RobNC

I went ahead and flashed the newest software update. Did some "air testing" afterwards. Seemed stable and well behaved. Did FP before update and after just for good measure. Messed around a little with the notch breakpoints. Wanted quarters to sing out at the highest pitch instead of possibly falling into T4. Maybe not a good idea but want to try it out. Took the Equinox out today to a couple "hunted out" junk holes before the update. Dug some nice pulltabs and can slaw. I knew better than to dig those numbers but was trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel. The conditions were very bad in that 1st place. Down at 10 inches one target laid that was showing 30 and faint, out it came and was a rusty old bolt head looked like. There was also actual coal in this particular hole. In ages past, they used coal to heat the old school. Have hunted this old school many times this year with the ORX and T2. The ORX did find that small silver kid ring in the ground of this area. Pretty sure that place has been hunted before by many others long before I ever detected it. Not wanting to waste anymore time at that place went down the road a piece to a newer school. Have detected this one a few times also with other detectors. Nothing but clad on those old hunts and some little bling like things. Today was the day of small cans. Was getting 25-26 repeatable signal. The little cans like potted meat cans looked like. Dug 3 of them, all down in excess of 7 inches. Dug some nice can slaw, a pull tab, then finally hit a couple clad dimes. Then out in a larger field hit a clad quarter. Walked over to the other wood chip area and found 2 more clad dimes and another clad quarter(8 inches down in mineralized clay). My shoulder was cutting up so it was time to go. Not a total wipe out but I certainly did have to work for these meager things today. I did think today would be a day without any finds at all worth speaking of. Luckily the Equinox came through. Not the unit, the location sucked and maybe I did too a bit. I will say that these 2 places are difficult to hunt, and they have been with everything I've used up until today. To find anything of value is an accomplishment. The Equinox did come through today and punched down into the ground deeper than other detectors have. The soil is difficult in a lot of spots also. I'm confident the Equinox is the right unit, but there is a lot for me to learn with it. This is going to take some time. Nothing but Park 1 today with minor modifications, mainly in tone pitches. I don't foresee myself going back to those 2 spots and if I do it will be quite a while.

I'm on the fence about updating it. Things went really good on the first hunt. To be honest I'm sort of afraid to tinker with things seeing as how it did so well the way I had it set. There is always a concern that perhaps the factory flash is the best and maybe some weirdness could be introduced doing it "at home". That is me being brutally honest. I imagine they already have the chips loaded up from a hardware programming perspective (direct connection to the board itself with factory interface) vs when we do it through a USB port that is primarily used for charging. Just a thought. Now that may seem a bit paranoid to you guys but hey.. I've seen a PC BIOS flash go bad a time or two. This is really no different, as you are indeed upgrading the firmware on a chip.

I will go check right now, but thought I did press the accept key and got a bleep but no F2 change. Thank you for the info! Update: Nope, no F2 option using described method only a bleep sound

My new Equinox does not seem to have the newest firmware. I do not see the F2 option so pretty sure it is not the latest firmware. I've read varying opinions on the newest update. All sorts of things have been said, good and bad. Some say it has messed with the ID a bit too much and thrown them off from what it used to be. Some say the addition of F2 has been a good thing, others say nope. So, what do you think? Should I just run it like it is or is the new firmware somehow better in general? Curious is all and would enjoy hearing from anyone that cares to respond with their experiences and findings. Thanks for your time

Hey everybody. Since I have bought the Equinox 800 as all of you know it comes with the WM08 module. I really don't hear of anyone much using that module. Minelab claims it has 17ms latency. Supposedly the AptX LL headphones have around 40ms latency. Coming from a computer/networking background I do realize there is a difference between these numbers. But in the real world of using the Equinox has anyone ran the WM08 and found it to be noticeably "quicker" than the wireless headphones? I have only been out on 1 hunt so far with the Equinox 800 and was very pleased and used the headphones. The headphones are very nice, very comfy to wear and have good audio. However I have a pair of gray ghost headphones I use with my Teknetics T2SE and really like them. I have ordered the headphone adapter cable from Digger's Den (Thanks again Brian for having the best price) and plan to try out the WM08 with the trusty gray ghosts. I don't feel it is necessary to baby the gray ghosts vs I do feel the minelab wireless headphones need more care and gentle handling. So again I ask, has anyone else used the WM08 and found it to be better in some way? It seems it is a waste to not put the module to work. Call it ignorance, but I want the lowest latency possible.

Welcome! It's nice to meet you (in a sense). Happy hunting, hope you find many great things.

Quality products, hope you sell a boat load of them.

Received my Equinox 800 yesterday. Charged the detector and headphones up yesterday. Took my time putting it together and inspecting it. Rain and cold yesterday so no hunting. Today was different. Didn't even read the manual. Got it out this morning in the house and turned it on for first time. Ran a couple coins across the coil then went to tinkering a little bit. Park 1 stock except for threshold which I set to 3. FE to 3, left recovery speed at 5. notched out 39 and 40 , took the T1 volume down to 3 paired up my headphones and that was it. Took it to a place I had been one other time with my other detectors, and had really racked up with the other units there. Well.. The Equinox was doing really well today. 18 dimes, 6 quarters, 17 pennies 4 nickels, and a gold plated silver ring(my wife found that by eye!). less than 3 pulltabs dug today ( ID=14=pull tab for me). Used park 1 and nothing else. Didn't make any changes other than above. Ran sensitivity at 16-18. Some EMI was present so varied it according to that. Ground Balanced too. I did try 0 but found an actual ground balance did better. It handled that dreaded red dirt with gold specks like a boss! deepest find today was a copper penny at 8.5" down and under 3 different types of material (wood chip top, red dirt with gold specks, and sandy clay). I'm very happy with today's first outing and have no doubt I made the right choice in getting this unit. Seems I'm finally ready to appreciate all it has to offer. Gotta say the EQ600 I had earlier this year ran NOTHING like this unit. This thing is smooth and I can understand it. Almost forgot. I also had a piece of Skinomi techskin screen protector left over from when I bought it years ago for a tablet. Took a piece of paper and traced out the equinox control pod front as a template. Then I cut a piece best I could that would fit over the entire front, or most of it anyway. Managed to have just enough to cover the screen and buttons. So far that is working like a charm. Really cut down on the glare problem so many speak of. Had no trouble seeing the screen today.

To each their own I reckon. Any day out detecting is better than staying indoors due to cold and rain! I like finding coins and whenever I can get out that is a good hunt. Hunt whatever you can whenever you can. The Equinox is a great machine.

I think at this point it should work out for me. When I got the EQ600 earlier this year it was the first time I'd detected in over a decade. After spending a fair amount of time with metal detectors this year and actually getting out there, do believe I can learn an Equinox now. One thing I do know though, after having the little 6" DD coil with the 600, I don't think it will be something I buy again. I have the T2SE for cherry picking shallower finds with a small coil. When you get to a point you can even find a small rivet the size of a BB down to 4 inches I fail to see a reason in buying the 6" coil for the Equinox. The Equinox's mission will be to find deeper things I've been missing in adverse ground conditions. It will also be the detector I use anytime I suspect there is a chance of rain!

I appreciate it. The 800 should give me enough wiggle room with the tone pitch settings to get it more agreeable with my caveman brain and ears. The T2SE isn't going anywhere. Matter of fact I just ordered a Cors Scout for it. Already have another lower rod to put that coil in. Once the 800 arrives I can charge it up and begin playing with it. Will probably be week after next before I get it. Have to ship my ORX out to be inspected and have it deemed "good" towards the 800 as a trade. I'm not worried about that step because it has been well taken care of. Not a scratch on anything, other than a nick or two on coil cover. Never seen water beyond on a rag to wipe off the coil after a hunt. Always kept a cover over the control unit too.

Really appreciate all the responses. I've already boxed up my XP ORX and will be sending that out for a trade towards the EQ800. We always take a loss in these doings, and I really like the ORX but facts are facts. The Equinox 800 is a better machine in a lot of ways. This awful soil I'm running into is something that must be dealt with. Why not throw all you can at it? That's my plan. There is one place in particular I feel still has some goodies to give up and hunting with the EQ800 is going to be fun, even in the cold! This go round I'm giving it all my attention, and think it will be enjoyable to have more things to fiddle with vs the 600. Like I told my wife, we do not have anything right now that is really good for beach conditions or waterproof. Do not plan to submerge the control unit but those summer showers (the misty ones) have ran me off.. Not anymore!

Thanks to everyone responding so far. As many have said before there is no perfect detector. Not expecting perfection by any means. Admittedly most of the problem is with me I believe. Many have talked about how long it takes to get good with the Equinox, and I probably spent less than 20 hrs total with the 600. That isn't quite a fair shake. There were other factors involved with it also- the first 6" coil I purchased for it was bad out of the box and Minelab replaced it. The shaft was a bit wobbly also. And the audio. I've used more detectors since then and had more time out in the field. Will that change things with another Equinox and me? Maybe so. Still thinking about it. I will say that I have a good price on it from Digger's Den. Brian is a really nice guy and took a lot of time with me yesterday on the phone. Whatever I do, whatever I decide to buy, it's going to come from him.

I appreciate your input sir. That is a question for sure, and will not know unless I try the 800. The biggest thing I've gathered so far and also been told in person is how the Equinox is better in our kind of soil (the horrible red clay monster soil) due to there being multiple frequencies at work. For sure the T2 is my favorite with its tones and the ID, but being truthful when I hit a spot of that red clay monster dirt it is really not much good against it and that is with smaller coil. The T2 is one heck of a slayer on coins though down to reasonable depths, granted the red monster clay is not a variable. I like the ORX, and it may come down to me getting the 800 and keeping the ORX. Still trying to decide.

Ok.. I've encountered some really tough ground conditions in a lot of areas that I hunt regularly. We are talking the red dirt with little shiny particles all in it that also has iron mixed in. My Teknetics T2 struggles in it. My ORX struggles but will fish things out if you can stand the machine gun blips. I keep reading that the Equinox is more suited to deal with this. Now, I tried an Equinox 600 and found it to also cut up on certain plots of land, and the particular one I had was really horrible in iron. The tones also played tricks on my ears and I found the bleepity bling like sounds to confuse my caveman brain. The ORX has been a decent detector for me, and helped me rehabilitate myself after a car accident this year. However the tones in it are so close together that my ears can not often discriminate high from mid tone. There is no way to adjust it. Let's fast forward to today. The Equinox 600 does not have the adjustability of the 800 concerning tones, or at least that is my understanding. I walked away from my Equinox 600 ticked off that I could not seemingly bond with it. In my mind there was a single thought - how much better would the 800 be? For those of you that have especially used the XP ORX or the Teknetics T2 and also used an Equinox 800 I'm asking you, does the Equinox 800 do better in contaminated soil than my current 2? It is possible I will trade the XP ORX towards the EQ800. Would that be a "step-up" in capabilities? I've always found this forum and the people here honest and fair with no BS. So I ask you, would it be worth the extra money, hassle and such to truly give the Equinox 800 a chance even though I had a 600 and it didn't quite suit me. It is entirely possible the 600 I had may have had a fault of some type for all I know. And what of depth with the EQ800 vs the XP ORX? Reaching out to everyone in the know.

The problem with this time of the year is the wind. I can deal with temps in the low 40's without wind if the sun is out. But when the wind is blowing 5-15 mph or higher, that cuts me out. To make matters worse the sun was not out much the last hunt. I like the ORX more than I did. It has some tricks up its sleeve. But it is not perfect. No detector is. With the ORX I would like to see another mechanism to kick in the pinpoint function. It is a concentration breaking time killer. I'm also not pleased with the ID on it all the time. It is ok, and gives you an idea but I've grown accustomed to the Teknetics T2 numbers. It's very difficult to jump from one detector to another when they are so different. I've used the T2 far more than I have the ORX, and very familiar with the ID on the T2. From the beginning the ORX ID numbers really did not make me happy. That has not changed. Pretty much the rules I follow with it are simple. Do not dig anything from 0-60. 61-63 dig. 67-69 dig. 70's have rarely given me anything but junk, every now and then a chewed up stinking lincoln cent. 80-84 are ok for clad. 85-86 is getting bottlecaps. 88 up to 94 are better things. 95 and up have been a crapshoot for me too. In other countries the entire spectrum of ID may be more beneficial to dig, but around here so far the things above ring true. My sites are mostly modern sites consisting of school playgrounds, school grounds, and every now and then an older home site. I do not have what is considered "good sites" to hit when compared to what I see some of the people on the forums going to. For me, the thrill is in finding silver coins and items. I'd love some gold and do at times dig iffy signals or zones gold could be in and every time I get poop in return. Not so much confidence in the ORX as simply adapting to what it can and can't do. The wild fleeting thought has crossed my mind about the Deus and how much better it may be. I've read bundles on it but it also seems to be a detector that requires a lot of time investment and has so many settings that without meaning to you could actually hurt your chances of finding something. Things like the plot screen fascinate me about that unit. I hear people talk about how fast the Teknetics T2 is, but after using it and the ORX must admit it simply does not compare in a really iron littered site. The ORX beats it every time on pure processing speed and power. NOW, if I could just get the ID numbers from the T2 and combine that with the speed and power of the ORX, add in the flexible frequencies like the ORX has, and find a weight somewhere in between them both- that would be about perfect. Until then they both serve a very different purpose for me. The T2 with the small coil is a cherry picker, it is my first unit to hit on chip bark tot lots, small play areas and the such. Have learned the ID's so well on the T2 can usually call it before I dig it. Where it struggles are when the ground is contaminated with iron within the dirt itself, not man-made iron objects. It will cut up so bad in that you can't hunt. The ORX is different and can handle such ground BUT it comes at a price, YOUR EARS and SANITY. A lot of work to pull things out of such a spot like the one in this post. I've heard this type of behavior before but did not realize T2's weakness in it until last weekend after the ORX at least gave me a chance and did find coins in the exact same spot my T2 simply iron grunted itself and me to death in. Never thought I would say this, but would like to see how an Equinox 800 would have dealt with that spot of ground. Had an EQ600 and simply did not mesh with it. It was very erratic most of the time in places I've since took the T2 and ORX, and those 2 produced items where the EQ600 did not. With the Equinox what messes with me the most are the tone pitches and the bleepity blop zingy flute music. My brain simply doesn't have enough australian in it evidentally to fully comprehend what it is trying to say. The ID was also a bit weird for my liking. But do not fault anyone that loves them. It works for them and I'm just pissed off it never worked out for me.. and that is brutal honesty.

I wonder why they didn't tap into a higher core unit with higher operating range. "For a few dollars more" Come to think of it, if they spent $5 more dollars per processor then they would raise consumer price by $100.

It rained 90% of the day here yesterday and all night. Hard at times. This morning came and the sun was out. Wind blowing and 42 degrees. Annoyed that the rain kept me from detecting yesterday and foaming at the mouth to run a detector over some ground.. I hit a nearby school I've been to a few times this year. Most of the easier finds are gone there and the T2 with small coil went quiet on the last hunt. Seemed like a good test for the ORX! So out I went today on a pre-planned short hunt to that school. Immediately upon arrival and turning on the machine I was getting major EMI/RFI at 14.8 khz (My usual search frequency on the 9" HF coil). Tried lowering sensitivity and still the same chatter, Tried changing frequency in the same band (13-15) with no change. Luckily the ORX has more frequencies than that! So I put it in 26.6 and the noise immediately went away. Jacked up the sensitivity to 90 and off we went. The ground was completely saturated with water. The first signal I received ended up being a dime down at 5 inches. The amount of muck and actual water in the hole was terrible. I hunted this chip bark spot a little bit longer and walked away with another dime and 2 pennies. I could hear other things in the ground, but they were coming back as foil or can slaw. Admittedly I've not used the higher frequencies much because in my air tests they are not as hot on silver and light up aluminum pretty bad but today it was either use them or don't hunt that site. Glad I learned a lesson today! So I moved to another area that is used as playground there (no chip bark just grass and dirt). Immediately the iron grunts and machine gun fire audio began. Through that barrage of active minerals and junk I picked up high tone. Sure enough dug down and found another dime. Continued on and located 4 nickels, 3 quarters, another dime, some corroded pennies and intact copper ones. Tough detecting conditions, but I see the ORX has the right stuff to sift through that mess if my brain and ears can stand it. The more I use the ORX the more it surprises me. It is a very sensitive unit yet can and does reveal masked targets that are worth digging. Do not be afraid to use the ORX in awful conditions. I am nowhere near proficient with it yet but getting better every time I take it out. You really have to slow down on your sweep speed, even at 2.5 reactivity. If you do that, the ORX can sniff out the good between masking garbage and horrible soil. It does take patience and the brain with your ears has to adjust. Once that connection is made though things you missed before can be heard. It's hard explain in words. Some things I have learned today about the ORX- 1)Do not be afraid to use higher frequencies, and in my case the conditions forced me to use higher. 2) Even at sensitivity lower than 80 the ORX goes plenty deep, especially when there is a lot of moisture in the ground.. 3)I've yet to dig anything with the ORX in the VDI 70-75 range that is worth fooling with. 4) The spots you would think have nothing to give you (because you ran other detectors over it before), those are the ones to hit with the ORX. The ORX is a good detector to use when the others you use have gotten quieter or silent at places. Take the ORX and you will find something if there is anything at all left. Really impressed with the abilities it has to find things. It does take time though and I can't express that strongly enough. You must put in the time with it and not get frustrated. The ORX does speak somewhat of a different language but what it can uncover for you makes up for the time investment. A wee bit of work in learning it and deciphering through the sounds of a horrible site but in my case the other detector I have would have been a no-go there today. Settings today- Disc 6.5 and disc 7.0, 26.6khz, sensitivity 75-90, iron vol on, reactivity 2 and 2.5 (2.5 was most productive at this site). Sweep speed reduced by 50% helped find the goodies between junk.

I watched the video Phrunt. Only a couple times have I seen my T2 act like that where the numbers are going beserk. Normally F3 works best for me. When I do have it go beserk its because of my pinpointer. Putting it in F3 now has became a habit and it takes away that weirdness. I took my wedding ring off a couple nights ago and brought it close enough to the coil to get a response. I held it perfectly still and could hear audible "chatter" like I was halfway in pinpoint mode. I thought there had to be motion to get audio but obviously not. I tried another coil on the T2 and same weird thing. I notice my display part on the handle seems to flex a little too. Guess that is normal. So I tried the same thing with my ring on the ORX. It did it too! So my guess is these things are so sensitive that gold ring even though not moving, creates some sort of mini antenna for EMI in the air. I was in my house doing these tests and do have Wifi and a number of things running. Still, an interesting little test.

Yes, I have offered for them to go along but they chose not to. I met the owner of the land near 18 yrs ago where I worked at the time. Over the years even though I left that workplace the permission stuck. I now work with his brother during certain times of the year. So it seems I'm somewhat connected with them. The last time I hunted the site was probably around 2005-2006. In the past I hit the same area with a Tesoro Bandido II, Tesoro Cortes, Garrett GTAx550(my wife used that one), and a Minelab Explorer XS. This time my Teknetics T2SE with a Cors Shrew coil and XP ORX. The last couple sites I've hunted have been tremendously noisy with the T2. I'm beginning to wonder about it really. We have had a lot of rain in a short amount of time, and it appears that MAY be a factor but I am not sure yet. The XP ORX has also been better behaved at both those sites. It's noisy too but seems to deal with it better. Lots of iron objects in the ground, with dark rich dirt that changes over to the type of red dirt with lots of sparkles in it (red clay with gold flakes within). It seems anytime I get around the red clay type mineral rich ground and if it is wet things do not go well with the T2. ORX handles it better but not perfect. So have my eye on the T2 at this point in time and wondering if it may be something a little wrong.

I have spoke with the family that owns the land, and their grandfather had a brother that was in WW1. I will be giving this find to them. It's their history, not mine.

I cleaned it a bit more then took this picture.

Thank you for the answers

It is slightly smaller than a dime.

I hit a site today that I had hunted many years ago and asked if it was still ok. I found this button. The color is golden in most areas. on the back of the button there is writing. It says "M.C. LILLEY & Co. O. COLUMBUS" best I can tell. I'm afraid to clean it too much for fear of damaging it. Found with my Teknetics T2SE and Cors Shrew in a very iron contaminated site. Also found old square nails too. While I will not tell specifically where I found this, the place was a Farm since 1854.