Chase Goldman

It may very well result in determining some instructional video content but that's clearly a marketing survey, despite anything else they are telling us about why they are gathering that information. Similar to the "required information" questionnaire that accompanies many warranty registration cards.

If you are even considering an ATX, then a GPX should also be on your list. The nuanced audio on a GPX is better for target identification and pinpointing than the ATX and the GPX has better iron rejection features.

I am rethinking this all over. This is not in response to Phoenix post, but more Phoenix reminded me of the minefield I was about to embark on and that was a great reminder. I need to think through the right way to do this and the right way to present the results and unless I have that figured out, I am not venturing close to that minefield. I am more of a features comparison guy (compare detectors on paper) and then post my finds results and let those speak for themselves. The Simplex obviously gets it done. Phoenix posted some spectacular coin shooting results pre-update, so those don't lie. Recently, I have had only a few chances to get out before things were basically shut down for me as far as site access is concerned. Because detecting time was such a precious commodity, I have had little time to experiment in the field with a new detector, preferring to hit the hot spots with my tried and true reliables (Deus/Orx and Equinox). Simplex and Vanquish have only been recently acquired and I have not had the opportunity to really run them through their paces in the field. The only thing that made me dust off the Simplex in the first place was the new update and I thought here was a unique chance to get some controlled pre and post updates in the process since, unlike Minelab and XP, Nokta doesn't presently allow you to roll back to a previous update at this point (at least that is how I understand it), so it was now or never if I plan to get the Simpex updated. I have gone over the test garden once again and experimented with different Simplex modes and found that Beach mode, for whatever reason, gave the best sounding results on the targets. I was able to detect most targets in that mode. Surprisingly, AM which should mimic my Deus pitch mode and Park mode on the Simplex were not as good. AM really bothered me, it should be the deepest. Park, I could understand because apparently, Nokta focused on separation in Park (hence relegating the original Park to Park 2 status and adding a deeper but less response Park 1 mode in the update). I need some more run time to garner real results and will either post my results solely in writing or will post videos if I think they are actually useful. Unfortunately, I have a face made for radio, so we'll see. More to follow....I will post the results in detector comparisons since I will be using Vanquish as a reference and perhaps the F75 as a similarly equipped single frequency detector for comparison. F75 = 13 khz/Simplex = 12 khz. Gives me a reason to dust off the venerable F75.

Did you get a free neck warmer? Minelab marketing sure loves to get us to do their job for them for free. I did receive that email today.

That seals it, I won't be posting any results. Just results in a lot of nay saying and recriminations and accusations of bias, which if ultimately leveled at me would really come across as totally insulting, quite frankly. I'm not up for that. If comparing it against the Vanquish doesn't prove anything, what's the point? In pre update testing on a lark I found Vanquish easily hits shallow to medium depth test targets of varying conductivities in my yard in all modes that Simplex wasn't hitting in some cases (Park nada, beach was better) for whatever reason. Thought it was odd and of some interest especially with the new Simplex updates on the doorstep. I was mistaken to attempt to grab hold of that lightning rod. I have been hesitant to do recorded functional comparisons in the past and have been reminded why in this thread. Definitely not interested in setting foot in that "minefield". Thanks for the remainder. End of story.

If this is just general commentary in response to the philosophy of Nokta supporting this detector with frequent updates and cautionary remarks against folks with unrealistic expectations trying to conflate the Simplex into a GPZ or posting disappointment because it doesn't perform like a high end detector, I just want to say, I get it and you don't need to read the rest of this. But if it is in response to what I posted previously, something is perhaps being taken out of context and just want to set the record straight on what I am trying to do. I know it is a common concern that detector nerds/snobs try to take out an entry level detector and try to compare it to something in a completely different performance class and price range. Someone said it is going to be a perfect product, I am having trouble picking up easy targets in a test garden that an entry level Vanquish is detecting. That was my only point. I went to great pains to point out that I had no preconceived notions or bias. Could be operator error, could be a bad setup, could be a bad machine, could be underperforming software. I merely indicated that I am investigating it and trying to do it in a fair manner against other machines in the same capability class. I would like to understand if the issue is fundamentally with the machine, it's delivered software, or whether the issues resolve with the new software release. I know that Simplex is entry level and am trying to be true to that frame of reference in my approach to testing it. If anything, I am biased the other way as I am honestly rooting for it to be a halfway decent performer with great features at its price point especially as Nokta continues to support it with performance updates and new accessories. Will follow this up with hopefully some useful, and perhaps documented, info later this week. The biggest challenge in this effort is figuring out how to properly use the GoPro.

The purpose and context of my post was to inject some reality into the OP postulating that Nokta was incrementally increasing the Simplex capability into some "perfect product" (his words, not mine) and my only comparison was against a similarly priced entry level competitor that performed better. I don't have any of the other Nokta detectors mentioned and did not plan to show it perform against the likes of a Deus or Equinox, which is neither relevant nor appropriate. In other words, I know your question is rhetorical, Steve, but I assure you that I am not falling into the common trap we repeatedly see on You Tube of someone trying to compare a Yugo to a Tesla. Also, there is nothing special about my test garden, I mainly use it to tune my ears to GPX audio prior to a relic hunt and test my GPX to various relatively shallow relic targets with different coil and soil timing settings combinations as a functional equipment check before hauling out to a site. It is not meant to test the limits of detection of even a VLF detector, by any means. That is why I was surprised by the Simplex performance.

That's a 20 Euro cent coin (i.e., 1/5 of a Euro) - Comprised of "Nordic gold" AKA as a gold colored copper alloy of the following composition: 89% copper, 5% aluminium, 5% zinc, and 1% tin. Could be the zinc or tin giving the lower ferrous tones. Looks like an Austrian mintage based on this pic

That's my plan.

So far, Simplex is far from perfect in my reality, though it looks great on paper. It is really having trouble hitting anything decently at depth in my test garden (I am talking nickels, dimes, minie balls and small/large brass buckles and buttons at a mere 6 inches) that the Vanquish is able to ping with comparative ease. Air tests show the Simplex hitting test targets just fine so it is not a gross problem with the detector/coil as far as I can tell. I am hoping the update, which I haven't loaded yet, will make a difference. I really like the feature set, including what Nokta has added with this last update. I need to do some more testing (and documented video evidence) with the as delivered software before I switch to the upgrade so more to come. I am really rooting for this detector as I like the ergonomics and features and have no preconceived notions or biases to any one brand as I own Whites, Garrett, Fisher, Teknetics, XP, Minelab products in addition to the Simplex.

Looks like a Civil War era or Indian War era cartridge box plate. The cartridges used were typically paper cartridges with lead minie ball projectiles. However, US Cavalry did use a variety of carbine rifles that used large caliber metallic cartridges and carbine minie balls. They were typically .52 to .54 caliber. Look for fired or dropped large caliber minie balls in the area where you found that box plate. It looks like it was hit with a plow blade or shovel while it was in the ground.

Yes, but you have to either dual boot or run it in a virtual box, either way, to do it legitimately, you have to buy a Windows 10 license which costs more than just buying the cheapo Win10 laptop off ebay dedicated to detector update stuff and other online detector information (PDF manuals and settings recommendations). A lot of people have Macs because they find the OS simpler to use than Windows, these people are not going to run bootcamp or install virtual machines on their Macs.

Well things have changed since this was written because ML has come out with an update that includes two different iron bias filters - The Original called FE and a new one called F2. F2 seems to have a greater range of effect than FE so I use that as my iron bias filter instead of FE. The default setting for F2 is 6 for all modes (EQ 800) or 2 for the EQ 600. The primary purpose of the Iron Bias filter is to force probable iron to sound like iron (low tone) instead of falsing high which tends to happen with bent rusted nails and larger, flat pieces of iron. It is not 100% effective. If you push it to high levels, you are more likely to get the iron to false less, but as with any filter you may also suppress the ability of the detector to separate true non-ferrous targets from nearby ferrous junk. I think running F2 between 4 and 6 (F2 = 4 is approximately equivalent to FE=0) is a good balance between getting less iron falsing while still providing some ability to separate non-ferrous from ferrous targets. It is not an exact science and any time you use either discrimination alone or in combination with an iron bias filter you run the chance of missing a keeper. I like to run with the horseshoe button engaged to remove all discrimination even though I use F2 = 4 to 6, so that I can hear the iron tones and decide based on what I am hearing whether I want to dig the target. An F2 setting of less than 4 tends to get noisier, with F2 = 0 really not a pleasant experience in thick iron. HTH. There is more discussion of the effect of the latest Equinox update on the iron bias settings here, advice on how to adjust iron bias by trial and error here, and video showing the difference in iron bias settings FE and F2 in mineralized ground hunting relics here. Avid beach hunter discusses how iron bias affects beach hunting here and here. HTH

Great. Glad it worked out and it is a big help posting how you made it work in case others run into the same problem.

Recommend youcontact Nokta support then and see if they can get the machine to be recognized by the computer again so that you can rerun the update.

Lets see if we can get this sorted, Is the detector unplugged from the computer now and behaving this way? Did you keep the coil connected? How far did you get in the process (which step #)?

Thats OK, That's not iOS then, its macOS. iOS = iPhone/iPad macOS = iMac/Macbooks etc. You got me excited there for a sec that Nokta was working on a cell phone app to control/update their detectors. XP hasn't been able to deliver on that one after promising it nearly 5 years ago.

The update is on the left side of the Simplex product page here: https://www.noktadetectors.com/metal-detector/simplex-metal-detector/

iOS - So they are going to allow their detectors to be upgraded by iPhones? Wonder how they are going to that, with some sort of phone app, I suppose. Would be cool if they could do it with and Android phone, too.

I thought I already answered this question and was scratching my head when I couldn't find my post. Then I realized that you may have posted this question over at TNET too (different screen name - Doh!), this was the answer I gave there, consistent with Steve G's and the others above and including some additional information on how to deal with this under certain circumstances:

XP, Minelab, Nokta - all these updateable detectors have always and will always continue to use Windows and typically do not support any other OS. If you are a detectorist and want to make sure you can upgrade your detector, gotta keep a cheap Windows 10 laptop or desktop around even if your household goes to Mac, Linix, Chrome or whatever. You can get a super cheap used laptop running Windows 10 off ebay for around $50 to $200.

With high mineralization, then, I would not recommend Vanquish due to its fixed GB. An XP Orx with one of the white high frequency coils (13 through 56 khz or 13 throgh 74 khz, depending on which coil you get) is a great versatile detector that would suit your needs if you can find one in your price range. In the US, the Orx sells about the same as or slightly higher than the ML Equinox 600 which you previously indicated might be a little high out of your price range. Either detector is very capable at as both a coin shooter or tiny gold detector.

Thanks - just having a down day. The "new" normal is probably just getting to me and then I read about Fred passing and that was total downer.

I would definitely wait and see what Garrett comes up with. The Simplex has these great features, but target ID is a little jumpy and the tones are not necessarily my cup of tea but still a solid design and great value. Glad Garrett is responding to the competition, guess we'll see what they come up with next month. I'm hanging on to Vanquish for now because it is lighter than Equinox, like the coils, and think it will be a great casual beach and park detector.

And updating from my perspective, I like the 540 Pro Pack vs. 440 that I originally recommended because the two coils included really give the Vanquish some added versatility. The Go Find is really just irrelevant at this point now. I liked the foldability and portability as Simon mentioned but I still found the mechanism a bit too flimsy and subject to jamming if you happened to get sand in in there.