About the Equinox 600 & 800

maxxkatt

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Ok, I have had my 800 since March 2018. Most of the things I initially did not like about it were things that were due to my ignorance and lack of knowledge on how to use a hot sophisticated Minelab detector.

So now what don't I like about it? What could be improved.

Hmmmm? Well really not much after really thinking about it. The Minelab designers have really addressed a lot of issue with the Equinox series.

What do you guys who have a good deal of experience under your belt on the 600 or 800 say about what could be improved?
 
I'm not sure what it is, but the ergonomics of the 800 tires my wrist much quicker than the AT Series for some reason.
 
The fact my phone makes it chatter


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

I had wrist fatigue with the Nox too. I was looking at it one day and noticed that everything-coil, control box and armrest, were perfectly in line but when I gripped it my elbow, arm, wrist and hand were not. I had to bend my hand back at the wrist just a bit to the right which put tension on my wrist due to the large hand grip. I thought maybe if I loosened the control box and shifted it to the left some (I'm right handed) my hand and wrist could stay in the same line when using the Nox. I moved it about 1/8 inch off center to the left. It has helped a lot along with wrapping it with a soft layer of Gel Grip. I experimented with the shaft length and arm rest too so that I am now really comfortable especially on 6 to 8 hour prospecting hunts.

I am still not real happy with the pinpoint function. I have gotten used to having to press the pinpoint button more than once on every 10th target or so, due to weak volume on the first try or just the wrong sound entirely no matter how carefully I approach the target which is supposed to be slow and level. Usually, after two or three button presses I get the pinpoint sound I was kind of expecting. It just slows things down and is annoying. It works great when it works the first time. Both my 600 and 800 do it even after the firmware update. It was definitely a lot worse before the update. Also, they both have tape around the lower shaft joint to lessen shaft wobble too.

Otherwise, I couldn't be happier.

My Deus and F44 aren't very happy sitting in the corner........

Jeff
 
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Would like to see the ability to program the 800 with a computer like the CTX. The tone bins played out on a screen along with volume levels.
 
I'm not sure what it is, but the ergonomics of the 800 tires my wrist much quicker than the AT Series for some reason.

I noticed this to when I purchased the 15 x 12" coil. Then I noticed in a Calabash video he had his shaft adjusted much shorter so the coil was closer to his feet unlike mine shaft at the longest length to get wider swings. I adjusted my shaft down 2-3 notches and now it is more vertical than before which was
probably at at a 30 degree angle from the horizontal position and this helped me a lot with the tired arm.
 
I noticed this to when I purchased the 15 x 12" coil. Then I noticed in a Calabash video he had his shaft adjusted much shorter so the coil was closer to his feet unlike mine shaft at the longest length to get wider swings. I adjusted my shaft down 2-3 notches and now it is more vertical than before which was
probably at at a 30 degree angle from the horizontal position and this helped me a lot with the tired arm.

I did he same. Much easier to swing shortened.
 
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!":laughing:

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....:lol:.

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!.:laughing:
 

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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.
 

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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

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 them pain to the area of my hand which were in contact with the underside of the control head.

Yep! thats no doubt Rich!! Very top heavy! Not like the marketing alluded to....I was about ready to pull out the allen wrenches and drop that weight under the shaft and install some sort of easy and light clamp on bicycle grip..But I said the hellwiddit...It woulda been diff if the coil cable was long enough tor a guy to hip or chestmount the brains..but it isnt.....
 
What you said plus: vibration assignment to target ID, NC and ground balance numbers that are consistant, and just spend a lot more effort on making it audibly more enjoyable to use.
 
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.

So if it had an S rod like alot of other detectors do then the axis would be in the middle of the coil and there wold not be so much strain on the wrist ?
 
Either that or a higher placement of the arm rest to tilt downwards the axis drawn through the center of the handgrip.
 
I have not had ergonomic issues others have brought up. I actually like the way it swings. I can swing it way longer without fatigue than other detectors I have swung. My main issue is I think the grip is to way to fat, but they put the battery inside the grip so I don't see it getting any smaller. Any fatigue I have is from that fat grip. 50 tone would melt my brain so I keep it in 5 tone with tone pitch and volume set to suit me. My settings may evolve with time.

I actually don't see them changing anything until they do the the Equinox Max roll out.
 
Wow! I have had shoulder surgery and suffer osteoarthritis and have had zero problems swinging the 800.
I’ve owned and used 3 AT Pros and was in way better shape than I am now and unless I had the small coil on the atp my wrist would pound after a 2 hour session. YMMV.
 
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!":laughing:

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....:lol:.

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!.:laughing:

I had a similar experience that mud did. Hunting with the 800 and not really understanding everything was very frustrating and wasted a lot of my 2018 hunting season from March 2018 to Oct 2018 then the rains set in in Atlanta. I took the time of rainy nov and dec and cold Jan 2019 to really study and learn the 800. I have done a lot of reading and video viewing of the 800. Clive Clynick's two book were and are my best resource, plus Vferrari on another forum and other forum posters who really understand the 800 and can explain things so that I can really understand what they are saying.

At this point I feel very confident in my ability to set the 800 up properly for my two types of hunting that I do most of the time. Silver coins and Civil War relics. I know the strengths of each modes and what are the default settings and can adjust those to give me the best performance for the type of hunting I am doing and the nature of the site I am hunting.

With the AT Pro, there was no need to do this. I basically just ground balanced the AT Pro, put it into all metal mode and hunted. It was that simple. not so with the 800 if you want to get the best out of the 800. It has been a long and difficult slog learning the 800. There were more than a few times I was going to sell the 800 and get an XP Deus. But I was determined to learn the 800 and I feel that I have. So we are entering into our 2019 hunting season here in Atlanta. It is starting to warm up and still a lot of the vegetation is still dead from the winter frosts so that clears up some good civil war relic hunting areas that tend to get jungle like in the summer. I will see if I can actually put that learning to use.
 
I'm not sure what it is, but the ergonomics of the 800 tires my wrist much quicker than the AT Series for some reason.

had the same problem and I moved the coil closer to my feet (shortened the shaft) one notch. It took me only a short while to get used to the closer coil and took away the out-of-balance shaft. Also, the lighter 6" coil will probably solve the problem as well. It's pretty deep, but covers a lot less area per swing. Hope some of that makes sense to you and helps. H.H. :thumbsup:
 
I'm not sure what it is, but the ergonomics of the 800 tires my wrist much quicker than the AT Series for some reason.

I agree with the ergonomics issue - It just isn't balanced right or something. The Deus is MUCH easier to swing for any length of time. But I do like to use the Equnox with the 6" coil in trashy areas. It is great for aluminum-rich areas, but LOVES deep bent nails. Calls them silver dimes or quarters pretty often. Seems that the Deus is the opposite. Loves aluminum, passes by nails most of the time.
 
I had a similar experience that mud did. Hunting with the 800 and not really understanding everything was very frustrating and wasted a lot of my 2018 hunting season from March 2018 to Oct 2018 then the rains set in in Atlanta. I took the time of rainy nov and dec and cold Jan 2019 to really study and learn the 800. I have done a lot of reading and video viewing of the 800. Clive Clynick's two book were and are my best resource.

Where's the best place to purchase Clive Clynick's books? What are the names of each of them?
 
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