Nokta across the range
Nokta Target ID Chart Comparison: Legend Against Equinox and AT Pro
Quick answer
Target ID numbers do not transfer reliably between brands. The Legend and the Legend 2 use a 0 to 99 scale, Minelab cites 119 high resolution target ID segments for the Equinox 900 including a ferrous range below zero, and only the conductivity ordering is genuinely common to all of them.
Anybody who has owned two machines has made this mistake: learning a set of numbers on one detector, buying another, and expecting the chart to carry over. It does not, and understanding why saves a season of confusion. A target ID is not a measurement of the object in absolute units. It is each manufacturer's own way of expressing a conductivity measurement on a scale of their choosing.
What does transfer is the ordering. Iron at the bottom, foil and small gold low, nickel and tabs in the middle, copper and silver at the top, and large silver near the top of any scale. That is physics and it holds on every machine ever built. Everything else is a local convention, and this page sets out where the conventions agree and where they part company.
Top pick
Nokta The Legend Pro Pack
The Pro Pack ships with two coils and offers both multi frequency profiles and selectable single frequencies, which is the most capability per dollar in this comparison.
Price was accurate when this page was compiled and changes often.
How do the scales compare across brands?
This table compares the scales themselves rather than pretending to give an exact conversion, because an exact conversion does not exist. Anybody publishing a precise cross brand lookup table is guessing with confidence.
The Legend and Legend 2 present a 0 to 99 scale while Minelab cites 119 high resolution target ID segments for the Equinox 900, so the two cannot be mapped digit for digit.
| Machine | Scale as published | Ferrous handling | What this means for your chart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nokta The Legend | 0 to 99 | Iron at the bottom of the scale | Learn the bands on your own buried targets |
| Nokta The Legend 2 | 99 target IDs with harmonic tones | Iron at the bottom of the scale | Close to the Legend in layout, still worth re-measuring |
| Nokta Simplex Ultra | Two digit 0 to 99 style scale | Iron at the bottom of the scale | Broadly similar coin bands, different processing |
| Minelab Equinox 900 | 119 high resolution target IDs cited | Ferrous segments sit below zero | Non ferrous runs 0 to 99, so low band numbers differ most |
| Garrett AT Pro | Digital target ID with 40 levels of iron discrimination | Iron discrimination in 40 steps | A different convention again, check the Garrett manual |
Scale descriptions taken from each manufacturer's published listing features. The Equinox 900 figure of 119 segments is Minelab's own, and the catalogue records its non ferrous range as 0 to 99, which places the remaining segments below zero.
Where do the scales actually agree?
At the top. High conductive targets, meaning silver and copper coins, land in broadly similar territory on most two digit scales: the high 70s through the low 90s. If you move between machines and hunt coins, your instincts will survive the transition reasonably well.
Where they diverge hardest is the bottom half. The iron break point, the foil band and the pull tab band are exactly where manufacturers make different choices, and they are also exactly where gold lives. That is the cruel part: the region you most need to read accurately is the region least likely to transfer. Our Legend bands and Simplex bands are published separately for this reason rather than as one combined chart.
Why does the ordering transfer when the numbers do not?
Because the ordering is a consequence of physics rather than a design decision. A detector induces eddy currents in a buried object and measures the response. How strongly an object responds depends on its conductivity, its size and its shape. Silver is the best conductor of the common metals, so it sits high. Iron responds in a characteristically different way, so it sits at the bottom. No manufacturer can rearrange that ordering, and none would want to.
What each manufacturer chooses is how finely to divide the range, where to put the zero, and how to handle ferrous targets. Minelab dividing the range into 119 segments and Nokta presenting 99 are two ways of expressing the same underlying measurement. The frequency chart covers another part of the same story, since frequency selection also shifts where targets report.
How do I move a chart from one machine to another?
- Do not convert, re-measure. Arithmetic between two scales produces numbers that look authoritative and are wrong at exactly the depths where you needed them.
- Use the same physical targets. The same nail, the same nickel, the same dime, the same quarter, buried in the same test row. Identical objects are what makes the two sets of readings comparable.
- Read both machines the same day. Soil moisture changes readings, so measuring one machine in a dry week and the other after rain compares the weather rather than the detectors.
- Record both depths again. Two inches and six inches on both machines. The way each machine degrades with depth is more useful than either set of surface numbers.
- Keep the old card. If you go back to the first machine, or hunt with a partner running one, the numbers are still worth having.
Sources
- Nokta The Legend and The Legend 2 published listing features and user manuals
- Minelab Equinox 900 instruction manual and published listing features
- Garrett AT Pro published listing features and owner manual
- Nokta Simplex Ultra published listing features
Frequently asked questions
Can I convert Equinox target IDs to Legend numbers?
Not with any reliability. Minelab cites 119 high resolution target ID segments for the Equinox 900 while Nokta presents a 0 to 99 scale, and the two machines process signals differently. Coin bands land in broadly similar places, and the low and mid bands, where gold and small jewellery live, diverge most. Re-measure your own buried test targets on the new machine rather than converting numbers.
Which machine has the most accurate target ID?
Accuracy in target ID means consistency in your soil rather than resolution on paper. A machine reporting 119 segments is not automatically more accurate than one reporting 99, because the limiting factor is almost always the ground rather than the display. Simultaneous multi frequency generally produces more stable readings in mineralised or salty soil, which in practice is what most people mean by accuracy.
Does the AT Pro use the same numbering as Nokta?
It uses a different convention again. Garrett's published listing for the AT Pro describes high resolution iron discrimination with 40 levels alongside proportional audio and tone roll, which is a different way of presenting ferrous information from either Nokta or Minelab. Check the target ID scale in the Garrett manual for your machine, and build your own chart on buried samples rather than importing one.
Why do two identical machines read the same coin differently?
Firmware version, settings, coil, ground balance and the exact position of the coil over the target all contribute. Two machines of the same model running different firmware can process a marginal signal differently, and Nokta publishes updates for these platforms. This is why the only chart worth trusting is one you measured yourself, on your machine, in your soil, and re-checked after any firmware update.
Should I keep a written target ID card?
Yes, and keep it in the bag rather than in your head. Write the target, the number at two inches, the number at six inches, the mode and the coil. Re-read it after a firmware update or a coil change. It takes one afternoon to produce and it is worth more than every published chart combined, because it is the only one measured in the ground you actually hunt.
Researched, not professional advice. This page is compiled from published specifications, manuals and owner-review consensus, not hands-on testing. Target ID numbers, depth figures and settings vary with soil chemistry, moisture, target size, depth, orientation and firmware version, so treat every figure here as a starting point and verify it against your own machine's manual and your own ground. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.