About this replacement
Minelab Equinox 700 / 900 / Manticore / ELITE — 3.7V Li-ion Replacement Battery (3011-0456)
This 3.7V, 5200mAh (19.24Wh) Li-ion cell replaces the factory pack in the Minelab Equinox 700, Equinox 900, Manticore, and ELITE detector series. OEM part numbers covered: 3011-0456, 3011-0486, 3030-0046, and 3030-0048. Dimensions are 67.30 × 37.00 × 19.80mm — confirm your pack matches before ordering.
- Equinox and Manticore platform fit: These models share a common battery bay geometry and connector pinout across the current multi-frequency platform. The BMS handshake uses the same three-wire communication line, so one cell SKU covers the full detector family without adapter modifications.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this pack through detector power-on, coil initialisation, and sustained multi-frequency sweep loads. The BMS held steady through the inrush current spike at coil power-up — the point where weak or mismatched cells typically trip the protection circuit and cause an immediate shutdown.
- First power-up after installation: After fitting this pack, run a full detector ground balance and noise cancel sequence before heading into the field. The detector maps battery state during that initialisation routine — skipping it causes the low-battery indicator to fire prematurely on the first real session, even with a fully charged cell.
BMS cutoff during coil initialisation on Equinox and Manticore
When the Equinox 900 or Manticore powers on, the coil draws a brief inrush current as the multi-frequency transmit circuit initialises. An aged or deeply discharged pack can't sustain that spike, and the BMS trips the protection circuit before the detector fully boots. This looks like the detector powering on and immediately shutting off — not a firmware fault. A cell with adequate sustained discharge capacity handles the spike without dropping below the BMS cutoff threshold. If the detector boots cleanly after a full charge but shuts off at the coil-ready stage, the original pack is the cause.
Detector shows battery percentage jumping or resetting mid-session
The Equinox and Manticore series use a voltage-threshold method to estimate charge state — not a dedicated fuel gauge IC. When a cell ages, its voltage curve flattens and then drops sharply, so the detector reads a stable percentage for most of the session and then falls rapidly to zero. A new cell restores a predictable voltage curve, but the detector's internal estimate needs one full charge-discharge cycle to recalibrate its thresholds to the new cell. Run one complete field session from full charge to automatic low-battery shutoff, then recharge fully — the percentage readout will track accurately from that point on.