jasong

Holy moly! I'll have to settle with just looking at what you post for now. 😁

That opal is truly amazing, like mini nebulae in a rock. Does your friend have a website where they sell what they mine?

I believe that for sure, I guess what I'm referring to is the GPZ in specific though. My impression is that a lot of prospectors in Africa are using stuff like the Gold Monster and older PI's more, but I really have no idea. I know they are serious prospectors too, more than I am since often there is no option for them but to find gold. I'm just basing that off what people tell me whom I speak with on my Youtube channel mostly. There is some interesting stuff happening out there which is only just now starting and may or may not lead to more. A lot of global people who never use forums contact me through my videos which is pretty cool. One guy I just spoke with has permits to prospect recently opened areas in Northern Iraq (Kurdish territory) and will be essentially detecting in a war zone as they are still fighting ISIS, a place that has never seen a metal detector before in a non-military sense. He's just a young Kurdish kid, and is going to set up an Instagram page to update his progress. People like this contact me almost daily for detector recommendations, and often I refer them to your gold detector review page. All kinds of people from all over, - Papua New Guinea and a few other places in Oceania, Peru, China, etc. The large majority, I mean close to 99% if I guessed, want to know what to buy under $500 though. So I'm assuming there aren't a ton of GPZ's being used by the locals in these places and so I really started wondering what it's future was going to hold there. So I'm guessing Minelab generally has goals to target that price range and market since by far it seems to have the largest growth potential. I just wanted to make sure they didn't forget us. *On a side note, what exactly does Minelab manufacture in Idaho?

Thank you JP, this seems to generally addresses some things that have been left to our imaginations for years and tells me enough to feel comfortable in my gut decision to hold off for now and watch how things develop. It does sound like Minelab has not abandoned the serious gold prospector entirely, which was why I was considering going with one of these aftermarket coils, so we'll see what comes about by the time I sell this GPZ and get ready to buy my 3rd when the need arises again. (I feel like I'm in some ways mirroring Steve here now that I've read his response too, and in some ways not) While we definitely don't have the kind of gold you have in Australia, I manage to scrape by on minimum wage or thereabouts on what I can find over here, sometimes I get luckier, and there are a few others doing the same. A GPZ is not a luxury item for me as it is for some here. It's a business expense which I take a loan out to purchase, and resell when I am done using it to pay off my loan. I do it because I love the freedom and lifestyle of being alone exploring the mountains and desert and having the right tool for job enables me to live a life like that at least part time. I buy one when I feel I can pay for the depreciation plus make money on top of that. That's why I ask the questions I ask, it's a tool for me and I have to be confident that what I'm using will pay for itself and more. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" when it comes to new products to me, I won't buy something unless I'm confident it'll pay itself off and so I ask a ton of questions and I appreciate all the people who take the time to answer some of them.

Personally I am not assuming anything about the aftermarket coils yet. That's why a few days ago I was asking specifically for objective tests, numbers, and comparisons to the stock coil from the testers, and not just subjective tests finding missed nuggets in old patches which can happen with any machine no matter how good someone is. It happens to all of us. Actually I think Minelab kinda has to tell us, because I'm definitely not in a position to answer those questions. Do you know why the major aftermarket guys haven't done anything by now? If you encourage me to ask myself rhetorical questions then I can certainly come up with rhetorical situations aplenty. 1.) IP prevents legit 3rd parties from developing a coil and Minelab would rather sell SDC backlogs than retool their factory to make a new coil for a product that probably didn't sell a lot of units in the wider scope of things globally, when compared to say an Equinox which is more profitable to create accessories for. And/Or 2.) The X Coil performance is due to a design that allows higher sensitivity and less material (lower resistance or inductance thus less wire weight?) that drives the GPZ to operate outside of FCC specs that Minelab must comply with but a Russian random company can skirt around. Thus Minelab finds itself on an uneven playing field where any product it makes will by nature underperform the 3rd party coils who do not have to comply with FCC regulations and so will lose money by offering their own coils which cannot compete with a 3rd party? 2b.) The electronics not being designed for this lower resistance/inductance/whatever may fail eventually. But we won't know because ML probably has no desire to waste resources testing that scenario if they have no intention of honoring the warranty. 2c.) Or they already know what potentially happens running coils like these because they in fact did make their own, and found it caused issues. Thus they know these X coils may cause issues too. I mean, I could sit here and hypothesize elaborate scenarios all night if encouraged like that. 😁

At a time when the trend is clearly towards having less detectors and one machine that does the job of a few detectors at once, that is a surprising statement to hear since I felt Minelab were actually the ones sort of pioneering this one detector fits all approach better than anyone else with the Equinox release. And I assumed the GPZ was the same way, one machine to combine performance of older PI's, SDC, and newer ZVT all in one package for those willing to pay for it. Grab one machine and go. Or at least it seemed that was the future promise. Buying an SDC doesn't do anything to solve the weight issue with the existing ML coils either, which as we've seen with the X Coils is a problem which is possible to be addressed if desired. An SDC also doesn't have nearly the configurability with settings as the GPZ does so why would we want to give that up? I mean, if Ford told people who just bought a new F250 that they couldn't put a offroad suspension or a supercharger in and had to buy a brand new Ford Raptor built for that purpose from the factory instead, yet couldn't tow a backhoe, couldn't take a yard of dirt in the bed, or carry a bunk of lumber, they would probably be laughed out of the truck market. No one wants two or more trucks when the one they have could work better than both combined and they already spent a song to get it. Am I wrong or is there really a compelling reason that it's better for the customer to go buy a new SDC instead of a new coil that effectively makes their GPZ do the same task? If Minelab made the coil themselves the IP issue wouldn't exist either, especially if they made a better product, for cheaper and killed the competition through capitalism and not jurisprudence. I just don't see any actual reason buying an SDC would be a better choice, especially when ML could be making lighter 14x13's and 19's on top of it if they came out with a new line of coils. I do see how it's better for Minelab though, especially if SDC sales are faltering. Am I off base? If so, why not just make a coil? I feel like there is some piece of the puzzle missing here...

Rob, since you are a dealer, if you get the free time or happen to be talking to Minelab already for other issues, could you try to see if they'll release some official statement to my two questions in my post above? As you mention coils were a robust aftermarket business for dealers, and there is certainly a demand from customers, so it seems like it'd be good for all of us to know one way or another what the future (or current) plans are here. Steve, these X Coils are already released and available for purchase, unless I misunderstood the other thread? Either way, it's still time, IMO, that they let us know if they are going to release their own smaller coil or not by now too, independent of wether or not anyone else is developing aftermarket coils. If so, I'd simply wait for that one (assuming its not years away) and case closed for me.

It would be great if we could get an official written statement from Minelab on both their repair stance after using these coils and wether or not they are ever coming out with a smaller coil themselves for those of us who prefer to keep their factory warranty. If they don't read these forums anymore it would be great if a dealer or similar could encourage them to do this, all my connections there have now apparantly moved on. It's a flagship product that was clearly designed with software and hardware upgrades/accessories in mind, yet they've been silent for years. Just on general principal they should have made some statement one way or the other, especially if they do not intend to make anything except the 19" coil which is tepidly used at best.

Another question - does this void the warranty? Just on the coil, or the entire machine?

Is there an indication of what the price range will be for these, and an idea when they will be available for sale? Once they go up for sale officially, will a person still need to sacrifice the plug from the 14x13 or is there any indication there might be another solution by then?

Thanks for the report. Is there something special with the construction of these coils that the stock Minelab coil does not incorporate? A bigger coil should get better depth on bigger gold so that part isn't surprising to me, but to get better depth on the tiny bits with a larger coil seems to indicate these new coils are outperforming the stock coil size per size. If that's the case I'm left wondering why Minelab hasn't put out a better coil in almost 4 years now themselves. I see you mention spiral wound, I was under the impression that PI coil construction didn't apply to ZVT coil construction, do you mean both lobes and center coil of the 12" you mention spiral wound and in DoD configuration or is it something different? Given the number of windings, thin wire, and thickness of the Z coils I'm trying to visualize what spiral wound means in that context. I know people abhor rebury tests. But I'm curious if anyone has plans to do a controlled comparison between the stock and X coil at the edges of detection to determine a baseline performance differential? Data is data, its the interpretation of data related to specific conditions that people get twisted up on I think, and a test like this is useful as long as the data is interpreted for what it is.

Oddly China manages to send me batteries halfway across the planet from Shenzhen quicker than it takes UPS to send a package from Salt Lake City to Cheyenne, and for cheaper too! Not sure how that works out, but I get them in 2 to 3 days from HobbyKing and that includes passing through customs.

Davsgold, I've been out of the prospecting loop for a while so I'm only just now catching up and seeing these coils, not sure which sizes are available but for me something like a 7x12" elliptical would hit the sweet spot for getting into rocky washes and also hopefully getting a bit more depth on the ~1/4 gram type stuff. I have to head back home here soon though and it looks like these coils come out of Russia? If so its probably too late for me to get one. If there happens to be one already in the US which I could put on and take out for a day to some producing washes, do some basic tests on it, I'd love to make a video on it though and see how it works. I should be out for another few month prospecting trip later this year.

Is anyone testing the X coils in the US? Who does a guy need to talk to to get to try one out?

As hot as possible for the conditions while still staying stable. No need to memorize settings really, just the philosophy. Adjust accordingly as you travel. For most of the US West not right next to EMI/civilization and not on basalt or serpentine, BIF, (or similarly hot or pyrite/magnetite/galena/etc laden bedrock) I've been able to run HY, Normal, and 18-20 sens. I keep my threshold lower than most though because sensory adaptation is real and affects us non-computer humans more than some might think. When it comes to 1 grain to 1 gram stuff, General will miss a lot that HY will hit like a bell.