mh9162013

If it were waterproof, I'm guessing Minelab would sell more units. But then they'd probably sell fewer Equinox units.

Thanks for the input guys! Looks like I'll pass on it.

I saw one of these for sale for basically $200 + shipping. Is that a good deal? What's the typical resale price (Fair Market Value) for a machine like that? Thanks!

A very interesting article from a unique perspective. Thanks for sharing!

During WW2, the total combined computing capacity of the Allies was less than what you buy in a birthday card at the store that sings happy birthday. And everyone readily accepts that such a card is disposable, at least on a hardware level.

To be fair, that's not Minelab's fault. That's the dealer's fault...unless I'm missing something? I suppose Minelab could have failed to communicate with the dealer, but even if that's the case, after your initial inquiry, a prudent dealer would have contacted Minelab to confirm the policy. Even if Minelab dropped the ball, you should never do business with that dealer again. Do you mind PMing me who it was so I'll put them on my do-not-buy list?

Never underestimate the power of marketing. Diamonds are a great example. Oh, and so are the Garrett AT series of metal detectors. They're such old detectors, and while quite capable, seem to be square in the prospective metal detector's eye when considering a new machine. It's almost as if they came out when the Equinox or Simplex did. Gotta give Garrett credit...

I agree and I can't stand the strategy of announcing something well before it's actually available. But Minelab isn't stupid and they've done some number crunching and concluded (correctly or not) that this current strategy is better than the alternative. Well, at least I hope they're not stupid. After all, they did design their Pro-Finds to use 9V batteries...

1. Cost 2. Color 3. Ergonomics 4. Uses AA batteries 5. Less complex 6. Size/collapsability 7. Coils 8. Desire for Multi-IQ without having to buy the Equinox I personally would love the form factor of the Vanquish with the ability/performance of the Equinox.

It also looks like the Pro-Find 15 might be discontinued? I noticed it's selling for less than $80 at some online retailers or is out of stock. And now, there's the Pro-Find 20, which is basically the 15 with extra notification features (sound that can be turned on and off, plus vibrate - if I recall correctly).

That's actually my initial prototype (if you see my post from a few months ago). I don't like using lithiums as much as LSD NiMHs, but they're certainly better than 9V batteries.

The only "odd" things I've noticed about my Pro-Find 35 are that: 1. If it gets too close to the Garrett Carrot while the Carrot is on, the Pro-Find will go off and will need to be reset (turned off then back on). 2. At maximum sensitivity, it i swing the Pro-Find 35 rather quickly, it will go off. But if I move it "normally," it works just fine. Lowering the sensitivity to the middle level or less will remove this "issue." Sorry for the late reply. Hope this helps!

You can use whatever battery you choose and if you're happy about it, more power to you! (yeah, I made a punny) I was just pointing out the flaw in saying 9V alkalines are "good" batteries because they're better than 9V NiMH batteries.

What?!

A NiMH 9V battery? No thank you. The solution to getting rid of heavy duty or alkaline 9V batteries isn't to replace it with a NiMH 9V battery. It's to get rid of the 9V battery.

I'm not worried about current draw; the voltage booster I'm using can provide up to 1.4 amps, well in excess of what a standard 9V alkaline can reasonably provide. And no, I have no power switch between the NiMH cells and the booster. Do I need one? Maybe. I'm letting my setup sit in my Garrett Carrot right now and I'll test it every few days to see how long it "lasts" in storage before I need to recharge the battery pack. Assuming the booster draws noticeable current, a switch would be useful, but I doubt it'll be worth the trouble as it would just be easier to unplug the battery pack from the booster if I was going to store my pinpointer for an extended period of time. I may also look for some smaller high efficiency battery plugs, too... And don't forget, even if my setup has plenty of drawbacks, it still has a HUGE advantage: NO MORE 9V BATTERIES!

Phrunt, This is the voltage booster I'm using: https://www.pololu.com/product/2116 As for battery life, I haven't done real world testing, because there's no point given how I'm not able to metal detect as often as I'd like and how inconsistent and qualitative the observations would be. I could create some sort of "lab" set up to measure how long the pinpointer beeps and vibrates or something, but I'm not going to waste my time with that because using simple math should give a good enough ballpark estimate, which I predict will be about 50-60% of the run time you would get with an alkaline battery. I discuss how I get this number in my blog post concerning this set up in a Minelab Pro-Find 35. That LiPo cell has roughly the same capacity as these AAA NiMH cells. In that blog post I also mentioned a very slight performance increase in sensitivity (about 1-3 mm of extra range).

A while ago, I posted about a using a Minelab Pro-Find 35 without a 9V battery. You can read more about it here: But I wanted to run the modification with NiMH batteries. However, due to space constraints in the Pro-Find, this was not possible without modifying the internal battery compartment (which I didn't want to do b/c it would void the warranty, I'm sure). So instead, the Pro-Find runs off of a LiPo cell. Well, I got a hold of a Garrett Carrot (Pro-Pointer AT) and given the extra space for the battery, I was able to run the 9V booster off of 3 LSD NiMH AAA cells. Works like a charm! The advantage is that I don't have to worry about "babying" the LiPo cell and worry about storing it with too little charge or anything like that. Not much else to say, except show you the pictures.

It does help, thank you!

Thanks for your insight!

I have a few questions, to better understand the Vanquish. Some of these will be "stupid," but I need to ask anyways... 1. Exactly how is the inability to run single frequency operation bad? I know that it's usually better to have more control over settings and features than less control, but I'd like to hear how this is the case in real world practice with respect to always having to run in multi-frequency mode. 2. Missing variable recovery speed. Why is this important? Don't you always want recovery speed to be as fast as possible? 3. Why is the inability to switch off the iron Bias bad? Like with point #1, I know more control is better, but how is this "flaw" going to hurt real world metal detecting? On a side note: If the Vanquish lives up to its hype, it's only a matter of time before someone released a waterproof shell for it, like with 1 or more of the Garrett ACE machines.

Is it fair to say that, assuming the waterproofing issue can be taken care of, this is a solid salt water beach detector? EDIT: Based on my research, it will be. I'm curious as to how it will compare to the Equinox, though, at salt water beaches.

I've never had any of the issues Kac or afreakofnature have experienced. "Maybe I'm lucky, maybe I'm born with it. Maybe it's Minelab."

I have the Pro-Find 35 and love it! Depending on the object, it will start going off when it's several inches away on max sensitivity. Then as I get closer to the object, I reduce the sensitivity until I can narrow in on the precise location of treasure (usually trash).

Wow, I can only dream of a hobby of mine producing that much income!