Geotech

16 hours ago, Dubious said:

Isn't it established that the Nox always transmits 5 frequencies, and that the mode just determines how the received signals are processed and the frequencies weighted?

Who established that?

19 hours ago, Alluminati said:

Nice little nugget there.

How about Gold and Field, how do the "weighings" change these numbers, or is that done after the fact?

Thanks!

Field is the same as Park as I recall. Gold is primarily 40k with a smidgen of 5k, again my recollection. Don't have my notes with me. The smidgen appeared to me to be a pretty useless amount, so it may have been thrown in just to say the gold mode has multi-IQ.

3 hours ago, phrunt said:

I am sure the Equinox runs all 5 frequencies at once, this is proven at my house when in gold mode and multi frequency which is heavily weighted to the 20 and 40khz. I get bad interference from my house however when you bounce through all the single frequencies 5khz is the problem one and the others are stable so it shows even in gold mode in multi frequency 5khz must be enabled.

Park MF is 7.8k+39k.

Beach MF is 7.8k+18.5k.

Yeah, my only involvement with the V3 design was to "shoot the engineer."

I do both hardware and software. Coming from a chip design background, my real expertise is analog design, but I do a significant amount of C/C++ programming, too.

2 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

...the guy that designed the V3i no longer works there.

Actually, it was a team of 4, and one might take offense at being called a guy. But, yes, they're all gone.

There is much I wish I could say but can't. It is personally frustrating for me that things have gone the way they've gone, but I ain't the decider. However, I am working on things I think the serious hunters will like, but I have no idea on when they'll be ready for prime time.

Didn't give the results we were looking for. So dead-end, more or less.

17 hours ago, Mxt Sniper said:

What I mean by gpz technology, in general is, hybrid technology.

Then what do you mean by hybrid technology? GPZ isn't hybrid, it's constant-current PI.

10 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

Is there a multifrequency potential in pulse induction technology?

GPX uses multi-period PI which is somewhat akin to MF. It is possible to mix PI and VLF in a hybrid, and then to extend that to MF.

On 9/28/2018 at 1:11 PM, Mxt Sniper said:

This seems to be the way the CZX by Fisher is headed.

Whatever way the CZX was headed, it wasn't that way.

My first detector was a Jetco Gold Star BFO. I was 12, mowing yards in the summer, and saved up enough to buy one through the "Bennett Bros Blue Book" catalog. Couldn't afford the one I really wanted, a White's, and I thought, "That Jetco looks like a White's so I bet it's just as good!" Eh, not even close.

In '78 I got a Kellyco catalog (still have it) which fueled my desire to upgrade to a Red Baron. Sold the Jetco, still couldn't afford a new Red Baron, but a barely used White's 6000/D showed up in the newspaper, and I met a guy at a McDonald's parking lot and bought it. Hunted years with that one, still got it.

The "JET" in Jetco stood for John E. Turner, the guy who eventually bought the assets of the bankrupt Teknetics and Bounty Hunter, and eventually sold that business to First Texas. And now I work for First Texas. Oddly, I also worked for White's, the first "real" detector I ever owned. Some years ago I snagged another Jetco just for funsies. Also have a Red Baron now. Both are here in El Paso:

It was made by White's as a special for Apollo. I have one identical to this, plus the larger model below. It's a mid-70's TR-Disc. Around this time White's made specials for Sears, Apollo, Fireball, The Association, and Alexander Enterprises. Probably others.

I found out a long time ago, if you want to leak something out, put it in an obscure place on a web site where no one can possibly find it.

2 minutes ago, tboykin said:

I don't see a waterproof TDI on our website. Can you post the link?

Hahaha you ain't stuffing that cat back in the bag.

Norm, try these instructions, see if they are any easier to understand.

There are 2 software versions, R1 & R2. R1 had a lock-up problem if you turn the unit on while overloaded. R2 fixed that problem, and in the process I added a few new features. Therefore, you need to figure out which version you have as I moved the factory reset from 3 clicks to 2 clicks, should you need that feature. The easy way to tell what version you have is to turn the thing on while a coin is right against the tip; if it locks up, that's R1; if you hear a beep-boop-beep-boop-beep-boop overload jingle, that's R2.

In R2 I slightly extended the default time-out from 2s to 3s. I also added a Turbo-On mode which bypasses the auto-cal procedure and shortens the power-on time to maybe 1/4 seconds. There is a separate Turbo-Off mode which reverses the "off" and "retune" functionality; a quick-press powers down, while a press-hold retunes. If you use both Turbo-On and Turbo-Off, then the F-Tek powers up & down incredibly fast.

PP_OperationR1.pdf

PP_OperationR2.pdf

On power-up, the micro calibrates the RX circuit and sets up the threshold levels. It's the calibration that causes the delay, and to help speed this up a "starting point" is saved in memory from a "factory calibration." This is done at Sens=2 but is still pretty close for the other 2 levels. It's very possible that Sens=1 can be faster, but it also might only be randomly true. That is, YMMV.

19 hours ago, Redneck said:

I thought pulse  ignored the ground?

Basic PI ignores basic (ferrite) mineralization. Ground that includes magnetic viscosity effects requires a PI with subtractive ground balancing. The F-Tek doesn't have subtractive GB.

11 hours ago, Dubious said:

Two different philosophies and also depends to some degree on what you are hunting.

I agree from the user perspective. Tip-only detection has advantages in some cases, broadside detection in others.

From a designer's perspective, tip-vs-broad is a design constraint. Loaded oscillator (Garrett) and PI use a coil that is naturally broadside. With IB (TRX, Sunray) the coil design results in tip-only. It's not something the designer has much of a choice in, other than choosing the initial technology.

On 2/28/2018 at 12:25 PM, usama khurram said:

2ndly the forum cant accept free email account for registration.

Sure it can. All you have to do is follow the instructions in the "Can't Register?" post.

Thanks Steve, 'preciate the kind words. Sorry it's only a pinpointer. More in the works.

There are several problems with releasing early information on projects. One is that it gives competitors a heads-up and allows them to react quicker, maybe even preempt our efforts. Second, it can bring sales to a dead stop if people decide to wait for the Next Big Thing. Yes, it can freeze competitor sales as well, which might outweigh the negatives. Third, sometimes things just don't work out the way we planned, and those early sneak peeks come back to bite us hard. If, ferinstance, you're still waiting on a CZX or a Mosca, well, my point exactly.

FTP has a lot of stuff going on. I think it will be really good stuff and may even get us out in front for a change. But things don't move at a lightning pace at FTP, nor are things highly predictable. I thought the new PI machine would be getting released this Spring, which is partly why information on it got leaked. Not Spring. And since I can't predict exactly when it will be ready, I won't even try.

The "5 new machines over the next 4 years" should rightfully elicit a chorus of yawns from everyone here. I don't even know why Marketing says stuff like that. The reality is, if all we can muster is 5 new machines over the next 4 years, then I probably should be fired. Expect more, and demand more. But don't expect a 5-year roadmap.

13 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Smoke and mirrors.....what would be a huge game changer is if First Texas was a bit more forthcoming and transparent with their customers.

What would that look like?

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

So with First Texas we still have the “new machines over next four years” thing going on.

Pretty exciting, eh? Watch for a Russian photo of a marketing slide for more details.

True, once David moved on from White's the MXT became a dead end. But then I had a guy take all that assembly code and convert it to C and put it on a modern 32-bit processor. It took 2 years to get it done. That's how MX5, and later the MX Sport, came about. The MXT code is about 2% the size of the V3, that's how daunting the job would be. But just hacking into the code transfer, yeah I suppose that could be reasonably done.