I went out and did a serious beach hunt for the first time after updating my equinox to the latest firmware.
Here are my conclusions:
The night before the hunt, I tested both firmwares in my coin garden. The only difference I found was that the quarter would sometimes hit 31 instead of just 29-30.
The next morning, I tried the latest firmware on the coin garden after it rained. I found that the VDI was wider for each coin... for example, the night before, a nickel was 12-13, but this morning it was 11-14, but centered around 13. I immediately suspected the firmware, so I downgraded to 1.5.
To my surprise, I got the exact same numbers.
So clearly this is not related to firmware, but ground conditions. The new firmware did definitely seem better at detecting coins on edge. Large improvement.
Neither firmware would pick up a small 4-40 stainless screw, or an aluminum screw. That was sort of a surprise.
I hit the beach with the latest firmware.
Often when I dig targets in the water or wet sand, I take a scoop or two and the coin gets flipped around and disappears.
I scoop again or sometimes twice, and either get lucky and find it, or I don't and it's lost for 5-10 minutes until it settles flat flat again or I scoop until it gets flipped around again, and I hear it again, and the process repeats.
This time, hunting with the new firmware I only had a target completely disappear once, and it turned out it was because it got pushed deeper from my scoop. I could actually tell when it got flipped on edge, because sometimes the VDI would drop from say initial solid 25 (dime) to 15-18. I was actually surprised at how many times a coin was flipped on edge, but now I could actually hear them.
My hunt was actually extremely consistent. All target ID's were spot on, no surprises at all. No targets disappearing.
At one point it started hitting 30-31 and I thought "yeah right its probably a quarter reading high"... nope it was a half dollar!
I am actually surprised to say that I do like the new firmware despite my earlier apprehension.
Interestingly my buddy who is a very good hunter was hunting ahead of me with on the exact same line using his Excal 2 and he only found one quarter, one nickel, one dime, and lots of trash. Not a single sinker. The whole time I was wondering if his settings were off.
