Chase Goldman

That's not how it works. XP is going to make coils at their maximum production capacity until they have fulfilled all outstanding initial distributor orders for the coil. XP doesn't receive pre-order money direct from end users. Dealers give distributors the demand signal by ordering X number of coils and the distributors in turn place orders with XP based on total dealer demand. Dealers (large and small) can decide whether they want to take and hold people's money or simply place them on a waiting list in the order in which their request came in and then charge them when the coil ships. That's a dealer call on whether or not to ask for pre-payment to get on a waiting list based on how much risk the dealer is willing to take on and how much they trust their customer base to come through when its time to pay up. If someone demands their money back, the that's the dealer's problem to deal with, he is on the hook to pay for whatever he requested of the distributor whether or not a customer walks and demands their money back.

I've used both the GPX and the Axiom extensively in hot dirt relic hunting. Once I gained confidence in the Axiom's ability to perform, I sold off the GPX because I liked the Axiom's ergonomics/balance/weight/user interface, ease of setup, the ability to use it in bad weather without having to put the control box into a makeshift raincoat (or swap out the non-waterproof Commander coils), and the lack of all that external battery/amp claptrap. Finally, I like the integration of the wireless Garrett carrot PP using Z Lynk so I don't have to remove my phones during target recovery and can easily rescan the hole with the detector without having to turn off the PP since both detector and PP can be heard in the phones at the same time. Actually, I like the "on demand" iron check implementation of the Axiom vs. the constant "blanking" of the GPX iron cancel feature. The GPX implementation makes it impractical to use in iron infested hot spots unless you simply turn it off which requires you to deep dive into the GPX menu system to toggle on/off which is ridiculous and also defeats the purpose of having the feature. Being able to selectively use iron check on specific targets of my own choosing works well for me now. I only typically use the iron check on low/high tones which is how most big iron rings up but is also minie balls and large non-ferrous items. Small ferrous that rings up with a high/low tone typically sounds smooth vs. the squirrelly audio of nail bits. I've gotten pretty good at simply listening to the smoothness of the tone which is more reliable than leaning on the iron check/iron blanking crutch. Iron typically has a non linear, high-attack leading edge sound that is pretty distinctive. Both me and the iron check feature still get fooled by bent nails and barbed wire, though with Axiom or GPX. The Axiom iron check feature works pretty well in mild ground to a decent depth on strong targets before it becomes unreliable. Problem is in hot dirt, the Axiom iron check feature becomes less reliable because it tends to react to the ground mineralization which just kind of defeats the purpose since that is where I'm going to use the PI. I found the GPX high attack blanking approach to be more reliable and less subject to false positive iron blanking on minie balls and such than tee Garrett Axiom iron check buzz. So at the end of the day I have become less reliant on iron check other than to use it as a sort of reverse discrimination tool, i.e., if I check the target with iron check by raising the coil slightly away from ground minerals, it has good audio, and it does not buzz, I am going to dig it. You'll want to get the "DD" coils, regardless of whether you intend to use iron check. They are not really traditional DD'S, but focused-core, non-mono coils with a center sweet spot that really enhances target feedback when the coil focused central core passes over the top of the target giving you enhanced detectability of smaller/deeper targets. Just my take on Axiom from an ex-GPX, hot dirt relic hunter. Finds from my first ever extended outing with Axiom at an artillery engagement battle site (lots of red dirt stained frags and lead sabot):

Yep, good reminder, it’s right in the operating instructions. Screenshot below (available to read before you buy) in case/people are considering a two box coil. It’s a whole different ballgame in terms of execution vs. your typical detector. And remember, with extreme depth detection comes extreme effort in target recovery.

There are plenty of the lower end mini drones in stock and being sold by Amazon but at slightly higher demand driven prices. The high end drones like the Mavic 4 are being sold by third parties at eye watering premium prices.

Before you drop dollars on this coil purely for gold prospecting, I would advise reading through this thread. For all the ML detectors you have on your personal detector list, if you are after gold first and foremost, I find it odd you never invested in the Manticore. And this is coming from a dedicated XP Deus 2 user (and Manticore user) though I am a relic detectorist, not a prospector.

That's a good one. This thread is a year old precisely because Nokta has been hyping and talking about it for AT LEAST that long. Same as Legend, the new detector "naming" contest for the Legend started 4 years prior to release. Nokta is already starting to allude to a new "mystery vlf" and promoting giveaways of it while we are still in the dark on this PI release. Nokta is not alone in this dysfunction. Detector manufacturers in general are not very savvy on marketing TBH. In an attempt to keep people from jumping ship to the next big thing from the competition, the manufacturers either unofficially hint at or prematurely "announce" their products way too early because they consistently under estimate the time it takes for testing and software tweaking required to get an acceptable product on the shelf. The result is buyer excitement peaking too early followed by resentment by the customer base that the product is taking too long to be delivered, and finally culminating in buyer remorse and hostility as the customer base realizes they have been duped into beta or even alpha testing a product that has no business being released to the public yet (of recent note Garrett Vortex, XP Deus 2 V3.0 update for the HF2 Coil). Ironically, that's the very public that pressured the company to release the product too early. It's a farce and the metal detecting manufacturers appear to not be learning anything from tech industry on how this should go. Though, even the tech behemoths are not immune as the likes of Samsung and Microsoft still suffered botched rollouts recently. Anyway, I've learned to routinely tack on 18 to 24 months to any detecting widget unofficial or official announcement as a reasonable horizon for actually getting that working tech in my hands, if it actually even comes to fruition (Fisher Impulse, anyone?) <RANT OFF> Whew...now I feel better.

That appears to be where the GM 2000 is going somewhat at the expense of the general detecting (coin/jewelry relic) bells and whistles of the Nox and Manticore. Though nothing would really be keeping someone from using the GM2000 for coin shooting/relic hunting in hot dirt, as well. Wonder if Nokta is noticing...

And Chuck, don't mistake my apathy as discouragement for you in bringing detector news scoops to the forum. Thanks for catching this information nugget and posting it here. My apathy is directed at the detector manufacturers not you. At this point, they seem to be in recycling and repackaging mode, vice innovation.

Call me a grumpy cynic, Chuck, but romance and dreaming doesn't put gold and silver into my finds pouch today. Honestly, I haven't seen anything to get excited about on the VLF front in the two years since Manticore was released. And it's been 3 years since Legend (I like the Triple Score, but it's not ground breaking, just a streamlined Legend without Gold mode and with a menu system you don't need a cheat sheet to use). And frankly, I am not sitting here bemoaning a vlf appropriate situation that can't be handled by the Legend, Manticore, or Deus 2, today - so I'm not sure what would be compelling about a higher tier than Legend other than fixing it's user interface flaws by reverting to the nice wide screen form factor and easy navigation screens of it's Makro predecessors. With SMF now commonplace and affordable, VLF performance has basically plateaued, so we are effectively just polishing a cannon ball at this point with each subsequent VLF detector release. So my detector dreaming has been replaced by detached curiosity. I need time and places to detect, not new detectors at this point. Have a Happy 4th!

Regardless, Nokta's track record lately (not counting the Score series, which are just Legend variants with streamlined features/settings) is that you are still a good 6 to 18 months away from release, after they announce a new model. So, unless Nokta has gotten wise to reducing the pause between announcement and release, if this mystery detector hasn't even been announced yet, the guy is still several months and perhaps more than a year away from getting his free mystery detector.

Yeah, I completely missed your point. It's unique for XP compared to the other D2 coils but not unique enough to justify a completely separate forum for the reasons cited by Steve, primarily the low number of threads (vice posts) dedicated to this XP two-box coil (which also is not a unique design amongst detector manufacturers).

Chuck, Put...the...keyboard...down. Just poking fun. Not sure what prompt was fed into the AI interface you cut and pasted (I suspect it was something along the lines of: what is it called when two waveforms of different frequencies interfere with each other?). But the beat frequency effect (whether it is audio signals or electromagnetic waveforms) has no bearing in this specific discussion regarding the HF2 coil/control software ground handling performance. Interesting fun fact: Early induction balance metal detector designs used the beat frequency effect to alert the detectorist to a change in the detector coil inductance caused by a metallic object passing through the magnetic field of a detector coil. These were called BFO detectors. They were simple, rugged designs and pretty sensitive. But had drawbacks and have long-since been eclipsed by other more sophisticated technological approaches that enable better ground handling, target identification and discrimination. I'm sure you've swung a BFO detector, Chuck, at some point back in the day. But again, the beat frequency effect described in your post really doesn't apply to this discussion, Chuck. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Yes. Completely different operating approach, user interface (that is activated when you pair the Xtreme Hunter coil), and target objectives than the standard FMF and HF2 coils. It's pretty apparent if you view the XP promotional video in the original post to this thread.

Good thought but... The 9" FMF coil is NOT HF so the issue does appear to be how the elliptical coil works with Ver 3. I have not tested the 9" coil with V3 software in hot dirt but I can get it to balance in hot dirt with V2 software albeit with the 00 high pitch tone noise issues, I noted. But based on issues Andrew, Jeff and others have reported on ground handling with the legacy and the HF coil, it appears to be a V3 software issue. Ground grab on the ORX with the HF coils works great in hot dirt. Which is great because it does need to be frequently rebalanced in variable hot dirt.

Part of the XP D2 problem with ground noise, especially in Goldfield and Relic modes, is that ground noise (that is not balanced out) registers as a "high" (i.e., non-ferrous) pitch tone at 00, even if IAR (Goldfield and Relic's version of ferrous disc) is engaged, while single digit TIDs greater than 1, correctly exhibit a ferrous low tone (with IAR engaged). As a relic hunter, to combat this ground noise issue in hot dirt (with IAR engaged), I notch out 00. This is suitable because of the larger mass targets that are my primary objective recognizing that some deep, down-averaged 00 targets might get missed. It's a tradeoff I am willing to take to protect my sanity. However, notching 00 in Relic/Goldfield and engaging IAR is NOT a suitable option for gold detectorists for two reasons. First, it blanks the 00 ID of legitimate small gold targets and cutting in IAR causes the audio of other small gold single digit ID targets to sound off as ferrous or breaks up the audio. Both are counterproductive to the prospecting objective. XP needs to figure out how to get the HF2 coil to balance in hot dirt WITHOUT having to resort to a lower FMF Max frequency that further erodes small gold sensitivity. I can get the 9 inch round FMF coil to balance in hot dirt at 40 khz FMF max. There should be no reason why the HF2 can't balance at 29 khz or even 53 khz but it apparently can't. XP still has some significant work to do to address this issue. I sure hope they are taking note of Andrew and Jeff's experiences with this coil.