Rick K - First Member

Some staff are working in the plant - others remotely.

When the workforce in the plant in El Paso returns, AQ assembly will resume. Launch isn’t far off - we hope!

I have been checking the local El Paso news and the Mayor is a bit pissed that the Governor has made it difficult or impossible for the Mayor’s proclamation to stand. I have no hard news from FTP, but I suspect that they will be able to resume a significant part of their operations as early as next week. Again, my conclusions only. P.S. It is possible that they could open “with a bang”.

As far a I know, there were issues with the CE rating - they hadn’t been careful enough with material selection for the mechanical package. In addition, the initial testing for the US FCC spurious emissions testing from the control box was not successful. The other change was tha the “bought in” headphones were dropped and replaced with an in-house design. With the current imposed delay, they are taking a hard look at various bits and pieces. The initial production batch is “kitted” but not assembled as far as I can tell - so they have the opportunity to have a look. One big advantage of “”in-house” production, Contracting out to - for example Plexus or some other Far East “fab” might make last minute changes very difficult.

Yes, it was replaced with one which meets all the CE (European) requirements. Sadly, no beach tests possible with this plague on. I am using it to familiarize myself with all the modes and controls. I have been asked to comment on the draft user manual and am working on that.

I doubt that large scale production will be an issue - hand labor isn’t terribly expensive in El Paso. The issue is to ensure that the production process is well defined, documented and executed. I suspect that they have spent a good part of the last 18 months or so sorting that out. We’ll see.

If it lives up to its promise, they will be happy to build container loads of them. In the meantime, lots for folks to speculate about ...plots, stratagems, etc.

Daniel, the design team is in Europe - the origin of the device is there. I am reasonably confident that Fisher will figure out that this thing sells fast in Europe - where beach detecting can find gold jewelry back to Ancient times! Patience - they are having a hard time figuring out if they just blew a couple of million dollars on a niche machine or whether they have “a tiger by the tail”. FTP isn’t a major business - it is closely held - no stockholders to satisfy - but they are “playing with their own money”. They are VERY careful.

Of course I am sensitive on the subject. I have ambitions to be the premier seller of the Impulse line in North America. I hope ambition is not unfashionable. I disclosed some time ago on this forum that my “cheerleader” status was undergoing a further evolution - to hopefully a commercial interest in the success of the Impulse line of PI machines which FTP is now developing. I was “hooked’ after I had contact with Alexandre, the designer. I believe that the has made a useful contribution to the art - I look forward to further developments. None of this is “cast in bronze” I wasn’t kidding when I said that I did not know what FTP’s eventual plans for the release and marketing of the AQ and later Impulse products are in any detail. I do, however have reasonable hopes of being able to play a part - in a commercial way. P.S. - no puppies or flowers - too hard to ship!

Think what you want of Fisher, there may be some dealer with folks bugging them about the AQ - perhaps he will start a list - perhaps even take deposits - it’s a reality - the thing exists. At some point it will hit the market. Folks will do what they can to put food on the table by running something as unfashionable as a detector dealership - a rapidly diminishing trade. Recent actions by other manufacturers were carefully planned official pre-release publicity and information releases - well in advance of availability to the general public of hardware. Is this bad? I certainly read a lot of online complaints about the delay and difficulty of getting some recently released - but in very short supply - hardware. Is Fisher somehow guilty of something because they are officially saying nothing until they have something to sell? I know it sucks that all of us got fired up THREE YEARS AGO because the Manta existed - worked fine - and had been acquired by first Texas Products. Hell, I was (and perhaps am still) the head cheerleader. Sorry everybody (including me) is frustrated and complaining about a bad case of “innovation interruptus” - but that’s just the way it went down. No malice, no sleight of hand, not even any official hype. When it’s ready. It will be released - how many - by what means of distribution and marketing - nobody except FTP management knows (and I’m not sure that they have decided yet)>

Fisher is not accepting pre-orders. If some European dealer is doing so, it is without their cooperation. The plant in El Paso is under a shut down order from the El Paso mayor. No US dealer has been notified of any specific plans for launch of the AQ and I would be very surprised if any of them are soliciting pre-orders without knowing when it will be launched, how it will be marketed and what it will sell for. There is credible information that the initial batch will be limited and it may well be that the production rate is kept low until the real size of the market is known. I know for a fact that none of this is being done to create “hype” or to maximize the sales price of the AQ. How do I know? Recent conversations with senior leadership at First Texas Products.

Just a comment on Carolina’’s post about the AQ. There is no “new” control housing. The prototypes from 2018 used the same control housing as the current production configuration - the rod assembly is changed to one like the CZ21. Secondly, Fisher has long experience with totally waterproof machines going back to the 1270 and the CZ20/21. Each AQ will be pressure tested in the same manner (but not to the same limits) as the CZ21.

I posted this on Dankowski as well, and a couple of bright folks suggested maybe FTP could use capacity to produce ventilators. While that is a far reach - they are complicated and need clean rooms for assembly, I sent the posts to Tom Walsh in case there is any critical item that they could make.

The Mayor of El Paso issued a shutdown order of all “non-essential” businesses. First Texas Products - “FTP” (Fisher, Teknetics, Bounty Hunter) is in El Paso. A letter issued by the President of FTP, Tom Walsh. So it looks like the factory will continue activities for industrial and security products, but the Treasere/Hobby lines will not be open. Working from home, administrative and customer service functions will continue. Interestingly enough FTP has a lot of experience with working remotely. Their two most senior marketing folks as well as their chief engineer work primarialy from their respective homes in Colorado, Wisconsin and Oregon.

Regarding the depth of targets in the video,I took some stills from the video. They show 1. An overview of the beach - if you click it to blow it up you can see another guy detecting 2.The beach surface when LE.JAG made the video - notice the marks on the pilings - I think the upper part is what was previously exposed and the lower part shows how much sand was shifted, 3.The original installation by the Nazis 4. One of the Teller mines - the bronze disc on the top is the fuse mechanism that LE.JAG found so many of. With the eagle and swastika, I suspect collectors who are into that sort of thing would eagerly buy these!

Paul, I was looking for data on US army pay rates in the 1850’s and ran out of time. I did find this however and I think it’s pretty splendid! https://history.army.mil/html/books/075/75-1/CMH_Pub_75-1.pdf

Closer than you may think. The mounds of issues which caused a cascade of delays have been - bit by bit - at times painfully - knocked down. At the extreme risk of being “the little boy who cried wolf” - I am modestly optimistic for a launch in the not distant future. Of course corona virus is a completely new issue and whether it is supply lines or the practicalities of keeping a factory full of hard-working assembly and administrative folks working the rough whatever comes out way - totally external factors may disrupt not only metal detector production and marketing but our lives in dramatic ways.

I read the previous post.... Brevity is the soul of wit. the AQ will be launched - sooner or later; It will do exactly what it is supposed to do - recover more gold jewelry at salt water beaches than any previous detector .... Or it won’t. As far as whatever FTP will will not introduce - I have mo knowledge. Till then, more words don’t add more knowledge.

When I had a Nox 800 with me for a month or so on gulf and Atlantic beaches, I compared it extensively with a CZ 6 i also had with me. The Nox was deeper on small fluff and the CZ was deeper on big stuff, but the the differences were not major. This was on salt beaches with the Nox in beach 1 or 2.

Cal, no offense taken. My statement that things are progressing was to address the speculation (not unreasonable speculation at that) that FTP might drop the project. I posted what I did because I have concrete information that it is not being dropped and that they are moving forward toward series production and product release. Folks can either take my word for it, ignore it or publicly doubt it. My information was obtained first-hand in the course of discussing the possibility of my becoming a dealer for the entire Impulse line. As far as this being the strangest product introduction in the history of Metal Detectors, there might be some competition for that title! I believe that the AQ story is unique in several ways - and the many-years-long of its exposure to the public is a reflection of that history. The Manta was revealed and discussed on public international forums for four years before first Texas acquired the project and hired the team It began as a private development by a group in Europe led by Alexandre Tartar, a physicist. He was interested in PI detectors and the first appearance he made on the metal detecting forum scene was in 2012 on Carl’s Geotech forum, asking Eric Foster some questions about the Deepstar. His post started out with this “I am passionate about your detectors technology for several years now...” https://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?19033-Deepstar-history-and-Foster-PI&p=148021#post148021 I noticed that post because I have been interested in PI detectors and have been “tracking” Eric Foster’s work (on Geotec and elsewhere) since about 1990. After that, in 2013, a post appeared describing the Manta project and linking to a video demonstration of a prototype. https://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?20661-Manta-!!&highlight=Manta Alexandre made a series of posts in 2016 announcing the Manta Project. https://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?23177-Manta-Metal-Detector I was delighted in the spring of 2017 when I found out that FTP had acquired the project . I posted about it on more than one forum and the level of interest was extremely high among serious beach hunters. Since then I have posted regularly whatever disclosable information I could come by as well as my own thoughts and at times speculations. Subsequently, LE.JAG - the chief development tester for the Manta Project from its beginning, began to post on the usual forums. Later, Alexandre himself has posted a few times. Likewise Carl Moreland has made a few posts. The integration of a French speaking team, working on another continent with FTP’s engineering culture has doubtless not been problem free - how could it. Likewise designing a waterproof mechanical package for a powerful PI detector was no easy task. Then the FTP production system, built to produce relatively simple machines in extremely large quantity had to be modified to produce significantly more complex machines of a very different design. All this took time - way more time than I imagined and I am confident that FTP management was unpleasantly surprised also. At no time has FTP marketing announced or commented on a possible or planned release date. Until they do. We are all more or less in the dark.

I have no information on exactly when AQ’s will be available and in what quantities.

Things are progressing. Can’t say more, but it is a fact.

New webpage is being designed.

Nobody can beat Amazon for delivering exactly what you have chosen in a day or so and at a rock bottom price. And if you want to return, just take it (boxed up or not) to UPS, they scan a QR code Amazon gave you and your money is back on your card. Nobody can compete with that - it’s retail Godzilla. But there is “concierge” service still viable. Offer advice, guidance, near equal rights of return (maybe with a modest restocking charge) - after all I don’t have Bezos’ billions - and unmatchable reach back to not only the producer, but the designer. That’s my plan for the AQ if FTP lets me play in their “pool”.

The whole system of geography exclusive distribution agreements is collapsing. The right to sell X in region Y is toast. World wide distribution and online sales from Amazon and the likes have doomed that, I expect that the Minelab agent in NZ is doing OK for now. It is an old fashioned system based on limited communication and limited payment systems. It will die. The future is either Amazon or the like or a sort of “concierge” system of low friction but high support seller to buyer arrangement.