Steve Herschbach

People are always asking for canned settings. Hello - presets. If a metal detector company actually knew what it was doing, then the presets should represent a number of absolute best settings possible for several given situations. All that should normally be required is pick the proper preset (Beach vs Park etc), optionally bump the gain up, ground balance, and EMI scan. Testing the presets reveals which companies know how to best optimize the detectors they make, and tells the majority of normal users which detector would be a best choice for those who don’t wish to become settings wizards. In general, messing with presets too much should degrade performance, not improve it. Unless the presets are really bad, and if that is the case… why were they created in the first place? It’s a general myth in the detecting world that the stock coils suck, and presets suck. Everyone seeks alternatives, when in reality the engineers try very hard to make sure the coil that comes with the detector is an excellent choice for general use, and that the presets are a very wise place to be unless you know exactly what you are doing when you change them. Sure, there are exceptions, but they are just that, and not the norm.

Then you already have the best tools available. There are many companies selling long range locators - the concept itself and the excessive claims are the proof of scam at work. Nobody has to test them any more than you need to test a crystal ball to know that it can't tell the future. Companies prey on wishful thinking by making excessive claims, and the fact people think it is illegal to make such claims, so the claims must be real. Nobody has to prove these devices do not work. If I say I can flap my arms and fly I have to prove it. Nobody has to prove I can't and most people will have sense enough to know that I can't. If you want to ignore what you are being told by everyone here that is fine, but at least you were warned. Good luck.

Yup, if huge ferrous is the problem, like axe head and larger, mag is great. But again, good luck with the nails.

It’s simple. I have used a magnetometer along with a Minelab PI and the PI can hit the nail twice as deep as the magnetometer. No better than lugging a VLF around. So the problem remains the same - no help on the junk where you need help the most, the deepest junk.

I think people overestimate the underlying technology. VLF discrimination is highly inaccurate, and PI discrimination is a joke. The reality is ground signal overlaps with target signals, so simply using ground balance tunes out a certain class of targets. Almost all targets will read ferrous in bad ground under the right conditions, so anyone employing just basic ferrous versus non-ferrous discrimination, even on the best VLF detectors, leaves good targets in the ground that are misidentified as ferrous. This is simply common knowledge among experience gold nugget hunters, and is why many eschew discrimination of any sort. It is also why the engineer nerds at Minelab left off the so-called discrimination on the SDC-2300, GPZ 7000 and GPX 6000. That’s their way of them telling you how well they think it actually works. That said I like having the option to use discrimination, as long as it’s up to me to decide when and where to use it. Even with the SDC, 6000 and 7000 I cherry pick targets based on tone, so I am using discrimination - my ear and brain. But I don’t kid myself that I’m not leaving gold in the ground as a result, and neither should anyone else. It’s a gamble at best. The targets you leave in the ground, well, you’ll never know what they were. I can tell you this though and it’s a fact - I have dug literally ounces of gold that were left by others as being junk, probably over a pound at least. People who leave stuff in the ground because they trusted their detectors have put thousands of dollars in my pocket, so thanks!

Nothing new there Chuck. TDI can do it for instance. The Impulse is old news now, and it has no magical capability about ferrous handling that all the users so far have overlooked somehow.

Long story short nothing magical going on with the Impulse that can't be done with the TDI, just more refined.

I disagree. Just because it’s not been done properly yet does not mean it won’t be, and in fact it’s all but inevitable. Objections about communication speed and processing power are mere technical issues. The objection over processor power in particular is already moot since the heavy lifting occurs in the coil. So all we are talking is the speed to get the info to the phone. Many Deus users employ the controller are a dumb programmer and put in the pocket so really all you are talking is audio lag. New faster Bluetooth protocols come along constantly, and WiFi is being ignored completely as an alternative as are separate direct to headphone schemes bypassing the phone. Again, nothing but technical hurdles a creative mind and time will overcome. If a phone as controller makes no sense then neither does what XP does with all the wireless everything. The basic concept has nothing wrong with it at all. It will happen, mark my words,

He says it has a lot of promise, not a lot of problems.

With newer digital models the discrete way of looking at things gets mushy as they can digitally meld functions now in a way they could not with analog. There are hybrid functions that affect multiple parameters. The word "intelligent" added to any function implies just that. Companies are also naming things in ways that violate the old conventions so what they name it does not always mean what it says. Due to this I am more a "test it in the field and see what it does" kind of guy personally. It is what it does.

Two different things. SAT is more a continuous threshold based all metal function designed to smooth the threshold. The autotune is always trying to bring the threshold back to it's setting, and how quickly it does that is either preset or adjustable. Steve's Guide to Threshold Autotune, SAT & V/SAT Recovery Speed or Reactivity in its various flavors is aimed more at gated discrimination target responses, and governs how quickly one target can be dropped and the next picked up. Steve’s Guide to Recovery Speed

Yup. The signal is easily blocked by body parts between the receiver and transmitter. This is the best tip for preventing drop outs you are going to see short of going to the separate WR-1 receiver as I have done.

It’s a high gain PI but in my experience the Axiom handles EMI very well. That does not mean it’s immune to it however, and honestly it’s impossible to predict how it will work in advance at a given location. New EMI sources come online almost daily and even places that were once ok are now an electromagnetic nightmare. The latest are cheap LED lights which can be one of the worst sources of stray EMI that I’ve ever encountered.

An awesome review and mini manual Bill - great work! Thanks for choosing the forum as a way to make sure the effort was not in vain.

I’d suggest you go out with your friend who has the Axiom again to compare machines. That will determine if your unit is acting up, or it was a local issue.

New is a matter of perspective. From this old timers perspective nothing here is new except the bang for the buck. The only way any of these machines can be drastically better than the other is if somebody really screws up when making one. It’s like asking which computer runs Microsoft Word better. Anyone that can’t build a decent single frequency detector needs to get out of the business and so it’s purely about which one offers the most features you want for the best price. Finally, we are seeing genuine competition in the industry, and I expect it to only get more fierce. Good times ahead for buyers of new detectors. Bad times for those holding onto old machines thinking they will do anything but plummet in value.

Possibly not. They obviously think not, and that is why they have never done it.

They actually have. Way more people are using the Equinox, and soon Manticore, than Excalibur. Yet the Excalibur is unmatched as a true SCUBA unit waterproof to 200 feet. Different tools for different markets. Personally I don't see why Minelab would sink time and money into a replacement for the Excalibur when they have much more pressing matters to attend to. Now what I would like to see from Minelab is a true waterproof beach PI, basically a stripped down GPX 5000 in a proper waterproof package. It's always been weird to me that Minelab does not have a true waterproof PI given their dominance on the land. And no, I don't count the SDC 2300 as a true saltwater beach machine. It floats like a cork and I think it's waterproof integrity is pretty dodgy for full immersion over periods of time.

Good on you. It’s a great feeling to be able to return a lost item. 👍🏼

Well the way it normally works is you use a VLF until there is no more gold left. Then you go back to the same place with a PI and often find gold the VLF missed. Often more than the VLF found in the first place. The only exceptions would be locations with very small gold and no large gold, or extremely shallow deposits with no depth. A VLF can leave little for a PI in those cases. But in many locations a VLF is skimming the surface, leaving the bulk of the gold behind. If the situation is reversed and a good PI cleans out an area, there is usually nothing left for a VLF but crumbs. Many professionals therefore dispense with the VLF entirely. Honestly there is nothing to doubt about that. It’s the experience of many thousands of prospectors all over the world.

Yes, and in the case of some machines, a salt setting may be needed in addition to proper ground balance.

I’m sure I wouldn’t know Doc. Always good to hear from you, my best to you and yours.

Yeah hard to go wrong with Legend. Jury is out on the latest Quest, but worth a look. I’d also be checking out the new X-Terra Pro, could be a great freshwater machine for $269