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Page 48 of Equinox 600 / 800 manual I have highlighted. I am not sure what they are saying here? Tying to absorb all these settings and still not there yet.

My first time nugget hunting with my Equinox 800 - full story here:

I was hunting today with a rain/dust cover on the Nox, in 100-101 degree temps with the sun directly overhead. After 20 minutes my audio starts cutting out and sounding erratic. I notice my screen is looking bizarre, as you can see, every icon was lit up and there was no way to see a VDI at all. My first thought was the cover was acting like a greenhouse and causing the housing to overheat. After about 10-15 minutes of taking it off, things began to look normal once again, within 30 minutes, completely back to normal. I have a Zagg cover on the screen, so, no dust cover for my machine during the summer months.

Steve Herschbach, do you know if Minelab reads this forum? I wonder what we could do with all the information on our observed issues. Some of them probably could be fixed by a firmware update - like the pinpoint audio for example. Or is there any official way to report such things?

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!

Instead it was a Gucci! My first one. A couple of days ago we had some low tides and it was time to get out. When I say get out I mean at 4 AM with my light on my cap. There are a few beaches you have to get to when the tide is low and BEFORE someone else. This was one of those mornings. When I get there I head directly to the wet sand and the spots where I've found stuff before. This pattern I repeated the other morning and I got a strong target on the Nox about 2 minutes in to the hunt. I was in Beach 1 just about standard settings. When I heard the target it sounded like a quarter (30) and then a little bit higher (31,32). The only targets I have heard this high have been the miniature cars and cell phones. This had to be a cell phone. I have a big scoop with an 8" diameter and the first couple of half scoops didn't get it. It was still chirping at me. I was now down 8" and it was one of those broad signals. Got'a be a cell phone. I had to set the Nox down and dig with two hands and I flipped out the dirt and the target was out of the hole but no cell phone. I pushed the mud around with my boot and I saw silver! This is the heaviest silver ring I've found so far. It is a Gucci Bamboo that weighs 18.4 grams at 10-12 inches and I think it could have seen it deeper. Mitchel

Since there seems to be a few questions about these waterproof Minelab phones and since I stepped up to get a pair so I can snorkel, I'd like to tell about my experiences with them and what I've had to do to make them workable in normal hunting conditions. First off, I've used underwater detectors such as Aquasound, CZ-21, Sand Shark, ATX, Excal, CTX and now the Equinox. Out of that list, only the CTX and Equinox gave me problems underwater.....due to the inadequate headphones Minelab sells for underwater use. For the CTX I used yellows, 2 different GG Amphibians a set of OBN's audiosear headsets and a similar pair of HR Headphones. Hands down the audiosear phones work best on Minelabs but sadly will eventually die from water exposure over time..... The GG ampbians worked good but I had problems with the volume adjust knob corroding on one pair and a piezo assembly that leaked and corroded on the other.....both were reworked with Audiosear speakers. The Minelab yellows don't use an adequately sized Piezo to give the needed volume and the plastic on the Koss earpieces is thin and allows to much ambient noise into the ear. On a windy day the surf and the wind will keep you from hearing your machine. I don't have the best hearing BUT I don't need hearing aids. The Aquasound, CZ-21, Sand Shark, ATX, Excal could blow your ears off with stock headphones (Garrett blues for the ATX). So, to help the inadequate yellow Minelabs, I took them apart and used flowable Silicon windshield sealant to coat the inside of the yellow earcups for ambient noise sound deadening, also I taped over the vent and drain holes (to be removed when snorkeling). In addition I then installed gel earpads on the phones. Doing all this has actually made the phones usable on a windy day and I'm sure will help underwater some too. It is sad that Minelab has continued to use the same phones that were used on the Excal II. I am not an engineer but I'm willing to bet that the audio driver is more robust on the Excal II than on both the CTX and Equinox.....why not put out something that will work without using MAX volume on the machine? Cliff

Took my Equinox 800 out to play today . I went to a local Tot lot since it should be almost empty...it was . Found a bunch of clad, first find was a dime, then another dim. I got a solid 13 on it was double hitting, move the sand and there was a nickel....all in all I think I got about 1.77 in clad but I am getting better and ID with sounds...would here it , then look for what I thought it should be....still learning but having fun too....

hello friends, yesterday was a very nice day with very good finds. Despite the presence of hot rocks in the soil, which gave me a lot of false signals, I made a ground balance on such a stone and things were fine, there were false signals again, but they were recognizable very easily. VDI numbers jump over different ranges, and when I pass the coil over the fake object at 360 degrees, the color signal disappears and only the iron remains, so I divide it and avoid it. I found two silver coins that lifted my adrenaline. for European boys who go to Roman fields, do not avoid ID 6 to 10 because the ancient metal and coin sizes give different numbers when they have a lot of patina and a smaller size give low numbers. I am very pleased with NOX, I keep going. Greetings

Time to do some serious spring cleaning this weekend so I am unlikely to get out detecting much. For those shut ins like me here is a discussion point: We know that MultiIQ is the heart and soul of the Equinox. It is more than just multifrequency. It determines the "personality" and behavior of each mode. Enables Ground Balancing on both mineralized and salt dominated environments. Is essential to the Iron Bias feature (Iron Bias is disable when in single frequency), and you can't even operate in either Beach mode in single frequency. So that begs the question, when shifting to single frequency in Park or Field mode (leaving Gold mode out of this discussion because it is a different animal altogether with its VCO audio, dedicated threshold settings, and single freqs limited to 20 and 40) does it really matter what mode you are in at that point? Does the detector essentially become mode independent at that point because you have lost the MultiIQ personality other than the disc, tone breakpoint, and recovery settings you have specified? Interestingly, the manual states that you should noise cancel any time you change the frequency setting. That tells me that the noise cancel process is conducted using single frequency as well as multifrequency (consistent with the given mode) depending on whether you are in multi or single. Finally, the manual never explicitly says, but I also wonder whether GB is also conducted in single frequency if you GB while the detector is in single frequency. That would make more sense than the detector shifting back to multi when you GB but who knows. What I do know is that you would lose some of the abilities that MultiIQ provides in compensating for a less than ideal GB so it would be prudent to also do a GB if you switch to single. This is meant to encourage detector nerd like discussion and thoughts because some good information about how to better utilize the detector in single frequency may come of it. Since a lot of this is speculation, let's keep the emotions and "right vs. wrong" type discussions to a minimum. Unless you can cite a specific "truth" in the manual or the laws of physics, everyone should get the benefit of the doubt about their thoughts and opinions on the subject. Talk about how you might best utilize single frequency mode given its known limitations (e.g., we know about junk target interrogation, maximizing depth high conductors using 5 khz (provided noise does not become an issue) or sifting for shallow jewelry mid-conductors at 20/40khz, and as a last ditch effort to counter EMI if all else fails in MultiIQ). Have at it. HH (to those who ARE getting out)

I detected a couple parks this weekend for a total of about 5 hours. One of the parks I have found a gold men's band at before. This time I found a class ring. While it's not gold (Lustrium), it's still special. It rang up a strong 3-4. I Googled the person's name which was in the inside of the ring and was able to track him down. He lives out of state but has family close by. Glad to be able to get it back to the owner. He could not believe that it was found after so many years. He was a 2009 graduate. Park 1, 50 tone, recovery 7, GB, and tracking on. The earring and other ring are silver.

Yesterday, I used my APTX LL headphones exclusively for the first time during a 90 minute hunt with my 600. + sign indicating paired LL was active and all working well. What I found though was that the Low Latency lag of 40ms is still quite noticeable, and slows down recovery of finds. Maybe I'm oversensitive to lag, but there is clearly a difference between wired direct (or speaker), and APTX LL. Having to backtrack for a signal that was just heard, and finding that exact spot again is a little frustrating when I'm used to instantly seeing the position of the coil when hearing the detector signal on wired HP's or on speaker. Waggling is also slightly different. The hands-free, wire-free benefit is certainly good and convenient, but for me, it just didn't feel right at 40ms lag. At this point, I will probably NOT use LL headphones except when it is absolutely necessary for whatever reason. I think that the WM08 that will come with my 800 will likely be a much better solution, with a 17ms Lag vs 40ms with LL. Certainly, the LL's are a big step beyond 100ms BlueTooth, but still not "just right". As for the LL Headphones...I own the ArchMage SoundClean9's ($45 at Amazon), and they are really nice, comfortable, and sound great. They have a 50 hour operational capacity following a full 4-hour charge. They fit my big head, even over a Minelab baseball cap. There are a lot of "Pro's" about these headphones, but also a few cons that will be found in other headphones as well. Hunting in high temperature, high humidity areas like Florida, I am concerned about the longevity and durability of the ear cushions as they are saturated by salty sweat while hunting in the field. I think the only real solution is pure rubber cushions, which would obviously not be as comfortable. Not sure if any manufacturer has a real solution for this problem. The ArchMage headphones controls are well located, and they work well, but are not raised and palpable without knowing exactly where they are while wearing the headphones. Not that big a deal, but raised buttons would have been a better design. I do really like the headphones, and may use them wired in cooler conditions when warranted, without APTX...just direct. So...this is all just my own $.02. Others may differ...but most importantly, this is my 200th post on this forum, and now I'm SILVER!!! ?

Just curious about the reason for owning two Equinox machines. I've read, on several forums, that a number of Nox owners are buying two. If you have one, why would you need two? Thanks in advance for your replys.

Went out to a local freshwater beach on the Colorado River , was full of folk this weekend.... Got there at day break...was already 8 folks hunting , I took my place on the beach. I found 5 pennies , 2 dimes and 2 sinkers plus 3 metal tent pegs . Still learning but I am getting able to tell bottle caps from coins and pull tabs . If it beeps I still dig it but I try to ID what I am about to dig. Hardest thing to find was 2 split-shot sinkers as they was the same color as some of the gravel. I am learning , finding stuff , but learning. Does anyone have problems with sand getting in between the coil and cover....how to fix it ????

First off, these issues are real, but they are not common to all Equinox, only some of them. Some people are reporting excessive play or slop when the rod twist locks are twisted all the way down. This is not normal. Mine and most others are quite firm when the twist locks are in the full tightened position. There are some early units which apparently are not made to spec. Minelab is aware of this, and if your rod is excessively loose or wobbly when the twist locks are fully engaged, then units can and have been repaired under warranty. Contact Minelab if you are having an issue with excessive rod play. I have seen a couple people complain about excessive flex in the lower rod when swinging the coil. Honestly, I just don’t get this one. I normally run my rod in the last locked position, fully extended. If find the rod assembly to be quite normal with minimal rod flex at most. I hate loose rod connections and I hate excessive rod flex, and mine exhibits neither of these issues to any degree that I find objectionable. The issue with twist locks being loose is a known problem. Excessive lower rod flex however is not, and could only come about if there are lower rods out there that are not as stiff as mine is. Not impossible, but I am a bit more doubtful on this particular issue. If anyone has a unit with what the consider to be excessive lower rod flex, a video demonstrating the issue would be good. I am guessing perhaps the two problems are one and the same, and people complaining of excessive rod flex may actually have issues with the twist locks being loose.

Will Minelab roll out a fix for depth reading problem?

Steve (and everyone), I might have missed it, but are you mainly hunting in 50 tones then? Thanks...

I received my E800 on 1/15/18 but only have a few hours on it. Today I found a ring marked WH 825 (82.5% silver I am presuming). If anyone has any information or seen a similar ring I would appreciate the feedback. I also found 2 quarters, 5 dimes & 14 pennies, all clad. I'm definitely happy so far with the Equinox. I was using Park 1 and all preset settings. I have attached 3 photos of the ring.

I wonder never seen a comparison test, where all 4 programs are adjusted exactly the same ? I imagine a testbeed with different deept and with different targets, so the only differencies are the frequencies, which we don't know ! Which program goes deepest ?

I have not bought a Nox yet and only have minimal time on a friends machine but have seen what it can do along side me. It has impressed me as a relic/hammered coin hunter, I have seen a lot of deep targets of all sizes and conductivity come up, especially coins on edge that other detectors just missed, I am very impressed in that respect. Where I am not impressed at all is modern coin shooting. Euro coin hunting and in particular the VDI's produced in multi for a €2 coin conflicts with a a lot of modern junk. Unlike all other detectors I have used, including the CTX, in multi, the VDI for a €2 coin is 15/16, crown caps are producing the same VDI and even worse still square pull tabs of beer cans, like Heineken cans produce the same 15/16 VDI. Most festivals over here are sponsored by Heineken lol. This was observed in Park1/Field1, in Park2/Field2 things seam to only get worse. Using the Nox in 5khz helps where crown caps rise up to 28/30 and the €2 rises up to 20/21 and every thing stays the same. Problem solved, well no, in 5khz you cant tell the difference between a 10c euro coin and €2, thus a lot of time is wasted digging low value 10c coins when I could be concentrating on higher value coins apart from the fact that 5khz is not the optimal frequency for mid range conductors the Euro coins are. This might not be a problem for most people but as festival site hunting is a big part of my livelihood its a problem for me. Looks like I am stuck with the cute little French thing unless Minelab are planning to spread out the VDI range in a future date???? I have not done tests on UK £1/£2 coins yet but as they fall into the same range as Euro coins and they are bimetal, I can see problems as well. How are the park hunters in the US doing??

Yesterday was nice and warm at around 24 c and i heard that someone over a week ago lost a Gold ring in the sand and low tide but being the sand doesn't show till a bit under 1 m low tides i doubted i would find it but had to have a look anyway . I took the Nox on the Anderson shaft and took the Terra box and coil in the rucksack. I got to the beach not long after high tide and worked the tide out , it was very quiet . When the tide was out at around 4.30pm and i couldn't get onto the sand because of waves i gave up . I will search there again on a longer tide . With the Nox i had £5.62p and a 2 Euro coin . I then changed machines and did the tops , before doing so i checked to see if the Nox would work and yet again it wouldn't stay stable so that was that . I am thinking its all the people with Mobile phones and there is less chatter than if few people are about so Terra had to play . I changed over and went in for the kill hoping for plenty of fresh losses . But again this year is showing just like last year the rapid decline of cash . I found £13.53p and a 1 Euro but in past times i would have tripled that at least . I finished at 8.30pm after over 8 hours . My bald head and forearms were also red with Sunburn . Not sure what to do today "Monday" , might go later for low tide but not sure if it will be worth taking the Nox . The weather is warm again although there is threat of thunderstorms but i dont care about that . I am going to have to find some new beaches , with coin hunting getting harder and my beaches tending not to be the best for Gold i will have to travel further . Will see what the Summer brings on my local beaches for the next month first.

Today I got a 10 - 12 signal with iron and mid tones mixed, sure sounded like a bottle cap. Typically I'll dig a scoop to try and determine if it is a bottle cap by how and if the signal changes. . After 1 scoop all I had in the hole was an iron tone. I decided to look in the scoop and there was the mid tone.....3 grams of PD 950 with tiny diamonds.....pretty blue main stone. Pretty amazing how this machine can see a good target around the iron. Be careful on those bottle cap signals!

Thursday I went out to a Southern California gold location with a couple of friends. The intention was to prospect hard all day but things didn't work out quite that way. We did get a chance to hunt on an old patch that had raked hills and then another area where a quartz stringer had been chipped at many years ago. My friends attacked the raked hills which they thought had been detected with GB2s. They had 7000s. (I had my 7000 with me but I wanted to swing something different!) I started out on some of the same little hills but quickly tired of nothing good and I headed for some areas that had not been raked. We spent about an hour at this location and we were about to leave when I got a signal on my 800. It was a 1. I did a bit of a foot scrape and pick scrape and it was still there. This time it was not foil. I scrapped a bit more and was encouraged by its depth of 4 inches. I came upon a piece of quartz and got it out of the way and the signal was gone. I swung and the signal was in the quartz but the rock was dirty. I put it in my pouch with the other trash. It weighs about a pound and a half. We left. About 2 hours later we stopped at another place to explore and I had time to pour some bottled tea on the quartz. I looked and tested and my friend had a loop and he said it is definitely gold. I looked and sure enough it is. I haven't been able to do a specific gravity test on it yet but I don't think there is much gold. Upon further testing the 7000 can see it from about 15 inches above on an air test and the 800 can see it about 8 inches. There are a couple of more dense masses in it somewhere but I'm just glad the 800 could see it. I was in Gold 1. Mitchel

After being tied up last weekend, I was finally able to get out into the hills with the Equinox today, and decided to spend some time fine-tuning the settings on the Gold Search Mode. I also decided to give max sensitivity a go on the mildly mineralized areas and, while it made the Nox quite sparky, I had no problem sorting out the various noises and homing in on the gold. While gridding a small area that has been hit hard with various VLFs, the Equinox hit a solid, repeatable target that read 1-2 on the display - right in the small nugget range. Upon recovering the target, I found that it was indeed a small nugglet. ? I checked the dig hole before backfilling it and still heard a nice, crisp 1-2; a little more digging and BOOYAH: another golden goodie! This process went on 3 more times, for a total of 5 pieces of gold out of the one hole...I like it when that happens! And just inches away, the EQX snagged 2 more nugglets. Needless to say, I’m astounded by the performance of this machine at locating some pretty tiny gold. Total weight 0.38 of a gram:

I’d text Rob yesterday if he had heard anything on the 6” coil for our Nox . I know not everyone is waiting on this coil like myself. Rob’s reply that he has yet to hear a word if and when it will be available. I was surfing the net and up pop Kellco stating they taking pre-orders on said coil with the price set at 179.00. I guess no I don’t guess I know I’ll stay with dealers I’ve known for years. Chuck