nickelNdimed

14 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Pretty much where it has always been as a coin, jewelry, and relic machine. Very few people use it for gold prospecting since it can’t compete with the higher frequency models, which is why Garrett needed the 24K.

Yeah I always thought it was more of a competitor, at least from a lineup perspective, to the Fisher Gold Bug/F19. Seems redundant now with the similar price point and the AT Pro and Max already being capable of being jack of all trade machines. Plus don’t hear a lot about them so imagine not a big seller in the first place. 

I’m not a gold prospector but find this release and watching the product lineups between the competitors interesting. Also watching how Garrett incorporates the Whites lineup and which products.  I really wasn’t sure what the benefit was to the Whites purchase with a lot of overlap in offerings. Other than maybe multi frequency IP. 

Where does this leave the AT Gold?  Significant price drop? Soon to be discontinued?  

The MSRPs between these two gold detectors is very similar. Assuming similar % reduction in street prices, still close. I imagine the 24k has a better standing as a serious gold detector than the AT. Similar size/type coils, different frequencies (24k higher frequency is better?), being rainproof is probably good enough for this type of detecting. Just curious if I’m missing anything as a non gold prospector. 

On 5/5/2021 at 4:26 PM, Luis said:

Do you know if it continues to manufacture?  A colleague has written to him on Facebook and he does not respond to messages or connect

I saw a post on his FB page recently that another customer from Italy or Spain (don’t remember) is going to run his page or social media stuff?  Maybe time?  I’m sure this guy has a day job and doesn’t make a living off of these. I do wish there was a more informative site on this product and how to go about getting it.  I’m sure there is some level of skepticism or worry to send an expensive detector to a guy you don’t know in Russia and a few hundred bucks and hope you get it back..

2 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

No

I think one of the positives with the Simplex and the Apex is the headphone and pinpointer audio integration.  Also a feature where I feel Minelab is behind.

I imagine NM doesn’t have a BT aptX chip/transmitter in the current Pulsedive and it is not a software updatable thing. Maybe they will market a BT version compatible with this SMF detector....  

15 hours ago, King-Of-Bling said:

I was on it "live" , asking a few questions and trying to win that damn simplex.

I see. I think paying for the Simplex would have been less painful 😁

4 hours ago, King-Of-Bling said:

It was rather uneventful and rather disappointing. Not really anything new that we didn't already know. I was under the impression from the prior show that it was ready for release. I was wrong. What a waste and 1 hr I won't get back.

2x playback speed and skipping are your friend. 

I knew housing would be same and no green headphones. Learned it would be Bluetooth. Would assume aptX low latency off the shelf like the Equinox?  

Also price point and features competitive to the 800 but not the 600, one model. 

I’m not sure I agree the build quality is any better on the Simplex over the Equinox although you don’t hear of tons of drownings and broken coil lugs...  Flimsy shaft makes it feel a little cheap.  
 

Is the Pulsedive pin pointer also compatible with Bluetooth? I know it is compatible with  green headphones.  

I’m not sure I wouldn’t have purchased an Apex over an Equinox if it had been out when I made that decision. I kept holding out for the former big 3 to come out with something compelling and caved. But I still watched the reveal video etc.  I get tempted when I see a used one posted for sale locally.  

They have great customer service and agree their z-link is good integration not many others have. I wish them success and also curious what the will do with the Whites purchase. Losing hope on First Texas promoting the same stuff as the “best”, “biggest”, “lightest”, “deepest” marketing strategy and “working on stuff coming soon”.  
 

I like the break up of the forum. That way I know what sort of posts I’ll find or where to post.  I used to like the sub $300 detector forum but okay with looking for those discussions in the comparisons forum. Maybe do an entry, mid, and top detector break up but then how do we agree on what is worthy of each category? : ) Can’t please everyone. 

Isn’t LL tech aimed at video and gaming so that there is no latency between video and audio?  So if the sunglasses are made for outdoors and audio only presumably than unlikely the core market would need LL tech. 

Only thing I could see ( no pun intended) having some some sort of LL tech on eyewear would be like VR or augmented reality glasses or audio gear marketed for video or gaming. But unlikely those would have weatherproofing that would be preferable for our hobby. 
 

I wish my August headphones were somewhat weatherproof.

The 540 comes with different levels of iron bias similar to Nox and unlike 340/440. Have you changed your iron bias from high to low by chance?  I still get rusty nails with my 600 even at highest bias setting but I get a lot more in lower settings. I see you list having a 340.  Do you have the same issue with that unit?  I believe 340 and 440 are locked in at higher setting of the 540 from what I have read.

Wet ground may amplify conductivity of all targets or create halo people talk about making the detector react to it differently than when dry. So you may find that deep or weird angle dime you missed before or other junk that was filtered well in the dry.  Pennies for me are all over the place on the 600. Zinc depends on condition, generally 18-19 but can be as low a mid teens or high as 22-23. Coppers seem to depend on depth and angle, generally 25-26 like dimes but I get them all the way up to 29-30 thinking I found a quarter or silver. Wetness of ground could affect this as well. 
 

I’ll also note that I don’t ground balance my 600 and leave it at 0 as it is yet another variable and my ground seems to be mild where this should be of little consequence. 

Finally had a chance to try my 600 at the beach and the Sea Hunter.
 

Constantly worried about breaking the Nox still under warranty, overheated the screen with housing cover - check....  Felt like I was going to snap the shaft or coil in the water.   Went back to the sand.  

Sea Hunter I bought used, no warranty, not worried about anything, no issues. Thing is a tank and simple. Yeah, digging up more iron and deep stuff but still dug the coins and other junk the Nox did.  Also still made, Garrett will send you o-rings and little parts for free even if you offer to purchase, will repair them.  That is probably a benefit if in the states where shipping is not a huge burden. 

14 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

I have the Golden mask One 24 Khz. It is an interesting detector and runs smooth. 

I have 4 other detectors and decided I'm not going to keep it.

I mostly hunt lakes and I use the Equinox 800 and Anfibio Multi.

If you want to try the Golden Mask One 24 khz I'm selling it $325 shipped. It has a 9" and 12" coils. It has wireless headphones and you can use regular headphones. It has a nice display.

I used Gain 30, Iron Volume 2. It is an easy detector to use.

 

 

You have had it for less than one day and selling it?  May I ask why?  I saw your for sale post with 2 coils, wireless headphones, and an interesting display with like a histogram type graph. Also carbon shaft and possibly well balanced. Do you know if one can use any set of  LL aptx wireless headphones or are they  proprietary?  Thanks

As a non-gold prospector observer, would be interesting to see what else they come out with and how they warranty it. Garrett service is pretty good. 
 

I imagine that housing and form factor they used as latest on MX Sport/MX7, the gold models waterproof, not waterproof (GMT/GMX Sport?) they purchased the molds and design. Maybe some of the labels for display unit and coils?  Maybe just a simple printing change. Color change probably simple as well. 

I don’t see the Treasuremaster/Treasure Pro making a comeback as they seemed to be overpriced for that beginner spot where the Ace line up rests.  Or the MX7/MX Sport for that matter as they seem to overlap with AT lineup.  Unless this is a marketshare play to retain the Whites loyal. Then I could see that.  But are they competing with First Texas for number of brands and rebranded detectors or going to make more compelling offerings like the Apex?

I always wanted to see a VX3/DFX device in the waterproof MX Sport housing with wireless and waterproof headphone options. But maybe that would cannibalize on AT Apex type future device they have hinted about....

A TRX by Garrett as an alternative to the AT Pro Pointer? Pro Pointer already has a version with Zlink.

Would they drop any of their current offerings like the AT Gold and GT2500?  
 

So many questions. Time will tell I guess. 

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I keep telling people the engineers follow this forum. It was a request from an engineer to gather data for future detector development. The brand should be obvious. Equinox was not developed in a vacuum, but basically built to order from forum comments about what people want.

When will you see results? Maybe in the next Minelab detector. Or maybe not. It’s just research. Detectors take 3-5 years to develop, so it’s not like poll over, new detector next day.

Good enough for me. Answer satisfied my curiosity. Thanks. 

Yeah, I saw the poll results and can find those. That doesn’t really tell me much other than preference of others. 
 

My question was more related to his statements about this being used for something... And maybe something about it benefiting us or something like that. Just curious what the something was?  

Input for development of next gen or other competitor? Software update? Someone writing another book?  

Any updates?  I recall one about headphones and one about Iron Bias. 
 

Thanks. 

You may have to search the forum or pinned topics on this one.  Only speculation available and no real answers from Minelab. There are some made up scales comparing range of one versus the other.  

On setting the mode, I think once you set for each mode, it stays that way until you change or do a reset to factory settings. So you can have Park 1 at FE: 2 and Park 2 at FE2: 0 and it should not change, again, until you change or reset the whole detector. I think that is what they call a local vs a global setting like volume or sensitivity for example. 
 

On 3/24/2021 at 11:55 AM, ivan_p said:

$10 in our country 

 

If that was available in US and just adapts to the stock shaft, I would try that in a heartbeat.  Maybe we’ll see it on eBay one of these days. 

I have the Fisher F Pulse and a Whites TRX no longer made. 
Both used AA batteries. Most others use 9v. TRX can actually use either. 
 

The TRX (VLF) was deep and tip only detection. It was good but I liked the build quality of the F Pulse better and didn’t need two so sold it. I think some guys like them as they may be more sensitive to small gold from some posts I’ve seen. 
 

F Pulse (Pulse) again uses AAs, good solid build quality. Waterproof, 3 year warranty I believe. Has decent depth and sensitivity. I know it does not seem to detect small pieces of foil so may not be good on micro gold jewelry or small gold nuggets. Otherwise I have no complaints so far. Oh, and when it is on vibrate mode, it is also quiet when turning on and off. The Whites beeped on vibrate which I also found kind of annoying. 
 

I have also noticed the Minelab Pro Find (VLF) seem to get a lot of complaints and see them for sale a lot.  I’ve wanted to try one but hesitant. 
 

The Nokta Makro Pulse Dive (Pulse) also seems like a nice option, especially if you use one of their detectors with the green headphones. Pairs with headphones and switches automatically between detector and pin pointer. Also rechargeable, waterproof. 

Lesche has a couple of their models as small as 18” with different types of handles. 

Would the F75 fit into this list?  Not sure what your parameters are for successful but seems like it has been around for a while and they are still milking it as a flagship. Seems to have a following and some praise as well. And I guess if you combine variants like T2, numbers of units in use might be even higher?

How is it at pinpointing in pinpointing mode?  
 

Do you use wiggle method?   And if so, is center of coil best or at edges were the two Ds intersect?

Thanks for your insights and nice find. It will be interesting to see how much depth is given up over the 11” or sensitivity and unmasking over the 6” and if it proves to be a good all rounder coil. I feel a coil this size could potentially be more versatile as a stock coil on something like the Equinox or Simplex and still provide good results for most.  And perhaps a little lighter making a better balanced detector out of the box : )

6 hours ago, EL NINO77 said:

The video from Simon shows that both coils have a good sensitivity to very small pellets ,,, and at the same time explains where the most sensitive detection sites are in both compared coils ...👍

6" Minelab coil retains the same sensitivity over the entire coil, this is because this coil had a distance of 2 crossing points TX and RX is relatively close to each other ... - this way the coil can maintain active sensitivity to very small targets throughout its lenght ..

5x10" Coiltek coil ...- because it is an elliptical coil .. it will also be the most sensitive to the smallest targets in 2 places -where the Tx and RX windings intersect ... but since these meshes are shifted further apart in terms of coil length, so the center of the coil will show a slightly mild sensitivity compared to both ends of the coil ...

It is a physical property of different size and shape of DD coils ...

And both coils have their design advantages .. both with gold detection and in coin detection ..

When detecting slightly larger objects where the active area of the object is larger in the direction of focus, this effect is lost and both coils will be the most sensitive and I will have the greatest range in the center of the coil ...

I will show similar properties of both coils when testing the coin on the edge - when the coin is swept on the edge in the longitudinal direction of the edge of the coin ...

Therefore, often in the detection of the condition that the excavated coin on the edge of the crown is placed outside the center of the dug hole - it was because you received the best signal from the end of the DD coil.

El Nino, do you know if the stock 11” has this same effect on small targets?  Where sensitivity is higher at ends than at center?  Same effect as 10x5?  Or does the round vs. elliptical DD improve this effect?
 

Learned something new. I thought the sensitivity would have been even across the coil or strongest in center. 
 

I’ll have to do some experimenting of my own but curious curious on your thoughts. I have experienced this target outside of hope where I had thought I had pinpointed the center. 

On 3/21/2021 at 8:14 PM, F350Platinum said:

I'd say you're doing great with that coil but I understand your questioning whether you'd find small stuff with the 11". 

Gotta say in its defense that I've turned up really tiny stuff like shoe eyelets and other small circular bits. 😀 The farmhouses I've been working are extremely trashy, lots of nails and cans. I can imagine how long it would take to cover 2 acres gridding with the 6". 🙂

Yeah, now that I have a second shaft to make quick swaps, I am trying to put some time on the 6” when I have the patience on areas I have already covered with the 11”.  Just to prove to myself what the 6” can do. 

It takes so much more time to cover area with this small coil. 

I think it is good for specific and smaller areas that have produced other stuff. 

For reference, here is what a first pass and higher numbers session would look like at this park.