Nokta/Makro Lightning?

[PUHH]

Lightning ?😉

[PUHH]

coming soon:

[☠ Cipher]

They posted their ad up on Facebook 6 hours ago. We just might see something more at Detectival. Will it come in on a plane?

[water spider]

some of the early nasayers may have to eat crow

[UtahRich]

On 9/8/2021 at 5:33 PM, ☠ Cipher said:

Something tells me with XP we can expect to pay dearly haha. It would be welcome news nonetheless. I wonder if it would be a coil or whole new machine. I imagine if they wanted to be competitive in the all terrain market a whole new corded unit would be the best solution. 

I'm curious if XP will introduce an SMF coil to supplement what is already out there with the Deus (and the Deus controller gets a software update) or if it will be an entirely new coil / controller / headphones arrangement. 

If it is JUST an SMF coil, it could be more affordable than an entirely new unit. 

 

Rich-

[Steve Herschbach]

Be best to move the XP discussion to the XP forum.

[Jeff McClendon]

On 9/7/2021 at 5:48 PM, Rick N. MI said:

The coil in the photo look like it could be elliptical but it's hard to really tell from that angle.

The shaft looks carbon fiber. There not showing us much yet.

 

What the photo does show is a center mounted coil. As Dilek said in her March 2021 interview, the coil will be different from the Simplex and this new detector will have a carbon fiber lower shaft. The Simplex coils including the stock coil are not center mounted. 

[King-Of-Bling]

13 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

What the photo does show is a center mounted coil. As Dilek said in her March 2021 interview, the coil will be different from the Simplex and this new detector will have a carbon fiber lower shaft. The Simplex coils including the stock coil are not center mounted. 

I sure hope the ears are super strong. In all my detecting life , I've never broken coil ears before....Except the Nox...

[Jeff McClendon]

On 9/7/2021 at 8:02 PM, mh9162013 said:

All of this sounds intriguing. I really like the idea of (easily) user-replaceable batteries. Although the weight stands out, especially given its straight shaft design.

I truly believe I could make more finds with an Equinox over my AT Max. But I just can't justify paying twice the price. Plus, the Equinox has other drawbacks which annoy me.

But with the Lightning...who knows?

Here's my prediction:

The Lightning will have street price of $500 (USD).

It will have more features than the Equinox 800.

It will have better SMF performance than the Apex, but not quite as good as the Equinox 800.

I like the user replaceable battery idea also. Dilek stated that the battery can be replaced “on the field” in her March video. I think she meant “in the field”. She did not say batteries by the way. This suggests a replaceable battery housing, a replaceable battery module or like the Equinox, a replaceable single 18650 type lithium battery with harness. Personally, I could replace the Equinox battery in the field with the battery and harness for sale from Minelab. I would not feel good about the waterproofing/O ring after doing it however.

I believe you could make more finds with an Equinox 600 than you could with your AT Max also. By the way, the Equinox 600 new, costs less than the AT Max new. 

I actually own 2 Equinox and 1 Simplex. Personally, I enjoy swinging both brands and do not find them to be difficult to swing at all. I had a little wrist strain in the beginning time of using both, but after some grip adjustments, shaft adjustments and arm cuff adjustments I have had no problems. I eventually changed the shafts on my Equinox but not due to weight or shaft wobble. I wanted them to be collapsible. As for adding weight under the Equinox (or Simplex for that matter) arm cuff, especially “tons” of it like I read on another forum, I personally know 17 Equinox users in the Denver area. None of them have added any weight especially tons of it, under their arm cuffs and some of them have upgraded the stock shafts. Most of these people are older than me, I’m 65, and some of them are women.

As for the Simplex weight versus the projected weight of the Lightening, Dilek said the Lightening would use the Simplex housing. By housing I am assuming she means the control box housing. When I look at the photos provided in this thread and a couple that are teasers and are backlit with no easy to see details, the Lightening does appear to have the Simplex housing and grip. All the rest looks different when compared to the Simplex I own so I will not buy into any of this site’s or other site’s pure conjecture about how the new Lightening will feel weight wise or balance wise by comparing it to what a Simplex might feel like if it was almost a pound heavier. Some of the people making this stuff up have never even swung a Simplex.

I would put the price of the Lightening between the Equinox 600 and the Equinox 800. 

The Lightening will have some features that the Equinox doesn’t have for sure like the already mentioned stock carbon fiber lower shaft, lighted buttons (already on the Simplex) possibly NMs great vibration feature, maybe NMs LED flashlight feature (both already on the Simplex) and I really hope some kind of threshold based all metal mode even if it only works in single frequencies.  It will likely lack some features that the Equinox has especially Multi IQ which is a big one.

[Jeff McClendon]

9 minutes ago, King-Of-Bling said:

I sure hope the ears are super strong. In all my detecting life , I've never broken coil ears before....Except the Nox...

I have never broken any Nox stock 11” coil ears after owning and using five of them and I have used them in saltwater surf. I did break the ears on a CTX 3030 similar sized coil to the Nox stock coil. The CTX coils are very similar in outer design to the Nox coils, especially the coil ears. 

I did break the coil ears on a Nokta Makro Gold Racer coil too.

At least the Simplex ears are very sturdy in appearance and I have not broken them or heard of any breaking so far. They are roughly three times the thickness of the Equinox Minelab coil ears.