Steve Herschbach

Headphones as far as I know nobody else is using the same fitting as the Impulse (it is a conspiracy that they all be different), so you would need to replace the waterproof connector on other models on the market for them to work. I am going to make an adapter to 1/4" or 1/8" very soon so I can go wireless, and will start a new thread on that. This version a complete rod replacement is at least a possibility for those so inclined. The new model when it comes out will have the batteries integrated into the design, making a rod replacement an even more difficult proposition. Since the Limited is going to have no more than 99 units made, I don't see anyone jumping into making custom rods for them. That middle rod is not easy to find for something used on so many First Texas (Fisher, Bounty Hunter, Teknetics) detectors. Black, gold, and gray versions are made. I got my spare at Kellyco for $9.99 and I had a $5 off coupon so half off, but with shipping ended up being $12 delivered. https://www.kellycodetectors.com/catalog/middle-rod-only-current-models

No, Equinox does not even fit other Minelab product. Why would you not just buy the $10 Fisher middle rod? If you are thinking complete rod replacement, think again. Look at the lower rod again - brand new yoke design, you will not find it anywhere else but Fisher at this time. And that upper rod assembly? The power and audio routes through the handle into the sealed end cap behind the elbow. You just don't remove the handle and put on another rod, you need to rewire everything and recreate the power and audio outlets. The only reasonable solution at this time is that $10 middle section.

Yes, I am sure there is global interest. The irony is the most interested parties are probably Chinese, perhaps the very people so skillfully building fake White’s detectors right now. They are building them already, all they need are the rights to legally sell them. The question is, would Ken turn down that big fat check? I’d guess so as he should have enough money already, but you never know. Talk is cheap but when faced with a large sum of money, most people will take the money. I alluded to this earlier when I mentioned somebody buying the White’s name to gain easy entry to the market. Yeah , I know many would swear to never buy a Whites product again, yada, yada. Don’t go getting political unless you want a post deleted. It happens all the time and is not unrealistic that it could happen in this case. And for every person who says they would never buy a Chinese made White’s, there are all those people who already do. A properly made MXT at $249 would be a seller, and so would most of Whites products at similarly deep discounts. If you want to think it is impossible for the Chinese to make a quality product, well, sometimes that is true and sometimes not. But it need not be China. Could be a Nokta/Makro for that matter, jumpstart them into PI and multifrequency. But they can probably do that in their own. As Carl has noted half White’s stuff is not covered by current patents, so why pay for what you can legally copy? Or maybe White’s UK has the resources and desire to move manufacturing to the UK? Lots of possibilities. I could be wrong but I think it unlikely White’s will simply disappear like Tesoro. Tesoro had noting, just rotary phones. Whites has brand new machines like the 24K that can compete with the best of them. Somebody will want to buy them, it just boils down to price and if Ken will sell. Sadly, there is little possibility that the Sweet Home facility would survive. The key to fixing the current problem is low cost manufacturing in up-to-date facilities.

That picture shows well just how huge these things were! George Payne was a father of modern metal detecting, with many of his basic patents, now expired, used in nearly every detector on the market today. https://patents.justia.com/inventor/george-c-payne https://patents.justia.com/inventor/george-calvin-payne

Park 2 is great, already in 50 tones, just use defaults, hit horseshoe to accept all targets, adjust sensitivity to suit, frequency scan, and ground balance. Maybe reduce recovery speed a bit if in low mineral ground and sparse targets.

Turn the ORX on and get near to the Equinox, then do a frequency scan with the Nox to see if it will find frequencies as far from whatever you have set on the ORX. Might take some experimenting with different ORX offsets. I do the same thing with my F-Pulse to get it and Equinox playing well together.

Cable or cables on the way, so be back in business soon. Thanks Rick and FT for getting on it same day! 👍🏼

Got to admit I was hoping beyond hope they had a rabbit they were going to pull out of their hat to save the day. I knew it was bad, but a Hail Mary pass on a V4 (improved V3i in MX Sport housing) was some of my wishful thinking. I knew it was unlikely but still.... Hellfire and Damnation!

Wow, they really are shutting Sweet Home down completely. But good to hear people won’t be left hanging.

It is fiberglass so easy enough to cut down. Just need to drill and reposition the detent pin. I’m going to cut mine so it ends up in the middle of the center rod, with plenty of adjustment each way. Right now it’s a little on the long side for me, but way better than being too short. Looks like I have time now while I wait for a new power cable.

Good luck with the new detector George!

Took photos and measurements so you can all compare to detectors you have to see if the length... or the extension... will work for you. Also gives you idea of suitcase size needed for travel. Fisher Impulse AQ lower rod- top of coil to end Indent positioner tab is 1.5" from upper end We need a part number and price on the lower rod ASAP. It is a new part, and you know they are going to get broken. That old lower rod you have - that is not going to work. Upper rod - key number 10" front middle elbow bolt to front edge of grip Fisher Impulse AQ stock, fully extended, 48.5" to elbow bolt, 38.5" from grip to coil Standard Fisher middle rod added, shortest adjustment, 52" to elbow from coil, 42" from grip to coil Note that lower rod can be cut down, finding a middle ground which would probably be the best of both worlds. Standard Fisher middle rod, about $10, nine adjustment holes.

Never should have been a cable. Not like it’s not been done correctly already, MX Sport and MDT 8000 for example. So working examples already exist. A head scratcher.

With Whites shutting down better snap up one of these bargains if you can still find one. If it is going on I doubt it will continue. If there was ever a detector destined to be a collectors item it is the V3i.

There is no metal collar to shear off. It is a rotating part, with a washer between, visible in the picture. The plastic tube with flare on the end is what holds it all together. I don’t see how, with the fitting firmly screwed together, that the plastic tube could possibly break where it did. It is broken exactly midway up the threaded metal tube when it is all assembled. All but impossible really. If I broke it I broke it... I’m not an eight year old who worries about blame. I just can’t figure out how I could have broke it there, even if it was dropped hard, which it was not. I can only conjecture it shipped this way to me, and if I had not been treating it so delicately it would have come apart sooner. I wish now I’d tugged on the cable a bit when I first put it together. Instead, I was trying to touch it as little as possible. Bottom line for me anyway is I think it was a complete fluke, and not indicative of anything I’ll be worrying about going forward. I just need a spare cable. Fisher is already working on eliminating the cable so the issue has been addressed for the long run.

The detector has the performance, so that part I don’t have to worry about. I just need to be able to turn it on!

OK, my first outing had me ready to get serious. I was quite satisfied with the performance of the Impulse AQ. I found I needed to extend the rod for more reach, and was fortunate enough to have a Fisher middle rod section for a Gold Bug 2 at home, so I added that for more length. Now the shortest setting is almost too long, but for me perfect, and room for more extension. (New rod length thread here) I also decided I needed a way to suspend the AQ by my side while I was digging, so I used a short piece of parachute cord from my wader suspenders to just below the handle tied off just right. So the AQ hangs just below waist height if released. Up at 6am to be at the beach for 8am opening to get in a full day, two fully charged batteries ready to go. Weather looking perfect, sunny and not too warm for wader work. I had decided that the AQ performance was such that I was going to use tones exclusively and my best cherry picking skills to avoid surface wire and small items, and concentrate on ring type signals. I expected nickels, corroded zinc, pull tabs.... and hopefully a ring or two. Jewelry is sparse at Tahoe but it is there, and I felt confident I now had a depth edge that was going to help find them. All geared up, gave all the fittings one last check to make sure they were good.... and noticed the power cable to battery connection seemed to have some excess wiggle. The normal hairline gap in the fitting seemed a bit off. I pulled on the cable gently, and it pulled right out of the connector! The internal plastic sleeve was broken, and when I got home I fished the other half out of the battery connector with fine point tweezers. All I can say is 3.5 hours total use, I've been paranoid treating this fitting with kid gloves, and it has never even been underwater. If I broke it I have no clue how I did it. The plastic is broken off inside in a way that I am having a hard time seeing how it could even occur. Don't know, it is broke, and I'm done. I wish now when I put the pressure on to get a spare battery I had thought to buy a spare power cable also. Rookie mistake. Duh. Oh well, the water looked perfect, and I got a nice two hour drive. And that is that folks until I get another power cord, and hopefully a spare. Not upset about it, stuff happens, and if anything really do blame myself for not getting a spare. I never went anywhere with my Minelab PI detectors without a spare power cord. Why would I think of doing it with this machine? And the price to be paid sometimes for being the first kid on the block with a new toy. I'm glad I caught it before submerging the machine, though the chance of actual damage occurring in freshwater is almost non-existent, which is one reason I'm just fine keeping this detector out of saltwater for now. Would have been better yet if it had revealed itself on the last trip, which was kind of what the shakeout tour was for. Oh well. Lesson learned for all - get a spare power cable!!!! I have no idea what they cost but will find out and pass it on. We need a part number and price so people can buy spares. I expect a replacement under warranty, but I am more than happy to pay for a spare. Would have saved me a bit of gas money if nothing else this morning and...... the water looked so good!

I agree less value for FT than most anyone. I was just making the example that companies buy dead companies. I can think of some possibilities that people would hate to hear about, so I’ll just let that subject be. Again, best wishes to the folks at White’s going forward. As far as service, I doubt we will see White’s pull a Tesoro and simply abandon their customers without a word. They will probably put out some kind of statement in the coming days or weeks explaining what will happen as far as outstanding warranty, etc. See Carls’s thoughts here

As long as a company is solvent, it can’t just stop warranty responsibilities on a whim. The owner can’t basically screw the customers and walk away with a pile of money. In most cases it takes a bankruptcy to shed various business obligations, and warranty is an obligation. But a complicated subject and varies a lot with the business structure and state laws. https://www.proremodeler.com/out-business-still-liable Long story short, I would be surprised if after having some of the best service in the industry Whites abandons their customers now. The situation would have to be far more dire than I think it is for that to happen. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/3688-whites-electronics-visit-and-a-new-v3i/

For the same reason some funny fellows in Texas bought Bounty Hunter, Fisher, and Teknetics. The White’s name has quite substantial value if somebody out there wanted to bootstrap into the industry. The half sine patent has real potential, or would have if the engineers that could develop it had been retained. Bottom line is solvent companies buy failed companies all the time. It’s all about the price - my partner and I used to call it “picking the bones”, every time one of our competitors went out of business, and we’d buy stuff for 10 cents on the dollar. Having lived through a few of these down times, we came to see them as opportunities. Good companies plan for bad times, and have sufficient resources to take advantage of opportunities that arise during bad times to not only survive but to thrive.

No doubt a factor, one many companies deal with... and most do deal with it. I'm a real hard ass when it comes to business failure though, having been a business owner my entire life. Businesses fail for one reason only in my opinion - bad management. Good management can overcome nearly anything. At the end of the day the buck stops at the top.

Ken may have seen the writing on the wall, and it is doubtful the company would be worth more in 5 years. The squeeze is really on now, and I do not see how White's can keep going at current pricing, or make money at lower prices. Ken is no kid anymore. Just cash in the chips now for the best he can get, and sail off on that boat while he can. It's either that or double down, and I doubt he is ready to do that at this stage of the game. Not happy to see it, but probably a smart move.

They have IP worth buying... if Kenny is willing to sell at a reasonable price.

Even between 2002 with the introduction of the MXT up until 2009 with the introduction of the V3i White's was a force to be reckoned with, producing extremely competitive machines. Once CEO Alan Holcombe left however, right around the time the V3i came out... that is when the end really started. White's just never found anyone capable of really replacing Alan.