Field Test Minelab Equinox 800

For many months, the detecting scene has been buzzing about the arrival of an innovative new machine that promised to challenge most of the high-end detectors that currently dominate the scene. It seemed everyone was eager to hear more about the Minelab Equinox detectors, including myself.

- David Stuckey

My colleague, Julian Evan-Hart, suggested some time ago that one of these machines might become available for me to field test for Treasure Hunting magazine – I was filled with trepidation. As I’m getting on in age, I often wonder if I can embrace such rapidly evolving technology. After all, I still use a tiny pay-as-you-go flip-phone!

Then suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, Julian informed me that an Equinox 800 was coming my way for a field test – and that it was due to arrive the following day! It came as no surprise to me that I should get a text from my wife, whilst I was at work, informing me that a ‘massive’ package had arrived in the post. When I got home, I eagerly unpacked the machine to see what the new Equinox looked like. Looking at it in its box I was suitably impressed by the compactness of it all (Fig.1). In no time I had it unpacked and had managed to put it together, without even having to consult the manual – it was that straightforward.

The first thing I noticed was the incredible lightness of the machine compared to my own one. The Equinox weighs in at just 1.34kgs (2.96lbs). As I unpacked the rest of the box, I looked for the instruction manual. There wasn’t one. Instead there was an A4 folded sheet which gave basic instructions on what-was-what on the control panel. Instructions, it turned out, have to be downloaded from the Minelab website. This was perhaps my first frustration; it’s a necessity to have an instruction manual with you when you take a machine out for testing for the first few times, and I was due to take it out the following day! It wasn’t practical for me to download the instructions and print off reams of pages to take with me. I had little option but to take the folded sheet and try to work out the basics for myself.