Chase Goldman

When you run the Equinox firmware updater you can D/L off the ML website , it will check your detector firmware version. On that screen is a drop down menu that gives you the option to update to latest version or roll back to either one of the two previous versions. Honestly, at this point I see no reason to roll back. I respectfully disagree with Nordic’s premise that the updates are biased to larger targets and are sacrificing overall drepth. In fact, ML improved on the ability for Equinox to correctly ID edge on coins which increase low target profile “sensitivity” and should enhance depth performance for small targets. The user profile “reset” bug of the original 1.5 version firmware was also addressed in the version 1.75 update. Finally, the F2 iron bias filter algorithm introduced in Ver 2 is superior to the Fe iron bias algorithm IMO but ML smartly decided to retain the legacy Fe version as a setting option in ver 2, if that is your preference, without having to roll back to 1.75. Not all my issues have been addressed (hello, wonky pinpoint mode) but there certainly is nothing compelling in the previous versions to make me want to roll back to 2.0. And frankly, my quibbles with remaining Equinox “issues“ are so minor I wouldn’t lose any sleep if this were the last firmware update Equinox sees from a bug fix standpoint. I would love to continue to see performance enhancement feature adds similar to F2 in future updates, though. All that being said, I agree that Nordic should go ahead and run the earlier version to convince himself one way or the other and fortunately, ML has made it relatively easy to jump back or jump forward with the various released versions of the firmware.

Looks like a modern snap for a bathing suit or other nautical item of clothing.

YyI've never messed with it, but might give it a go. I don't see that it results in any performance hit. If you simply increase the ferrous-non-ferrous tone pitch gap from 20 to 25 it appears to just shift the non-ferrous pitch up by 5 across the board. If however you shift the ferrous/non-ferrous tone breakpoint up from 0 then you will compress the non-ferrous tone range because there are fewer non-ferrous target IDs. Weird.

With coke in the hole your recovery speed is too low to differentiate the target. Note also with dirt out of the hole the target is essentially in air and that adversely affects depth. Was the Deus angle to pick that target up under those more artificial circumstances?

When hunting relics, I personally like to use Field 2 as that Multi IQ profile favors the mid-conductive metals of which most relics consist, namely brass and lead. Park 2 works also, but I prefer Field 2. In hot mineralized ground, I like to also keep one of the Gold modes in my Equinox User Profile slot so I can use it to interrogate iffy signals. I go into more detail about gold mode and how to deal with iron infested sites in this post. I explain why 50 tones (the default tone setting in Field 2 and Park 2) is my preferred tone setup in general here. Although, in highly mineralized ground it may be advisable to simply go with a two-tone ferrous/non-ferrous setup for reasons explained further below. As far as mineralized ground is concerned, you need to assess how hot your ground actually is. Note that there is no real way to tell if your ground is hot using the Equinox alone as high ground balance readings don't tell you definitevely whether your ground is mineralized, you need a magnetite (Fe3O4) level meter and only a few detectors come equipped with those including Deus, Fisher F75, Tek T2 and some others. I hunt Culpeper Virginia which has insanely hot ground that often pegs the FeO meter on my Deus in the fields. It is less mineralized in non-plowed wooded regions but the other thing to note is that mineralized ground phase is usually comprised of highly variable patches of terrain even over very short distances. I usually invoke ground balance tracking on the Equinox to deal with this. Anyway, recognize that the first thing you will lose is target ID at depth. Beyond a certain depth (typically beyond 4 inches if your ground is truly hot) any hit will sound like iron or will have a jumpy or clipped non-ferrous ID component. The next thing you will lose is ultimate detection depth, the depth at which you get any discernable signal at all. This is usually 6 to 8 inches for me, max, at Culpeper depending on the target. If you are digging minie balls at 10", that's pretty good. Most folks under these conditions are using pulse induction machines like GPX's for max depth. Finally, as Steve said, stick mainly with default settings and minimize mode "hopping" until you really gain confidence with the machine. But also don't be afraid to experiment. Try out beach modes and see what that does for you. You will be likely more limited in depth but the lower transmit power may make the machine run more stable in mineralized ground. From a mode standpoint, there are no real wrong answers as the Multi IQ differences between modes are very nuanced and subtle, the most readily noticeable thing are the different tone, discrimination, recovery speed, and iron bias settings between modes. Good luck.

Also, check out this post by Steve (graphic reproduced below). Note that at the Minelab default setting of 6, that is nearly as "powerful" as Fe = 9 which is the maximum Fe setting, so perhaps not surprising those faint deep silver targets of Simon's are disappearing. Also note that while F2 = 0 is less than Fe = 0 neither means that no iron bias filtering is going on at 0, and that makes sense because even in Vanquish some level of iron bias filtering is always applied, you only have at most two choices low or high iron bias settings, there is no off. I suspect Vanquish uses the F2 iron bias algorithm as I noted in my hunting iron tips here. Besides intensity, I think F2 is inherently different than Fe in the way it processes suspected iron signals, which means that even at supposedly approximately equivalent intenisty settings (e.g., Fe = 0 and F2 = 4), the iron audio response and degree of non-ferrous masking is different. In my limited experience with the update, I prefer F2 over Fe for various reasons, it seems less susceptible to iron masking at low to moderate settings (F2 < 6) than Fe, and I like the expanded range of adjustability. Even though I am also a minimize filters/discrimination, horseshoe all metal guy, I have found F2 = 0 to be a tad overwhelming in the iron infested ground I hunt. Keeping F2 between 3 and 6 (max) seems to work best for me and I am more confident that there will be less non-ferrous masking with F2 at these settings than even the mid-to-high settings of Fe. The depth loss thing, though is something I will have to investgate further and that also makes me question Minelab's choice to set F2 = 6 as the default for the gold modes. HTH

Do they give a double tone regardless of depth? I usually encounter these near the surface because they are not heavy targets and their shape usually means they grab on to the ground and stay put at shallow depths. Most surface targets tend to give a double tone as they echo off the coil edge. But it could also be caused by their shape and orientation in the ground.

I'll have to try that to see if depth is affected, but I think the default F2 setting of 6 is pretty aggressive in the absence of thick iron. Dialing it back to 4 or below should restore those silver signals.

Not so fast... Not necessarily a universal sentiment. I like the Equinox but of the two value machines, personally prefer the Simplex because, unlike the Vanquish, it is different than the Equinox which I already own. The case could be different for someone who doesn't already have an Equinox. Of course, neither are it's equal. Apples and oranges. [For clarity regarding the referenced quote above - Note that Steve is quoting "iffy signals" so I am referring to the iffy signals' quote which may or may not have anything to do with how Steve feels about Vanquish]

I can use the 10% sub discount to finally try out a counterweight perhaps...

Yes, I too remember like abenson a similar thing happened with Equinox showing up in Cabelas (and online) while many dealers still had waiting lists a mile long. One thing that deterred me from jumping on these deals while I was waiting "in line", besides loyalty to my primary detecting equipment dealer, was that Cabelas, as I am sure most of the other chain stores, were not honoring the Minelab veteran's discount of 15%, probably because they did not want to deal with the overhead required of providing the suitable proof of service that ML requires in order for the dealers to recoup the difference from ML. Glad I am not in any way invested in getting one of these as they are completely redundant to and bring nothing to the table vs. my Equinox (I have enough "backup" and "entry level" machines for my friends and family to borrow and since the coils are incompatible with Equinox, there is absolutely no motivation for me, personally, to even think about acquiring this machine). This is bringing back some suppressed bad memories from the Equinox roll out.

I know this doesn't help most Equinox users, but when iron gets really bad, I usually just switch over to my Deus (or the less expensive ORX which works just as well) and a smaller coil. This is is why I have been saying for months, that the two detectors compliment each other. I love them both and would not be without both in my truck for any detecting situation. But here are some iron site tips for Equinox/Vanquish users because they can still get the job done: Make sure any ground noise is cancelled out by properly ground balancing your detector for each mode you plan to use. You don't need ground noise (in all metal) pounding your head in addition to all the ferrous hits. You should check this over clean ground, obviously, but that is sometimes hard at thick iron sites. I like using the new F2 iron bias at or near the default setting of 6 (4 to 7 seems to be the sweet spot to preclude masking). Use whatever setting works best on Vanquish-suspect Vanquish uses the new F2-like iron bias filter. Iron bias set too high tends to mitigate the advantage of higher recovery speeds causing non ferrous masking, so it is a delicate balancing act to find the Goldilocks (just right) iron bias setting. Use a higher recovery speed setting if the target density is high. For Vanquish, this means coin mode. Unlike Equinox, Vanquish has basically one Multi IQ mode and the other "modes" (coin, relic, jewelry) are merely differentiated by default recovery speed, tone breakpoint, and discrimination settings. See this post for more info. Unless you are going to remove ALL the iron as you go (impractical for most detecting situations), try using a lower sensitivity to "sift" through the iron and look for shallower non-ferrous finds. The lower sensitivity helps keep the deeper, big iron and shallower iron from overloading and overwhelming the detector. It is counterintuitive and takes some discipline, but lowering sensitivity can be a powerful tool. The threshold feature will alert you to ferrous targets if you have ferrous discriminated out as it blanks when you pass the coil over discriminated iron targets. So if you are seeking out or seeking to avoid the iron patches, using threshold can be useful. Use the horseshoe button to interrogate high tone hits to see if there are iron tones mixed in. Problem is, it could be a single iron target or multiple mixed targets so... Use the pinpointer (not available on the V340) to ascertain whether you have multiple targets in the hole or a single target. And since pinpoint is a non-motion mode, you can trace the outline footprint of the target to tell whether you are swinging over a coin-sized object or a larger iron or aluminum target such as a can or actual horseshoe which can ring up high. If you have an Equinox 800, sometimes I find Gold mode to be useful in thick iron situations as either a primary search mode or something to quickly switch to to interrogate an iffy signal as the VCO-like audio can work similar to pinpoint in revealing target strength or multiple adjacent small targets (though you can't target footprint trace because it is a motion mode) with the added benefit of visual target ID. If target density is high, try using the smaller available coils (e g , 6 inch round for Equinox). Yes depth will be slightly less, but fewer targets under the coil simultaneously helps with reducing coil overload and you might be able to use a higher sensitivity and lower recovery speed. Note also, that if you use a different sized coil, your sweet spot iron bias settings might also change. Final tip, don't be afraid to wade into the iron patches. Since most low recovery speed detectors have trouble there, it is perhaps your best bet to find a shallower keeper that has been masked all these years. It takes patience and use/honing of the skills above plus you WILL be digging a lot of iron regardless (and getting it out of your way), but the reward for that can be huge. Even if you get a 99% probable iron signal the only way to know for sure is to dig it and see what else might be in that hole. Hope these help and give you some ideas how to attack an iron site with your Equinox/Vanquish.

It usually reveals itself simply by switching to all metal (horseshoe button) where you will get an iron grunt along with the high tone.

So did Equinox. Didn't seem to hurt sales any.

Simon, Hope you can find at least one detector you can take along....

Entertaining. Digging their enthusiasm, would have thought ol' Sparky was just released, not almost 2 years before this video was made. My favorite quote: "So what did Garrett do with the AT Max to improve on perfection?" Oh brother.... Love the big boys' hype machines. All manufacturers are guilty of throwing around impressive sounding terminology and pseudo tech jargon. That's why I'm glad for sites like Steve's where the tech information is provided without bias by cutting through the hype so you can do the research yourself and make up your own mind.

The ORX and Deus remote volumes are the same. If I need to go without headphones I stick the remote in my shirt pocket so that I can hear it better otherwise, the volume is not sufficient for me if I leave the remote on the stem, especially for fainter signals.

To be really effective against EMI, I believe you also have to noise cancel when you go to single frequency because the mode specific Multi IQ noise cancel is N/A once you go to single. As I've posted before, once you go to single in Park 1/2 or Field 1/2, the Multi IQ mode designation loses meaning because the Multi IQ frequency profile and processing are no longer applicable and all, you are left with are the user adjustable settings of GB, tones options, and recovery speed defaults for that mode (i.e., Park 1 = Park 2 = Field 1 = Field 2 save for the user settings at any given single frequency). Update: I confirmed using another detector as a noise source that I could get a stable/quiet Park 1 in Multi configuration, but had to noise cancel again when I switched to Single. In fact, as expected, every single frequency was affected differently by the noise source and each could be quieted with different Noise cancel channels.

People ARE doing that, check this site out for plenty of DIY detector build info.

Good point.

Simon, Mike Hillis pointed this out to me. The only real difference between modes are the tone settings, discrimination breakpoints, and an internally selected (i.e., not user selectable other than the mode you select) mode specific recovery speed setting. In other words, it is like having your Equinox locked into a single Multi IQ profile (e.g., Park 1), with the only differentiation between modes being the discrimination breakpoints and recovery speed. Hence, no dedicated beach mode. Notice how the mode names are target focused (coin, relic, jewelry) on the Vanquish rather than site focused (park, field, beach) as on the Equinox? ML is eally trying to keep it simple in BOTH operation and capability. Another way to look at it is it is like a Multi IQ version of a single frequency machine (e.g., single frequency Simplex) vs. the Equinox being the multiple selectable frequency Anfibio. In other words their is a wider capabilty gulf between even the V540 and the Equinox 600 than I was originally anticipating. Regardless, even if my Equinox was locked in Park 1 mode for perpetuity, and I had settings limitations similar to the Vanquish, I could STILL do some damage at the parks, fields and beaches. The inexperienced or budget minded detectorist will still be be well equipoed with Vanquish, but already owning the Equinox, the Vanquish with all it's handcuffs holds zero interest for me, despite the coil selection. Simplex is my choice of these two capable budget machines which might not have been the case if I already owned an Anfibio or Multi Kruzer. The single Multi IQ profile "hint" is sort of more obviously "implied" in the Vanquish user guide mode descriptions.

Well, not exactly in all it’s glory, if Vanquish is limited to a single one-size-fits-all weighted Multi IQ profile and processing (a realization that was just pointed out me), it’s like having an Equinox locked in Park 1 mode plus less adjustments [not necessarily a bad thing, that would still be a killer detector] Though from that perspective, since Equinox only has at most 6 Multi IQ profiles, the Equinox is also not Multi IQ in all its glory either. I don’t even know what I’m talking about any more. ML has me so twisted around with their imprecise, pseudo engineering marketing double speak, I feel like one of those computers in the Original Star Trek that Captain Kirk is always making blow up as he uses human “illogic” to drive them into an infinite do loop. Anyway, back to testing my Simplex. Ahh the simple, refreshing serenity of a straight forward, stripped down, back to basics but capable single frequency detector. Without a bunch of relics magically popping out of the ground and without my detector stuck in a rock in the middle of some non-descript field waiting for the chosen Arthurian detectorist to release it for the benefit of all detecting mankind.

Now that Mike has opened my eyes with respect to ML’s simplistic functional descriptions, I now get it too. Digital CZ with the ability to auto ground compensate in the background (no manual ground balance control) and provide a visual control setting and target ID interface.

You are correct, sir. Will be putting it through its paces soon. Beach testing will have to wait though.

Mike, After doing a deeper dive into the user guide mode descriptions (kind of a misnomer considering how simplistic the guide actually is), I see exactly where you are coming from. Thanks for pointing that out. I can’t tell if ML just dumbed down the mode descriptions for inexperienced users or they are indeed just using a single multi frequency profile for all modes differentiated by disc, tone break, and underlying differences in recovery speed settings, but it certainly looks like the latter. If this is the case, Vanquish is even less sophisticated than I originally thought. Using a one-size-fits-all fixed multi frequency profile (say something equivalent to having your Equinox locked in at Park 1 or Beach 1 continuously) can actually be counter productive under certain circumstances and with certain targets could be worse from a depth performance standpoint than simply using a compromise multi-use single frequency such as 12 kHz (one of the reasons I really thought ML should have provided at least one single frequency setting for Vanquish). Stepping back, I know I’m over-stating the doom and gloom (after all, how could it be worse than a single frequency machine, in actuality), but I really wonder how stable it will be under extreme salt or mineralization conditions without having to really crank sensitivity down (or without internally making the response muted). [Anyone who has tried the Equinox in anything other than beach 2 mode on wet salt sand with black sand mixed in, knows what I am talking about]. I am sure ML tested the profile that would give good all around performance but does that mean you are boosting performance signifantly above single frequency or significantly below a situation specific ideal multi frequency profile. Probably doesn’t matter except in forum discussions because it should work for 90% plus detecting situations anyone in the target demo could encounter. I will also be very interested in actual field performance especially from those experienced folks thinking they are going to get 600-like performance on the cheap for bare bones prospecting or grab n go wet salt surf detecting using those tasty coils. Might be a tad disappointing. But I am sure there will be plenty of pleasant surprises and outstanding finds too once the user finds stories and pics start rolling in, just as with any detector. For the casual detectorist it will easily give hours of enjoyment (but so does the Go Find, quite frankly) and makes multi frequency accessible to all as the thread title states. Anyhoo, that seals it for me, no thanks. At the 540 Pro price point, I would move on up to the Equinox 600. But ML wasn’t targeting me anyway so I am sure it will be a smashing success with their target market segment. We’ll see how it does going up against the Simplex which is getting a little head start. I already placed my vote...