Starter tips for new Equinox owner

[bufaloeletric]

Going from a couple Tesoros to a Garret AT Max wasn’t exactly the experience I thought it would be, and I had fallen out of the hobby for awhile. So I’ve now decided to go for the Equinox hype and see if I get retriggered so to speak. Any tips for a fairly experienced detectorist for this particular machine?

 

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[Donut]

Park one right out of the box. It will work fine. And just play with it and have fun.
The manual is on line. If you get lost just do a Factory reset (easy) or you can just do a pattern reset in the pattern you are in ie. Park 1.
while in the pattern you want or reset just hold down the pattern select button until FP shoes up.
take your time.
Only you can get you back into it. You have to keep your interest up.
Doug

 

[bufaloeletric]

Thanks. I’ve read the manual a couple times already. It’s supposed to be here today. I’d say once the battery charges for 4 hours, by the looks of radar, that’s when the rain will hit.

 

[cudamark]

If you're land or dry sand hunting, Park 1 as Donut mentioned. If in wet sand or water at the ocean, Beach 2 would be the ticket. If yours is the 800, fire it up, pair up the headphones, Choose Park 1, adjust the sensitivity to a stable setting and dig every repeatable signal for a while until you get used to good vs. bad sounds and I.D. numbers. When you get comfortable with your new machine, you can hit the horseshoe button and add the iron sounds to the mix. Then you can start tweaking the modes to match the ground your hunting by adjusting the iron bias, number of tones, tone breaks, ground balance settings, etc.

 

[MackDog]

I've set mine up Park 1 accept everything from 10-13 and 16-40. Then when I get a good signal hit the horseshoe and if the signals still good dig it

 

[jmc24]

First thing is to forget the "hype" and also any positive/negative stuff you have heard about the Equinox. What everybody already said is good except maybe don't notch anything yet. The default sensitivity is 20 which may or may not be too high for your soil conditions and EMI. For Park 1 sensitivity on 15 to 20 is fine. If you hear too many faint or one way targets in the 2 to 10 range it is probably tiny to small pieces of foil and can slaw. You will probably find out fast that nickels will hit hard with multiple numbers like 12 and 13. Pre 1982 pennies, clad dimes and silver dimes can hit between 24 and 28, clad quarters will be 29 to 31 and anything bigger or big silver can hit in the mid 30s. Zinc pennies are the wild card coin wise. Depending on how much they have corroded they could be a tight 19 to 21 or go all the way up to 30 if they are covered with white zinc oxide. Have fun, be patient, and learn how to noise cancel, ground balance if you need to, use that horseshoe button to immediately accept all rejected targets and pinpoint.

good luck.
Jeff

 

[bufaloeletric]

Could you elaborate more on what you mean by hitting the horseshoe button to accept? I guess I’m hooked again since im up at 4am thinking about and browsing the net about detecting.

 

[cudamark]

The horseshoe button will toggle you from discrimination (in whichever mode you're in) to all metal. The best way to learn a new machine, is to dig everything at first. You'll learn a lot quicker which is a good signal and which isn't. If you have a nice sandy beach close by, that is usually the best area to learn. Recoveries are quicker, so, you should run across way more targets in given period of time than you would if you have to cut a plug to get them. Another good area for tons of targets is a dirt parking lot.

 

[Willee]

I agree with Cudamark ... the best place to get to know a new detector is at a sandy beach with a long handle sand scoop.
Recovery is fast and easy and that allows you to get to know the sounds and numbers quicker.

 

[Trezurehunter]

I leave mine in Park 1 with the factory presets all the time. I have made many great deep finds, and just don't have the need to put in my own custom settings yet, and I've had my 800 for over a year now.

 

[Donut]

I deliberately made my settings wacky. And did some playing around. Like park 1 sensivity at 2, and recovery rate 2&8 and iron bias 2&8.
6-7 above target air test . Darn thing worked good no matter what I did. So Minelab has got it close and for the newbie just run it right out of the box and it will ‘ find’. There are many times when I go detecting I never even bother to ground balance. But my soil is low in mineral.
Right out of the box it will find. That’s why it has become so popular. It is more sensitive than other top name brands.
i also tool apart an old cell phone and got a small piece of gold coated circuit about the size of the head of a sewing pin and glued it to a popsicle stick. Dang 2-3” off coil in gold mode it was singing. wish I had gold near me. I’d be going.
just don’t underestimate the 800.
school size paper staples (the small ones)6+ in beach sand.
So if you get the settings off a little it’s still gonna find......
Doug

 

[Found-It]

Thank you for the tips on using an Equinox.

 

[Hawks88]

Some great tips. I’ve been away for awhile.

 

[MackDog]

I've set mine up Park 1 accept everything from 10-13 and 16-40. Then when I get a good signal hit the horseshoe and if the signals still good dig it

Update now run in full metal mode and dig all repeatable signals. Has greatly increased the jewelry count. Yes dig a lot of pull tabs but the gold diamond sapphire ring that came in at 16 paid off my Equinox and more