Equinox 800 Help Sheet - PARK 1 and PARK 2

[ATPRoDon]

Okay I just put together a PDF file on using the Equinox 800 in General and as it relates to Park 1 and Park 2 modes. This is just based on my experience in the USA. I pretty much use it in the default setup and really haven't needed to tweak anything. If you see something you think is blatantly wrong let me know. Hope this helps.

 

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[Iffy Signals]

Nice Sheet Don!.. its like one of those easy start guides you get with a chainsaw

Thanks

 

[A2coins]

Good post thanks

 

[Iron Buzz]

Nice little one page cheat sheet! I'm printing off a copy now. I will need it come next spring!

 

[tennessee digger]

Very good job. Thanks. For the type of hunting that I do, I use park 2.

 

[captbo]

very nice this will help me a good bit,, Thank you

 

[vferrari]

Good summary sheet. The only thing I would add is regarding recovery speed. Too LOW a recovery speed can result in increased ground noise which lowers the overall signal-to-noise ratio and the maximum effective depth. In other words, while you can trade perhaps a small improvement in the signal by lowering recovery speed (trading separation for effective detection depth) there is no free lunch and you can go TOO far on lowering recovery speed in the name of depth resulting in more noise and no real improvement in depth performance while throwing away recovery speed and separation. There are no free lunches in metal detecting and as far as the default settings on the Equinox are concerned, straying too far from the defaults can, in some cases, result in decreased performance.

 

[ctdirtdigger]

Very nice, good to have all in one place, printing off now !! Thank you !

 

[Dragonscout]

I printed one off and I haven't even gotten a machine yet...

 

[Minelab Matt]

Good summary sheet. The only thing I would add is regarding recovery speed. Too LOW a recovery speed can result in increased ground noise which lowers the overall signal-to-noise ratio and the maximum effective depth. In other words, while you can trade perhaps a small improvement in the signal by lowering recovery speed (trading separation for effective detection depth) there is no free lunch and you can go TOO far on lowering recovery speed in the name of depth resulting in more noise and no real improvement in depth performance while throwing away recovery speed and separation. There are no free lunches in metal detecting and as far as the default settings on the Equinox are concerned, straying too far from the defaults can, in some cases, result in decreased performance.

Recovery speed too low?
Nah...i use 4.

Gives a better tone.

Too high and the tone is too short and quick.

 

[vferrari]

Recovery speed too low?
Nah...i use 4.

Gives a better tone.

Too high and the tone is too short and quick.

And too low, it introduces ground noise.

4 is not what I would call too low. I'm not talking about going down a point or two from the defaults (talking 800 here because there is more adjustability), I'm talking taking recovery speed down to 1 or 2 (again, 800 here). There is always a point of diminishing returns as folks try to eek out more depth (or fuller tones) they end up just increasing the ground noise under certain circumstances, which is counterproductive. Of course there are always odd circumstances where you can get away with it, otherwise Minelab would not have put the low end adjustment in there to begin with.

From the manual, p. 51 -

Swing Rate
A good general swing rate is around 2-3 seconds from right-toleft-to-right.
A higher Recovery Speed generally allows for a faster
swing rate with less likelihood of missing targets.
A higher Recovery Speed, for the same swing rate, will help to
reject ground noise, but also decrease detection depth. A lower
Recovery Speed, for the same swing rate, will increase detection
depth, but may increase noise.

Try hunting with a recovery speed of 1 in thick trash and/or mineralized soil and see how that goes for you. So yeah, there is such a thing as having too low a recovery speed.

 

[dts52]

Thanks for sharing, Don. I'll try it out soon unless our season here is over, but I expect a thaw before the really hard freeze. We should have a few more weeks.
HH
dts

 

[Minelab Matt]

Agree. 1 or 2 definitely too low.

Matt

 

[ATPRoDon]

I would agree about swing speed, I think that's why the default in Park 1 is 5 so right in the middle, again you have to see if you're willing to have more noise and an increase in detection depth or vice versa.