New 900 Tidbits...

[Dan(NM)]

I got the 900 and it's a step up from the 800 no doubt in several areas.   The coil ears are beefed up and molded different than the 800 coil. I'm not sure how the threaded ear is going to hold up though,  we'll see. The balance feels very good even when the shafts are fully extended, did not feel nose heavy to me. The arm rest is top notch, lots of adjustment and fast to readjust when needed. The lower shaft is smaller than the 800, I  measured 17.5mm vs 20 mm on the Nox. The lower and  middle rod when extended to the red line on the shafts is 36" There is about 4 inches past the factory red line on both the lower and middle rod, so you could extend out 3-4 more inches if you needed to. The magnet on the housing charging port has been upgraded, it has more bite on the charging cable than the 800.

 Wireless, it's not standard bluetooth, I have 6 APTX Low Latency devises I used on the 800, nothing will connect. I tried the WM08 and it's a no go. I even tried to pair with my phone, it listed the headphones as Minelab ML85's,but, would not connect.  I have a transmitter mounted on the bottom of the armrest, wired into the headphone jack that will allow me to use my wireless earbuds.  I have another transmitter on the way for the Manticore.

The headphones paired up in a couple seconds, no waiting like the 800.  They sound much better than the ML80's, very clear and crisp and very little delay in response time. I will use them when its cold outside, but I prefer earbuds otherwise.

Not much difference navigating the menu or controls, basically the same as the 800.  The battery was almost dead when it arrived, so I wasn't able to play around with it much today, plus it was raining when it arrived. I have a day off Wed before the big freeze moves into Texas and will take it to an old sports field here in town and give it a test run. 

[F350Platinum]

Great photos and comments Dan! 👍

Kinda odd that Aptx-LL stuff doesn't work, that's going to disappoint a lot of people. At least you have a workaround for your earbuds. 🙂 Perhaps that thinner lower would be good in shallow water.

[Dan(NM)]

2 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Great photos and comments Dan! 👍

Kinda odd that Aptx-LL stuff doesn't work, that's going to disappoint a lot of people. At least you have a workaround for your earbuds. 🙂 Perhaps that thinner lower would be good in shallow water.

Thank you. That's my only gripe, no wireless module, minor issue for me. I didn't think about the smaller rod gliding thru the water better. I only hunt inland lakes and never had an issue with the 800 in that regard.

[F350Platinum]

1 minute ago, Dan(NM) said:

I only hunt inland lakes and never had an issue with the 800 in that regard.

I considered a "stork" shaft for my 600, but then bought a CF rig from SteveG because camo 😀 that stork rig looked pretty cool, and definitely would have been an advantage in water. 👍

[unox]

Thanks for the write up Dan, looks like a nice upgrade good luck with it mate.

[Dan(NM)]

6 hours ago, unox said:

Thanks for the write up Dan, looks like a nice upgrade good luck with it mate.

Your welcome and thank you.

[Dan(NM)]

It looks like Minelab has ended the aftermarket shaft business with the new pod design. I'm assuming someone will design an aftermarket bottom piece for the pod soon enough though. There's not much to not like about the new shaft, but I'm sure some will find fault with it 🙂

  The bottom piece is attached to the upper shaft, I'm gonna guess epoxy. I was going to have a look at the battery, but, wasn't confident enough to take it apart like I did the 800. It looks like there is a plug that has to be pulled out to get further into the pod.  Anyway here's a few more pictures for you guys.

[Badger-NH]

What did you wrap the grip with?  It looks like a good way to protect it from discoloration.  The grip on my 800 looks ugly after two years of use.

 

[F350Platinum]

Yikes, it may show things down a bit that they use more proprietary process for attaching the control unit, but I gotta say that we have at least one clever individual who will find a workaround. 😉 That mount may even turn out to be an Achilles' Heel. Thanks again for interesting detailed photos. 👍

I agree with Badger, that tape looks cool. 😎

[Dan(NM)]

21 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

What did you wrap the grip with?  It looks like a good way to protect it from discoloration.  The grip on my 800 looks ugly after two years of use.

 

That's baseball bat grip wrap, I bought it at Walmart. I put the zagg invisible shield over the entire face plate of the pod. That stuff is virtually scratch proof, I bought that off of eBay and I simply cut it to fit. I was able to use the same armrest cover that I used on the Nox.