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Everything posted by Geotech
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The Clock Is Ticking Fast For The AQ
Geotech replied to PPP's topic in First Texas - Bounty Hunter, Fisher & Teknetics
Actually, the last pulse delay (11.5) is actually 15us. It was a last second change to better accommodate full submersion. -
Latest On Servicing White’s Detectors
Geotech replied to Steve Herschbach's topic in White's Metal Detectors
"Centreville Electronics Northwest" is actually Todd Marshall who ran the factory service dept for many years. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
I expect Todd can, but not Centerville. -
Single Frequency Vs Multi
Geotech replied to Bohemia Miner's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
That has more to do with recovery speed than number of frequencies. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
Yes, he will. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
Todd's in his 40's (I guess) so he should be around for a while. There is also Centerville Electronics but, for now, I think they are not doing warranty work. Todd will have a pretty big haul of parts to work with but, yes, when a part is gone it's gone. The ones to worry about are plastic housings, coils, and PC boards. Of course, if there is a buyer for White's then those might continue. Joe, the software and all the injection-molded plastic are proprietary. The electronics are made with generic parts, but the PCBs have to be manufactured and probably Todd would not have the resources to do that if he ran out. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
I suspect they were just selling out what was in the warehouse. I went over to White's today for a last-second repair of my V3. Todd (who has run the Service Dept for many years) has struck a deal with the White's to run a repair center from his home for at least another 2 years and he will be reimbursed for all warranty repairs. So warranty repairs are fully covered for at least 2 more years. -
Single Frequency Vs Multi
Geotech replied to Bohemia Miner's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
See the example in my post. In general, any MF design will be slightly hotter on particular targets in SF mode than in MF mode, unless it has been software-corrected to slightly dumb down the SF mode(s) to match the MF mode. I was speaking specifically to EMI, which is better coupled in a wideband (MF) design than a dedicated SF design. But an MF design may (or may not) do better with ground noise. Both issues are relative to a particular design and may not compare well to other designs. Ferinstance, the V3 is slightly better on deep silver in 2.5k-only mode than in MF mode. Yet a different MF detector in MF mode may beat the V3 in 2.5k-only mode on deep silver. Same thing with noise... it's possible that a particular wideband (MF) detector will handle EMI better than a particular dedicated SF detector just because the guy who designed the wideband detector did a better job paying attention to the details. But if you took that same wideband design and converted it to narrowband it should come out even quieter. -
Single Frequency Vs Multi
Geotech replied to Bohemia Miner's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
Any time you run multiple frequencies (as a beach mode would) the coil is, by necessity, a compromise. A coil optimized for high freq nugget hunting isn't optimized for low freq deep silver, so there could be optimized SF specialty coils. The nice thing about a wideband machine is it is less finicky about coil parametrics and easily corrected for in software, assuming you know what coil is being run. And ML has a coil ID chip in each coil that does that. -
Single Frequency Vs Multi
Geotech replied to Bohemia Miner's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
Steve's reply is very accurate. MF trades off raw depth for other benefits. For any given MF detector, it will go slightly deeper in a SF mode depending on the target. Ferinstance, in MF mode the White's V3 will detect a nickel & quarter very equally. In 2.5k-only mode it gets the quarter deeper than MF but the nickel less; in 22.5k-only mode it gets the nickel deeper but the quarter less. Also, an MF machine is a wide-band design and will tend to be noisier than a dedicated SF machine which is narrowband. An MF machine run in SF mode is very likely still wideband and not as potentially quiet as a dedicated narrowband SF machine. -
New Minelab Silversaver Metal Detector
Geotech replied to Steve Herschbach's topic in Minelab Metal Detectors
Just recently I consulted with a company for the same kind of project, but they were looking for really high-dollar items, not just flatware. We got it up to the prototype stage before Covid hit and they suspended the project. An amazingly challenging design, we were looking for titanium which is the most difficult metal I've encountered. Even flatware can be tough, depending on the alloy it can be durn near invisible to a detector. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
Well, White's did have a reputation for on-premises pharmaceuticals. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
Knomad, you have a pretty simplistic view of what it would take revive White's. Automating some of the production will do nothing to make them more competitive; actually, even with some pretty run-down facilities and lack of cutting edge production methods White's could hold its own against the competition, at least where production costs and product quality were concerned. What White's failed to grasp is the importance of engineering. There was a long history of chasing talent out the door which resulted in a discontinuity of critical information. If you were to buy White's today, where would you get any engineers to design new products? They're all long gone, and you can't just go out and hire experienced metal detector engineers. I used to tell the White's it takes 2-3 years for a new engineer to get up to speed on the nuances of metal detector design, especially anything high-end. They didn't listen. The best hope for White's is what happened to Fisher... some existing detector company buys the name and the designs, and continues a few of the better models under the White's brand. Anything else makes no sense. -
Very sad to hear about Reg. I visited him in Pueblo and he visited me at White's and helped make the TDI-SL a much quieter running machine. After I left White's we communicated for a while on a new PI design for FTP (not the Impulse, a prior project) but then he said he was done, his hands were no longer working and he couldn't handle small components. I had been meaning to check back in with him but I waited too long. Reg was a nice guy who gave a lot back to the community and I will miss him.
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Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
There's still a chance, dunno how much of one. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
3 weeks ago there were 3 or 4 people in admin to deal with the sale and other lingering work, a couple of people in repair, and a couple of people in shipping. Everyone else was let go. There were only 2 engineers left near the end, all the others had seen the writing. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
Jack Gifford is dead, and all the White's engineers are gone. -
TDI SL Not Working Right Need Help
Geotech replied to Kaolin washer's topic in White's Metal Detectors
The control knob wires plug into the main board and are simple to unplug and swap. -
Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
They have several interested potential buyers. A portfolio of assets is being created for the interested parties to review and see where to go from there. Can't say much more than that for now. -
Who Invented The Pinpointer?
Geotech replied to rockhound's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
It used a technique called "off-resonance" which is in the BFO family but could distinguish ferrous/non-ferrous and even discriminate. Some 10-15 yrs ago Allen re-introduced it as the Intex "Cache Probe" via Kellyco. I bought one just to try it out. It has a skinny stainless probe that you push into the ground, it pretty much has to touch the target to respond. -
Who Invented The Pinpointer?
Geotech replied to rockhound's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
Allen Hametta of the "A.H. Pro" detector made a probe in the late 1970s. It's the earliest pinpointer-type device I know of. Compass made a more classic style pinpointer I believe in the 80's and White's followed with a boxy unit. -
After the first 200, the TDI used an Atmel micro that had a tendency to randomly lock up. When you turn on the TDI it would just squall. A lot of units were shipped and the problem didn't show up until after some usage. I found a nearly pin-compatible PIC micro, rewrote the code, and we had a drop-in replacement. Until I got that done we swapped out a lot of units. Sometimes more than once. The SL started out with the PIC so it never had the problem. I was never able to figure out why the Atmel locked up.
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Important Announcement From White's Electronics
Geotech replied to snakejim's topic in White's Metal Detectors
During my tenure I defined a new 2-frequency product that would be hi/lo switchable. The low was 6+18 kHz and the high was 18+54kHz. When I left the engineer designing it seemed to have it working pretty well (on the bench) and the SignaGraph was especially impressive. Sometime later he also left the company and the product was obviously never released. I've never heard what happened with it.