Chase Goldman

If the presumption was that Minelab distributed more units to dealers who had more pre-pays vs. based purely on preorders, prepaid or not, then that in effect is forcing this on dealers. It would logically follow that the dealers might feel obligated to distribute detectors in preference to prepaid customers because that was the condition under which they got "more" detectors. Regardless of whatever Minelab or the Dealers did or did not do with respect to prepays, what is important is finding the dealer whose pre-order conditions you are most comfortable with and pragmatically realize what that may mean in terms of when you will actually get the detector. I personally favor trust, transparency, and an even playing field over expediency that comes at a price. The great thing is we all have great dealer choices and you can choose what suits you best in a dealer-customer relationship. Just hoping many get their detectors soon so we can start seeing some varied user feedback. I can live vicariously through that.

Sorry, the logic here is just baffling. LOL Especially, if you assume the rules were changed in the middle of the game as suggested by Wayfarer. For the dealers that accepted no prepayments because that is how they normally roll with all their customers - they get no detectors because they didn't anticipate the change in plans or were forced to call customers to ask for prepayments? Nice. "No soup for you!" The bigger volume dealers that insist on 100% pre-payment for all pre-orders will have an issue too because they couldn't possibly fill their hundreds of pre-paid pre-orders. That's going to happen whether or not Minelab insisted on prepayment for distribution allocation simply because their list is long. Also, that would mean in the case where a dealer seeks prepayment as a form of commitment from less trusted customers, those customers would have priority over the "don't worry about it because we trust you" customers who were not asked to prepay because Minelab sought agreement (after the preorder lists were generated) from dealers that the first batch would only go to pre-pays? Don't seem fair. But life isn't fair. The Savvy dealers had two lists, I guess. The "higher priority "Have" list" for those who prepaid and the "I'll take it when I can get it no pre-pay list." I guess I can still blame my dealer for not being savvy vice being devious. Or I can just face facts and realize that I was not actually a "most trusted" customer. Wish they just distributed the detectors in proportion to the number of preorders (prepaid or not) and let the dealers figure it out (recognizing that the distributed numbers would be small). And, despite Mitchel's insistence to the contrary, perhaps that is what they actually did happen. Who knows? All we can do is speculate that the process was fair vs. a moving target that could result in inequities. Despite my natural cynicism, I am going to assume Minelab and the Dealers acted in the best interest of their customers, and hopefully the dealers kept their most trusted customers in the loop as to the best way (e.g., first to sign up and prepayment as necessary) to ensure they would get a detector as soon as possible. "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." JL (This post has the patented "Tongue-in-Cheek" entertainment disclaimer so as to not stir up serious hate, discontent, and drama. I'm finding humor in the most dire of circumstances, hope you can, too.)

Since at least one forum member here has received their machine, I would guess that the clock started at least six weeks ago, if not longer. Otherwise, users could be receiving units don't incorporate the fix for whatever Tom discovered and caused the delay. I find Minelab knowingly doing that unlikely.

That's the answer to the quick start guide entitled "Because Why?"

I am glad for you, honestly. Man, I don't mind waiting. Expected that. I am just naive enough to think that we should all be informed of the rules so that we all have an equal chance of drawing that winning lottery ticket instead of the 7/11 guy having inside information on which numbers you should pick and it is up to him to decide to tell you or not. I guess the house always wins. Lol. Makes me feel all warm inside and renews my faith in "the man".

That answer would make for a great detector manual...it certainly would be easy to reference and search and would never have to be revised or updated. Brilliant.

Ground rules as they pertain to distribution would have been nice to know above board if the prepaid pre-order thing was actually a determining factor in how ML decided distribution #'s for units to individual distributors or dealers. I have total trust and long history with my dealer, that is why no money exchanged hands before a transaction occurred. I also know that he has a close business relationship with Minelab. So you are saying that I should blame my dealer because neither he nor I insisted on a pre-paid pre-order? Strange. That's a good way to build trust and good will among the various stakeholders.

Trade it in for a lottery ticket.

Steve, Was just trying to verify you can’t do it to ensure I gave a complete and correct answer to Dew. Not something I planned on doing. Yeah, I missed that. That’s the statement I was looking for. Logically expected to see it in a blue box or pairing instructions not in the unpairing instructions. Regardless, it is there. My bad. Thanks.

The purpose of the Iron Bias question was just something I put out there as a placeholder for users to ponder and test from a performance standpoint once they got their detectors (e.g., how much of a performance difference is there between 2 and 3 on the 600 vs. the corresponding settings of 4 and 6 on the 800) as ML saw fit to provide different defaults for the same search modes on different models, I was not expecting an answer right away, or possibly ever, hence, parking lot. Wasn’t so much a “why did they do that” question as a “what is the real difference” question. It might be a tiny piece of the puzzle to help inform future Equinox buyers as to whether the the 600 or 800 is more suited to them. Tried to keep it succinct so misunderstood as a literal “why did they do that” vs. a “let’s explore the differences when we get our machines.” Believe me, I would slow way down and probably be able to self answer a lot of questions with a machine in front of me, and putting it through it’s paces. So what are you going to do in the mean time? Ask a lot of questions, of course. And they are not intended to all be directed solely at or be answered solely by you, Steve because I know you have your hands full. Lol. Many are intended as setup questions as we transition to the new users out there. But, yeah, this questioning approach is apparently not particulary productive or helpful, I got it. Good feedback. Like I said, movin on from this thread, just trying to learn, and perhaps takin’ a back seat until I can be a useful contributor with an Equinox in hand. At least that’s my hope anyways.

Steve, Many thanks. Did you figure out that “important info” in the link regarding non-simultaneous WiStream/Bluetooth through your testing or was supplemental info provided? I ask because I sure can’t find that in the manual. My reading comprehension is bad and I have not read every word in the manual (in other words I may be overlooking something), but the closest I found the manual comes to alluding to the above is that it mentions that the Eq will attempt to pair with a WM08 module first and failing that will look for a BT device. Your info is clear as crystal on that issue. Apparently gotta keep that search button handy for your old info posts if I can’t find the answer in the manual.

What makes you think they are not ramping production to the max their infrastructure allows? As I posted elsewhere, this is a $10M/yr company (detector sales revenue) vs. $360B/year (revenue) for Apple. Only so much investment can go into production, R&D, and marketing. They have no reason to arbitrarily hold back production and probably want the customers off their back as much as you want the machine, probably more so.

There are some questions, primarily related to instruction manual information or how unfamiliar features such as iron bias work, that I and others have asked in other threads that have gone unanswered or where the answer has been that we’ll find out when more people have Equinox in their hands, hence the Parking Lot to go back and refer to them in one spot. I can see that if they actually can be answered before the majority have their Equinoxes in the coming months it can become unwieldy. You’re the boss, so that’s why I asked what you wanted to do in the first post. Now I have my answer and will abandon the thread. Bad idea. Thanks and sorry I wasted forum bandwidth. Good intentions, bad execution. Search function can be used for those older unanswered question threads that have fallen off the front page. Movin’ on...

Can the Equinox support being paired to bluetooth headphones and a WM08 module at the same time? Manual does not explicitly say yes or no that I can find.

I like the multitude of audio connectivity options too. But actually, Dew, you can only pair one set of bluetooth headphones at a time (The ones supplied with the 800, in turn, can be paired with both the detector and your phone). The multiple paired wireless headphone option only works with the Wi Stream (i.e., not bluetooth) WM08 module (up to 4 simultaneously). So if you want to do that, you have to purchase additional WM08 modules, unfortunately. And if we knew price and availability of accessories, we could judge whether it is worth it if say you are teaching a detector class or using them as a source of clean wireless detector audio into your action cam. See the online manual starting with p.55. One thing that I haven't figured out (can't find it in the manual as a definitive yes or no statement) is whether you can pair the ML08 bluetooth headphones and a WM08 module simultaneously which would be a "free" way to do what you want to do with one of the grandkids or a detecting partner. I put this question in my "Parking Lot" question thread, so if anyone has an answer post it here or there and I will link back to the post. HTH.

I feel your pain, believe me. But all detector companies are the same when it comes to this aspect of the biz. Garrett the marketing genius had a little trouble keeping the barbarians at bay (and I don't mean the Hoover Boys) during the AT Max slow rollout, ditto the Nokta Impact earlier in the year (that cured me of pre-paid pre-orders, never again!), before that it was the nightmare 2-year (from announcement to fruition) release cycle for the Deus HF coils and version 4.0 software, which was hilariously botched on release day when they uploaded the wrong version of the software to the server. To work around the "slow release" issue in 2017, First Texas took the innovative step of repackaging a number of their previous detectors and creating a "new" Patriot series. The year before it was firmware gate and faceplate gate for the Whites MX Sport. It is indeed frustrating but nothing different than what all the other major detector manufacturers go through. I honestly would be more upset with Minelab if I were not so heavily sedated.

Hmm, guess you knew something we didn't, eh Norm?

Is this the ultimate consequence of the Equinox?

Why Equinox? I like the feeling of hopelessness, pain, and despair.

Metal detectors are too small a volume of sales to support dedicated logistics and shipping infrastructure akin to a company like Apple. Apple has sold 77 million iphones in the first quarter of FY2018 alone (Oct - Dec 2017) and has a total revenue in the quarter of $88B. Compare that to the parent company of Minelab which in all of 2015 generated $21.5M in revenue (1/16000 of Apple) and only half of that was related to metal detector sales. You can literally do the math and see what you envision is not happening anytime soon in metal detecting land, unfortunately. Apple = SpaceX, Minelab = slow boat from Malaysia. Minelab transparency would be great, but it isn't going to make the detectors get here any sooner, unfortunately. Not sure most of the targets are going anywhere either, so sit back, relax, detect with what you have if you can or help us point out things in the manual we don't understand or complain about something really important like: what's up with no Equinox accessory pricing or availability information.

Devil is in the details (specs), I think it varies and you have to dig into the documentation, if available, to be sure on multi port chargers, so at least this way you don’t have to guess. Although a properly sized multi port charger would be convenient for charging the wireless headphones and/or the WM08 module simultaneously.

I was referring to theventire line, but point taken.

We have a bloke right here in MS swingin his 'Nox, as you know. How come no one in Australia has theirs? I'm not talking about favorites but simply shipping distances from the factory, BTW. Isn't that Malaysia? Who knows. Fuggedaboutit. I'm no international shipping expert. Just thought they were closer to the source.

That is exactly what I was thinking. What, no ML love for the Kiwi's?

Take a look at the new thread I created as a Parking Lot for unanswered questions and tell me what you think.