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Testing The Vanquish 540


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Yes I confirm the Vanquish is an excellent detector .  I received my Vanquish 540 pro pack 10 days ago. For info I am an official tester for 2 shops in France and I have a very stict testing procedure, combining static tests and field tests. I have spent around 4 hours on the field with it up to now .  I will give more details and pics in another post later  but I already have a good idea of the machine and you will find below a comparison between the Vanquish 540 V12 coil and the Equinox 800 11inches coil.

Important I on only detect inland , I am not a beachcomber , this test only applies for inland detecting .

1 ) The Vanquish plus :

- Static depth test on a big copper coin 10g , 3cm diameter at 12inches depth in moderated mineralized ground:

   The Vanquish 540 V12 is better than the Equinox 800 11coil. The sound is definitely sharper . There is not an enormous difference, say 1inch depth difference , but there is definitely a difference. I use the Jewellery mode.

- the Vanquish telescopic shaft is far better than the Nox shaft , you can adjust it very accurately on the field. It is much more compact in a rucksack. Also the S Vanquis shape is more ergonomic and it feels lighter than the Nox on the field, although the weight of the machines are similar.

- The Vanquish is much easier to use than the Nox , just a few buttons thats all. I find the Nox too complex and I do not like the side buttons of the nox which tend to auto activate when the Nox is in a rucksak. On the Vanquish I simply swich on the Jewellry mode , sensiitivity to max , thats all.  Also the noise cancel is automatic. On the nox you must go in the menu for noise cancel too complex ….

-  The Vanquish V12 elliptical coil is much easier to pinpoint than the 11equinox coil , I very rarely use a pinpointer with it.

 

2 ) The vanquish cons :

- a fear I have with the Vanquish is that the electronic card is not protected against humidity , no IP protection , this could be a pb during wet atmospheric conditions . I will test this as soon as I can .

- no lithium battery , just basic AAs batteries for power. A lithium battery would have been lighter and more reliable then the AAs. 

 

3 ) Conclusion :

An entry level machines better than their top level ones , only Minelab can do that … :-)

More seriously I think that Minelab has learnt a lot with the Nox and they improved a lot of things that can now be found on the Vanquish.

I understand now why Simon ( Phrunt ) is so happy with his Vanquish in NZ… :-)

Again I will send an other post with pics and a more details as soon as possible

Apart from this everybody is at home over here in France with the corona , so I have to stop the tests for the moment , I hope it will go better in a few weeks  ...

 

 

 

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...Palzynski ..... thank you for the information  and Test.......  do you have the ability to compare the Vanquish 340 with the Vanquish 540 in these tests? ..

For me, the Equinox 800 is still better than the Vanquish 340 ...but the Vanquish 340 is less 1/3 of the price of the EQ800 ..:wink:..but it's an excellent  "low cost" alternative to Equinox.."ID"

But I also assume that Minelab continues to develop in multi-IQ, and in the development of Vanquish, some improvements in Multi -IQ tech... boilers may not be included in Equinox 2.0.12 firmware.

Of course, a lot of "magic" can be done by the V12 coil itself in the actual size of 9x12 "... which can be better optimized by Vanquish's Multi-IQ tech...

I still believe that a properly selected coil can optimize the detector's properties .. and also directly enforce its success in detection ..

This is a problem for many branded detector manufacturers who simply can't make the right coil.....and so restrict otherwise  high quality detector either in terms of depth or ... separation, as EMI resistance ...

"C" ... Palzynski ....health is just one .... take care of yourself. ..👍

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Thanks El Nino77

No I do not have the vanquish 340 , I have just the 540 pro pack. I currently have 3 machines that I can compare together:

- a vanquish 540 pro pack , so with the V12 and V8 coils

- an equinox 800 with the 11inches coil

- a deus with an 9 inches white HF coil

After 4 hours of testing the 540 , I have the feeling that the V12 9X12 coil is really a great coil because it does even a little better than the equinox 11 coil, very deep and  accurate on the field . It looks like it confirms the results of Simon(Phrunt) on his football area in NZ.  

Comparing Equinox 11 and vanquish 340 I do not know , I suppose that the V10 coil is a little less powerful than the V12 ,  so perhaps the Equinox could be a little better than the 340 .

One more important thing , all I have said above applies only to low/moderated iron trashed areas. I have not yet tested the 540 on a very high iron trashed area that we have in Europe ( old/very old sites ). In such a situation the Deus will still be the best I think because it is  ultra fast and ultra reactive, and very few detectors can equal the Deus on such areas,.  

Also take care of yourself El Nino , this corona rubbish can be everywhere ...

 

 

 

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A few pics :

1 ) the brand new vanquish 540 just assembled at home on my lawn

2) static test on a 10grams copper coin using a box

3) the tested coin ,  laying under the box

4) the 540 electronics card rear, I took a little risk disassembling the electronics box , so do not do the same operation by yourself ....

5) the 540 electronics front view

6) on the field with the 540 

7) 2 buttons 1st world war , a french and a german one

 

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One more thing I have lightened my Vanquish 540 using 2 ways :

1) Using lithium AA 1,5V 3000mAh batteries instead of the NiMH 1.2V 2500mAh stock batteries which are a little heavy .

  This saves almost 60grams, keeping a good autonomy that I evaluate to 15 hours. The lithium are not rechargeable however. 

  Otherwise 1.2V 1300mAh NiMH rechargeable can be used , they are lighter than the Minelab's with an autonomy of 6 hours which can  be  enough for most of the situations , you just have to think to recharge them after each detection outing. 

2) I have replaced the stock lower shaft by a carbon shaft , the stock lower shaft weights 110grams while the carbon shaft weights only 70grams , saving 50grams. You can see the carbon shaft on the last pic just above.

So at the end I saved around 100grams , and my Vanquish 540 plus the V12 coil now only weights  1,2kg

( instead of 1,3kg before the modifications  ) ...

 

 

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1 hour ago, palzynski said:

1) Using lithium AA 1,5V 3000mAh batteries instead of the NiMH 1.2V 2500mAh stock batteries which are a little heavy .

  This saves almost 60grams, keeping a good autonomy that I evaluate to 15 hours. The lithium are not rechargeable however.

Have you run the exposable lithiums long enough to measure operating lifetime?  Amazon USA price is about $1.37 each ($5.50 to load the Vanquish).

 

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No I just ran the vanquish only 4 hours with the lithiums  , but it still indicates full charge on the display .

The Vanquish manual gives 11 hours of run time with the 2500mAh 1.2V Nimh stock batteries, so theoretically with 3000mAh 1,5V lithium the run time will  be  ( 11 X 3000 X 1,5 ) / ( 2500 X 1,2 )  ----->  16,5 hours

For info a NiMH AA 2500mAh stock battery weight is 28grams , and a lithium AA 3000mAh weights around 15 grams.

The price in France for AA lithiums starts at 1,2euros  , so it is quite the same as in the US...

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Here in Europe we have plenty of iron infested sites , this due to hundreds years of human presence since the celtic , roman eras  and so on up to now, this means 2000 years of intense human occupation so plenty of iron almost everywhere. Then detecting in Europe is quite different from detecting in the US I think. In Europe we need very fast and reactive machines , very specialized detectors. I think that XP is the leader on this kind of detecting with the DEUS and ORX machines. Over here in France almost everybody has a Deus ..., it has became a standard in Europe because these machines are very stable and very easy to use in iron infested sites. Some other detectors do the job , for example , the Tesoro Lobo , Teknetics T2 , G2 , but their technology looks a little outdated now , compared to the XP Wireless machines.

I have a very good experience of the Equinox ( more than 100 hours detecting with it ) , it is a very good detector on low/medium iron trashed site , but it cant beat the Deus / ORX on iron infested sites. The Nox is too noisy/unstable on such sites , it does not filter the ferrous enough , even using the iron bias at max. Simply it has not been designed for iron infested sites I think.  And from what I saw from a first test with the Vanquish 540 on  an iron infested site , the Vanquish will not do better than the Nox.

So to summarize :

- low/medium iron trashed areas : Vanquish / Equinox

- high iron trashed areas : Deus Orx G2 T2 Lobo 

These are my feedbacks from the field , I did not do static separation tests like the Monte's board test , did somebody test a DEUS or an ORX on the Monte's board ?

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Equinox's excellent separation on 6"coil..... is based on correct discrimination of 0 or less (or allmetal), tone break of 0, and iron bias of 0-3 ...., recovery speed 6-7 ...of standard 11 "coil is excellent in deep 3D separation .. in recovery speed-6....

Vanquish 340 has recovery speed set to approximately Recovery speed 3 .... therefore its separation capabilities are a bit limited ...

 

 Teknetics G2....Here is the question of coil size ,,, on coil Nel snake separates excellently on the surface ,, on coil 13 "ultimate is also good but in deep separation ..

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20 minutes ago, EL NINO77 said:

Equinox's excellent separation on 6"coil..... is based on correct discrimination of 0 or less (or allmetal), tone break of 0, and iron bias of 0-3 ...., recovery speed 6-7 ...of standard 11 "coil is excellent in deep 3D separation .. in recovery speed-6....

Vanquish 340 has recovery speed set to approximately Recovery speed 3 .... therefore its separation capabilities are a bit limited ...

 

 Teknetics G2....Here is the question of coil size ,,, on coil Nel snake separates excellently on the surface ,, on coil 13 "ultimate is also good but in deep separation ..

I have the 6inches coil with my Equinox . You are right El Nino , the Nox 6inches coil is far better than the 11 coil on iron infested sites , 
but it is still away from a Deus or Orx , if you properrly set the Deus/Orx freq at 30khz ( not at 14khz which is too low) .

I can say this because I am used to detecting with a friend who has a Deus . 
Almost at each time when I take the Nox 6 coil and he takes his Deus , he finds more than me. It is just a fact .

 It is not a matter of settings , I perfectly know the Minelabs multifreq  since the Explorer at the beginning of the 2000 years, It is just because they have not been designed for very high iron trashed areas I think.

Have you ever tried a Deus or an Orx ? If not , if you try one you will see the difference , in terms of performance on iron trashed sites  and detection comfort ( an orx weights 750grams , this is half a T2 ) 

However on low/medium iron trashed area the Vanquish 540 looks excellent , better than the Nox , and I will probably keep 2 detectors ,

my Deus 22 HF and the Vanquish 540 .    

BTW I also quickly tested the V8 coil on my Vanquish 540 and I found it a little unstable and so I am a little disappointed with it .But I have to do more tests .  On the other hand the big V12 coil is really excellent as if it had been specially tuned for the 540 ( look at Phrunt"s results in NZ ) ...

 

 

 
 

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