mn90403

Happy New Year everyone. I hope your finds are many and your trash gives you clues. Mitchel

Ok everyone, lets leap into the present. We are a group of equipment users who have been using 'basic' computing devices for many years. We have been processing the signals that we receive largely with our brains. Until recently the GB2 was still on the need to have list of metal detectors. This is 20-30 year old technology. We've just met the team behind Minelab's new technology. What are they aware of that will help them design a better detector? It is Artificial Intelligence. They referenced this by talking about the development of their own algorithms. These are necessary for a detector to recognize an object quickly. Minelab has one of the most extensive databases of ground signals, object signals and interference ever developed. Chip and circuit speeds are so great now that we will be able to benefit from instant analysis of a received signals from sent signals of multiple or single frequency. Steve has said there is something different about this detector. He has sold his others. Why? Here are a couple of TED Talks that I have watched to keep up with present Artificial Intelligence. The first one is about getting a computer to recognize objects. To me this is very similar to using a detector to recognize valuable things from those that are not worth digging. What is essential and has been lacking for the last few years? Speed. Take a look at this video. I think it is where the Minelab development team is now. https://www.ted.com/talks/joseph_redmon_how_a_computer_learns_to_recognize_objects_instantly If you have watched that video then I think you would like to see what it was like just a few years ago to develop the object database which is now being used by all the apps and programs after it. https://www.ted.com/talks/fei_fei_li_how_we_re_teaching_computers_to_understand_pictures If you want to see more TED Talks on AI go to this list. https://www.ted.com/talks?topics[]=AI Mitchel

JP and Steve are part of the release team. They understand the product development cycle for this release. Prototypes are a source of Fake News (Its not just in politics!) What happens when a movie is 'wrapped' or a season of our Gold Rush is finished? POST PRODUCTION takes months and a large team. Some elements of this are always associated with a successful (without immediate, costly recall) product releases. Minelab COULD make a ton of money with this release but they could also forget something that will change their margins quickly. This is an international release. There are many attempts at corporate espionage and fake products being released soon after official release. Steve and JP know there is a storm coming . It is part of the process. (An official final manual is just one of the parts of the Equinox.) Wait on Minelab and don't buy a fake. Mitchel

Let Brandon be Brandon and Steve be Steve. I can learn from everyone but the shortcuts Steve must know ...

Steve, I think of you in many ways but a teacher and educator are near the top of the list. I was just reading some interesting quotes from those we think of as have Genius abilities. I won't quote all of them here but put a link. The one I will quote applies to you I think: Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key. - Tom Colicchio, celebrity chef All of the other quotes can be seen here: http://www.signupgenius.com/groups/must-use-genius-quotes.cfm Mitchel

Steve ... Are you just going to publish a bunch of settings for us so that we don't have to try and self-learn all the details or are you going to offer training in Reno? There are just lots of important adjustments here. I suggest you set up a test garden some place with a certain number of stations. At each of these stations there may or may not be a target. If I was walking through your stations then I would have to write down the detector response at that station. Between stations you could give us written instructions to change a setting (ferrous tone setting for example) and we would LEARN THE TECHNIQUE for modifying the detector for best use. You would be able to have people stop by, pay you a fee and go out on the garden and learn their own detector! Alternately you could do this with a class and have everyone pay you a couple hundred bucks or so ... I'm ready. Are you? Mitchel

This is a big pay day for the Minelab Dealer Network. Many dealers will have their old customers reorder and they will get lots of new inquiries. They will also get lots of new business. This detector 'sounds' like you won't need much training and right out of the box it should be good to go. That was the way the 5000 'sounded' to me when I bought it 7 years ago now. I bought it mail order (saved money on sales tax) and I got a bundle at the same time. I had used a White's Coinmaster before so I thought I could get by without much training. I met up with the dealer after a few months and they told me if I was finding lead then I was doing ok! (I didn't have a clue.) One year later I still did not have my first nugget. Talk about frustrating ... I finally found some good gold and went back to that dealer for some followup training and it cost me $300. I don't buy from that dealer any more. That can be a problem with some mail order dealers. We all don't need it (we think that) but they should give it. Asks how much it costs and try and make a trip for that training with the dealer soon after you get it. Several dealers here on this forum do this. I would pay Steve for lessons on the 800 if he offered them. (When is your first class Steve?) I've bought several detectors since the 5000 including a 3030, 7000, 2300 and a GB Pro. I've also paid for some other training. I think it is healthy for the industry. My 800 has been ordered from Bill Southern at Nugget Shooter. http://nuggetshooter.com/index.html There is a good forum there and I've made friends with many of the members and attended the outings he holds. I think that is good for the industry also. Mitchel

Is there an ability to see it on a graph like the CTX or is it just a number screen only?

Actually, the State of California has been in a 'discourage prospectors' mode for many years. They have restricted mining (dredging) and prospecting (high-banking) in and near waterways for some time. State parks don't allow metal detecting of any kind. Some old time 49er areas are limited to gold panning only and some will not allows pans! The State has encouraged legislation to restrict our federal rights in many of our open areas by making monuments, species (plant and animal) encroachment laws, relic restrictions and other reasons to restrict mineral entry. Arizona and Nevada are much more prospector friendly than here. That being said there are still many places to see and go. One can still stake a claim on federal lands.

I knew you would pick up on 'the picture for excitement and the location and number of licenses' as promotional nonsense.

Here is a new one. It is close to you Norvic ... https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/fossickers-strike-gold-in-central-queensland/3299294/

Speaking of tones ... I can only use my CTX in Smooth or Long. Is this an option on the 800? Mitchel

Well displayed Gerry. Merry Christmas. Mitchel

Where I live no one has a clue. Where I go everyone already has one. Mitchel

It's the junky one. No one will believe me. I don't leave it in over night unless I'm sleeping with it.

I just got my plates. It will be hard to be anonymous now! What's on your car or truck?

The Alaska Mint is a buyer of gold nuggets and specimens in Anchorage, Alaska. If you read the profile of their family business you may think about a local company that may buy your gold. http://www.anchoragepress.com/news/adp-profile-the-alaska-mint/article_3fee9336-e6b5-11e7-a10a-37fb59ea2d4f.html Mitchel

I want one to replace my broken SE Pro.

What are the two 'official' names? EQX 11 is the coil name. Will they be EQX 600 and EQX 800? Just wondering the search terms. Mitchel

Thanks Doc. Your article puts together a number of concepts that the 'old timers' had to have processed. They were wandering around all over the countryside with a mule (in the West) and some water looking for color. What were they looking for? Many of them were looking for a similar place where gold had been found before. Their brain was processing the clues. Many died chasing those placer clues. Lots more died chasing the lode clues. You have to be in the right area to have clues. It takes more than a mountain! You could spend a lifetime in the Santa Monica Mountains looking for gold and it would be like that parking lot. Go where gold has been found before works for beginners and the rest of us with the new technology in our hands if we know how to use it. There are even a few new clues to be discovered. All of that being said ... there are just some electronic prospectors that are better than others. Doc, you are one of the best. Mitchel

Ok, you have heard all of the 'practical' old stuff that I was told 7-8 years ago and that people were told long before that also. Some of us just don't follow these suggestions and we need a 'do it yourself' kit. I'll give you a bit of 'new' advice that is based upon some internet tools that were not available to us as little as 2-3 years ago. I'd say the first thing you need to do is look for local gold. Local to me would be anything within 50 miles or about an hour drive. You are going to have more time to hunt these areas than other places much farther away. How do you find 'local gold?' You can buy Gold Maps, books and other CDs or just look online. I'll focus on direct online research and YouTube. Your direct online research should include Land Matters and The Diggings. I'll start with My Land Matters. (http://www.mylandmatters.org/Maps/Mining.html) When you see this page/website you can read as much as you like (I haven't read 90% of it because there is so much there). The local gold can be found by looking at the maps which are listed on the right. Jump right to the mining claims of California and then focus on your area (Ventura County). When you see the map of California and your choices uncheck everything except Historical Mining activity. (Leave mining claims unchecked for now.) This map with a lot of 'orange' will show you all mining activity. It includes sand, gravel, precious metals and other minerals. Play with it a bit and see what has happened in the past where you live. If you click on the MRDS you will learn what was found there. That is history. When you clear the history and you look at Claims the two types you want to see are Lode (hard rock, hole in the ground claims) and Placer (gold you can find with a dry washer, metal detector, Todd Hoffman gold so to say). What you are going to notice is that there are very, very few claims in Ventura County. There are a few in the Piru Creek basin but the greenies will make it almost impossible for you to detect there. So now you have to use these maps to find the nearest current and historical gold. When you leave Ventura County that can mean north to Bakersfield or East to Barstow/Randsburg ... where there is most of the gold you will be hunting locally unless you drive up to the Sierras on a regular basis which may be worth it. When you use The Diggings (https://thediggings.com/about) much of the information is the same but it is arranged in a different way. You determine which you like but at times I need both. The second area for your local gold discovery must include YouTube. There are far too many helpful videos to ignore them. Some will show you places you know and others will introduce you to a concept, place or idea you never considered. You've been a coin and relic hunter so you know what I mean. Just use some of the key words you find off the other two sites. When you are in a down mood go look at some of the Australia gold and you'll really get depressed about what we have locally (I'm in Santa Monica)! I look at this post and my 'tips' seem much more complicated than they should be. Just like the metal detectors. You (and I) just have to learn some new vocabulary. You are starting at a good time for having online tools to help you. The hard part will be to know what you are looking at in the field and how that will lead you to more nuggets. Take all the old information people tell you about and look at it on My Land Matters or The Diggings and you'll be on your way to open ground with nuggets. Mitchel

Fred has been to these places many times on the beach. Many of them long before he had a detector!

Jin, Nice pictures but we should have given you another clue to finding good stuff on the beach. Look for big parking lots! Mitchel

Dave, That is sometimes what it takes to find the good stuff. A guy without a clue who is looking in the 'wrong' places and he comes home with the goodies! Some of us (me included) know too much. Have you ever seen the new fisherman catch the biggest or most fish and they don't know what they are doing? Skill and frequency will win out in the long run. Mitchel

Some people use the two scoop method. Don't use a hand over the coil. I pickup the target in the scoop and transfer the target to my hand from the scoop. Once it is in my hand I transfer small portions into the scoop until I can hear it again. I repeat. It should take about 3 transfers. I never swing my hand over the coil. That is reserved for the scoop. Mitchel