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I was metal detecting the beach in the water about Waist Deep, when I hit this signal that was large and the Equinox was giving numbers from 12 to 18 with the occasional hits around 26 to 32 At first I thought bottle caps! I have found groups of them before... and as I started to walk away I thought to myself I've never had bottle caps hit up in those High numbers before... So I went back and started digging and my first scoop had two Rusty bottle caps in it... went back over the hole and now the signal still bounced around but was more solid than before... My next scoop was another bottle cap and as I ran the coil over the hole again, a solid 28 the next scoop brought up a completely crusted black ring! I just thought cool it must be silver with a little star of gold.... I didn't think much of it... when I got back and cleaned it up, I started thinking this is not just an ordinary silver ring, this is some kind of fancy designer ring! It's made in France by a jewelry company Mauboussin that's been around since 1858 I think it was... And a quick search of the internet they sell for 500.00

I posted this on the Minelab Equinox Parts & Accessories thread but wanted to make sure it was seen so here is a new thread on the subject. I took the basic price list informations, spruced it up, and added the prices from a couple U.S. retail websites. All the MAP or Internet Prices for all the Equinox accessory items except the 15" coil. EQX 06 Double-D Smart Coil (includes skidplate) Part No. 3011-0333 $179.00 EQX 11 Double-D Smart Coil (includes skidplate) Part No. 3011-0334 $229.00 EQX 15 Double-D Smart Coil (includes skidplate) Part No. 3011-0335 Unknown EQX 06 Skidplate Part No. 3011-0376 $10.00 EQX 11 Skidplate Part No. 3011-0377 $18.00 EQX 15 Skidplate Part No. 3011-0378 Unknown USB Charging Cable with Magnetic Connector Part No. 3011-0368 $20.00 2-Way USB Car Charger Part No. 3011-0375 $20.00 4-Way Universal AC Charger Part No. 3011-0374 $40.00 WM 08 Wireless Audio Module (includes Charging Cable) Part No. 3011-0371 $259.00 Minelab Bluetooth / apt-X Low Latency Headphones Part No. 3011-0370 $139.00 Waterproof Equinox Headphones Part No. 3011-0372 $149.00 Headphones (wired) 3.5mm / 1/8-inch Part No. 3011- 0364 $30.00 Headphone Adaptor Cable 3.5mm (1/8-inch) to 6.35mm (1/4-inch) Part No. 3011-0369 $40.00 Screen Protectors (Set) Part No. 3011-0379 $12.00

Hi Yall! Well, we left Georgia and are now parked in my mom's yard in Obion County, TN. I hunted several of those Lake Lanier beaches (on the 4 days out of 10 when it wasn't raining), and I must say I won't be in any hurry to go back. I've never dug so many pull tabs without even a tiny piece of silver to show for it. And not only are the beaches bare of anything but trash, but all the city and county parks seem to be off limits to detecting. I did try another little city park in Sugar Hill, but after seeing all of the security cameras I changed my mind. It's not worth the risk of having my 800 confiscated by some local podunk city cop for a handful of aluminum trash. Now for the good news. There's a friend of a friend who lives near a West TN Civil War battlefield and he's going to let me detect his 3 acre lot! I've looked at the old maps and while the battle wasn't actually on his property, there was certainly Confederate troop movement and very possibly camps there. Any suggestions on 800 settings to squeeze the most out of my 4-5 hour (Hubby's metal detecting attention span) shot at this will be welcome. I'll also be detecting some of the local parks here, and since the mayor of our little town was my 3rd grade teacher maybe I won't be harassed by the local law enforcement! It will be interesting to see if the 800 finds any silver since I know these little parks have been pounded to death by every other VLF detector ever made. I just hope I'm the first one there with an Equinox! Here's some pics I did of the Lake Lanier beaches. Ya'll have a good week and Happy Hunting! Ammie

The number of people who replied to the survey is less than half of Kellyco's Nox 800 waiting list. LOL. This straight vs. s-shaft thing is just personal preference. Both sides will argue that one to death and a large contingent of folks will consider ML made a colossal blunder regardless of which shaft ML went with. I think its funny that Plugger and Anderson have made a living out of putting straight shafts on S-shaft detectors (Excal and Deus to name but a few) and are now also making a living putting straight shafts on straight shaft detectors (the Equinox). Neither configuration is the "perfect" solution AFAIC as I use both configurations without complaint.

This is the Ultimate Minelab Equinox 600/800 VDI Numbers and Tones video covering Rings and other Jewelry. I cover Platinum, Gold, Silver, Tungsten, Stainless Steel, and Aluminum Rings. Pendants, Earrings, and even go over various different style Pull Tabs. A lot of time was put into this labor of love Test/Demonstration video and hope it helps out new Equinox users. Make sure to also check out my video covering Coins. GL & HH

Do remember that each mode has separate noise cancel settings. So doing a noise cancel in one mode does not work when you switch modes unless you noise cancel them also. Treat each mode as a separate detector with separate settings.

Instead of sealing the coil cover with silicone, you may want to try a product called Seal 'N Peel by DAP. It's like silicone, and comes in a white with green caulking gun tube. Thing is, it's totally removable. Once dry, you can easily peel the stuff off in long strings. I use it to seal the expandable curtains on the sides of window mount air conditioners. I seal the tops and bottoms of the corrugated flexible plastic using a caulking gun to keeps bugs out. It dries in a few hours if you point a fan at it. Then at the end of the summer, I peel it off and can take the A/C unit out of the window. It does not stain or pull paint off the walls. I have not tried to seal a MD coil cover, but I think it would be perfect. I've purchased it from Lowe's for around $7 a tube, but I've also seen it sell for as much as $12, so shop around.

Had a great club hunt last Saturday - found some type of ID tag. Been researching all week but nothing yet... This was close to a foot deep ..

This morning i went to the beach at 3am so i could work out the tide and would have been there at 1am but overslept . I only went on a small section of beach as the rest was not really that good after giving it a check . Gladly i found a good spot and pulled a number of coins out , i found a Cross too but cant see a hallmark so cannot say if its Silver or not . My total was 1.20 Euro's , the Cross , 2 other foreign coins and £18.53p . In the picture one of the Pound coins in the second row turned out to be the Euro coin after cleaning . I am still not getting more than 6 maybe 7 inches of depth from the Nox but still cannot say if its the machine or the beach . My next search will be early on Wednesday but i will use the ET as the Nox wont work on the dry tops due to serious EMI from the clubs along the seafront or something . The ET and Terra can handle it and i know their tones but the Nox is very different . The only best place for the Nox on my beaches is between the low and high tide points . I have another 800 ordered and have found a buyer for my Explorer 11 but i dont know whether to buy the second Nox or not or keep the E 11 ? Its a pity there are so few of the machines out there in a way , i could do with another person using the Nox on my beaches to see if they have the same issues . As it happens i might have to postpone my second machine anyway due to something else , might have a Holiday to book for Mum and i to Oz at some point . I will take the Nox to Oz for a hunt on their beaches . Not sure when that will be .

I'm having trouble following the logic, earlier you said it was aesthetics (looks, subjective feelings) not ergonomics now you are saying just the opposite, it's now a "law of physics". Since I don't really have a dog in the hunt as I could go either way, I am going to bow out of this whole shaft thing because it is getting exhausting running around in circles. Thanks.

Yesterday I dug a 18K gold ring, 3.5 grams, size 7 at 12 plus inches using Beach 1 here in Hawaii in damp sand. The same ring air test close to 16 inches. For me, the Equinox is giving me almost PI depth with target ID.

THANK YOU, Steve. I appreciate you digging up that info -- and it helps alot. I am going to go ahead and try an X-Terra lower rod, and see what happens. I'll report back. Chase -- thanks for checking with Keith. Good info. I also have it on good authority that Excal rods will NOT work -- the spring clip is apparently oriented 90 degrees "out-of-phase" with the Equinox middle rod's rod holes, and is too wide (from an O.D. perspective) as well. (Thanks, Des at MLO and scubadetector at Finds). Steve

I am loving my Equinox 800 relic machine (soon to be my Equinox beach machine and my Equinox water machine and also my Equinox park and gold machine). Hit the PA site I lovingly refer to as the relic hunter's amusement park which has been the site at which I have obtained several firsts and bucket listers including my first CW plate of any kind which I posted a few weeks ago. I have hunted it the last few times with the Equinox and it sets up well for that machine. For relic hunting, I generally favor Field 2 at the default settings. I have been experimenting also with Park 2. While the default settings for both are similar, there is definitely a difference in the underlying Multi IQ secret sauce based on the way the targets sound and also the way they hit the targets. I found Park 2 to hit a little bit harder on higher conductors, but this could just be my imagination. In this field, I like the Field 2 disc breakpoint at 2 because hot "rocks" in this field (from steam tractor coke tailings) come in at 1 consistently, and the Field 2 breakpoint is 2 vice 9 for Park 2. This is somewhat of a moot point because I generally run All Metal, but occasionally cut in disc when my brain needs a break and just listen for high tones. But the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned as to which of those modes I prefer most for relic hunting. I set up the machine to have the "main" program be Park 2, but with some Iron Bias cut in (3). I have Field 2 loaded up in the User Profile slot without modification from the defaults. In this manner I have a setup where I can quickly interrogate a target with or without iron bias with just a press of the User Profile button. Works great. I also cut in GB tracking for both modes in this hunt. The field has mild mineralizaation and Ground Phase variations typically seen in a plowed field with different crops and it worked well. Well, Equinox delivered once again. Scored a beautiful 1858 Seated Dime (she turns 160 this year, no wonder she is sitting down) and my first Rifleman's Eagle Button ("Eagle R"). Rounded out the hunt with a minie ball, a Williams Type III "cleaner" minie ball (my first Type III), and another Eagle button. Not shown are a 1936 Wheatie and various tiny non-ferrous odds and ends including lead, brass, and copper fragments. Pulled some large ferrous objects too as I had the time to chase some iffy signals and did so. Large, flat iron rings high and forces me to investigate, but in all metal, you can hear the iron grunt too and know you are likely digging some iron and not a masked keeper. But if you have the time...dig 'em because you never know... The site really helps, I have had success here with the Deus as well, but no doubt the Equinox can, will, and has delivered the goods and I gain more confidence with it in every successive outing. HH

Prior thread with pics And more info

Amazingly I had a similar but not exact situation happen yesterday while hunting an old park (loaded with modern pull tabs) with my two hunting buddies. I had dug several old, flat bottle caps (ID came in the 30's) and many twist off bottle caps (ID 20-22) while hunting deeper targets. I was purposely running field 1 with no discrimination, 50 tones, recovery 7 and listening for the hint of a higher tone than the normal tone of 20-22 because this area had yielded many Barbers, Indians and Mercs in the past. My first slightly higher tone was so well mixed I almost walked away, the Id floated between 20 and 23 but the 23 caught my attention so I decided to dig and at less than 5" and laying vertical beside a huge rock was a 1936 wheat penny. My next target was completely different in that it had solid ID's 18-19 with associated tones but just the hint of a higher tone in the mix. This target ended up being a 1919 wheat penny. I might add, even though I've got some time on this machine, I'm not an expert by any means but the audio characteristics are coming with use. Audio first, ID second..........

They are professional tools Paul, you need to do your apprenticeship on the dolly pot and pan first!

I don't know that the above video is a good representation of the QED? To me it's still sounding off on the "hot patch" even after adjustment (just before he says thats ground noise then there's a cut in the video), although it is diminished in broadness it's still there. It then continues to make spurious noises as he moves forward after going back to the original balance of 89. My opinion is it doesn't sound very well ground balanced for that area. Mine is a PL2 & has been recently fully upgraded & includes the new beach mode. There are only a few areas, even after the updates, where I've been able to get a ground balance figure below 100 (lowest 92 from memory) & these were fairly mild spots so I think 89 for what he says is hot ground might be too low? When ground balanced well the "trick" of moving the balance +/- 4 depending on whether it's a rising or falling signal does work well but in some very variable ground can become a chore or leave you wondering if the signal only diminishes & doesn't dissappear - upside is when I've dug these any diminishing or dissappearing signals have been ground not targets so it is worth the effort. I've witnessed first hand a GPX pick up a "signal" that I couldn't get with the QED - turned out to be ground noise so getting the essentially manually balanced QED spot on to the ground conditions is very doable. Kiwijw - my QED is numbered just over 500 & getting close to 12 months old. I did see somewhere a user had said theirs was numbered in the 600's so if they are numbered in order of manufacture there is getting to be a few around now. It would be interesting to get one in NZ to see what you guys think of it in your ground. My thoughts are it would be very good & being so lightweight ideal for the mountainous country. They find gold but like any detector you need to swing over it in order to find it.

Amen to that! I had a lady come up to me on the beach and show me her $20,000 plus diamond ring and ask me if I would return it to her if she lost it and I found it. My reply: is your name engraved on it? She had a very thoughtful look on her face after my response...

Walter, Walter, Walter ... you are hunting in Reno? How long ago was it you were at your parks that had lots of coins? STEVE could be your problem and not the NOX. Mitchel

stumbled onto this bad boy about 4 hrs into yesterdays hunt. Today was all lead , lead, and more lead.....

I am a commercial caulker by trade and have silicone that I may use to seal it up although it wouldn't be permanent but it wouldn't come off on it's own either and would add no noticeable wieght

Awesome finds! It's smart not broadcasting to the world where you find the good stuff. I can't even tell my momma when I find something awesome, because everybody and their cousin knows which beaches I hunt. I'll just say that my Infinium has paid for itself about 5x already and I've had it since last July. It never ceases to amaze me when some guys post multiple pics of 3 ct diamond rings on FB and tell all about the exact spot on the particular beach where they found it yesterday. I think they are just asking to have 15 different people claim it as theirs and then harass them if they don't hand it over. My philosophy is simple, and I'll probably get some haters for this, but...I didn't pay thousands of dollars for my equipment just to be a lost-and-found department for careless people. If you like it enough to want it back if you lose it, then you'd better have your name, or at least your initials on it.

I did a thread recently where I was hunting local park areas and wanting to experiment with "cherry picking" settings that would net me the most coins the fastest without bogging down into overly serious detecting. I normally hunt 50 tones with no items rejected, which works well but which requires me to work slowly analyzing targets sounds. Time is limited so I wanted to get out and cover some area. The settings worked well enough to get a pile of coins out of some trashy modern park settings. Park 1 - Multi-IQ 50 Tones Iron Bias 0 Detect Speed 6 unless in dense trash, then 7 Auto (Pump) Ground Balance Sensitivity 21 or 22 depending on EMI All items from 21 on down rejected except for 13 For nickels I was being really picky, just digging good, solid 13 readings. I do know nickels can also read 12 but I did not want to recover too many pull tabs so kept this very narrow. And I have to note - I am experimenting!! There is nothing magic about these settings, just something I am trying in modern trash. Anyway, it worked halfway well and I was able to readily skim coins out of a modern trashy park area with minimal trash, and nearly all that being square tabs that read 13 like the nickels. Very little high end trash. I was getting quite a bit of ferrous high tone squeaking but only a couple that tempted me enough to dig them anyway, and got a couple nails. This weeked I wanted to try an area I had cherry picked before for copper/silver range targets, but my ear is better tuned now so wanted to give it another go with more open settings than above but still not wide open full tones. I employ different levels of intensity in my hunting that varies by location, time constraints, and my mood. Sometimes I want to recover all non-ferrous targets. Sometimes just copper/silver. And sometimes varying levels of in between. This next round I opened up the discrimination a little. Park 1 - Multi-IQ 50 Tones Iron Bias 0 Detect Speed 6 unless in dense trash, then 7 Auto (Pump) Ground Balance Sensitivity 21 or 22 depending on EMI All items from 16 on down rejected except for 12 & 13 This time however I rejected everything from 16 on down except 12 & 13. The goal here is zinc pennies read 21 and since I hate them it makes for my regular cutoff point in areas from around 1930 and newer. However, in older areas there are two things in particular to pay attention to, assuming you still want to reject some stuff. Indian Head pennies overlap the zinc penny range. New zincs come in at 21 but corroded ones will read lower. Indian Head pennies can read in that same "high teens / low twenties" range. Also, a $5 gold coin will normally read at 18. Ground and age can pull readings lower, and so I decided on 17 on up as being good, but 17 is debatable. I will decide on that later after digging enough 17 targets. But 18 on up has to be open because I am determined to find a $5 gold coin with Equinox. I also wanted to open up the nickel range as older nickels seem to hit around 12 and newer ones more in the 13 region. Again, just experimenting! I also need to note that I am using Park 1 - target id can vary depending on mode and frequency. I told myself I would skip shallow zinc signals but I have a real problem passing on clean sounding targets, and so dug most of these since they are shallow and easy to pop. I did finally make myself stop though as it is a time waster - zinc pennies were the most common "trash" target followed again by some square tabs. Like I noted, I detected this area before, so once I pulled the about 20 zincs aside I ended up with 10 copper pennies, 4 dimes, and 3 nickels, none all that old. However, I got three special signals. The first was as nice a 12 reading as I could hope for, just a nice clean, mellow tone. And down about 8" appears my first ever Liberty or "V" nickel, a 1909. Some time later and maybe 100 feet away another identical, mellow 12 reading - I just knew it had to be another nickel. This one was down under a tree root at about 8" and popped out of the ground dry and green - another V nickel, 1898 this time. My first Liberty nickels, and two in one day! Some time later, with time running out, I got a messy 19 reading. It was trashy sounding but just good enough to get me to dig, and my first Indian Head penny pops up next to some ferrous trash. So after 45 years of detecting, why am I only now finding my first old coins of these types? I was born in Anchorage, Alaska and lived there my entire life up until 5 years ago. Anchorage was founded in 1915 and most of that area is paved over core downtown. Most of the town is far newer. I considered 1930's coins to be the great old finds, with only a couple ever from the 20's, and never anything from the teens or earlier. The bottom line is these types of coins just did not exist where I lived. And then I got into nugget detecting...... So anyway, a couple firsts for me, and that alone made it quite fun. I used some cleaning tips mentioned on this other thread (steel wool) on the 1909 Liberty but left the other alone as cleaning it would probably make it worse. The IHP has a couple weird corrosion blobs on it so have not messed with it. Anyway, opening up the extra notches did not get me into too much trash except for the zincs I did not resist digging. The big lesson is that deep Liberty nickels, or at least these two, were the most wonderful mellow 12 signals one could imagine. So my current working theory is newer nickels will tend towards 13 and older ones 12 while in Park 1 mode.

Ok, this is going to give away my lack of real-life gold hunting experience. I've heard two different responses to this question so I'm left a little confused and hoping someone can clear this up. My question is: In most cases would the larger pieces of gold travel less and be closer to the source and the smaller pieces travel further away? (this is what I would think would happen) On the few occasions if found patches I've found the larger bits were closer to the shedding reef but have sometimes experienced the complete opposite with some of my bigger finds a lot further down the slope. (maybe two different sheddings? ... they say that a reef at one time may have been a lot higher, so gold shed at different intervals may be in different spots) For those that have found patches what has been your observations? Cheers Jin

I got an update today from the USPS, stating that the MPOW APTX LL over-ear headphones I ordered from AliExpress have finally arrived in the USA after two weeks from China. I should have them by Tuesday or Wednesday and will post a review here once I have a chance to test them on my EQ600. The company's other headphones have received very positive reviews on a number of sites, so I expect that the new phones will also meet the high expectations. They were about $53.00 Shipped. URL: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mpow-New-EQ-APP-Bluetooth-4-2-Wireless-Headphones-With-Mic-APTX-Low-Latency-Headset-Earphone/32848651952.html 30+ HOURS AUDIO PLAYBACK: Experience up to 30-hour playback/talking over Bluetooth with just 2 hours of charging or connect via the included 3.5 mm cable when the battery finally runs out TALK WITH EASE: Adjust volume, change track, and play and pause the music/talking via the headphones, built-in mic in the headphone and audio cable provide you hands-free talking convenience in both wired and wireless mode APTX HI-FI TECHNOLOGY: CSR 8670 chip with aptX low-latency technology bring your music to life for a more immersing experience.

Took the Nox out for a door knock adventure yesterday. I was cruising the historic section of town and parked in front of an old Victorian house. I decided to do the curb strip to see what kind of reception I might get. About two minutes in I hit a sweet sounding 31/32 signal and out popped the silver ring. I continue to hunt and as I'm hunting I hear loud music coming from the house. Turns out it's a few young guys practicing in their garage! When they took a break I went up and asked if I could detect their property. No problem. So, not only did I get to detect but I got to listen to some damn good music as well. If I stood down wind of the garage and inhaled deeply...well, it reminded me of my first Pink Floyd concert! What I remember of it. Anyway, I came away with a few goodies and was invited back. Cool token, suspenders buckle, button, and ring. Wheaties but no silver coinage...yet. Gonna go back soon. Park 2, Sens 20, 50 tones, Iron bias 1, response 6, factory disc or AM depending on my mood. Dean

So...started working the second block of demolished housing on base, but the pickings were slim on that block. Too much debris from the homes that were torn down. Worked it for about two hours, and got a severe headache, so I headed home to Ibuprofen, and some rest. Couldn't go back due to my son coming home from school in an hour, so I decided to just hunt a couple of the vacant homes right across the street while I looked out for his bus. Surprise! The two front yards yielded their hidden treasures. So many more homes to go and the demolished areas as well! Changed up a bit today. Went with the factory setting for Park2, and only switched to 5 tones while I still get used to the 600's quirks. Today's take: Copper Pennies: 19 Clad Dimes: 5 Clad Quarters: 4 Nickels: One 1961 Fishing Lure: Side Winder in great condition Find of the day: 1957 Silver Quarter....found in the median strip between the sidewalk and street. BIG surprise seeing that silver color in the plug! Tomorrow it's family hunt day with my wife and son learning their ACE 300's and me swingin' the Nox! Surprise find where least expected:

Hi Whitbey. Here's another QED link: http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/4255-gold-found-with-qed/ Haven't been prospecting since those finds last year. Too busy farming through a drought ATM

Steve - treating each of the modes as a separate entity or "detector within a detector" seems to be one of the biggest conceptual hurdles for the new users based on interactions with my detecting buddies and what I have seen on the forums. I think this is because most detectors treat GB, noise reduction, and even discrimination as "global" settings. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that even on ML FBS Detectors and the V3i, I doubt the mode differences on those multifreqency machines affect the underlying multi-frequency spectra and signal processing as much as what occurs with the Equinox and Multi IQ. On the Equinox, Multi IQ gives each mode it's own detector personality even with nearly identical "local" settings. It is a pretty significant depature from the "norm" in several respects.

Thanks for the reminder. I did a noise cancel and ground balance when I switched modes, but again thanks . I worked with Field 1 in my backyard to simplify things as strongly mentioned in Chase's excellent post. It was wonderful to get that type of help/feedback from someone in such great detail. Now a days it's not too often that someone goes to that extent to help someone out. It is like having 5 detectors in one. As mentioned in another post, hopefully, there are still some coins to find out there in Reno parks. Probably going out Monday AM to give the 800 another try with a whole new plan of attack(keep it simple stupid approach). Then, probably going up to lake Tahoe on Wednesday, but don't want to use the Equinox 800 until I get more familiar with it ( heavy mineralized black sand beach) and will stick with my Garrett Infinium LS. Thanks again and love the site.

Congrats on the R button! That is one that eludes me for sure. I've dug the A, C, D, and I buttons but not the R. Most see the seated coin as the highlite but to me, I'd rather have that Rifleman button!

I checked with Keith at Ft. Bedford and he is not aware of any "official" compatible lower rods available for purchase, so we are likely on our own when the new coils come out. I am going to check the Excal compatibility and also look at the Plugger and Anderson offerings to see if any compatible lower rods can be obtained from them.

In my experience/opinion the QED will behave like that for 2 reasons - 1. Because your ground balance isn't right (assuming other things like bias, Threshold A, gain & mode are set for the area/coil etc.) 2. The ground is very mineralised & upsets it (+ other machines). The only reason I commented was because it has also been my experience that more mineralised ground has balanced at a higher number for me with the QED i.e. 110+ vs. 89 in the video. That isn't to say that the operator doesn't have it set up as required but it was only my opinion that it may not have been 100% due to the low ground balance number - it wasn't my intention to pick holes in the video or the QED. Infact my intention was to indicate that it can & does operate better than any video will likely prove or disprove. Perhaps some reactive ground does indeed balance to lower numbers but it's not something I've experienced myself with my QED. Another QED user has previously told me he gets low (in the 80's) ground balance numbers in his area on ground he describes as high mineralisation which is several hundred kilometres from my area so it is feasible just not something I've experienced or seen before. Hope that clears it up a bit.

One guy used a rod from the Excal, some addition information says this set up isn't the best.

Coming off of the CTX, 17" coil, and the GPX, 12.5", 12x15", 17x21"coils, The Equinox is a breeze 9 hour hunts and no issues so far. Haven't had any issues with it being nose heavy, but that is probably because I'm comparing it to that 17x21" snowshoe coil.

I like the finds..seated anything is on the wish list for 2018! HH Sillllvar

Judy - cool. Keep us posted. Who would have thought a US CW artifact factoid would lead to a find ID in Australia.

Chase now you have me wondering . This spot was called Travellers Rest Inn and it was a thoroughfare from one place to the goldfields and they had races there and gold sovereigns for first place so the reason we found our sovereign . They also had a blacksmiths . Now this is where it gets interesting . We have found 2 Rising sun and 2 Australia badges ( second edition WW1 ) . About 2 years ago we found 'this out of the ordinary thing ' ) we are both racking our brains the exact shape ) we remember it was an odd shape and a bit bigger than our hand and it was just a bit awkward to carry so hubby sat it down and then we went and left it . We did research that night and we came up with the same picture from a civil war item and we said Na not possible and that was that until NOW . This is the place we have to ride our bikes to and thankfully we know the thick scrub very well there and will be able to find it again but will take a few hours . Thanks for that info and it will be a about a month before we go back to look but will keep you posted.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25517 Used one here. Mentions about posting in Australia. Doesn't say he won't post internationally. Would still have a years worth of warranty I think. I have never even seen a GPX but I've seen Reg's QED. Very light and from what I read it is fairly competitive against the GPXs. If you are sending it back to Oz for updates it is only the control unit so not expensive to post. The low price point for a brand new QED almost had me convinced to sell the Z and have 6k left over. But knowing that money would then just be spent on carpet for our house I quickly slapped myself Each to their own but if I was just entering the PI market I'd seriously look at the QED.

That is what I have done too (have the accessory coils mounted to lower shafts for all my detectors). I understand, I was just saying that I would be leery about trying less than perfect fit rod with the Equinox assembly due to the fit up issues being reported with the cam locks. I mean folks are resorting to sticking felt pads in the assemblies to make them work and that just seems like not a good long-term solution, so in the absence of rods, I would just change out the coils themselves. There may be other better fits than the X-terra's. I know First Texas lower rods work on my GPX, for example. I will look into this further with my dealer who also happens to be affiliated with one of the ML repair centers and report back.

Are you trying to avoid the time it takes having to repeatedly remount coils on the same rod while saving some $ using what you have on hand? I have seen the Equinox get assembled in less than 2 minutes from scratch, including attachment of the coil, so not having a standby lower rod already fitted with a coil seems like a minor inconvenience/time sink vs. trying to hack something on a detector rod and stem system that has seen some weakness in the cam lock design. That being said, frequent removal and reinstallation of coils on rods can introduce some stresses on the coil ears. I think compatible lower rods can be obtained at a reasonable cost, hopefully.

I made a waterproof connector using the cover plug for the WM - 8 module... using my Dremel I carefully cut a hole in the top and had to slightly widen the two ribs that come down inside the plug... becareful not to mar the edge of the plug where it seats against the O-ring ( red arrow) clean it all up with acetone or denatured alcohol... then use 3M 4000 sealant it's good for plastic! You can find it in any Marine store! I first screwed the plug in to the head of the machine then I coated the plastic of the 1/8 in headphone jack and inserted that through the hole I made making sure it plugs all the way into the machine if you're not sure turn it on and check! I then added the glob to the end to make sure it's sealed! Remember everybody you're at your own risk when you make anything for your machine! I have about ten hours on it!

While it may be a pain in the butt, recharging the Lithium-Ion battery every time you hunt will extend the life of the battery. Lithium-Ion batteries do not have a "memory" like the old Nickel and Acid batteries. By deeply discharging the battery before recharging will shorten the life of these batteries. In fact, if possible, you should resist letting the battery discharge below 30% frequently in order to extend their life. I personally put the Nox on its charger after EVERY hunt, regardless of how long, or how discharged the battery is. From Batteryuniversity.com: BatteryLife.pdf

Absolutely, positivity 100% true Steve. Amazing how you put technical data in layman terms.

Hybrid Half Sine Wave Nugget Machine.

Nah, nah, the boozer is a section of the separator where the real work is carried out, you graduate to that section only after a lot of experience in the loading end, tis a critical and exacting part of the process that requires exact concentration and dedication, otherwise top results may not be achieved.

GB; in the good old days you could easily seal most coil covers with caulking....you can seal open web coils the same way but it is an endless task. Painter caulk peels off...I would never use a permanent glue type sealer.... I think the answer may be using something like the guys put on their GPZ 19" coil...if I had a memory I would say the name... fred

I think Australian Gold, Gem & Treasure magazine was originally called Australian Gem & Treasure Hunter? Minelab Electronics became the publisher then it was acquired by Express Publications then to the current publisher The Magazine Works. You could contact them they may have acquired some archives from the changeover/s? Not sure of how similar or dissimilar the 15000 is but it's manual might be some help or of some interest? Available on Minelab website under discontinued products. Inst Manual Goldseeker 15000 Website.pdf