Steve Herschbach

First we had Algoforce but now the real battle starts in pulse induction, with Nokta likely to set new price/performance ratios i.e. bang for the buck.

"Join our naming competition and get a chance to win one of our future Pulse Induction machines!

One designed for gold prospecting and another one for relic hunting!

These detectors will redefine affordability and performance for you to break free from the grip of overpriced alternatives!"

ENTER CONTEST Deadline April 30th

1 hour ago, Jeff McClendon said:

After owning and loving 5 Equinox 600/800s, I thought I just couldn't survive without one.

Now I own the Legend and Manticore. I simply do not miss my Equinox 600/800s at all. I don't even think about buying another Equinox or have the slightest bit of seller's remorse.

The Legend and Manticore easily out perform the Equinox 600/800 where I detect the most and I don't have to worry about leaking and build quality either.

Nice to hear a no holds barred no regrets testimonial. 

That's not how it works. Volcanic mode is for ground so bad the other modes fail and by definition that ground is the ground where that setting outperforms the other settings. In other words, your test bucket is not bad enough to need volcanic mode. In ground where it is not called for you lose depth, not gain it, which is why almost nobody uses it.

I have run into very few people who understand how the timings work on detectors like a GPX 5000. People get it backwards and think settings for bad ground are more powerful when in reality it is the exact opposite. As the ground conditions get worse, each timing is progessively less powerful but works better in bad ground than the more powerful modes due to blowback. It's a balancing act, and timings are nothing more than base sensitivity levels. You reduce sensitivty to handle worsening ground condition - increasing sensitivity as ground worsens is counterproductive. As ground gets milder, increase sensitivity, as it worsens, reduce sensitivity. Less is more in bad ground.

In general you use the most powerful mode you can until it is counterproductive. How do you know? In field testing on your ground. That is why people using canned settings provided by people in totally different locations is a complete joke. You have to learn what the settings do and learn to adjust them for your circumstances, and that means doing it yourself on your ground.

This is a GPX 5000 timing chart but the rationale for how to tune it in lower right is just as true with the Impulse or any other PI detector, and applies to pulse delay, etc. In a nutshell bad ground calls for turning down the power, in good ground turn it up.

I’d expect 800s to still be the norm. The question is, for those that are switching, what are they switching to? Legend, D2, or Manticore?

I ruffle feathers when I say the tech has maxed because people want to believe detectors have no limits. I think however many people are seeing that for some applications at least, like nugget hunting or beach detecting, the Equinox 800 is still a top performer. Gains are very hard to come by with the current state of the technology.

15 hours ago, Red_desert said:

Nugget Shooter forum didn't allow politics either. Then 1 or 2 habitual offenders, usually got their political posts deleted sooner or later.

Actually there was an anything goes sub-forum for years that finally got nuked as even Bill got fed up with it. That plus the “sooner or later” and “habitual offenders” is why I made the comment. Action here is immediate and more than once is a probable ban. I actually hate being a watchdog so the easiest solution is to get rid of those that need watching.

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be a jerk to new arrivals. I just don’t want anyone being caught unawares by my evil draconian oversight. 

4 hours ago, stateguy said:

Are they coming out with a new machine. Or are they not selling. 

It IS the new machine! The fact that this seems like a U.S. only thing would seem to indicate weak sales here combined with the U.S. managers desire to boost the end of quarter reporting. This kind of sale though does less to generate new sales than rob from future Manticore sales, so the job gets even harder next quarter. I think the Deus 2 is proving to be stiffer competition than Minelab ever thought would happen with Manticore. @Bill (S. CA) reports lots of D2 and very few Manticore on So. Cal beaches. The relic hunters seem to favor the D2. Maybe the scene is different on Florida beaches?

Buy it from Doc in Las Vegas and you will have a built in pointy finger. 

https://docsdetecting.com/

Hi Dennis,

Age is catching up with us both!

Hard call as the Gold Bug 2 is still an excellent machine and you are familiar with it. I myself am going to the Manticore with 5x8 coil for general detecting and that will also include nugget detecting. I am getting to where just one general purpose detector will suit me fine as long as it is also decent for nugget detecting, and Manticore does well in that area, while also serving me for other uses. I'd still bet on the Gold Bug 2 for the tiny bits. Only real reason to consider the Manticore is if you are interested in it's other capabilities i.e. coins, jewelry, relics, beach.

If you do think you want a Manticore now is the time, as it is $500 off until May 6th.

Good videos here in Nevada. Having seen it in person I was impressed and next time out in the desert I'll be swinging the Manticore.

Nugget Shooter forum members welcome for sure! Just a friendly reminder for those not used to how this forum works…. it is an absolutely zero politics zone. I don’t warn I just delete. I set this place up as a refuge from all that and if people want it there are plenty of other places to get it. This forum by design sticks to dry boring topics like gold prospecting and metal detecting. 

There are a couple dealer ads in the Classifieds. $500 off, new with full warranty - if there was ever a time to pull the trigger and buy a Manticore this is it.

Can’t help with the schematic but here is the circuit board circa 2016. Click or double click to get the high resolution version.

YouTube is very problematic for newbies. There is good stuff and bad stuff. Sometimes the boring guy has the best info, and the entertaining guy spreads misinformation, but the entertaining guy gets the eyeballs. If you already know the subject well you can sort out what is what real fast, but for newbies they simply can't spot the bad information as they don't know any better.

I can swear to one thing. Nobody taught me how to metal detect. I just got a detector and went detecting. I read the manual. I experimented on different targets with different settings. I learned what worked and what did not. I do the same to this very day. All you need is a metal detector and some hours behind the wheel plus an inquistive mind. It's really not rocket science. Experience is the best teacher.

Everything is relative. Guys like Rick with a GPZ 7000 are disappointed by what they see, as if it was ever billed as a GPZ replacement. But compare to any VLF in tough ground and it’s a fine option. Certainly better than machines like the Infinium, TDI and QED.

1 hour ago, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

Since this is not a deep large gold detector in IMO I would recommend a 9x14” Evo as a good all rounder coil if I owned just one, but if I could have two Evo coils for this detector it would be a 12x8” and a 12” Evo.

Can you buy these Algoforce E1500’s and have them shipped outside of Australia or do you have to have a friend or family member buy it and send it to you?

It's fun how quickly things get pigeonholed. The E1500 does not hit large deep gold as deep as a machine costing two or three times as much, that's all. That is not to say it can't hit large deep gold and will most assuredly do just that better than anything made that costs less. So if a person who only has a VLF gets a E1500 as their first nugget hunting PI, and has a realistic good shot at large nugget ground, of course get a larger coil. Honestly, it's less about the detector than the potential of the ground a person has available. That said, there being more small gold in the world smaller coils are going to be the better bet, ergonomically better, and still have a decent chance of getting that big nugget - if you can just get the coil over one. I agree the 9x14 Evo is an excellent choice for an all round option. That plus a Sadie is about all most people would need.

6 hours ago, TampaBayBrad said:

Nice start....you will love it. Yes, Surf & Seawater is proper but other beach programs should be workable if you want to experiment. Just remember.....16' max depth!

My advice is do not test the max depth. Stay at 10 feet or less.

11 hours ago, noob said:

Wow, Fisher really dropped the ball there... what a wasted opportunity. 

Yup, the potential big money was always going to be a gold prospecting detector, not a beach PI detector. PI beach detecting is a small niche in the overall small beach detecting market. If FT had focused first on the gold nugget version they would have reaped the benefits worldwide of todays rising gold prices. It was the easy play, since it did not have to be waterproof, and would also have hit the relic and wading beach market, all in one machine. Success there could have paved the way for a waterproof version to follow. They got everything about this backwards.

You used the right word - belief. Dowsing is a belief system backed with nothing but anecdotal evidence. Everyone wants to have super powers. Believe what you want, but you are on the wrong forum if you want to promote the supernatural as being scientific fact. It’s not up to me to prove dowsing does not work, it is up to even one dowser on this planet to be able to pass simple scientific tests showing that it does. Nobody ever, ever, has been able to do so. People have been offered a million dollars to show that dowsing works, they can’t do it. The excuses why that is are endless but that’s the way it is. These are the facts, so believe what you want, but take it to some other forum for discussion. And good luck. 

As my last post said and Simon just showed it’s under Account Settings, not under Profile.

On 4/7/2024 at 1:57 PM, JohnI said:

I've read more than once to detect with the sensitivity as high as you can

It’s sad that you are seeing that even once because it’s terrible advice. It’s exactly like saying a car should only be driven at full throttle, full speed at all times. You are going to crash and burn. Why even have a sensitivity control at all if that advice were true?

32 minutes ago, phrunt said:

That's a clean tidy nice fast site, probably the only thing I'd do differently is a "contact us about this product" on each product, seeing there is no way to buy it a contact about it would be a nice little shortcut on each product.

I put a direct link on a few product descriptions here and there where I want special emphasis on that. The contact info is at the top or bottom of every page so it's available with a single click no matter where you are. I'm sure people who want to contact the company will be able to do it and if not - they are not trying. This is not the main website really, more like a sub-site the main site links to as a way to highlight the mining product. The main big boy toys are there......

https://www.akmining.com/

58 minutes ago, noob said:

Has anyone tried using the AQ for gold prospecting? Just curious..

They're cheap now so I thought I might give it a go.

Completely useless, worse than a cheap VLF. I thought it might handle mild Nevada ground but remember - it has no ground balance. I could only get it to behave dialed down so low I'd be better off with anything else. Banged on hot rocks like they were going out of style. No, there is a reason that there was going to be a separate Impulse Gold.

Frankly, the Impulse Gold was the machine I wanted because an Impulse with a full ground balance with sufficient range would work anywhere. The AQ being tuned specifically for a beach environments was quite limiting. But the Impulse Gold never has made it out of the starting gate and probably never will.

I'm going to brag up a little project I have been working on. As the AMDS nerd I have single-handedly been building a new website for the location. Got the domain name, chose the hosting service, chose the software to run the store on, then set it up by customizing it for our use, and then the tedious part - adding all that product. I got most of it up in a month of spare time work, and now add bits and pieces when the mood hits me. Funny looking at this old thread, but reminds me I should get the Banjo Pan added to the site.

You will note that the site has no prices or buy buttons. It is basically a catalog site. This is for several reasons. First, it makes my job way easier. Second, it is being realistic about a new reality. Shipping costs from the Lower 48 to Alaska and then back down to the Lower 48 are so much higher than they were 20 years ago mean we realistically can't compete with outfits based in the Lower 48 on price alone. Free shipping on a gold panning kit to the Lower 48? Are you kidding? It is more than we make on the kit! It also means that if we charge that shipping people down south will just buy somewhere else, so we are not going to waste time (money) chasing a market we can't realistically serve. There are some higher price smaller size items like metal detectors where it might work, but for now we are trying to do what we do best - serve the Alaska market. If people down south see something we have that they want, then they can contact us for a quote.

For me as the web head though implementing a system that will update price increases, current inventory, and shipping is more than I want to tackle being off site. At a minimum I'd need to tap into the company database and script the solution to that can of worms. Long story short a catalog site at least shows what we have while avoiding a lot of maintenance headaches. I've set it all up so they could add online sales later if they want to but pretty much told them it will have to be somebody else doing it other than me.

With that set of parameters it has been a fun project as I enjoy building sites. I like them clean and simple as possible and I like good photos. That has been a challenge given a lot of the crappy imagery outfits like Keene have available. Luckily new AI upscaling tools are available now that let me do way more with what is available - plus the fun for me of playing with those new tools. Topaz Gigapixel AI is truly amazing it what it can do and constantly improving. Just eliminating backgrounds has gone from hours long work to seconds now, and free in MS paint instead of a fortune in Photoshop. Anyway, doing what I can with what I can legitimately lift from vendor websites, and will fill the gaps taking photos on my next visit to Alaska.

Enough of the nerd talk. I'm really only posting about it as I have and am putting a lot of work into it and am proud of my new baby and want to show it off a little. Check it out if you are interested at

https://miningsuperstore.com/shop/ 

and do not miss the stuff we have you don't see in most shops - mini excavators, trommels, the Sierrablaster, etc.

Not long enough but do first trip focused on your family - you can always go back to just chase gold. Have fun and safe travels!

On 4/11/2024 at 4:00 PM, VicR said:

Maybe you need a different thread listing all your requirements for a PI beach machine - much like was done for the the PI gold machine challenge and just wait for AlgoForce to fill a gap in the market again.

The whole point of the AQ was to collect feedback to build it right. We did our part but so far Fisher has not done theirs.

It’s not rocket science. The AQ electronics are superb, it’s the physical housing that was a fail from the start. I think physical knobs should be avoided on underwater detectors. No matter how good they are a weak spot in any underwater design. We have better options these days. And all that was needed was an underarm drop in battery design. Gee, it might look like this. Just make the battery area under the arm longer to contain two or even three 26650 Rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries. Battery compartments do not have to end directly under the elbow.

A lot of those are in fantastic condition, awesome finds! I assume those are the cream of the crop first deserving of getting framed. What kind of ratio do you get on great condition finds versus scummy corroded finds? In other words, how rare are the cleaner buttons overall? Are there conditions that favor the buttons being preserved in better condition i.e. soil type, fertilized versus non-fertilized ground, etc.?