Alluminati

Yes you missed it. If you read the post directly before mine it may help add some context for you.

The Equinox is special enough I would definitely save up for a 600 instead. New or used, I wouldn't lose sleep over a warranty unless you plan on a fair amount of water detecting. If the Equinox wasn't around then sure, whatever, myself I would lean towards a used machine, most are reliable and used very little. I buy most machines new though.

How many carrots is that ring?

Can I just clarify that you guys are talking about COPPER coins that the Minelabs hit just fine? 12-14 TID. Any machine will bang an American nickle, it doesn't make it a gold hound. Minelabs were very low frequency back then which may be why they didn't hit the earring, every machine and setting is a set of chosen compromises. Sure you might have missed some chains, but you will probably find 20-40 deep gold rings in a summer without digging much small foil. A nickle machine is one like the Deus in 18kHz and I guess for that reason, the Equinox and other machines on a similar frequency. (Gold alloy response peaks around 18kHz) Despite being a higher conductivity then iron, nickle is still ferromagnetic. Metal detectors are designed to reject nickle (ferrous) phase shifts while using disc. So the challenge to finding a real nickle coin is 2-pronged. You need the Freq and a way to decipher ferrous from this pseudo ferrous responses. Gold is way easier to recognize then nickle. Nickle takes a bit of time to recognize the jumpy erratic responses they give. I just want to break this association people have with 5-cent coins and gold. Sure you can find a gold ring at 12, but there is gold from 1 to 25 TID. Deep gold sounds similar to deep nickle (Nickle gets more erratic the shallower it is, deep nickle can be almost pleasant at times.), just as small deep square nails are similar to small deep silver responses. Having a 18kHz machine typically expands the TID range just above iron giving more resolution to work in that range. This gives more accuracy to the ferrous/nonferrous decisions we have to make when presented with very low conductors.

I think what you guys are describing is the effect of the Equinox having more then one amplification level for the pinpoint. The Etrac would smoothly "ratchet down" on a target to shrink it down to about 1 1/2" to 2" wide (About 5cm), then it would stop there. The Equinox has this too, but also seems to have 2 or 3 distinct tiers of sensitivity. I think when it's in one of the higher sensitivities it can get pulled off of a coin easier then before. It seems that finding clean ground beside your target to activate the pinpointer is more important then before. I am somewhat indifferent to the pinpoint function, I can usually just "X" out the small cluster of beeps on deep targets and use that to center my hole rather then a tighter pinpoint. Although I will admit a tight pinpoint was one of my 3-step checks for deep non-ferrous targets at relic sites with the Etrac and Safari, time will tell, we usually adapt just fine. Perhaps this will be the machine's quirk, on the other hand it is half the money of a Etrac while being faster, lighter and waterproof. Apparently the Equinox is update-able, so maybe they can change he pinpoint in firmware to be a little more traditional. The Etrac is also update-able but I'm not aware of them ever updating it.

One time I did dig a crotal bell with the Lobo once that was pretty deep, a good 8" in Disc mode. I could walk around all summer with it and be lucky to find a single 1965 silver dime if hunting in Disc mode.

Good golly miss molly

Forgive me for not reading all the responses, so it may have been covered. Typically the Mineslab DD coils pinpoint right under the shaft at depth. I think this is because the DD coils are still round on the outside, they still have a bit of a cone shape to the detection field. Yes 5x10" prospecting coils and that ilk pinpoint at the toe or the heel when the target is on or close to the surface, but that is different then pinpointing a 6"-8" coin with a Minelab stock DD. I'm still getting used to the Equinox pinpoint myself, but I know for sure with the ETrac I could pinpoint down to a 2" circle basically every time. Technically I didn't need to "X" while pinpoint because of the hot spot in the center under the shaft.

Right on thanks for the input. That frees up some choices. I see they have some carbon/Kevlar mixed tubes as well. I am going to do a 1-piece shaft for maximum weight loss. (May as well for the cost and effort) The Equinox shaft actually weighs slightly less then a Deus already, the coils are the same weight if you take the bolt off of the Equinox coil. The biggest weight difference is the Equinox electronics pod, weighing 400 some odd grams. I am fine with epoxying a coil connector from the OEM shaft or 3D printing one out of nylon.

Hey Dewcon4414 Is your 1-piece carbon fiber shaft all the way to the coil? I know I've read where carbon fiber isn't great near the coil, then again my ETrac had a carbon lower shaft, not metallic but is conductive. Anyhow for that reason I was thinking of making a 1pice Kevlar shaft instead, but if the carbon is fine it gives me more options. I'm looking to trim a couple hundred grams off the shaft weight and like you water hunts are local so the 1piece is fine for the water too, lots of room in the truck, still shorter then a Excalibur on a broom stick.

Right on, sweet digs.

It was on page 58 with regards to headphones I guess. " After underwater detecting, ensure that the area around the connector is dry and free of sand and mud before disconnecting the headphones. This will prevent dirt and water ingress"

The manual recommends doing your cleaning/rinsing before you disconnect the coil, mainly to keep debris out of the connector. Even though the detector is waterproof while disconnected, I would still keep the coil side of the plug dry on the inside.

Right on guys. I went back the other night but got chased off by a huge time waster. This guy took up 1 1/2 hours of another detectorists time a few weeks back. I'm friendly and all, but not out there for others entertainment. I mean this guy was walking right beside me, so close it was cutting off my swing, coil bumping into one of his two walking sticks. Personal space. I couldn't shake him no matter how politely I tried to get away, he would just follow, right beside me. I wouldn't dare dig a target with him there. After I walked over the third potentially good target I decided it was time to leave and just walked away lol. I went to a little park a few blocks away, got bit by a few mosquitoes, a few more coppers then headed home. Anyhow I better get to work, hope to get the nox wet this weekend, I've got a few spots to check out with it.

That is some good depth on that coin. The Equinox is a sensitive little Devil in Park 2

Love that LC, nice one!

Thank you kindly. Here is what the second charge is looking like. 3 pieces of silver, maybe 4 if you include the earring. (I still have 3 bars left)? I did good to get the silver but that clown ring was the real shocker. Its the adjustable aluminum kind and came from between two sand pits that yielded 3 gold in the past. That could have been a monster miss. Anyhow I'm heading back out now. Its hot and I've already washed the machine once today, but what the heck lets see what else is down there. This site is showing signs of potential building development, so I guess I'll do what I can to ransack the dirt first.

Ya ya, you're probably getting tired of all the "new Equinox just got gold" threads, but here is another. Same old tired cliche, first day out with new said wonder-machine, then BAM out comes a 8" deep, 1/4 ounce gold ring from a previously pounded location. Sigh. I mean come on, it was right under the soccer net, 4 feet from where I usually set down my drinking water. The place I stand when I look at other gold I find. The place that every newbie heads to. The place I did a tight over-lapping spiral around both posts with a Deus and a Lobo. The place that my 2 friends have detected on multiple occasions with a Deus and Etrac. Yet it was right there the whole time. I walked up to the net, dug a penny and thought "hmm, I'm surprised that is still there" but hey it is a multi-freq Mineslab right? No big deal, stranger things have happened. About 14"-16" away I get the almost identical signal, perhaps slightly jumpier, flickering 20-22 ID. I saw that soft edge golden glow in the bottom of the hole, I said "F-you don't be something or other" cause this place has gold toned aluminum scraps and beaver-tails that would make Peter Munk take a triple take. I thought the ring looked to be about 3-4 grams, my eyes almost bulged out of my head when I saw it weighed in at over 8 grams, a good size piece of alloy around here. It might be higher then 10K due to the heft, the mark is worn and my acids are expired so I will get it XRFed when I get a chance to stop in. This is my forth Mineslab and the third time something like this has happened. There was that week of silver running around town with a new Etrac, I also hit gold 45 minutes into a first water hunt when my Excalibur was new. My old friend deep 2 1/2" square nail is back, some of his big brothers too. They are a rough bunch to hang with but I usually get the old silver when they are around. For those wondering, the ring is a 22. I was in Park 2, 7 reactivity, sens21-22, multi-IQ

I got 7 chains in 5 days with my lobo last spring, (Silver and copper) also a small gold tennis bracelet in the water the previous fall. The Lobo loves chains, they pretty much hit like regular targets, always unexpected because they hit like a coin. The 5x10" coil is not deep. The Lobo in Disc mode is not deep. It is however SENSITIVE in both modes. The Lobo is deepest on gold in All-Metal, it's primary mode, it should hit a penny at 10-12" in air, maybe around 6" max in disc mode. Your gold is 3/8" long by 1/8" wide? That sounds fairly small, 3-4" is probably about right. Try it on another machine, it may not make a sound.

Any idea what the lion might be from?

Here is a easy way to fix your shaft wobble, even if only temporarily. The male end of the middle shaft just needs a single layer of electrical tape. The tolerances on the Minelab shaft are actually pretty tight. If it was any closer you might not be able to get it apart again. Anybody who has swung a Tesoro Knows those twist-locks only work for first assembly, lol I've done this before with other machines except I used aluminum tape, time will tell how long the electrical tape will hold out. The tape in the picture has about 15 hours on it, so far it's OK. Besides, it's easy to replace. Coincidentally when I took the machine apart for a cleaning and to take this picture, I noticed that Minelab made a similar raised surface on the lower fiberglass rod. The lower rod is so long that a little play really wouldn't translate into as much slop as the upper connection does.

Most of my gold gets sold, I put the nice old coins in flips and I'm thinking of making a couple of those illuminated shadow boxes this fall for some of my relics.

Yes its better then the AtPro, even the Xterra series has always been better then the ATPro never mind the multi freq Mineslabs. The Equinox is the lighter, waterproof Etrac that smacks gold better machine that we've all been waiting for. Add in the adjustable recovery speed of Deus...