Minelab, What The Heck Did You Do To My Equinox?????

[Jeff McClendon]

44 minutes ago, midalake said:

Thinking>>> Maybe in this digital age the MFG's should give us downloadable scale options?  Pick 50 or 100 scale!

Can not be that hard to program? 

The Deus 2 100 scale does not impress me. 

Personally, I would like a 60 digit scale instead of 119.

[phrunt]

That's actually a really good idea, some people will be completely turned off the Nox 900 and Manticore due to their larger scales, the Nox 800 with it's much smaller scale certainly gives the impression of much more accurate ID's and I think there is something a little off about the Manticore with it's ID's being a little too out of whack for just a larger number of ID's.  Either way, they can do a lot with software and having an option to pick ID range certainly wouldn't be out of the question, they could do a pick between the Equinox number, the Manticore number, the Nox 900 number all on one detector, it's just another menu item and I'm sure if Nokta encountered this many people frustrated by the new ID range setting they would add a feature to select the range number in a firmware update.

[bigtim1973]

To me whether a condensed scale means less trash or not, I try to dig numbers within a few digits of each other....whether the number locks or varies slightly.

I have found extreme bouncing numbers to always be non ferrous junk.....beer can parts etc. 

Your gonna dig b.s. targets no matter what numerical scale you prefer, something will always pop up a good coin signal and be an old rusted lawn mower gas tank cap  clock parts, steel bolt etc.

I have not ever found the perfect detector. The detector will always be as good as the targets you sweep across and then you must decide to or not to dig.

[GB_Amateur]

22 hours ago, phrunt said:

I think there is something a little off about the Manticore with it's ID's being a little too out of whack for just a larger number of ID's.

This has not been the case for my early experiences (in-the-field and in the test garden) for me with the Manticore.  Do the VDI's wander higher with depth?  Yes, eventually.  But for good targets in my testbed I don't notice significant degradation in the VDI spread even then, except as the detection limit is reached.  In-the-wild where conditions aren't as tightly controlled I may have noticed more spread but nothing that has kept me from investigating and digging.  I will continue to pay attention as I gain more experience.

There may be a strong correlation with settings or ground mineralization (or from nearby targets).  I haven't gone above sensitivity of 23 so far.  I've been confining my searching and testing to All-Terrain Hi, AT-Lo, and AT-General with recovery speed = 4, Iron Mask 8 over 3, custom five (flat) tones, and all VDI bins open (i.e. "all metal" in Minelab parlance).

[phrunt]

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

This has not been the case for my early experiences (in-the-field and in the test garden) for me with the Manticore.  Do the VDI's wander higher with depth?  Yes, eventually.  But for good targets in my testbed I don't notice significant degradation in the VDI spread even then, except as the detection limit is reached.  In-the-wild where conditions aren't as tightly controlled I may have noticed more spread but nothing that has kept me from investigating and digging.  I will continue to pay attention as I gain more experience.

That's good news, I am hoping my coil is just a bit out of whack.  Jeff's results improved with a new detector, so for two identical detectors to give different results means there is something going on.  I'll wait until they finally release accessory coils and buy them both and see if things improve.  If they do, fantastic.  Never have I wanted to have a faulty product more than now as if mine isn't faulty it's pretty disappointing compared to the Nox 800 when it comes to ID's.

I would guess a coil is more likely to cause my problem than the detector itself, it's a shame Jeff never got the opportunity to test that having both detectors with him at once.  If they didn't advertise it as being better with Target Id's then perhaps I wouldn't be so bothered but then again I doubt I would have even bought one as I rarely use VLF's for gold now so this was my coin hunter, and because of this problem it can't replace my CTX or Nox 800 for that role.  They did advertise it as identifying targets better at depth and I was under the impression I was going to have a detector at least as good as the Nox 800 at target identification as marketing tends to exaggerate, not significantly worse.

I'm in the most mild of soils and no junk next to my coin find targets I'm talking about yet I'd not be at all surprised if my Ace 300 can ID deep coins with a good number better than my Manticore.   I should film some video of what I'm talking about but I'm really busy at the moment so detecting has taken a back burner while I finish this other project I'm doing, then ski season kicks in soon too.  I will try find some time to go find some coins and record what I'm seeing and compare to another lessor detector and the Nox.

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

They did advertise it as identifying targets better at depth

I can confirm that.  I think I just read something about it again yesterday.

I wonder if Nokta found the sweet-spot number of conductive VDI channels with the Legend, which is in-between the Equinox 800/600 and the Manticore, Equinox 900/700, and XP Deus 2.  Then again, no matter the VDI scale distribution there are going to be complaints.

 

 

[phrunt]

Yes, I do like the larger ID range of the Manticore as it's moved common pull tabs away from my silver threepence coins like the CTX, the Nox they were smack together. 

I do really like my Manticore, it's just a shame the ID's aren't quite as good as expected.  In saying that, I doubt I'll buy another Minelab detector in the next few years, I'm done buying detectors for minimal improvements in performance over older models. I'm jumping off that mouse wheel.

[Chesroy]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

Yes, I do like the larger ID range of the Manticore as it's moved common pull tabs away from my silver threepence coins like the CTX, the Nox they were smack together. 

I do really like my Manticore, it's just a shame the ID's aren't quite as good as expected.  In saying that, I doubt I'll buy another Minelab detector in the next few years, I'm done buying detectors for minimal improvements in performance over older models. I'm jumping off that mouse wheel.

 

I actually sold my Manticore was not impressed and felt it was very much work in progress. In the cold light of day not much of an improvement I felt for the high price tag. Its to sparky and to noisey meaning that you have to constantly monitor the screen. More tiring than relaxing. You shouldn't have to lower the sensitivity down to much in normal situations and the max limit of 35 is useless in most situations and I feel was just to help with better specs and a selling point. The headphones are useless in windy conditions and you have no module to help enhance your audio experience. The screen suffers from screen glare at certain angles,battery run time isn't that good and the torch and vibration mode I would suggest most people wont use. The short noise cancel  is not needed as the long press is a must in most situations. I may purchase again in the future but things will need to improve. Deus 2 seems to be the best upgrade at the present time. So thats my feelings at the present. The nox 800 is my preference at the moment and seriously looking at the 900. But Jeffs issues have me holding back to see whats what.

[StarVatrex]

9 hours ago, Chesroy said:

 

I actually sold my Manticore was not impressed and felt it was very much work in progress. In the cold light of day not much of an improvement I felt for the high price tag. Its to sparky and to noisey meaning that you have to constantly monitor the screen. More tiring than relaxing. You shouldn't have to lower the sensitivity down to much in normal situations and the max limit of 35 is useless in most situations and I feel was just to help with better specs and a selling point. The headphones are useless in windy conditions and you have no module to help enhance your audio experience. The screen suffers from screen glare at certain angles,battery run time isn't that good and the torch and vibration mode I would suggest most people wont use. The short noise cancel  is not needed as the long press is a must in most situations. I may purchase again in the future but things will need to improve. Deus 2 seems to be the best upgrade at the present time. So thats my feelings at the present. The nox 800 is my preference at the moment and seriously looking at the 900. But Jeffs issues have me holding back to see whats what.

I'm so sorry you decided to sell it, that's not good news.

I've been following the Manticore since the famous Christmas ad... I had decided, now, I don't see it clearly...

Thanks for your sincerity.

[Jeff McClendon]

After seeing numerous reports of Equinox 900 detectors acting "erratically" I thought I would update this topic.

After selling my 900 that was sent to me by Minelab USA as a replacement for my original 900, I have not looked back. I won't buy another Equinox 700/900 unless those models get a major software update. 

Maybe the 700/900 do really well for coin, jewelry and relic hunting in low EMI and milder soil conditions. I did not get to try that experience and I don't live and hunt in an area with those conditions. 

The 700/900 even when being operated at sensitivity levels between 18 and 23 is just too "hot" for the ground conditions where I would use it most often for coin, jewelry and relic hunting. Even using conservative sensitivity levels around 20, I consistently experienced unstable coil responses on targets that were 3 to 5" deep that should have only happened when those targets were on or very near the surface. Those type of target responses like triple beeping on passes, fairly wide target ID spreads and overdriven audio are not necessarily bad if the target really is on the surface. However, when they aren't and there are also plenty of other adjacent target responses from bits of trash and ground mineralization, calling this Equinox 900 behavior erratic is pretty close to being accurate.

I trusted the Equinox 600/800 model detectors for solid performance even in tough ground conditions for four years and I just assumed the 700/900 would carry on with that trend.

Much of the erratic behavior being described by others, especially those transitioning from an Equinox 600/800 seems to be EMI and expanded target ID related with a few reports of bad coils. 

I thoroughly enjoyed using the 900 for gold prospecting on moderately mineralized ground. It behaved very similar to the Equinox 800 using the Gold modes.

After a few weeks using a Manticore that has the latest update, a similar expanded target ID system and Multi IQ+ technology, all I can say is that the Manticore that I have, coin and jewerly hunting on the same locations, simply does not exhibit anywhere near the level of "erratic" EMI and coil response behavior that I saw on two different Equinox 900s.