Chase Goldman

Exactly. "Bug!" LOL.

Actually, I consider that a bug and hope they release a firmware update to fix it as soon as possible. BTW on the solar panel/battery pack: How long does it take to recharge the pack from 0% from solar power alone? Those solar cells look pretty small and don't appear to be contiguous. Thanks.

The hottest mode on a wet salt beach sounds like it would be a show (you can't get much farther out on the hot scale extremes than Gold 1 and Beach 2), but I guess we'll find out. There is a reason that ML designed beach mode transmit power to reduce automatically. But again, I have found out there is no such thing as conventional wisdom when it comes to metal detecting so we won't really know the answer until someone tries it. Lol.

They make a frikken Dive Machine (Excal II) so I find this hard to believe, but, hey, facts don't lie.

Thanks, BD. You got that comedy of errors thing right. The wait until this week was nothing compared to having it sitting 3 miles from my house doing nothing but sitting in a truck with two Sunny 50-degree detecting days going to waste! Ha. (Not so fast Deus, get back over here, you're not going anywhere...yet). At least I have a known end game and for that I am thankful. A lot of folks still don't know anything yet. The thing is, all these stories are not about corporate greed per se but when it really comes down to it, just consistent abysmal customer service across the board from a lot people who apparently just don't give a damn. I find myself profusely thanking the few competent folks who actually handle your issue in an average manner because it comes across as them going above and beyond, when in reality, they are just doing their job in a competent manner but because the bar is so low, it somehow looks exemplary. That is just plain sad.

Mine arrived at my local Fedex depot on Friday night. Showed up as "out for delivery" Saturday AM on tracking but is actually just sitting in the truck cooling its heels for the weekend and will go out Monday. Tried calling customer support to see if I could just pick it up. By the time I got a human being on Saturday afternoon, they said, yes this is possible. Your depot closed at 3pm, though. I initiated researching contact info and calling at 2:40 the CSR gave me the good news at 3:05 and the Fedex depot is 10 min from my house. Two wasted weekend days I could be learning and hunting but no Noxtradamus for me this weekend. Thx FEDEX.

Wow. Yep, like I said. A kco issue. Just wow.

You did read the followup post that he forgot that he ordered it in early October not November, right? We don't really accurately know the status of the early September orders at this point, but yeah some have been shipped out of order. But this specific issue is a K-Co issue, not a Minelab issue. K-co, not Minelab decides who on their waiting list they are going to ship to. Hey, I'm no Minelab apologist, but if we're going to do the blame game, then put the blame on the proper party.

Suggest that he hunt in Beach 2...just kidding.

Or if you break the tamper seal on sealed electronics such as a phone or hard drive but it is usually marked as such. No such issue with the Equinox that I am aware of now that the battery issue has been explicitly addressed by Minelab as Steve pointed out. Obviously, you would not want to compromise the watertight integrity of the coil seal (even though that is not marked) but the coating recommended does just the opposite.

Norm and all this time I thought you were serious when you posted this. Don’t I feel like more of a dummy than I already feel like.

“At least i would get rid of the WM08 as .... I really dont get it yet-- why is it needed if the detector puts out wireless bluetooth already?” The WM08 provides the option to allow you to to use your favorite wired detecting headphones (e.g., Grey Ghosts) untethered from the detector if you are not a fan of BT headphones. Since the provided BT headphones are not weatherproof and many detecting headphones are, then you can stuff the WM08 safely on your person out of the weather and use weatherproof phones in foul weather yet remain wireless from the Equinox. I believe the output of the Equinox and WM08 may be mono (don’t quote me on that). Search on headphones in the forum for people’s experiences wit various wired phones and adapters plus Steve posted a nifty headphone connector wiring diagram in one of the threads.

Thanks. Good info. The hole however should equalize the pressure placed on top of the coil reducing the loading it sees. But I agree keeping the water and sand out in the first place is preferred. And avoiding mucking up your new equipment with cuts and holes is desirable.

Yep if you eliminate the wire something powered has to take its place. For WM08 need a stereo to mono adapter if you are plugging stereo phones into it.

Why is drilling the lower hole not recommended? Thanks.

You can use either headphone solution on either machine so you don't have to tie either headphone setup to a specific machine, unless of course, if you are using both at the same time with a lucky hunting partner.

Steve - that chart is right on. What blows me away about it....1943. Now let's see, where can I possibly be on that chart, hmm...

Congrats. I got the call too and it's Saturday or Monday for me. Finally.

Steve - first of all, many thanks for directly answering my question, this thread has been keeping you busy with many direct questions. Hope you don't lump me in the camp that believes you can alleviate all doubt. LOL. Believe me I have learned my lesson about asking why Minelab did this and that and about asking subjective whether this or that is a good/bad thing type questions. That is why I carefully worded my question to make it clear I was merely collecting objective user data (did you ever use this or that?) so as a grown up boy, I can make my own decisions. Your blog did not explicitly mention the reduced range of the 600 recovery speed settings (only the reduced resolution (number) of settings) and knowing that max and min recovery speed settings have a direct relationship to separation and depth capability, respectively (as you mentioned in your blog post), I wanted to get a feel from you on how significant you felt those missing endpoint adjustments on the 600 were from a day-to-day performance standpoint. I got my answer, not very significant since you rarely ever had to invoke them. This is also consistent with Deus where the analogous highest "reactivity" settings are rarely ever invoked. If your user experience had been to invoke those endpoint settings more frequently on a day-to-day basis that might have changed my perspective on the importance of those missing endpoint settings. This information further solidifies for me your blog statement that: "The EQUINOX 600 has the same features, but keeps it simpler." Which some folks have unfortunately misinterpreted. In the end, I don't know what I don't know and because of that, I may end up just getting a 2nd 800 because I may find that my style/type of hunting may necessitate more frequent forays into the high recovery region due to hunting primarily in thick iron situations. Also, as you said, "these are early days" and as time marches on and more users (including myself) get experience with the Equinox, there may be yet unknown applications for those extreme endpoint settings for recovery speed, the additional iron bias settings, the high single frequency settings, and/or for Gold Mode (i.e., for other mid-conductive targets beside nuggets). Or we may eventually find out that to get the same ML-branded wireless hardware for the 600 that is included with the 800 we may have to chew up a significant chunk of the price difference as as separate purchase. (So much for that accessory coil - LOL). Thanks again for the response and perspective.

Now I know you're joking, Norm. That is pretty funny. Especially, since ML holds the patents and will litigate with the competition at the drop of a hat. You can ask Whites and XP about that. Regarding pre-pays. (Not a Norm S. issue). This is a fluid, free market environment. If anything, you can juxtapose the Cabelas and Kellyco situations and ascertain that pre-paying did not provide an advantage in the larger scheme of things despite initial reports to the contrary that were subsequently debunked. I recall folks that adamantly maintained that ML was preferentially going to dole out the detectors to satisfy pre-orders that were pre-paid. Lesson learned. Shop around and find the dealer situation that suits your principles and if you ARE going to prepay to perhaps find an advantage with a specific dealer in terms of which list you get on to, then be prepared for your money to be in someone else's hands for a long time before you receive product. Fortunately, if you put in the effort to do the legwork you can find the situation that suits you because dealers run the gamut when it comes to setting their terms on prepays, extras, discounts, etc.. I can also say this, if you have a close relationship with a dealer, stick it out rather than jump ship. You will be better off in the long run because they will still be there for you when the big box guy is done after the last shipping notice. Don't stop believing!

Steve - good article. I am getting the 800. but I am evaluating whether my backup/companion machine should be the 800 or a 600. Your article helped but I had a few more questions and would like your input based on your extensive first hand experience with the 800. The manual on p. 51 states that the maximum adjustment for recovery speed for the 600 is less than the 800. So the 800 has a higher maximum recovery speed than the 600 (i.e., the 600 max setting is 3 which corresponds to 6 on the 800 scale, but the 800 can be set up to 8)? Similarly, the 600 can not be set to the lowest recovery speed equivalent of the 800 (600 setting of 1 corresponds to 2 on the 800) which could marginally impact depth performance vs. the 800. My question is not why that is. Instead, wanted to know whether you ever encountered situations where you needed to set the recovery speed above the equivalent max setting of the 600 (i.e., higher than 6 on the 800) or lower than 2 (800 setting)? Also, the 800 has auto and manual noise cancellation vs only auto on 600. Have you ever encountered a situation where a manual channel setting was preferred over the auto selected channel? Thanks in advance. Wish we had accessory pricing to see how much the BT Headphones and WM08 module cost separately to factor into the price differential. Thanks again, Steve. PS Anyone else out there who also has practical experience with these settings, feel free to chime in. Thanks.

Skate, Thanks. Exactly what I was looking for. I now have two Deus/Equinox user reports that are similar. Mine is showing up soon so I can't wait to run it through its paces. I get your "brain" target discrimination (left to right) description.

Thanks. The key was making sure that it was an APTX LL transmitter to get full benefit of the minimal lag. Really recommend the "used like new" amazon option as the savings is significant and you still have the peace of mind of the return policy.

Steve - I wonder if the coil drive circuitry and signal processing algorithms have to be reworked for a concentric coil? Wonder if ML could answer (or would be willing to answer) that question? Though I am thinning the herd significantly post-Equinox I am going to keep at least one detector that has a concentric accessory coil. That is one of the reasons I chose to keep the F75 over the T2. Different detectors that outwardly look like clones of each other but inwardly very different circuits and a different user interface. The T2, however, cannot accommodate concentric coils.

Nice gold. Confirmed Beach 2 is the way to go in the water just like the manual says (good!) and boy those are some nasty Quarters. lol. Thanks for the water report and no one had previously pointed out the water retention issues. Does your beach have black sand? The Equinox will sense it and reduce power in Beach mode according to the Manual.