Steve Herschbach

The page is still there but all the links to it are gone from the main page. Maybe Makro needs an archive section for discontinued models because there is still good information there for current owners and future purchasers of used machines. It makes sense with the new Kruzer series that something might have to give, and some detectors you can only lower the price so far before its not worth it anymore. Hard to believe the Racer came out just three years ago and amazing all the things the company has done in that three years. They move so fast it makes other companies seem to be standing still.

It's 6:30 AM Friday in Australia as I type.....

Oops, I am sorry, I forgot that the Compadre does not even have a Sensitivity/Gain control. The Compadre is a paragon of simplicity, but this is a perfect example of where lack of control has limits. I believe you on what's happening. I honestly think your best solution is to use the AT pro and reserve the Compadre for areas where it does work well. Like where there are none of those rocks! There are internal adjustments for sensitivity and ground balance but I do not recommend getting into that. If you choose to do so, then here are links to many threads on the subject. Compadre Internal Adjustments

I am seriously blushing now. I'm not going away! Like I said, just going to be more of a backseat driver after people start getting their own units. Still, all the response and kind words is overwhelming. If you all do really like this forum, its overall concept and the way it is going, the best thing you can do is simply participate and encourage others to do the same. My basic theory is we should just help each other. People pose a question, I try to help them with it. However, I have been hogging that to the point I think some others may figure "why bother"? The thing is this was never intended to be the "Steve Forum" and so I am hopeful some of you that are knowledgeable and who don't mind helping others will stake out a forum or forums and help people if you can. And telling others about the forums never hurts! Again, thank you, thank you, thank you, one and all!

When it comes to weight I guess with the Whippet it is a case of paying for what you are not getting. Still, $250 deposit and wait for months? You basically are just hiring somebody to make you a drywasher.

I am sure Minelab would rather everyone get an Equinox 800 since the production cost of the two detectors is probably identical. Most people will anyway. For the vast majority of detectorists out there I just think the Equinox 600 is the real killer value as it will find most anything the Equinox 800 will find for $250 less. The feature list is truly remarkable for $649.

I like everything about the Whippet except the price - $1395 for a 15 lb unit. Odd they have none on hand, apparently built to order. Looks like a nice little but I have seen the little Keene mini drywasher in action and it worked great, and for far less money. And you know you will always be able to get parts.

We don’t do hate here The commentary about Tesoro is not a knock on their detectors. Great little units. But a business must always move forward to live, and Tesoro is dying the slow death as they lose mindshare with the audience. I honestly pay no attention to them any longer. I knew all I needed to know about them ten years ago and nothing has changed since. Never had an issue with Garrett service myself outside of having to use it more than any other manufacturer. I have had about as many issues with Garrett hardware as all other brands I have owned combined. But the saving grace was they always fixed things quickly without any fuss. I hope that is not changing. Between Minelab and Nokta/Makro right now the U.S. manufacturers have to be feeling the heat. Nok/Mak units in particular seem squarely aimed at the traditional First Texas customer.

I believe the concept was that the dongle plug into the computer, and V3i would communicate wirelessly with it. It never happened for various reasons. Really too bad as I do think it would have unlocked a certain user base that thrives on that sort of thing. From Carl Moreland at http://www.americandetectorist.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-16481.html "This was actually part of the original plan on the Vision, and Early V3's. They had wireless USB dongles being tested, but could not get the software written so it was reliable. Huge mistake. I don't know why they did not go with the USB option. Afraid of leakage I guess. Great ideas Rebel. A late reply, but for the record, the USB/wireless dongle was completed and fully working. About that time Minelab complained that the then-current V3 feature of wirelessly sharing user settings between units infringed on their patent for programming a detector. White's decided that the feature was not worth a legal battle so it was removed, and the USB dongle canceled." I did get a shiny new V3i to run my Bigfoot coil but also because it is such a playground for detecting concepts. I am in the process of dumping nearly all my detectors but the V3i will stay.

Gee Carl, I was all geared up to be using the pinpointer 10 feet underwater, and now I can’t! OMG! In jest of course but I swear these days people want to seize on everything. I am looking forward to your pinpointer because I used to use the Uniprobe and it was great but in the end unwieldy. I am guessing a PI pinpointer will work much better in my ground and will wait patiently until you make the red ones. I actually like the Tek look better but went for the red for that little extra visibility should I drop it in the woods (I worry too much ).

I am not sure of the rock type but here is my guess about what is going on. The ground balance on a Compadre is factory preset. The rocks must be well outside the range of the preset, and they are of such high iron content (many basalts are high in magnetite) that they are “wrapping high” as a false coin signal. The disc control on the Compadre is not full range. Even at Max the Compadre will respond on silver, clad, and copper pennies. If the rocks are false signaling into that range - well, you know the result. If you are lucky you might be able to reduce the gain enough that the rocks do not beep, but a metal item will. Some people might suggest trying to fiddle the internal preset GB pot. I would pass on that myself and just use one of your other machines.

I assume we are talking the Impact? Nokta Impact Owners’s Manual page 10: “Once the ground balance is set, it will remain satisfactory for a long time in most areas. However, if you encounter an excavated, backfilled or geologically composite soil structure, a ground balance should be performed again to adapt to the varying soil structure. In addition, re-ground balancing is recommended if you change the operating frequency of the device (5kHz/14kHz/20kHz) in certain ground conditions.” I am not sure what the “certain ground conditions” means but I would always check the ground balance after a frequency change. It may be that you discover that in some milder ground it is not necessary.

Hey, I can be a backseat driver! NDAs don't quite work like that. They never expire, and basically anything that went on during development is off limits. But yes, I will be much more free to get into all the details now, but that comes as much from the software finally being locked down as anything. There is a lot I could get into but it is best we all just wait and see what happens in the next few days. I think you all will be pa The thing is I am not trying to make Equinox into anything. It just is what it is, but there is much to learn about it. I have my pieces of the puzzle to offer but we need people all around the world to chime in with what they like and what they don't like. It is a metal detector, not a magic wand, and you can't please everyone. That's just fine. I just know its what I am using now and so as I learn I will post, and I hope you all do the same. I actually am tired of the detector of the week game myself, and am ready to just settle into this one machine and learn it to the fullest extent possible. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me at least this is the best do-it-all detector I have ever used.

Hi Alexander, If you want to post about another detector then do so at the Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons Equinox is ready to ship and it is what it is. I am not having any particular issues with bottle caps but like any detector I will dig a few. CTX and E-TRAC probably have an edge in that regard. Equinox is a much higher gain, sparkier detector and that probably works against it compared to the CTX and E-Trac. All I can say is that if anyone is all worried about bottle caps then wait a few months until people can report in from around the world. Only then will a consensus form as to whether or not this is an issue. It's not for me but it may be for others. It just depends on the items you are after and what kind of bottle caps you have around. Minelab E-trac, CTX 3030, Excalibur Versus Equinox

OK, after seeing how nickels rang up at 13 I did an experiment. I notched out every single number on the Equinox except 12 - 13 - 14 and dug every target that rang in that range. Here were the results. The nickels were all 13 as were most of the square tabs. One crown cap read 13. Everything else was 12 or 14 or 12/13 and 13/14 readings. If I did it again and just went for the 13, I figure the trash would be a third less, but same number of nickels.

I have dug one Buffalo nickel and one war nickel so far with the Equinox, and both rang up a solid 13 just like other nickels, which totally surprised me. In one experiment of 35 nickels dug in a row I dug three crown caps. Now these were run of the mill down to 6" type nickels but all solid 13 readings. The big offender trash wise is the classic light square tab, that rings up a nice solid 13 also. Those however are usually quite shallow targets. What I see with Equinox on coins in my magnetite laden ground running full tones wide open is that non-ferrous signals fade into ferrous at some point. Shallow coins have a big, solid target id. As the targets get deeper, the signal gets smaller and fainter - good modulation. But the target id simply stays the same all the way to the point where the magnetite overwhelms and the target shifts to ferrous. At the bitter edge the signal may be predominately ground signal with a tiny non-ferrous squeak breaking through, but that squeak will produce an accurate target id number. Chase is correct in that it is very hard to rely on just one data point, and most of my caution revolves around just how aware I am that what I see is only valid for me on my ground, and I am very leery of extrapolating that elsewhere. This is the primary problem of an early release with few people saying anything - you just do not have enough data from enough sources to be able to get the big picture. That is why as much as I am trying to give out accurate information I strongly encourage anyone with serious doubts to just wait it out. The only coin that seems to have much variability is the pennies. Most coppers show up at 25 -26 but there is quite a range in penny composition that along with corrosion will have pennies dropping lower to 22 - 23 - 24. I have no Indian Heads but I am sure they cluster closer to the zinc penny area. Another biggie with Equinox is no upscaling, or nearly none. One of my biggest problems in this soil, especially with Euro machines, was aluminum upscaling into the dime range. Nice little high tone, and it is a rolled up beavertail. That happens here a lot with many detectors, and not at all with Equinox. That one factor alone sets it apart from a lot of single frequency detectors.

Thanks for the update Carl. All that matters is getting it right, not fast. I will tell my Carrot to relax for a bit!

Again, thanks everyone. I did not expect quite that reaction to my post. Part of it is very much just what it says, but there is a subtle second message for those who can read between the lines. That includes the GPZ Fred. Of course the Equinox is not a GPZ by a long shot. If I was nothing but a gold prospector it would be the GPZ that would win the crown. I do like to coin and jewelry hunt however, and I expect to be doing that more and prospecting less as time goes on. So for me overall if I had to have just one detector Equinox is a better fit. Everyone has their own equation to solve in that regard. Anyway, enough of that and back to our regularly scheduled programming. I still have more stuff I am sitting on to post about over the next couple weeks as the Equinox finds its way around the planet to everyone. The floodgates are ready to open in more ways than one and I am not ready to fade into the background quite yet!

Not going to happen! Thanks everyone. I certainly will not abandon the forum - it is a labor of love and took too much effort to build to let it go. It's just like you all figure - I am really looking forward to being able to actually use the Equinox and think about nothing other than finding stuff! I know this has been a long haul for some, but I want to assure everyone I think it's worth the wait. I have never believed I could ever be happy with just a single metal detector, but if I had to choose just one and ditch the rest, Equinox is the one for me.

Still waiting for mine.....

I think the Makro Kruzer and Multi Kruzer are going to be first out the door, with the Gold Kruzer lagging a bit. I heard the March thing also. Perhaps Dilek will chime in and clarify but for now that is my expectation. Be interesting to hear how it works for you Mike.

Well, tomorrow is the last day of January, the countdown begins in earnest, and things will probably change dramatically here soon. My goal in this early period was to do what I could to present information on Equinox for those with interest. It has been a bit of a blowout thing for me because in the future if I work with any detector companies on true product development I will probably do it on a purely confidential basis. It was fun the last twenty years but the nature of the internet has changed and it is time for me to shift gears also. I will continue to keep the ball rolling for the short period of time that remains before the first people start receiving their Equinox detectors. At that point I will fade into the background as the overall forum moderator. I won't let questions go unanswered but there will now be a pause before I respond going forward as I am hoping other people will be taking the lead. Let's see if the internet can still support a forum where people simply help each other without all the other nonsense intruding. Anyway, with only a few stumbles it is all off to a pretty good start. I appreciate everyone's (well most everyone's) patience and for those who participate on the forums in the spirit for which they were intended, I thank you very much.

Welcome to the forum! Never had the issue myself and have not heard of it from others. That many coils it must be a control box issue. I am sure Dilek will take care of you so just a little more patience and it will get sorted out. Nokta / Makro have some of the best service in the industry.

Somebody here was making and selling them on our Classifieds over a year ago but I just can’t seem to remember who?

Every single mode can store completely different sets of audio options. The only one that is limited is Gold Mode, which has no separate target id tones. Minelab Equinox Tones & Advanced Tone Options