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Dubious

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  1. Yes, the demise of coins is sure narrowing the scope of the hobby.  It wasn't that long ago that everyone received change in transactions and carried a pocketful of coins for parking meters and pay telephones.  Now, pay phones are pretty much extinct, parking meters take cards, and many businesses won't even accept cash.  Detecting for coins was probably the main entry into the hobby for most folks (I've stuck there--I like digging for coins), and in another decade or two, it will be all but gone.

  2. On 1/12/2021 at 6:38 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

    If the number of controls had anything to do with how well a detector works, the Whites V3i would be the worlds most powerful metal detector.

    There are people who swear by the V3i and its controls (favorably), but choosing between it and the Etrac (at that time), I went with the Etrac for its apparent better record of finding things for most people.  

  3. On 1/21/2021 at 9:45 PM, geof_junk said:

    An article on the origin of money .....

     

    .....LINK.....

     

    Has anyone found any of these.

    When I was a kid, I was fascinated by mentions of Wampum in some of the books I read--the shell-based currency used by many pre-Columbian Indian tribes in eastern North America (and not just those along the coast).  It seemed to me that if one was fortunate enough to live in the period and by the sea, there would always be a ready supply of money.  Well, it wasn't quite that easy--apparently there was a lot of work involved in finding the right kind of shells and then crafting them into strings of wampum.  Interestingly, for a while, the early European settlers also used wampum as a medium of exchange, especially in the fur trade.

    https://www.wampumbear.com/P_America First Currency.html

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wampum

  4. Li-ion batteries burning/exploding is apparently a growing problem for airlines.  Here is the FAA chart showing recent incidents:

    https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/resources/lithium_batteries/media/Battery_incident_chart.pdf

    "As of December 1, 2019, 261 air/airport incidents involving lithium batteries carried as cargo or baggage that have been recorded since January 1, 2006."

    Because of the energy densities, li-ion batteries are inherently somewhat dangerous, but the most dangerous type is that used with RC model planes and similar devices, which by design lack the protective circuitry of the mainstream li-ion.

     

  5. I believe some of the pre-Columbian civilizations in Central- and South America did know how to alloy gold with copper and other metals, which I suppose could result in something hard enough to be made into a poor arrowhead.  But I don't think any of the North American Indians had that technology.  Also, electrum (a gold/silver alloy) occurs naturally, but while harder than gold is probably still far too soft to give flint any competition when it comes to sharp pointy things.

  6. Oddly enough, the Tesoro website is still up and running, showcasing the New Mojave, as though nothing had happened.  You would think someone would have posted a suitable notice, explaining the situation with the company closing down.  I can only suppose whoever is/was in charge at the end simply didn't have the heart for it, and I guess I can understand that, too.

    As for whether existing Tesoro detectors are still worth something, of course they are.  I acquired both of mine used; neither has required any service, and both still work just fine.  I would hesitate to recommend buying a new Tesoro because of warranty concerns; but I'd have no problem with a used, working unit in good shape.

  7. My feeling is still that the Etrac has advantages over the Nox for deep coins in most park-type settings (in some very junky places where the Etrac is virtually useless, the Nox can still function and separate out coins). I've more recently picked up a CTX as well, but it's more like the Etrac than otherwise (I do like target trace) so doesn't change my opinion.  I would say the Nox is at least as deep, though; and admit that as I get more familiar with the nuances of the Nox, I "upgrade" its capabilities with respect to coins.  One area, though, in which the Etrac has both the Nox and CTX beat is in the availability of coils.  Yes, their stock coils are good, but I would really like to try a few others that aren't presently available (and probably never will be), such as the 6x8 SEF... 

  8. In parks, I usually use Park 2 these days, but probably should be using Park 1 for maybe a little extra depth on coins. After all, most coins are sufficiently not vertical to register, and it generally makes sense to play the odds.

    The coin on edge issue is another reason I wish Minelab would open up its machines to the coil makers. There are coils like the Tornado with reputations for doing a better job hitting coins on edge, and it would be nice to have them for the Nox.

  9. On 8/17/2018 at 7:40 PM, ☠ Cipher said:

    Guess who just bought two fully functional non-updated V3s? This guy! My purpose is multi-fold. I'm curious to see the peer to peer data coms in action. So I'm going to load one full of all the popular programs, plus the ones that work great for me here. Then I'll transfer them from one to the other. Next I want to compare and contrast one of these V3 models with my own V3i to see if there really is a difference between the tracking and ground balance ability from the V3 to the V3i as some have suggested. I want to compare them in other performance tests as well. Where I'll take them from there I'm not sure. A local technical institute instructor is fascinated by these models and their ability to communicate wirelessly. I could keep them both and sell my V3i, or I could sell them to a hunting duo. I may even decide to try different keypad combinations to access hidden menus I'm assured exist. Any way you look at it, fun will be had haha.  

    Any success with this project?  I almost went the V3i route some years back, but ended up with the Etrac, instead.  The V3/i still intrigues me, but I'll probably wait until Whites comes out with the next version with faster hardware. 

    Too bad the V3 user base is so small.  If it were a popular computer or even Android phone, we'd probably have a variety of cracked and maybe even rewritten open source versions of the software floating around.  As it is, it probably requires a very determined individual with the right skill set and a lot of free time to disassemble and reverse engineer the code.  I like Steve's idea of Whites being forthcoming and opening up the detector and its software to hobbyists, but that is probably even less likely to happen, alas.

  10. KevinKing, the machine you sent in for repair still belongs to you, so you should be able to get it back, even if Tesoro files for bankruptcy.  Of course, when companies cease operating (and I don't know that Tesoro has ceased operating completely), there can be confusion and things can go into black holes, which would leave you with a claim against Tesoro--probably not what you want.  I have two Tesoro's, which have never needed repair, knock on wood.  If I did need to send one to Tesoro for repair, and it was still in this limbo mode, I might do so, but would definitely want to communicate with someone there first, to receive at least some assurances that its repair operation was still operating.

    If you can't raise any response from Tesoro, you might try contacting Tesoro dealers. It's very likely some of them have been looking into the repair issue and have answers, since they are selling machines with warranties for which they could be on the hook.

    I understand your frustration, but for many years Tesoro was actually considered one of the better companies for customer service.

  11. Banks like to have agreements making the customer the bagholder if anything goes wrong, allowing them to suck from one account to cover something in another, even if it was the banks carelessnes that allowed the fraud. That's why it's wise not to use the same bank for everything. If you maintain a balance in your PayPal account, that balance is always hostage. I don't know if Paypal will also try to suck from your linked non-Paypal accounts, if something goes wrong and it wants you to be the bagholder.

  12. 18 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

    Equinox .. : Patent :US7432715 , US7579839....Minelab says in the patent that Tx emits from 2.5kHz-80khz - but the RX side receives frequencies from 5khz to 40khz and all over 40khz is filtered ...

    A few days ago I made measurements and compared all Equinox programs on Old 1.5.0 and New 1.7.5. Firmware, So soon to publish it ...I have also scanned the frequency of 5,10,15,20,40kHz ....
     

    With patents, the game is usually to "stake" as much territory as you can by making the claims as broad as can be successfully prosecuted. That is, while gadget may faithfully represent the patented invention reduced to practice, that does not mean that the gadget embodies the full extent of the patented invention and claims. Here, it seems as though the "multifrequency" claims of patent US7432715B2  would apply to use of two or more frequencies: "In one embodiment, the metal detector generates two or more frequencies sufficiently different of each other so that effective ground rejection and target discrimination/identification become possible (multiple frequency metal detector)." 

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