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With all of the talk about the Manticore, Deue II and Legend, I thought I would take out my old Equinox and see if the poor outdated detector could find anything. Son of a gun, it still works. Yes that's sarcasm. I hadn't been to the parks in many many months with my Equinox so I decided to hit an old LA park Sunday morning just for fun. While I didn't hit anything great, I was reminded of what a truly exceptional detector the Equinox is. Its separation with the stock coll in high trash is just astonishing. I hunted a slope by an old merry-go-round in Griffith Park, a spot that has been hit and hit and hit and hit for many years. It is literally a carpet of low conductors. If you want do dig 15's through 18's all day let me know and I'll send you the GPS coordinates. Despite all of this trash i was able to pull out over two bucks in long-burined, dirty clad, including a 1951S Wheatie. It was really fun and I just love the way that the Equinox can see through the trash. The only downer for me was that I couldn't pull one single nickel despite digging a ton of 13's. This slope had a lot of a certain type of old pull tab that read a solid 13 with good tone and they fooled me every time. Anybody else run into these buggers? In summing up, I'll just say that I'm interested in these new machines just like everybody else. But this hunt reminded me of what a special detector the Equinox is and personally I am in no hurry to send it to the closet. Bill

Morning y'all, I know we are all at least mildly interested in seeing what new functions or upgrades the folks at Minelab might be cooking up for the Nox line; any idea if we can expect a fourth summer update, or do we think 3.0 was the final? If we get a fourth, what do you think might change? Interested to hear everyone's thoughts as many of you are much smarter than I am when it comes to what is possible or probable in this field.

Its been 40 years since I swung a detector. The last 3 months have been a blast. Met lots of nice people, hunted a couple of un-touched sites, and hauled a few nice coins out of the ground. Nothing terribly old. This area off northern Alberta was mostly settled in the 1930's. Some highlights include an 1899 English penny (an odd find for this area), 1922 nickel, 1935 cent, two 1943 tombac nickels, a few George V silvers, a 1954 dime (a bit of a key date), and a bunch of pre 1960 silver. The 1948 bronze chauffeur's badge was a nice artifact. Winter's here. Time to pack up the Nox 600, catalog some coins, and start gathering permissions for next Spring. There are a couple of circa 1910 sites that look promising... Cheers!

The ears on my 15x12'' coil for the Equinox have finally broken off.. I knew they were a weak point but I'm surprised at how long they lasted, nearly 3 years of daily grind on the beach and in the sea.. I'm really impressed with the old workhorse rather than disappointed.. I'll chalk it up to wear and tear.. 😕

First let me mention I'm a total newbie (except playing with cheap "toy" metal detectors in my childhood). I want a good (or the best) all around detector, mostly for treasure hunting (finding old coins/jewelry and maybe some small gold nuggets if possible). I want to choose a detector that I can live with for many years without outgrowing or having to many technical issues with. I only want one, and I'm not planning in investing in another one for at least 8-10 years. I have read about all the models above and came up with these three as they seem to fit the bill. I actually went to a shop and tried the Equinox 800 and the Deus II. Ergonomically the Deus II felt way better than the Equinox 800, but the Equinox 800 seems easier to operate and maintain (magnetic charger, only one device to charge). Battery replacement when/if the battery goes bad is easy on the Equinox. Not so much on the Deus II. To me it seems a hassle to charge both the main unit and the coil. And it seems a little iffy to change battery in the coil (involving knife and glue). I don't know about the main unit. Is it possible to swap the battery in it by yourself? In many videos I have watched, the Deus II seems to react quicker and also have better depth than the Equinox 800. I am a bit confused now which one I should get. Then there's the upcoming Manticore (a little too pricy, but if it's that much better than any of the other two I'll still consider it). In the shop I actually got an offer to swap in the Equinox 800 for a Manticore when it becomes available without loosing too much money if I choose to upgrade. Didn't get that offer on the Deus II. To summarize it: Deus II: Pros: 1. It felt sooo good in the hand - like driving a fancy expensive car 2. Seems quicker, might go deeper? 3. User upgradable firmware adding modes and fixing things Cons: 1. I'm worried about the batteries life span and charging hassle 2. Doesn't seem to find as small objects as the Equinox? 3. Seems harder to configure if you're a newbie Equinox 800: Pros: 1. Easier to maintain. One magnetic cable to charge it. Nothing more. Easier to swap out the battery if it goes bad. 2. Better at finding smaller objects? 3. Easier to configure for a newbie? Cons: 1. After testing the Deus II, it didn't feel right in the hand. Like going from that fancy expensive car to an old used cheap car. 2. It's older tech than the Deus II I guess, might still be as good or better? 3. Read about leaking water and cracking at the charing port. Is this a real problem? And the Manticore isn't released yet, so I guess it's hard to know how it performs? Will it solve all the cons I've listed for the Equinox 800 and get some pros from the Deus II? So right now my choices are: 1. Get the Equinox 800 right now and play around with it for 1-2 months, getting a feel for it. If I like it I'll keep it. If not I'm upgrading to the Manticore and hoping it will be a better experience. 2. Get the Deus II and be stuck with it (not gonna even check out the Manticore as I won't get a good deal upgrading it). Which route should I go and why? Am I wrong about my pros/cons list?

Being laid up after surgery for another 4 weeks I got bored and thought I would do some comparison air tests between the current big three SMF VLFs and the excellent XP ORX. So Deus 2, ORX, Legend and Equinox 800 were air tested outdoors in a low EMI environment using settings that I have used in moderate to high mineralization. These are not settings that will give the absolute best depth on these targets during an air test. So please don't suggest a reactivity of 0 or 1 for instance since that would be unrealistic in the areas I hunt. So would maxing out the Audio Response on Deus 2. I also can't do anything about the 6" vs 9" coil size discrepancy....... These are settings that actually work in the real world in tough gold prospecting areas where many of these smaller targets will actually give target IDs that are in the iron range or even at the very bottom of the iron range depending on depth. So think of them as conservative settings that can be pushed a little bit to gain an extra quarter of an inch. The simultaneous multi frequency setting on the Legend and Equinox will absolutely out perform the selectable single frequency settings on those two detectors as far as being able to ground balance better, handle hot rocks and magnetite better, and run more on the edge. It is just the opposite on Deus 2..........The ORX is a solid performer and does really well even though it is just selectable single frequency. Just for reference, I remember finding some of these nuggets with the ORX and with the Equinox 800. The depths those targets were found at were within .5" of these air test results. So think of these results as the best possible depths in mild soil using the selectable single frequency settings and subtract a bit for higher mineralization. As for the SMF results, they are very realistic even in high mineralization. XP Deus 2 Settings Goldfield: Square Wave VCO, disc IAR=0, Sensitivity =95, Iron Vol. =3, Reactivity =2 or 2.5, Audio Response =4, Threshold=6 Mono with Pitch Tone Square Wave: disc. =-6.4, Sensitivity =95, Frequency =45.4 kHz, Iron Vol.=3, Reactivity =2 or 2.5, Audio Response =4, Threshold=6 XP ORX Settings Fine Gold: PWM VCO, disc IAR=0, Sensitivity =95, Frequency = 54 kHz, Iron Vol. =On, Reactivity =2 or 2.5, Threshold =4 Nokta Legend Settings Goldfield: VCO, disc. =A for All targets accepted, Sensitivity =25, Frequency =Multi, Recovery Speed= 4 or 5, Iron Bias =1, Threshold =6 Goldfield: VCO, disc. =A for All targets accepted, Sensitivity = 25, Frequency = 40 kHz, Recovery Speed= 4 or 5, Iron Bias =1, Threshold= 6 Equinox 800 Settings Gold 2: VCO, disc.=All targets accepted, Sensitivity =20, Frequency=Multi, Recovery Speed =4 or 5, Iron Bias = F2 set at 0, Threshold =4 Gold 2: VCO, disc.= All targets accepted, Sensitivity =20, Frequency =40 kHz, Recovery Speed =4 or 5, Iron Bias= F2 set at 0, Threshold =4 I did test Equinox 800 in Park 2 with 2 tones set on Multi with the same settings for those that happen to have an Equinox 600. The results were very similar to Gold 2 Multi above minus .25 to .5" so as has been said by me and others, Park 2 and Field 2 are perfectly acceptable gold prospecting modes. US Mercury dime is for size reference.

If you hunted trashy parks 99% of the time, would you prefer the Equinox 6" coil, or the Coiltek 10 x 5? Im currently using the 6", and its great in my opinion. But I also hear good things about the 10 x 5 option as well. Additional depth is not really a concern, as the 6" is doing a great job on depth, in my opinion. Just wondering if the Coiltek 10" x 5" would unmask equally as well as the 6", but also allow me to cover a little more ground. Thoughts from those who have experience with both coils please....

Hello everyone, I often take my Equinox to the beach, and every time it reaches the shoulder depth, the main engine has leaked twice, but after two times Minelab could not replace the new main engine, I tried other brands, and finally came back to Equinox, I can't live without Equinox!! Do you have any good tips, or be prepared, more effective to prevent water entry!

I'm looking for opinions on the Minelab 6 inch vs the Coiltek 10x5 for my Nox 600. I search a lot of trashy and brushy sites. Anybody have any experience with both coils? Any opinions? Thanks.

Greetings from northern Alberta, Canada. This is my first post on this site. I used to detect back in the early 1980s with a Whites Coinmaster 5000. I decided, at the age of 64, to get back into the hobby, so I purchased an Equinox 600. I practiced using the detector on my old farm, and found a few coins from the 50's and 60's. The local area was only settled in the 1920s. In the last few weeks I've ventured out onto some local old properties (with the owners' permissions) and had some success. The most interesting coin I found so far is an 1899 English penny in an old school yard that was active from the 1930s to the late 50's. It's an odd coin to find in a small northern Canadian community, but it goes to show you never know what you're going to find! Interesting coins include: 1899 British penny, 1918 10 cent, 1915 US cent, 1922 5 cent, 1938 10 cent, 1946 25 cent, 1951 25 cent, 1943 tombac wartime 5 cent (x2), 1938 1 cent.

I started out today Detecting by myself on a rather large property. After about 1 hour I decided to call it quit's. A little discouraged, I figured I needed a partner who could help me out with this daunting piece of property. So I decided to try and find someone to give me a hand. I was looking for someone who had a fair amount of detecting experience and was proficient with the 800 and a Tesoro machine. I called everyone I could think of and they all were busy. So back to the house I went, As I pulled into the driveway I noticed a fellow detecting my yard !!!! What the hell, I ran over and confronted him. He reached out to shake my hand but something was wrong. Something was off. After a few minutes of banter I realized maybe this fellow could help me with the big property and maybe I should ask him to help me. After all I was desperate for help. He told me he has been detecting for many many years and was very good at detecting. He has a Tesoro umax and runs a Equinox 800. So what the hell I asked him to help out, He agreed but on one condition. He would help BUT he could only help till October 31st and then he had to leave. We shook hands (kinda) and off we went. HAPPY PRE HALLOWEEN ALL !!!!!!!!

Usually after a vacation I schedule one day after my return home to ready myself for the return to work. After hunting with Bob at Virginia Beach I really wanted to go to a park I have murdered the silver at, But the lawn needed mowing. I told my wife my plans and she said why don't you go detecting for a bit the lawn can wait ( damn I married a good women). I have hit this place hard for two years, me and my buddy have pulled over 100+ silver coins not including rings and charms out of the ground. I packed up the Tesoro silver u-max and the 800 and off I went. I always use the Tesoro for clean up so figuring finds were getting harder to find I started with it first. Quarters and dimes were on the found list, but nothing tone wise that peaked my hearing. I decided to check a place close to the parking lot and my truck. After a 100 yards I got a tone that was a touch different. I would have dug it straight up but there was a strange guy walking back and forth. Not sure what he was up to, so I walked a few hundred yards away. At this point the big coil was killing me and I decided head to the truck and swap to the 800. I fired up the 800 and went to my park 1 5khz program. I did pretty well on some pocket change and decided to roll back to the spot where the Tesoro tagged a good tone. The 800 said 28-29 with a nice tone, I was sure it was silver, but I've been fooled before. Well after digging I pulled a silver ring, not a fancy one but I'll take it. I decided to take a run at the other side of the park but was thwarted by blood thirsty mosquitoes and I forgot the Permethrin. After 10 minutes and a 100 bites later I was gone. I figure I can always make another trip. Overall I had a nice 4 hour hunt.

Does anyone have a source for these connectors? A 90 degree connector would seem to be best...either either soldered or screw attachment. I muffed my 15" coil today...just ordered a replacement, but I'd like to rebuild this perfectly good coil and have a 15" backup. I've found HIGO connectors, but I'm not sure about the screw collar size... The exterior diameter of the Minelab Equinox collar is 15 mm...the internal threads...maybe 12 mm...these appear to be larger than the HIGO "silver" connector.

Hello All. Has any one found a Platinum Ring with their Nox 800? If so how did it read on the scale. I will be searching for a Platinum Diamond Ring lost about 24 years ago. Thanks...

Here is my dynamic duo. If I had to own the least number of detectors possible myself, this is what I would settle on. I can basically do anything with these two detectors. Gold nuggets, coins, jewelry, relics, beach & snorkel work, you name it, this has it pretty well covered. You can argue some other detector might be better than one of these for this or that, and I'll not argue with anyone. But the Axiom plus my Micronox (trademark pending ) weigh in at a hair over 7 lbs total, and obviously take up next to no room in my rig. Various Micronox Options Here

..it finally arrived - happy like a little boy Will probably hit the beach with my son for some first tests this evening

Hi ,Has anyone heard if there is going to be another update for the Equinox?

This is an air test on small foil and gold. All mode settings, sensitivity 22, 2 tone, tone break 0, iron bias f2 0, recovery 4. All hits id 1. Park 1 foil, horse shoe on/off....... no hit gold, horse shoe off.......... no hit horse shoe on........... 3" __________________________________________________ Park 2 foil, horse shoe on/off....... 4 1/16" gold, horse shoe on/off....... 5 3/8" __________________________________________________ Field 1 foil, horse shoe off......... No hit horse on............... touching gold, horse shoe off......... No hit horse shoe on.......... 3" __________________________________________________ Field 2 foil, horse shoe off......... No hit horse shoe on.......... touching gold, horse shoe off......... No hit horse shoe on.......... 2 5/8" __________________________________________________ Beach 1 foil, horse shoe on/off...... No hit gold, horse shoe off......... No hit horse shoe on.......... 2 3/4" __________________________________________________ Beach 2 foil,horse on/off............ Hitting iron __________________________________________________ Gold 1 foil.......................... 2 3/4" gold.......................... 4 1/4" __________________________________________________ Gold 2 foil.......................... 3 1/4" gold.......................... 5" So Park 1 would be best for jewelry hunting on land. Kac you were right. Edit Reply Quote Report

Steve Have you ever heard of this problem and tell me if you think you know what it is... I have a Equinox 600 and I got vdi issues where I will be swinging the Detector hit a signal and then not want to dig that and keep swinging and it will show another vdi and then freezes up while I'm still swinging and then -- will show and then after six seconds or so 00 and then go again and same thing and I have turned sensitivity to 20, recovery speed 3 iron bias 2 and ground balance on auto tracking.... I also will swing over a vdi and it will jump and lower and jump and lower. And on pinpointer mode it sometimes won't have audio but I back out and try again it does. This is for sure a bug. Right?

hi everybody and I’m new to this forum but I’m sure not new to metal detecting as I’ve been doing this for 40 years. Are you I’ve used an Excal II For many years now. I had a friend who had a one year old equinox 800 and I bought it from home so it is still well under warranty and I did call the North American representative and left a phone message and I hope they get back to me. for many years now. I had a friend who had a one year old equinox 800 and I bought it from home so it is still well under warranty and I did call the North American representative and left a phone message and I hope they get back to me. I was detecting in a bay For the first time and was in waist deep water and having pretty good success bringing up a toy car and some clad and of course the perfunctory sinkers. The bay bottom was very heavy and tough mud so I would let the detector go and use two hands with my long handled scoop. Right near the end of my session, I got the CD error message. I left the water and packed up. I surmised that CD meant coil disconnect and so at the car I checked the connection and it was tight as hell. My battery was Almost fully charged as well. when I got home I turned on the machine and all I got was a little screen with nothing on it. So that’s the way it is now. There are no functions or detecting with the unit. I don’t think there’s gonna be a quick fix but I wondered if anyone else experienced the same situation and I do hope that the North American Minelab people are responsive. Any comments would be appreciated and I’m happy to join this group! I really enjoyed using the detector while it lasted and had a really good experience when I was land detecting With this machine at my grandson!

So, I guess we can put all the speculation of a software update to rest. 😂

This morning I was at Santa Monica beach with my Equinox 800 and the 15" coil. There were at least 8 hunters there at 6:00 AM, 5 - Deus II's and 3 - Equinox 800's. Targets were sparse but everyone came away with some clad and at least junk jewelry. On my way back to my car a buddy of mine who has switched to the Deus II from the Equinox 800 asked me what I was running at the beach. I told him Beach 1, 5 tones, sensitivity at 20. He told me that the best way to run an Equinox at the beach is in all metal single tone which he swears gets better depth, comparable to the Deus II. He said that he hunts by ID and ignores the tone so he doesn't need any multi-tones. I'm not a fan of all metal all the time but this guy is an experienced hunter who does very well. It's tempting to try his idea out but my experience over the years is that on really deep targets I may not get a target ID but I will get a sound. In his setup, without tone ID I would have no way of identifying the target if there is no ID on the screen. And to be totally honest, the 800 is a depth monster. I dug a nickel with a repeatable signal and TID of 13 in the wet sand at about 16". Any thoughts/opinions on this? Bill

While going over the new Garrett Apex features I noted a major difference between it and the Minelab Equinox, and to a lesser degree, the Minelab Vanquish. The Modes (Garrett) or Search Profiles (Minelab). On the Equinox each search profile does not only save settings, but has built in programming differences. Park 1 and Park 2, for instance, can be different even if they are set up with exactly the same settings. The two modes use different frequency mixes in Multi-IQ. Each search profile can be highly customized, and the end effect is one of having many different metal detectors in one. Two modes can make it seem like you are using two different detectors. The Vanquish does not have the same level of adjustments available, but again, there are built in programming differences between the modes as far as frequency mix, recovery speed, etc. There are genuine differences between the modes from an operational aspect, not just in what is being accepted or rejected. The Garrett Ace Apex is much simpler in that it really only has one operating mode - the one you are in. When you choose an operating frequency you have in effect chosen your operating mode. The Apex various saved operating modes are nothing more than saved discrimination patterns. With Equinox or even Vanquish the effect of switching modes if quite profound, like literally picking up another detector. With Apex you will be feeling much more like you have one mode that you set up, and then you have some discrimination patterns you can toggle between. The Apex really is very simple. Chose a frequency, set sensitivity, ground balance.... that is really all the performance options you have. The Relic, Jewelry, and Int Coins Modes in particular are redundant. The only difference between the three is Relic accepts 35 and above, Jewelry 40 and above, and Int Coins 45 and above. The Custom Mode actually starts out the same as the Int Coins mode, adding another layer of redundancy. I'm sure all I'd ever use are Zero and Custom. I would set custom for whatever items I want notched out, and then have the adjacent Zero mode to toggle into, since the Apex lacks a Horseshoe shortcut button to All Metal (Zero) Mode.

Have had the equinox 600. Liked the screen and it performed pretty good. Now getting the itch for another unit. Still have my xp deus. I am familiar with the equinox 600 but never had an 800. That being said and for those who have used both the 800 and the legend now, which would you pick? I have had several nokta makro units from the fors core, racer, racer 2, anfibio and the Kruzer......they were all very well built and had a great layout. That being said, since the legend is a totally different machine than their previous line up, I am kind of curious and they are on my radar. Any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks Tim

Hi, Does anyone know if in wet sand, on the beach it is possible for gold to be hitting values below 0....? I don't take a single gold object with the nox in wet sand on the beach. Beach 1 or Beach 2. BEst regards,