Fisher Impulse AQ Unboxing & First Photos

[danielbecerra]

Regards Rick, I hope better soon !!!! I heard unofficially that Fisher informed the distributors of Europe that in May it will be on sale !!!

[PimentoUK]

I guess your illness means you weren't able to make a " Reboxing Video" ??? Hehe.

Get well soon, Sir.

[Tony]

3 hours ago, danielbecerra said:

Regards Rick, I hope better soon !!!! I heard unofficially that Fisher informed the distributors of Europe that in May it will be on sale !!!

Which means in all likelihood it will be 6 months away 😩

[Steve Herschbach]

I have to be honest and say something seems odd about all this Rick. Given your original excited post about unboxing videos and such it sure fizzled out quick. I understand you were not well for a time, but it also seems there was no rush to return the detector to FT so quickly if it’s just going to sit there waiting to be updated. I know if I had had my hands on the detector it would have been like any other detector I’ve got my hands on. Closeup good photos of the machine from every angle possible, including coil, battery, and rod as separate items. Weights and lengths on all components, etc. There is a lot that you could have shared about the machine without it ever leaving your house.

See my Nokta/Makro Gold Kruzer Review of an example of what I am talking about. And while you don’t live at the beach, no air tests on coins? No tests on a buried nickel?

It just all seems weird to me that you had this machine in your hands, and then so little ultimately was said before you sent it back to FT. You get this first example of a long anticipated detector, and basically just post a couple pictures of it and send it back? I can’t help but get the feeling there is more to the story than you are letting on here. I’m not questioning your word on anything you have said at all. I’m just wondering why so little has been said. The lack of any more photos is especially puzzling to me. It’s like you were all excited, literally a kid with a new toy under the Christmas tree wanting to tell everyone about it, and then completely lost interest in sharing about the new toy.

[Rick K - First Member]

Tim requested that I return the detector on 9 Jan. I did so the next day. In our conversation on the 9th, he mentioned the certification issues and gave me no great amount of detail. Even if he had, I doubt I would be allowed to publicly post it. Tom Walsh owns FTP, not me.

I never made any pretense of considering myself qualified by either my inland location or my relatively limited beach hunting experience. I leave expert testing to those more favorably qualified and located. 

Should Tim have sold the machine to someone else - guess you have to ask him.

My intention with having the AQ was to enable me to totally familiarize me with its operating characteristics, including the action of the various controls and their interaction with each other. This would be building on the few days I had in 2018 and May 2019 with prototypes. I believe that I achieved some useful progress with this as detailed in my lengthy post on this forum about the controls and their function and effects.

One of the reasons this was important to me is that I have been invited to review and comment on the user documentation which under development.

Also during this period I have spent approximately 3 hours on Skype video calls with Alexandre Tartar durning which he went into great depth on various aspects of the AQ’s key characteristics involving sampling of target and ground signals and how the channels are used to provide information to the user - especially the function of the pulse delay and rejection controls and how they modify the timings. Much of this information is proprietary and I am bound by NDA regarding it.

Sorry to disappoint everyone, but it’s been a tough end to 2019 and start to 2020. Long simmering gastric problem put me in the hospital for 3 days this last week - I got out on Tuesday. Long recovery from urinary tract surgery in mid November climaxed yesterday with another long night in the emergency room and one of those fun catheters to walk around with till I can get to my urologist - hopefully tomorrow unless he has MLK day off.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures Alexandre asked me to take since even he does not have a production unit in hand. You may uses them for this forum in any way you like with attribution.

[Chase Goldman]

Rick, thanks for the up close AQ pics and for a quick recovery from your health issues.

[PimentoUK]

I don't know if FT are getting feedback from this thread, but ...
a question was asked on a UK forum about charging both battery packs simultaneously. Based on the above photo, it seems that one at a time is all that's possible , with the charger supplied. Do you, Rick, have any indication of charge time, eg. 5 hours; 16 hours ?
The charger's label indicates 400 mA max current output, and it seems likely the pack contains 8 or 10 x AA cells, which would suggest 5 hours is the minimum charge time ( if 2000 mAh capacity cells ).

[Rick K - First Member]

I think the pack is 2500mAh and I didn’t fully discharge it ever and so I don’t know the full charge time since I only topped it up.

The charger is an off the shelf niMh battery charger so one with dual outputs would seem to be doable. Or just get two.

[PimentoUK]

I guess this machine will be bought by serious hunters, and such folks would want to charge two packs simultaneously, or failing that, be able to do a 2 or 3 hour charge on one, then do the other.

[Steve Herschbach]

9 hours ago, Rick Kempf said:

I never made any pretense of considering myself qualified by either my inland location or my relatively limited beach hunting experience. I leave expert testing to those more favorably qualified and located. 

Should Tim have sold the machine to someone else - guess you have to ask him.

Hi Rick,

I am not questioning your abilities nor why FT sold you the detector. I understand why you might feel like I am since so many others have piled on, but I am not. My post speaks for itself. I was curious and I have a feeling others were also. Thanks for the explanation and the extra photos. After your initial “tease” I am sure many were hoping to see a little more than we did, and the extra pics go a long way to satisfying some of that desire for now.

Again, I am glad you are feeling better, and that you have shared what you can with the forum members. Thanks Rick, and best wishes for the rest of 2020.