Tony

Just more Minelab marketing spin to get people to reach for their wallets.....like the big price rises for the start of the year. Most of us called that as BS straight away and sure enough it is.

My favourite from local dealers.....price "reduced" (from $2249) to $2449 and the best for last is "value" of $3098 😆

The audacity is staggering but some may see the Profind 35 worth $800 which then makes the $3098 most reasonable plus a photo copy cheat sheet is worth $150 🤣

Simon beat me by 10 seconds.....

First posted here which is how I got my newer version.

Steve,

Your link above leads to the older pdf manual (78 pages). There is a newer version which is 83 pages.

Depending on where you Google, you may hit the older or newer version pdf.

Have you got this one....it is version 2.0 which came out mid 2023 ?

I know what you mean.....the design of the coil has a lot of 90 degree leading edges that "grab" the sand (especially wet) but not too much of a problem. The ribbing traps sand underneath and you need to clean this out if you can. I'm tempted to not use the coil cover as the trapped sand and water stays trapped.......you do notice the extra weight.

4 hours ago, Aureous said:

It shouldn't be, the small size means there is less ground signal to deal with. If there's noise, there's a fault....which  is usually in the bottom 1/4 of the coax cable or plug. 

I (like Simon) was under the impression that the smaller the mono, the more prone they were to mineralised ground ?

The 15" coil is all I use on the beach, but I use a DIY counterweight on the end of the upper shaft. I like to hunt 6 hours or more and the stock setup is too nose heavy with the 15" coil. I don't have the best shoulders, so for me, a balanced setup is a must.

Any of the Manticore coils aren't cheap but I guess Minelab price them relative to the cost of the detector......annoying to say the least as the Manticore coils probably cost just a bit more to produce than "cheaper" coils for the Equinox, X-terra Pro, etc.

Minelab know that we will pay the price of admission.....and we do (begrudgingly).

Sweet as bro'

Make sure you bring your:

1. Jandals

2. Chilly bin

3. Scaffolding ticket

.....only Simon and a few others will get my "humour" 🤪

You will have a great time. Hopefully Milford Sound isn't snowed in like it did for me many years ago 😞

8 hours ago, 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.

You only have to look at what Eric built (Aquastar), Jim Pugh built (Barracuda), White's built (Surfmaster PI).....and even Garrett with their old Sea Hunter XL500......some common factors with these machines.

• Thick and clear walled Polycarbonate cases (Ikelite back in the day)
• Proven "Marine Grade" Potentiometers with stainless steel shafts
• Two or three external controls only
• Serviceable case and pot O-rings
• Pulse Delays from about 10uS to 30uS
• Internal Battery
• Robust and beefy cables

It's not really that hard.

*** Sigh ***

If I had had the money during those golden years (circa 2000).....I would have bought two or three of each !

This is the starting point......I introduced Blue Robotics to Eric and was subsequently Eric's first choice for the Aquastar 2.

5 hours ago, The_Stalker said:

Steve,

  Thank you for the good wishes.  Currently I am trying to help my Mom in assisted living and trying to help her sell her property holdings in Pennsylvania.  Trying to help my wife's parents with dementia and limited mobility.  Selling my business and transitioning to my retirement and selling my home in Pennsylvania and building a new home in South Carolina.  Feeling a little overwhelmed, but moving forward.  Enjoying life and thankful of all my blessings.  Also grateful for this forum.  Thank you Steve for making it available.

 

Bill

Best to you Bill......sounds like you have a lot on your plate. "One day at a time, one bite at a time" and you'll be fine.......get that AQ purring on the beach and it will find the gold. Treat it gently.....avoid submersion if you can. Protect all battery, coil and headphone cables from mechanical duress. Get some appropriate electrical contact cleaner / protector and use it under the Potentiometers as best you can......if you can remove the knobs then so much the better (are they secured by a set screw or just friction.....possibly can't be removed) ??

Happy hunting,

Tony

Kudos to Fisher for including a free nail 🤪

1 hour ago, Roger said:

In this advert: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/134989348535 the asking price is $1,999.00 and the shipping to the UK varies from US $658.19 (approx £523.81) to US $803.83 (approx £639.71) .

I have queried First Texas about the crazy shipping charges generated on eBay, but no response as yet.

Can you help me with clarifying a few things please?

At the start of the description it says “Introducing the Fisher Impulse Limited “; so this is the model that was limited to a production of a 100 and were mainly offered to ;experienced' users in the USA? Yes/No. I couldn't get one in the UK despite having a substantial beach treasure now in a national museum in the UK.

I read that the Limited edition had major failings: potentiometers, cables, waterproofness and poor battery life. So, if the item for sale is one of the initial 100, these feature failings will be present in the item from this advert'? Yes/No.

In the description it says: “The adjustable Pulse Delay ranges from 7μs to 11.5μs “ but in the picture of the item, the label circling the delay knob goes from 7uS to 11.5uS, so where are the missing increments to 15uS? Does this unit actually got to 15uS and if so how on earth does a user know on a beach at which delay he/she is setting the delay to?

If it does not go to 15uS, then this is surely very wrong!

Is there a newer version of the detector where the issues previously mentioned have been addressed and rectified? Yes/No.

Is this model for sale and how is it identified by name: Mk2, AQ Final, something else?

Perhaps my memory fails me, but did the original/first lot of detectors actually have either LTD or Limited printed on the control box?

Sorry this is so long, but it will certainly help me plus no doubt others as clarification of the above points will of course help immensely in the decision making process of whether to get a flawed 'Limited' model or not even despite maybe getting one at a reduced price.

Regards,

Rog

Roger,

Everything you need to know is here.....better start reading.

Warts and all.

1 hour ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Would have been a great machine if Eric had been a part of all

I think pride (Fisher/Alexandre) got in the way of letting this happen......Eric would have gladly helped out (his words).

The desire at all costs of running ridiculously low pulse delays in a marine environment was detrimental to the overall function of the detector.......achieving proper damping / residual ringing at those settings means something is loss somewhere else (part of the reason the AQ had a short pulse width). Everything else in the electrical chain becomes ever more critical and no room for design flaws.....let alone mechanical ones.

They should have totally abandoned the Tone and Volcanic Sand settings......they had enough on their plate already to perfect.......hence my vision some years ago of an AQ "Lite" version.

In your hands Joe......you can make the AQ produce gold but for other mere mortals then they'd better know what they're dealing with 😬

$787 Aussie dollars landed to my front door.....free shipping and no import taxes either (Under the $2000 threshold into Australia). Exactly $1000 less than buying locally 😲

Just highlights how much local markup there is down here.

2 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

The AQs I tested did well with a 21K gold band, as far as the big rings.. the machine seemed to have sweet area, 5 grams and up, no matter the K/purity it would hit between 16 to 19 inches. Once past 19 it dropped off fast on all.

And weird is both of my AQ's did this.. In (my)rougher bay brackish waters I would go from 10.5 delay to the the next highest setting.. 11..the machines would calm down some than I would go to 11.5..hunt for about 15 minutes, than I could slowly adjust it back down too 10.5/11 and it would still be calm.

I cringe every time I walk out into the water with the AQ

The AQ would punch even deeper if it had a longer pulse width........with a longer pulse width comes more battery drain and we all know that the measly battery capacity on the AQ meant Fisher were going to skimp on this feature. Eric built the Aquastar (and maybe the Deepstar) with an adjustable pulse width control.....this was a great feature if you wanted to go looking for the bigger and deeper gold. It cut the run time in half but was still good for about 5 hours. There is a possibility that the AQ's pulse delay control is "drifting".....what shows on the dial may not accurately represent what's going on "under the hood".

I mentioned earlier that Eric picked up "code errors" that I think may have been part of the pulse delay problem. Does switching off the detector reset the pulse delay to where it shows it should be? I'm trying to find the email where Eric talks about this.

Fisher need to offer a "recalibration" service that sorts this problem out......maybe they did on later models?

On 4/6/2024 at 3:01 PM, phrunt said:

New Products - Coming soon would just be the template placers.

Simon....of all the people here on DP, I expected you to support my conspiracy theories and wild speculations🤪

1 hour ago, Luis said:

something may come.  I recently contacted Fisher on eBay to tell them that they had to review the shipping costs and when they responded I took the opportunity to ask if they were going to release something new and the response was soon.  I leave the screenshot of the conversation

I wasn't going to mention this publicly but can't see the harm.....I enquired about the shipping costs to Australia and Fisher offered me free shipping on their current eBay listings. 🙂

Makes sense......I just want to see the "Gold/Silver" ratio favour silver a lot more.

Some good information here.

Oh well, we can dream............of three new products from Fisher 🙂

A GB3 has got a nice sound to it.

Okay, I'm keen to work out what Fisher might be up to ?

Their website has a section for "New Products" with three spaces set aside.

I'm probably reading too much into this but what the heck......Fisher may redeem themselves 😍

I was set to go beach detecting but several Tiger Sharks were reported off my local beach.........and not the ones from Tesoro.

I'm fairly sure that the performance is the same. The main change was from the old style fine/coarse pot to a single GB pot.

Obviously the LCD display is new and the threshold control is now on the front panel. I think the changes were mainly received well.

Edit....the GB is a dual control knob.

Should I dump my 1000 oz of silver bullion that I got many years ago at $15 / oz ?

What to do, what to do........if I sell then sure as heck silver will go to $50 / oz 🤑

3 hours ago, okara gold said:

Being a former owner of the AQ, I think a price of $1300 is pretty good if you keep it out of the salt water. One less corrosion problem to worry about and a good machine to use when it works.

Yes to this ⬆️

To sleep at night, I could only ever use the AQ as a wet sand / low tide detector and be super vigilant cleaning it really well afterwards. Damn you Fisher for giving us a half baked potato 😡

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

$1399 had me at least thinking, but no. $999 and I'd have to do it - somebody give me a poke if they see it happen. 

Police negotiator to Steve Herschbach.........."Sir, step away from the credit card"

7 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

he was pointing out that going from 11 to 11.5 is actually going from 11 to 15, so a bigger jump than the erroneous 11.5 marking implies. Assuming it is 15 uS which is all but impossible for normal users to know for sure. If it's something they said was done in the past but current photos and referenced user manual say different..... ??????

I see now, missed that part. They sure made it confusing. Probably best to ignore the dial readings and just set it to suit the conditions.