SittingElf

Since the SR-71 and BT80 headphones are virtually out of stock everywhere, it makes me wonder if that may also be part of the reason for the slow shipping of the 800. Minelab may also be waiting for stock from Miccus, who may be having high volume production problems. Also, the 800 is not the only thing slowly moving to customers from Minelab. Have you seen the out-of-stock condition on the Minelab Pro-Find 35? Waiting lists there too. While this may seem to be an enviable problem for a manufacturer, I can speak from personal experience that it is NOT. The reflection on the company is always negative when production cannot immediately meet demand. At the same time, it is difficult to justify the expense of adding production lines, hiring skilled staff, and the overhead associated with increased production...especially when a company must assume that initial demand will eventually temper, and then they are stuck with having to let go staff, and manufacturing space that was used to increase production while the fire was hot. Just saying...

Yesterday, I was swinging on Melbourne Beach, which was a mistake, because I didn't realize that they had recently brought in tons and tons of new sand to replenish the beach from Hurricane Irma damage. Very few targets. That being said, I was using a pair of headphones with a 1/8th plug. They worked really well with threshhold and other volumes set to counter wind noise on the beach. The problem is that the speaker would sound off as well when any non-ferrous target was swept...and at full volume. Even felt the vibration from speaker. I also noticed that the headphone icon on the display would momentarily blank out whenever that happened. I'm confused. Don't want the speaker active when I'm on headphones. Any ideas?? P.S. - One coin (clad quarter) for 2.5 hours of swinging! Ugh. Found a number of small bottles used for drawing medication into a syringe. Hoping it was for someone with diabetes on the beach, and not some other nefarious purpose, like steroids, or other nasties. Pull tabs all registered at 14. screwtops at 17-20.

1956... Year of the Monkey. Also the year I made my presence known to all! LOL! Still chasing my first silver with the Nox. Lots of clad, copper, and wheaties though.

Thanks for the settings! Really jump starts the learning process on my new 600 and later when my 800 finally gets shipped. Heading for a couple of parks today and will use those parameters. As an aside, I spent the morning yesterday, before the thunderstorms (and nickel-sized hail) trying to find the survey studs that define our property boundaries. I own the lot my house sits on, as well as the 3/4 acre, empty lot next door that has some interesting multi-angled boundaries. The 600 was perfect for that. I got three of them with it, and four to go yet. One of them was buried 8" under the soil and sang loud at 14. I have had to use Google Maps to generalize the GPS coordinates for the other four, which should get the area to search to about a 10' diameter. Surprisingly, while searching for the studs, I found a few quarters and pennies on what was virgin overgrowth before construction started in this development in 2000. This is our permanent home in Palm Bay, Florida. I go back and forth to wherever my wife is stationed in the Air Force, and that will be in Oklahoma for the next two years beginning in June. I think I'll leave the 600 at this house, and have the 800 in Oklahoma so I don't have to carry them on a plane when jumping from one to the other. (Hoping to hook up with SteveG in OK who will be less than an hour away from where we will be stationed at Tinker AFB.) Mostly Beach and Park hunting in Florida, and Parks and Relics in OK.

Sigh.... OK, maybe tomorrow. We're going to be hammered today, and don't need to be swinging a lightning rod! Good news is that the beaches will be churned up by heavy surf today, so tomorrow may be productive. As of 9AM and headed our way....

Home in the Melbourne, FL area for a couple of weeks, and the weather looks nice, so going to try some beach hunting this week when I can get out for a few hours. While some here will be hitting Cocoa and Melbourne, I'm going to "get my feet wet" south of Indiatlantic on some quieter beaches where I can really drill down on the settings, and without crowds on the beach. Results will be posted as I learn.... (Back to Eglin Air Force Base on the 22nd to attack another closed 40's to 50's housing area that is producing lots of wheaties, and therefore probably a lot of silver awaiting recovery.

Two suggestions from previous discussions on this issue: "Make sure you go back into the Detect Mode after you make a change and turn it off.. It will not save if you don’t.." "Just a suggestion, do a factory reset on the nox then change you park 2 settings and see if it will save it then. I was playing with mine the other day on setting and had the same problem. did the reset, added the changes and it saved them" Maybe one of these will work??!!

Like all Lithium-Ion batteries...if you keep the charge above 50% before recharging to full, the battery will last a lot longer. Draining the battery is not like the old lead-acid batteries that need to be fully discharged. This is a mistake that many people with solar setups make. Keep the batteries no lower than 30%...EVER, and they will last MUCH longer.

No issue with my 600. Rock Steady!

The only place I see stock is Cabela's, and they're saying 4-7 business days for shipping.

I remember the 180k 8" floppies, then the "massive" 360k 5.25" floppies. Then "Oh my God" 1.2mb diskettes! Pretty amazing when you consider that we now have USB memory sticks that can handle more than 120GB. I also remember when Hard Drives were first introduced, and some well-known PC gurus were saying that the price of Hard Drives would never go below $1.00 per megabyte! LOL! On topic though.... I was in the field yesterday, and a pretty far hike from my car. Having that half-sized booklet stashed in my hip pouch was incredibly helpful, and I referenced it repeatedly as I tweaked settings. Handy!

Tried these settings today in another area of demolished houses on the base here. Magic! Dug so little trash (mostly on 13's) that I had to go to all metal to convince myself that there really was trash around! This is perfect for the hunts on these fields I'm in the middle of. Still tracking towards the oldest ones, where I'm sure there is a lot of silver in the ground. Lots of copper dating back to 1951 in the areas now, but sporadic. I WILL find the housing areas that were built in the 40's eventually, and these settings will speed that process dramatically. THANKS! (Converted the 800 settings to my 600.)

Tried this yesterday. Kept me from digging a lot of crap! (Did dig some to confirm). It works!

OK... so we are all aware of the non-stop complaints about how Minelab didn't include a printed manual with the Equinox series. Personally, I am used to online manuals, and generally don't need to have a printed reference handy for using most products. The Equinox is a bit different, and I found that I needed to go back to the manual repeatedly as I learn. I ended up printing a full sized copy with two-sided printing. That took 34 sheets of letter-sized paper, and in a loose-leaf binder, it was not exactly handy to take with me into the field. Hmmm...need another solution! Eureka! I ended up with a smaller booklet sized manual for only the cost of 17 sheets of paper and ink, and it is easy. Equinox 600 / 800 Full Instruction Manual (English pdf 5.59 MB) Equinox 600 / 800 Getting Started Guide (English pdf 847.71 KB) Equinox Battery Charging Recommendations And Warnings Minelab Equinox Parts & Accessories Page Here's what this process will produce... It is relatively simple and if you have a duplex (Prints both sides automatically) printer, it is even simpler. If you don't have a full duplex printer, you will print one side of the 17 sheets, then reload them for the second side. What you get is a booklet that will fit in a finds bag pocket, and is easily referenced in the field. If you don't have a powerful or big enough stapler, UPS Stores or other office places will have one that can staple the middle of the booklet as shown below. And when you're done, here is a pic that will give you a visual... OK.. here's the ticket... Doesn't matter if you have a Windows or Mac computer. If you currently have Adobe PDF Reader on your computer, you are already set. If not, it's FREE and you can download it here...https://get.adobe.com/reader/ The site will automatically determine which operating system you are using and will download the correct version. Next, open the downloaded Equinox PDF Manual using Adobe reader, then FILE | PRINT. You will see the following screen: The first thing to do is to select "BOOKLET" where the top circle is. Then make sure that Portrait is selected, and then check the box for "Auto-rotate Pages...." Next click the Page Setup button on the lower left to get this window: Select the printer from the dropdown that you are printing to, then make SURE that the Scale is set to 100%. Then click OK Upon return to the original screen, press PRINT and you're on your way! If you want to insure that everything is set up right and test without wasting paper, go up the page to where it says "PAGES TO PRINT" and select the PAGES option and enter 1 - 1. That will only print the first page, and you should end up with the back page on the left, and the cover page on the right. WIth a duplex printer, on the flip side, you should have the WELCOME PAGE on the left, and page 67 on the right. It should not be upside down on the back. If using a single side printer, you should get instructions after the 17 pages print to reinsert the pages for back side printing. This manual is now very handy, and useful. Some of us older folks may need reading glasses for the smaller print, but it's readable and not extreme. Cheers!

We can see the pictures. No worries!

Willkommen! My grandparents are from Burgenland...a village named Heiligenbrunn. I have always wanted to visit... and maybe metal detect in the area. I'm sure the ground is full of fantastic relics. Looking forward to seeing your finds! Viel Glück!

VERY cool! Will definitely help and will test on the next hunt!

Saw this on Treasurenet. Someone was going back and forth with Minelab about repairs after warranty expiration on the Equinox. The final response from Minelab was as follows:

Pulled a dime 11" down yesterday with no experience on the 600 (First outing). Deep enough?

OH... Snowbirds...Gahhhh! LOL!

Our permanent home is in Palm Bay. I get back there for a couple of weeks at a time to take care of our house. Let's hunt together sometime! My wife is an active duty Colonel in the Air Force. I'm a ex Army helicopter pilot. We're going to a two year assignment at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma this summer where she will be a Senior Commander, and run the Medical Group there. I'll continue to be back and forth to Palm Bay.

I was planning a full day of working my new E600, but circumstances arose and I only had about 1.5 hours to try her out. Currently living on Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where a ton of old family housing units are either currently being torn down or in the process of getting ready. Most of them were built in the late 50's to early 60's. Additionally the original WIng Commander and Senior Commanders homes from the 40's are still standing but now unoccupied. I chose to work one of the Senior Commander homes for this quick run with the 600. Using Park2 and having to fuss a bit to quiet it down near power lines, I spent an hour and half just listening, digging, and playing with the unit to understand its functions and tones. Originally set for 50 tones, but backed it off to 5. Recovery set to 3. No iron bias or other features that I still need to learn. Had lots of solid, repeatable 13 hits, but no nickels. All heavy metal parts. So... for an hour and a half, I pulled three Wheaties, a bunch of copper pennies, and some clad...along with a old drawer pull, a key, and a spent rifle cartridge which is very curious being in the ground of the former WIng Commanders yard. Only got about half the yard swung, but will use the six homes there for learning the 600 inside and out....especially in preparation for when my 800 finally comes in. I am getting closer and closer to silver country here on base. I'm documenting the dates of coins I'm finding in various areas, and narrowing it down to the oldest areas where I am positive there will be plenty of silver buried. These areas are not very trashy because the military is really hard on littering and messes. Additionally, because there is very limited access to the base, there are very few people who have ever detected here! Virgin ground for a virgin detector! If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'll be back out learning, learning, learning!!

I was thinking that upgrades might be via bluetooth.

Easy solution... Sabotage the voltage generator on the fence! LOL!

Nice indication that another shipment has come to dealers though. Hopeful...I'm #5 on a waiting list for the 800. 600 came yesterday.