DestinEngineer
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Posts posted by DestinEngineer
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A quick update, I finally found out I am number 42 on the pre-order list for Kellyco. They had over 300 pre-orders. Looks like mid to late April at the earliest for me.
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I preordered and paid for mine mid November. I still haven't heard a word, or received any email. Calling them is fruitless. I leave for the Bahamas in a week. Looks like I won't be detecting there after all.
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12 hours ago, relicmeister said:
Has anyone else noticed that the folks that have been very unhappy with kellyco have suddenly all gone silent? Last I saw kellyco sent messages that they would begin shipping preorders. Is it possible they got in a substantial allotment and have been shipping a bunch out?
PrePaid early November from Kellyco. No word, no email, no response. This will legitimately be the only time they get my money. The only reason they even got an order from me is because my wife ordered it for me for Christmas after being told it would be shipped in time. At this point I don't feel like cancelling my order would do me any good and would put me further back in the que. It does frustrate me to see all these people ordering from Cabellas and receiving their detectors after I have paid in full for almost 5 months now.
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1 hour ago, Skate said:
I have a long history of trying to be smarter than the directions. As a former detector of the week user I tweaked and tweaked settings on every hunt, during the hunt and while I got good with my etrac, CTX, V3i, I never committed to it. Finally with my Deus I went to Andy's bootcamp, put in his settings and I haven't looked back. I just turn it on and go and my finds have never been better. The Equinox will be the same. Listen, learn and leave alone.
When I first tried hunting with my White's XLT, I apparently changed as many settings as I could to make detecting as frustrating and non-productive as possible.
After reverting to the stock programs, and reading about each and every function and how they interacted with one another, I finally got it tweaked and working well. Essentially the only things I really changed were the Tone ID, Threshold, and other little things to personalize the sounds more than anything else. Detector manufacturers aren't typically in the habit of making default programs perform poorly just so that you have to manually correct things. Yes, they are generalized for typical environments but by that definition, you should be able to turn on and go. This is what I would recommend to anyone, with any new detector.
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10 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:
Nice that they posted that BUT that was a week ago. I guess "coming days" is a somewhat undefined term, but days would imply less than a week no?
@DestinEngineer Not sure if your comment " To be pissy and have an attitude about their distribution process is self imposed. They haven't broken ANY deadline, messed up any shipping schedule; all they did was generate enough interest to drive people to the point of insanity about the Equinox's release. This effectively drives some people's anxiety through the roof and they pop off about it. " was directed at me, but for the record, wasn't being pissy at all, just trying to extrapolate a timeline in the absence of transparency from ML. Although I'm as eager as anyone else to see what the EQ can do at my own sites, I have plenty of detectors that, although deemed obsolete, still seem to work pretty well to tide me over until this Unicorn materializes
My obsolete machines live to fight another day
Not directed to you at all. I've just been seeing complaining all over the place. Especially on the Facebook group I'm in. They never said it would be in anyone's hands Jan 31st. People are assuming that and bitching because it didn't happen.
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ML Never committed to a firm date. They (smartly) gave a generalized idea of when it would happen. Everyone, me included, is on edge and eager to have it in their own hands and read the multitudes of reviews that are going to come flooding in once the detector is officially released. To be pissy and have an attitude about their distribution process is self imposed. They haven't broken ANY deadline, messed up any shipping schedule; all they did was generate enough interest to drive people to the point of insanity about the Equinox's release. This effectively drives some people's anxiety through the roof and they pop off about it. I think it would be in the best interest to most to take a step back, inhale deeply, and appreciate life knowing that its coming soon.
On a side note, the most recent Hawaii beach detecting video was done with a production unit and production release software, not a tester. So know that things are in fact, finalized.
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31 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:
Solar panel hat, hmm. Shark Tank here I come! Lol.
Sorry to break it to you....that ship has sailed!
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As Steve said, it really comes down to capability. The chances that I will ever detect more than 12 hours in a row is minute. The chances that I will forget to charge are quite high! I do go hunting in Montana and I'm away from power for about 3-4 days. The battery packs I normally carry are to charge my phone. It's just a convenience thing for me. If it has a side benefit of balancing the detector out for a more comfortable experience, then all the better. If your're going to do it, might as well do it with some style or add some additional perks. My pack for my phone charger was a generic tubular item until I 3d printed a housing that made it look like a fusioncore from Fallout 4. It wasn't necessary but every time someone sees it, they want one or at the least ask me about it.
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5 hours ago, Sinclair said:
If the SD card holds the firmware and the Equinox 600/800 Hardware is the same.. upgrade made easy!
I'm almost positive they would hash something to prevent the cards just from being swapped. That's not to say it couldn't be done. Plus, once that case is cracked, the waterproof rating is shot. I can definitely see down the road a bit and someone getting a broken 800 and doing a card swap regardless of the waterproofing because they couldn't care less about it. They may just be doing it for inexpensive internal memory purposes and servicing might not even be an option at the factory.
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1 hour ago, steveg said:
DestinEngineer --
I sure wish we knew what an "appropriate" capacity (mAh) should be...it's one of those things where you'd want the pack to have all the capacity needed, AND YET, not be too big/heavy and take away from the advantage the machine provides of being "lightweight."
Steve implies that a little weight under the cuff there might actually help a bit with "balance," especially with the larger coil, so there's that...
Whatever the case, this is a great idea.
By the way, I have to assume you are a "beach hunter," in the Destin area? I just had my first beach detecting experience -- and it was in Destin, this past October. Seemed like LOTS of sand on the beach (we got there the day after Hurricane Nate made landfall). It was fun, though!
I take the kids out and we do some detecting in the dry sand. They find it fascinating. We've not really found very much and stay out of the wet because my XLT can't handle it. When I was stationed in England and South Carolina, I found tons of stuff from Roman coins to musket balls and Civil War relics. I appreciate the history of it all. The Equinox will let me get in the surf and be a nice, worthy upgrade to my trusty White's. The kids got a couple of Teknetics Digiteks and they are itching to use them.
I'll wait and see what kind of battery and capacity vs weight would be suitable as an addon to the Equinox. I would want it to be readily available and inexpensive so everyone could afford a pack. I would probably never ask for more than my cost for the printed parts. I would rather get people out detecting than turn a meager profit.
As far as the beach goes, it's absolutely stunning here and white as sugar, but it swallows anything you drop and it SINKS deep. I just bought a SeaHunt Gamefish 30 and it's going to be insanely difficult this spring and summer to figure out if I want to fish or detect! Hit me up if you are back this way and maybe we can do a little of both.
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With the tubular design of the handle, being able to slide or adjust the pack front to rear should be easy. Integrate some legs for resting it on the ground, make it so the battery pack can be exchanged easily for those legendary marathon detecting trips where there may not be a power outlet handy. Shouldn't be difficult and I'm positive I can print up something that will meet all those standards. Something like this may be a good starting point for a pack.
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4 hours ago, TreasureGuy said:
is that a Micro SD card slot?
Absolutely is!
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2 hours ago, cdv said:
What I "think" I see here on the photo showing the rear of the speaker is:
Three wires to the headphone jack....third wire to turn off internal speaker like the CTX when headphones are connected?
Two wires to the charging port which makes sense for battery charging... but.....not sure if those also can be used for internet software uploads?? not big on computer related hardware. Guess that depends on where the two wires go inside on the boards.
Cliff
This looks to be a very early prototype board. The charging/data port on this unit does appear to only have 2 wires attached which would just be for charging for this unit. I also see a long jumper wire and at least one hand soldiered component which I would hope wouldn't make it to final production status. There were probably board revisions to rectify those things.
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Once I have my unit in hand, I'll research a common, inexpensive battery pack from Amazon and then I will get input from Any Equinox owner that feels they need the pack and send out a couple of prototypes. I'll modify the design as needed and maybe make a bunch. I'm not looking to start a business or open my own store but if I can do something that makes a trip or day in the field more productive, I'll gladly do it. I had more pictures of my White's pack but I've no idea where they have gone.
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Once I actually receive my unit, I'll probably draw up and 3d print some attachments that will allow me to balance the battery pack weight to compliment the Equinox. I'll buy a couple of packs off Amazon and have them as stand-bys. Charging on the fly will be great since I'm 100% positive there will come a time that I forgot to charge and want to go detecting.
The packs I 3d printed and made for my XLT cost about $15, weighed half as much as a NiMH pack, and gave me ~44 hours of detecting time.
The Absolute Last Thread About Availability Issues & Which Dealer Has What
in Minelab Equinox Forum
Posted
This most definitely was misinformation. I have had my fully paid preorder in since mid November. My wife actually did this for me as a Christmas gift that slid to a birthday gift after a no-show at Christmas. When she called at the end of February to cancel the order, she was guaranteed delivery prior to our vacation to the Bahamas and Key West in March. As of last week, I still have not received the detector and after much prying was told I was number 42 on the preorder list out of more than 300. They also told me that mid-April would be the time frame in which I can expect my detector.
They fully blame the shortage on Minelab. In my opinion, as a retailer of their magnitude, they should have had some sort of agreement in the number of units being delivered or at the very least limited the rampant preorders that they just assumed would be filled. It really is a failure on both companies. I initially defended Minelab when people where complaining in January about not receiving their detectors but since I'm going on my 6th month with nothing to show but empty promises, I'm no longer cordial when it comes to people asking my opinion on either the manufacturer or the distributor.