Knomad

Well, Minelab took forever to improve their ergonomics on their pulse machines, and finally did with the 6000, now it looks like Garrett is in the same league at least if not better with ergonomics. Personally I have always found Whites to out perform Garrett in general through the decades. THE big questions now are all direct head to head Performance, Against Minelabs best offerings and if it is not at that level, it must at least improve on their own ATX, and TDI. And if they are smart keep the price more in line with the TDI. I question if it can have the penetrating power of the top Minelabs if the battery can last two days, but hope it does, and wish them all the best with what looks like at least a great start on a new platform, Now that Garrett owns Whites Think like they did in the early years of detecting, and stay at the cutting edge of performance.! Minelab learned with the Nox that a good performing machine at a very competitive price will make more money than if double that price. That should be Garretts business model. Let the head to head serious tests begin..!

I do recall that most coins in areas that were not heavily used were silver, it took years for clad to be dominate, and so looking back those were the glory days, and I just didn't know it. There were many a time I stopped at a Highway Rest Stop, and if few people were around to stretch my legs I would pull out my detector, and it was not unusual to get 5 to as much as $20 in silver in under 30 minutes. It at least paid for the C batteries.

Nice Find, But Not at 3 Meters, did you mean inches.?

No contest, A 1 inch by 3/4 to 1 inch cylindrical Neo magnet with a hole through it, mounted with a deck screw to bottom of the handle avoids damage from digging, and more importantly allows you to probe holes of all sizes to quickly not only grab any iron, but to also generally clean up the dirt of micro iron and black sand for a cleaner signal. You can go one step further as I do and make a copper or stainless sleeve to cover the magnet with a steel washer inside the end so it sticks to the magnet, this protects it and you can easily pull it off for instant cleaning of black sand Etc.

I see what you are saying Steve -- " the new V4i you mention is called the Equinox, or Deus 2, or Legend." But Note, none of these are either Garrett or Whites, and lets face it the Apex is not really in the performance class of at least the Equinox and Deus. I'm not impressed, and hate to see American companies get behind in technology, when for decades Whites kept at the leading edge.

Questions -- So, what is going on with Whites and Garrett.? It appears all Garrett has done is Re-Release the 24k, and I see no other mention of anything else they are doing with the assets they purchased, it's hard to believe they purchased the company for one detector and it's tooling, Any idea what they paid for the company? For those of us that have been around for decades, the loss of Whites was and is a Big Deal, for although the company went downhill after it's founders death, it still has So Much history of innovation and top notch products it is hard to believe they did not have designs on the books that Garrett could take advantage of, So Where are they.? If you think I am wrong, just look at even today Whites machines are Regularly mentioned, and often in a good light. How about a New V4i.? The technology of the V3i was on par or better then almost any machine today, just wrap it in fast electronics and more simultaneous multi frequencies and a simplified interface and with that color screen and graph and other features and good ergonomics it's a sure winner.! A new TDI with similar upgrades? A related question -- What is Garrett doing these days? I have seen nothing of note from them in years, just average rehashed junk, the AT series was ok but is old tech repeatedly Rehashed long ago, How about a new Pi.? even just an ATX in a light package at a good price may keep them in the game.!

I would generally agree with what others are saying, But would advise you to go for performance first. That means good depth, and sensitive to a variety of nugget sizes and depths. That means good ergonomics -- Light Weight, Well Balanced. Think Whites TDI with better depth, faster processor, and more refined target I.D with a visual readout on a high contrast Low Glare Screen either B/W or Color, and Bluetooth. = WINNER.

I really hope the Legend is in fact comparable to the Equinox, simply to push Minelab to keep advancing, that said based on all the videos thus far it does not appear to be, but for a low priced alternative it looks good. As for Her Excuse, I don't buy it, it appeared to me that it just did not have as high a general processing speed, or recover speed. I also prefer a Negative TID number to a bar graph, that is a personal preference, But 90% of the time I nugget hunt in all metal with the Equinox 800 mine 2 program, and find I can often tell from a radically changing number that it is an iron target, BUT, I can also often tell that there is Both a Ferrous and Non Ferrous target close together, it just takes swinging in multiple directions and experience, AND No Filtering, So I reserve any notching to Extreme small iron and Extreme Hot Rock sites, and even then limit notching to just the worst negative numbers. I hope the Legend has all the capabilities of the Nox 800, but if the processor is slower that is unlikely. NOW, with all that said Minelab needs to improve it's Iron Identification in general, Iron Bias or not it too often gets fooled by large iron and can slaw.

My point in posting that video and comment was Primarily because as a technical guy I think it is Hilarious.! The original story behind it is said to be the guy was an actor and made all that up On The Spot, if so that is very impressive and creative. My secondary reason for the post is sometimes if people are made fun of even if it offends them it at least wakes them up.! This is a Technology Based competitive industry, if you do not offer competitive technology, You Soon Won't Be In The Industry.! I find the older I get, The Less I care about offending people, Especially these days with Political Correctness Out of Control. A JOKE is A Joke, People.

Rumors are flying that First Texas has hired a veteran engineer to upgrade their entire product line. As well as actually make the AQ happen. CAN THIS GUY SAVE THE COMPANY..? The video link below shows off this guys abilities with an advanced product sold to the U.S Government.

I would have to say My Eagle 2, just because after all the analog machines I had I was Amazed it could actually I.D the targets often accurately, With Numbers.! Especially coins. In fact up until the Equinox 800 it was still my favorite coin detector. Alas, it was lost in a house fire, that also claimed my Minelab GP Extreme, my Deepest nugget detector.

The 800 does indeed give VDI readings, and surprisingly accurate ones in many conditions, BUT, I suggest testing accuracy with every significant change in the ground, if there are small numerous hot rocks or heavy black sand it may not be very accurate at all. BUT, even in most bad conditions if you pay close attention to the VDI and you see popping up in all the negative numbers a consistent one or two positive numbers, odds are good there is a non ferrous target in with the junk or bad ground. If gold is your target however I would avoid the 600 model because it lacks the two highest frequencies. BTW, keep in mind that you can use modes other than gold ones to get more than one tone, BUT, the more discrimination you have set in ANY Mode the less sensitivity and depth you will have, and gold mode is optimized for gold.! Also discrimination takes Processing Time and this reduces how fast the detector responds to a target as well as it does more filtering of background noise, So that is why for Max sensitivity and depth No Discrimination is preferred if you can get away with it. In situations with constant small hot rocks and hot ground that typically will readout at -7, -8 or -9 that makes it almost undetectable I will switch to gold discriminate mode, BUT, will notch out JUST the number or numbers causing the problem, Remember the more you notch out the less sensitivity and depth. On the 800 you also have a Custom Mode, where you can alter a preset mode to whatever you want, save it, and with one press of a side button go to immediately any time you want, Alas gold modes still cannot be set for multi tones. As for setup for brush, by far my favorite is a Telescoping Rod and the 5 X 10 Coiltek Coil, Super Compact when collapsed, very light, and the 5 x 10 coil with it's extra edge sensitivity and shape beats the Minelab round 6 inch in almost every situation. Also any Bluetooth APTX Low Latency headset you like will work with the Nox, just make sure it is Low Latency.

Any over the ear headphones reduce ambient noise, so it's just a matter of how much you want to reduce it, I for one only want heavy reduction if in heavy wind or very noisy ambient, Especially in the desert summer when I put on open cell foam with cuts to fully open 4 spaces in the foam, this for cooling and to hear Rattlesnakes. I find good Noise Cancelling phones to be Too Quiet to be safe, and often add a delay in response time, and often don't breath well at all.

OH, The only downside to those headphones is if your head is narrow they are a little loose for radical climbing and and angles so may move around on your head. But, I taped an additional headphone piece to the top to tighten them up, an easy mod for my odd head. The sound quality seems above average to me and as good or better than the stock Nox phones, But everyone has different hearing. The Transmitter is not needed with the Nox, but it has no downside when attached to any detector with Velcro. A GOOD Value for both units.

OOPs, for some reason that posted before I finished it, SO as I was saying ----- They are both good quality, and have held up well and have good battery life so can go all day, AND they are Inexpensive as a bonus. If you detect and latency with this setup it is not enough to bother with. August EP650 Bluetooth Wireless Over Ear Headphones TROND V5.0 Bluetooth Audio Transmitter Receiver At the time I purchased these the Headphones were $60 and Transmitter was $26. I usually replace the ear pads with just hand cut Open Cell Foam in the summer heat.

I see no point in wired headphones unless it is for underwater use. This combination of APTX Low Latency Headphones and Transmitter will work well on any detector with a headphone jack, and without the Transmitter or 08 unit with the Nox Bluetooth.

As for the Whites related questions. Whites is not forgotten yet in Detector History, they had too much of it, and who knows it may be that if Garrett starts slipping more than it has they may revive the brand. The truth is Whites for many years was basically in the same position Minelab is now, they had the best technology of the day, and often produced the best performing machines, but lacked up to date marketing, before they lost their Owner and then top Engineers through death and subsequent Mismanagement. It's possible Minelab sees that parallel history and wants to avoid the same fate.

My biggest gripe with Minlab is there P.I detectors are TOO Expensive, and controlling who can make coils for their machines just adds to that expense. The other negative is Minelab loses the benefit of third party R&D, No one company can always come up with the next new idea, or advancement, even with the obvious large budget Minelab Wisely puts towards R&D. I want to see Reasonably Priced Coils, that will add to my reason to purchase a particular detector in the first place.! And if a 16 or 18in Elliptical coil can get the same depth as a 14in Round one I would take that over the round one any day. JMHO.

Finally a 6x12 elliptical, now how about a 14, 16, or 18" by 6"..! For ALL detectors. We need to advance beyond big round coils that are heavy, clumsy to use, hard to pinpoint, don't really work anywhere but wide open spaces, and offer little or no added coverage over long elliptical's. I previously challenged the coil manufacturers to come up with these long elliptical's, just make them longer and work on winding designs to help compensate for depth loss due to width.

I think the perception that the pinpoint function does not work well on the Nox is both Right and Wrong. As I understand it the De-Sensitizing or Re-Zeroing during pinpointing is suppose to be automatic at least to a degree, However that Automatic Resetting works slowly and poorly. But Re-Pushing the pinpoint button as needed manually works just fine. Just remember to move towards the target slow as you repeat the Zero Point, AND be careful to kept the same height, the system essentially does not know the difference between being closer to the target side to side and up and down. Overall manually Re-Zeroing is much like most separate pinpointers, you re-zero as you get closer to the target. As a side note. -- that new 5x10 Coiltek coil has unusually sensitive pointed ends, by that I mean it will detect even small targets with the tips of the small ends ( just not as far away as being in the center of the coil ). SO you can often turn your coil 90 degs and use the very end of the coil as a pinpointer.! Just keep in mind doing that will have limited depth. But that can also tell you that the target is not very deep.

I should have said that doing the things I mentioned are best done in All Metal, And Gold Modes. BTW, Gold Mode will By Far get you the best depth in nearly all situations, sadly it has only one tone, but the I.D readout works well in all but the worst ground. No detector will really give you the shape of targets like pull tabs and can slaw. But, the Nox with small coil is good at cherry picking in iron in gold mode with No Discrimination, IF you pay Close attention to the number readout, if at different angles of swing you get mostly Negative Numbers BUT one or more Consistent Positive Number popping up, there is a Good Chance there is a Non Ferris target in with that iron trash. The exception is if the plus and minus numbers wildly jump all over well into both positive and negative numbers, in those cases it is almost always an odd shaped iron target such as Can Slaw.

No Video But it not complicated -- The pinpointing on the Nox just basically has a Zero point set when you push the pinpoint button, SO, put the coil a few inches away from where you think the target is, move slowly in whatever directing it takes to increase the signal, as you get closer hit the button again to Re-Zero it at that point, repeat as you get closer until you are centered over the target, at this point you have De-Sensitized to a point where the signal is only heard directly over the target. BE SURE to keep the same height as you are pinpointing. As for Size -- I often just lift the coil to see how high up the signal can be detected with the same settings, the bigger target the greater depth from the coil it can be detected, this gives you a general idea of size, widening a swing around the target will give you an idea of shape, especially if it's long and narrow, such as a buried pipe. You can also use the pinpoint to trace edges of larger targets using same basic techniques as pinpointing, just pay attention to when you get a signal near the edges of the target, De-sensitize as needed if too jumpy.

Based on those numbers if the charge rate is only one amp then it will take about 5 hours to fully recharge, even with system losses it will likely be under 6 hours. But any alternator can make up that power used from your vehicle with just a few minutes run time, so vehicle battery drain is no real concern if using the DC charger, if using the AC charger it will it cause more battery drain just because of the AC to DC efficiency losses, but still no big deal. Be Aware - Many things take more power than recharging detector batteries, it all adds up. If your lighter socket goes off with the key I would just hook it direct to full time power wiring or directly to the battery, in either case I would put in an inline fuse rated at about 5 amps in case of a short.

Guys, Gal's -- A few basics, if the GPX6000 has a battery rated 100 Watt Hours, you take that and divide it by rated system voltage of 12, to get Amp Hours, thus 100 Watt Hours is equal to roughly 8.33 Amp Hours. TOTAL CAPACITY. An average car or truck battery has an Amp Hour rating likely around 80 to 150. So 8 Amp Hours is really not much total power to drain from a battery that size. In other words an 80 AH battery can charge Ten GPX batteries before being completely drained to below a useful level. Keep in mind it is not a good practice to charge two batteries hooked directly in parallel, especially if they are not drained down to the same point and not the same type of battery (starting vs deep cycle for example) because one is always going to drain more amperage than the other, and if the alternator sees the voltage of the battery that charges first it will stop charging both, then the low battery will pull power from the fully charged one, eventually they will even out, but it's not recommended for battery life. A Battery Splitter is about the best way to go unless you physically disconnect and charge one at a time. Also, most alternators put out 60 to 180 amps per hour, so even a 60 amp alternator can make up that 8 AH in about 8 minutes run time, 4 minutes with a not uncommon 120 amp alternator. As for Me, I carry a Cat Brand combo Battery Jumper, Air Compressor, LED Light, USB Charger, just in case I need any of those in the middle of Nowhere.

I use third party APTX-LL Bluetooth Headphones, but with modified over ear pads that breath better so don't sweat and I can hear more outside sounds than full over ear pads, the only exception is near loud rivers Etc. or Very High winds. They also work with any detector by using a cheap but very good Low Latency transmitter found on Amazon that has proven reliable.