jasong

Sounds dubious to me, especially the doubling of finds part. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, attaching 600 ohm headphones to a circuit designed for 4-8 ohms is going to make it quieter, might even actually need to get a booster to bring it back up to normal loudness, though maybe the SDC has robust audio control already, dunno since I don't have one. But electronics gurus please correct me if I'm wrong there... Also, the amps in detectors aren't designed with nearly the frequency response that high dollar audio amps are made with, which is what those sorts of headphones are intended for. It's like hooking a $300 pair of headphones to a Walkman from 1984...except probably worse. Or trying to listen for frequencies on a 60 year old record that just aren't there to begin with. Though I bet the sound deadening capabilities on a set of nice studio headphones are excellent, that is one positive that could make a difference. Gladly change my opinion given new evidence to the contrary though.

My 3rd Nokta works ok, it developed a problem with the VDI screen the second time out but oh well I can still see and I'm about done with doing exchanges anyways. They must not like Wyoming for some reason... The last time around I was able to have them mail me the replacement detector as soon as they saw me ship the defective unit in the tracking report so that went quicker, might ask if they'll do that for you. BTW, you might check Geotech forums. There are a couple guys that do coils here but a lot more over there. Also a decent book to read by Carl Moreland called "Inside the Metal Detector" which goes over BFO, VLF, and PI designs including coils. Might be a good read if you are planning on tearing into stuff. I've got about halfway through myself, skipped the BFO stuff.

Did you get the inductance and capacitance of that coil before taking it apart? Good numbers to have to replicate it, might not match when you get it back together if its put together any bit differently. I love the pioneering rip it apart spirit though! Just curious, how much does one of those machines cost? Did you have to buy it new or found it used somewhere? Never seen one before myself.

Lots of various interesting stuff to pull out of this data, here are some. Also probably useful to note that online/forum results (probably) differ quite a bit from the field. For instance I still see quite a few 3500's out and about despite their poor showing here, and quite a few GMT's as well, but mostly by people who don't post or go online. Also of note, I've seen some survey responses that were contradictory to other responses in other threads posted before or after the survey, nothing official anyways all in good fun but come on guys... *sorry for the small text, i had to shrink everything down so the picture wasn't gigantic on the forum.

I'll make some graphs for fun tonight, I like data visualization. If it's done next year it'll be easy to see changes visually too, or make a little animation.

I'm predicting "new in box Eureka Gold" detectors on ebay are about to double in quantity and start selling for half cost. Can I short sell a metal detector model?

A guy could sell his old used 4500 and then ebay the Eureka and get into a brand new warrantied 4800 for a couple hundred bucks.... Hmm interesting. Wish I had a mailing address to do all that ebaying/selling/shipping/receiving.

Nice stuff, I agree with Rick it'd be interesting to see every year if you were willing to do it. Would be interesting to see how much share the 4500 regains and if the very popular SDC is so popular because it fills a price niche or a utility niche. All sorts of other fun questions to think about who's answers could potentially show up in data trends over time too. Are you able to post the spreadsheet for download?

Right, I'm not being literal in any sense. Just pointing out some issues of greater or lesser importance in mood that is a bit more uplifting since it's been pretty somber around here lately.

Let's just be glad I didn't photoshop the first thing I had in mind...the....erm...uh..."prophylactically" inspired names of a couple GPX timings. I'm dying to post another one but after further review I'm fairly certain only Wyomingites/Texans would understand it. I'm sure the design will grow on me, but all I can think of when I look at it is....

I'm impressed with the Doc's GPZ cover too, I'd recommend them.

Nice job, gotta love that refreshing feeling when it's yellow and not gray in the scoop!

But just because all the other detector manufacturers are still stuck in the 70's (in more ways than one, just my opinion) doesn't mean we shouldn't hold Minelab accountable. Codan is a modern, multinational, diversified corporation, and consumer detectors make up the largest portion of their business IIRC according to their profit statement. I would bet that if they designed a product for the military or corporate use that they would respond quickly and clearly to product issues, why not consumers? Today, the inescapable fact is that consumer oriented business is driven largely by online consumer reviews. In the tech world specifically, products often live or die by it's consumer reviews. A lot of people (myself included) first found your posts on the AK forum while looking for metal detector reviews, and continue to look for your input on newer detectors today just as much if not more than 10 years ago. The power of this phenomena I think is also demonstrated in how many people are using the Nokta products in the gold world after your positive reviews. It's common to see corporations much, much larger than Codan do triage on their products after critical reviews on social media, in fact now most large companies have entire divisions dedicated to just such aspects of business. We also now know Minelab has at least one person that browses these websites (re: Lisle thread) as part of their job. Yet we have heard only crickets... As an aside, I don't follow White's much, but I do remember reading a lot of criticism about the TDI when it was released. If more people used the ATX I'm guessing we'd hear more about it too...but look at your detector polls...only a few people who post to the US forums are using them. It's pretty clear from the polls we are mainly ML users here and whites/garrett/etc as secondary or tertiary uses (on average) so its pretty reasonable to expect a lot of critical input on Minelabs here versus other products. But you are right, price is an obvious factor as well: Whites TDI SL: $1189 Garrett ATX (incl extra larger coil, soft case and hardshell travel case): $2546 The GPZ is priced almost an entire magnitude higher than it's only other two competitors. It basically is an entire magnitude higher than the TDI. It's not unreasonable for people to expect more when the price difference is that large. I mean apples to apples lets put that in perspective, that's like a Kia for $11k and a top of the line, flawlessly engineered BMW i7 super-luxury class sports car for $100k. You can definitely bet the i7 is held to much (much, much) higher standards then the little Kia I might buy for my 15 year old son to learn how to drive with. Same way a $300 generic laptop is not held to the same standards as a $3000 Alienware gaming or workstation laptop.

Plastic D9's for everyone then?

I think that geometry is pretty close to ideal, but it's pretty close to the Supersede geometry, might need some IP tweaking? Dunno, def not my department there. One thing I wonder about, with 12GA steel, do you think there would be a chance the flat blade part of the scoop might get bent? Would it be better slightly shorter so less leverage if so? No idea from pictures without trying it out, just one thing I wondered about...? Edit again: also I seem to be about the only one really into this type of design other than Flak who first posted the Supersede looking for comments on it, unless others are just not commenting. So maybe it's just me, I don't want to lead you into production costs for a pick no one wants. For me personally I find this style to be ideal...everyone varies though.

Looks pretty sweet to me. If the changeable blade thing is BS then that general geometry in one piece permanent blade is something I'd be interested in personally. Edit: with a magnet holder on the scoop.

I'd go with chalcopyrite but hard to tell from pics. Does it smell like sulfur when you cut it or scratch it? If it was gold, pieces that big wouldn't crush up, it'd pancake out and flatten and form fairly large pieces. If it all crushed up then it's probably not gold. But as Steve said, there might very well be gold in the ore. Even the presence of sulfides in the same rock doesn't mean that some of the ore might not be free milling too.

There are some truly unique crystalline pieces there all gathered into one post, fun to look at even if a person isn't planning on entering.

Ivan, If you can get them to ~$100-125ish and make a few improvements which I'll list below I think they'd sell decently. At least I'd definitely be interested in trying one. $165 AUD is like $117USD and the large one I see for sale for $200AUD which is like $142 if I remember it right. The one thing the Supersede is missing is a magnet slot, if it was welded forward of the front scoop nuts its seems like it'd take most of the wear and that's about where it seems they are most handy anyways, more towards the top of the handle like some picks do is not as useful IMO. Tops of my picks above the handle have the least wear in general so I wonder how much wear those bolts would actually get...but if there was a problem with the design seems like that would be it. Also, I think the pick end is too long on the large pick, but I haven't tried one so I can't say for certain. But the biggest thing for me is proper balance and not being too so heavy as to leave bruises where it sits on my shoulder bone as the large Apex does if I go more than 5 or 6 days in a row. A perfect weight I think is halfway between the Hermit Pick head and the large Apex pick head. 35" handle IMO is too long. It's doable for me at 6ft tall to belt mount (my Hermit handle is 34" and I like it), but anyone shorter would have issues with walking probably. 32" handle I think is a perfect "large" size handle one size fits all but mabe I'm off there since not many others gave handle length input. I don't care for anything shorter myself so I couldn't make a good recommendation for the small/medium size. Also, a consideration may be to use acorn nuts on the bolt ends so that the threads stay protected. It would require more accurate bolt length sizing though. Just don't make any geometry modifications that make it dangerous or difficult to belt mount like the Hermit Pick. I like how the side of the scoop is bent 90 degrees so it's not going to dig into my hip and stab me if I fall or bloody me up after days of digging into my side as I walk. Or or or, how about this, make one, send me a prototype, and I'll post some pics of the gold I find with it on the forum and a review as free advertising for you.

7000, 4500, GB2

Very nice, I think you should take that catchy title and write the book yourself Strick!

I'm curious how much they weigh? Sounds minor, but a couple extra ounces can make a noticable difference over thousands of swings a day. I'll probably get one on my way through Vegas at Doc's in a month or so if no one has tried one by then.

If you hike out a ways then a battery booster is a good thing to pack with you, or like I do keep a small 2 hour recharger on my keychain. They work for phones, gps, etc. I don't really have any brand recommendations since mine was a $10 keychain thing I got at a gas station and it just does the job, but I've been thinking about getting one of the larger capacity boosters to just keep in the pack all the time. It's come in handy quite a bit, sometimes you just need another hour of juice on the gps or some time with the phone flashlight to get the last mile back, etc.

Tortuga, I tried electrical tape at first to increase the diameter a bit and it was too thick to get the shaft back in. I tried duct taping it on the outside but that only works for about half a day. I'll be back out in the field again soon, will let you know if I run across anything that works, let me know if you find something too. On another 7000 note, I break 2 or 3 nylon bolts a year on my GPX. I keep a little bag of them in my pack. Does anyone know if they sell replacement uh...thingmajigs...to hold the 7000 coil to the lower shaft? I wouldn't mind having at least one in my pack just in case because that would suck to have to wait however many weeks or months to get one shipped while out in the field.