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Can New PI Advances = More Au?


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I remember when I purchased my 1st metal detector, a GP 3500. My family and friends thought I was insane to pay over $3000 for a metal detector LOL. It was instant love for me when I held her in my arms. Yet just like when the shine is wearing off your most recent girl friend and some habit of hers is starting to bore a hole in your brain..........it did not take long for me to tire of packing that lead acid battery around. What did that thing weigh? 9 lbs? Before you could say Pocket Rocket, I had one hanging off the side of my Baby.
 
Now it is almost 2015 and battery tech has advanced by leaps and bounds. I know next to nothing about how the engineers have done this but I know the batteries in my XP Deus must be something special to weigh so little but pack so much punch.
 
Will it be battery technology that will finally allow a new PI to offer  performance close to what Minelab PI's are famous for yet weigh under 4 pounds? Is this a realistic goal to ask of metal detector manufacturers? 
 
We may soon see some interesting PI machines marketed. Fisher is working on one as is Nokta/Makro promising PI and hybrid machines. Nokta/Makro is shaking up the VLF world through their customer service and quality manufacturing and would it not be wonderful if they provide some real competition to Minelab?
 
Personally, I believe if a manufacturer can develop a lightweight PI with improved discrimination it does not have to obtain the impressive depths Minelabs are capable of. If I can ignore most iron and dig more non-ferrous targets even though I occasionally miss deeper nuggets I am going to have more gold in my poke at the end of the day on a consistent basis. Some desert gold hunters might disagree and maybe rightfully so but if you hunt in areas where logging has occurred I surmise you may concur. Just as the Minelab 2300 has taken the prospecting community by storm by finding more small and/or spongy gold while giving up some capability on big, deep nuggets, a PI with improved discrimination is going to allow you to dig more gold and less nails, wire, and degraded cans. You would effectively view more dirt in a day by not spending so many of your precious prospecting hours digging ferrous targets. JMHO
 
Merton

 

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Good post Merton - I agree.

"Will it be battery technology that will finally allow a new PI to offer performance close to what Minelab PI's are famous for yet weigh under 4 pounds? Is this a realistic goal to ask of metal detector manufacturers?"

Beyond realistic. I actually think the Garrett ATX is reasonably close to a Minelab PI in performance and that Garrett could have snuck it in under 4 lbs if they had even halfway tried. It even has decent surface ferrous discrimination. The SDC could easily get under 4 lbs in a different configuration, and no special batteries needed in either case. The TDI Sl weighs in at 3.5 lbs but it is an old circuit design and lacks the horsepower, as did the Infinium.

If Minelab, White's, or Garrett do not do it Fisher or Nokta/Makro will. Or somebody else out of left field. But one way or another we are going to get a fully self contained reasonably powerful ground balancing PI in a package under four pounds, and I am guessing it won't be much longer before it happens.

I actually think Minelab is a sitting duck in the $1000 - $2000 price range for a PI which is why I am amazed the competition keeps missing the mark. ATX, 3.9 lbs at $1999 would have rocked the boat. 6.9 lbs for $2120 not so much. Note to manufacturers - you are not supposed to be charging by the pound!

I asked White's years ago - "can't you just stick MXT and TDI circuits in a box, and with proper coil be able to just switch between them?" "Oh sure, no sweat" is the answer! Then WTF have we not seen it yet?!

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Steve, my guess the answer to your question is profit margins. Bummer.

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I asked White's years ago - "can't you just stick MXT and TDI circuits in a box, and with proper coil be able to just switch between them?" "Oh sure, no sweat" is the answer! Then WTF have we not seen it yet?!

 

 

Probably the same reason as to why I cant have one cell phone from Verizon with two different numbers....One for my business and the other a personal number for family/friends.  They want me to buy two phones instead. 

 

strick

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Price it the same as both units purchased separately. It would cost them less to make since the body of the detector is much of the cost. They would make more money than me buying each one separately. I would without hesitation buy such a machine, as would others. In fact, I might be willing to pay more than the combined cost of both machines purchased separately. Think of how useful it would be to be able to hunt with a PI and then on getting the target, switch to VLF mode. You would get an immediate id on most targets. Deeper ones you would have to start digging, but at some point that target id is going to kick in. The efficiency factor in time not lost digging every target would be worth it to me. I have carried both to do just that, and it works. But who wants to carry two detectors all the time and switch between them? It only works if the capability is in a single unit.

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