Steve Herschbach

Well, I may have blown it. Almost seven weeks ago I ordered the Pulsedive pinpointer and 5" coil package plus the 8" coil on Amazon. Amazon split the order between two suppliers. The 8" coil was shipped from Sports365' - not sure who that is other than an Amazon vendor, as the site provides no real info. Well, the stuff showed up just over a month ago, but I've been very busy with new detectors and classes. It all sat unopened. I finally got around to opening it all up, and when I pulled the protective cap off the end of the 8" coil small plastic parts fell out. Somewhere between Turkey and my doorstep it looks like something must have hit this thing on the end hard enough to break it. Over a month since I ordered.... I'm probably screwed. But I sent a message today via Amazon to the vendor to see what if any response I will get. I'm afraid this will end up being one of those lessons learned. I can't believe I did not open immediately but it is such a minor item and it's been so long since I had anything wrong brand new in the box that I got lax. I'll let you all know what the vendor says. I guess I at least have the Pulsedive and 5" coil in good working order.

Look like good headphones, and the $49 price is sure more like it. Headphones are one of those areas where we have seen a lot of overpriced product over the years. With detector prices coming down headphones were bound to also.

The Impulse beach detector is a niche product (PI) in a niche market (beach hunters). And guess who really dominates that market. Minelab multifrequency models, not any PI detectors. The Impulse AQ is not revolutionary anyway, just another PI. A very nice one, but nothing earth shaking. The Impulse Gold model? The best they can hope for is to match already existing Minelab models. Minelab has seen what FT is planning there for a couple years, and anyone that thinks Minelab will let some PI gold market share go without responding is just dreaming. Whatever FT does there with their gold PI is too little, too late. There is a ton of money in pinpointers. Most sell for more than some metal detectors! But you have to move numbers, and I doubt the F-Pulse or Tek version have made a serious dent in the market. That is one area where I'd say Minelab has scored a fail so far. I never even bothered to try their pinpointer, that's how compelling it is.

I actually did get an email from Minelab recently - a new survey. I guess they found my email address finally. The survey asked about perceptions about Minelab and the competition. What I thought extremely interesting was Minelabs idea of who the competition is. Garrett, Nokta/Makro, and XP. No mention of White's of course. But also no mention of First Texas (Bounty Hunter, Fisher, Teknetics). Minelab has specifically targeted both the Garrett AT and XP Deus with Equinox. Vanquish specifically targeted the Ace. Minelab looks at market leaders, and then goes after their market share. Nokta/Makro they obviously want to keep an eye on due to machines like the Simplex+. An aggressive up and comer, not unlike Minelab in its early days. If you were Minelab, what is there First Texas makes that you would would want to go after? I can't think of anything, so it's not surprising Minelab did not bother even asking about them.

I expect we will see continued price decreases and package deals from First Texas.

I'm having huge feelings of inadequacy. Congratulations Clive!

This might explain some things.... 12 cells...

Garrett rocked the industry with the Ace series. Garrett invented the All Terrain category, and nobody successfully challenged the AT series until Equinox. Garrett reinvented the modern pinpointer and inspired countless copycats. They are the only company to sell an integrated wireless system that makes sense. Garrett has long been an industry pace setter and one of its most successful players. People who crave flagship detectors tend to overlook them, because Garrett only cares about being a solidly profitable company that sells huge numbers of product to the bulk of the market, not catering to the minority of detector nerds like me. Garrett is a detector manufacturing and marketing powerhouse, and therefore the number one company that Minelab pays attention to and competes with. There are only four companies that have been driving the industry in the last ten years, and Garrett is the only one based in the U.S.

You might want to catch up a bit on what’s going on a John.

Not a chance. If any U.S. company will be last man standing, it’s Garrett.

Things are not any better on the top secret Official White’s Forum. I joined just to see if the was anything official there, but other than the same thing being said a month ago, nothing since. I’m guessing they are trying to negotiate something, hoping for good news they can tell people, and it’s just dragging out.

You copy the address from your browser address bar and paste it. Or use the YouTube share button, copy, and paste. So your dealer won’t talk to you and Nokta won’t talk to you. Did you contact the service center. That would have been the first stop before contacting Nokta directly. If my car is broke I don’t call the Ford factory.

Got exactly 3.5 hours before the beach got busy enough I left, so 6 hours total running time so far. I will not charge and will continue on next go until batteries die to get full runtime figure. The setup was great. The pound battery removed from under the elbow combined with a neutral coil weight in water made the detector nearly weightless. And my Sun Ray Pro Gold (CTX version) have a little better comfort and sound for above water use. I will definitely keep this rig even if I get another AQ, as a chest/hip mount battery works better than I anticipated.

You won’t find any posts about my Orx use. It is however a subset of the Deus, and I’ve owned a couple of them. Very impressive detectors, and the only reason I don’t have one is I have an Equinox. The Deus/Orx have an edge in dense ferrous but the Equinox is no slouch there. On the other hand I far prefer the Equinox for water use, so for me the Equinox makes more sense. For those who relic hunt a lot and water not so much, it could lean the other way. Some people think having both is the only solution. I’ve been watching used Orx sales and if one came along cheap enough I might very well get one, but right now used detectors seem to be fetching premium prices. I don’t need much of what the Deus offers in addition to what the Orx has, and the lower Orx price makes it a more palatable impulse buy.

My four EBL batteries ran $21 total, but I’m betting you are probably fine. 8000? Probably not, but 5000 is a decent bet. And it is Amazon after all. Check them when you get them, and if no good, return immediately.

I wish for park hunting that the MDT had more tones. I’m used to hunting by ear and with the MDT there is not a lot to go by unless you refer to the screen a lot. For me the choices by ear are “dig all high tones” or “dig all mid-tones” or “dig all non-ferrous.”

If it was me and I’d bought it from a dealer I’d be having a serious discussion with them. I only buy from dealers who support their customers. Otherwise contact a service center. There are four to choose from. https://www.noktadetectors.com/technical-service/ I hope you get it sorted out soon.

I agree Joe and I'm not vouching for any of them except the EBL ones I have. I deleted that second link. Supposedly none of the big name guys are making 26650 batteries anymore is the main problem. Bill, I guess the main thing is these things are dirt cheap, so not like we can get burned too bad. Only need to come up with four good ones. I ordered the rubber boots I linked to above from Amazon. They are not as thick walled as I hoped and do not add much strength, but at least a little protection is better than none. I'm giving this a go tomorrow and will report back.

Battery options are evolving so rapidly some stuff is becoming obsolete before it hardly gets started. According to this article that is the case with the 26650 battery. It sounds like many of them are unreliable "rewraps." The battery holder does have sleeves for 18650 batteries. I have two of those left over from another project, and may have to get a couple more just to have a complete set for this pack as a backup.

I started a series on the CTX and GPZ mapping system, but got so demoralized by Minelab’s own lack of interest that I never finished the series after the second entry. I still think it is a critical tool for me, but now use a separate GPS because I no longer have faith in Minelab supporting the system. GPS Mapping with the Minelab CTX and GPZ Detectors (Part 1) GPS MAPPING WITH THE MINELAB CTX AND GPZ DETECTORS (PART 2)

My name suggestion.... InvisiMulti. It sees treasure even if you can’t see it! Picture below...... InvisiMulti in “Stealth” mode

Class 9 is probably a generic government category, not a description from Minelab. The only hint you get is the name and logo.

I liked to use a cover on my GPX and GPZ, but not so sure I’d want to on an SDC 2300. Seems like it would interfere with folding and stowing. Nice thing about an SDC, just hose it off. My old SDC...

They are fine for general panning, but I’d switch to a cleanup pan if I used one for working cons. I don’t like a recessed bottom in a pan for working cons. It interferes with my transitioning to sidewall / final cleanup panning. If I need a trap in a pan, I prefer a riffle that can be rotated out of the way. So in general I just prefer a pan that does not have a drop bottom at all, since it really does nothing to help my panning, and can impede it. I actually like the look of the XP pans, and was more making fun of the copycat advertising.