Let's talk Equinox tech- 3F×3, 5F×8,...?

erte

Full Member
Mar 19, 2017
113
68
Croatia
Detector(s) used
gpx 4800, tdi pro, sov gt/xs, sand shark 10.5'', vaquero
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
https://www.minelab.com/knowledge-base/key-technologies#259000

from the minelab technolgy page it says:

for equinox 600:
3F×3​ (Three Frequency Times Three) provides three individual transmit frequencies in the one metal detector, selectable at the push of a button. Each transmit frequency optimises the detector for different size targets and conditions. EQUINOX 600 offers 3 single frequencies of 5, 10, and 15 kHz, giving a 3 times range or ratio from 5 to 15, hence the 3F×3 technology designation.

for equinox 800:
5F×8​ (Five Frequency Times Eight) provides five individual transmit frequencies in the one metal detector, selectable at the push of a button. Each transmit frequency optimises the detector for different size targets and conditions. EQUINOX 800 offers 5 single frequencies of 5, 10,15, 20, and 40 kHz, giving an 8 times range or ratio from 5 to 40, hence the 5F×8 technology designation.


anyways looking more specifically how for the nox 600- ' giving a 3 times range or ratio from 5 to 15, hence the 3F×3 technology designation'

and nox 800- 'giving an 8 times range or ratio from 5 to 40, hence the 5F×8 technology designation'

now looking more specifically at this second part in the ?F×? number....could this technology be expanded to possibly 20, 50, 100, 1000 times the range for depth? looking at depths of possibly 5ft or more on a coin with this type of technology? could be reasonable i don't know but all i see is that the 3F×3 and 5F×8 technology both fit in the same control box and have an equal power supply. The nox technology doesn't seem to be too expensive to produce from my view and don't know why minelab set the 600 to only 3F×3 and 800 to 5F×8, they probably could have released the nox 600 with at least 3F×8 and equinox 800 at something like 5F×12, but then looking from a company's point of view they couldn't do this because it would be a far deeper machine than their more expensive ctx:dontknow:
 

WIDirtFishing

Sr. Member
Apr 29, 2010
322
129
Twin Cities, MN
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800

Past:
Tesoro Tiger Shark
Tesoro Silver uMax
AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
https://www.minelab.com/knowledge-base/key-technologies#259000

from the minelab technolgy page it says:

for equinox 600:
3F×3​ (Three Frequency Times Three) provides three individual transmit frequencies in the one metal detector, selectable at the push of a button. Each transmit frequency optimises the detector for different size targets and conditions. EQUINOX 600 offers 3 single frequencies of 5, 10, and 15 kHz, giving a 3 times range or ratio from 5 to 15, hence the 3F×3 technology designation.

for equinox 800:
5F×8​ (Five Frequency Times Eight) provides five individual transmit frequencies in the one metal detector, selectable at the push of a button. Each transmit frequency optimises the detector for different size targets and conditions. EQUINOX 800 offers 5 single frequencies of 5, 10,15, 20, and 40 kHz, giving an 8 times range or ratio from 5 to 40, hence the 5F×8 technology designation.


anyways looking more specifically how for the nox 600- ' giving a 3 times range or ratio from 5 to 15, hence the 3F×3 technology designation'

and nox 800- 'giving an 8 times range or ratio from 5 to 40, hence the 5F×8 technology designation'

now looking more specifically at this second part in the ?F×? number....could this technology be expanded to possibly 20, 50, 100, 1000 times the range for depth? looking at depths of possibly 5ft or more on a coin with this type of technology? could be reasonable i don't know but all i see is that the 3F×3 and 5F×8 technology both fit in the same control box and have an equal power supply. The nox technology doesn't seem to be too expensive to produce from my view and don't know why minelab set the 600 to only 3F×3 and 800 to 5F×8, they probably could have released the nox 600 with at least 3F×8 and equinox 800 at something like 5F×12, but then looking from a company's point of view they couldn't do this because it would be a far deeper machine than their more expensive ctx:dontknow:


For the sake of clarity it's important to mention that the Equinox 600 DOES have the 20 & 40 kHz frequencies, BUT they are only accessible when in "Multi-IQ". They just can not be individually selected.

To answer your question though, it will be interesting to see with software updates if they do add anything or if they will have regular firmware updates like the Deus Series. Time shall tell
 

Echoplex

Sr. Member
Feb 28, 2015
391
1,009
Detector(s) used
Equinox 800, MXT All Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
IMO it's just new Minelab jargon that looks impressive on the spec sheet. The "3Fx3 and 5Fx8" are just overly-complicated ways of describing the range of each model's single frequency modes. 15 divided by 5, so 3x; 40 divided by 5, so 8x.
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,377
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
And frankly, running single frequency is really only going to happen with me if I have NO other choice because of an EMI issue because you are missing out on the whole point of the Equinox which is to run Multi IQ. That is where the magic happens. You still have to manually dig up the targets, though. They don't magically leap into your pouch. Sorry if that is what you thought I meant by magic.

There is no point expanding out the single frequency range because that really does nothing for you. It also does not make the machine "deeper". For a high conductivity target, higher frequencies actually lower detection depth while they do hit harder on mid-conductive targets.

I honestly think ML only provided single frequency operation as a "comfort factor" feature to those most familiar with single frequency machines (AT Pro/Max/Gold, Fisher F series, Tek Patriot Series, BH, Whites MX Pro, Sport, etc., Makro Racer etc.) or non-simultaneous multi-frequency machines like the Impact, Multi-Kruzer, and Deus. It really doesn't serve up much usefulness when you have simultaneous multifrequency except rare situations such as EMI or arcane target interrogation techniques to, say, ferret out crown caps (which can be done more simply by just punching the All Metal button). So talking about "enhancing" it by adding even more single frequencies is somewhat pointless. ML even went away from using 20 and 40 khz in single frequency mode for Gold Mode on the 800 when it became obvious that Multi IQ was testing out to be superior as folks were finding small gold in the other "hot" Multi IQ modes (i.e., Park 2 or Field 2).
 

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