Chase Goldman

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Big Upgrade vs. AT Pro: Short Answer - YES!. The Garrett AT series is a solid detector series. The AT pro brought pro features, including a completely waterproof detector, high reliability and stable operation to the mid price range and it is no wonder it became so popular but it is getting a little long in the tooth, never had stellar ergonomics, and is now falling behind feature wise with its competition and with the release of the value priced Equinox and Kruzer series detectors, can no longer claim the high feature to price ratio crown that kept it a best seller for years. The AT Max added some bells and whistles (built in wireless, slightly improved ergonomics) and upped detector gain to placate the "depth is everything" crowd to its detriment (it appears to now be a mixed bag from a stability standpoint - be careful what you wish for, folks). The Equinox vs. AT Pro: Waterproof: Both are fully submersible up to 3M. Tie. Ergonomics - Equinox is not the best machine ergonomically speaking (the First Texas F75/T2 machines retain that crown IMHO), but it is definitely better than the AT Pro. Lighter, better balanced (though still nose heavy), much easier display to read, and intuitive menu navigation vs. AT Pro. Backlit display a plus on Equinox. Prize goes to Equinox. Wet Salt Beach Performance: Multi IQ multifrequency operation enables superior stability even at high gain settings vs. AT Pro on wet sand. Depth: Deep as any machine I have used. I have not been limited by its detection depth so far in any situation, except unusually highly mineralized soil conditions where no VLF machine performs well (most people use Pulse Induction machines in this particular relic hunting situation). Recovery Speed: Variable recovery speed settings enable the Equinox to be used in a variety of site conditions from a very trashy home site, where you can separate the keepers from the junk to deep silver seeking in a relatively pristine park. AT Pro recovery speed is decent but fixed so separation in high trash environments suffers even with the smaller "sniper" third party coils. Multi IQ vs. Single Frequency - Multiple Multi IQ profiles enable the Equinox to be optimized for specific targets such as high conductive silver, small jewelry, gold nuggets, mid-conductive relic buttons, deep nickels. It is like having a multiple machines in one package that enables you to tackle a variety of detecting situations. The AT series has even fallen behind discrete "single frequency" machines at similar price points like the Nokta Impact and Makro Kruzer that enable multiple different individual frequencies to be selected one at a time depending on the targets of interest (low frequencies for high conductors like silver or mid frequencies for all around detecting and high frequencies for mid-conductive targets like gold jewelry and relics). Equinox takes that to the next level by enabling the multiple frequencies to be transmitted SIMULTANEIOUSLY which enables stable target ID acquisition, precise, yet forgiving ground balancing, enables signal processing filters mitigate iron falsing, and gives the stable salt beach operation I described previously. It is like having the AT Pro and AT Gold plus a higher frequency gold machine all wrapped up in one machine. Equinox wins this one. Third Party Coil Support: Right now, ML has only announced three coils for the Equinox, two are now available (the stock 11" DD and a 6" round DD), with a larger 15 x13" elliptical open coil being available soon. AT Pro has been around long enough to have a number of third party coil manufacturers make a variety of coils beyond the Garrett OEM coil lineup. So at this time the edge goes to AT Pro, but this will not last long. High praise so far for the stock Equinox coil and 6" coil, and the third large coil should have 90% of the bases covered. User Settings and Future Upgradeability: First of all the default user settings work great out of the box. So, it is a great turn on and go detector. You simply, choose the search profile desired, let the Auto EMI noise cancel choose the quietest detecting channel, ground balance as necessary, and start swinging. With all the built in search profiles you can explore different areas of detecting you might not have thought about because of the limitations of your current machine (like gold prospecting, or relic hunting in highly mineralized soil). But you have the flexibility of exploring and adjusting advanced settings and customizing the tone settings to your liking. Finally, the Equinox has a connection that enables you to upload future firmware updates that either fix bugs or that may allow future performance enhancements. Other than adding accessory coils, you will not squeeze much more out of the AT pro as it ages in your detecting arsenal. Rechargeable Battery: The battery lasts a long time (at least 12 hours continuous detecting), is user replaceable, (should last 3 to 5 years or more under normal usage), and charges quickly (fully charges within a couple of hours from "empty". You can even charge the battery on the go (i.e., while detecting) from a portable battery USB power source affixed to your detector shaft if you are so inclined. I know that there is something about the ability to pop in some AA batteries in a pinch, but I have never had this detector let me down because of a rechargeable battery problem. On an all day detecting run I have not gone below 2 bars. So if you forget to recharge your battery from the last detecting session, you likely will have more than enough juice for a couple 3 to 4 hour back-to-back hunts on separate days. Neutral on this as this is more of a personal preference thing because you can go back and forth for hours debating the merits of "built-in" rechargeable batteries that cannot be substituted with conventional batteries "if something goes wrong with the rechargeable". I prefer the Equinox rechargeable even though a few folks have reported battery or charging circuit failures. Built-In wireless audio using both readily available Bluetooth accessories you can buy from Amazon (800 includes a wireless headset) and also proprietary wireless receivers (included with the 800, into which you can plug your favorite headset). I could go on, but we would start getting into the weeds. What Do I Like Most: It's versatility. I have been able to get rid of a few "specialized" machines as a result of its ability to be a jack of all trades, and a near master of some (shallow water salt beach hunting, relic hunting in trashy plowed fields). What Do I like Least: The shaft design seems like an afterthought and seems to be a weak link although ML is honoring their warranty, the issues are relatively minor and can be addressed in various McGyverish ways (duct tape anyone?), don't manifest on every detector, and their are some great, superior third party shaft options out there which even if you spend the extra bucks to buy one of these still enables you to spend less overall than you might have on arguably less capable machines because of the excellent value pricing. Do I recommend it as an upgrade to your AT Pro? Yes. One last recommendation: Peruse this forum especially Steve's compilation of other Equinox info in the first sticky post and determine whether the Equinox 600 or 800 is the right choice for you. HTH

I think it just latches the id displaying when you hit pinpoint. I don't pay much attention to the number if it is "in the ballpark" unless it happened to "grab" a ferrous ID on the coil swing when I am trying to pinpoint a high conductive silver or similar "wide" TID discrepancy greater than 7 to 10 ID points or so greater difference. Other than that, I look for a small pinpoint footprint, indicating that it likely is seeing the target of interest (hopefully a coin or ring, if that is what I am after) vs. the hole or a nearby junk target. If I am getting a big target footprint, then I know I am probably looking at a can or piece of ferrous junk, and can move on.

What criteria do you use to determine the search profile mode? I consider a wheat penny to be a borderline high conductor, so if that was my primary focus, I would leave the detector in Park 1 and avoid the "2" modes unless I was going for extreme nickel depth and simply adjust tones, recovery speed and iron bias as necessary for the site conditions. Also, do you like to hunt in 5 or 50 tones? I personally prefer 50 tones. If you are hunting in 5 tones, Pennies, depending on corrosion, type can come in right at the default tone break of 20/21 which can give you a flutey tone (wheats should come in higher than that, but there are a lot of variables that can affect variability in TID). My deepest Equinox coin recovery was a wheat, nearly a foot down in mild, sandy soil lying next to a piece of wire. HTH.

Juice - Welcome to DP and the forum. I responded to you on another forum (as vferrari). I have seen site specific noise issues with the Equinox that can ultimately only be resolved by going single frequency after auto noise cancel, manual noise cancel, ground balance, reduced sensitivity, and switching modes and ultimately factory resets. Agree with other users that beach mode should be one of the least "hot" modes subject to interference and chatter though some dry beach resort areas have a lot of cell, WiFi, and other interference that even obliterates beach modes. I know you are almost at your wit's end and have tried all of the above. but based on what you've described here and elsewhere with high interference and low sensitivity, I really think you may have a lemon machine or coil (it happens) and should just request ML replace your machine (as I have recommended to you previously on the other forum). It will cost you absolutely nothing but loss of an Equinox for a few days. ML is bring very accommodating to Equinox customers and will give you the benefit of the doubt. It is basically the only way to know if the Equinox is simply incompatible with your sites (design or difficult site issue), not a good fit with your detecting style, or that you have a one off manufacturing defect with your machine (hopefully the latter). HTH.

Good news, it helps turnaround time that they are willing to do replacements rather than waiting for repairs and that they are doing detailed failure analysis back at ML HQ as I had suspected. Also glad they were forthcoming with their limited troubleshooting details. From what I gather from the description you relayed, if it was just a bad cell, they would have just replaced the cell (looks like the cell was able to be charged externally so they were forced to replace the entire control unit, likely faulty charge circuit as I suspected). Glad you will have it back soon.

Not having that issue that I know of. Jammed into some rough surf this week and it was totally solid - arm rest, control head, and lower rod held up under some extreme torque. Granted just a few times out so far. I have the single spring clip version. I will try the grounded coil twist (not something I would ever intentionally do - I don't lean on my detector shaft for support during target recovery) but the surf torque seems like a similar situation and I did not have issues. Will report back if I do. You do pay extra for the lower shaft and arm rest on the Anderson, but prefer the Anderson lower shaft vs. the ML which you have to reuse on the Plugger (I know that there are two ways to look at this). You can easily drive the price up on the Plugger if you opt to not reuse the ML components you don't like (arm rest, lower shaft). I like the Plugger travel shaft option, though. Not clear if the Plugger allows choices on where to mount the control head like Anderson. Love that feature, with the distance between the arm rest and control head being user adjustable, it has greatly reduced arm fatigue for me. If so, may just get the Plugger travel shaft for my 800 (my 600 water machine has the Anderson) In the end, glad there are more than one third party options for Equinox. It's good to have choices.

Well I put my Excal on a straight plugger shaft, am in the process of selling it, and put my Equinox 600 (dedicated beach/water machine) on a an Anderson shaft so I feel confident it will hold up. That being said, I know of no less than 5 or 6 Equinox owners who regularly hit surf and I would say half of them are using the stock shaft. So, I would say, yeah it can stand up to surf.

I like it when they put it in writing. Thanks for the info. Now it's just a matter of when.

oh... Weird.

I am a little confused. You disc up to TID 9 but have the first tone break at 2??

I just received that cable and will try it with my various iterations of GG's and Whites H/P's to see if I have issues. Still not sure why it works with the WM08 but not the detector jack.

Yeah. I read all through your supplied info and it was like the other article I read regarding protective circuits etc but no mention of continued operation at all. Either you are dead or the circuit recovers and the battery restores to normalcy, including ability to take a charge. 1 of 50 sounds like a lot less than "very common", but glad you found a real life example for me. I value your practical experience on the supply side. My career experience has been on power system design vs. small component design. I too would be interested in knowing whether they replace the entire control head or just the battery. Thanks, again.

Thanks for educating me, Phrunt. I did Google that very thing b4 I posted. I got a detailed rundown of failure modes in one article and one video on how to revive a dormant battery. None of them mentioned the battery still providing power. My experience has been down hard failures in all instances of camcorder li batteries, laptops, tablets, and phones. You have more electronics hardware and manufacturing experience than I do.

Did you figure it out? Also, I noticed you refer to the ML adapter cable as "waterproof". The end that plugs into the detector has the waterproof connector, but the opposite jack end of the cable is NOT waterproof and should not be submerged. You probably already know that, but just wanted to clear it up for other folks to avoid confusion.

I would approach it the same way you are doing it. One thing you said, though, was that rusted bottlecaps fool you every time. If you are indeed hitting the AM button every time you get a worthy signal, I have foun the bottlecaps give themselves away 90+ % of the time with that little iron grunt off the edge of the coil. Try taking the coil way of center of where you think the bottle cap is and listen for the telltale grunt. It becomes super obvious especially in coin rich environments like beaches. Sounds like you should pound that LA park into oblivion and it is a ripe candidate for the six inch coil. HH

The all hype "camp" is small. Lol.

Normally, I would agree with this advice, but... I would really like to hear whether ML agrees that silicone grease should be applied to the o rings. If they are not packed with grease already, then doing something to those o rings they do not do at the factory may be cause for ML invalidating your warranty if you DO suffer a water intrusion problem. ML says the battery is user replaceable without voiding your warranty unless the o-rings are determined to have been damaged as a result of the battery replacement.

I agree with you, but the US "service center" is just a distribution center with a bunch of spare Equinox rods, accessories, and head units or complete units. They are simply replacing components and doing no troubleshooting whatsoever from what I can tell. The real ML detector service center in PA is not being utilized for the Equinox. Regarding it being the battery, I have never heard of a Li Ion cell refusing to charge yet continuing to provide power to the device. They usually just fail hard and go dead due to the internal protective circuit or electrode failure. I am not an expert on Li batteries, but the reported symptom of no charge yet ability to provide power is an odd combo, that is why I was considering the charge circuit.

Hate to say it, but if I were betting on what ML is actually going to do, this probably comes close to what I think the reality will be. Track record is a big indicator, and ML's track record on updating SW is not the greatest compared to the competition, like XP and Nokta/Makro. Though, I am not aware of any US companies that even support online firmware upgrades. The big question mark is whether ML will actually even make the effort to roll out updated software in factory units, and more importantly, inform the public that they have done so. Since the Equinox does not display a firmware version on boot up that I am aware of, not sure how we could even know except for folks identifying the disappearance of obvious bugs such as the user profile issue. I am not expecting anything from ML regarding updates until they actually post an update utility in advance of any release, otherwise, it's vaporware for the time being. Hoping I am completely wrong and Sinclair was getting at least some accurate info from ML.

Glad they are replacing it for you. Would really like to know what actually crapped out on it (battery or charge electronics) but I doubt they will actually know until they send it back to the factory for analysis, days or weeks from now. I am selling a lot of older machines in the wake of my experience with the Equinox. Hanging on to my F75 though. It is the only machine I have left that can accommodate a concentric coil.

You can easily cancel out any interference from a pinpointer by doing a noise cancel with the Equinox with the pinpointer turned on. That being said, I have not encountered any interference problems using three different model pinpointers. None of them being the ML Pro 35. Not only is your dealer's statement questionable regarding interference from the other PPs, but there is nothing I am aware of that guarantees the ML Pro 35 won't cause interference either. I would seriously question the motives of your dealer and whether he has your best interests as a detectorist at the top of his list. At the very least, giving him the benefit of the doubt ethically, you might want to consider shopping around for a more technically knowledgeable dealer whose recommendations you can trust. I have heard mixed reviews of the Pro 35 and have not used one, so cannot make a recommendation on it, so suggest you do some research on it and decide if it is right for you.

Yeah, the charger you are using is just fine. While you are waiting for ML to get back to you, you might try a different usb charge adapter or backup battery phone charger other than the Belkin just to make sure it is not the Belkin (even though it charged the WM08, not sure the WM08 draws the same amount of current as the detector battery when charging). Grasping here, but you never know. You've done just about everything else you can. Again, hope you get it resolved quickly. Let us know how it goes with ML customer service.

The battery is a standard 3rd party 26550 LiIon 3.8V cell. ML did not design a custom battery, so if the battery suffers a premature failure (through no fault of your own or Minelabs'), which they sometimes do, that is a tough break but not something ML can do anything about other than honor their warranty to you. If It has something to do with the electonic charge circuit, however, then that is something ML should look into to ensure there is not a design or component reliability issue on their end unless they also "borrowed" an existing design charge circuit. Hard to tell the root cause at this point but it looks like you appropriately ruled out everything external to the detector as the cause although it would be interesting to know what you were using as the ultimate charging power source (wall wart or high capacity battery including maximum charge current rating). Get ML to do the right thing, hopefully quickly. PS, Ft. Bedford (the official US ML legacy detector repair facility) is not servicing Equinox detectors at this point. They are being sent back to the US ML distribution center in Illinois for repair/replacement to hasten turnaround time using their on-hand stock of spare replacement units and to proved a centralized clearinghouse to consolidate documentation of Equinox failures. Good luck. Hope it gets resolved soonest so you can get back to detecting and thanks for letting us know about it. Something to watch out for.

Agree IF they roll out the infrastructure to enable roll backs which they should (my phone company does NOT do that and if I don't like how the upgrade changed things I am stuck with it unless I want to use hacked firmware and command line interfaces and risk bricking my phone). But if they were really thinking thst SW updates would be a regular thing I would have thought there would be a site already set up with the original firmware and a process for reflashing. I am not sure ML has that all figured out the like way XP and Makro/Nokta do things. But obviously, they did something to roll out updates to the original testers but Steve has been mum on how all that worked, likely due to his NDA. It would be enlightening to see how firmware updates were handled in the testing phases. When I hear "its complex" then that says to me greater likelihood of unintended consequences. So flashing back to square one IS a must have.