Randy Dee

11 hours ago, Skate said:

He looks like the Michelin man dressed in black. I do like kangaroo pouch in the front for finds. 

Neil has done some sterling work carrying out pre-release testing on behalf of Minelab on both land and in sea water ( Not Fully Submerged Underwater ), how many other folk would spend their time in a howling gale and torrential rain on Blackpool beach here in the UK just to show others the capabilities of the Equinox,  10 out of 10  for Neils endeavors in such vile weather.

The CTX-3030 using the WM10 is very much the same as the Equinox 800 using the WM8 and both allow the user to use their own preferred headphones, here in the UK we have a Minelab tester called Gordon Heritage who makes his own brand of headphones called GOGS and so as to utilise them on the WM10 wireless receiver he supplies them with a short screw on curly cable and a longer screw on curly cable to allow the user to use any other detector with his headphones.

Gordon owns and runs the (MLO) Minelab Owners Forum here in the UK and where there is plenty of information about his GOG's headphones.

When I am using my CTX-3030 I put the WM10 wireless receiver in my left shirt pocket and utilise the short curly cable and there is no dangling cables and I have used this setup for the past 5 years with the CTX without any problems and for me to use the same idea with the Equinox WM8 I will need a ¼" to a 1/8" adapter plug about £3 on ebay.

3 minutes ago, Champ Ferguson said:

Will you adopt me? I can bring my own detectors.

As long as you don't lumber me with a tribe of kids, I will give it a bit thought. Ha Ha

Thanks guys for your kind replies they are much appreciated.

Sorry I can't divulge his Lordships name or the estate location because here in the UK we suffer from scoundrels "Night Hawking" and it is rife they scour about the forums for snippets of detecting site information and then before you know it your permission is like a battle field with holes and scrap all over the place, these "Night Hawkers" are what we call SCUM the lowest of the low.

Good Hunting

Randy Dee

I am eagerly awaiting the collection or delivery of my pre-ordered Equinox and I will be putting to use here in the UK on one of my permissions which is an estate owned by a sitting member of the "House Of Lords" it is a massive estate covering 17,500 acres and myself and two deceased detecting mates gained sole detecting permission some twenty years ago from His Lordship and on this land there crosses two Roman roads, two Roman Villas, a Roman Settlement, a Bronze Age Enclosures & Tumuli , an Anglo Saxon burial site, a site of Saxon habitation and the site of a DMV (Deserted Medieval Village).

Over the years I have used many different makes of metal detectors on this permission and have come about thousands of both relic and coin finds from the Celtic, Roman, Saxon & Medieval periods and many of these finds have been treasure trove and displayed in the British Museum in London and it is this permission where I am looking forward to putting the Equinox to good use.

Good Hunting

Randy Dee     UK

Sorry guys it must have been a lapse in my judgement.

I thought that Steve set up this section of this forum as an "Equinox Fan Club" but as I watch many negative post about the machine which has not been used by most of the members and the same people quoting comparisons with other detectors even though no comparing test have been carried out yet.

Even the title of this thread is poor judgement in my eyes, I wonder why people can't wait for their purchase of the Equinox to form a comparison test report.

Patience is a virtue.

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The Facebook group is now back, no explanation of what happened. Odd, but maybe that happens on Facebook a lot. I don’t know since I don’t pay anything more than minimal attention to Facebook.

Steve I am much like yourself regarding facebook, I rarely visit it as it is a hot bed of supposedly grown up people spouting off filthy language about any posts which they think they have a little bit of knowledge about.

7 hours ago, relicmeister said:

Chris, I have a folding mechanism ready to install on my Equinox. I did it first on my f75 and it's awesome. It's a $40 part and takes an hour to install. Only adds 5 oz. to detector weight. 

Hello

Is your folding mechanism something which can be bought ready made or is it something you have developed yourself.

A bit more information and photographs would be greatly appreciated.

5 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

How do you know this to be true? Have you used the Equinox and large coil and compared 5 khz to Multi-IQ?

OK Steve I haven't detected with the Equinox but have many years of detecting knowledge under my belt using a multitude of makes and models of detectors and it is a well known fact that the larger the coil and the lower the frequency the greater the achievable detection depth.  This theory may not work in the highly mineralised soils in the states but it certainly works well on the UK soils.

And I maybe should have chosen a different word;   The Equinox fitted with the 15 x 12 inch elliptical Double-D coil "Should" provide maximum depth using the 5kHz Frequency.

The Equinox fitted with the 15 x 12 inch elliptical Double-D coil will provide maximum depth using the 5kHz Frequency.   This frequency is ideal for hoard hunting in the UK and for relic hunting in USA.

55 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

That is the way is has been with the CTX 3030 and GPZ 7000 and I suspect that is how it will be for Equinox. That's why people thinking the manual needs to be done already are probably wrong. It needs to be ready by the time the detectors ship. The Getting Started Guide pretty much covers all a knowledgeable detectorist needs to know to be off and running - I had nothing! The full manual just fills in details and adds extra stuff to help true beginners.

Steve the Equinox "Quick Start User Interface Guide" has been out now for a few weeks but any detector guide is not of the same value in gaining knowledge as a full blown manual and the only point which I was making is the fact that there is no paper manual present in the photograph of the carton contents and it is a sad day when one has to wait to download an operators manual  from the manufacturers web site. I know that this has happened previously as with the CTX and that is why the likes of Andy Sabisch steps in with the User Hand Book.

I have been in this metal detecting game for nigh on 47 years but that does not make me proficient and knowledgeable to pick up a brand new machine fresh on the market and go straight to my permissions and expect myself to be a wizard with it and that is where if one had the chance to read the manual prior to putting the coil to the ground a great many problems can be ironed out instead of being self taught and learning by trial and error.

Just before Minelab brought out the CTX3030 and when I bought my CTX I was assured by Minelab that there would be a full blown paper manual in the carton and when I received my parcel and there was no paper manual I got back onto Minelab and complained that there was no reason for them to tell me lies and they replied that Minelab would be shipping to many countries of different languages and it was prohibitive to take this on board yet the DVD's were in multiple languages.

I am not moaning but just being observant.

Good Hunting

Randy Dee

Durham UK.

Steve

I notice that there is no "Operators Manual" just a "Getting Started Guide" in the photograph of the carton contents it must be a case of having to go on the Minelab web site and downloading the manual and printing it off yourself.

Thanks Steve for that excellent report and very pleased to see your returns from extremely productive sessions.

I have in my mind one of my permissions where the Equinox is going to have a field day, it is the site of an annual four day music festival where I have hit it late in the summer for 4 or 5 sessions each year and producing over £100 a session and over the past 4 years I have used the CTX3030 with a program which I concocted using a total blacked out screen and then only accepted the UK £1 & £2 coins because this site is covered in ring pulls, silver paper and tiny bits of pie case foil  and crown caps and another thing which I didn't want to find is the UK copper and clad coins as it takes 100 kneeling and digging times to get the equivalent to a £1 coin.

The only drawback to using the CTX with this massive amount of discrimination is the total loss of any detection depth I could only find signals to no greater depth than a couple of inches and I can see the Equinox hammering this site.

2 hours ago, orgone500 said:

New facebook video showing the response on a buried coin on the beach. Very impressive...

 

.

And that was an English £1 at about 10" deep and possibly the coin was still on edge ways.

A cracking response even with the coil underwater.

Hello Darryl

And A Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year to you and your family from us here in the UK.

6 hours ago, Bayard said:

It's possible that a significant percentage of the pre-orders made without deposits won't turn into actual sales.  People wanting a single machine could have placed pre-orders with multiple dealers, as a strategy for getting the quickest delivery, and even some people who only placed a single order, without trying to game the system, may back out for some reason or other.

Just keep your eyes open for the same week as the Equinox being released you will find on the auction sites (ie Ebay) the Equinox for sale at hugely inflated prices and hoping for some mug to pay miles over the odds so as to jump the queue and you can bet your boots these detectors will be listed by the guys who have placed multiple orders and out to make a quick buck.    I have seen it before when the CTX and the Deus were released and there was order lists with a couple of months on the waiting lists.

I fully agree with you Fred it is much easier to read and understand the printed book version of the operators manual rather than using a DVD version and there is a massive cost difference for the new owner having to print their own paper copy from a DVD against what a book publisher would bulk charge for the real thing.

There was a similar situation when the CTX-3030 was first muted about and released, Minelab was insistent that there would be a operators manual included in the package when in fact the package only contained a very basic handbook which didn't contain any information on settings and programming but there was a manual on a DVD but would have cost a small fortune in printer ink and paper.

I want one because my money is burning a hole in my pocket and at my age I am conscience that there is no pockets in a shroud.

.

On 12/19/2017 at 11:15 PM, Randy Dee said:

Marketing can take many forms and guises and what Minelab has done is not unusual and is the norm for many other companies, early disclosures of pending product releases is a simple means of product awareness especially where a company is bringing about a product improvement or upgrade of an already established article and are looking for a marketing response. Just like Steve has said in marketing you are constantly making assessments of what Joe Public needs, wants and likes and this is not the first time that Minelab has used this marketing ploy they did the same with the CTX-3030 and were doing research and development whilst the testers were carrying out usage with the beta models and another metal detecting manufacturer XP did exactly the same with the Deus.

Patience is a virtue.

Wednesday might be good news day you never know.

 

 

Well it did turn out to be "Wednesday Good News Day" after all with the main distributors getting notification of the Equinox release date and then the Minelab web site announcing the release date the early hours of this morning.

All good fun, not long to wait now and I am number 11 on the UK dealers list.

Thank Steve for some information which I wasn't aware of, I always believed that Minelab had fostered out manufacture of their detectors to China.

Marketing can take many forms and guises and what Minelab has done is not unusual and is the norm for many other companies, early disclosures of pending product releases is a simple means of product awareness especially where a company is bringing about a product improvement or upgrade of an already established article and are looking for a marketing response. Just like Steve has said in marketing you are constantly making assessments of what Joe Public needs, wants and likes and this is not the first time that Minelab has used this marketing ploy they did the same with the CTX-3030 and were doing research and development whilst the testers were carrying out usage with the beta models and another metal detecting manufacturer XP did exactly the same with the Deus.

Patience is a virtue.

Wednesday might be good news day you never know.

First I will introduce myself my name is Randy Dee and I am from the City of Durham in the UK and 75 years young, I get out detecting at least twice a week on farm land only.

I have been in this great hobby of metal detecting since 1975 and used the very early BFO (Beat Frequency Oscillating)  detectors with the shepherds crook handle by C-scope.

I have a good arsenal of detectors but at present I use the CTX-3030 & the XP Deus and I am much like the rest of the guys on this Equinox Fan Club / Forum patiently waiting for the Equinox release, I have had my order in since the day of the Minelab Equinox Detectival here in the UK early in September and I am certain that this machine is going to put a lot of other makes to shame.

I must congratulate Steve for putting together this great friendly purposeful fan club and it is a breath of fresh air reading through the knowledgeable posts nothing like the pathetic and childish tripe getting spouted off on "Faceache" and many of the other forums.