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A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem.

Interesting that there is a lawsuit. I wonder if Quest had any patents on the current “cell phone” pod handle layout?(although a general layout probably isn’t able to be patented) Seems like they brought us the first version of the current trend in design. Although I remember Quest being sued by FirstTexas for cloning the T2 if my memory serves me correctly?

Yeah it’s went from Makro and Nokta….then MakNok……now Nokta. Always seemed like a Buick, Pontiac, Chevrolet all being General Motors deal.

Another great video from Nenad, Testing on hard to see gold - E1500 & GPX6000 - YouTube

Hi Mike if you are still here I bumped you to Full Member status. The ten limit per day for new members is indeed there to stop mega spammers, and you are not one.

Here we go again, just got this email. OMG only 9 left, better buy now!!!! At this rate those nine are going to last about five years or more.

Unless we are Simon and in Cointopia we will never know how many pieces of trash and goodies are at a site. We just don't know if we are the first or the 20th detector over a piece of park unless we have been there before. What are we hearing? Trash, ignored trash, fresh drop, deep missed trash, notched out misses, Minelab misses, AT misses, etc. etc. The same somewhat applies to nugget patches. Why is that target still there? It is a hammered site. As Steve has said we just have to get 'lucky' to be at the right place at the right time to find a good piece. Sometimes that happens when we dig everything and sometimes it is with a new detector cherry picking. Trash is good and trash is bad. Digging everything is good and digging everything hurts the back. Detecting often is the common denominator! (or sometimes not) haha We all have stories. Now ... consistency is another matter. The body of work and finds. That takes some of the luck out of it.

Yes, Geotech's video in another thread about carbon rods shows this clearly.. The rods don’t react when the detector is in multi-frequency beach mode (where the rod’s signal is filtered out just like a salt signal).. I'm thinking about times when I'm not using my detectors in beach mode.. For me it's a bit like noticing a weird engine noise when I'm driving along.. It could be nothing and have zero effect on the car's performance, but my mind won't rest easy until the noise is gone.. I know that's probably irrational and I agree that for many years no one realized there even was a problem.. But now the problem has been brought to our attention, I can't stop hearing the weird engine noise.. And for simple peace of mind I'll fix the problem even though it might not be a problem at all.. I don't need additional background noise when detecting, where I'm constantly second guessing myself wondering if that iffy signal is the rod or a juicy bit of gold.. Just like everyone else I like to squeeze the most out of my detectors, and this means that from now on I'm using plastic lower rods even in salt water.. Maybe an overkill but also peace of mind..

Mike and I were having a little private discussion behind the scenes about his problem where I was reassuring him he would be fine with his warranty, and he was. He let the store he purchased at deal with it, good move. He's unable to post being a new member he's exceeded his posts limit however, here is his reply so the thread can end on a nice happy note. MichaelHill I'm not ignoring you guys on the thread, the site says I have reach my maximum amount of post for the day, never experienced that on a forum before. I'm assuming it's cause I'm a new member on a "probation" period? Maybe it will allow me to post an update tomorrow. Anyway, great news. I was able to exchange the unit for a brand new one at the store it was purchased at, so now I have a brand new Equinox 900, and it is fully updated. I was elated to hear they would exchange the unit no problem. Hopefully I will be able to post tomorrow 👍

I have always prided myself in my ability to cherry pick gold targets by digging that “gold sound” and in general I have probably done ok at it. I know that I have gone back to places I have cherry picked to dig trash out of desperation thinking I must have left gold behind, and in most cases I did not leave much. Yet just when I am giving myself a pat on the back a really trashy target will turn into gold. Many nuggets that sounded really bad for various reasons. With jewelry there was that balled up gold chain that sounded like crap, and that irregularly shaped pendant. Most ear rings get left as small foil targets. In the end we never know what the items we did not dig are, and given my years and volume of gold dug I can only assume I have left a lot of gold in the ground. Pounds probably. It’s just a time thing. I know many gold patches that once seemed full of targets, trash and gold, but years later now we are struggling to find any targets at all. Most places get ‘hunted out” but in the case of nugget hunters it’s more like we sanitize a patch. Regular parks replenish trash faster than we can deplete it, making cherry picking a necessity, but most soccer fields around here there is not one bit of aluminum to be found. Time, and how good is the site? A general park gets tons of people, tons of trash, odds not so good. So cherry pick. Soccer fields? Prime time jewelry site so people hit them and dig every aluminum signal until they do actually deplete out. Don’t know, no right or wrong about it really as long as we are having fun doing whatever we are doing. A few finds….

There is no MakNok now - it’s just Nokta.

No, it's not a required step.

This is a very good idea and will probably also be the quickest way to find out. Although with three coils available I would need two more rods to change them frequently.

Do the Minelabs require the factory reset after installing the update like the Legend does?

If you're really that curious, why not just detach the coil from the shaft and hold it in your hand and sweep a bit next dive. Use it for a few yards until you can tell if there is any falsing difference than when it's attached. (Don't wear a wrist watch that arm!)

I’m hoping that whatever the Vortex brings to the table in terms of performance improvement over the Apex, Garrett brings SOME of that improvement to the Apex in terms of an update. If it written in C or code a language that can be compiled to run on the Apex platform, why not. They could “Muntz” the code to allow a little more adjustability and performance over current code in the Apex. It’ll bolster sales of both products-AKA- “New and improved Apex, and for even more performance, upgrade to a Vortex”.

I have no way to create a mold right now and it will probably be a job to be done within two weeks. Certainly, with all the coils I can't go more than 20 points without encountering false signal, and in spite of what it sounds like, the rod might instead have some weight, because only moving the detector really slowly will reduce the effect. I am not contradicting @midalake or confirming without first testing with a plastic rod end... We shall see

A great year and a great partnership!

Yep, I was most concerned at him saying it "lost power", thinking he accidently knocked out the cord while the update was taking place causing it to fail, which technically isn't a warranty claim unless Minelab are nice. When he described the situation better the point it failed was when the detector does its reboot during the flash, it just went black on the screen as it's meant to do, and never got past that and locked up. That's why I told him to be very clear with Minelab what happened, explain it well. It may well just need the battery disconnected to fix its "lockup" and then it might restart and be fine, but that's best left for Minelab service to check out. I'm sure his warranty is fine, as it's clear he wasn't in the wrong. Updates are done in a way that's far safer than it used to be, and firmware recovery should work if something goes wrong, until it doesn't. I wouldn't be too concerned about doing future updates, in most cases they're perfectly safe, you've got to be pretty unlucky to encounter a problem. Knowing Minelab that's likely the last ever update for it anyway.

Most cars look the same, or very similar, do the same stuff yet they're different brands. No way in the world are Minelab licensing anything to Nokta, they're likely their biggest competitor. Minelab are chasing Nokta down on a lawsuit that they could probably chase other brands down on too, yet they're going after Nokta, a really old patent too, but it's all they had to go after them with so they are. Nokta are doing their own thing for sure, and so far the most successful at chasing down Minelab, they're the ones forcing Minelab to release these new lower priced models, they've got Minelab worried.

Coiltek better be ready and have a whole lot of the 9" Round Elites over there pending its arrival, the other notable coil of choice would be the 14x9" Nugget Finder EVO, while avoiding the 12x8" EVO, it's a bit rough on it and plenty of people giving that report. The 12" EVO seems a reasonable choice too, along with the 11" Coiltek Elite. I'm been following the Aussies also and the 14x9" EVO and 9" Elite seem to be the general consensus for the best two readily available coils for it. The Sadie is very over-rated in my opinion, unless size matters it's not a good choice as the larger spirals are more sensitive and deeper. Dealers intending to sell it, it would be wise to have those two coils on offer. Hopefully Algoforce can ramp up production enough to meet demand, that's been the biggest issue so far with the detector well received. USA's over 330 million population is a big jump from Australa's 25 or so million, add NZ on and it's just over 30 million combined, nothing compared to USA. People with a bunch of coils from their GPX will have some fun trying them all out and working out their favourites, most coils will work well, the ones that won't the detector will mostly let you know during calibration by Ultra Fine mode (the most sensitive) failing calibration. Coils that fail that I'd be iffy at using on my GPX too, especially if another one of the same coil passes it, it can be used to diagnose problematic coils 🙂

Used twice, found gold both times with my 6000. Excellent condition. $265 shipped OBO

All I can say is they need a better setup. There are gold mining operations that turn a profit mining what they are losing.

It’s always seemed like Minelab must be licensing tech to MakNok?? With the similarities of the coils used on the newer machines to the GP style boxes they used on the older Nokta FORS machines and the constant trade off of “race to the bottom “ mid to entry level machines in the last year or two it just seems like there has to be some kind of agreement otherwise there would be lawsuits??? I’ve used a few MakNok machines (fors, kruzer, legend) since they’ve came out but just never enjoyed the audio. They just seem to sizzly to my ear and I was never able to get to like the tones. Fortunately we’re in an age with many options!!!

I'm rootin for garrett for sure. Imo, minelab still leads in the smf technology. In my mild soil, the legend just didn't stack up with the nox, heck, the vanquish worked as well for me. Not to say the noktas are bad, just seemed to be lacking in a few areas. I got an early apex and loved the setup, build quality, coils and pretty much everything about it. Except in performance. It just didn't have it in the smf area. I hope for their sake, they've blown this out of the water. I'll wait a bit on this though to see what the verdict is as i know there will be all eyes on it hard and fast. This is the only thing keeping me from buying a new xt elite right now.