Rick K - First Member

Thanks for the feedback Chris,

Unfortunately some patches have powerlines, including the ones I was out on this weekend here in AZ - and EMI immunity was widely reported in the forums. Also, I was struck by the comparison with the SD-2100. Basically, my SDC is no more resistant to EMI than my SD-2100. So do you reckon that that is generally true - or is my SDC worse than average or my SD better than average.

If yours doesn't react like mine to things like a 3" high green Palo Verde sprout, then perhaps I need to send mine in for a checkup. I did, after all, carefully note what occurred. Perhaps I will do that, after all, my unit's performance seems to be significantly different from yours.

As far as depth, I sort of have the opposite conclusion than you seem to suppose. I have read many hundreds of posts on US and OZ forums and got the clear impression that the SD-2100 was not in any way clearly inferior to GPX series detectors when it came to depth on larger nuggets. Given that, the fact that my SDC comes within a small margin of my SD-2100 when that detector is using a well regarded 14" mono coil is pleasing to me.

Given that, and acknowledging the differences between air tests and real ground depth, I was very pleased with the depth of the SDC. I,am pleased with the detector overall,

Condor,

I have no gold to show for my SDC efforts (minimal) so far, but i will offer the resilts of air testing here at "Casa Sonora" in Gold Canyon - where there is no gold.

Using a nickel as a target, i get:

SDC on preset - 12" plus a little -on setting 5 - 13"

SD-2100 14" coiltek mono - 14" and a bit - with 8" ML mono 12" plus a bit.

One thing worth mentioning. My house is EMI hell, mild mannered Whites machines protest at having to work here. My TDI never gave me a nice threshold and the ATX I had was never entirely smooth.

The SDC warbles a lot even after noise cancelling. In fact, even at preset 3, it is more warbly than my SD-2100 with a 14" mono coil. I'm not especially pleased about that after reading many reports about it's EMI resistance. Having said that, it is very quiet over the ground, doesn't have the usual sort of touch sensitivity. However it gives a solid good sigmal every time I brush the top of any green living desert plant, for example a palo verde sprout.

Nice. "He's got legs .... He knows how to use them...."

OK, just for the record, here's the pic.

That's me scrambling for shovel, straps, sand ladders and my prayer book!

Oh yes, no GPS, no cell phones, no satellite phones, just a Bedouin along in a Toyota Land Cruiser looking for a stray camel every couple of days - not kidding - the first time down there the tally for 3 days was 4 stray camels looking for a handout, 3 Jerboas, a couple of strangesand larks and one pickup,truck in the distance. It's so quiet that if there is no wind, your heartbeat sounds like a steady thump. Kind of like being underground.

Big empty spaces of sand are very strange, not quite like anything else I have ever experienced. I kind of miss it.

Harbor Freight is your friend for those one time use tools. Cheap,and functional if you don't try to earn your living with them!

My gorilla tape is on the detector bottom and the knuckle, not the bottom of the coil cover.

When I got an ATX, I did this crazy origami tape job on the bottom of the spider coil. Boy did I feel dumb when I found the coil cover in a flap inside the top of the case. It took forever to get all the gorilla tape,off. Life is tough when you're stupid!

No, don't tie the rope - the end just sticks up so you grab it and pull it out when the ladder disappears in the sand. If you do it really right, the end is nearest the ladder is chain, so the tire can't cut the tie in point.

Also, mild steel isn't good enough for the sand ladders, it bends! Found out the hard way.

Oh yes, always have a metal detector - just in case you drop your car keys - don't ask me how I know!!!

Fun days, long ago and far away.

Note - I edited the post with the sand ladder pictures. After looking at it I realized that there were only three, I was placing the fourth one behind the passenger side rear wheel, you can see my foot, but not the sand ladder. The recovery was to the rear, the way I had come.

You can also see how I got stuck, I tried to turn right withought enough energy to stay moving and therefor afloat.

The tires were special Sumitomo sand radials, H rated and good for pretty much a full load down to 10 psi.

Oh yes, this is way off topic, but thanks for the opportunity.nto think again plesant thoughts and revisit nice memories.

Holy Crap!

I have no gold to show - so far for my SDC's efforts, but I did armor the bottom and the coil knuckle with Gorilla Tape!

Should have been hunting meteorites, but didn't know about that then. The meteorite hunting came a decade later in Oman - but that's another story.

We were picking up buckets full of beautiful Neolithic stone tools - including stone axe heads - today the nearest trees are hundreds of miles from there!

Here's a not very good picture showing sand ladders stuck in the sand before use (you can't see the fourth one which I'm putting behind the passenger side rear). The lines are to retrieve them with. You don't drive on them really. You put them against the tires in the direction you want to go - when the tires rotate, they pull the ladder under the tire - sometimes one such "jump" is enough to get you back "afloat" - usually a couple of "jumps" are required. The ladders are short so that they can do their trick of being self emplacing. The lanyards are necessary because the ladders are completely buried in the process and disappear!

You can see how soft the sand is if you look at the footprints in the lower left of the picture - wven my big size 13 feet sink right in..

There were 2 vehicles. Happily my buddy was sort of downslope from me with his Mitsu Montero. We spliced together enough straps, etc to rig a tow. I dug a bit, aired down all 4 tires to about 8 psi, and used "sand ladders" (2 1/2 foot ladder shaped steel things). It took a couple of tries, but it came out backwards. It's also surprising how much a couple of people pushing help in sand.

Leaving the truck wasn't an option, we were about 1000 Km from Riyadh where we lived! Here it is on Google maps - we were a long way northeast of where the pin is on the map.

Now you want Brigitte Bardot to work in a mine? Sacre Bleu!

Deus has "set the cat amongst the pigeons".

Totally wireless

Light as a feather

Lithium batteries

USB port for software updates - and (unlike some) actual updates.

The power budget for their detector must be awesome- recharges quickly with 5 volt USB!

OK - it's not a great gold detector, nor is it a great beach detector - but they are just getting started - plus - they actually CARE about metal detectors!! - WOW, how weird is that?

http://www.xpmetaldetectorsamericas.com/xp-history

Picture of my new 1992 4X4 suburban deep in the "Rub al Khali" - the Empty Quarter - South West Saudi Arabia - world's biggest sand desert. It was a long hot spring day - 30 miles from a one lane blacktop - all ended well, but still. Driving in rough dune country at midday (check the shadows) is highly not recommended. You can't see the contours.

Thanks. Based on everyone else's experience, i had brought a pill bottle, tweezers and a Magnifyivg glass! LOL

The two last items came in handy when I accidentally brushed up against the Cholla cactus. – Oh well.

Nice,

Had mine out today . No gold.

Couple of things though.

EMI resistance was no better than my Sd-2100.

Brushing against the tops of any little living sprout gave a solid signal. I killed a couple of innocent Palo Verde sprouts before I figured it out. Is this normal?

I am fine with Steve's decision to take the Minelab info down. When I posted it, it was still UP on Minelab's jsite and therefore publicly available from them. It is now clear that that it was an error by someone on their team that led to the premature release of what may well be other than final details of a product - the existence of which they themselves have publicly disclosed in their Annual General Meeting.

Well, apparently "the fix is in in OZ" the screen shots have been taken off the Australian site. Oh well, it's an Australian company, so.

Did my "Dawn Patrol" of Forums just now and this popped up.

http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t20225-no-new-gold-detector-from-minelab-any-time-soon

The page that they linked to seems to be on-again-off-again, but I got this screenshot of most of it. My screenshot didn't get the whole page, so I have copied a pic of the rest from the Aus. Site here.

A couple of interesting things. No discrimination and not waterproof, even though it looks like the CTX.

UPDATE EDIT - It looks like putting that info on the comparison page as a machine you could run a comparison on was an error on ML's part. It has now been removed. Oh well.



IMPORTANT NOTE FROM STEVE HERSCHBACH - This is an unusual situation. In case you have not figured it out, Minelab has a new flagship detector in the works. A mistake was made that put the specs up live on the Minelab website, where screenshots were captured and posted online, including here. Minelab has requested that the information be deleted as it is not vetted for public release at this time, and out of respect for their wishes I have complied with this request. However, the deletion of the screenshot and spec list from the other website is as far as this editing goes. Those that have seen the information may feel free to continue to post about it or speculate on it. You saw what you saw and I am not going to play whack-a-mole or do anything else by way of dealing with the information leak. My sincere apologies to Rick Kempf for modifying the post as I do really appreciate seeing it! However, it does appear to have been an honest mistake by somebody and I have no wish to cause them any grief beyond whatever they are already suffering.

Another Downunder forum is at

http://golddetecting.4umer.net

One place to get a lot of info on what was going on from the late '90’s till 2009 when it was shut down is.

http://www.voy.com/76600/

You lose the watertight integrity if you change the connector (and probably your warranty). That wouldn't be my first choice.

I used to buy stuff in the aerospace business and thought it was pretty clever at figuring out what parts went with what. My god! There are a lot of waterproof connectors out there. To identify the piece ML used, you would have to - a) be very persistent and/or lucky - find out From ML - or, c) send the pix to a major distributor and beg some nice person to identify it for you.

Wow!

Just think if Garrett responded like this to the issue of touch sensitivity on the ATX or of putting it in a light, land-only package.

You just asked the $64 question.

Nenad in OZ has sourced the headphone end mating connector to make his extension leads, which are available from dealers here in the US.

Since the detector is in the same case as the F3 Compact mine detector which is MILSPEC, I'm inclined to believe,that the connector is a standard item and likely has a National Stock number (NSN) - but unless ML feels like providing that information or the part is marked with it, there's no way to tell.

Klunker,

I have a truck!

There is clear evidence that the SDC-2300 presents a new capability when it comes to finding small and specimen gold. However, given it's 8" coil and preference for slow sweep, it can't cover acres at a time.

Since I'll be getting one soon, I'd appreciate it if everyone would kindly send me GPS coordinates for all their "worked out" patches. i would especially appreciate ones with high mineralization or EMI.

OF COURSE i will give you full credit for putting me on to all that small and specimen gold which was undetectible with PI detectors or un "hearable" because of limitation of VLF machines.

Sorry for the foolish tone of the above, but I for one will be scouring the forum archives for clues as to where gold has been found under circumstances which lend themselves to "clean up" by the SDC. After all, they say you should never "leave gold to find gold".

Edit Note: I re-read this post and realized that the last paragraph basically said that I was going to figure out exactly where some forum members had found gold. Not so. What I am going to do is try and figure out (mostly from older posts on other forums) areas where a combination of mineralization, small gold size and maybe features like powerlines have made it likely that previously well known productive patches are candidates for what Steve has called the "patch vacuum".

Easy, Foolproof, finds gold others have missed.

Steve said a while back that a smart person would buy an SDC and run, not walk, to the nearest proven gold producing patch to clean it out of what the others have missed before everybody else gets one.

Check here - more of the same.

https://www.facebook.com/GoldCityDetecting