Norm S

I recharged the batteries last night and this morning I turned the 800 on to do a factory reset and I got an error code FP. I guess FP means factory reset but when I hit detect I get VDi's bouncing all over the place and it's stuck in Field 2. The only button that works is the on/off button. Looks Iike I am sending it back for repair. Darn I was going away next weekend and was wanting to take it with me..

I hope it is just an abnomily that gets fixed with firmware at a later date. I would guess it will take awhile until Minelab gets enough reports and enough time to test the fixes before anything is really done short of sending the detector in for repair. I find the pinpointer to be spot on or no more the 2" of center. I most often just wiggle the detector for center because that's what I am used to but since this is a new detector I have used pinpoint a lot just to check the accuracy.

Nothin from Keesler, I was across from the Hardrock and have hunted there for several days with no interference, Heck I been hunting with sensitivity around 24 and if I get to much chatter I back it down to 20. No matter what I did I couldn't get if off from pinpoint mode. I will try a reset after it's charged which will likely fix it but I was frustrated because I hadn't been the an hour. All week long I been averaging over $6 per 2 hour hunt. I was hoping to break a $100 in clad in less than 3 weeks.

Cell phone was in truck 200' away

I just got home from my favorite spot and had been there maybe 45 mins and doing well as usual. I was digging a 28 target when my detector started going crazy in the pinpoint mode but I didn't leave in pinpoint. I picked it and hit the pinpoint button and nothing happened I then hit the detect button and it went to Park 2 but again went into pinpoint and was screaming like crazy and the VDI went nuts jumping from 12- 32. I turned it off and back on and it still did the same thing. I looked at the battery and it showed 30% or less. Last time when the battery got low it just shut off on it's own. I looked at previous threads but couldn't find anything. Any ideas or was I just needing a charge. I am charging it now.

Thanks for the card I got it yesterday. It's in my wallet and I am headed out to detect for a cpl of hours..

I had a Pro Pointer that went bad after 5 years and Garrett offered the Carrot at $40 off so I bought it. It never worked from day one. I have had it maybe a month and when I turn it on it constantly beeps and will beep at anything. I also have a Whites TRX and although I can barely hear if from so much mud and debris getting on the speaker it works well. I have the sensitivity set as low as I can because I hate it starting to beep in hole when the target it 4" away. I wish in hindsight I would have paid Garrett to repair my Pro Pointer

I sold my ATP even though it is one of the best detectors for the money. My ATP paid for it self more than 3 times over and that allowed me to upgrade to a V3i. Anyway unless you want a backup or a detector with waterproof headphones I see no reason to keep the ATP. I was really good with my ATP and hunted along side a guy with a CTX back in 2013 and did as well as he did. I admit he had just bought it and was in the learning phase of ownership. With about 30 hours on my 800 it out does the ATP in almost every way. The deepest coin I ever dug with the ATP was 8-1/2" and I have hit several at 12" with the 800. I hate deep coins because I have to dig so much and using a Lesch trowel in a park can be work. I only have two detectors I use now and one is the 800 and the other is my E-Trac. I keep the E-trac as a spare in case someone visits me and wants to go detecting or my 800 is charging..

What I was saying is the only bottle caps that it seems to pick up is Colt 45 or a Bush cap on occasion and as far as pull tabs go I miss stated that, it's me that ignores them. I can tell by the sound or chatter to ignore them. They bounce between 12 - 14. A nickel at 13 is a very solid 13 so anything else I have learned to ignore. I don't try and science out the detector I just listen closely and try and read into what it tells me. I rarely look at the VDI so I never know what it is till I am ready wiggle or pinpoint. I pulled another $6+ in clad this morning in less than an hour. I would have hunted longer but they started to mow the park so I had to leave.

I just made the shaft shorter to a comfy length and I don't notice the weight at all. At 1st i had the shaft a bit to long and was swinging my arc about 3' in front of me and the detector felt unbalanced. Then I looked and I had room for adjustment so I slid it up and made it shorter and now my arc is at about 2'. This thing is a breeze compared to the E-Trac, When I detect I go as light as possible so I don't need to add weight for balance. At 73 yrs old dropping to my knees 30 - 50 times a hunt wears me out enough without extra weight.

I agree about those parks everyone gave up I was told this park wasn't worth the effort so I stayed away until I got my 800. Then someone seen me hitting the park hard that and I have had to dodge his plugs for 3 days and still pulling up $5+ in clad everyday and two rings and other stuff. He must have gave up because this morning I hit a clear area and pulled up $5.17 in clad plus a Sacagawea $1 in less than one hour this morning. Started at 7:30 am and finished at 8:20 because they had to mow the park. Without a doubt this is the easiest detector there is out of the box. By saying that I mean if all you know is how to adjust the sensitivity you can slaughter coins. I thought I was going to need a mining permit on several coins in the 10" - 12" range and they rang up very clear but the signal was softer so I knew they were deep. I only use my Lesche trowel in parks to keep my holes at a minimum and very hard to see after I put the plug back and stomp it down. I have only lived in MS about 5 yrs so I really don't know any old homesites so I been traveling around to different parks and most of which are hit hard by locals and tourists.

I am basically a coin shooter because I don't know any old homesites or places people used to gather to look for relics. Anyway i hunted a hunted out soccer field yesterday morning. I hit this park hard with my V3i and my E-Trac. I hit it again with my E-Trac in early Feb. I didn't expect much but I had to try with the 800. I hunted the same areas outside the playing area as I always do. After 25' or so I hit my 1st quarter. I expected to find a coin or two because you always seem to miss a few here and there. I hunted and area about 15' wide by 75 yards long and I was shocked I pulled out $4.80 in clad. Some one had been here before me recently because he didn't even cover some holes and the ones he did were just kicked in. I made a cpl passes in the playing area and found one quarter but I didn't expect much. I went to the other side and because there are two rows of bleachers I always hit that area extra hard. I started out hitting nothing but tabs so I didn't dig but then I hit a dime and one after another. A few quarters and pennies and I kept saying to myself I couldn't have left that much behind or is the 800 just that good. Before I left and I was wore out I found another $2.23. I know parks replenish themselves but I had just hit this field a month ago. I am going to try the other fields across the street that I have even hit harder just so keep the 800 honest. Before I hit the other fields I have to finish my honey hole I been detecting. I hunted the soccer field yesterday because there was an Easter Egg hunt at my honey hole. I have also been hunting a public park for a week. As of this morning I have pulled out $52 in clad and two silver rings with my 800. Someone else has been hunting the park as well and hitting it pretty hard. I can tell by the numerous plugs. That person either has a detector they don't know how to use or one far inferior to the 800. He may not have a pin pointer either because two days in a row I have pulled coins out of many of the plugs I have detected over. Even covering the same area I been killing the clad. I kept track this morning and I pulled 90 cents in clad out of the plugs he cut. I also found a quarter at 12" in one of his plugs. I only went 12" just to see if it was a can or bottle cap falsing but it wasn't. I adjust the sensitivity when I get a mixed signal and can usually pick out the good target by doing so. The park is loaded with tabs and bottle caps but the 800 ignores most or I can tell by the chatter.

This is by far the best metal detecting forum on the internet. The thing that make it so much better than the other forums is Steve. He is a metal detecting expert and participates. He has answered most of my questions by posting on the forum before I could ask. Aside from Steve there are a few more guys that are experts that frequent this forum and help others. Since I joined this forum I rarely ever visit the other forums. Actually I am tired of being scolded. I tried to help a guy with selecting a good dealer and I have bought stuff from about 5 and all been good. One of the names I told him didn't advertise on the forum so they scolded me and deleted my post.. Fair is fair. I private messaged the guy and deleted their forum..

The simplicity of the Equinox out weighs the versatility of the V3i. I had a V3i for almost 4 years and never did conquer it. I am not knocking it but there was way to many things you could do with the V3i to get it right and I found what worked for me but never did have the success with the V3i I had with other detectors.

I only dig when I get a solid 13 on my Equinox. I have tried a few times when the signal was mostly 13 but maybe bounced to 14 on occasion but each time it turned out to be a tab. It seems as though on some days I hit a lot of nickels and other days none. It could be the moisture in the soil or even the park I am hunting but the park I been working I have only 2 nickels out of $40 in clad. The funny part about this park is I only get maybe one penny for every ten dimes or quarters. Unusually low penny count. The last two hunts totaling $12 in clad I have found 2 nickels and 11 pennies. Due to an Easter Egg hunt I am going to a hunted out soccer field where I have found a lot of nickels but I may have hit it one to many times recently because my last hunt only produced about $2.50 My reason for digging nickels is because of the gold rings.. I have never found a nickel older than say 1950.

Tifaaft that is how I pin point too. I pull the coil to the side as well. I thought that maybe the last thing the coil picked up is the ID I see when pin pointing but wasn't sure.

I been hunting this park for 2 hrs a day since last Sat the 24th. Anyway I have pulled out in excess of $35 - $40 in clad and a cpl silver rings and a few worthless tokens. This morning I pulled out $6.37 in two hours and only dug one tab and had on mystery 25 signal that I quit looking for at 12". I already had an 8" diameter plug and at 12" I just quit. There were a bunch of women show up and started exercising in the same area I was detecting but I was getting ready to quit so I headed toward my truck and on the way I decided to make a cpl passes of areas I already hunted. Well to my surprise in less than 50' and two passes 4' wide I picked up 85 cents and that got me to think that maybe I should grid it and cover the area again. I will admit when I swing there is a good chance I miss an area 6" or so between swings as I move forward but in the past when I tried gridding all I did was wear myself out and found very little or nothing. Since this park is such a producer I am thinking when I finish the last 3rd of the park maybe I should go back and start over covering the park in a horizontal search of what I been hunting. I am also wondering since I turned up the sensitivity yesterday if that's the reason I should go back over what I have hunted. I got the sensitivity turned up to 25 with no chatter or interference's. I been using park 1 and other than turning up the sensitivity I am in factory pre set. I have hit few bottle caps and I know colt 44 rings up but Bush beer don't. Tokens been ringing up 31 & 32 but I recognize them after digging a few. The separation between trash and good signals is beyond by belief. Three times this morning I hit signals that went from 23 - 30 and I kept swinging to see which signal want the most prominent and when I dug I got a quarter, dime and penny. One time 2 quarters and a penny. Also in the holes I found rusty nails and a lead sinker. I may not be right on the amount of clad I have dug because I haven't counted it exactly but I know I have a pile of clad not counting pennies of $93 and about $35 of it is E-Trac finds. Maybe someone can answer this. Often times when I pin point for say a quarter that's ringing up at 29 when I start to pin point the detector shows 13 while I am pin pointing. It don't bother me because I am listening for tone but always wonder why the detector don't show 29 when I am pin pointing a 29. All I can really say is I am one happy detecting dude with the 800. My E-Trac may go to rust unless I find a good reason to use it for anything other than back up. One last thing. I have charged it twice and get almost exactly 12 hours per charge. When the battery is almost dead the 800 with shut off on it's own. I do think that Minelab should halt production of the 800 so others don't get one and that would reduce the competition.

Just about every iffy signal I have had has turned out to be worth digging. This morning I dug $3.38 in clad in less than an hour and two quarters were in someone else plug they had dug. I thought I had been the only guy in this park for a long time but I kept noticing what I thought were plugs but thought maybe they were mine. then I noticed them where in areas I hadn't hunted. When ran my detector over a cpl of them I got a solid 28 and thought it was probably a can but went for it and with no digging the plug popped out and bingo a clad quarter the guy missed. I have pulled over $38 from this park since last Sat. I hunted till my battery went dead this morning and then walked the park and counted the guys plugs and there were like 52 of them. He either didn't know how to hunt or had a really poor detector. I get a lot of jumpy signals and more often than not there is trash in the hole along with the coin. This morning I had a piece of copper wire and a nail in a hole with a dime. One other signal bounced from 19 - 25 and mostly hung out at 23 but got an occasional 27. I had a gut feeling it was a penny but when I dug I got a brass tack a rusty nail and a dime and quarter. I agree 100% with Cabin Fever that coins just sound good whether a faint signal or strong signal and shallow or deep. I am beginning to trust my judgement more and more with the Equinox and haven't dug trash for 3 days but now that I say it I will probably dig a ton of trash tomorrow..lol

I have only hunted in a cpl of parks and not really a relic hunter. I dug $5.82 this morning in clad and I pulled out more than one quarter in a hole that also had a can in it. I got a jumpy 28 so dug and when I scanned the hole after I pulled the quarter I still had a strong signal but found it to be a can. I have only been tricked by cans when they been over 8". Most dimes ring up at a 24 -26 and I have dug over $9.00 in dimes. On occasion a penny will pop up at a 25 but most often 19 -23. I have has several 32 -38 signals but all have been trash and every time I knew before I dug because my Whites pin pointer sounded off up to 10" away from the center of the signal. I have dug bunches of coins in the center of other trash such as tabs, nails and iron. I haven't dug many nickels because I have yet to find one that rings up anything but a solid 13 and even then a pull tab keeps me honest from time to time. I only dig 13 for nickels. Most quarters ring up 28 - 29 but on occasion I will get one at 30 and a few at 27- 28. The funny thing is I found about 4 surface dimes this morning and they rang up at 23

Give him your Equinox and get in line for another one.

I did $4.91 this morning in 1-1/2 hours and $3.77 yesterday morning in 1 hour. I found a park I know has been hunted but most people pass it by thinking it is hunted out. The deepest coin I found at that park has been 6" most in the top 2". I am hitting it again in the morning. I try not to attract attention so I go at daybreak. I know of an unhunted old soccer field I am hitting next. After I get to learn the machine well i am going to try relic hunting and going to AZ sometime this year after I am confident in my ability with it to try for some gold

Mr Lighthouse I am 73 yrs old and believe me I wish I was 46 but if you don't drop to your knees to dig an iffy target you won't find the gold, silver or clad. Yesterday I dug 31 coins in less than an hour and that means I dropped to my knees 31 times in less than an hour. I hit a honey hole I am heading to at daybreak because I want to be gone before others see me there and start hunting it as well. Stay with the factory pre sets until you know your detector well enough to see the effects of changing from pre sets to a setting that may work well for others. You must also understand not all soil conditions are not the same and what works for Joe in Montana may not work for Bob in TN. Read the posts and watch the U-tube videos and often times you will find the guy on U-tube isn't very good. Just because someone does a U-tube video don't mean he is an expert. Learn techniques from them or learn what not to do as well. You need at least 100 hours on your machine as a newbie to understand the slight blips and the different tones so you know what's worth digging and even then you will dig a lot of tabs, bottle caps and cans. You learn by experience. Any old timer will tell you if you don't dig it you won't find it. After you get 100 hours on your machine changing settings will become 2nd nature and you will know what works and what don't. If you are only going to use your Equinox occasionally I would never change anything except sensitivity and tones. You never completely hunt a park or beach out. Whether you use the same detector over and over or different detectors you will always find something. Friday morning I was hunting a practice athletic field that was the main field for the school 12 yrs ago and before and I found a nickel in an area I have went over no less than 5 times with my E-Trac and 3 times with the Equinox. I thought the park was hunted out with the E-Trac and I have since found over $25 in clad with the Equinox. I took the Equinox there on my 1st hunt with it and in 45 mins found $1.46 I have had 6 detectors and the Equinox is probably easier to learn than any of them and by far the best out of the box. I had a V3i and I never really did conquer it. I found what worked for me after many hours of beating hunted out parks. I had an AT Pro that I felt I was as good as anyone can with it. I found over $2500 in clad in less than 2 years with it. One final thought. The only magic setting that works for everyone is the factory pre settings. When a man as knowledgeable as Steve says it's pretty good out of the box take his advice and run with it. I know it's a long reply but it's 5:30 am here and I am waiting for daylight to head out to my honey hole.

I am a coin shooter but this thing amazing. I have had this thing since the 14th of March and 13 hours on it. The pile of coins on the left are from heavily hunted parks using my E-Trac from Jan 2, till March 13th and the pile on the right is a new park with the Equinox 800 in 13 hours. There is over $20 in clad quarters and I never counted the dimes or pennies.

This guy has at least one in stock as of two hours ago https://www.facebook.com/eldoradometaldetectors/

I have noticed that fewer and fewer people with pre orders are upset they haven't received their Equinox. Like Steve said it's only the 800 on back order at the present time. I think Cablea's have 600's in stock. I had a dealer contact me and thank me for sending a cpl guys to him. He sold the one he had in stock and the 3 he got in his next shipment. All I can really say is the Equinox is far beyond my expectations. This detector is better out of the box using presets than any detector I ever had. It's by far the deepest detector I have ever had.