Minelab Equinox tips and questions

[HouseholdDog]

Darn looks like it's gone.
Did anyone here pick it up?

 

[Wally69]

Review #3

fully charged
it turned on, always a good thing
surprised; back yard deep target identified in the thrippy range after three steps, won't dig till rain soaks ground and grass can recover
initial thoughts confirmed regarding bouncing IDs on full wave over target but ID clear and stable when centre of target pinpointed. This is a sImilar response to the 705 but the rapid signal fire lets you hone in on the centre quickly without pinpointing
ducked next door to my picked clean 705 park to see how if fared on the canslaw. Definitely more sensitive and responsive than the 705. Bigger canchunks gave a firmer response than the 705 with clear target IDs , once pinpointed.
nice little target chirps at high speed swing rate, deeper tone in larger targets - walk or dig language appears promising
as suspected, think I will be digging more promising canslaw signals in the hope of pulling more gold. Need to raid wife's jewels to see if I can discriminate out the trash
picked out a sliver plated zippo lighter from a trashy area before calling the brief test run over.. Was able to wabble coil to get a consistant 20 over it and avoid the other trash a couple of centimetres away. 2UW is engraved on the zippo; a Sydney AM radio station 1920 - 1970ish

Went to bed happy

 

[SinHof]

Morning Wally,
Many thanks for the early comments on the Equinox, I guess there will be a fair number of folk here eager to read the forthcoming reports/reviews, interesting times ahead. One can't help wondering how it will compare to other detectors particularly the XP Deus, that will be one comparison I will be keen to read.
Cheers, SinHof.

 

[Wally69]

Morning Wally,
Many thanks for the early comments on the Equinox, I guess there will be a fair number of folk here eager to read the forthcoming reports/reviews, interesting times ahead. One can't help wondering how it will compare to other detectors particularly the XP Deus, that will be one comparison I will be keen to read.
Cheers, SinHof.

It is a great morning SinHof, with a super low tide this afternoon trying to reschedule family activities to give it a swim

Was lucky enough to try the XP at Hill End following a NAPFA AGM, the quick chirpy target responses are similar and both provided a crispness to a good target in my mind. This was one thing that impressed me with the XP at the time. The other was the weight and the gap is closer in this regard, suspect the XP is still lighter due to the coil size.

Thinking coil sizes are the most significant difference, guess that makes a depth comparison the obvious area to keep an eye out for.

Following the response on some of the canspam last night, it makes me wonder how effective a sadie size coil on the Equinox would be on sub-gram gold.

 

[SinHof]

Hi Wally; Thanks for the comments, the weight factor or lack of it in the XP Deus and now the Equinox is a major concern, the Deus was purchased for the "better half" and she had no issues working with it for limited amount of time she has used it, further performance comparisons will be of interest. Talking of low, low tides, took the CTX3030 for a swim on yesterday's PM low tide to the beach where I had the great run on the rings a few weeks back, no joy at all, picked up 30 cents that had been in the surf for ages, hope you have better luck on this afternoon's low.
Cheers, SinHof.
PS: Keep an eye out for Heatho, I bet he would be keen to tag along, perhaps with the 3030, another interesting comparison.

 

[PhaseTech]

Nice running commentary Wally69 :Y:

I had a local customer pick his up, so I got to unbox my first ever Equinox 800. I think I was just as excited as the new owner haha, except he got to take it home

Assembly was so simple, and everything clicked and screwed together very nicely.

The screen protectors with written icon descriptions supplied in nearly every language is a very good touch, and will be a great help in learning all the options, as there's a few new icons here, even for users familiar with Minelab icons.

Pairing the headphones was a little tricky. Manual fails to mention that there are start up beeps, then you need to keep pressing to hear two tones, so don't let go of the power button too early like I did about 3 times
Headphones are nice and comfy, with a steel band. Sound is very good.

Quick check of the gold mode, and air tested on my wedding ring, and nice sharp detection in 20 kHz and 40 kHz. Flicked to multi and got another 2 inches!

Browsing the various modes, and scrolling through setting options was very straight forward and easy. I like the dedicated + and - buttons for quick Sensitivity adjustments.

Overall, it's a lot of detector for the price. I think the Safari can officially retire.

 

[Goldtarget]

this segmentation is at the wrong end, the one thing I love about what I currently have is stable goldies tones that have a clear distinction between $1 & $2. Yes I still have trouble with caps, and a flattened aly screw top has every chance of being dug up currently, (especially those jack Daniels caps ) but do I really want to outlay $1299 on a machine where the advantages only help in certain conditions, and my bread and butter hunting may become less accurate?

Sorry, have to ask OldGT, whats the benefit of knowing the difference between $1 and $2 coins? Do you only dig the $2 coins?

I'll try and explain the best I can. I think a video would serve better justice as an explanation but I don't have the time to spare for that. When your in a trashy park looking to cherry pick all the goldies having a detector that can TID gold coins reliably makes a huge difference to the time taken to recover a decent haul.

If I'm using my Fisher I can pick all the $1 & $2 coins and exclude most caps meaning I can cover much more ground and be very selective of the targets I dig. If it rings up a solid 62 it's almost 100% certain I will be digging a $2 coin. If it comes in at 64 there is a high probability (75-90%) that it's a $1 coin. If I get 61 or 63 or 64/65 signal it's much more likely (80-90%) chance it's a bottle top. So in essence even if I leave a slightly masked, mower clipped or on its side goldie, I don't spend retrieval time on bottle caps. Now if I'm in an area I won't go back to or a very trashy place you can see that this has a real bearing on time vs result.

Now if I use a machine that groups all these TID numbers into the one segment (705 is perfect example) it is much more unlikely to discern the difference as the machine wants to put the TID as the same number for caps $1, & $2 coins (705 this TID is 32). Sure it will put some caps at 31 but the amount of caps it puts at 32 you will be digging caps all day.

It's like discrimination in PI machines. It will split users down the middle. However crazy it may sound to anyone else if the machine can't reliably (not certainly as no machine available can) tell me the difference between goldies and caps then I think it's a lesser machine than the one I'm swinging. If the Nox had that higher scale it might have the potential to outperform the Fisher F75 I'm swinging in this particular application, but in theory I don't believe it to be the case. The Nox is better on so many levels than mine, it is an upgrade in so many ways, but there's a limit to how many caps I want to retrieve.

Hell if anyone's happy to dig every cap out of a park I say good luck to them, but it's not something I enjoy. The real goal is goldies in the pocket in the least amount of time with the less caps the better. When I say bread and butter that's what I'm talking about, decent hauls don't come from modern silvers and coppers, it's all about how many goldies are stacked up on the kitchen bench at the end of the week for me.

 

[Heatho]

PS: Keep an eye out for Heatho, I bet he would be keen to tag along, perhaps with the 3030, another interesting comparison.

I gave Freshie beach a good flogging this morning, very busy there today. I'm sure I could be convinced if Wally doesn't mind doing a slight detour to pick me up on his way to the beach, will be having an early beer this arvo and won't be driving.

 

[korea hunter]

Darn looks like it's gone.
Did anyone here pick it up?

yes, I ordered the last piece using promo code. Thx a lot HouseholdDog :Y:

 

[Wally69]

Reviewed #4

Backyard tested a bunch of rings, skinny and thick, and coins, new and old. Recovered them all, much to the delight of my wife, who went into a nervous sweat for a period of time.

Non-ferrous notch settings go -9 to 40, this does mean the non-ferrous notches are more tightly spaced compared to the 705, so back to school to understand what the machine is trying to tell me.

$1 and $2 surface targets do have a single notch response difference but they tend to dance around a bit when in multi-frequency. Going to make a big statement that might offend; think the 705 has a coin shooting advantage for the $ coin chasing enthusiast as they are unmistakable responses several notches apart, other coins don't seem to create as much confusion as they settled more into a single notch response.

Sorry, no Australian coin response table yet, think that is best left as an output of real ground, depth and coin angles.

Had a bit of noise cancel practice, got the local spies running scramblers at this time of day or something. This is common in my area, machine seemed to cope with it better than the 705.

 

[Wally69]

PS: Keep an eye out for Heatho, I bet he would be keen to tag along, perhaps with the 3030, another interesting comparison.

I gave Freshie beach a good flogging this morning, very busy there today. I'm sure I could be convinced if Wally doesn't mind doing a slight detour to pick me up on his way to the beach, will be having an early beer this arvo and won't be driving.

Nice Freshie haul again Heath.

Don't mind being the detecta-cab at all, although ditching family commitments appears to be a deal breaker. Don't think I am winning the debate on what defines a priority in my household.

Will be in touch

 

[orgone500]

Thanks OldGT for the detailed explanation. I totally understand what you mean. I do a similar thing with the AT Pro (US version). $1 and $2 come in around 75/76/77 (depending on the mintage and angle) with a nice mid/high double blip, as do some aluminium screw tops, but the majority of scew tops will go 77/78 or will ID higher when swept at 90 degrees due to the way they squash down. I wonder if this will ring true with the Equinox.

 

[anton]

Reviewed #4



$1 and $2 surface targets do have a single notch response difference but they tend to dance around a bit when in multi-frequency. Going to make a big statement that might offend; think the 705 has a coin shooting advantage for the $ coin chasing enthusiast as they are unmistakable responses several notches apart, other coins don't seem to create as much confusion as they settled more into a single notch response.

And as a coin hunter (mainly goldies, obviously ), that is Exactly what i was waiting to hear..if you say the 705 is a better coins shooter(i had one years ago and replaced it very fast with better coin shooters), then im sorry minelab,for my purposes, i think MAKRO is going to get my $$ as my light, go to, waterproof coin hunter (hell, their battery can last 19 hours and is 2000 mah les than the eqiunox!).. thank you Wally! .. you saved me some coin to see "if" the equinox was for me..

** still love my etrac and dearly departed ctx :brokenh: though *

 

[Heatho]

PS: Keep an eye out for Heatho, I bet he would be keen to tag along, perhaps with the 3030, another interesting comparison.

I gave Freshie beach a good flogging this morning, very busy there today. I'm sure I could be convinced if Wally doesn't mind doing a slight detour to pick me up on his way to the beach, will be having an early beer this arvo and won't be driving.

Nice Freshie haul again Heath.

Don't mind being the detecta-cab at all, although ditching family commitments appears to be a deal breaker. Don't think I am winning the debate on what defines a priority in my household.

Will be in touch

No worries mate, just let me know and I'll be keen. :Y:

 

[Wally69]

Convinced the family a nice milkshake by the seaside would be a good way to spend the afternoon

Equinox Review #5

family set up on the beach in area not conducive to water finds, so will have to catch up with Heatho to give it a real crack tomorrow
super quiet running on the beach, almost too quiet, made wonder if it was working, even when I entered the shore break, just the odd transitional chirp as the machine adjusted itself
unlike the grass surface test, goldies at 6" were unmistakable and presented clear TiDs
local came down for a chat and told me where his wife lost his wedding ring a couple of weeks ago. Said I would give the area a crack and wave out to him on his balcony if I found it.
8) put the Equinox to work looking for a "chunky white gold ring with decorative edging"

No sign of gentleman on the balcony but rang his doorbell to reacquaint him with his lost treasure. His wife will be surprised when she returns home. arty: :rainbow: arty: :rainbow: arty: :rainbow: arty:

 

[Smoky bandit]

Awesome well done.. :Y:

 

[numpty]

good on ya wally, i bet she was very happy to get it back.

top effort mate :Y:

 

[Detrack]

Just to busses picking up gold with the 7000 to be swing my Equinox but my mate has been using is but no gold for him just a Chinese coin, did some test over some small bit and lets say it will not replace the 2300 or the 3030 at this point.

Cheers

 

[Danny13]

Convinced the family a nice milkshake by the seaside would be a good way to spend the afternoon

Equinox Review #5

family set up on the beach in area not conducive to water finds, so will have to catch up with Heatho to give it a real crack tomorrow
super quiet running on the beach, almost too quiet, made wonder if it was working, even when I entered the shore break, just the odd transitional chirp as the machine adjusted itself
unlike the grass surface test, goldies at 6" were unmistakable and presented clear TiDs
local came down for a chat and told me where his wife lost his wedding ring a couple of weeks ago. Said I would give the area a crack and wave out to him on his balcony if I found it.
8) put the Equinox to work looking for a "chunky white gold ring with decorative edging"

No sign of gentleman on the balcony but rang his doorbell to reacquaint him with his lost treasure. His wife will be surprised when she returns home. arty: :rainbow: arty: :rainbow: arty: :rainbow: arty:

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/1916/1518854906_image.jpg

Great detecting with the nox Wally.what depth were you picking up the goldie signals at?

 

[Northeast]

Well done Wally, great to see. Stuff like that benefits all detectorists.

Nice hearing your thoughts about the Nox. Keep them coming :Y: