how do you tell if you are in highly mineralized soil using an Equinox?

[pulltabfelix]

I have the Equinox 800 and when you manual ground balance you can get a number between -9 and 99. So I assume that a reading of lets stay 88 is highly mineralized soil and a reading of 1 or -9 is no mineralization.

am I on the right track? seems the manual on page 40 says nothing about what the number indicate or am I missing something?

 

[vferrari]

High GB numbers do not necessarily correlate to high mineralization. They often do, but to be sure you need a separate mineralization readout which is only available on some detectors like the XP Deus and Fisher F75. Again, the numbers do not mean much in and of themselves, they just give the User a reference point for manually adjusting GB. On the Equinox, 0 typically is the neutral ground reference point; on my Deus, neutral ground rings up at 88 to 90, so detector to detector comparison of GB numbers is worthless. Also, on my Deus I have found neutral and highly mineralized ground to ring up with the same GB number so really you cannot infer much from these GB numbers, alone. Also, you may notice that ground balancing on the same patch of ground, with different Equinox modes, may give you wildly different ground balance numbers. See this thread for more information on tackling highly mineralized ground with the Equinox: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/equinox/586702-having-depth-problems.html#post5910251. Checking the ground noise response in ALL METAL BEFORE you GB may give you some serious mineralization . Lots of jumpy -9's, -8's, and -7's might give you a clue. (or just simply mean you need to GB), but again, you really need a separate mineralization meter to be sure. The manual does infer that you might have difficulty getting a sat GB by just pumping on highly mineralized ground and sweeping may help. So that be another clue. If you suspect mineralized ground, or are getting a mid to high Ground Phase number, I recommend using Ground Balance tracking. Haven't found any downside to doing so. HTH