit smaller and mid-conductive targets better (i.e., small items like jewelry, especially gold jewelry, nickels, gold, aluminum, lead, and brass items will provide stronger return signals in Park 2 and Field 2 than in Park 1 and Field 1, all things being equal (depth, target, soil conditions, etc)).

We have no idea if the Multi IQ frequency and post processing are identical in Park 1 and Field 1 and in Park 2 and Field 2 but we know they must be similar based on what ML has said are the optimal targets for those modes.

The only other thing differentiating the modes are the user settings - tone setup (disc settings, number of tones, breakpoints, pitch, and volume), recovery speed, and iron bias.

Let me break down the modes you were using and comparing for you latest run.

Park 1 vs. Field 1 Differences at the Default Settings (600 only)

Park 1 is 5 tone, Recovery Speed 3, Iron Bias at 2, and disc set at 1. Field 1 is 2 tone with Recovery Speed 3, Iron Bias at 0, and disc set at 2.

This means at the default, Park 1 has high recovery speed and less falsing but the high Iron Bias will clip or silence non-ferrous targets near iron targets which is a recipe for missing good targets at sites with lots of iron. Depth can be slightly improved with a mid recovery speed. This is a very quiet setup for high conductive coin shooting in low ferrous density parks. Not good for relic hunting.

Field 1 is two tone so all non-ferrous targets will sound the same regardless of their TID. No iron bias. Good for high conductive (coin) hunting at relic sites. Changing to 5 tones and lower recovery speed enables better tone target ID and gains some depth vs. the default Park 1 so that is why you had high conductor success vs. Park 1 at your relic site.

Field 2 vs. Field 1 Differences at the Default Settings (600 only)

Field 2 is 50 tone, recovery speed 3 and Iron Bias 0, and disc set to 2 at the defaults. Field 1 is 2 tone, recovery speed 3 and Iron Bias 0 and disc set to 2 at the defaults.

Your setup for Field 2 is 5 tone, recovery speed 2 ("recovery in the middle"), and Iron Bias 0 with no Disc and Field 1 was 5 tone, recovery speed 2, and Iron Bias 0, with no Disc. So what you have in Field 2 is a good 5-tone deep relic, mid-conductor setup for an iron site and for Field 1 you have a deep silver relic setup for an iron site. So your results (finding more large, silver and copper targets and stronger high tones/high conductors) in Field 1 than Field 2 were pretty consistent with your mode setups.

HTH
 

Wild Colonial Boy

Hero Member
Sep 7, 2013
599
834
the nearest ditch
Detector(s) used
equinox 800
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Brilliant discussion, thanks lads, Its great to see it all broken down like this, I never realized Recovery speed in presets was on lower end, as i Run 6 most of the time Iron on, park 2, 5 tone, 0 bias and hunt farm sites for anything old and good looking, I am going to take these notes above to the field and test it over the same ground.
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,377
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Brilliant discussion, thanks lads, Its great to see it all broken down like this, I never realized Recovery speed in presets was on lower end, as i Run 6 most of the time Iron on, park 2, 5 tone, 0 bias and hunt farm sites for anything old and good looking, I am going to take these notes above to the field and test it over the same ground.

Amergin, note those were 600 presets not 800 presets because that is what PA is using. The 800 has more adjustability and range of adjustment than the 600 for recovery speed and iron bias.

The 600 recovery speed settings are limited to 1, 2 and 3 which equate to 2, 4, and 6 on the 800 (you can adjust the 800 from 1 to 8).

Similarly, the 600 iron bias settings limited to 0, 1, 2, and 3, which equate to 0, 2, 4, and 6 on the 800. (you can adjust the 800 iron bias from 0 to 9).

This also means the mode default recovery speed and iron bias settings are different between the two detectors because of the 600's limited ability to adjust these Parameters.

Specifically, for:

Park 1: Default RS = 3 for 600 and 5 for the 800 (slightly lower than the 6 that corresponds to 3 on the 600)

Park 2: Default RS = 3 for 600 and 6 for the 800.

Field 1: Default RS = 3 for 600 and 6 for the 800.

Field 2: Default RS = 3 for 600 and 7 for the 800 (slightly higher than the 6 that corresponds to 3 on the 600).

These finer adjustments and ability to adjust recovery speed beyond the limits of the 600 were one of the many reasons why I opted for the 800 vs. the 600 in the end. This 800 adjustability edge on recovery speed and even IB can be a game changer relic hunting in iron if you know how to use them.
 

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