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That's right, the chip is removed from the original coil by surgery 🙂 And then an adapter is made in a similar way to the GPZ X-coil adapter, up near the control box the original coil cable is cut, and the chip is added inline as part of the plug that goes into the detector so the adapter becomes a universal adapter to run the X-coils. All early days so far but progress for those that want different coils and are willing to do the adjustments necessary.

Love it when there is multiple bits of gold in one hole. Nice post, thanks.

I guess it probably has bad blocks on the eeprom, so when it's being flashed the image is corrupted. Normally flash tools verify the flash though ensuring that it is fine with CRC checking and report if the flash fails. If it is a faulty eeprom I can only imagine they'd swap out the control pod for you, not worth fixing.

You could still use the original coil without the chip. Just some open heart surgery 😉

The chip goes into an adapter, maybe I worded it so it doesn't make sense 🙂

I was doing some reading on various forums about First Texas and there was posts around 2013 to 2017 or so saying Dave J was busy working on a new detector and they'll be releasing a new detector soon.... I don't know how long soon is... but that was quite a number of years ago. I can't remember the exact dates of these posts but it was many years ago. So I can't get enthused by rumours about them coming out with a new detector.

No, it's in Russia, and it's using the chip from a standard coil, the chip from the standard coil was removed to do this, and they would require an adapter to run. At some point I'll certainly be using one with these coils, I want small coils for my detecting, this 15x10" is one of my favourite coils though, I like elliptical shaped coils for detecting here with our rocky terrain.

Yup, this is what was called partially spiral wound, instead of being laid out completely flat like a fully spiral there is a layer of flat windings over another layer of flat windings.

Here is a video of the GPX 6000 running a 15x10" X-coil, a test over a little nugget.

No, I don't have the 6" coil yet, this is the 6x10" stock coil, although it's very sensitive for the size of it. It's very light so it's not epoxy filled but it's certainly not knock sensitive. I really like it.

strick has done his excellent X-rays inside the GPX 6000 coils now, he's put them into his awesome "What's in your coil" thread. You can see the dreaded chip in the coils too 🙂

Thank you for that strick! I've been waiting for these 🙂 It'd be good to see sometime if the 17" is fully spiral wound.

I've wanted the 24k since Whites released it, it was all too hard to get with Whites and their very limited worldwide distribution, Garrett is making that easier and has a much larger distribution network around the world so the 24k is becoming more accessible now than it was. I had this one sent from the USA to get it quickly as the New Zealand dealer isn't likely to have any until next year, although I think that'll change when they start getting people asking for them 🙂 I was pleased to see it came with rechargeable batteries to get me up and running fast, a good brand too being Duracell AA NiMH. So a few photos.... starting with the box. Whites fans will be pleased to see all the references to Whites on the box. That looks like Steve's scoop to me 🙂 And the box contents The charger and car adapter, lighter socket to USB adapter and also a power socket with various countries that is like a phone charger really, it just converts the AC to DC 5v 2.1 amp USB power, so you can use any USB charging adapter that can output the 2 amp's to charge your batteries. The charger will also charge on a common 1 amp USB port, it's just going to be slower. Very handy as I can charge the batteries in my Caravan or anywhere really with USB charging. The charger can also charge AAA batteries as well as the AA's required for the 24k, quite handy. The 12v alligator clips charger to lighter socket is very good quality too, nice thick cables and inline fuse. Even the little lighter socket to USB is a good quality product, came in a little package showing it's got a 2 year warranty. It's made by Aukey and has 2 x 2.4amp USB ports on it for fast charging. The charger has Micro USB and USB-C support, so you can use your phone charging cable if you've got one of the many Android phones using Micro USB and forget to bring your Garrett supplied cable. This is the batteries inside the mounting box that slides up into the back of the 24k. They're easy enough to put in there. The battery box has a nice Whites logo on it. You'll see I've already used the little plug they supply to cover over the headphone socket, Good to keep the dust and weather out and I'll likely leave it in there forever. The speaker on the 24k is excellent, nice loud volume so I see little need for headphones unless I'm next to a loud river or something detecting. The screen's nice and big, easy on the eye, every icon and bit of writing is oversized, quite good for people that need glasses I would guess. The buttons are nice and easy to use and you'll note they left the Whites logo on there. The coil's nice, I haven't weighed it yet but it feels light as a feather, and the detector is very well balanced with the batteries under the arm cuff, I've never used one of the Whites detectors with the box under the arm cuff, but I'm seeing how nice the balance is with this style detector. Garrett also supplied little feet to stick onto the bottom of the box so you're not resting the plastic box directly onto the ground, quite a good idea as I generally hunt in very rocky areas. One thing I noticed almost straight away as you don't have to put effort in when you put it down to prevent it from falling over, it naturally wants to sit upright. 🙂 And the back of the control pod, again another Whites logo I think they've done a good job paying homage to Whites, while also putting their own touches on it, a very impressive detector. Now for the meat and potatoes, I took it down behind my house to the river and fired it up, I had no idea what I was doing as I'd only used it for a few minutes but I took a couple of videos comparing how it was operating compared to my Equinox with the Coiltek 10x5" Nox Coil. Take these videos with a grain of salt, I've spent 5 minutes using the Garrett 24k but I found it very easy to use and understand, it can just be a turn on and go detector by the look of it. It handled the ground well, and I was very happy with the sensitivity of it, I absolutely can not wait to get the smaller coils for it, especially the concentric coil. I had put the Coiltek 5x10" Nox coil on the Equinox so it was more like comparing apples with apples and tested both detectors on a small #9 lead pellet. The 24k certainly had the edge on air test depth. The ground performance seems excellent too, I love how quiet it runs, the threshold is very smooth, it's also interesting you can run it right next to the Nox with no interference for either detector, both run fine right next to each other. The build quality of the Garrett seems excellent, the shaft nice and solid and nothing feels flimsy. In this video I take both for a little walk around showing how they handle this difficult ground that's covered in hot rocks. The 24k was completely free of knock sensitivity, something I'm going to find very beneficial with the areas I hunt being rocky. Both detectors have their settings maxed out, the Equinox is on 25 gain. Now I've got to get the batteries charged up so I can use it properly, at least they had enough charge in them from the factory for me to take it for a test run. We are in a 2 week Covid lockdown at the moment, we are expected to come out of the worst of it on Wednesday so hopefully I can go find some nuggets with the 24k soon, judging by my first impressions of it I am sure I will be able to achieve that quite quickly.

yea, I bought an old bunch of Ipad screen protectors from a big box store when the model was old and they just wanted to clear the screen protectors out, I got them for 7 cents each so I grabbed about 30 and just cut them to size for my detectors.

Found this article from 2018, I missed it at the time so others may have too, pretty interesting, Looks an easy find for a metal detector but I'd imagine most would dismiss it as junk and move on without digging. Workers found large number of ancient coins at a construction site in Baishui county of Weinan, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, on Nov 9, and archaeologists said most coins belong to Song Dynasty (960-1279). Zhao Zhangfeng, director of Baishui cultural relics office, said that police received the report of the discovery around 11 am on Nov 9, and police soon arrived at the site and cordoned it off. Archaeologists later arrived at the site and collected about 100,000 coins, weighing 460 kilograms. A few coins date back to Tang Dynasty (618-907), and most are of Song Dynasty. Zhao said that few people could have so many coins at that time, and initial analysis showed that the coins belong to the old-style Chinese private bank that buried the coins during wars. Continue reading here: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201811/13/WS5bea3daca310eff30328853b_1.html

The Whites 6" wasn't epoxy filled was it? Mine hasn't arrived yet to know. I'd rather it have the extra weight of having epoxy than be hollow. It's such a little amount of weight anyway and after using the epoxy filled Snake I can really see the benefits of an epoxy filled small coil. I wonder if there is a reason White's had that weird air gap at the bottom of their coil? Surely there had to be a reason. I guess it keeps it off the mineralised ground a bit to make it more stable being such a small sensitive coil. The Snake has that size covered anyway I guess. Keep us up to date on how you're going with the Garrett Jeff.

Well, I look forward to seeing more on this coil, I know exactly what a new coil can do for a detector, so I'll never dismiss the benefits of a different coil and it's good to see something actually new from First Texas, even if it is just a coil. Were the early prototypes no good Mike? Just the way you said you've got a couple of them somewhere lost.. or do you already have a newer better version? Cipher, the 11x7 is probably deep enough for an 11x7", I replace it with bigger coils as it just doesn't cut it for coins in my area that are quite deep, it either misses them or ID's them as iron when other bigger coils do much better, and many manufacturers seem to be supplying the 11" round these days as the stock coil which works better for me. As we know though every size/shape has benefits over others... they can't please everybody. I think this new coil looks pretty neat.

Yes, I'll end up taking a few videos, I mostly do the videos for myself so I've got memories of certain things, I wish I had videos of my biggest nugget digs but both times I thought they were junk as the target sound was just too good. 🙂 It's hard to get gold found videos with a VLF here though as it's a minefield of shotgun pellets so you end up taking 100 videos to get one gold dig video but I'll give it a shot, I'm thinking I'll take it to a spot that I found some tiny gold with my other detectors that's away from the shooters higher up on a mountainside and has virtually no junk targets at all and see if I can squeak anymore out. I've gotten myself lost trying to get there before though 🙂

FZ-12

I just hope any new VLF detector isn't just a paint job that gets bundled with the new coil as the point of difference. I wouldn't put it past them. That'd be perfectly fine if they didn't market it as some new detector, instead of just the same detector with a different coil option. I don't want to see an F75.5 Ultimate Plus Mega Super Deep Merry Christmas Happy Anniversary Gold Ultra edition bundled with this coil.

It's best to upload it to YouTube and just paste the link to it on here and it will embed itself, I'd like to see the video Gerry. That's a nice nugget. Doing a job that's also your hobby and passion is almost as good as being retired and in some ways better as you have access to all of the latest gear!

Thanks Jim, you know how long I've wanted one so I'm pretty happy, I was so excited I couldn't resist but to buy the 6" Whites concentric coil for it, that was quite difficult to do other than trying to get one off Ebay from the US and hope it arrives with USPS which I haven't had much luck with previously, especially now with Covid. One previous package went from USA to Australia, back to USA then back to Australia then across to NZ, took months. 🙂 A guy at Lost Treasures in Brisbane, Australia had one left in stock and was willing to ship it to me, I couldn't wait for the Garrett coil to be released. I'll get it too when it comes out but the Whites will do me in the mean time. I used to live right near that shop but didn't do metal detecting when I lived in Brisbane, now I live about 7 hours drive to my nearest metal detecting store. 😞 I really like VLF gold detectors and this 24k now with the range of coils it will have seems like it might be what I've always wanted.

I don't know any of the history of the coil and don't really care, I couldn't agree more about that coil, I felt the rear mount was awkward and just never found the coil performed well at all on either my Gold Bug Pro or T2, it certainly wasn't deep, and not sensitive to small targets either, sat in the middle somewhere. That coil is what started me using aftermarket coils as I quite liked the detectors but really didn't like the coil. The only worse coil was their 15", don't get me started on that 🙂 If they are making a new VLF it'd really have to be something special to get much interest or they're just wasting their time, although history would demonstrate it will just be another paint job, but in this case a paint job with new wheels (a new coil) Just take a look at the thing, what a weird awkward design. The rear mount makes the coil feel so weird, and then those raised thin ridges are just odd, I bet water hunters really love the drag they cause, but really I doubt they'd want that coil anywhere near the water with a rear mount it might bend down flat and become a paddle. 🙂 For someone that uses this coil and orders the new coil they'll likely be very impressed. It will no doubt be a big step up. I'm open to getting one, possibly for my T2 as my GBP's have too many coils already and I only have one extra coil for the T2 being the Mars Tiger, other than that the 3 standard coils, this, the 5" and the 15".

It was probably only my second week using it too!

I like the look of the shovel, I seem destructive on detecting shovels, never had one not break or bend on me. I have no idea why as I'm in soft soil but have to dig deep and they eventually bend or break levering the soil out, I wonder how the Nokta would hold up.... Handy it's got a bottle opener, never know when you'd need a beer to celebrate a good find. 🙂