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Here are my last 2 gold finds with the NOX. Was in Oregon over the 4th and as I always do I like to hunt areas most other have issues with, the old workings that has the iron trash. These 2 finds are very different kinds of gold and pretty far apart, but yellow metal no less. The large specimen is 3.96 ozt and the small nugget is 1.6 grams. Did anyone else get out for the 4th or recent hunts and add to their heavy metal collection?

This is why I like vacationing back home in Pennsylvania! 🙂 I only dug two coins today, on a two-hour hunt at the site of what used to be a mid 1800s church, but is now just forest, and a small, old, adjacent cemetery... --Steve

The high voltage and short pulse delay of the Impulse are requiring a strict shielding of all the parts subjected to the pulses (coil, cable and connector). That effect is due to the small gap of continuity of the cable shield between the the male and female connectors and the changes of capacitance coming from the conductive water level variations. It was for that reason that the coil connector was initially made of metal in order to keep the continuity of the cable shielding up to the inside of the enclosure. (Same supplier, other item) Field tests in the sea water had shown a bad electrolysis effect on its body giving it a nasty look. A plastic connector had to be used for the AQ. The GOLD version will even require more attention to this capacitance effect as it will have a much shorter pulse delay, it will get an (expensive) stainless steel connector to keep a perfect shielding.

No problemo😉 Pointed questions or remarks can only generate progress and new ideas. I know the whole history of that project from its beginning when it was still named 'Manta' back in 1990. Since then, Alexandre and I have worked in closed team complementing each other with our respective technical backgrounds. I still keep in close contact with the Impulse project (and with El Paso) while working on my own project(s) and I am happy to answer any technical question posted on THIS forum if it does not infringe the NDA I have signed with FTP.

Yes, it stays outside of the connector but that was deemed to be unbearable by the reports of early testers. The change of connector resulted in it sensitivity to local capacitance variations. (You can't have your cake and eat it ) There was even an electrolysis effect on the surface of the metallic upper shaft with a nasty looking result. This was also replaced by the current plastic-made upper shaft.

This design was a result of the initial requirement of battery packs (then large capacity Lion type) to be exchangeable and to be able to have a double length (and capacity) battery pack option with an added possibility to carry it hip-mount with a longer battery cable. This is the preferred configuration of Le Jag. True, this power cable and connectors sticking out at the back are not looking nice and are sensitive to shocks. I think it is essentially due to the long stress reliefs added later on to the two connectors. These connectors have shown their limits in multiple mating/unmating and in their IP specs in terms of water pressure resistance Another type of over-molded power cable with different types of connectors is now being thoroughly studied and tested. This will probably enable the depth specs of the Impulse AQ LTD to be increased to a market-standard values. If the tests are finally successful, this cable will be shipped with the next orders of LTD and probably will be shipped by FTP to the existing users.

Yes, you can do that to solve this problem but you then generate a sensitivity to external EMI for the whole system.

There are various requirements, but the claims system has essentially devolved into a leasing system, and as long as the appropriate agencies get their money, claims can be help almost indefinitely with almost no requirement to ever set foot on them. Concepts such as a valid discovery have become a joke. I’d institute a much stronger “work it or lose it” policy, but the entrenched powers that be will insure nothing substantial ever happens to change the existing system. The whys do not matter at all. The claims are either valid on the books or not, and if valid then prospecting on them without permission is a potentially pursuable criminal offense. Contact the owner of record.. you literally have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

Take a chance on calling the claim owner and tell them you can do a survey for them at no charge if they let you keep what you find. Sign a waiver for them so if you get hurt they are not liable. There are still a few claim owners that will let you hunt if you ask them in the right way.

The limitation is the LM386 audio amp. There is a 12V version and an 18V version; White's should have used the 18V one, if not then even 14.4V is pushing it. However, there are also a couple of 16V caps on the audio stage so anything over 16V is probably not doing them any good.

What I do and this is the same with the Excalibur in PP....and Now the "AQ" .............you come across a faint ..stop..tune the machine for the very best response. Then the same with the very next target until you feel you have the greatest depth possible at this beach . Amen to that Jim, how many times have you stopped...for that one way signal or even a ghost signal...dug a scoop..still not sure, then dug another ...and there is this faint hint of a target in the corner of the hole.

Before the sun broke out in full force today I did a quick run about 1 1/2 hours to test out the Nokta waterproof headphones on my Multi Kruzer. Ran it at 19khz looking for small jewelry, found 2 1/2 earings, cruddier one might be gold brighter one is plated. This pond is brutal with iron as you can see the black chia pet looking thing on the side. It is a hard drive magnet I stick in my scoop to catch nails and bobby pins. You can see some of the rocks that also stick to it. My GB was low to mid 90's so ended up using Gen Mode in the quieter areas and 3 tone for the most part. Headphones are little better on audio than my Garrett waterproof ones, audio sounds similar, maybe bit less tinny but you do need to kick up the volume. I usually run the machine on 3 but use 10 on these. Vibrate mode proved to be useless because of all the iron in the ground there as it just constantly runs. Bottom line if you got a Kruzer or Amphibio, well worth the investment if you plan on splashing around.

Willy, thanks for those words. My concern was the constant removing / re-connecting of the battery pack (especially in the field) I had a feeling those connectors would not last long . So the continued studying and testing of new connectors AND the probability of them being added in future LTD units does calm my fears! Cliff

I had the same with my Infinium. There is a wire that is connected the connector to the mother board, Ground ? cut it , problem solved.

Can't argue with that. So how did this make it off the drawing board....

Why do I feel this detector gets my vote of confidence as the best gold detector on the market today. As a multi line dealer and one who enjoys the hunt for gold, I have spent more time and money than most folks trying out all the different gold machines on the market. Another of my attributes is having qualified Field Staff Experts who have been and still are in hot pursuit of the soft yellow precious metal. Some of my team goes back 20 yrs with me and many trips across the gold bearing western states including Alaska. Even my newer Staff have proven their stature with many ounces and or pounds of gold being recovered, but more importantly, by a variety of gold detectors. We also take our knowledge of the many detectors and share with each other. Heck, many times we are together and even comparing different detectors and or settings to get the ultimate signal. We find the happy medium between clearest target vs strongest response and this can really speed up ones abilities at sniffing out gold with the best of the best. At times in recent years I’ve been labeled as a Minelab guy who pushes them for profit. What those folks don’t understand is that profit is the last of my worries. Heck to be really truthful, Minelab has one of the lowest % margins out there. Early in my Dealer career, I was labeled as a Fisher guy, then a White’s dude and it seemed any detector I used and pushed, it branded in their minds. What I have learned is to put the best tool in my customers hands that will give them the greatest chance of Success. If they are finding gold, I have a walking advertisement for my business and they’ll share their experiences with all those around them who are interested. That my folks is how I work and it brings me long lived happy/repeat customer… becomes my profit. As a true die hard detectorist when in the hunt for gold, I have no other objective but to find it. I really don’t care what country detector is made, what brand, model or name it has on the label. I’ll even go so far as to say I also do not mind spending the money on a detector if I feel it will help me recover more gold. The bottom line is for me to be Successful at finding gold. This should be the case for most folks who look for Au and especially if you want to be proficient at digging more than most others. Here is the problem for the vast majority of people out there who want to detect for the heavy metal. You listen to the wrong music, lol. Most don’t have the knowledge of all the different gold units and or technologies and how they work best. Not only that, lets be honest, the majority don’t have the ok from the wife (the money) to buy them all. But even for those with no wife and or no budget limit, you still don’t have the time. OK, at least those with no wife and no limit on spending, you might have more time than most others. On top of all the scenarios already mentioned there is still one factor that really does help my detector of choice and this is where so many people get confused or have been mis informed. My detector finds more varieties of natural gold than most any other and as a bonus, it also finds man made gold as in rings and gold coins with more accuracy than the competition. But that last bit is a bonus, so we won’t even count that part of the equation, even though gold is gold. So what is this detector I speak so highly of (at least until something comes out and proves to be better)? It’s a gold machine with features I really like, use in the field and prefer. Some of the most important (in no given order) details are listed below. Target Identification - So many detectors now have the ID of (Don’t Dig/Dammit = Ferrous or Hot Diggity/Dig It = Nonferrous) and that is a nice feature, but I want more. I want digital ID that can split my Hot Diggity/Dig It targets into sub categories and it’s accuracy of low conductions, medium ones and higher ones where most gold never reads, is pretty reliable. Actually, nothing is 100% accurate when it comes to digging gold, but I’ll play the odds and trust me, I’m usually right more often than wrong. Now I will say, knowing the kind of gold at the location is very beneficial when trying to use a detector with such accuracy of nonferrous targets. Ground Balance – Better have Auto & Manual Ground Balance. My styles of detecting gold has me in many states, different terrains and soil conditions. I sometimes even go back and forth at a certain site as the day goes on and the speed of ground I am covering. Cruising and trying to find an Indicator Nugget is best left for the Auto Track Mode. But when I want to dial in a certain small section to get best depth and sensitivity, I go into the Manual Mode and do a Fine Tune. I want the option of being in charge, not having my detector do it for me. Iron Discrimination and or Iron Bias. Some of my more productive sites have bigger man made iron targets and I want the ability to adjust how they will respond. Some folks say you have to dig it all and I’ll laugh you silly at sites you can’t get 3 feet without a iron target. Sure you can dig each one and waist precious time and energy (are you listening you PI hot shots at Ganes) or you can be selective. When there is big gold in an area, big iron can fool so many detectors and to be fair, small tiny iron will also fool quite a few machines too. I feel my gold detector is the best in and around a variety of old mining camps and mined materials. Ergonomics - Light weight non tethered. It’s 2020 folks and a cell phone has more capabilities than any detector on the market. I want a detector with the main base/housing to fit into the palm of my hand. We shouldn’t be tethered to the dang detector with a battery on our backs. We don’t need extra dangling rods attached to the main detector to help swing the beast, it’s flipping 2020. Yes I do realize the size and number of a batteries are part of the amount of hours in a day’s use. I also realize some detector coils pull more juice. My detector does just fine with the weight is minimal and only needs charged after 10/12 hours (2 days hunting for most folks). 100% Waterproof. Heck so many people seem to think this is a big feature and a must have. I think you folks are dreaming and actually many of you who desire to find gold in a river or stream, have never actually attempted it. Sure it can be done as I have had some success doing so. But the reality of using a 100% detector under water is: It is hard enough to find gold on dry land let alone in a moving stream or river as the current is constantly fighting the coil, the gravels are filling back the hole you are trying to dig and the chances of you seeing what the heck is going on under water is most minimal. You better have a good waterproof pin pointer to help you. But I still want 100% WP so I don’t have to worry if someone throws me in the river. At least might detector is still going to live. Another size note, my 100% WP detectors has found me over 100 gold rings and most were in 3 to 5’ depth of water. I don’t like hunting on the beach. Yes this detector I speak so highly of for as the best gold nugget detector is also my favorite in the water jewelry hunting unit. Proper Frequency – We all know the king of tiny flea bag gold is the famous GB-2 and it’s very popular 71 kHz. We also know the medium kHz in the teens (likes of the MXT, AT Gold, LST to name a few) runs smoother in highly mineralized ground and is also deeper on larger gold. So if you want to hunt a variety of gold in different gold conditions, you better have a few gold detectors to maximize the opportunities of finding the different gold sizes, characters and shapes. The one I use, runs a variety of frequencies at the same time. In such doing so, allows for my detector to have the best chance at finding all sizes of nuggets and kinds of gold (wire, crystalline, salt/pepper specimens etc). But as an added bonus, the varying frequencies going into the ground can compensate for different ground conditions as we know they change from site to site. Sure a fixed frequency is optimized for 1, but how about the other 99 potential variables? Price – I’m a big fan of everyone staying within your budget and lifestyle. At the same time, I also realize all the items I want on a detector and that it may not be within someone’s investment range. Since we have gold capable detectors of $500 and up to $8000, it would not surprise me if my desired detector was priced around $1500 to $2000, and I’d still but it. As I mentioned before, price is not the deciding factor for me as long as I feel it will find me more than my other detector tools. What really shocked me, is the detector I feel is best is less than $1000, but gold is almost $1800 an ozt. Now that is a bargain. Warranty/Support – Metal Detecting manufactures warranty varies but not long ago the industry standard was 2 years. The one I like so much has a 3 yr transferable warranty. I like having transferable so if I ever decide to sell it, the next guy has a piece of mind for a while anyway. Shame on companies who do not have transferable warranty. Support here in USA, if there is an issue, is a big must for me. I’m not interested in sending a detector outside of the country for repair and not having a unit for a month or longer. Let alone the cost of shipping there and back is a big turn off. Luckily my gold getter has a facility here in the US. At the time, their Customer Service turn around is good and within the allowable 2 week window. I’ve even experienced a few of my customers within a week, which is hot damn skippy good. But there is always exceptions and or things out of our control. Proof of Finds – I know it works. My staff knows and so do a few others. This is where so many people are just now seeing the benefits and icing on the cake. Seems the manufacture of this detector has their head so far of their ars, they can’t figure out how to properly advertise it? Well at least their Engineers know how to make it (thank you) and those of us who took the initiative to get in the field have since found out it really is a gold detector. But most impressive, it is the best VLF classified gold detector on the market (at this time) and possibly the best of all? Please manufacture, when you make your next catalog and on your website, it would be wise to put this in both the Gold Detectors and the General Purpose section too. Heck, might as well put it in the Water machines as well, it rocks gold rings just fine. If you feel I messed up on the category of this detector, then please remove the X-705 from the gold detectors as it won’t even hold it’s own water to this machine. If you have not figured out by now what my favorite gold detector is, just call me with a credit card # and I’ll have one in the mail to you. When you open the box, it just might surprise you. My favorite gold detector is the Multi IQ Technology Minelab Equinox 800, nicknamed the NOX for those who are new. Just my opinion and everyone has one hanging around.

Howdy All! A week or so back I was hitting a backyard of a small preschool over the weekend when nobody was around. I got permission from the school after researching that the old house was the original farm house there from the late 1800's. Using my Nox 800, I found the usual sea of trash, lots of toys, a ton of modern clad and a few cool relics. The old Yale lock pictures below is pretty neat and the arm still functions (won't lock though, too much wear and tear) The buckle is something that I am trying to figure out.. I'm not sure if it's old or pretty modern. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance !

I've actually had some pretty good weeks of detecting earlier this year mostly because of a drained lake I stumbled upon before the pandemic. However, this was certainly the best week of beach hunting for me in 2020 with my 4th hunt of the week this morning. It seems to be an unusual time of the year for significant beach erosion, a phenomenon usually experienced during our winter storms out of the northwest Pacific or in the late summer when hurricanes in the southeast pacific generate swells that make their way to the southern California coast. I already posted about the first 2 hunts and hunt #3 came a day after a massive swell that I think even surprised the weather and surf experts. The lingering swell coincided with some extreme tidal swings so I anticipated that the conditions would still be ideal for detecting and I wasn't disappointed. It was a situation where I even had options on where to hunt as it seemed that pockets of targets were scattered over miles of wet sand, not particularly dense with targets but enough to keep me digging as many targets as I wanted to. One of these pockets yielded a nice sized silver ring that I thought was gold at first because it felt smooth and heavy and looked so clean in the moonlight. However, it was a fresh-drop silver and meant that other heavy metal targets could be nearby. Shortly after, a sterling silver cross made its way into my pouch and not long after that, perhaps, my favorite find of the year. A nice coin-sized target was scooped out of the hole into a mound of wet sand beside the hole. Rather than taking a smaller bite with the scoop to retrieve the target I often reach down with my hand to feel for it and that is what I did with this one. In the darkness I love the feeling of a heavy unseen target in my hand immediately followed by the discovery of a hole in its center and the realization that I have a ring that is possibly made of some precious metal. However, when I felt this target it took me a little longer to process what I had found. It felt like a heavy wet noodle and when I lifted it up I could see it was a clean, glimmering bracelet with gemstones! I turned on my headlamp and saw the golden luster and a stamp on the clasp where you would expect to find one on a nice piece of jewelry. Pretty confident that it was the real deal I thanked God for this wonderful moment that will be etched in my memory for the rest of my life. Today's hunt was fun although not nearly as memorable. It seemed that the sand was beginning to return but there were still enough targets to keep me busy most of the morning. I did find a small, unmarked, gold letter "B" pendant that I'm sure is a lower carat piece and several small silver jewelry pieces and a pretty, wave-shaped, cuff bracelet that I thought was silver but turned out to be plated. Here are some of the better finds this week- actually all from the last 3 hunts as the first hunt yielded only costume jewelry: The bracelet is 7" long, stamped "14 K" and weighs 8.5 grams. Used the TDI BH with Ground Balance "off" on all 4 hunts Thanks for reading, GL&HH!

I received a text message from a friend yesterday telling me that one of our neighbors up the street lost his wedding band while playing on one of those large inflatable water slides. He asked me if I could help. Of course I said yes and my friend picked me up in his golf cart and we headed to the man’s house. Our neighbor was standing by the water slide staring pensively at the ground--his face and body language told me the whole story. 😰 He pointed out where he was standing when he shook the water from his hands and felt his ring fly off. He and his young son had searched the area for over an hour...even using a magnet in desperation--not very effective on a gold ring. 🥴 Fortunately, the suspected area was only about a 10 foot square. I cranked up the EQX in Park 1, noise canceled, lowered the sensitivity since this would be a surface find and started to grid the area. I hadn’t gone 3 feet when I got a nice solid mid tone. I pulled out my Pro Find 35 and told him to look exactly where it was pointing. He parted the grass, which was about 3-4 inches high and there was his ring. The look on his face was one of total relief and incredulity. He couldn’t believe I found it that quickly (neither could I). I’d spent all of 1 minute at the most swinging the EQX before it sounded off. To say he was mightily impressed would be an great understatement. He then asked me all about my equipment and detecting since he knew zero about any of it. His wife came running out of the house and thanked me profusely saying her husband was no longer in the dog house! Quick find; quick return and all is well. 🙂

.5% is the correct dosage for clothing. I buy Permethrin concentrate by the gallon, and mix it myself. Jim

After the first 200, the TDI used an Atmel micro that had a tendency to randomly lock up. When you turn on the TDI it would just squall. A lot of units were shipped and the problem didn't show up until after some usage. I found a nearly pin-compatible PIC micro, rewrote the code, and we had a drop-in replacement. Until I got that done we swapped out a lot of units. Sometimes more than once. The SL started out with the PIC so it never had the problem. I was never able to figure out why the Atmel locked up.

I've already did that.....Several years ago I was experiencing lot of noise in "rough" salt water hunting with the excaliburs I used. Solution ..completely remove from the saltwater...I started running a longer coil cable with the Control pod and connections "under" my drysuit. So the only thing exposed to the rough conditions was...the coil cable coming from my drysuit, then the coil...........It was like night compared to day............Almost total silence in some bad conditions. See if I can find the pictures of me using and the setup. I will have to find the post from last year when I envisioned the same with the AQ... One reason I need more then one AQ..

I feel your pain, but the way the claim system is setup, they dont need to do a thing to their claim but pay the annual maintenance fee (no onsite work required) or file a small miners waiver which requires some minuscule work done on site. Its a bummer as it locks up good land that could be mined by people that want to mine rather than dreamers hoping to flip the property one day. Or I think many just like idea they own a mine, and its just paperwork sitting in their portfolio of investments.

I added the chart to your post. With Tesoro now gone and White’s extremely questionable, it could get a lot shorter soon. I really have a hard time taking the SDC 2300 seriously, so it is getting down to the Sea Hunter, Impulse, and ATX as brand new full warranty options. I had no idea this would have so many looking for a “solution”. To me it’s just a side note to know about, something to be aware of, and then work around. For mask and snorkel work it is a total non-issue. However, if you are a wader with shallow water flats that extend a very long way, where the connector would be right at that magic depth over a very large area, then it could be a genuine problem. My fix would be to go mask and snorkel, but that is not always an option for a lot of people. I have to admit getting in cold water gets less appealing to me every year. Yes, many detectors were sold hardwired with coil options. Fishers own CZ-21 with 8” or 10.5”, and Excalibur once upon a time with 8” or 10”, to name a couple. Though Minelab did discontinue the 8” version of the Excalibur.

Oops, my mistake, I looked at the “last update” date in the Kickstarter page. Not that I was honestly worried about it. I want one anyway. The whole thing weighs less than a bare scuba tank. For my desired use at Lake Tahoe, where I would need to possibly pack some distance at times down some steep hills, this looks perfect. And frankly for anyone that keeps their wits about them diving at less than 10 feet is no big deal. The air quits, you are less than two body lengths to the surface. I have done a lot of detecting at 6-7 feet, literally on tip toes with my snorkel barely out of the water and with enough weight to be negative in the water. Get a target, tuck and dive to bottom, and fan while holding breath. I can normally get the target in one or two dives, and it is a great way to build lung capacity! Anyway, there are places at Tahoe where people dive off rocks, and a little extra depth and ability to stay down longer could do some magic. I’ll probably order one of these today with a couple spare batteries.

Yes, stock coil. My 800 was one of the first batch which is why I'm a little concerned about its being watertight. But yours not leaking is encouraging.

Early on I see the Halo of targets in the threshold of the "AQ" doing airtest..... so I've been playing with the settings to see if I can pull up more of the audio of them when out hunting in the water. Jim and I have hunted together before, a very good "old beach" hunter. Video of those changes in the threshold Jim speaks of.... d

Having read the whole thread, I'll go back to the part quoted. How much more are the expensive stainless steel connectors? I'd think that I'd pay more for a version that would keep the continuity of the shielding, maybe not $1,000 more but certainly $100 more. And if that would mean that it needs to be coated in silicon grease to keep it looking nice, that is OK too.

Well...I have reached my knowledge limit in this specific field... Considering that I hunt at a medium to modest high water depth, I'm prepared to live with the machine fully under the surface however... I'm waiting like a child under Christmas tree for this... Thanks for your technical explanations!

This is the recipe to catch the deepest targets. The good stability of the Impulse and its variable pitch audio coupled with a good-quality headphone (with well external sound-isolated earmuffs) enable the user to capture those little variations of sound in a threshold adjusted to slight feedback.

In West Australia it is not only the iron junk but also heaps of little hot rocks sticking to the magnet. What I did was to activate some car bog (chopped glass and resin) and put it over the magnet and while it was still soft placed a plastic bag over it, I then pulled down on the bag to shape a curved shell on the pick. This allowed us to simply wipe our hand over it magnet area, it was an effective solution to the remove the build up along the edge of magnet. I hope the photo helps to show what I mean, the grey area is the car bog.

Only a few mills more in diameter. The battery compartment is an alu tube enclosed inside a shaft extension and protected from the contact with sea water in order to avoid any electrolysis effect between metals of different natures. The slight difference in diameter has required a new arm rest design (and tooling).

Congrats Gerry on those finds and wish you better luck on your next hunt!

Agreed. And a little lol ... part of what the "tools won" trying to quote two threads in one is that after three tries, I shortened my reply and did not put in the part where it wouldn't change how useful the AQ could be, just a minor tweek in use methods. Heck, the SandShark was dead quiet with a connector on the coil, but the much noisier HHPu;se (with the coil connector on the headphones that only got dunked when I got rolled by a wave) was a better gold producer by far and much easier to figure iron once I found ways to have more listen time around the noise creating wave and water depth events.

I don't mind it, it's something I've adjust my hunting to ... tides make it possible..............one reason I have become a hunter who watch's the current and predicted conditions very close..

I cant let the Taskmaster see me wearing gloves.... Harden the f... up Yank!!!!! 🤠 😂

Designing a new mechanical system is a 'bit' more than tweaking a picture with Photoshop. This indeed looks nice BUT one also has to care about a lot of 'small' details like the costs and complexity of the tools to mold these plastic components and the way to assemble them to be sturdy and waterproof while keeping a light weight.

Very heavy soil (salty and black), any other digital md shows ferrous on that deep target. Something like my previous post, live digging.

Not at all, and it does not matter what I think anyway. 90% of what I tell manufacturers gets disregarded as “you are right, but it’s too late.” It’s just that one reason given for this limited release was to collect user feedback. The reality is the pressure is on to get the final version to market as soon as possible, and that is a good thing I think. In the process though decisions about the design have pretty much been made at FT once again, without regard for user feedback, and that means irreversible decisions have already been made that could have benefitted from listening more to people like Joe and others. It’s kind of a shame that after so much time things get rushed at the end. But that is the way things get done, and why, when all is said and done, people are going to ask “why did they do it that way instead of this better way.” I’d vote for Joes design in a heartbeat, but that’s not what we are going to get. Still, four drop in 18650 batteries is a huge improvement over the current design. If FT keeps up putting out no more than a couple Limited units out per week, I also doubt we will ever see 99 Limiteds made. For me, if I had not been able to get one by October of this year, I’d end up passing, as winter does tend to shut me down here, and by the time spring rolled around..... well, long story short it seems to me that anyone that would rather have the new battery system and better depth rating are just going to be better off waiting, and that indirectly impacts Limited sales. It’s already getting to the point where the only reason to get the Limited is if you just don’t care about anything but saving a few bucks and want one ASAP. But wait, you can’t get one ASAP anyway. It’s in danger of fizzling out at this rate.

I'm over 70. I'd rather have a shorter-lived detector, with greater ability, than a longer-lived unit with less ability. I'm going on 4 years with my 16v battery pack. Jim

My 5th outing with the AQ today at another beach I've had success in the past. My gold virginity with the Impulse is still intact. In fact, I didn't find any jewelry of any kind today. That monkey is getting heavy! I'm actually having an easier time finding coins with this detector than finding jewelry. I hadn't found a coin from Cuba before. Today I found 8! None of them were together, but, all were found in about a 25' circle. All were between 12 and 16 inches deep. I was hitting cobble on each one. A few U.S. coins too, some shallow, some deep. It hits on nickels loud, clean and with a high tone. Everything else is a low tone.....nice and smooth low tone. Some bad targets down there too, but, not many. As you can see, this thing just loves pull tabs....at all depths. Some were down in the cobble too. I searched in all metal, switched to Tone on all targets and then decided to dig or not. Mixed signals were mostly ignored as the few I did dig were iron junk. Smooth low tones and solid high tones were all dug. Still not getting more than 3 hours on a charge, but, my pin pointing is getting slightly better. Here are the grim results.

Yep they do it. I know of a large hydraulic mine in my area partially held by an enviro group. If the mine is prominent, well known, and would look good on their books, its a possibility.

Go to emachineshop.com, download their free CAD design program and design your own. Then upload it to them and they will ship your lasercut product back to you. I built my own truck roof rack and the lasercut parts were about $45 each, but you’ll only need one and can bolt it onto the head of a basic rake. Its easy!

Time to read some of the extensive battery threads on 18650 custom battery setups. Im sure Steve will post some links. But essentially, no one is using AA lithium’s to achieve this extra voltage.

I highly recommend that anyone considering hookah get SCUBA certified, even though they do not require it.

I use one of these for various tumbling including clad. It handles 18lbs at a time (including media). Walnut shell seems to work good on clad. I used the fine and ran it for 4-6 hours. You can pay a lot of $$$ on a tumbler and they all basically jiggle the contents around. https://www.harborfreight.com/18-lb-vibratory-bowl-with-liquid-drain-hose-96923.html

I think anything is possible with the final distribution. I wouldn't want to be the last person to buy the limited and then... say one month later, the finished mechanical AQ is released with improved battery, internal power cable, and if the price increase wasn't too bad... I should have, could have, would have waited?

And if you don't want to go the headphone route, I'm pretty sure you can turn the volume to zero. Having said that, I agree that for most detectorists and situations, eliminating volume information is counterproductive. Underwater when you don't have the waterproof headphones? I would think vibration (which many Nokta/Makro detectors can do, not just the Simplex) would be a plus. I say that having never gone (and not expecting to ever go) underwater with a detector.... The deaf community is quite appreciate of Nokta/Makro's vibrate feature, BTW.

The works was done in the mid 1980s. My grandfather bought the property as rental units and now I own them all. I will check, and I have before, but there is not much left. One side of the house is where he buried all of the plaster walls when he renovated.

Paul I carry the 7000 on a bungee in my right hand and a 800 in my left hand for discrimination. And they both act as canes when I stagger on the loose boulders. Discrimination works on the small shallow stuff. Be prepared to move a lot of big boulders for deep big stuff like this. Have a good day, Chet