Minelab, What The Heck Did You Do To My Equinox?????

[Melano87]

3 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

For those of you who may not think or believe that Minelab cares about their customers or that they pay attention to these forums, I had a very nice, lengthy phone call from one of the Equinox 700/900 design engineers tonight (4/28) in order to talk about the experiences I was having with the Equinox 900 that I own.  

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this topic and who kept it real, no nonsense and as factual as possible. Minelab does care about the experiences we are having especially with new models and also when they are reported in a level headed way.

For you GPX 6000 owners, I did give the gentleman that called me a huge thanks for the speaker/audio/EMI mod and I gave him and Minelab a special request for a small DD coil for the GPX 6000. Maybe it will happen.

later,

Jeff

Good news Jeff.

[UT Dave]

18 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

For those of you who may not think or believe that Minelab cares about their customers or that they pay attention to these forums, I had a very nice, lengthy phone call from one of the Equinox 700/900 design engineers tonight (4/28) in order to talk about the experiences I was having with the Equinox 900 that I own.  

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this topic and who kept it real, no nonsense and as factual as possible. Minelab does care about the experiences we are having especially with new models and also when they are reported in a level headed way.

For you GPX 6000 owners, I did give the gentleman that called me a huge thanks for the speaker/audio/EMI mod and I gave him and Minelab a special request for a small DD coil for the GPX 6000. Maybe it will happen.

later,

Jeff

Nice to see them talking to someone respectful and respected.  Instead of the youtube influencer types.

Wish you would have told them the Manticore guys are really hurting for the M8 coil though 😁.

- Dave

[Jeff McClendon]

29 minutes ago, UT Dave said:

Nice to see them talking to someone respectful and respected.  Instead of the youtube influencer types.

Wish you would have told them the Manticore guys are really hurting for the M8 coil though 😁.

- Dave

Didn't think of that one Dave. At least that coil has been promised and presumably is in production. Hope you get it soon.

Just to be clear, Minelab contacted me via email using my information provided with my warranty registration. I did not contact them or request any help other than the sentence that I put near the end of my original post about being open to hearing from them.

[phrunt]

I guess nobody can now say Minelab don't care about their customers as they've proven otherwise in this case, along with the GPX 6000 EMI issue..   They did the EMI fix for the GPX and it now works a treat, they're now looking into the ID issues with the new detectors.   I'm really happy about this just as I was about the GPX 6000 EMI Fix.   Thanks Minelab. 

I agree too, it's good they made the call to a detector user that's very knowledgeable and level headed and not just some Facebook or Youtube personality, Jeff's criticism was not click bait like Youtube videos often are, it was a genuine opinion of a possible problem that may need some attention with the new 900 and possibly also the Manticore.

I had a play with my Manticore today, there is nothing I can do settings wise other than beach mode to give it anywhere near the ID stability of the Nox.  I can improve it over default settings but I can't get it to the level of the Nox, even taking into account the extra ID's of the Manticore on deeper coins that the Nox can remain quite solid on.  Beach mode is the only way I can get it what I'd call good on ID's on deeper coins.

[Chesroy]

12 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

Didn't think of that one Dave. At least that coil has been promised and presumably is in production. Hope you get it soon.

Just to be clear, Minelab contacted me via email using my information provided with my warranty registration. I did not contact them or request any help other than the sentence that I put near the end of my original post about being open to hearing from them.

Hi Jeff I expect you have been asked not to divulge any info regarding your chat ! itching to know if the engineer thought there was an issue ? or just your machine ? I presume its a watch this space scenario ?

[Jeff McClendon]

The chat I had about the 900 will remain private for the time being because I want it to, not because I was asked to keep quiet. 

[MFF18B]

Jeff,

  I appreciate you taking the time to start this thread.  I’ve only been detecting for a little over a year now and although I’m relatively new to the hobby, Ive learned a ton during this short period of time with my D2 and Legend.  It’s folks like you and Phrunt (plus many others) that provide wonderful guidance through this forum to users like myself that need a little assistance now and then.  

  This is my first ML machine and unfortunately I am having the same issues discussed by you and Phrunt with my Manticore.  I mentioned this in another location, although not anywhere near as skillfully.  The reaction was quite intense and got immediately flamed by one person in particular, which quickly got off topic and didn’t solve anything.  I’m going to try to incorporate some of the suggestions from this thread to see if it helps.  If not, the Manticore will continue to sit in the corner, patiently awaiting an update, while I use the D2 and Legend.

[bigtim1973]

Out of curiosity, do you know someone nearby with an eq900 to see if theirs acts the same?

I took mine to my mom in laws here in town today and there is wifi all over the place along with a power line hub in the back yard where it branches off to other houses and mine ran very good and stable today.

[Jeff McClendon]

I shipped my original Equinox 900 that I bought from Gerry's Detectors in late December 2022 (thanks Gerry!!!!!) back to Minelab America last Friday April 28th so that it could be shipped to Minelab Australia for further evaluation. Shipping to Illinois was paid for by Minelab.

I received a brand new Equinox 900 from Minelab America today. Thank you to Minelab Australia and Minelab America for the super fast arrangements and shipping. 

I have only had a few minutes to test this new 900 both for the triple beeping on some 4" deep USA coin targets and for triple beeping on similar coins in air tests out to 4" even on default 20 sensitivity settings. I also did a quick but thorough testing of this new 900 in my coin test bed.

I am getting triple beeping in air tests out to 3" with this replacement 900 detector. I have not been able to get it to triple beep on a 4" deep clad dime so far using Park 1 default settings except for changing the Fe iron bias setting to zero from 4 which is just too high for the ground conditions here.

Here are some in the ground test garden results for target ID stability from a few currently produced detectors. These targets are well established and undisturbed. These are the target IDs that are displayed when circling the target with normal left/right swings where the coil fully passes over the target.

6" deep US modern nickel

Nox 800 Park 1 default with iron bias adjusted.              12-13    (surface ID is 12-13)

Legend Park M1 default with iron bias adjusted.             24-26   (surface ID is 25-26)

Deus 2 FMF Fast default                                                    62-64  (surface ID is 63-64)

First Nox 900 Park 1 default with iron bias adjusted        24-28  (surface ID is 26-27)

Replacement Nox 900 Park 1 default etc.........                 26-28   (surface ID is 26-27)

 

6" deep US clad quarter

Nox 800 Park 1 default etc.                                                30-33   (surface ID is 29-30)

Legend Park M1 default etc.                                               54-58  (surface ID is 52-53)

Deus 2 FMF Fast default etc.                                              93-96  (surface ID is 94-95)

First Nox 900 Park 1 default etc.                                        86-94  (surface ID is 87-88)

Replacement Nox 900 Park 1 default etc.                          88-94  (surface ID is 87-88)

 

4" deep US clad dime

Nox 800 Park 1 default etc.                                                 26-30  (surface ID is 24-26)

Legend Park M1 default etc.                                               46-50  (surface ID is 46-48)

Deus 2 FMF Fast default etc.                                              88-92  (surface ID is 89-91)

First Nox 900 Park 1 default etc.                                        80-98  (surface ID is 76-78)

Replacement Nox 900 Park 1 default etc.                          80-96  (surface ID is 76-78)

 

Your comments are welcome. 

[phrunt]

So are you thinking there is inconsistency in builds causing some to ID better than others?  That's a can of worms Minelab won't want.   You would assume if that was the case it would come down to coils more than detectors.  Your numbers are pretty close though between the two to the point a different days EMI could be at play perhaps?

I've decided I'll stick to using my CTX, Nox 800 and Vanquish for stable target ID's and the Manticore can be used when I'm not needing some good ID's, if they fix it with a firmware update fantastic but I'm not going to stew on it like I did the GPX 6000 EMI issue, that drove me nuts until they finally fixed it, for the Manticore I'll use it where it has strengths and use something else when its weaknesses are at play.  Who knows, once I buy the smaller and larger coil for it the ID's may improve if it is a coil related issue.