Nokta Makro Pulse Induction Gold Prospecting Detector

[phrunt]

For a giant head start using existing GPX coils should be highly considered, there are literally hundreds of them from various manufacturers in all different shapes and sizes, one for every task you can think of and it's part of what has made the existing GPX series such a legendary detector platform.  Very few people stick with the original coils and jump into the massive range of aftermarket coils.  If Nokta was to make their detector support this big range of coils they've got an instant head start.  Other detectors from different manufacturers like the QED have taken that path showing it can be done and benefited greatly from being able to use GPX coils, but the detector itself never took off outside of Australia and even in Australia due to reasons not needing mentioned here and not anything Nokta needs to worry about.

People already own these coils, and having another option of a detector to reuse the coils they've already got is very appealing.   It also means right out of the gate the Nokta PI will have the biggest range of coils available for it, you won't hear people complain about having enough coils 🙂

I'm really excited to see what Nokta do with this PI, they have a real opportunity here and there is a big hole in the market for a lightweight reasonably priced PI.  The entry level price now is now the GPX 5000, SDC2300 or Garrett ATX which is very limited by design and coil, it's obvious what Nokta need to do.

[jasong]

This would probably get more attention from prospectors if it was posted in the main forum instead of the Nokta/Makro forum. I only saw it because it showed up in the sidebar briefly and I saw the words "gold prospecting". 

[phrunt]

Yes, I probably put it in the wrong place.  Perhaps Steve or Chase can move it.

[Aureous]

On 2/25/2022 at 1:10 AM, George Kinsey said:

Set the pulse delay to 10 us if possible. Must have a manual ground balance . Critical to have a superior set of headphones and if possible a plug in exteral device.

Pulse delays are well below 10uS nowadays (SDC2300 and AQ) so fast sampling (thanks to superior processors) needs to match the ability of the pulse delay. Minelabs patents are the only thing getting in the way of this (MPS and MPF) to enable a new multi channel unit to be built. so hopefully at least the MPS patent is now defunct? Otherwise, the bias controlled single channel option is all we would have, but this could still be OK. In order to compete with ML and Garrett, ground balance will HAVE to be auto or optional (tracking and fixed with a grab), otherwise the vast African market will be disappointed and us Aussies will also not take the NM PI seriously....this was the reason the QED never gained mass approval. Yes, audio options need to be very sensitive with an ext speaker option.

[Aureous]

On 2/25/2022 at 4:43 AM, Nokta Detectors said:

Hello all! 

For our future PI, if you were to pick 2 testers (one from USA and 1 from AU) who would you suggest (other than yourself:-) ?

You know Ive already thrown my 'hat into the ring'. Ive been detecting for 40 years and have hundreds of ounces to my name, live on the goldfields,  I have access to all ground types, varying from very mild... to ground which can be arc-welded due to the high iron content. Salty soils, high  EMI....you name it. Another person who's been at this game here in Oz slightly longer than me is Reg Wilson. He's about as tough a tester as you could imagine....but will always say the facts as he sees it. Blunt as a sideways brick.....in a good way lol. Nenad Lonic (Phase Tech)  is also a good option, even though he used to work for Minelab. None of us has any current allegiance to Minelab. We all just want competition back into the prospecting PI marketplace and a performance unit that provides better value. One factor needs to be addressed though, in order for a prospecting detector to succeed here in Oz, the trial detector needs to travel....at least from here in Victoria to Western Australia. So someone will need to be selected there as well. I can test in South Australia and NSW as well though. All things to consider.

[phrunt]

Yes, something similar to the QED at the right price with a far better build quality would be fine, although it would need the modern detector options which we are all used to now which would be a simple task for Nokta, just the usual things they're putting on all of their machines, a decent user interface, a nice backlit screen for settings, even USB firmware updates to put them ahead of the legacy GPX series, wireless audio with Bluetooth and so on, combined with a good build quality to handle being used as a tool,, not a toy.  Nokta can do this easily as they do it with every detector.

They need to match the QED pulse delay which was 7uS and later increased to 8uS which I disliked and this was done using existing GPX coils.  It also needs to have a proper working ground grab (press a button and pump the coil to get a ground balance) and also ground tracking if they can, although less necessary, neither of these the QED has.

The QED's system of bias towards small and large targets rather than having MPS/MPF is fine as long as the price is reflective of this.

A built in speaker would be a great bonus, one that's got plenty of volume.

I really want Nokta to achieve this, they can do it.

The high end prospecting market might be well covered, but there are far more people that want to do it as a hobby not willing to spend the big bucks to get to the Minelab pricing, if Nokta can create that market they'll do very well.

[Aureous]

2 minutes ago, phrunt said:

They need to match the QED pulse delay which was 7uS and later increased to 8uS which I disliked and this was done using existing GPX coils.  It also needs to have a proper working ground grab (press a button and pump the coil to get a ground balance) and also ground tracking if they can, although less necessary, neither of these the QED has.

I firmly agree with everything you said, Simon....bar the ground grab-only option. Tracking becomes supremely necessary here in Oz and was one of the main reasons the QED didn't succeed. I ditched mine within a couple weeks as did Rick Bryant and a few other successful Vic-based prospectors. It just couldn't keep up with mineralization variations and suffered a reduction in small gold detection ability because of that. A switchable option between tracking and fixed/grab is ideal I feel. The African and Australian markets would 'demand' it I reckon.

[phrunt]

That's why they need testers in various locations, I could easily live without tracking, and just have a ground grab, in fact I'd rather not use tracking and on my GPX I've run Fixed the entire time I've had it and never once needed to use tracking. 

The QED lacks ground grab and tracking needing the user to manually set the ground balance constantly, this is a very primitive style of balancing I think, similar to the old Gold Bug 2 that was released when I was a school kid. 🙂

 

[Aureous]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

That's why they need testers in various locations, I could easily live without tracking, and just have a ground grab, in fact I'd rather not use tracking and on my GPX I've run Fixed the entire time I've had it and never once needed to use tracking.

Very much a case of 'lucky you' for living in NZ Simon! I see soil every day I go out detecting, that consists of black and brown iron pisolites overlying variable iron oxide encrusted clay. Nothing works manually, only tracking can keep up... the ground noise itself is constantly a nuisance addition to the threshold! Picking faint targets out of the audio mess is an art form in Oz... 😉

[George Kinsey]

Will there be enough band width?