Steve Herschbach

I am getting questions via PM instead of the forum.... “Why did they put an external speaker on the Equinox? Is there anyone that even uses them now days? I know a few that have had trouble with the speaker leaking on the CTX” and “I saw a post saying the Equinox may well have a true AM mode like the Xterra does for prospecting. Would this bring it to an equalizing depth against the Xcal and CTX in the salt water? Have you tried the all metal mode and IF you have, could you do a post on it (true all metal, threshold based, does it lock on when the button is pushed or do you have to hold the button). Curious as to if it is something that could be used like an Excal in Pinpoint or if it is just a quick push of the button to go to a non-notched mode of discrimination.” My perception of Equinox is that it is a general purpose all terrain detector intended to take market share from Garrett AT and Deus. It is waterproof to ten feet and does have a multifrequency beach mode. I think it will do well in salt water. I question whether it will replace a true diving detector like the Excalibur with the hardcore water crowd. For people like me who get in the water maybe three weeks out of the year it’s just great however. Whether it proves sufficient for the hardcore water hunters, only time will tell. The all terrain, all purpose intent of the Equinox pretty much demands it include a speaker. It is just a fact that people expect detectors to have an external speaker. The Fisher CZ-7 was an early attempt to make a detector without a speaker (it had a plug in accessory speaker). It was not a well received idea. The Minelab SD, GP, and GPX detectors have no external speaker, and people have been selling external speaker kits ever since. The vast majority of people think a detector should have an external speaker.. Again, we are talking an all terrain detector here that will see more use out if water than in it, not a dedicated diving machine like the Excalibur. The Equinox has four Detect Modes. Park, Field, Beach, and Gold. The Park, Field, and Beach modes are discrimination modes. Everything is discriminated visually by target id and/or tones. You can block or notch out specific target id numbers or ranges. You can also, at any time, by hitting the “Horseshoe” button, go to a wide open “All Metal” mode where all items are accepted, similar as to the way it is done on X-Terra and CTX. This is not a true non-discriminating all metal mode, but a discrimination mode set to accept all items. The discrimination filter is engaged. You can at any time engage the pinpoint mode, which activates when you press the pinpoint button, and turns off when you press it again. It might serve like the all metal pinpoint on the Excalibur but I am a bit doubtful of that. The pinpoint of the Equinox currently “ratchets” automatically to focus on and pinpoint targets. This is still being tweaked so I can’t say for sure, but I personally would not buy an Equinox thinking it will duplicate how the Excalibur acts as far as pinpoint mode goes. It might in the final version, but I would not want to bet on it. The Gold Mode on the Equinox 800 is somewhat like the Prospecting Mode on the X-Terra 705, a threshold based all metal mode. It operates at 20 kHz and 40 kHz plus MF (MultiFrequency) and is too hot for salt water or wet salt sand. It might be good on dry sand for micro jewelry, but that’s it. For wet salt sand or in salt water, the Beach Mode, which only operates in multifrequency, will be the go to mode for most people.

I open this thread each morning expecting to find it gone astray, and instead find good discussion. I want just want to say thank you all for that!

Equinox is every bit as fast as a Deus if not faster. I don’t pay attention to screens when a sweep reveals 16 or 24 targets. I assume numbers are blasting around like crazy. I don’t look at a screen until the audio says I should so it has not made an impression on me as to what it is doing exactly but will check and report back. I can make all detectors fool me. Lots of ferrous items fire off high tone squeaks with any detector. I usually know they are ferrous. I do wonder at times if a coin is co-located with a nail or bottle cap. Something about the little squeak will be enticing. Usually I will pass on those types of iffy targets due to lack of time and desire not to dig any more plugs than necessary. However, if I am in the mood and particularly aggressive, I dig these, and that is when weird ferrous stuff shows up. Old nails on end, etc. Equinox is no different. There are clearly good targets, clearly bad targets, and then there are borderline and questionable targets. If you aggressively chase questionable targets you will tend to dig more trash. Equinox is still a metal detector and acquired detecting skills still matter. I can dig nothing but coins with Equinox if I choose, by skipping anything remotely questionable. If I dig every tiny little indication of a coin no matter what, then junk starts to appear. Learning a detector and where that line is is something all experienced detectorists do and will still have to do with Equinox. Everything that appears on a detector screen also appears in the audio if you run full tones. All a screen does is plot the responses visually. That is not to say a screen cannot be a tremendous aid, even a necessity for those with hearing challenges. I like and enjoy hunting with detectors that have great visual displays. Even then though I am and will always be a person that goes after targets first and foremost because they sound good to me. People’s mileage will vary in that regard.

If detectors with Li-Ion batteries cannot travel by air then lots of Minelab GPX, CTX, and GPZ owners are all breaking the law. Luckily that is not the case. There appears to be confusion here about batteries installed in equipment versus spare batteries. Almost all limits apply to spare batteries. From https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ash/ash_programs/hazmat/passenger_info/media/Airline_passengers_and_batteries.pdf

Spring 2016. All units in existence are still under warranty (two year transferable), and White’s will probably extend the warranty on some of these issues since they are known issues.

Batteries as component part of devices are allowed on aircraft - all those laptops and iPads, you know. Part of the Equinox design is ease of travel.

Welcome to the forum! The 5.3 lb. CTX has a two piece rod assemble, and the lower rod just barely fits diagonally in my full size Samsonite suitcase. Packing a CTX for travel is difficult but possible. The 2.9 lb. Equinox on the other hand has a three piece rod, and just fits in my industry standard carry on bag. Underwater headphones will be available for Equinox at launch, with aftermarket phones sure to follow. Waterproof headphones with EQUINOX connector. Can also be connected directly to a WM 08 Wireless Audio Module. Part No. 3011-0372 More Equinox Accessories Listed Here

No way to say without doing direct head to head tests. Possibly more than you are assuming.

The last half of this video shows a Garrett AT Gold being opened up. The information should be useful for Garrett AT Pro and AT Max owners also.

Unless you are doing this as a for profit thing, I agree with Fred. You simply have to see enough gold to get your interest. That varies depending on the person, but for me any decent showing of gold is worth following up on. There will usually be better concentrations of gold in the creek bottom than on the banks, but nothing is 100% in gold prospecting until you prove it. If you have not done it yet, a hand fed sluice box is the cheapest volume sampling device you can get. Before going to a dredge I would recommend shoveling a few yards through a sluice. A lot of this book is overly technical but it is free and describes how the professionals go about it. Some good tidbits in there. Placer Examination - Principles and Practice by John H. Wells

Pretty much all I ever ran while in Alaska with my GPX was the Sharp timing. I generally run the most powerful timing the ground will allow, and Sharp is one of the most powerful Timings on the GPX. From the Minelab GPX 4000-5000 Manuals & Timings Charts: “Sharp is similar to Normal but creates a more powerful detection field. It is capable of an improvement in depth, but is more susceptible to interference and will increase the severity of false signals in difficult grounds. This timing is best used in quiet conditions and can work well in combination with Deep Search Mode with a reduced Rx Gain setting. Sharp is an excellent tool for pinpointing faint signals due to the very "sharp" signal response. Sharp will work best with DD coils in most gold field locations.” Sharp works well if the ground allows, and not well if the ground objects. I get the impression people pick timings based on internet posts or what a friend said, when they should be using the method outlined in the chart below to discover the best timing for the ground they are on. There is no “best” timing. The detector must be adjusted to fit the conditions. “The best timing is the deepest timing with no ground noise”. Minelab GPX Timing Selection Chart - Click on image for larger version

Hopefully not. Heal up well and fast!

They are a finicky, touchy device for sure.

I normally do the pump and lock thing. Equinox 800 can do ground grab, auto ground tracking, or you can manually set the GB number. I run in fixed as a matter of habit so I need to play with tracking more. Thanks for the reminder. Minelab’s tracking technology has been getting pretty advanced. The SDC 2300 can only run in tracking, and my GPZ never comes out of tracking. Yet I still have this tendency to avoid tracking with coin type detectors. I guess I still don’t trusting tracking systems in dense trash.

It happens. Nothing memorable to comment on in that regard.

There is talk about lots of stuff but the three coils currently slated are all I know of that are actually in the works. That’s enough to deliver on for now but I am sure more will follow. A 6 x 10 closed would be good but I never hold my breath for stuff like that.

Not at all JP, great stuff, just people expressing opinions. I certainly give a lot of weight to yours! Thanks for posting Funny, I never thought of myself as a GPZ skeptic. I have total faith in mine finding gold if I get over it, including large nuggets at depth.

Actually, I am creating an online "annotated" manual that we can all contribute to. The basics are being put in place using the Equinox field guide as a starting point. I am calling it the Minelab Equinox Advanced User's Guide Not a lot there yet. I was going to wait until it is more complete but it does no harm for you guys to see it now. The idea is to use whatever Minelab gives us as a starting point, then to update and annotate it with more information as people discover it.

That probably only exhibits in real bad ground that is trying to pull targets into the ferrous region. I would not expect it in milder ground. And you have to be in full tones. It is different from ferrous junk targets that also tend to fire off some high squeaks as the ferrous "wraps high". But on equinox there is more spread between the target id of a high ferrous wrap and silver coins then I have seen on other detectors, so they tend to be painfully obvious. I will be able to say more about that whenever Minelab tells me the target id numbers are locked in place but for now I am avoiding talking about specific id numbers and what they might mean. Things may shift still. In other words, I can speak to generalities as best I can, but if I tell you that nickels ring up as 16 it could very well be that the number shifts to 15 or 18 in the final build. No big deal but I don't want to put stuff out there I will have to go back and correct or clean up later any more than I have to.

That is proprietary information that Minelab does not share in detail and I will be surprised if they do. It is in effect the highly secretive and protected "secret sauce". To this day Minelab has cloaked just what it is exactly that BBS and FBS machines are doing. People argue about number of frequencies when that is a red herring. What is Minelab doing internally by way of algorithms to compare and process the multiple frequency information - that is where the real magic is. It is telling that although the BBS patent expired long ago that nobody else has produced a BBS knockoff. The frequency info is easy to determine with a scope, but that tells you nothing about the internal processing. All information about how Multi-IQ works comes direct from Minelab and nowhere else. What you read, I read, and with just as much interest. Minelab will be doing more Multi-IQ information releases that will no doubt shed more light on the matter, but certain details will remain secret no matter what. I mean seriously, how many detector companies keep full time physicists on staff?

I am a hunt by ear guy with meters acting more as confirmation. I like running full tones and I find the audio suits me quite well. The target id on this thing has hair splitting accuracy and stability with solid id locks on all but borderline targets. The deep stuff is harder to describe. Target id will start to vary by swing when targets get borderline. Take a swing, one number, take another swing, another number. There is something about the way I “massage” a deep target with multiple swings and getting multiple numbers back where I make the swing just so, and know it is right. Like knowing you made the perfect golf swing and the number just locks. Hard to describe but you probably know what I am talking about. As the targets shift to ferrous at depth, a ferrous “donut” appears around a coin at depth in full tones, with a high tone squeaky in the middle. If that squeak matches the magic numbers for copper/silver (I specifically am not mentioning what those target id numbers are in case they shift on further tweaking) then it almost assuredly is a deep copper/silver. They are my favorite targets. The target id accuracy makes this a cherry pickers dream. Due to limited time I am doing just that and digging almost nothing but coins.

In my opinion the magic of Equinox is Multi-IQ. The single frequency modes are more like legacy modes that are there for us in case we can find a use for them. I admit that lately what with time being very short (weather is going downhill fast) I have focused on using Multi and finding a few more silver. I need to play more with the single frequency stuff, but honestly, an Equinox running is single frequency is just another metal detector running in single frequency. No magic there except the speed and the ability to pick the frequency. Here is one useful practical aspect of single frequency. You can pick between Multi, 5, 10, 15, and on EQX800 20 and 40 khz. Lets say you are getting a lot of EMI running in Multi that you can’t get to settle down. The Equinox is not particularly prone to EMI but I have experienced it more close to powerlines than was the case with the CTX when running maxed out. Usually all you need to do is lower the sensitivity a few notches and the EMI goes away. If it does not..... Just hit the Frequency button and cycle quickly through each frequency and give it a listen. EMI tends to exhibit more at the low frequencies, so you may see that 5 kHz is noisy and each higher frequency less so. Whatever the case, you will find that with all the frequencies to choose from one will run quiet. Go with it for that location. And remember, each frequency has the Noise Cancel option, which allows for 19 levels of frequency offset to further tune a given frequency to avoid EMI. There is a lot to experiment with here. Four base operating modes with multiple frequency variations and reactivity/recovery speed/detect speed options from extremely slow to lightning fast alone mean more combinations than you can shake a stick at. And nobody should think the names of the modes are more than rough guides. Field Mode is hot on small stuff (think thin hammered and cut silver coins, small gold jewelry) and so may find use with dry sand and tot lot jewelry hunters. It rivals Gold Mode as a potential prospecting mode. And Beach Mode, which runs in Multi only, has potential use in difficult ground mineralization for all types of detecting. Equinox is basically a detector toy box

Going deeper is not the same thing as whether newer detectors can find gold previous detectors missed. Gold that is in theory within range of the earlier models got missed even at shallower depths. Later models exploit weaknesses in earlier models to clean up what was missed. There may exist a sort of “wall” as regards maximum depth but there are many reasons why some large nuggets were missed that are within the max range of various detectors. The GP series and GPX after it not only get better at detecting smaller gold, but offer various “timings” that allow for better operation in ground that was difficult for earlier models to handle. New coils are better than old coils, etc. The GPZ exploits a PI weakness to go after porous, specimen, and ragged, prickly gold that was missed. There are many reasons a newer detector might reveal large nuggets missed in the past that have nothing to do with the theoretical max detection depth limit. If a detector finds a nugget another one misses, even at shallow depth, is it not in effect “going deeper”. There is also the geologic fact that many patches peter out as they get deeper, and the deep nuggets people assume are there really are not. Many patches did consist of relatively large and shallow gold. The nuggets were easy for early detectors to find, and there is not anything down there deeper to find. Finally, people walk around and past items for decades. Any small park will generally still give up old coins if detected hard enough, and nugget patches are the same way. There are targets that only reveal if you are exactly over them and swinging from just the right direction. Add it up and it’s just too much thinking for me. Personally I don’t care how many people have hunted a location before me or what they used. I just always assume they missed something, and that I am going to find it. I love being told about any completely hunted out and dead patch. GPS coordinates cheerfully accepted

The MX Sport has a two year transferable warranty. I assume you are looking at a used unit, so you do want to be aware of the problems. There were three main issues I know of with the MX Sport: 1. Tone smearing. This requires the machine be returned to Whites’s for a firmware update. http://forums.whiteselectronics.com/showthread.php?75527-MX-Sport-Firmware-Update 2. Pod breakage issue. This requires returning to White’s for hardware upgrade. https://www.whiteselectronics.com/product-updates/?lang=us 3. Battery compartment breaking. This requires returning to White’s for hardware upgrade. Details http://forums.whiteselectronics.com/showthread.php?78042-Broken-battery-compartment-story The fix http://forums.whiteselectronics.com/showthread.php?78098-MX-Sport-battery-compartment Newer units are shipping with a "smiley face" applied to the serial number label inside the battery compartment. This indicates that all available updates have been applied. Personally if I was buying a brand new MX Sport I would insist on one of these, not older dealer stock. These are all covered under warranty. White’s may be able to tell you what if any updates were done if you contact them with a serial number. Contact info at the links above. Hope this helps