About the Equinox 600 & 800

[ZR2guy]

I would have liked an AC charger to come with. Other than that, I find my 600 a pleasure to swing. The only area of improvement needed is...... well,.... me. I will be putting more time into it again this year. I have no problems with the ergonomics; could swing it all day. I have had good success with my 600 in the short time I have been able to use it. I don't find it complicated at all. Arrive at site, turn on 600, noise cancel, ground balance and start having fun.

[L0S3R]

I currently am healing from a dislocated pinky at the wrist joint and have no problem swinging the 600. Except my arm isn’t wide enough for the cuff.


Nox 600
Best find to date - 15g platinum ring and 1876 love token

[metaladdict]

Originally Posted by Mud-puppy View post
I immediately set my 800 up in 50 tones...I like a lot of tones. I ran my F70 in Delta Pitch tones for years, which assigns a different tone graduating up the tonal scale for each integer on the TID screen 1-100... I like how a guy could hunt really accurately by Audio alone...especially with the Proportional audio.....a nickel being around 32 and a half Dollar or Q stack being dead on 92....so theres at least 60 good integers with separate tones for each right in the Hunters wheelhouse...I could call it..."Thats a Chucky Cheese token at 3"..theres a Canadian Penny at 4"..thats a 2Q stack at 5" there!" All day long, on the very first coil pass, with no thinking about it...Sure, no doubt I've dug 70,000 targets with it easy, so the F70 target audio imprint is ingrained deeply within in my reptilian noggin......

The AtPro has roughly 3 tones...which was a bummer to me, a guy could not tell a Q from a Dime audibly! So it was a dig it all rig, and since I used it exclusively in the water for GOLD, this issue was of no consequence..and yes it pays, but it wasnt no fun, a guy was simply harvesting any and all signals and could not ever 'call it'....

So along comes the NOX, and I figured "OK! waterproof like the Pro, light fast and with 50 tones like the F70! Excellent! Both rigs in one package! With the Multifreak? Digger please!" "Ima gonna tear this place a new corn chute!"

Well...the 50 tones on the NOX are in reality maybe 20, and thats being generous...from lets say 9 to 32....with the paydirt scale compressed from 13 (nickel) to 32 (Quarter)....a range of only 20 demarcations...It was not wide enough to take full advantage of the 50 tone feature,...plus, the Proportional Audio was about nonexistent...I couldnt tell if I had a D at 5" or a copper penny right on the deck, or a Chucky Cheese token at 10", or a stack of Canadian pennies at 6", or a silver ring, or a tarp grommet.....

Granted, I didnt try to adjust the settings to customize the program to fit my ears and CPU, so I may have missed something here.......I was trying to 'turn on and go' and get the operational basics and understanding of the stock programs...but I missed the most profitable time of my 2018 season trying to figure all of this out...I forced myself to succeed, I sold my Pro and mothballed my F70...

I knew it would be a challenge, I am a slow learner and completely intimidated by advanced technology...I tried my best...The NOX is a hunter no doubt, with some wonderful multifreak advantages that I experienced on the deep black sand...But since you asked...

I have since sold My NOX...but that said, I will probably get another this coming season, once I am able to contemplate and get my ears back on the F70 and sort of do a 'factory reset' on my CPU...The NOX was too much HP right off the showroom floor that I couldnt mentally handle...but it does have that 20 tone feature, multifreak, and it is waterproof...so..

I'll take the F70 out of cosmoline, slam in a clip of dubbleA's, and get out and pull some big stinky clad without thinking too hard, and evaluate my motivation and reason for 'upgrading' in the first place! I already know it aint about learning a new rig, its about finding the Big Stink Fastly! Operating under the parameters that Time and Gold wait for Nobody!..In my case maybe its true..., 'You cant teach an old dog new tricks'...but damn! That group shot sure looks nice! I still have the car..just not the Pro or the NOX!.

After reading this I think the F70 and you are one and you Mudd are happiest using it.

[metaladdict]

Come to think of it, the Equinox handgrip is too big or something but I still love it.

[Bajanick]

I received my 600 last week and I agree, It is unbalanced. My arm starts hurting like heck after about 5 minutes, Its almost like someone is yanking the detector out of my hand I will have to adjust everything again and see about making a lower S rod fit.

Fix the balance issue.
Make it capable of using exernal AA batteries.
Volume adjust instead of sensitivity, or switchable.
Louder volume, I am using the supplied headphones, dont know if its the headphones or not but the volume sounds low, even with it maxed out.

[woodbutcher]

ergo could be better

[staffydog33]

I love it.

The positives wayyyy outweigh the negatives.

Matt.

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[staffydog33]

H.

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[L0S3R]

Originally Posted by Bajanick View post
I received my 600 last week and I agree, It is unbalanced. My arm starts hurting like heck after about 5 minutes, Its almost like someone is yanking the detector out of my hand I will have to adjust everything again and see about making a lower S rod fit.



Fix the balance issue.

Make it capable of using exernal AA batteries.

Volume adjust instead of sensitivity, or switchable.

Louder volume, I am using the supplied headphones, dont know if its the headphones or not but the volume sounds low, even with it maxed out.

Why would you wanna replace batteries all the time? There is a volume setting, read the manual before judging the machine.


Nox 600
Best find to date - 15g platinum ring and 1876 love token

[Bajanick]

Originally Posted by L0S3R View post
Why would you wanna replace batteries all the time? There is a volume setting, read the manual before judging the machine.

I dont like most things rechargeable. When batteries go bad switch them out and keep

detecting, when charge is gone have to wait to recharge.

Volume adjust or mute available on the fly would be nice.

[Surf Master]

The Equinox can be balanced with a plugger cf strait shaft or Anderson cf strait shaft, with the ability to move the handle forward , # 2 using the wireless headphones the volume can be adjusted using the top & bottom buttons on the phones , i currently use a plugger cf strait shaft for my 800. , handle- set all way forward. I also am using 2 of Steves lower rods, the stock rod i use for the 6, the cf lower rods for the 11 & 15 inch coils, however if id do it all over again i would go with the Anderson Cf Shaft , also no more wobble , i also went with Deno's head cover's on the 800, 3030, & Deus . If i would change 2 things on the 800, first the on button not on the side, 2nd a pin point button not on the touch pad, but on the back of the handle like the Ctx , as on the pad , you have to wonder if the pin point button will ware out like the famous issue on the pad of the Euro Tek Pro , those two i would change. However most likely why the pin point is on the pad, not the back of the handle, ML chose to put the battery inside the handle, water tight , a pin point buttom wouldn't be a good spot like its dady the Ctx3030 were the battery is mounted on the back of the machine. To sum things up the machine does not come balanced, also , the machine does come with a wobble, now that both issues have been fixed by me using more of my cash , i love the machine, happy hunting with your Nox., Earl

[MuddyMo]

I too sold my nox. I'm not saying it's a bad md, I just didn't see a significant performance gain over my kruzer, at least here in the midwest. I also found the vdi all over the place. Check 5:20 into this video. (Btw dirt fishing makes great videos). Keep in mind 10 numbers on a nox is equivalent to 20 numbers on a kruzer.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8iP5dmQlt8o&t=287s
The last straw was at the end of every swing it wanted to twist. Ergonomics matter, Ask any seasoned carpenter to trade their hammer and see what they tell you. Maybe swapping out a middle shaft with one like on the xterra would work? Sure a smaller coil or swinging slower will help. Shorting up shaft will help too but that doesn't work well when going up and down on hills. I hope IF makro ever comes out with their smf unit it doesn't have these issues.

Originally Posted by lytle78 View post
The ergonomics of the Nox are inherently flawed. The axis from the armrest, through the center of the handgrip, when projected to the ground, hit a point well in front of the coil center. The yellow line shows this clearly.

This was pointed out to me by none other than Dave Johnson (designer of some of the most successful metal detectors ever produced) when I showed him my new Nox in El Paso last spring.

The result is that every swing start or swing reversal introduces a twisting force which your wrist must resist. The point of most pressure in this case is at the top of the handgrip and the underside “wings” of the control housing - the area circled in red. I found this quickly caused irritation and then pain to the area of my hand which were in contact with the underside of the control head.

[jmaclen]

Hi MuddyMo,
where I live in nasty mineralized dirt Colorado a wheat penny at six inches or more (or any other coin for that matter) with any of my vlf detectors would be lucky to give a target ID even on the Nox or Deus. I would definitely get a tone. Missouri dirt is a little milder where Dirt Fishing digs but in very wet dirt at 6+inches anything copper is going to jump around target ID wise since copper is extremely conductive and emits quite a chemical halo. Out here wheats will target ID between 24 and 28 depending on their corrosion level. I have seen them hit 30 when deeper than 4". I just figure it's a wheat, pre-1982 Lincoln, a dime, a quarter or silver if it has a small pinpoint radius and dig! Bill also had his sensitivity pretty high which can skew target ID numbers but he was going deep. In mineralization I have to keep my sensitivity below 16 no matter what or I start detecting every piece of small magnetite in my soil and masking on deep stuff gets worse. Target IDs can get skewed on the Nox for multiple closely packed targets in the same area which can give some spread out numbers depending on the direction of swing and if its iron plus a high conductor.

This first version of the Nox definitely has some ergonomic stuff that needs to be fixed. I know there will be a version 2 someday which will correct some of the obvious physical flaws.

Bajanick, the headphones that are standard with the 600 totally suck. If they don't break quickly (like mine) they should because they have very poor sound quality. I bought a pair of Avantree over the ear APTX low latency bluetooth headphones off of Amazon for 40 bucks. They work great and no cords.

If it is windy or noisy where I hunt, I leave my settings button on the volume setting and then go back into detect mode. That way if I want to change my volume level I just have to press the settings button and I'm right there at volume adjust.

I am no bleeding heart liberal but I don't like polluting the environment with throw away batteries. Detecting batteries is an eye-opening experience. The chemical halo can be as big as a complete aluminum can around just a single AA if it has started to corrode.

My 800 and 600 will go at least 20 hours on one charge if I use headphones and no backlight. They will charge up in about 2 hours on any 2A USB port.

Hi Mudpuppy,
I have heard some people claim (they must be Deus experts) that the Nox is an easy detector to use right out of the box and learn. If one is pretty experienced with detecting or is a dealer, or has low EMI, low mineralization and very mild soil, that may be true for them. It wasn't for me. I started with Park 1 and 5 tones (50 tones drove me completely nuts) and turned the sensitivity down to about 13, always noise canceled and ground balanced (no tracking) and added a little bit of threshold. After about 80 hours of that and more money and jewelry than I could believe I started experimenting. It worked for me.

Jeff

[MuddyMo]

Jmaclen, as I said where I'm at, only 150? miles north of dirt fishing, the nox wasn't noticeable better. Check his anfibio videos numbers on targets and keep in mind they are twice as spread out as the nox's. It is very similar to the kruzer This is what I seen plus the ergonomics is why I sold mine and will wait for a better machine for ME.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OsmFi4e3ndY Again, I'm not saying it's bad but where I'm at it's not as good or better than the kruzer. In CO, PA, on the coast it may be better? The kruzer also has the external AA battery backup if needed.

[jmaclen]

Hi MuddyMo,

I have watched all of Bill's Youtube vids at least twice. They are great.

Its amazing how much ground conditions really do matter. I owned a Multi Kruzer for almost a month. I used it as much as I could (about 20 hours) and I really liked it but it could not handle the magnetite and volcanic iron in my dirt. I never could get it to settle down enough to hear the really good targets no matter what adjustments I made without extreme depth loss. I returned it. I had a Gold Racer for two years and it handled my soil a little better. The Equinox can get noisy if I turn up the gain past 16. Otherwise, it handles my soil the best of any detector I have tried and will still go really deep at least with a repeatable tone at 10 to 12". Target IDs go south at about 7" due to the high mineralization.

Jeff

[detectorben]

I dont understand all the complaints about ergonomics of equinox. It is the easiest detector to swing and use I have ever used. I can swing it all day with no wrist soreness or fatigue. I cant hunt all winter in Nebraska and I only make it out on weekends most of the nicer months so I am by no means conditioned for frequent long hunts. Compared to my atpro, whites coinmaster, etrac, and ctx it's not even close in comparison as far as comfort and ease of use. I did develop a very slight shaft wobble with nox but I barely noticed. I am pretty sure those who are having issues are not holding or swinging the machine correctly. If you have the shaft adjusted too long or too short for your body/arm length or you swing the detector too far away from your body and feet you will get the tweaking of wrist and fatigue but that is the case with every single detector on the market. Some are more forgiving than others as far as adjustment and swing but nonetheless proper adjustment of shaft and swing make a world of difference.

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