A Few More Equinox 900 Tidbits From A Beginner

[Jeff McClendon]

For those that wonder, this being a prospecting site.....

Nox 900, Nox 800 and the Legend air testing their Gold Multi modes with almost identical settings on 0.05, 0.15, 0.25 and 0.85 gram nuggets.......we are talking in terms of sixteenths of an inch or a little over a millimeter in difference on each of those targets using their stock 6" coils. Nox 900 is still really hot for prospecting folks, just like its predecessor.

What took some getting used to for me is the default really high pitch of the Gold modes VCO tone. Lowering the threshold pitch will lower the VCO (DP) tone some but wow it is set high.

The same goes for using DP tones in the other modes. Doing the well documented YouTube video test with raised nail, coin and nail on the same plane as the coin.......DP's super high pitched squeaks and ticks on heavily iron masked coins......I don't know if I can get used to that sound. The volume of the iron tone can be adjusted in DP along with its tone break. The volume of the DP non-ferrous tone can also be adjusted but its actual pitch only seems to get adjusted very slightly if at all, by adjusting the pitch of the threshold tone unlike in the Gold modes.

Someone who knows more about this DP tone option, please chime in here.

I did quite a bit of separation/unmasking testing and the Nox 900 did a bit better than the Nox 800 using the same settings. Basically that means that during the same test the Nox 900 was able to give repeatable 2 way non ferrous responses while the 800 gave solid one way non ferrous responses but only sporadic 2 way. That was using the test described above with two 1800s square nails and various US coins with one inch spacing between the targets.  

I did not compare the DP tones to the 800 since that would not be fair. I did do some DP tone Field 1 and Field 2 testing with all the iron target IDs accepted and all rejected. I made sure to adjust the default tone break and accept/reject settings first back down to zero. I experimented with a low iron tone volume level and with turning up the threshold tone while rejecting iron target IDs with the horseshoe button. The threshold using DP tones is a live threshold so that is an alternative to getting constantly bombarded with iron audio at some sites. It may also be "live" in other tone and mode configurations too. The threshold is not "live" in the Gold modes........waaaaahhhh!

I believe Strick mentioned that the Manticore (could have been Nox 900) VDIs seem to be more jumpy than the Nox 800. I noticed something similar in the hunt I did the day I got my Nox 900 but chalked that up to the ground being half frozen and really acting weird.

I did some more testing today on USA modern coins buried at 4" in moderately iron mineralized dirt. The 3 to 4" depth mark is where IDs can really be impacted in the dirt I often hunt in. The Nox 800 and Nox 900 both did very well on those coins but instead of 2 or at most 3 solid target IDs for the Nox 800, that got expanded to 3 or 4 for the Nox 900 on the same coins. For instance a Jefferson nickel read 12/13 on the Nox 800 in Park 1 Multi. It responded with 26/27 and a frequent 28 on the Nox 900 in Park 1 Multi during 10 sequences of left/right full swings. So the numbers for that nickel could jump from 26 to 28 and back with a 27 alternating. At least all of the targets had repeatable, sequential numbers with no oddballs, all over the place numbers like I have seen with some other SMFs sometimes (Garrett APEX.......). I am definitely liking the extra IDs in general however.

The stock Equinox 900 ML85 Bluetooth headphones once again are too bass heavy for my liking but they are not nearly as muffled sounding on higher pitches as the Nox 800 ML80s.

The Equinox 700/900 shaft system, angled hand grip, and arm cuff are fantastic and a huge improvement over the Nox 600/800.

The Equinox 900 has three levels of red backlight intensity so only the highest level looks really red. The mid and low level in daylight looks really nice in my opinion along with how the buttons light up as well.

I haven't tried the vibration feature or the flashlight yet.

Too early to comment on overall sensitivity aside from the max 28 on the 900/700 versus the max 25 on the 600/800. I also haven't done any EMI testing yet.

Chase.....I still haven't found the back button and so far, only one user profile slot ☹️

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Chase.....I still haven't found the back button and so far, only one user profile slot ☹️

You are absolutely right, Jeff.  I thought early on they were going to mimic M-core bi-directional menu navigation but the arrow buttons are non-existent and a deep dive into the manual confirms you still need to do the round-robin menu selection, so I was completely wrong on that one.  Saving my 900 for a Christmas morning under the tree unwrapping since we are going to be in deep freeze mode for the next few days.  A minor disappointment in what is looking like an otherwise fantastic platform upgrade/refresh.

[abenson]

3 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Saving my 900 for a Christmas morning under the tree unwrapping since we are going to be in deep freeze mode for the next few days.  A minor disappointment in what is looking like an otherwise fantastic platform upgrade/refresh.

I too am saving the Nox 900 for Christmas morning unwrapping. Snow on the ground here so no sense in trying to do anything with it. Will be in AZ week between Christmas and New Yeara and will probably try it nugget hunting. That is if I can put down the 6000 long enough.

The one thing that really has me wondering with 900 is if the expanded negative number range will help with hot rocks. There is a fine line between hot rocks and deeper small gold on the 800, so I'm hoping that expanded range will offer some improvements.

[Compass]

"At least all of the targets had repeatable, sequential numbers with no oddballs, all over the place numbers like I have seen with some other SMFs sometimes (Garrett APEX.......). I am definitely liking the extra IDs in general however."

Glad to hear this as I think the expanded TID scale is the most appealing improvement to me. Thank you for the review!

[strick]

15 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

I did some more testing today on USA modern coins buried at 4" in moderately iron mineralized dirt. The 3 to 4" depth mark is where IDs can really be impacted in the dirt I often hunt in. The Nox 800 and Nox 900 both did very well on those coins but instead of 2 or at most 3 solid target IDs for the Nox 800, that got expanded to 3 or 4 for the Nox 900 on the same coins. For instance a Jefferson nickel read 12/13 on the Nox 800 in Park 1 Multi. It responded with 26/27 and a frequent 28 on the Nox 900 in Park 1 Multi during 10 sequences of left/right full swings. So the numbers for that nickel could jump from 26 to 28 and back with a 27 alternating. At least all of the targets had repeatable, sequential numbers with no oddballs

So it  looks like the 900 and the M-core will have the same VDI range. This is good if one wants to have both detectors using interchangeably. I cant see myself keeping the 800 and having to re-remember the numbers for given targets. But yea the numbers do jump around a bit. Thanks for the report. 

strick

[Daniel Tn]

Yes the ID numbers are going to take some getting used to on the 900.  I just put the 5x10 CoilTek on mine and from just playing with it some, it is going to be a semi permanent attachment until I hit beaches or open fields. It didn't take me long to like it.  

[Jeff McClendon]

The ground has thawed out enough to do a couple of hunts with the Equinox 900. Yesterday (12/26/22)  I did some comparison testing and a short freshwater beach hunt where I dug every target and got to help an 8 year old that I met there named Penny conduct here first hunt with a tiny but actually decent kids detector that did very well, . Today I hunted an incredibly trashed park where much of the trash is actually zinc pennies!!!!

So, most of the beach hunt was for comparing Nox 800 and 900 depth and EMI mitigation. I was able to run the 800 even in Gold 1 at 22 sensitivity with just some minor chatter. I was able to run the 900 at sensitivity 25 with similar amounts of chatter. Stating the obvious, the 900 at 25 is more sensitive than the 800 at 22. I did a buried 0.1 gram nugget test in Gold 1 with those sensitivity settings and everything else the same using the 6" coil in moderate mineralization. Nox 800 got clean hits with correct ID at 2.5" depth and had clean 2 way hits with iron ID at 3". The Nox 900 got clean hits with correct ID at 3" depth and had clean 2 way hits with iron ID at 4". 

Manticore and Nox 900 and their iron handling (or lack of it) is all over YouTube and the internet.......  I dug 3 iron targets and 45 non-ferrous targets including a crinkly sounding .925 silver bracelet/necklace with with tiny stars on a microscopic chain that had upper range iron tones mixed in around the edges of that target. Anyone that has some time on the Equinox learns that many solitary iron targets will have iron tones toward the center of the target and can have progressively higher non-ferrous tones on the edges of the target almost like a high tone halo. This silver bracelet/necklace was exactly the opposite. I also got a mens tungsten ring........a ring is a ring for me anyway.

So, yesterdays freshwater beach hunt demonstrated that the Nox 900 is every bit as good as the Nox 800 with no drop off in performance, with more sensitivity and with good EMI mitigation.

Today I went to a park that is full of zincolns. I searched an area that was about 20X50 feet and I dug every shallow target (ground is still half frozen) that gave a two way signal for about half of that area. I had to change my strategy from exhaustion and from my pinpointer batteries and my spares all being basically dead or dying. Anyway, I wanted to see how well target ID accuracy was on co-located non-ferrous targets and on co-located ferrous/non-ferrous targets. Most of the iron targets are deeper at this site so I didn't get to try that out on the 900 very much. I did not dig any steel crown bottle caps for some reason.....I had iron bias on 1 with -10 to +99 accepted using Park 1 with recovery speed on 6 and sensitivity on a quiet 25 using the Coiltek 10X5" coil. I was getting a lot of ground feedback from being semi frozen and moderately iron mineralized so I rejected -19 to -11 which took care of most of it.

I dug 99 zinc pennies, 29 copper Memorial pennies, 1 1926 wheat penny, 8 Jefferson nickels, 11 clad dimes, 4 clad quarters, a Sacajawea $1 coin, a 1947 5 Franc coin from France, a nice brass cross, and a nice .925 silver braided ring along with 30 or so pull tabs, some other non-ferrous junk and 3 iron targets. So basically, I got some really good, dig a lot of targets time behind the 900. 

Zinc pennies near the surface have very wide target IDs from 58 to the low 80s. Nothing new there, Nox 800 does something similar on near surface corroded zincs. I just lifted the coil a bit and the IDs stabilized between 60 and 65. The other US coins recovered could all be easily "called" before digging even with very little Nox 900 experience. The only real surprises were the brass cross and the holed 5 francs coin. The silver ring was about 5" deep and had a rock solid ID of 81. This target sounded different and very beautiful. I was not surprised with it being a ring......since I have had that experience many times with the Nox 800. So, similar to the Nox 800, when I get a single digit ID on a non-ferrous target and the target appears to be coin sized using the onboard pinpointer for sizing...........I am digging that target. The ring had pull-tabs and two zinc pennies within 3" from it but I heard it clearly and like I said it had a super solid ID. So, target separation on the Nox 900 is excellent.

 

 

[GB_Amateur]

Excellent report, Jeff.  I hope your warm weather stays for several days although if it's like our forecast there is going to be rain along with it.

I'm not rushing you but I look forward to hearing your EMI reports when you re-hunt locations where bad EMI strongly limited your settings (gain in particular or even worse, if you were forced to single frequency) with the Eqx 800.  That will be one of my initial goals when I get the Manticore (so likely/hopefully early Spring).

[Jeff McClendon]

17 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Excellent report, Jeff.  I hope your warm weather stays for several days although if it's like our forecast there is going to be rain along with it.

I'm not rushing you but I look forward to hearing your EMI reports when you re-hunt locations where bad EMI strongly limited your settings (gain in particular or even worse, if you were forced to single frequency) with the Eqx 800.  That will be one of my initial goals when I get the Manticore (so likely/hopefully early Spring).

All of the places I have used the 900 that I have reported on have EMI issues. They aren't so bad that single frequency is required but they have plenty of EMI. I already reported on that above. I also have had similar results inside my home and in my yard. Normally I have to keep my Nox 800 below sensitivity 20 and nearer to 15. I have been able to have the Nox 900 no lower than 18 sensitivity inside and as high as 22 in my backyard without being driven mad. That is an improvement unless sensitivity 22 on the 900 is equivalent to 19 on the 800. From my experience so far, Minelab didn't change the sensitivity gradient between the Nox 800 and the Nox 900. They just added 3 more sensitivity levels on the end of the Nox 800 existing 25 scale. So, if that is true, EMI is being handled a bit better by the Nox 900.

[Rick N. MI]

A lot of digs. An unusual cross.