800 - DIED - graveyard dead

WaterWalker

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Apr 5, 2016
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A half an hour into my second salt water hunt, while digging a target the Equinox’s audio went wild, multiple beeps of different tones and would not stop. I saw the Cd error code, powered the unit OFF and went back to the car where I dried it off. Checked both the connectors for water, they were perfectly dry. I turned the Equinox back ON and got the Cd error again. Then I could not turn the detector OFF. I tried holding the power switch down for 8 second for a factory reset, no help. I headed straight to my dealer. On the 8 mile ride the detector first kept cycling and giving the Cd error, about half way it stopped and then 3 miles later it started to cycle again. This time the error was FP. FP is not listed as an Error code in the manual.

At the dealer’s shop the Equinox kept cycling, stopping with a FP error for a minute or so. We tried my coil on an Equinox 600 with no problems. We then connected the 600’s coil to my control panel with no difference between the two coils. I left and at home I connected my Equinox 800 to the charger. The green light was on solid in about 3 minutes it started to flicker – not a normal blinking. Another two minutes and the green light went completely OFF. Another two minutes and it the green light started to blink as if the detector was charging. Note: the detector was in use for only 30 minutes since it had been fully charged. Infantile Mortality - it happens with electronics, I do not and can not blame Minelab.

About 20 minutes into the charge the FP error message disappeared and the unit remained charging as the green light was still blinking. Between an hour and a half and two hours of charging the green light stopped flashing. I disconnected the charger and tried to turn the detector ON, no sign of life at all.

I called Minelab Monday left message 4/30 at 5:35pm. An E-mail reply with Two Day UPS call tag came on 5/1 in time for me to ship the Equinox back on Tuesday. The unit was received at Minelab in Naperville, Illinois - not the PA repair center! One day for Minelab process the failed unit and ship it back by Ground UPS which took 5 days. Yes, in 8 days I was back in the water. I could not believe that the replacement detector along with a new Good Luck Charm from a fellow detectorist lead me to a faint signal reading 4 on the display. I could not believe it I have read of the Equinox’s ability to find gold chains, well IT DID. A beautiful 14K 27gr bracelet. Equinox is now paid for and in less than 3 hours of detecting in salt water and two trips to Minelab. The first trip back was for the shaft slop.

Two problems, two rapid fixes, three hours fo detecting and I am almost a believer that the Equinox will obsolete some of my other detectors. But each detector I have has its own special use so no commitment to sell is still many hours of detecting with the Equinox away.

Two thumbs up for the Equinox and Minelab!
 
I don't know what to make of your post. You had issues with your 800 and Minelab quickly resolved them is what I got - replacing it with a new one. Did they say what caused the problem? I just read this week on someone's FB post that water entered the battery compartment of their 800. Great service on a warranty is all good until the warranty is over. Hopefully whatever issues are starting to show in real world use will make its way to improvements in the production line.
 
Glad the end result was good and ML got it turned around for you quick. This is also the reason I don't buy the lastest and greatest toy on the block and like to wait a year or 2 before purchasing something like that. I'll let others work out all the kinks and bugs in them first, see real world reviews and if still going strong I may then pull the trigger once mods are made and corrected.
 
I don't know what to make of your post. You had issues with your 800 and Minelab quickly resolved them is what I got - replacing it with a new one. Did they say what caused the problem? I just read this week on someone's FB post that water entered the battery compartment of their 800. Great service on a warranty is all good until the warranty is over. Hopefully whatever issues are starting to show in real world use will make its way to improvements in the production line.

+1. I got my waterproof phones and intend on getting in the water this weekend. Good or bad, I'll keep a backup for those just-in-case moments. :shock: :lol: :D
 
Congrads on the Big Gold chain!! Everything happens for a reason, hope the good continues!
 
I am a little unsure whether this is your 2nd or 3rd Equinox. Did you send in the whole thing for the shaft problem and get a replacement?

Likewise you talk about repair and replacement on the DOA one - I assume it was replaced?

Apparently no repairs are being done on the Nox and it seems from other posts that the control unit is welded together and not repairable.
 
I am glad to hear they are on the ball with fixing them, but would be really curious to know what the problem was...
 
Glad you have it working again and got the nice find. I would take the money from the necklace and buy another one so you can rotate them from the beach to the shop for repair. :shock::shock:
 
The first Equinox was fixed with new shaft parts and returned to me.
It also was the one that died and was replaced.

I understand Infantile Mortality and worked with electronics for over 45 years 20+ in the Navy and 20+ in the civilian world as a QA Manager. It is the case will all NEW releases there will be something that was not caught in initial testing. Nothing to get upset over, you eat regularly and **it happens. This is my third purchase of initial release and not from Minelab. All three have had some kind of an issue that needed fixing, they were all taken care of but none as fast as Minelab has this time. I think industry is learning that they have to provide outstanding service or loose customers. AAA+ for Minelab.

Can they improve, of course. It would be nice if I had been told what happened, but they many not know themselves. I am thinking that Naperville only swaps out parts and then sends the bad parts somewhere, perhaps Malaysia, for analysis. We may never know. It may have been water in the battery compartment, BUT I WAS NOT going to open it. I did check out the connectors and they were dry.
 
I sure hope mine is waterproof like they say! It will positively be at 8' deep and close to 9 in some spots.

I hope there isn't a flaw with a group of them. Mine should be all wet pretty soon. I would say within two weeks.
 
My Theory

Sticking to the shallow water, wet, dry sand, and land hunting, submerging Excalibur's, i believe it's just not built period for under water use all the time, if your planing on doing so , pack a lunch while your machine goes to the shop, then wait, just like the CTX3030 had issue's, the Equinox series will have issue's, beside's the lemon's that will be distributed due to mass quantities pumped out, sounds like from this post ML is taking care of the issue's with the defective detector's, most likely because they don't want repercussion's, however them putting accessories on the back burner take's the cake , something to this magnitude should have been addressed before the production of the NOX.
 
I called Minelab Monday left message 4/30 at 5:35pm. An E-mail reply with Two Day UPS call tag came on 5/1 in time for me to ship the Equinox back on Tuesday. The unit was received at Minelab in Naperville, Illinois - not the PA repair center! One day for Minelab process the failed unit and ship it back by Ground UPS which took 5 days. Yes, in 8 days I was back in the water. I could not believe that the replacement detector along with a new Good Luck Charm from a fellow detectorist lead me to a faint signal reading 4 on the display.

Glad you got took care of, but did they repair it, or replace it? Your post seems to say both?

I would guess they want to keep the troublesome ones to study cause of failure?
 
Great story thanks,and congrats on the nice hearty chain [emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
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