Rick K - First Member

I wondered what the heck I did with that thing!  Lol

The ML coils would negate the advantages of the Impulse Gold. Alexandre has specialized in building advanced PI coils for MANY years. You can “go fishing” in the forums - especially in Europe and find references to Alexandre repairing Eric Foster coils or building new ones for Eric’s detectors for folks after Eric stopped doing that kind of work.

Every aspect of the AQ and the Gold is designed to work together to optimize the functionality and performance of the device at “The Job to Be Done”.

That’s why the AQ “Rejecting” silver coins isn’t a problem. In terms of the “job to be done” of finding gold jewelry, silver is an unwelcome distraction - FOCUS

So far, those two plus OBN who has posted here and a former tester who has a production model now and has not posted.

The Impulse AQ Limited sales are restricted to the US and CAnada.

The follow-on AQ will have at least some international distribution.

I can quickly answer one of GPZ’s queries. The pic is from Coronado in San Diego. October ‘18. I had an AQ prototype and on this stuff it hit a buried nickel at 18”. My Nox managed 8”

Alexandre has stated repeatedly that disc (multitone or mute) reduces maximum depth by approximately 10%. We will soon have solid experience here as to how that works out, but if you hit a ring at 18” in all metal, 16” in multitone would still be great.

Again, we will see. One thing for sure it will be NOTHING like the penalty the TDI incurs when you turn GB on. The AQ is designed quite differently.

I have about 45 on my list at present. Due to the slow ramp-up of production I am reviewing as units become available to ensure a good mix of experience and geography, it is not necessarily first come - first serve, but I am adding names at the bottom of the list so that once production ramps up I can just go down pretty much in order.

They used GG’s first on prototypes, then decided to go with their own design.

P.S. They are NOT GG knock-offs!

P.P.S. Say what you want about the M8 connectors, but being industry standard, you can hook up whatever headphones please you.

Interesting that accomplished beach hunters do the same thing with the current best tool for the job, the Excalibur and the CZ-21 are almost always used in all metal (I think that’s PinPoint on the Excal, correct me if that ain’t right. The AQ is the same. If you want the maximum of sensitivity - either for really deep stuff or jus weak signals from smaller stuff a ways down,  you will do like Denis (LE.JAG) does and hunt in all metal - listening VERY closely for nice “round” returns or those little “breaths” in the threshold which betray something at the edge of detection.

One note. This is not a beta test Joe is a customer I sold him my machine that was the first sale.

I AQ is not being tested it’s being used – as a tool to find treasure

Alexandre has a magic wand - “Poof” and they are gone!

The battery and headphone arrangements are the MAIN thing which will be changed.

Alexandre has one or more production machines. I expect he loaned it to the person who made the video.

Alexandre is more than an accomplished physicist/engineer - he is an artist. Perhaps his middle name is Leonardo - who knows?

I have two of the “other” Bigfoot coils - for the earlier machines. I have fun with it on the IDX Pro - luckily mine has the GB mod, because unless you GB the BF coil to the ground, it can read silver as wrap around to iron.

We cannot rely on El Paso to design and produce (or even source and re-sell) the kind of accessories which will be wanted. An opportunity for a third party is wide open once the various Impulse models are REALLY launched. 

that will be no problem. The problem is that NORMALLY they want to sell several hundred per month or even per week.

It is a niche machine and only a fool would have spent what they have to bring a beach detector to market. BUT

The Impulse AQ is  just the first of a line of detectors which will change first one, then another detecting “job” At least that what Fisher is convinced of.

And knowing Alexandre, I’m betting (literally) that they are right.

About the battery run time. Their early figures were calculations based on battery capacity and detector consumption. When more in the field testing was carried out, it became apparent that the early numbers were not reflective of in the field use.  Now they have good test data to support this conservative number.

Apologies for sticking this in here, but I’m a bit rushed these days and I thought I posted it earlier - if in fact I DID post it earlier today - then 2 apologies. Here

is a link to my Vimeo site - it is the Hardelot beach video which Alexandre and Co. did several years ago with a Manta prototype. I added some captions in English to sot of guide you through it (assuming you don’t speak French) The AQ is many development versions later than this, but it operates just the same (except even better)

DBC - the rod end connector is potted with epoxy internally. Changing the connector would be a big job and Poof goes your warranty - and maybe your detector.

Also, the battery pod is exoxy filled, so opening it and replacing the batteries with something else is likely impossible to do non-destructively

SGD -  with respect, If your complaint is with your Italian agent for Fisher not having any AQ's to sell, it is because none of the AQ Limited machines will be sold outside the US and Canada. 

In my experience distribution of manufactured goods internationally goes via Agency agreements with exclusive rights - in such a case Fisher would have agreed to not sell directly into the Agent's territory and such an agreement would prohibits agent from selling into each others territories.

All of this is a relic of the pre Internet age, but it is not likely to just disappear.

Here is a link to my Vimeo site - it is the Hardelot beach video which Alexandre and Co. did several years ago with a Manta prototype. I added some captions in English to sot of guide you through it (assuming you don’t speak French) The AQ is many development versions later than this, but it operates just the same (except even better)

Thanks Steve. Very kind of you to spread the word. I will spend a day or so getting organized .

Probably first I should disclose that I contacted Steve a couple of weeks ago and asked if he would like to borrow or buy an early AQ. He said he wasn’t interested in borrowing one and would only buy one of it were a case of - it’s for sale - to the public at a published price. It took a lot of back and forth (mostly between me and Fisher) to get everything sorted out, but over the last day or two I was able to send him an offer - based on a fixed price for all buyers and subject to a published disclaimer by Fisher. I told him that Fisher seems to have left the whole matter in my hands and that as a qualified buyer he was welcome to publish the disclaimer and any thoughts he had - he has done so “In Spades” in my opinion - Thank you Steve.

After going on three years posting on various forums about the (to me anyway) exciting Manta project which First Texas had “acquihired” - FINALLY there is something folks can use. The terms of the launch are unusual to say the least and me pretty much having been put in charge of it means I had better get my ducks in a row.

I am designated by Fisher to be the sole dealer for this AQ Limited detector. I have been given specific instructions in regard to selecting and qualifying buyers for this limited run of machines to assure Fisher of real world “Voice of the Customer” feedback from the most experienced and motivated beach hunters.

I have worked for some time to begin to build a list of “qualified” buyers. I started about a year ago. I combed the forums - all the various threads about the Manta/AQ and I noted folks who had expressed special interest, an open attitude, and actual beach hunting experience.

I then contacted each of them by PM - since I had no way to contact them outside the forums. I invited each of them to receive an ongoing email notice as I found out anything disclosable about the project and to share what I believed were reasonable suppositions about how this was progressing. I asked them in the PM’s that if they were interested to email me so that I could reach them as part of an email group. About 75% of the invitees signed up and they have received a number of group emails from me since then. Everyone was blind copied so no ones email address was shared with anyone but me.

As things progressed, I invited the whole group to let me know if they felt pretty committed to buying an AQ when it arrived - and if they did feel that way - to send me their full contact details, name, address, phone # and which forum and forum name (I needed that to figure out who was who). That list has grown to about 30.

I have never guaranteed thes folks that the list would be taken in order of sign up and with my new instructions for Fisher - I must do a certain amount of ”allocation”. I will however respect the list and all things being equal, they will have a certain priority.

I welcome prospective buyers to contact me. It will not be “First come First served” I will not be accepting any deposits or pre-payments. Again, my charter from Fisher is clear - find the buyers who will best judge the performance of this innovative machine and report on it.

I will be posting information on the process for all of this over the weekend.

In the meantime, please direct inquires to rickkempf@gmail.com - I will be using that address for this purpose.

If folks find this whole process unusual, or even objectionable - I can only offer that Fisher has decided for very good reasons that this is a REASONABLE way to proceed under unusual circumstances and a way to let the target market for this machine - die hard gold jewelry hunters - have advanced notice and opportunity to experience this move in the state of the art at an never to be repeated bargain price.

It helps to know your “patch” and know what you are doing!

It also helps to have good equipment - sometimes it makes a difference That class ring is as old as I am - wow!

Hate to disappoint, but the Impulse AQ is not for itsy-bitsy low conductors. Since its role is finding gold jewelry at salt beaches, it is designed to be less than super sensitive to tiny targets like bits of foil - and tiny bird shot and gold nuggets.

It also does not have a conventional ground balance system for coping with rapidly changing mineralization common in many gold bearing districts.

Having said that, I suspect that folks will find that it has some interesting capabilities for relic hunting inland.

The job of finding gold nuggets from fly-poop on up will be assigned to the Impulse AU or Gold or whatever they call it - under very active development.