Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
I am going to be doing some metal detector tests on the Equinox and a few other metal detectors.
Today I did an air test comparing the Equinox with the Garrett Ace 250.
I've posted in detail about air tests and their limitations, so I won't do that at length here. I must however remind you that what is really important is how a metal detector will function in various environments on targets in the ground. I also have to remind you that a poor detector used well is better than a good detector used poorly. In other words, you have to know how to use it well in the field.
Both metal detectors I used today have a variety of functions and settings. The Equinox has more options, some of them I find very useful.
This test was done in an environment with a good number of sources of electrical interference. I've found that the Equinox sometimes does better in this environment with a change in frequencies. The 250 does not have that option but does relatively well in this environment with the default settings. I suspect I could have gotten better performance from the Equinox by changing frequencies or perhaps modifying some of the other settings.
What I used was the All-Metals mode with maximum sensitivity on the 250, and Multi-frequency, Field 1 mode on the Equinox. No other adjustments were made.
The test targets in this case were a (1) a zinc penny, (2) a nickel, (3) clad dime (4) mercury dime, (5) clad quarter, and (6) silver quarter.
Ace 250 Equinox
inches inches
Penny 6,5 7
Nickel 7 7
Clad Dime 5.5 6
Silver Dime 6 6
Clad Quarter 7 7
Silver Quarter 6.5 7
My measurements are approximate.
Near maximum distance the Equinox signal was somewhat variable. I don't know how to describe it, but I'd say it wasn't as solid or certain. I was conservative with my distances.
You might expect more of a difference between the two detectors given the price disparity, however once again I have to say that air tests aren't terribly meaningful. Even though I've had very little time on the Equinox, I have come to appreciate some of the additional features and suspect it will easily outperform the Ace in wet sand. I also suspect the Equinox would have done better if I took time to tweek the settings, but for this first comparison I wanted to go with the most basic default settings.
The Ace has a simple ID meter and the Equinox provides a conductivity readout. Here are those readings.
Ace 250 Equinox
ID Conductivity
Penny penny 22
Nickel nickel 13
Clad Dime dime 25
Silver Dime dime 25-26
Clad Quarter quarter 30
Silver Quarter quarter 29
The silver coins read a little lower than the same denomination clad coins.
The 13 conductivity of the nickel is like the small square pulltabs.
Conductivity readings tend to jump around a little.
I'll do more sophisticated and meaningful tests in the future and use some other metal detectors and other test targets, such as gold and artifacts.
Here a couple links for a post on air tests.
https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2014/09/91314-report-problems-with-air-tests.html
https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/01/some-problems-with-air-tests-physical.html
Conductivity readings tend to jump around a little.
I'll do more sophisticated and meaningful tests in the future and use some other metal detectors and other test targets, such as gold and artifacts.
Here a couple links for a post on air tests.
https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2014/09/91314-report-problems-with-air-tests.html
https://treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com/2015/01/some-problems-with-air-tests-physical.html
I've mentioned before that you should use test targets like the kinds of objects that you'd most like to find. If you want to find gold rings, use gold ring test targets, for example.
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John E. found this object and wondered what it is. I think somebody will get this one pretty quick.
It is 4 by 5.5 inches.
---
A ghost town dig revealed hundreds of prehistoric artifacts.
Here is that link.
https://www.poconorecord.com/news/20190818/dig-at-pa-ghost-town-unearths-prehistoric-past
---
Maybe we'll get some new photos of Treasure Coast shipwreck salvage finds soon.
There are still no storms forming that might impact us.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
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John E. found this object and wondered what it is. I think somebody will get this one pretty quick.
It is 4 by 5.5 inches.
 |
| Mystery Object Photo by John E. |
A ghost town dig revealed hundreds of prehistoric artifacts.
Here is that link.
https://www.poconorecord.com/news/20190818/dig-at-pa-ghost-town-unearths-prehistoric-past
---
Maybe we'll get some new photos of Treasure Coast shipwreck salvage finds soon.
There are still no storms forming that might impact us.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
