The dreaded foil.

[R.Duck]

This has always been a issue just wondering if there are any settings I can pit in the Minelab equinox 800 that will skip foil or aluminum garbage but not loose gold?

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Foil generally breaks up in signal/TDI if you raise the coil while sweeping. Foil also tends to give inconsistent readings when sweeping over it in an "X" pattern.

Just like gold jewelry and gold chains.

Sucks. ;-)

 

[gunsil]

The sad fact of detecting is that no matter how many advances there have been in modern equipment there are still no machines that can discriminate between gold and aluminum. If it were different all the gold would have been found by now. Patience is the gold seekers best pal. Lots of patience.

 

[SD51]

Luckily, there's more Gold in the ground than foil so dig it all and you will be rewarded!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

My old Minelab Musketeer (old analog VHF) will give a "click" or put a hard consonant sound in an otherwise smooth "ooOOoo" sound with foil. Not always, but one more clue in what you are detecting.

But then again so will gold chain.


There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. (TANSTAAFL)

 

[cudamark]

Luckily, there's more Gold in the ground than foil so dig it all and you will be rewarded!

If that's the case, there is someone out there with a whole lot of my gold share, because I have most of his aluminum share!

 

[R.Duck]

So I found this guys video with one setting change that could be a game changer tell me what you think of the setting and what downside you might see?

 

[PetesPockets55]

So I found this guys video with one setting change that could be a game changer tell me what you think of the setting and what downside you might see?

(The really good stuff starts about 1:45 of the video.)
He did a good job of comparing signals under different conditions and metal types to "alanuminum".
I wish the video was in English. I couldn't quite make out which setting he was adjusting.

Which setting did he adjust to 9?
(I don't have an E800 but an ATMax.)

 

[brianc053]

(The really good stuff starts about 1:45 of the video.)
He did a good job of comparing signals under different conditions and metal types to "alanuminum".
I wish the video was in English. I couldn't quite make out which setting he was adjusting.

Which setting did he adjust to 9?
(I don't have an E800 but an ATMax.)

Minelab introduced a new iron bias setting last year called "F2". That's the setting he was adjusting.
I believe it's purpose was to do a better job of knocking out bottle caps on beaches, but it could have broader benefits.
I also think that setting all the way up to 9 (out of 9) like the gentleman did in the video would have some downsides, like maybe some missed silver coins.

When the setting came out I did some testing using my Eq800 but I was testing coins mixed in with old iron nails, since that's what I'm seeing most often where I detect. I found that the original FE settings and the new F2 settings made some minor differences but weren't "game changers" for me in my tests.
Instead I found that I just needed to learn my detector's behavior better by....digging more targets and learning from experience. I concluded that there wasn't a magical setting that would solve my iron nail problem for me.

(If anyone's interested: in my New Jersey soil I find that some old iron nails will give signals up in the 20's but they won't be a consistent signal like a coin as I detect them from different angles. Instead nail signals will usually mix more negatives into the signal from one angle than another, while a coin tends to be consistent from multiple directions.
And I use the pinpoint function to try to tell if it's a small round target or an elongated target, which I'm getting better at distinguishing.
And then finally when I come out of pinpoint mode the first signal that the detector gives tells me something; if I get a signal in the 20's as I turn off pinpoint then I'm more confident it's a coin, while a negative right away has me doubt the target. It's a little game I play, and I'm batting about 0.500 over the last 20 coins I've found.)

 

[cudamark]

I've been recommending F2 @9 ever since the new iron bias settings were available. To be fair, there is always a trade off when adjusting settings. In this case, I can see a chance of additional target masking and a slight loss of depth using F2 @9, but, in actual use, I'm frankly not noticing any, so, it must be minor. I run my machine at that setting most of the time.

 

[o2findit]

Hi Guys
Can you knock out pulltabs with this setting and still get the gold. Most pulltabs are a lttle higher in vdi than small gold rings. Regards.

 

[cudamark]

I haven't been able to do that. Anything above iron (and sometimes with iron tones mixed in) can be gold. Any amount of discriminating out non-ferrous numbers will result in lost gold. Granted, some of that small gold might not worth the trouble, especially in urban parks, but, that would be a decision that you would have to make.