Equinox 600

Going to give an EQ 600 a try out soon. Will see how it stacks up against my Safari, Gold Bug DP, TDI & SDC 2300 at the beach.

Hi Adrian    how about including the Vallon in your  test ?

I can do that....

When? is the big question.
I won't have the 600 for several days yet.

Hi Adrian,
Good to hear you've got the 600.
If memory serves me correctly, the 600 doesn't come with Bluetooth headset, only a wired headset. If you want to get a Bluetooth headset, ensure that it has APT-X functionality to minimise lag.

If you want to use your own headsets wirelessly, you will need to obtain a WM-08 wireless module to connect to the 600. Details here: WM-08

The 800 has the WM-08 module supplied standard and not many people use it as they prefer the Bluetooth headsets so it's possible you will be able to pick up a used module on facebook/gumtree/ebay.

I should add that the equinox allows you to turn up the signal volume to hear targets better over the sound of the surf.

Enjoy the Equinox.

Terry

600 arrived this morn.
Some quick testing shows it as an ok machine. Noise cancel works very well on mains interference, random EMI upsets it a bit and sensitivity is ok.
    It is not screaming fantastic at me but is pretty good. See how we go when I get a chance to take it into the field and to the beach. Weather is crap at the moment.

29/10/20
Have given the 600 a couple of runs at Pine Island and it is quite good  and can locate 20 cents at up to 45+ cm in dry river sand with sensitivity at 21 and in Park 1 mode. This figure is close enough to my in air test on this coin.
TID is not accurate until a coin size  target is 6 to 8 inches from the coil (11 in DD ), any deeper and you get multiple hits and jumpy TID figures.
   I do not like the pinpoint mode, signal is too broad and can be a bit vague at times.
The pre set modes are nice and quiet and work well enough over a wide range of mineralisation but setting correct ground balance and tweaking the sensitivity,  disc ranges and recovery speed can improve things a bit.
With Recovery Speed at setting 3 the target signal appears close to the coil centre during a sweep but at 1 or 2 the signal appears to the left or right of centre depending on sweep direction and sweep speed.
  Nice machine and pretty difficult to go wrong with this detector.
If you are used to swinging an Infinium, Vallon VMH, spectrum xlt or sea Hunter etc you will think the 600 is a feather. At one and bit kilos it nearly floats away on the breeze.

Hopefully I will be able to give the 600 a try out at the beach this weekend. Will also take the vallon, GB DP and a Vanquish 340.
Was going to take the safari and the TDI but but car space is lacking after the missus gets all her stuff in, and anyway I already know they both work extremely well over wet and dry salt beach sand and in the water

Back from the beach. (Did not find any human body remains re missing Sydney business woman.)  Was on the lookout tho    

Good trip and got in plenty of detecting. Found the usual beach rubbish, several coins, a broach, sinkers, truck loads of bottle caps, not many bobby pins but nothing spectacular.

The Vanquish 340 performed very well with good sensitivity and wet salt handling ability. TID is ok, detection depth in the wet and dry sand to the water line is good enough for any beach hunter. Nice machine and good value for money if you detect the beaches.

The EQ was a disappointment. Yes it detects well and runs reasonably quiet over the wet sand but the big annoyance was that it was not responding to certain non ferrous items which it either blanked out on or gave an weak iron tone. no matter which mode was used. So be careful with this machine it will miss totally some small gold chains and earrings and deep ish coins . I did find a long lost 10 cent coin at close to 18 + inches in very damp sand that gave a combined blanking and weak low tone that I recovered just to see what it was, whereas I would normally have ignored such a signal.  and yes it pings lightning from very far away. Even in Tracking the detector chirped a lot over the wet and dry sand irrespective of the mode selected. I persevered with this detector for the duration of the trip away mainly because it was finding plenty of stuff even though it was a tad chatty over the sand. I will say though that I was able to run the sensitivity on 22. 25 was a bit too noisy. Winding the Sens down will eliminate the chattyness but depth will be lost, I normally run my detectors ground response slightly positive.

For best chance of finding gold rings and chains in dry land sites with the 600 operate in Park 2 All Metal.
For best chance of finding gold rings and chains at the beach use in All Metal  Beach 1 where possible over the wet or dry sand. If you can get park 1 to work over the dry sand at the beach then give it a go. Beach 2 is insensitive to light weight chains........Just my view; you may find differently.

The Gold Bug DP is a magic machine in the All Metal mode that will ground balance to the water line. The disc mode is of very little use over wet sand.
Targets that th EQ was blanking on the GB screamed over and gave a gave a TID that was interesting enough to make me want to recover the target.
   Nice machine. The Ground grab feature makes adjusting the ground balance over the dry to the wet sand fast and easy..Yes you have to do it often...If you don't you will miss plenty of items. If there is a gold chain beneath the coil of this tecta it will find it.

I did not run the Vallon this time out. I have used this tecta on the beaches before and it is great. Ground balances well all the way to the water. Is capable of finding very small chains and jewellery items and will have you digging deep holes. It is a bit heavy and the military HPs are a pain in the butt, however they work well. A very sensitive machine and like the Gold bug in All metal mode, it will find everything. If you don't want discrimination this tecta will keep you very happy with your finds tally.     It loves ferrous and microscopic bits of al foil.  

Just my opinion, not gospel.

Adrian, just a thought on your comments on the 600. What version of software do you have installed? I havent been to the beach for ages but it struck me that the latest updates are designed to enhance detection of coins on edge. For the type of hunting you are doing, it may be worthwhile going back to the original software and seeing if your results improve/change.
I do recall that when I first updated the 800 I had a suspicion that detecting in the wet sand wasn't as accurate, nothing I could prove on the day as insufficient deep targets but the suspicion remained.

How do I find out what software is installed and how do I change it?

You will need to download the software from the minelab link first to identify the software version and before doing the rollback.

How to update software is here: https://www.minelab.com/anzea/equinox-software-update-3-0

How to rollback to previous versions is described here: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7461-how-to-rollback-equinox-to-previous-software/

Good luck and look forward to hearing your thoughts

Heading to Batemans Bay tomorrow. Will compare the TDI and the EQ 600 for depth and sensitivity over the wet sand. Assuming my back and knees do not collapse.

Enjoy your time down there Adrian, Love to hear your thoughts and settings for the 600. Also which version of software used for any testing you do.
Must be good to get away from the Canberra cold for a while

Yes it was a good day but I only used the TDI. It is far deeper detecting at the beach in wet sand than the 600.
I was able to use the zero ground balance mode with conductivity in "All". Timing at 15usec, A very deep detecting mode when you can use it.
Bloody bobby pins at two foot peeved me a bit and sinkers at similar depths.
One strong low tone item kept slipping through the scoop and I gave it a miss at approx two foot in the water.

I don't know what soft ware is installed in the 600 but from exp with the 600 it is not in the same league as the TDI in zero GB mode.
The 600 with stock coil may match the TDI for depth on coin size items when the TDI is in GB mode and set for correct ground balance.

Just an opinion, others may disagree.

Been playing with the 600 lately and my over all opinion has not changed much other than having a better understanding of the modes and the different presets.
Am achieving better operation at the the beach by being a bit more fussy about the GB and Gain settings.
The disc displays and tones are still pretty dodgy on deep targets and tend to produce low intermittent / blanking sounds that change to good target tone as the coil gets closer to the target. The ferrous ID is not good at all (Safari is superior in that regard) causing lots of steel bottle tops to be recovered.
But the EQ is quiet until a target is detected, it is light weight and does not chirp when the coil touches the sand.
Pk 1 is definitely the deepest mode when you can use it and I only shift to another mode if ground conditions require it.

Took the 600 to the coast yesterday and did ok even though the weather was a bit rainy and windy in the afternoon. What the hell it is only water although the wind made it difficult to hear much in the hps.
  The beach was one I have not detected before due to thinking it would not be target productive. Big mistake.
Located plenty of deep pre decimal coins at around the 30cm mark up near a substantial cutaway. All coins had taken on a copper colour and were coated in a hard green crust with the 20 and 10 cent coins being the worst affected. Found only one piece of jewellery, a 9ct ear ring screw (0.36g).
   The 600 performed excellently all the way from dry sand to the low tide line. Park 1 & 2 worked well and changed to  Beach two in the very shallow water.
Will be going back to that beach due to the amount of deep targets located. If the locals have missed what i found then there is likely to be plenty more. Either that or nobody else has checked this particular beach......Where is this beach you may well ask?.....Hiding in plain view a few clicks from Broulee.  

Many of the recovered deep ish items caused a drop in the threshold tone but when checked in Pinpoint the coins produced a short rise and fall of the pinpoint tone that was within the diameter of the coil whereas the steel bottle caps and tent pegs produced signals that started outside the coil diam and was a broad signal. The pinpoint mode of the 600 is good (once you get the hang of it) and has no probs detecting deep coins.
   Ya gotta check those iffy signals fellas.

Gday Self; Ow yer going? Ahhh not bad mate....Woddaya been doing?  Nothing much but took the TDI to the coast today. Well i guess that was exciting
aye Self? Yeah was ok , the TDI goes bloody deep aye mate! Sure does Self. Yeah i was pulling targets out from a good 18 inches and a couple were deeper than that mate. Fair suck!! Jeeze that's flaming good Self. Yeah bloody great machine this for beach work n I was only running the gain at 4 coz I didn't want to be diggin really deep holes, me backs not good mate and this titanium knee gives me the sh..ts now and again. So what did yez find today Mate ? Ahhh sweet b...ger all mate....Don't call me mate I am Self. .

adrian ss wrote:Took the 600 to the coast yesterday and did ok even though the weather was a bit rainy and windy in the afternoon. What the hell it is only water although the wind made it difficult to hear much in the hps.
 
   The 600 performed excellently all the way from dry sand to the low tide line. Park 1 & 2 worked well and changed to Beach two in the very shallow water.

Adrian,
Interested in your comment about running in Park rather than beach mode.
What other settings do you change, obviously increasing the threshold to an audible level is one,
What do you consider is improved by running in Park rather than beach?
Given the above, are you having to deal with back sand at all?

G/Day mate.
I find that the EQ 600 in Pk 1 goes significantly deeper in the dry to slightly damp sand and has better sensitivity. I have not tried it over black sand but at a rough guess I reckon it would not like that very much. and beach modes would be better. PK 1 works all the way to the wet sand but does get a bit noisy and blanking can occure with significant loss of depth. I always give the PK 1 a try first before selecting any of the other modes.
I like the All Metal mode because I feel that the Iron ID is better....but that is just me, you may feel differently.
Just remember to re ground balance after switching modes and gain.
    If I get a repeatable blanking signal I will try other modes on that target just in case it turns to a good signal.
The TID of this little detector is as you once said (I think it was you ?)) in that the TID is not very accurate on deep small targets.

I did do some depth comparisons the other day between the TDI and the EQ and yeah as you would guess there is no similarity at all. The TDI is awesome at the beach. Those who like to cherry pick their targets by using discrimination will not be happy with the TDI but for the dig it all types like myself it is for me, like the Infinium...Bloody great.
For the discriminator crowd who set their disc to reject small ish iron, you are like in the gold fields, leaving gold in the ground.

adrian ss wrote:G/Day mate.
I find that the EQ 600 in Pk 1 goes significantly deeper in the dry to slightly damp sand and has better sensitivity. I have not tried it over black sand but at a rough guess I reckon it would not like that very much. and beach modes would be better. PK 1 works all the way to the wet sand but does get a bit noisy and blanking can occure with significant loss of depth. I always give the PK 1 a try first before selecting any of the other modes.
I like the All Metal mode because I feel that the Iron ID is better....but that is just me, you may feel differently.
Just remember to re ground balance after switching modes and gain.
    If I get a repeatable blanking signal I will try other modes on that target just in case it turns to a good signal.
The TID of this little detector is as you once said (I think it was you ?)) in that the TID is not very accurate on deep small targets.

I did do some depth comparisons the other day between the TDI and the EQ and yeah as you would guess there is no similarity at all. The TDI is awesome at the beach. Those who like to cherry pick their targets by using discrimination will not be happy with the TDI but for the dig it all types like myself it is for me, like the Infinium...Bloody great.  
For the discriminator crowd who set their disc to reject small ish iron, you are like in the gold fields, leaving gold in the ground.

Thanks for that Adrian,
I'll give your suggestions a go on the GC.with the 800.
I usually run all metal (2 tones) and dig everything. It slows me down a bit but when the beaches have been hit as hard as the GC, gotta do things differently.
I must admit to having got a bit lazy and have been running in all metal beach mode without ground balancing as per the handbook. I'll sometimes run in auto gb if theres much ground noise but always have a niggling suspicion that Im losing depth in auto gb. I also run a just audible threshold. I have rolled back to the V2 release of software as I wasnt happy with the changes in V3

I like the 5 tone setting and use 2 tone when I want to eliminate a lot of junk targets.
The 600 does assign same tone to a wide range of items which can get on my wick a bit at times.
I still don't know what upgrade level my tecta is because my comp will not allow me to download the app and I am not going to change my security settings just for that.
For me the difference between auto and manual GB is not noticeable but in manual you can set the GB slightly positive and that can achieve a bit more depth and sensitivity to small stuff. The down side being a bit more noise from the salt.

On occasions I have set the disc high in order to eliminate all but large ish gold rings and this usually results in a nice quiet days detecting and not finding much at all.

Put the TDI, Vanquish and EQ, n Safari  away today and gave the old Sov XS a run for the first time in years n years.
Fair dinkum I don't know why I bother with all these other machine. The Sov is still amazing  at the beach even if it is a bit insensitive to small gold chain.... Very few detectors do well on those items anyway...Cept fer me Gold bug DP.

Went to the coast with the Eq 600 last Sunday.
Nice day and a neap Low Tide, so I was able to go way out to to where the water is usually about 2 mtr deep and lots of waves. Figured I would do well on some long lost items......Wrong! Only one target signal in I hour of tecting and that was a steel bottle cap ......Fair dinkum! where were all the targets? I normally do well during neap tides. GRRRRRR! Got cheesed off and went to Mogo fer a cuppa and a poke around the shops.
Blimey the pickings are getting sllim these days..

They use Plastic Cards these days, does the 600 respond to plastic

Usually out at the lowest low tide line in water around a foot or so deep I find watches, rings and chains. I was about 50 mtrs further out than what i usually go at low tide but no luck at all. The EQ was running perfectly. There was a bit of wind noise so I may have missed a deep target or two.

The 600 does respond to my debit card in Park 2 with a low tone and a disc reading of 1.....I doubt that there would be too many bank cards washing around in the waves but up in the dry sand there is a chance of detecting these items with the 600.
My Vanquish 440 in Ring Mode also responds to my debit card with a low tone and TID Number of 1.