Chase Goldman

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.

The manual is awesome and is a great read while we are waiting for the Equinoxes to show up at our doorsteps. However, the manual or other printed, posted, or visual information may raise questions in our minds that may not be able to be answered until a number of folks start getting Equinoxes in their hands are start to run it (and the instruction manual settings) through their paces. Accordingly, I have established this thread as kind of a memory list where people can put down questions that may not necessarily be answerable now, but may become answerable once a critical mass of Equinox 600 and 800 users are out there. This is not a wish list or suggestion box or a complaint desk. Simply a place to park legitimate questions for things that are not entirely clear at the moment. Have fun. (Steve - this could go badly or be great, who knows but feel free to repurpose, delete, move or otherwise alter as you see fit if you have a better idea on how to do this) Example: Why are the default iron bias settings different on the 600 ("2") and 800 ("6" which corresponds to "3" not "2" on the 600) (see p. 52 of the manual)?

Hard to remember everything that everyone has posted even in a single thread. We were talking about study habits, too. My apologies. Hope we get a lot of 600 AND 800 users providing input because of things like iron bias and recovery speed settings are a little different on each machine and may slightly affect performance. For example, I thought it was interesting that the default iron bias setting for the 600 for Park 1/Beach 1/Beach 2 was "2" vs. the 800 settings for Park 1/Beach 1/Beach 2 was "6" (which corresponds to a "3" vice "2" 600 setting per the comparative scale on page 52 of the manual). I wonder if the default difference is because of who ML envisions using the 600 vs. the 800 or because of some performance differences between the two machines...or none of the above and is just what Minelab thought would be a good default point for each machine. Even though Steve has provided us with A LOT of answers and clarifications, some of the mysteries of the manual will not be clarified until we are able to have the unit in front of us. So it makes sense to hold off on calling for instruction manual changes or claiming manual errors, or even speculating too deeply on how things work until we have had a chance to run through it with a detector in hand and can understand it fully, I suppose. I leave the above question in the "parking lot" so to speak, until we have a critical mass of new 600 and 800 users out there that can verify how the machine is behaving, including these slight performance differences. That will be an exciting and crazy time.

Why don't you play with the new CTX instead, Norm,so we all don't feel so bad. Now I know why you bought the CTX, it was a package deal that allowed you the privilege of buying the first Equinox.

Apples and Oranges as far as I am concerned. I have a Deus and have preordred an Equinox. There are things a Deus can do that the Equinox cannot and vice versa. I don't see the Equinox completely supplanting my Deus and Deus certainly cannot be considered enveloping what Equinox can do, especially on a salt beach. Academically interested in just how much overlap and common ground there is between them but they will both have their special niche areas of utility in my arsenal. The question will be which of them I will keep in my vehicle full time. TBD.

Two Words "Makro Kruzer". I know you are kidding around, but in fact Steve has been actively posting about it, just not in The Equinox Fan Club forum, for obvious reasons. Folks should get some fresh air and venture into some of the other DP forums and take a well deserved break from Equinox before they suffer from 'Nox intoxication syndrome.

The site is patient and will still be hunted out, if not more, when the 800 shows up. I am sure you will make it back there with the 800 at some point and tell us whether it found stuff the Kruzer missed. Can't wait. I have a CW site like that a couple hours away. My friend has been hitting it for years. The Deus really opened it up in the past year but it really takes some patience due to ration can trash. We were just there pondering how the 800 would do there. We will find out at some point after it shows up and post some comparative information. Think of it as yet another opportunity to hit the site again and metal detect. Isn't that what we do?

Fred - First off welcome to the forum. While there is not a tab grouping of info posts, Steve has put together a fairly comprehensive informational guide on the Equinox 800 here: http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/minelab-equinox-800-gold-nugget-metal-detector.htm Still a work in progress but a gold mine of info nevertheless.

No problem. Most people would figure it out anyway, but just in case. And your power port should be hefty enough to easily charge it at the maximum rate without having a heating problem. Anker makes good USB power charging devices, I have a few myself, and recommend them for Equinox charging and on-the-go battery power banks.

Yes you should be good with that. BTW the output is 2.4A (current) not 2 4v (voltage), just so people don't get confused. The USB output voltage spec is 5VDC and the minimum they were talking about in the manual is also amps (0.5 A vice 0.5 v). Not trying to be a smarty pants engineer here, but since you have to supply your own power source, just want people to not get confused on the specs based on reading the posts.

Glad No problem, when you mentioned it, I knew I read it somewhere but couldn't remember which thread (as you can see the thread title would not have led me there). The forum's search feature worked like a charm and took me right to it. Impressed by the forum software here overall, probably the best I have ever seen.

Steve H.'s experience backs up the legitimate target inhibit feature in the Equinox ground tracking and he discusses it here:

You had me at "I have been using an Equinox..."

Totally agree with you. I use the Deus mainly for relic hunting (often in hot ground) so that explains why I stuck with it. Looking forward to see how much Deus overlap occurs with Equinox. Now owe you two likes. Lol

Scoop - Sorry my post made you sad. I guess that email back from XP really traumatized you. Pretty unprofessional response, if that is what they said.

Apparently XP agreed with you, they added a Ground [Balance] Sensitivity setting as a new adjustable parameter in the Ground Balance menu as part of the Deus 4.1 update, just released. (Update 4.0 "improved" GB Tracking from 3.2). Enough about Deus...almost. I too am interested in how E'nox ground balance tracking compares to Deus. I leave Deus mostly in Tracking, wonder if that will not be the case with E'nox, though as Steve says it depends on the soil conditions at the site.

To be clear, I was referring to iron trash infested beaches (many exist, probably not an issue for most beaches though) not black sand. Can't speak for Dew, but he did say "most beach hunters" and I suppose that since most beaches are not iron infested, this setting would not come into play. It may have some impact on filtering corroded crown caps, though.

Steve, Thanks for the perspective. I understand what you are saying. I always considered the CTX because I wanted a capable VLF water machine I could use on land too, but a couple things always held me back (e.g. obviously cost, recovery speed, weight, menu system complexity) plus I was having great success with the Deus. Along came Equinox, and it eclipsed all the concerns I had with the CTX. I know it will not likely be as good on deep silver as the CTX or perhaps not as rock solid on TID on some targets, but that alone does not deter me. I just don't know how Multi IQ will pan out as compared to FBS. Two different multi frequency animals. Will they greatly overlap in terms of capability or only slightly overlap and how? That is the question. Just like the CTX is not going anywhere, I also do not intend to ditch the Deus either post Equinox, especially not the HF coils which go up to 80 khz. I will give you a like when my "like" quota resets. Been too generous today apparently...lol

Depends on how much and the type of iron on your beach. Since beaches vary in that regard, you will probably have to experiment on each beach. But I suspect, once you have it dialed in for a specific beach, you can probably forget about it.

My wife always asks me why I have more than one detector since I only have two arms and one of them is carrying a shovel. I never have a good answer for her. That being said, I have no idea why you got both of those suckers. I have only heard of people selling their CTX 's to get an Equinox (or just keeping their CTX's) but not getting both at this point. Guess I would have staggered it at least. Purchased the Equinox and then the CTX if there were any remaining performance gaps by the Equinox. Lol. Hope it works out.

The manual is bound to have some confusing sections (to some readers or to many readers, depending on the example) because it is a complex gadget and some concepts that are simple in practice when you have the detector right out in front of you are hard to grasp just off the written page without anything to visualize. I guarantee you there are probably a thousand lurkers on this forum that had the same or a similar question. You were just brave enough to ask it. I know they are all thanking you for taking the bullet, but they learned something just like you did. So keep asking...

I am pretty sure it affects audio target ID too, especially in 50 tone mode.

Just asking questions about some confusion in parts of the manual on 600. Did not see any 600s being tested. Neither means that ML did or did not do a thorough job, I was just asking if someone knew what ML did in this regard. I don’t have the benefit of a 600 in front of me. I don’t recall saying that no thought went into this. Thanks folks. It was a good run. I will slink on out since I am apparently ruining the party and not adding value. My apologies to all. Really enjoyed the forum. Hope everyone gets their Equinoxes soon. Happy Hunting

Folks, please read my post more carefully. Of course there should be differences between the 600 and 800. I even said in my post that I agreed and understood with respect to the more restrictive performance settings of recovery and iron bias on the 600. By crippled I was referring SOLELY to the non-ferrous tone adjustment settings which do not exist on the 600 and make things like the 50-tone gap adjustment different and, frankly, confusing from a user interface perspective while these differences have no direct impact on capability. My post has NOTHING to do with the other omitted performance features on the 600. Of COURSE it’s a great deal for many detectorists that don’t need those features and I am glad ML offered the choice. You are preaching to the choir on that one. My point was that the tone setting manual instructions are great if you have an 800 but have created questions in my mind if you have the 600. Asterisks are great and all, but without a 600 sitting in front of me cannot make heads or tales of the settings restrictions. Was wondering if they had some actual users validate that the instruction manual setting instructions make sense for 600 users when you can only adjust the non-ferrous settings, especially tone gap for 50 tones. In fact for the 600 I would agree with a previous suggestion to eliminate 50 tone from the 600 to further differentiate it and make the settings simpler. Sometimes companies make mistakes and just assume that as long as the more capable or all encompassing model is tested then that envelops the lesser model. I can tell you from experience that is sometimes a flawed approach, especially from a user interface perspective. Hence, the subject line for the thread.