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Why First Texas Is Not Going Anywhere


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2 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

And what about XP????

RR

What about them? Honestly, they are a one trick pony so far. Deus is amazing, not doubt about it. But ORX is just Deus Light, a subset at a lower price. Where is the genuine waterproof beach machine? Their true multifrequency machine? Their PI detector? Love to see them. They are doing great with Deus but unless they break out of that mold they are limited going forward. NokMak is moving aggressively on all fronts. They are committed to true multifrequency next in the Simplex housing and PI in the works also. Not a hint from XP those things are coming, though we should not count them out.

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XP marketing is ......inexistant.Same as fisher .Nokmak is different i agree.For XP I am pretty sure something is in the making.

Personally for Nokmak at the moment they havent release a machine which grabbed my attention or precisely my needs but i bought a propointer mainly for the price it is well manufactured and tick all the boxes.

 

RR

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9 hours ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

I don't think First Texas has anyone on board who understands multi-frequency technology; they are essentially a single frequency VLF company and don't appear to have a problem being such.  

I don't know, Dave Johnson is still there, but no idea what he's up to, and they have Carl Moreland that was on the White's V3i team, so they do have the expertise to build a SMF machine, but Carl once stated that a typical VLF machine has about 10,000 lines of software code vs a SMF like the White's V3i which has over 100,000 lines of code, so it's multiple magnitudes of increased complexity to design a SMF detector. 

BTW Carl frequents this forum and I'm sure he's reading these posts.  Unfortunately FTP is tight lipped about everything, so he cannot really say much about what's going on.  He's hinted that there's big projects in the works, but than again that's been the word on the street for eons.    It sure would be fun to see FTP or Nokta/Makro make a SMF that can compete or best the Equinox.  

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FTP and any of these companies wanting to delve further into SMF have to wade through Minelab's patents.  And Minelab continues to pump out patents on a regular basis.  So with each passing day they stake out more technology territory which they will defend.  And they have proven it by whacking White's and XP on the nose. 

FTP circuits.......I don't think Flextronics is very concerned.😁 

But I'm sure their NightVision stuff is a hot seller in California because they keep turning off the electricity.😊

 

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On 11/13/2019 at 1:20 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

(First Texas) needs something to counter Equinox, no doubt about it. I have faith Carl can do it. The question is whether management has the will to drive that aspect of the company forward or not. The fact they were willing to invest in something as oddball as Manta tells me yes. I think people counting FT out will be surprised still. At least I am hoping so! 

And not all that long ago (in detector development years😁) they hired Carl.  I don't think that was so he would help make night vision goggles.

 

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On 11/13/2019 at 6:21 PM, LowTide said:

FTP and any of these companies wanting to delve further into SMF have to wade through Minelab's patents.  And Minelab continues to pump out patents on a regular basis.  So with each passing day they stake out more technology territory which they will defend.  And they have proven it by whacking White's and XP on the nose. 

FTP circuits.......I don't think Flextronics is very concerned.😁 

But I'm sure their NightVision stuff is a hot seller in California because they keep turning off the electricity.😊

 

That's not really true, that's only true if they want to copy ML, and patents only last for so long.:

A U.S. utility patent, explained above, is generally granted for 20 years from the date the patent application is filed; however, periodic fees are required to maintain the enforceability of the patent. A design patent is generally granted protection for 14 years measured from the date the design patent is granted.

So anyone could make a SMF machine they just need to make sure that their SMF technology isn't a copy of ML Multi-IQ, as BBS and FBS patents should have run their shelf life.  

Not only that, but how does a patent filed in one country affect another country?  I don't actually know, although I suppose I could ask our patent attorneys at work, but they probably have better things to do than discuss metal detector patents with me haha

 

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Unless ML filed for patent protection in the US, they would have no protection in the US. From what I learned chasing my patent, you must file in every country where you want patent protection.  In most cases, it's not worth the hassle and cost to pursue patents elsewhere for Americans, unless you have pretty decent worldwide marketing. But for other countries the US is a BIG market, so is worth the effort.

Jim

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11 minutes ago, Jim in Idaho said:

Unless ML filed for patent protection in the US, they would have no protection in the US. From what I learned chasing my patent, you must file in every country where you want patent protection.  In most cases, it's not worth the hassle and cost to pursue patents elsewhere for Americans, unless you have pretty decent worldwide marketing. But for other countries the US is a BIG market, so is worth the effort.

Jim

That makes a lot of sense, because why would a U.S. attorney/court be able to enforce a law from another country - simple answer is (for the most part) they cannot.

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Mass production of electronic circuits and devices is the real root of the whole enterprise. I believe that Tom Walsh (the CEO) manufactured PCB’s and small integrated devices for the automotive market at a Maquiladora in Juarez for years before he saw the opportunity in metal detectors.  Others were building low volume machines with lots of hand labor. Tom bought a couple of defunct brands, Teknetics and Bounty Hunter and used their designs to bring out a line of mass produced machines.  He then hired Dave Johnson to be chief designer and shortly thereafter FT acquired Fisher which was teetering on the bank of extinction due to terrible management and a series of ”Strike” machines which sold poorly.

With a new term of engineers, including Dave Johnson, they produced a full line of Fisher and Teknetics products as well as numerous Bounty Hunter models.

Carl Moreland was hired in early 2014 - after he left Whites.

Carl saw Alexandre Tartar’s posts on Carl’s Geotech website and contacted him. The end result was FT acquiring the Manta project and hiring the “Euroteam”.  

 

 

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