phrunt

I like almost everything about the Axiom except its price ?

Thanks for the information on small nuggets with it as to me that's a keen point of interest, I appreciate your videos Abenson as I can easily translate that in my melon to how it would perform for me more so than someone's words, sadly it's a detector I'll highly likely never own as it's price is frankly ridiculous in New Zealand, I am hoping the new kid on the block forces Garrett to take a look into their pricing structure and adjust accordingly as I'd like to try one out at least, and I know nobody around here is going to buy one to let me have a little play with it for the same reason I'll never buy one, price!

It's lack of aftermarket coil support is also a bit of a downer, and those that were going to make them have backed out for now, the positive there is at least Garrett have quite a good range themselves.

It's also Garretts first attempt at a modern high performance sensitive PI, so I look forward to seeing their future products, at least they're firmly back in the game now.  Let's hope they don't do an AT Series and try sell it for the next 20+ years.

The higher demand is in Australia, the slower they will get to the USA, however, it's a catch 22, the higher demand in Australia is a sign people are buying it because they like what they've heard about it from those that have been able to get one, so it's a positive sign.

Unless you're going to areas that haven't seen much detector activity, they've likely seen the older GPX series go over them many times, and that's the problem, it's going to be hard to find much gold if any.  The GPX 5000 is a brilliant detector, but it's not going to find something that it's already found before and that's where newer detectors and even coils have helped people, finding gold that was missed with earlier models.

I'm not saying you won't find gold with a 5000, you likely will, especially if you put the effort in and perhaps find some ground that was missed for whatever reason, it's a big country, surely a coil hasn't covered every drop of gold bearing ground.  Your odds are just higher with a detector that hasn't had so much use in the area.

Around here the ground I've detected was heavily hit with the earlier GP and GPX series, I came along late to the party and tried with the 4500, while I did find the occasional bit that was missed for whatever reason it was a struggle, changing to the GPZ and 6000 changed that and I was finding way more gold than ever before.  I preferred using my Gold Monster and Equinox over my 4500 for this reason, they were finding me more gold than the earlier GPX detectors.

I don't know how the Axiom would go for you but if it finds gold the 5000 misses which I believe it does, then it may be a better choice, and Gerry from Gerrys detectors has one for sale at the moment for a great price.

He also has the 5000, 6000 and 7000 for sale in that lot, with the 6000 and 7000 worth looking into if they meet your budget.

The add was already pulled down when he came here to discuss his issues with it, however in his post here he referred to it as selling it, not sold it.

The Commander mono was a very odd choice to buy, and a retail boxed one at that, with the decades of history of people replacing the Commander coils with aftermarket coils for better results, he probably would have found the detector better with different coils, although maybe the Commander was a very good buy.

One of his concerns was the detector picking up the coil cable, and that would only be made worse with higher performance coils.

yep, when 0.03 of a gram is tapping out PI small gold performance from what I've seen they're good finds and a demonstration of the Axiom's ability.

39 minutes ago, Gold Ryder said:

Damn Phrunt, I wish you would tell that to my 6000,  mine loves down at least to 3 or 4" and the old buckshot sometimes deeper than that.  That being said after a couple thousand Im getting pretty good at hearing their softer peak.  Dont mean Im not digging the pesky little bastards though. 

yep, it comes down to the pellet size and what they're made of, in other words as they vary so much as does gold, it's always a massive gamble.

The 6000 screams on pellets very close to the coil, and quickly loses that, even an inch from the pellet they often become mellow soft targets especially the lead pellets, the steel type hold their signal a lot deeper, the target strength dies off dramatically on lead pellets, so it can be used as a form of pellet discrimination as long as the pellets are relatively fresh ones on the surface.  Once they're have time to sink down in soils a bit all bets are off.

Congratulations on the gold.   The little guy is a nice flat bit, should get good target strength on that one.

Still cheaper than a GPX 6000 battery, will last on the detector for about 14 hours, when the 6000 batteries will last under half that run time, and has a whole lot of features the 6000 batteries don't, super build quality, waterproofing, and bomb and bullet proof ? I guess we're just used to paying too much for Minelab gear, so their batteries prices are OK.

Coiltek advertised their AI coil as having a 5% hit from the DD of the same size, although the extra gain you could run with it more than made up for that so by running the gain much higher in high EMI areas you were gaining performance not hindering it with the AI coil. 

I can run my AI coil directly under powerlines with the detector maxed out on sensitivity and it's stable. 

I never liked Cancel mode, cuts out all smaller targets, but I guess if you're hoard hunting that wouldn't be too much of an issue for you.  

It will be good to hear how the Detech AI coil goes, keep us updated.

It's a shame you found it fiddly to change coils on, takes a few seconds longer than a GPX shaft as you do have to line it up and as I've pointed out you can just put a GPX lower shaft onto it if that really bothers someone.  I don't find it all that hard, but I've changed coils a whole lot of times now so had a lot of experience doing it.  I'm guessing the SDC is easier to change coils on?

There is absolutely no cable bump noise where it enters the controller on mine, I hope you didn't have a faulty coil, detector or perhaps you didn't do the cable up tight enough, if secure the contacts can't move thereby causing a bump noise, this goes on every detector.  I can make my GPZ and GPX have bump noise if I don't do the cable up tight.  Also, the cable noise of it being detected by the coil is a positive for sensitivity of the detector, not a negative and with the coils you were using on it I'm very surprised you had much of a problem with this as they're not sensitive enough to even experience it, the Sadie only responds if the coil cable near touches the coil, not when it's secured on the shaft as it should be and the large coils shouldn't pose a problem there.  

29 minutes ago, Jeff McClendon said:

When the E1500 gets to the USA, I will just stick to my Stealth Angel power banks

Thanks for the tip off Jeff, they seem great and similar really for cheaper prices. 

POWER BANK | Stealth Angel Survival

58 minutes ago, Doc said:

Phrunt even my covers for the GPZ7000 and the GPX6000 only weigh 8 ounces.  This arm cuff cover and the head cover weigh 3 ounces.

You're one step ahead of me already Doc, I've never had the pleasure of using one of your covers.

Your covers sound like they will do the trick just nicely.  I now know the quality of your products, second to none, your control pod cover looks great, and good for beach hunters to keep the salt off, the battery cover I think is near vital for the Algo to protect it and hold it tight into place and if you do it right it will be a hit.  The Algo is so light it's not top heavy like the Gold Monster and detectors that like to fall over, I thought its little feet were an odd choice but thus far I've found it a very easy to put down detector that likes to sit upright, so hopefully the battery cover and pod covers you design don't change that.

I have no concerns about your ability to do great products, you're an innovator for sure and will likely exceed my expectations. 

Calm down ladies, if this was a Minelab battery it would be using USB-ML not USB-C with a funky connector that is different to anything you've seen before?

They would put a chip in the battery so it can only power the Equinox, Manticore and other Minelab USB powered detectors, 

Its plastic would resemble the Strawberry Ice Cream container you opened to tuck into your desert tonight and last but not least the USB-ML connector would twist wildly when you tried to plug your USB-ML cable into it.

This thing is cheap compared to a Minelab battery for the 5000, 6000 or 7000.  

?

yea, it's nuts, the Manticore cost me far more than the Algo with a coil and battery.

Might be best to wait until they hit the USA, DD Leather in OZ that make most the GPX and GPZ covers people use in AU/NZ are looking at making covers for it too, so you'd have competition in this part of the world.  

The battery cover I think is the most important cover, and it has to be super lightweight, or it just makes a light detector heavy.

In theory it should handle coils better than the detector they were designed for as it calibrates to the coil so slightly out of whack coils can work better than they normally would.

All good posts above though.

I've got two batteries for my Algoforce so far, both work great but I've discovered they make battery banks for a tough life, and well, at least for me that's hanging off the bottom of my metal detector and seeing I like my Algo so much I'm going to treat it to a tough battery

Dark Energy Poseidon PRO Power Bank Portable Charger Kit - Survival Supplies Australia

It's about double the price of a normal one, if not more, but it's made for the outdoors even being waterproof IP68

Poseidon Pro – Dark Energy

It claims to hold a charge for 8 years.

The video is funny, they blow it up, shoot it, drown it, you name it and it survives.... and all this and it's significantly cheaper than a Minelab battery ?

Just now, Nedkelly said:

Thanks, I thought they were a twisted mono not two separate windings like a DD coil.

yea, they're in a figure 8 but only run properly in DD mode on the GPX, should plug one in and see if it calibrates, I'll do it today sometime when I find the coil in the tubs of coils ?

7 minutes ago, Nedkelly said:

 Not sure if the coiltek AI coils are compatible but might be worth a try.

Nope, Coiltek AI coils need to run in DD mode on the GPX, so they're not going to be an ideal coil, likely one that won't calibrate, or if it does calibrate will just be weird running as a mono.

There are detector coil cables on Aliexpress, they have GM1000, GPZ, GPX 6000 etc.

Applicable to metal detector: gpz7000 sdc2300 gold monster 1000 (aliexpress.com)

I haven't seen an Equinox one, but I haven't tried to find one either.

4 minutes ago, Nedkelly said:

Don't do what I did and forget to hit the power button on the detector after its connected to the computer.   After a couple of hours getting very stressed out I hit the button and bingo , easy as after that. ?

I'm not very computer savvy as you can probably tell. ?

Yes, it always helps to turn something on ?

53 minutes ago, Taz said:

Hi people. What does one do if they live rural, don't own a computer and don't know anyone with one? Could a person take the control box to library or some community place and download any updates easy? I don't own a computer, never have.

Yes, it will work fine, won't be as sensitive to tiny stuff as the more modern spiral coils though, looks a nice light coil, I have the 16" round version of the Gold Stalker mono's and it works well.  I think it would make a good patch finder.

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

This is one area where air tests are applicable as being the same as the mildest of mildest soils. Test a GPX 6000 on a dime size target against a Manticore and see what you get.

Very true, the 6000 is one of those machines you can get your pick amazingly close to, as is the Algoforce and I suspect the SDC2300, all the machines geared more towards smaller gold, the earlier GPX series on the other hand, keep that pick well away! 

Put the GPX 5000 with an 11" mono into Coin and Relic timing and put it up against the Manticore with 11" stock coil on a coin and see the results!  Unfortunately Jeff you won't benefit from this Coin and Relic timing, it only works in mild soil environments, it's only on the 4800 and 5000 too.