Pulse Dive - A First Impression

[Oiwon]

After much deliberation I finally pulled the trigger on the Nokta/Makro pulse dive. My old pp crapped out and this seemed like a logical choice for me because A: it's a waterproof pinpointer and B: it doubles as an underwater hand-held detector. I've constantly been gathering feedback online about this machine as it had sparked my curiosity from the first glance. It arrived Wed in a nice heavy duty carrying case. The case isn't something I would lug around, but it is perfect for garage/closet storage. (or just a cool decoration on my cabinet)

Taking into consideration the carrying case, the versatility, the pp coil-cover and the waterproofness it seemed like a good bargain, and I must say, 160 bucks and a few days later I still feel that way. 

It definitely doesn't feel like a toy.. (but it's as fun as one) You can tell some thought went in to this thing when you pick it up and start pushing buttons and connecting and disconnecting things. No it doesn't have the depth that a nox or a fisher has, but having had one, I believe it exceeds the depth of a garrett carrot. What do you expect? It's a smaller handheld device. I have to admit that what i saw from the air tests, and lack of air tests online left me feeling underwhelmed and hesitant, however since powering it up the first time I have been pleasantly surprised by its responsiveness. I have tested it on several gold and silver pieces of jewelry we have here and it was able to pick them all up. No this isn't a fine tooth comb, and perhaps there are things it will miss, but it also doesn't discriminate - i mean you can come up with a hundred things it's not, and it wont do. Let me tell you what it has done for me so far. It has solved my lack of a pinpointer problem. It has made my underwater searching way easier and allowed me to cover more ground and recover targets faster. I no longer have to lug around my nox in the rolling waves if I don't want to. I can easily swing my arm around under water while i kneel, crawl, float, lay on my belly, or swim around.

Maybe I hit the jackpot when I took it to the beach today and 5 minutes into my first hunt, found my first target, a beautiful diamond or diamond-ish ring. (GF already stole it from me - see pics below.) 

It was about 3 - 4 inches below the sand under about 3 feet of water. 

Most fun i've had detecting in a long time. Not an excal. Not a sandshark. Just a fun way to search for stuff while you swim. Now I have only taken it out once and plan to add some more updates as i continue use in the future but wanted to share this with the community for those who might be interested and those who may be on the fence. In my opinion if you are considering spending $100+ on a PP why not get something with a bit more utility? Especially if you mess around in the wet water stuff like i do. 

Seems durable. Nice weight to it. The vibrate function and sound works very well. The coil attachments are very easy to take on and off. It also came with a lanyard that i conveniently hooped around my wrist. Just dont forget to put the waterproof cap back on the bottom after charging - before you leave the house and walk to the beach, otherwise you will have to walk all the way back to the house to get it and then walk all the way back to the beach again. Anyways, i had a blast and I cant wait to take it for another spin. Don't really understand all the negative feedback i've seen online, though it's still early. If you are considering getting one and your expectations are realistic, i think you will be pleasantly surprised. The lil lady says she wants to get one as well. 

I can't really speak about how it compares to the Quest handheld or other similar style detectors because I haven't used them. Also i am not affiliated with this company nor any other company.

Cheers and HH all

[GB_Amateur]

Excellent review.  I wish there were more pinpointer reviews (guess I could help there...🙄).  Have you tried it as just a pinpointer, without the small coil?  I don't beach hunt so it would be more useful to me as simply a gun barrel pinpointer, although I can imagine the coil mode being useful on special occasions.

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Great report, thanks for taking the time to let us know! 

[Oiwon]

17 hours ago, phrunt said:

That's a really good "real" review. I like it.  It's probably paid for itself already, what are the chances of that, it's a mighty big ocean out there and a mighty small coil, it must be a sign you bought the right gadget for the job 🙂

Thanks. Well, I definitely kicked the tires on this one for a good while waiting for info to come in. As far as the find, living near a tourist infested beach didn't hurt my chances. I knew just the spot to test it out.  🙂

Cheers!

[Oiwon]

21 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Excellent review.  I wish there were more pinpointer reviews (guess I could help there...🙄).  Have you tried it as just a pinpointer, without the small coil?  I don't beach hunt so it would be more useful to me as simply a gun barrel pinpointer, although I can imagine the coil mode being useful on special occasions.

 

Pinpointer seems to get the job done. I don't really have high standards for pinpointers, other than it's gotta be waterproof and it's gotta save me time. This one definitely is a bit thicker and has more heft to it than other pointers i've used, but I wouldn't say it's awkward to hold or carry whatsoever. Nitpicking here but a couple gripes would be that it doesn't do a flatline type beep when it gets super close to the target which some of the other pointers out there do - it just beeps very fast whether you are 2 inches away or 1 inch away or touching it. Not that it really matters all that much, to me at least. I think it just has a slower/single beep and a much faster beep which again, is enough for me but may not be for others. I'm not sure if that's simply a side-effect of it being pulse induction.

Another would be that, it came with a pinpinter cover which is cool except, it seems to slightly reduce sensitivity when attached. I'll have to take it out on a park hunt for further fun/testing see how it performs with both the cover on and off. Here's a vid someone made that i posted on a different topic that shows it out in the field. Hopefully it addresses your questions. Cheers and thanks for the kind remarks!

 

 

[Oiwon]

19 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Great report, thanks for taking the time to let us know! 

My pleasure! I learn so much from these forums and youtube etc, so it's nice to be able to pay it back. Glad I could share the fun with y'all!