Aureous

Same, my only gripe is their pricing. But their products have made me some serious money over the years so my gripe is somewhat muted lol. I just wanna know is the E1500 an actual worthy purchase to make some more $$ from my locally thrashed patches....

Home and test patch trials are one thing....and so far it appears that the E1500 is not a 6000 beater. But, the real test is the in-field ability of the E1500 to find the small gold that the 6000 doesn't hear. Just how much of it is 'find-able' ??? In other words, how long will it take for anyone to recoup his/her detector investment in gold value? The main driver of interest is gonna be if the E1500 can magically make old patches worthwhile again. If not, its just gonna be an option for those detectorists wanting to finally obtain a super sensitive PI without the massive Minelab price tag , or new beginners wanting a cheaper option than a used SDC2300. If scenario 1 if a reality, then I'll be buying one.

Re the 5000, my only certain info is that the 5000 PCB's are no longer in production, since 2020. So depending on how many 5000 PCB's they now have in store, will determine how many 'New' 5000's can be manufactured. Its simply not a focus product for Minelab anymore. If they continue selling a few dozen each year, great for them coz the costs are already paid for, its all profit for that model. When they run out, they run out....no biggie for Minelab.

What type of Platypus coil is that Ron? DD or mono? Also, how much $$ is the 2200D, control box only?

Yeah thick grass and brush can be a huge pain....open coils can certainly slow you down there. Not much of that here thankfully. My gold-size terminology is: Over a gram = 'Nugget'. Under a gram = 'Bit'. Under .1 gram = 'Speck'. Probably unapproved by Reg, but hey....works for me 😉

Yeah the 'problems' with open center coils are well known but really, its just a personal preference issue. I don't care much about sticks etc, a fraction of a second and Ive shaken them loose & continue. I used Coiltek Platypus and UFO coils a lot , plus the NF Superlight coils. Not an issue for me. In my potential build, If I use epoxy with micro-spheres, the weight will be minimal and no need for a coil cover. I just like the 12x7 size and this one is the only shell commercially available. Ive made a few rectangle ones in the past and I'll give them a trial as well.

For the legacy GPX, there is.....its called Modding Ron. Adds up to 30% depth on bigger targets and matches the GPZ with X Coils Big Concentrics on most targets that I've seen.

Sadly, I off-loaded most of my legacy GPX coils....I got a few that I gave to my Brother that I could get back though. Am thinking if I get an E1500, I'll do some testing with friends coils and see what works best for my needs and then build a couple with identical specs. I really like this shell (pic) plus I still got a few old Bill Hayes shells in small sizes to experiment with.

Seeing how they sold out in 3-4 days, I hope the next batch is more than the 100 they started with... unless that was the Amazon-only stock....🤔 If the field reports continue to be positive, I might be on the 2nd batch list.

I got almost 9oz with the Coiltek Elite on my modded 4500. Had a coil failure though and had to buy a used replacement....but hey, the results spoke volumes. The NF 12x8 EVO is also a killer small flat-wound coil worth trying. You must be like a kid waiting to go to the lolly shop Simon 😉

Im hoping that the 100 units they just sold in 3-4 days will easily pay for that procedure....

I hope you can turn off the microphone option off? I havent bothered to study the instruction manual too heavily but I would expect so? My many years as a full-time professional prospector taught me very quickly NOT to use speakers at any time. The habits I gained from the 80's and 90's have continued to this day. Plus in all my years of detecting, the only times Ive seen snakes is when they're going in the opposite direction to me...except that one time 😉 My years spent in the military gave me a solid sense of spacial awareness so that its a very rare thing for anyone to be in my vicinity without me being aware. If I do decide to try an E1500, it will definitely be with a wireless headphone setup.

In one word....YES. I dunno how the discussions between them started, but he's been in contact with Alex (Roo) & Co for a year or two.

My 'disappointment take' on the new E1500 is a rationale of what 'could have been'. With ex ML engineers being involved, I would have thought that a more variable detector would be sensible. Some minor hardware additions (bigger dump capacitors for example) and coding to allow for a truly deep-seeking detector using big coils would have been a sensible option. Its simply a mode change. Their 'large' mode doesnt recommend using anything bigger than a 14x9 coil FFS! If their idea is to launch their brand with a small gold detector and sell a big gold detector in the future, then they may miss the boat if Nokta beats them to it. Possible bad decision. On a side note, I cant even tell from their quick start or user manual downloads how you even select the different modes.... The modes are mentioned, but nothing directly on how to select them 🤔 The lack of ground tracking may also become a big issue, especially in Australian goldfield conditions. Tracking and locked should be a 'no brainer' I would have thought. But, disappointments aside, it may still be a useful detector.... I still want to try one, just to see how it compares to a 6000 on small gold. The target ID with a mono coil is also an interesting development. Massive potential for lots of users, not just us gold prospectors....

I got quite excited about this detector...but then I saw Nenad's post and echoes of QED started to appear. A 'tiny gold only' machine and grab-only ground balance.... 🙄 Sounds like another typical 'egg head' genius electronics engineer with zero real-world understanding of the machine's use in the field, nor what gold prospectors actually want. It may still provide some benefit if it can detect tiny gold (sizes or shapes) that other PI's cannot hear, provided the ground balance system can cope. Its cheap price and sensible adaptability for coils and power supply is a nice step though. I think I was praying that the holy grail detector was now on the market, but instead it sounds like a tin cup. Think I'll hang onto my 6000 and continue to patiently wait for Nokta to either surprise or disappoint.

'Public Servants', giving the public a serve. Trying to justify their paycheck and existence. 🙄

My Minelab spy told me a couple years ago that Plexus stopped making the PCB's for the 5000 when Covid hit so no actual new 5000's have been assembled since 2020. All they are selling is old stock. Once they are all gone, there will be no more. Unless a big new gold rush happens and demand dictates new manufacture of an older, discounted detector.....unlikely.

Ive let Luke know that many years ago, when this heritage act was being formulated, the PMAV (Prospectors and Miners Association of Victoria) got an agreed legal exemption from the act whereby all finders of said 'artifacts' now had recognized 'custodianship' and were exempt from the penalties of the act. Hopefully this is still valid. Ive suggested he contact the PMAV for details.

yeah that would be handy...i'd use that feature eventually. 🤔

On my 6000, all I really want is a manual frequency tune, a threshold control and a special timing to ignore most lead shot 😉

Don't worry about that, worry about the thing that bit this croc's head clean off!!!! 😮

I also never found one available for a sensible price either. It was the one coil I could have used a lot if I had one 😞

I reckon if someone else (or a company) took over Howards concept and made it triple channel with ground tracking, it could match or beat anything out there. Especially if there were several timings coded for it. But, it seems extinction is the likely scenario 😞

XP detectors have always been just a serious coin/relic machine to us here in Oz, so they're always 'off the radar' when it comes to VLF gold prospecting. If you praise the Orx Jeff, perhaps its worth a serious look. Here in Oz, they are $200 cheaper than even the Nokta Legend!

What the Russkies have done with their coils is absolutely nothing special, just a lotta hours of trial and error, experimentation and common sense. I could start making those coils easily (coz they have done all the initial hard work TBH) with the injection of just $50K to get a production line started. You'd be looking at a wholesale markup of around 300% with no coil being over US$500 each retail. If Minelab started the same thing for the GPZ8, it would be farmed off to the lowest bidder in Malaysia with the resulting poor quality.....as we've seen with the GPX6000 coils.