mh9162013

1 hour ago, King-Of-Bling said:

I would have offered $150. Lol....

Oh, I would have too! But if they said no, I'd still have paid them the $225.

You got a very good deal, OP!

Great testing and thanks for sharing your results!

One thing I found interesting was the 25 TID readings on many of your 1944-1982 pennies.

In my parks, a lot of my pennies are either Zincolns (no surprise) and copper pennies from the 1960s to 1980s. It's this latter group that often ring up at with a VDI/TID that was seemingly closer to a dime instead of a penny. I've assumed my ground balance was a smidge off, but it looks like it might not be me.

7 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

I no longer do the work but I would recommend Tony Eisenhower could do you a adaptor. I can give you the part numbers you would need and the pin out of the BP's, the 1/8 mini jack he could track down for you.... Let me know.. 

Can you list the part numbers so I could potentially make my own adapter so I could use these bone phones with an Equinox or other detector?

What's the difference between a V3 and a V3i? Are they the same in terms of hardware such that a V3 can update its software and become a V3i?

Does your Coiltek coil come with a coil cover? If so, does it come off when using it in the water?

I didn't know adhesive lined heat shrink existed, but I'm so buying some with my next Amazon.com order!

3 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I'm kinda uncomfortable not hearing anything going on around me

That's a good thing!

"Always mind your surroundings"

- Ra's al Ghul

22 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Do you mainly hunt parks?  I tried relic hunting with the Etrac and it wasn't for me.  My hunt partner is still using the Explorer2 for relic hunting (although he finally broke down and bought a Deus....and then they dropped the Deus2, oh well) but i was always amazed at how well he did at iron infested relic sites with his Exp2 which is even slower than the Etrac. 

I do...and yards.

Some areas are heavily trashed, but the E-Trac with the stock coil seems to do about as well as the AT Max and Vanquish in terms of recovery speed (AT Max using the stock coil and 540 using the V12).

6 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

As I recall yes it was.  I had the Etrac at the time, it was so slow.   I remember one time I was at a park that went back to the Spanish era in Alta California, and they'd just done some trenching to install a water controller.  I went over the piles with the Etrac and it was just constantly nulling out.  I ended using my hand held pinpointer to hunt the pile and low and behold I pulled two Barber dimes out and a lot of nails.  

If that's the case then you're right, if Garrett can put the V3i in the AT Max or Apex's form factor (and still retain at least weatherproofness), they'd have a solid machine.

The E-Trac and Equinox are my two primary detectors (although I'm trying to sell the E-Trac). The E-Trac is heavy, but I think its FBS is better at identifiyng what's in the ground. But it's heavy...and not weatherproof. And despite its slow recovery speed, it's fast "enough" for me. I also LOVE the AT Max's form factor, so putting what amounts to White's version of the E-Trac (or a better version, based on what you and others say about the V3i) into the AT Max's control housing would be a real winner to me.

3 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

If they updated the V3i, in a lighter, waterproof AT format it would be a contender IMHO. 

How's its recovery speed? Is it better in trash than the E-Trac?

7 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

Garrett likely knows more about what is going on inside Garrett than Minelab does. 

That makes sense, and I agree.

15 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

I'd rather hear what Garrett has to say about their own products than what Minelab has to say about Garrett's products.  Fox reporting on the henhouse....

So your'e saying the CEO* knowingly lied about Minelab's view of Garrett's ability to produce SMF hobby detectors?

Or are you saying the CEO of Minelab is confused or ignorant about Garrett's progress in making a SMF detector that can compete with Minelab's MIQ machines?

I'm not saying the CEO is right (although I believe the CEO is), but I don't think the CEO would make such bold statements unless he/she had a pretty good basis for making them.

* It's my understanding that it was the CEO that made the statement's we're discussing right now.

6 hours ago, Cal_Cobra said:

I think we saw Garrett come out with a product to respond to the VANQUISH and they quickly almost withdrawn it from the market to rehash it because it just hasn't been successful. So people are now panicking. I think they're trying to do things with their products that the architecture of the design just won't allow. So we've taken comparative products in-house. We've looked at their intents at multifrequency, and quite frankly, the physics don't stack up. So they would have to go and completely reengineer their platforms in order to compete with products like EQUINOX and VANQUISH, which we don't expect them to be able to do. So we've kind of got them on the run, Ronan.

Assuming this is true, then the "AT Apex" is probably several years away...

Wow...

Is there a reason you can't buy a 3D printed coil stiffener?

As for whether it's worth it, hard to say. I haven't heard any consistent reports of coil ears being a problem on Vanquish coils. But that doesn't mean stiffening isn't necessary.

If you think you can do it with "regular" epoxy, I say go for it. The worst that'll happen is you waste epoxy and add some weight to the coil. Or am I missing something?

On 2/2/2022 at 11:48 AM, longbow62 said:

Minelab has been awful quite lately. No Equinox software updates either.

...

We could see something from Minelab soon...perhaps an update for the Equinox.

45 minutes ago, Cancelled Airline Guy said:

I really like the idea of a de-clutter option for the main screen. Even an option to choose your own options to be shown in de-clutter mode. Push once for full information and once for de-clutter mode. 

Exactly, kind of like how Minelab did it with the E-Trac where you could press the Detect button to toggle b/w the Pattern Screen and the Digital Screen.

IGNORE

On 1/31/2022 at 9:08 PM, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Think I found the correct fitting, see how well the bulkhead fitting I have coming works. If it works fine this fitting would be the one that is used to plug the bonephones into.. 

If it turns out that XP's BH-01 bone conducting headphones need more than a simple adapter to work with other machines due to the power supply issue, do you think it's feasible to create some sort of external battery pack to provide that power? It's not an ideal solution, but for us land hunters who want bone conducting headphones, this is the only reasonable option I've been able to find:

https://www.amazon.com/AfterShokz-Titanium-Conduction-Headphones-AS401XB/dp/B01N2OOJY8

And from what I can see, it's been discontinued. This also makes use of an external battery pack to supply the power needed to operate the special headphones.

Also, is it possible that certain 1/8 heaphone jacks could supply more power than others such that an external power supply isn't required? 

From my understanding, as long as the JB weld doesn't move or shift, you should be fine. And if it does move or shift, you've got more problems than your coil getting confused by the JB Weld.

Think about it, the cord from the coil has metal in it, right? And you're supposed to wrap it around the shaft in such a way that it doesn't move or shift while you swing your detector.

56 minutes ago, Badger-NH said:

Wheat pennies were pretty common in pocket change during the '80s/'90s.

Not from my childhood days. I always looked at coins growing up (in the 80s and 90s) and I found a wheat "in the wild" just once. Also found a silver coin (quarter) just once, too.

Nice haul!

Now go bake some bread!

Companies don't necessarily have to come out with new, groundbreaking tech. They can still hit a "homerun" if they implement existing tech in an effective way.

I think the iPod is a great example. When it came out, nothing about its tech was really that new. HDDs, Firewire, LCD screens, etc. had existed for a while. But Apple effectively combined all of those technologies into a device that revolutionized the music industry and entertainment.

So imagine Garrett comes out with the "AT Apex" where it's a SMF VLF detector that performs about as well as the Equinox (and Legend?), but comes in a form factor that's as robust and reliable as the current AT series. Assuming they priced it competitively, they'd have a real winner...and I'd look for ways to trade in my Equinox 600 for that machine.

Not saying it would pass the Deus II, Legend, Equinox, etc. in terms of profitability. But it would sell plenty of units!

What kind of bottle caps are in the 16-17 range? Mine (screw or crown) are usually in the low to mid 20s.

Or is the salty sand having an effect here?

Great initial review, Erik, loved reading it!

Yes, performance is the primary factor. But sometimes, "the little things" can make a big difference for at least some users. There are plenty of reviews looking at how the Deus II does against the Equinox (or how it performs in general), so it's nice to see a review from a different perspective.

I remember when I was comparing colleges to attend, I placed a great amount of emphasis on the cafeteria/food services (great is a relative term in that I put some emphasis on it while most of my classmates couldn't' care less). Logically, it shouldn't matter. But I always felt that how a school feeds its students is just one indirect way to judge how they'll treat their students in other respects, like...education.