Tell me about your equinox 600

[bigtim1973]

Hey guys I wanted to ask and see what you think of your equinox 600. What were you using previously and why you made the switch. I have one coming and have watched a ton of videos but I want to hear it from you findmall members.

Pros and cons either way. I am all ears. Thanks HH Tim

 

[laplander]

Tim I don't have the 600 but am lovin the 800 with the wireless options and adjustments its worth the difference.
JMO HH Jeff

 

[jmaclen]

I love my Nox 600. It is my go to detector for just about any detecting conditions except for when I'm gold prospecting. I enjoy using my ORX and my F19 too but they are not waterproof so, when it is raining, snowing, really wet or I have a fresh water area in mind and I just have to do some detecting it is first choice. It is first choice when I want to go deep in Park 2 or Field 2 with the stock coil. Mine will hit 8 to 10 inch coin sized targets easily with good numerical target ID and audio responses in the really high mineralized dirt in my area. No other detector that I have used can do that here, not even my former Multi Kruzer, Deus or my ORX. My 600 and 800 can detect at those depths easily even at sensitivity of 18 out of 25. I have yet to turn the sensitivity all the way up!!! I haven't needed to so far after almost 18 months using the 600.

I cannot say enough times to READ the online manual as much as you can especially about the basic functions, settings and Park 1 vs Park 2 etc search modes. It is really well written, FREE and has not been wrong yet IMHO. I use YouTube also for information but lots of it concerning the Equinox has been plagued with user error! I especially check out the light blue shaded areas of the online manual. Some of that material has been edited in since the original release date. Lots of people complained about the lack of a manual in the box...............Minelab are pretty smart and they provided us with a free online manual that can be easily updated and edited.

For starters, Park 1 default, auto noise cancel, lower the default 20 sensitivity if your 600 is too chatty and/or do an auto ground balance, 5 tones, use the horseshoe button to check for iron falsing in the +8 to +20 range, and add a little threshold background tone to hear the iron targets nulling if you want. Enjoy!

Jeff

 

[chuckciao]

I love my Nox 600. It is my go to detector for just about any detecting conditions except for when I'm gold prospecting. I enjoy using my ORX and my F19 too but they are not waterproof so, when it is raining, snowing, really wet or I have a fresh water area in mind and I just have to do some detecting it is first choice. It is first choice when I want to go deep in Park 2 or Field 2 with the stock coil. Mine will hit 8 to 10 inch coin sized targets easily with good numerical target ID and audio responses in the really high mineralized dirt in my area. No other detector that I have used can do that here, not even my former Multi Kruzer, Deus or my ORX. My 600 and 800 can detect at those depths easily even at sensitivity of 18 out of 25. I have yet to turn the sensitivity all the way up!!! I haven't needed to so far after almost 18 months using the 600.

I cannot say enough times to READ the online manual as much as you can especially about the basic functions, settings and Park 1 vs Park 2 etc search modes. It is really well written, FREE and has not been wrong yet IMHO. I use YouTube also for information but lots of it concerning the Equinox has been plagued with user error! I especially check out the light blue shaded areas of the online manual. Some of that material has been edited in since the original release date. Lots of people complained about the lack of a manual in the box...............Minelab are pretty smart and they provided us with a free online manual that can be easily updated and edited.

For starters, Park 1 default, auto noise cancel, lower the default 20 sensitivity if your 600 is too chatty and/or do an auto ground balance, 5 tones, use the horseshoe button to check for iron falsing in the +8 to +20 range, and add a little threshold background tone to hear the iron targets nulling if you want. Enjoy!

Jmaclen, i really enjoyed & learned a lot about the Equinox from your post! Wondering if you would mind giving me your opinion of the Equinox 600 as a cherry picking machine, concentrating on mostly silver coins rather than rings, etc. I ask because I just turned 75 and have been using the CTX 3030 but am finding it difficult to handle due to its weight! In addition, I have also become more of a cherry picker detectorist for obvious reasons.

 

[anbenson]

Love my 600, had it since release and got it rather than the 800 because I didn't want to wait. It did take some getting used to but now that I have a few hundred hours on it I'm really starting to mesh with it. I have other detectors which include Makro Racer, Fisher F-19, Xp Deus and Minelab GPX. The Racer and the F-19 have become my loaner units now. I only relic hunt so I will usually only get detectors that do well at that. The 600 has become the detector I use first when I get to a new site and want to scout it out. If I find the stuff is really beep I switch to the GPX if it's really trashy I switch to the Deus.

The 600 with the stock 11 inch coil is a great detector in moderately trashy sites and it has a very accurate VID once you get used to it. I also have the 6 inch coil for trashy sites but have found the little coil really likes nail heads so I will usually just switch to the Deus because IMO it is much better in dense iron. In my soil the 600 is an inch or so deeper than the Deus with an accurate VID. The Deus will hit stuff just as deep it's just that you don't know if it's deep iron or a good signal.

After trying many settings I've found I like to run Park 2 or Field 2, 50 tones, all numbers accepted but -8 and -9 (which is usually ground minerals), iron bias 1, recovery at 2 or 3 depending on the site, iron volume turned up to 10, sensitivity at 21 (too high and you get iron falsing) and ground balance to the site as it helps to cut down on the iron falsing as well. With 50 tones you can almost always tell trash or alloy metals or odd shaped targets like shotgun shells, screw caps, can slaw, foil, etc, as the numbers and tone are really jumpy. Good targets are a solid tone and numbers don't vary but 3 digits. 5 tones groups things too much IMO and a junky target can sound good because it falls in a segment.

Deep targets, like with all detectors, take some evaluation to determine if it's worth digging. This is one reason I leave most numbers accepted because it really allows you to evaluate the target better. Once you have used the Equinox for awhile you will get good at noticing the difference between a good deep target and a nail that is falsing. Seems like the 13-16 range is where most of the iron falsing takes place, so you really needs to evaluate those choppy numbers in that range. If you get an occasional high tone in the upper 30's it's almost always a nail. If you have a target that is throwing consistent positive numbers mixed with a few negative numbers as you circle it, you better dig it. Just last week I dug an Eagle R cuff button at 9 inches that was doing just that. Two of us had our Equinox's on the target trying to determine whether or not to dig it. I was getting a consistent 13-14 mixed with negative numbers as I circles the target. My buddy running the 800 was not accepting anything under 2 so the signal to him sounded real choppy and he called iron. I was glad I dug it.

 

[Happa54]

Couldn’t get an 800 when they first came out so I settled for the 600. I thought I would upgrade to the 800 when they became available, but now, don’t need it.

I primarily hunt in Park 1, 50 tones, all metal, multi, 0 IB and high sens. I also make slight adjustments to threshold and iron volume. Recovery speed 3 (equal to 6 on 800) is plenty fast for the trashiest parks here in Los Angeles and burbs. VDI’s & processor recovers quickly when in thick trash. Separation is great and I haven’t even used the 6” coil yet.

I haven’t seen the advantages or disadvantages of hunting from one mode to the other, yet. They all seem to find the same coins and relics. It hits REAL HARD on copper and if you listen for the nickel signals, you’ll dig more than your share. I have hundreds of nickels including a few Buffalo’s and V’s. I’ve also done good with silver… Mercs, Rosies, GW’s, sterling & gold jewelry and last week I dug my 2nd SLC and a Walker.

Prior to the Nox, my go-to detector was a ML Safari (little brother to Etrac). I cut-my-teeth on it and dug a lot of silver, old coins, relics and jewelry. I became proficient with it all the while accepting its lack of speed and slow processor recovery time. But due to its weight I developed a serious case of tendonitis. I was forced to go lightweight and chose the Nox. On my first hunt with it, I had to shut it down early due to the overwhelming number of signals flying at me. I couldn’t believe how fast this machine was. I didn’t think I was going to like it coming from the much slower Safari. It took months to understand this machine outside of its default settings. Now having hundreds of hours on it, I am quite comfortable and confident in its ability to hit on good targets in dense trash, at any site.

There are a few good youtube channels out there (but not many) wherein you can enhance your learning of the Nox. There is an individual named “Square Nail Squirrel”, who does an excellent job showing you his VDI numbers and targets. I highly recommend anyone transitioning to the Nox to watch his vids.

At this juncture, I need to experiment with working in speed recovery 2 (equal to 4 on 800) and less for greater depth. During the times that I briefly hunted in lower speeds I noticed a bit of recovery lag time going from one target to the other. This worries me so I go back into my comfort zone of rec speed 3. Gotta break out of that habit and learn to work this machine to its full potential. Our reality is…. good targets, especially silver, are getting much harder to find in these pounded sites.

 

[bigtim1973]

Well I have read each and every one of your responses. I appreciate all of the input. It seems some of you prefer to hunt in 50 tone mode. I used to take my Xterra and do the multi tone as well. I would also hunt in all metal with multi tone on that machine too. From what I have saw so far the tones of the equinox units seem similar to the xterra tones. I see that some of you have come from the Safari and also some First Texas units and Makro. I have had a ton of detectors and currently use a Makro Racer 2 and also the Anfibio 14. I like both of the units very much and am keeping them. I was on the fence on purchasing an Equinox or the Anfibio here a few weeks ago. I got a nice discount on the Anfibio and choose that over the Equinox. However, I still found myself wanting the equinox 600 and had a chance and purchased a used one.

When I had my Xterra 50 I put on the 6" HF coil. Man I found more Barber dimes, Indian head pennies, V nickles and other old coins with that set up more than any other I have had in the past. I sold the 50 and purchased the 505. To me there was a difference in how it performed. I preferred the 50 and now they seem to be impossible to come across.

What is drawing me to the equinox in the first place is the choice of 3 separate frequencies or all at once and the light weight of the unit itself. I think it would be a pretty versatile unit and the 11" coil is a good size actually for deeper objects.

So I see here on the equinox forum that plenty of the users are finding some pretty good stuff. I like that it seems to be a mix of items found by different users that includes everything from relics to jewelry. So that is inspiring to me as I am a coin and relic hunter.

I found a little civil war camp site or maybe it was an ambush site here on my property. I have swung every unit over it that I have had in the past 4 years or so. I found it by chance just trying out a detector on my property that I cleared a bunch of brush and such out of. I found 2 bit bosses matching US 1859 style, some camp lead where bullets were cast and other odd and end items. Horse shoes and pieces of single tree parts from some kind of wooden wagon. I have not found anything out there in over a year. But I do go out there and dig some of the bigger iron targets. I do not know what they are but it is old iron. There are old square nails everywhere out there in a certain area. I think some old horse drawn wagon may have given up the ghost there about 150 years ago.

So I purchased a 13" coil for my racer 2 and found a few deep shot musket balls in the same spot. So with all of this being said, I want to see if the Equinox can pick out anything else that the others have missed.

That is not why I am purchasing the unit really at all but it is where I take any new machine I buy to try out first.

So anyways, if anyone else wants to chime in and tell me some more about the equinox 600, I am still all ears!! Thanks to each and everyone of your input too!! HH Tim