Testing Coiltek 10x5 Coil vs. Stock Coil for the Equinox 800- F2 Feature Visited

[Bharpring]

More testing of the new Coiltek 10x5 coil for the Minelab Equinox metal detector. Comparisons on targets in my test garden with both the Coiltek 10x5 coil and the stock coil for the Equinox 800. The FE2 feature is tested as well.

 

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[johnnycat]

How about letting us hear the machine? Hearing you say, "pounding it" means little.

 

[Bharpring]

I just replayed the video and I could hear both coils fine. It is a little more faint than when I use the stock headphones, but I could hear every swing over each target. I'm sorry that you couldn't hear it, but being rude is not always the best way to get your opinion heard. I can say that you are the only complaint about the sound.

 

[vferrari]

Commentary on your video. I think you are kind of missing the point of using iron bias. It does not improve separation it merely suppresses falsing of ferrous targets or mixed ferrous targets by driving them into the ferrous bin where they can be heard as ferrous or discriminated outlier. There is no point using iron bias if your nails are not falsing. Again, all iron bias does is make falsing mixed ferrous signals sound more like iron, eliminating the falsing. I can't tell from your video, especially since you are using two-tones whether you are getting a pure quarter signal (at FE=0) or if the nails are also falsing (which would give you jumpy TIDs and it looks like you are getting bouncing positive TIDs) and F2 is clearing up the false non-ferrous component of the signal (which you are interpreting as more ferrous audio or less non-ferrous audio). Or if it is actually causing partial masking of the quarter target signal (undesirable but a possible acceptable trade if you are dealing with a lot of falsing ferrous). Anyway, if you are getting a lot of ferrous falsing, F2 tends to clean that up without totally masking the keepers, so you can focus on true ferrous signals coming out of the muck - which, like I said, can be an acceptable tradeoff. On the beach, it almost totally cleans up bottlecaps, making them almost pure ferrous signals which can be ignored and is not going to affect your ability to find rings (i.e., iron bias does not turn non-ferrous targets into ferrous targets). That is the advantage. Your test garden and detector setup limitations may not be ideal for showing how this can work to your advantage from what I can tell.

That being said, thanks for taking my suggestion and giving it a shot. It's just another tool in the toolkit. And even if you do understand its purpose, it may in the end not be worth the trip or your cup of tea based on how you perceive it to be affecting the keeper target. If you lack trust or confidence in the feature, I advise against using it because mindset and confidence in your detector plays a big role in detecting success.

 

[Bharpring]

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. I can see the purpose and benefit of the F2 function in certain situations. You are right though, the way I have my 2 tone set up I don't chase many false signals. However, in the old parks up north where there are deep targets with tons of tiny old iron pieces the F2 may be the ticket. I chase more deep (9" or deeper) false signals from old nails or bits of iron than anywhere. And digging up a 12" nail is not only depressing but time consuming and tiring after about 5 of them. Yes, it has a place in the arsenal.

My test garden is set up to test an easy high conductor, and easy mid conductor and a tough high conductor deep. The deep silver quarter is about 8" deep and has 3 colonial square nails around it- 2 of the nails are at the same 8" level and the other nail is about 2" above the quarter. The nails will false a bit when the coil is at the edge. I will try to show in another video in the future.

I believe the F2 function was to help ID bottle caps as well. Again an advantage in public parks.

 

[vferrari]

Yeah, on the bottlecaps, especially at the beach, and in 5 or 50 tones, running with no iron bias, they give multiple jumpy IDs and a mostly falsing warbly high tone with iron grunt off the coil edge (if you have disc off). F2 at max flips that around and they give a mostly solid iron grunt with a false off the edge. F2 helps with mitigating falsing of flat tin and flat iron too.

If you run another test video, I think it is key to see how much F2 could mask the quarter surrounded by nails. Masking (or reduced separation) is the biggest potential down side to using iron bias and is the thing that scares most detectorists away from using it. I say if you can still pick up the quarter from most angles, then the probability of masking is low and you can use IB F2 with confidence when ferrous falsing is causing a lot of unnecessary digging. But if you are not getting a lot of falsing, no need to crank F2 in and just run with FE =0 (or F2=0, though FE=0 seems to be less chirpy than F2 = 0).

Also, reminder to those reading this that iron bias is only functional while in Multi. It does not work and is disabled in single frequency.

Cheers.

 

[GeoW]

Received mine today. Like it!

 

[Minelab Matt]

Dont see the point.

11" stock coil is vest bar none

Matt

 

[CarsonChris]

I like that it hits the quarter at 8".

 

[cudamark]

I like that it hits the quarter at 8".

I like that my 15" coil on will hit on a quarter at twice that depth.....

 

[Iron Buzz]

Is there a best place to order those coils from? Everything I see says out of stock, no idea of delivery date.