phrunt

Sometimes these sales become price adjustments, as they stick around or never go back up to their full price. I thought the Manticore is overpriced, well still is here. I can buy a Deus 2 WS6 lite whatever it is kit for half the price of a Manticore. Minelab always aim high for pricing, and gradually adjust when they work out they have overshot. The Deus 2 is the competitor to the Manticore and has pretty good popularity, and the Legend competing with the Equinox 800. So, for the first time in some time Minelab has real competition. It will be interesting how Garrett's new detector when it finally comes out adjusts the market uptake but may have been another reason this sale is US only, as the Garrett detector will be virtually USA only too unless they sort out their pricing. My biggest problem with Nokta detectors is their UI is always a poorly thought-out mashup of making too much fit on a screen not suitable. XP face similar issues although not near as bad. The Manticore is so simple to navigate and understand the screen it doesn't even compare in that regard. What was never taken into account it seems was a bulk of people were happy with their 800's, and the changes made especially to the 900 were certainly not enough to entice an "upgrade" unless a water hunter so many will only upgrade once their 800 fails out of warranty. The Manticore was an upgrade but the price increase was far too high for not enough extra for many people. I'm happy with my Manticore though, and glad I bought it, especially now I have the m8 and m15. A very good detector. As Steve said they'll sell a lot of Manticores now during the sale, once the sale is over, they'll be lucky to sell many at all for a long time.

You can get them from China as they use them on their clones, you'd want to pop yours open first to just make sure but generally their clone stuff is identical in the way it fits. I'd get a quote from Minelab first, as these Chinese ones aren't even that cheap, they used to be when a lot of sellers had them but now it seems down to one. You could ask Woody at Detectormods as he's tinkered a lot with these fakes. Just 4 screws and a ribbon cable to replace it, although I'd pop off your ribbon cable and clean it with some electronics cleaner or pure alcohol and plug it in again and see if it fixes your screen, as it might, do it at both ends. I think eventually when Minelab stops services the GPX we'll be increasingly relying on these clone parts but while Minelab still services unless the prices are beyond a joke it's best to just let them repair it with their parts.

Odd, I never post where I am at so I have no idea why you would say that. And of course I mean general area, not their actual mine site.

The F75 would be far easier to setup than the Legend, the Legend has pretty complicated menu system. I even get annoyed at my Simplex for difficulty of adjusting things and remembering all the little icons meanings and its far less feature rich than the Legend, in saying that I rarely use it so I don't get a chance to let them sink into memory. A big reason for the F75 being simple to setup is it has very few options, the Legend is loaded with options, if that's good or bad depends on the end user. I like detectors simple but not missing too many features. The Legend comes across as a bit complicated to use to me, mainly due to it's cumbersome menu system and trying to pack too much onto a screen and menu system that just can't handle it. The F75 having so few options can be learnt and understood in no time at all but lacks a lot of features the Legend has. A detector like the Legend would have really benefited from a screen like the Manticore. In saying that, I'd still pick the Legend, more features and features I find appealing especially the multi frequencies, it's like having a bunch of detectors in one, whereas the F75 is very limited there with its single frequency. The Legend will also have more ways of avoiding EMI than the F75 which seems important to you, as it is for everyone. The Legend is a whole lot of detector for the money.

The Versa is very impressive, the Legend not so much, too fiddly and the Versa just worked better on deep targets.

Good video, very chatty machines in that area, the beast mode seems to still be a long way behind the Manticore in it's standard detecting modes, and I doubt anyone is going to be hunting in beast mode, seems like you have to know the target is there then use beast mode to try bring it out.

Well, now this beast mode has extended to blender, it's certainly a new trend.

The QED gave me a phobia of 3D printed stuff 🙂 He gives it a good beating in that video and it handles it well.

3D Printed stuff.....

A mine they claim the richest find in NZ in four decades is hoping to open near a spot look for Gold, no doubt Mitchel will be driving right past this one on his way to Queenstown. South Island mine could hold $4.4b in gold | Star News (odt.co.nz) They claim 1.12 million ounces of gold, a bit more than the gram or two I've got from the area 🙂

I use these PowerEX True 9.6V rechargable batteries and they work well, but I found it's best not to store them in the Gold Bug 2 detector for long periods, it seems to drain them to zero even when not in use. I can leave them in the Gold Bug Pro with no issues. They claim you can recharge them 1000 times, I've had mine for years but not had to recharge more than 50 times I would guess.

Know the feeling. Same in our part of the world. They don't even celebrate its anniversary in Australia homeland 🙂 Deep discounting seems to be a US market thing. It's $200 AUD off normal price in OZ at the moment and the dealer is throwing in a cheap digging tool and a plastic junk sand scoop with it 😀 No mention of any anniversary. It's far cheaper to buy in the US than Australia at the moment.

As far as VLF's go I think the Manticore is right up there as one of the best available for prospecting. You would benefit from having the M8 coil but the standard coil still does a pretty good job. The GB2 will be more sensitive to the smallest of small gold though, but not by much. Hard to even notice the difference. The Manticore will be better in almost every other way.

I'll dig it out today and top up. Thanks.

that's incredible, even in our milder soils here the cupro nickel coins are terrible condition even when from the 80's and 90's, yet yours is in great condition, might have the right combination of soils to not react to it or something. Hopefully the Apex is a taste of things to come with the pending storm forecast.

I'm unsure how the US is set up for fibre, often countries that are not well into their fibre rollout will have fibre to an exchange then copper to the houses, that copper could emit EMI but I wouldn't think it would interfere with a detector much as they'll be either up on the power lines or buried well underground, The fibre cables themselves will emit no Emi and can't get interference from EMI either. We have fibre to our houses here, and fibre runs into our router which then we do our Cat6 and Wi-Fi connections. We have the choice of 2000 Mbps, 4000 Mbps and 8000 Mbps, for my needs 2000 Mbps was more than I needed so I could go on a cheaper plan. These transmitters you speak of would be at the exchange building, and unlikely to be a problem unless you're detecting right there. The cable itself running all around the neighbourhood will not be causing EMI issues. Underground power is more likely the culprit for EMI coming from an underground cable.

I'm not sure about the windings at this stage, I'll have to find out. It can only either be semi-spiral or bundle as you know, it has good sensitivity though. I'll have to compare it to the Sadie, that would be a good indication too, if it's more sensitive than that it just can't be bundle.

No, fibre optic cables are just light.

I just received my new weapon, a 10x6" coil for the Algoforce, and of course the GPX. I haven't weighed it yet, I'd have to take it off to do that and just put it on not long ago so I'll get to that at some point, all I know is its light, and on the light detector like the Algoforce feels like it weighs nothing, at least compared to detectors I'm more used to swinging. X-coils have certainly improved their coil cables a lot on these newer GPX coils over the old ones, the cable feels very nice. They make their own custom cables for their coils rather than using existing cables from the market as they like to do different shielding methods in the cable. As you can see, it calibrates fine. I haven't renamed the slot it's in yet, I just used the end slot as I use that slot for coils I don't regularly use for testing. I will end up using the 12x8" slot for it. I tested on a deep coin I've got in my yard, no problems getting the ID on it, sensitivity was on 24 out of 30, pretty stable on that setting, so the smaller coils helping nicely with EMI. I wound the sensitivity back to 20 and still getting the ID fine, that's pretty good for a 10x6" coil on such a deep coin, well ahead of a VLF with a 10x5" coil or 6" round coil for sure on the results there. The coin is somewhere between 25 and 30 cm deep and has been there for many years now. I tested on shot pellets, a lead 7 1/2 is as small as it will hit, and hits a #6 lead with a nice scream and over an inch depth. Perhaps slightly behind the 10" full spiral X-coil on tiny targets, but not by all that much. I'll have to compare it to my Coiltek 10x5" Joey being the closest coil I've got to this 10x6" in size. All in all, looking good, I hope they end up re-releasing Legacy GPX coils now the Algoforce is out. Please note they don't sell this coil, or any other legacy GPX coil, but it's promising to see them developing new test coils and I hope they make it to market at some point.

You could sell it to someone with an Algoforce, they'd love that little beast.

Shows up for their Youtube channel subscribers.

Minelab are starting to release their new video series, educating people on how to use and benefit from their products, Episode 1, Basic operation of a metal detector. Join Scott from Crawfords Metal Detectors as he embarks on an enlightening journey into the world of metal detecting in this exclusive interview. Scott sits down with Mark Lawrie and Phil Beck from Minelab, alongside seasoned detectorist Paul Cee, for an in-depth discussion on the mechanics and science behind metal detectors. This video is the first installment in a five-part series designed to unravel the mysteries of how metal detectors work, from the basic principles to the advanced technologies that power today's searches. Mark, Phil, and Paul bring their wealth of knowledge and experience to the table, providing insights into the innovation and engineering that make metal detecting possible. In this first episode, fundamental concepts behind metal detecting are covered, including the types of technology used in detectors, how signals are generated and interpreted, and what makes Minelab detectors stand out in the field. Stay tuned for the rest of the series, where topics such as finding the best settings for your detector, understanding ground conditions, and much more will be explored. Yep, they spelt instalment wrong on their blurb😛

Sp01 will work on it but you'll need a 2.5mm to 6.5mm audio cable to connect it. Nenad has a good Quest Wirefree product to use the SP01 on it and be all wireless, talk to him at @PhaseTech or his website here He'll have all you need to get going. I haven't used my Sp01 on it, I should give it a try. I haven't used it in a year or so now, I've been meaning to dig it out and try it before the battery dies.

The laptop probably can't be charged with 5 volts unless it's one designed to do so, many laptops are 19v, so even then to charge them on a 12-volt system you need an inverter like this. But it has a NZ/AUS plug on it, so once you get back to the USA it won't overly be much good for you without using an adapter. It just plugs into a lighter socket and then gives you the 240v power to charge your laptap.

Didn't pay to be an early bird buying the Manticore, ever since it's had discounting and free offers with it. The big announcement of their price rises seems more of a trick than anything, as ever since they've had great sales on the detectors that were meant to be going up in price. If the Manticore indeed does come with a 15" coil and a Pro-Find 40 (35 with bug fixes) pin pointer it's a great deal.