Minelab Equinox 800 tips and questions

Searic007 said:

Hi , I am looking to buy a detector that is equally affective in the gold fields as on tbe beach. The agents say the Equinox 800 but this has depth limitations with nugget hunting. Anyone with an Equinox 800 that can comment please ?

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To be straight up there really isn't one.

Nox will find gold but most people who are into treasure and gold detecting will have different detectors for each purpose.

GPX5000 - only limitation is discrimination, but depth no problem.

I splashed out and bought Clive Clynicks book Equinox series from beginner to advanced. I haven't detected in a long while due to injury, but it is very helpful.

Whenever I hit a new spot I dig pretty much everything to get an idea of what the site is like and what's in the ground. If the site s fairly clean of trash then I'll continue to dig most targets though if it's super trashy I'll just resort to cleaning out goldies, predecimals and occasional good sounding targets. Some sites I've detected are so trashy you could only do a 2mx2m area in a day, which isn't really practical unless there are a lot of good finds appearing.

When onto a good site if there is a lot of trash I'll start by doing layers as in easy good sounding targets first, then ok sounding targets and finally the iffy targets. Detecting like this usually needs numerous visits to a site and after clearing out a lot of trash good targets can start to reveal themselves, all depends on how much time and patience you have. We all dig lots of trash so don't be disheartened by that.

Usually people only post their good finds in pics, which makes it seem easy.

Also in heavy trash try upping the recovery speed to 7, you can just cherry pick out goldies very easily among all sorts of trash then.

dad_jokes said:

*goes to look online for a good scoop*

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When you look you may get shocked as I did at the prices. I just got my Equinox last week and was keen to get a scoop for the beach.

I ended up buying a plastic Cyclone shovel from Bunnings for $45 and drilled it.

Cheers Neill

A few comments from a new Nox 800 owner.

Im currently running the Nox with a 6 coil, and have observed the following:

1. The 6 coil definitely recognises the human handa plastic scoop is essential.Ill post a bit more about that when I qualify to post linkssoon, I hope.

2. Spurious signals due to coil bump can be an issueseems to be a function of Gain..an article Ill link later also suggests that Recovery Speed has some hand in it. Havent enough experience with it yet to be definitive, but it is certainly an issue, and Ive found myself sweeping with the coil just of the ground, and cleaning surrounding protrusions to minimise.

3. Some pundits suggest that winding the coil cable around the shaft is not a good idea.I understand the electrical arguments advanced for this, but am not sure that they necessarily stack up.
But, given that there is nothing to be lost by being cautious, Ive run the cable straight up to the first twist-lock, and then wound it from there up to the control unit.
Ive also secured the cable with seven 20mm Velcro straps five below the lower twist-lock, spaced about 80mm apart, and the other two from the twist-lock to the control unit.

The internet is crawling with articles about the Nox 800.Google is your friend for operating Tips and Tricks.

I agree that the "all Metal" mode is extremely useful.

Incidentally, the 6 coil is dynamite on small targets.to the point of being a bit annoying at times.

It seems I have to have 10 posts in order to post a link....so here's number 10

Yay! Looks like I can now post links.

Here is some cheap but effective gear I found at Bunnings that will get you started without breaking the bank:

A cheap and effective plastic scoop:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/fiskars-nyglass-trowel_p3367481

A cheap and effective little cultivator for cleaning surface junk out of the way before digging:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/fiskars-nyglass-cultivator_p3359139

And a cheap and effective Hoe for the hard bit...I particularly like this tool...it is light, compact, and tackles hard ground and rock like a pro:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/trojan-timber-handle-multi-hoe_p0074718

And finally, this is a little scoop that I want to try, but my local Bunnings is out of stock at the moment:

https://www.bunnings.com.au/spear-jackson-gutter-scoop_p3350459

I had one in my hands a while back, but failed to buy it, and it was gone next time I checked. It is made out of fairly thin material, is a bit flexy, but it has nice high sides, and a flat bottom, good for sliding over the top of the coil. It also has an elevated handle, which should, in theory, keep your hand a little further away from the coil.
Like I said, haven't tried it yet...but it looks promising....and at the price....

With all of the above, you can get kitted out for not much money....and, no.....I don't work for Bunnings

@dad-jokes

This is a very helpful forum:

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/forum/53-minelab-equinox-forum/

Particularly look up the articles by Steve Herschbach dated June and September, 2018.

By the way, I have assumed throughout that you are using your Nox to look for gold

My Other Half is looking at purchasing one of these. I'll be following this thread with interest. Some interesting advice.

Scoops... Further to Katab above.....( For Gold Prospecting not Beach or...)

A good mate uses the green round scoop, looks like a big soup spoon ladle, have seen a lot in use, I probably started to use a scoop in 95, the 20 years prior to that I though scoop users were.............. and of course ditto gloves, now use Riggers leather gloves, no ant bites or sunburn.

On another Forum, a member has devised what I think is an improvement on the green scoop. I am not a devotee of the green scoop and do not wish to create any disagreement on that forum, so I have loaded my comments here. I think my method is faster in finding the signal than using a green scoop/dirt agitation method, but you may think otherwise.

Handfull of Dirt over the Coil
My Prior technique was, to grab a handfull of loose dirt, if the signal is not in that throw away near the hole so less effort to return the hole to normal, if the signal is in the handfull, half the dirt in the other hand and check both hands again for the signal, keep cutting into half handfulls until you can see the gold/rubbish ( gold in your container/rubbish in your rubbish bag so your mate/you do not pick it up ( next year with a better detector or if you/he chains).

Sand Shovel
To my knowledge the green soup ladle scoop was not available in 95 so I started out with a Kids sand shovel, took a while to get the right one, its slightly bigger than most around 7cm at the front edge. but similar, but bigger as per below. I use the shovel in the normal way, when its small gold/lead shot ( I cannot tell the difference) I use the square end to scrape the ground then pick up the dirt, for across/over the coil. If the signal is in the shovel, I divide in half, to my hand and check again, if the signal is in the dirt in my hand, transfer to the shovel and divide up again, until the signal is in the shovel.
In small gold locations have also used a second shovel since the small gold/1mm piece of fine wire etc can slip thru my fingers/hand. Sometimes the shovel is used to divide up the dirt into small piles some distance apart to enable the Z to determine the location of the signal/pile for further breakdown.

Green Scoop Improvement
Whether its is a standard green scoop or the scoop with the ripples, I think there is some benefit in agitating the scoop so the signal if lead shot/gold falls to the bottom of the scoop (or the ripples in the case of the upgrade see below), then you go thru the divide up and check for the signal process, I just think this is more time consuming than the cutting in half and checking and you do not have the flat scraping of the sand shovel.

If this write up convinces you to purchase a green scoop or Doc's Improved version, all the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQPbVmW5tf4

https://www.mrtoys.com.au/outdoor-sports-water-toys/beach-water-toys/paletta-mare-moplen-28997.html

Peter

The best scoop i ever used, should last a few more seasons...cheap too.

A fool and his money are soon parted. :argh: :argh:

Hey!! That's the one I use to measure out Nelsons daily dry food intake-1 1/2 cups in the morning.

Multi purpose, maybe i should patent the thing?? :money: :money: :money:

Hello, everyone,

I would really like some help with this. Trying to decide whether the Equinox 800 is a good choice for the beach? I have had other VLF detectors on the beach and it's a joke the saltwater and the mineralization kills them. It just goes unstable and becomes worthless. Question is the Equinox any different? to be clear, I'm not looking just for theory, instead, I'm looking for whether someone has practical experience in what settings they might use, please? Fact is, I have seen plenty of YouTube videos, including the Australian Michael Oliver channel he does occasionally use the Equinox purposely uses the Minelab Excalibur 1000, but I want to hear what everyone else's experience is with these detectors on the beach? SETTINGS? Salt content is high here and mineralization is low to medium.

For the record, I know pulse induction works best and I have a Garrett Sea Hunter II that I take to the beach now, but looking for something else maybe.

ickshovel: ickshovel: ickshovel:

Yes its good on the beach and in the saltwater, put it into beach mode and go, its that easy

Very quiet
Wet or dry.

It's an excellent detector. especially for wet sand and saltwater.

dont even need to ground balance between dry and wet

Simultaneous multi-frequency VLF detectors with full discrimination features, solved the saltwater beach detecting problem a couple of decades ago. Minelab's Sovereign, Explorer and Excalibur (underwater) series, as well as the CTX 3030, were all outstanding in this regard and the Equinox is the latest iteration of the technology.

As you've found, claims by various manufacturers for the saltwater capabilities of their single frequency VLF detectors are always false. It cannot be done while retaining normal sensitivity, no matter what they say, because the detector needs to null both mineralisation and saltwater conductivity at the same time.

As you've also found, PI detectors ignore the saltwater and also work well, but their discrimination capability is rudimentary at best.