Can’t Access Advanced Tone Break Functions

[JohnD]

I recently purchased an equinox 600 but when I go into advance settings and hit the accept/reject button the machine won't go through t1 t2 etc menus am i doing something wrong or is this a faulty detector 

[MCH2]

 

Some advanced settings on the 800 do not work in the 600.

 

Here is a link to Equinox Manual for the 600 / 800.

[Chase Goldman]

The 600 does not allow you to adjust tone volume, pitch, or breakpoints on anything other than the ferrous segment (T1).

[Steve Herschbach]

What the other guys said. The 600 does not have many of the “Advanced Functions”. Here is a quickie guide to the differences. Items circled in red are “800 only”.

And more details here.

[Chase Goldman]

As a followup, don't be too concerned that you are missing out on much.   I have not seen a need to mess with the advanced tone breaks at all when hunting in 5-tone, anyway.  But, frankly, I rarely hunt in 5-tone and prefer 50 tone, because it gives you much more audio information.  The 50-tone on both the 600 and 800 are essentially the same with the breakpoints set  in the software and cannot be changed other than advanced settings of ferrous tone pitch and the ferrous/non-ferrous tone pitch gap (neither of which I mess with either), so if you hunt in 50-tones there is basically no difference in advanced settings between the 600 and 800.  Another reason why I consider the 600 to be a great stand alone detector value and a capable backup to the 800 (or a great dedicated salt water machine), if you can eventually "swing" the purchase of both.

[JohnD]

Thanks all for the reply.. much appreciated 

[Steve Herschbach]

It’s funny you mention that Chase. I am the first to tout that in 5 tone mode a person with an 800 can vary all the tones, break points, and tone volumes. Yet in reality I almost always use 50 tone mode where these options are not available. Outside of gold prospecting a 600 will do almost every single thing I have been doing equally well as the 800. I have to admit that is partly out of laziness. I like doing full factory resets regularly and so prefer my setups to be simple. I could create some whiz bang custom 5 tone setup, but it would get wiped on a full reset, and have to be entered all over. I find it easier to just go to 50 tones and get with it, and ultimately I am convinced 50 tones is better for me anyway.

To reiterate, if you use 50 tones, half the advanced functions are not accessible even on the 800.

I also almost never use the manual Noise Cancel, User Profile, or even mess with the Iron Bias. I don’t use the WM 08 module either. It really just comes down to Gold Mode, and outside of that a 600 really would do me just as well as an 800.

[Dubious]

I use 50 tones on everything, for maximum information, so wouldn't have the extra tone adjustments even if I had an 800.  With my 600, the only feature of the 800 I have sometimes wanted is the adjustable backlighting.  The 600's backlighting is too bright for at night. But that's an issue only at night; and it can be fixed with a layer of red film.   

[GB_Amateur]

Obviously everyone has their preferences.  I waffled over the 600 vs. 800 decision.  My past experience (trying to decide which First Texas 'flagship' model to buy -- F70, F75(std), F75 black, T2, T2 black) and ending up going with the most bells and whistles (= highest price), then realizing 98% of the time I would have done just as well with the F70 (errr, make that the Teknetics Patriot which is the F70 with an 7x11 in^2 DD coil) at half the cost.  But often you don't know until you try, and are left wondering 'what if?'

I've tried 50 tones a couple times, and I see some advantages, but I keep going back to what has worked for me in the past.  (And, yes, I've tried multi-tones with both the X-Terra 705 and the F75, with the same reversion.)

For a while I've wanted a detector that allowed tone-adjust so this was part of the reason I chose the 800.   I use it all the time now, have my own custom settings (tone pitches, tone breaks, and volumes) and really like it.  Once you get used to it (i.e. don't need to review the manual nor tax your memory) it's a pretty quick setup to go from factory default to custom.  Probably takes me 2 or 3 minutes (in a single mode, which is all I tend to use for a single day's hunt right now).

The Gold modes are something I will be using as soon as I can get out West where the metal detectable gold actually lives.  Since the weather turned warm I've used the WM-08 exclusively (with earbuds).  So it's more than just the advanced adjustments that I'm taking advantage of.

I'm certainly not trying to talk anyone into the 800 over the 600.  $250 is nothing to sneeze at in my world so I understand.  And if I had a 600 I'd be out there just as often having just as much fun.

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

It’s funny you mention that Chase. I am the first to tout that in 5 tone mode a person with an 800 can vary all the tones, break points, and tone volumes. Yet in reality I almost always use 50 tone mode where these options are not available. Outside of gold prospecting a 600 will do almost every single thing I have been doing equally well as the 800. I have to admit that is partly out of laziness. I like doing full factory resets regularly and so prefer my setups to be simple. I could create some whiz bang custom 5 tone setup, but it would get wiped on a full reset, and have to be entered all over. I find it easier to just go to 50 tones and get with it, and ultimately I am convinced 50 tones is better for me anyway.

To reiterate, if you use 50 tones, half the advanced functions are not accessible even on the 800.

I also almost never use the manual Noise Cancel, User Profile, or even mess with the Iron Bias. I don’t use the WM 08 module either. It really just comes down to Gold Mode, and outside of that a 600 really would do me just as well as an 800.

Agree.  50 tones is a holdover from my Deus "full tones" experience.  I too am lazy and the infinitely less user friendly (compared to Equinox) multi-tone break menu routine on the Deus kept me from super-tweaking my Deus 5-tone setup (though there actually are some advantages to going multi-tone vice full tones on Deus, but that is a topic for another forum).  Also, I have run into the User Profile mode reset issue a couple of times, and am glad I basically use the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method when it comes to settings tweaking.  Thus avoiding a painstakingly complex custom tone break setup going up in smoke, just because I turned off the detector in User Profile mode.  That IS  something that might make me a tad grumpy, and I know several who do regularly set up custom tone breaks, lament that issue or encountering something that requires them to go back to factory presets (FP) for other reasons (e.g., it was a last resort for Norm and his BT headphone issue, and he put it off for as long as possible) .  With 50-tones and only slight tweaks on recovery speed and iron bias, the User Profile issue is really a non-issue for me.