phrunt

Some great reports are coming in from Aussies using the Algoforce on Facebook, particularly in regards to handling ground, it's running over hardpack ironstone like a dream and no issues with the red and orange clays in Victoria, the guy was finding bits around Bendigo. None of this surprises me.

The real big benefit is to those that already have stuff, like coils, headphones and well, batteries are a non-issue really as for once batteries for a detector are extremely cheap, not some custom-made thing to suit only that detector and you can really just get away with a 10000 mAh battery as it will last longer than a normal day. Power Bank 10K | Belkin US $30 sure isn't going to break the bank for a good quality day long power bank 🙂 Fortunately, legacy GPX coils are pretty cheap, I can really only see most people needing two coils for it, a NF Sadie and a NF 14x9" EVO or 14x9" Coiltek Elite out of the coils on the market currently still available would be my picks but there are just so many options for good coils, Detech tend to be cheaper too and make great coils. Unless the manufacturer is willing to take a bit of a hit on profits, I'd guess the USA pricing will be $1600 USD, as they have transportation costs to get it there. I can see someone being setup ready to roll for under $2000 USD.

I think the Algoforce build quality is superior to the 6000, although that wouldn't be too hard. The cam locks are so much better than the junk on the 6000, in fact they're the best I've seen for cam locks with a nice rubber grip coating on them too for doing them up, not just plastic. No shaft twist at all, regardless of coil size. The screen is great, buttons are nice to press. Headphone port has a little water-resistant cover which can be removed if necessary but also dangles there if you want it to which is a nice little feature. JW does indeed have an SDC, if it still works, been in his garage for a decade or so unused as he doesn't like it much at all, it's just not a good detector in milder soils, the advantage it gives to those in tougher soils hinder it in milder soils. I think it will end up Minelab's answer to the E1500 though, they'll wait a few months to see if the E1500 is creating waves and if it is the SDC will go on sale and just remain that way. I don't think they'll pop out with a new detector quickly, they're very slow at everything, the times we think they're fast is when development of something has been ongoing in the background with no hints its coming like the X-terra Pro, but when something is in the pipeline like the Manticore and it's coils it takes them forever to get them to market, and then in small numbers. Thinking they'll pop out with a detector to combat it in a few months with no awareness they even had to do so prior is expecting far too much from them. It was probably a bad time for them to discontinue the Legacy GPX series, unless they're planning on re-housing it into a modern design, that'd be a pretty cool detector if they did as long as they didn't mess with coil compatibility at the same time, I wouldn't put it past them.

I hear this all the time, yet I don't agree especially when people state they are equal, as someone that tinkers a bit with mild soil situations all I see is PI goes deeper in very mild soils, noticeably deeper especially on larger targets like coins, on tiny gold PI and VLF are similar in depth but the bigger the target gets and using a coin as an example the PI wins, a coin on edge the VLF may catch up again a bit. Some VLF's like the Manticore and CTX and gaining ground a bit but they are still not at PI / Mild soil depths.

He's got a box for the 15x12", the bundled ones don't come with a box, wouldn't be my pick of coil for it. I hope it's not a scam and a lot of people are in queue waiting for one so it will get snapped up pretty quick. Puzzles me he found it too hard to use. Either way, probably found what he uses a detector for he preferred his SDC. There's been a lot of talk about if it's better than the SDC, I guess this guy think's it's not.

I wonder if you're right, that the E1500 is going to punch the SDC2300 in the face, it looks like it from my hot rock and bad ground testing so far, although I've not used an SDC before it's doing better than other detectors I have used, I'm balancing out crazy hot rocks in its ultra fine gold mode.

yep, was more pointing out they don't need to be like Quest and avoid the US in case the legal stuff happens, as they're already selling in the home land of Minelab so if it was going to happen anywhere it would be there.

Yep, this is just the start and what a start it is. Thinking further, 6000 owners will appreciate the E1500's hot rock handling, it's EMI handling, they don't need to throw on some crazy 14" DD coil and maybe they'll find a use for the Target ID's for prospecting, if not for general use they are great. 7000 owners will be appreciating its light weight, super light weight I should say, ability to run a zillion coils of all shapes and sizes that the GPZ severely lacks so they will benefit greatly in areas where they couldn't even get their coil to the soil. There are likely plenty more reasons too, I'm just learning it now, I haven't even experimented with big coils and bigger target depths, and switching into the normal or large gold modes.

You'll find more on it, just use the search on the forum, just make sure you select "everywhere" and not just this forum. It's a really good coil, I like mine for my Garrett AT Gold, it's a shame it's so limited in detectors it works on, not in any way Detech's fault though.

What I want to know is how well the E1500 compares to the SDC in difficult ground and hot rocks, from what I've seen so far, I'm very impressed, having never used an SDC though, I don't know. I also don't have the worst of the worst conditions to test it in, although I've done my best to use the worst of the conditions I have at hand and it has surprised me thus far. My last remaining test area is black sand beaches, I have some confidence though it will do OK.

This is where the aftermarket helps again, Anti Interference coils, the Coilteks give similar performance to running a DD of the same size but your detector will be quiet as a mouse. This is a video of mine when I first got it I've got a Coiltek one which are figure 8 wound coils are are very effective. Anti-Interference Series - Coiltek Metal Detector Coils Detech also make them which I'm told are not figure 8 but normal DD with extra sheilding applied to the coil, not sure how they work, I've not known of anyone using one. anti interference coils | Detech metal Detectors | Australi (detech-metaldetectorsaustralia.com.au)

Nope ,they won't do anything for incoming EMI.

Ahhh ok, I spoke to Woody about his EMI filter some time ago, it wasn't going to block out any EMI for me, it helps in Northern Western Australia with their radars going on, and in some other parts of Australia affected by them, but outside of that, powerlines and other traditional EMI I may encounter he indicated it wouldn't do a thing so recommended I don't buy one. Seems like I'm all good then, I have the shield cover and use a lithium battery 😉

You keep bringing up EMI shielding, what exactly do you mean by this? what are you doing for this shielding? I use this EMI shield cover, I thought it helped a little bit, mostly by allowing other detectors to get closer to my own.

It's good to bring attention to problems. I sing from the hilltops when I have one 😉

I ran the Steelphase sp01 with my 4500, it allowed keeping the detector volume low while boosting the audio with the amplifier, this makes it run a little more stable. It also means you've got extra cords all over the place, it's a nice thing to have but I don't think it's critical. I haven't used mine in ages now. The coils will give you more of a boost than a booster will 🙂

I think if litigation was a problem, it would rear its ugly head in Australia, it's an Australian made detector and just down the road from Minelab HQ, it's not from some far away land where they have no control of the situation So, being concerned it won't make it into the US for this reason like Quest is doing is a non-issue. Perhaps the reason it doesn't have ground tracking doing the automatic adjustments is for this very reason, it is tracking the ground, you can see it on the screen, it just doesn't do the process for you. No big deal, and for me I prefer it this way. This is just me speculating of course. Without the Bluetooth transmitter and battery included some of the hurdles have already been overcome, so the FCC testing shouldn't be too brutal. Plenty of the people on this forum don't even need one, when armed with both a 6000 and a 7000 unless you're using it for something other than gold prospecting it's not going to offer you that much. If you have a 7000 it offers a bit, and for anyone with an earlier GPX it offers quite a lot, and also shares coils with it, a great thing to get for those people. The real winners are those new to prospecting wanting to buy a PI, they get a great unit an affordable price and don't have to feel like they're missing out by not having to sell a kidney on the black market for body parts to buy a Minelab.

Nokta are one of the best there is for customers service, this was demonstrated the service agent being able to send you a replacement coil without even checking the old one out, especially when we are talking Nokta the company, your gripes seem to be with their service agent and their service does seem to be lacking in your case, maybe they're busy and don't have enough staff trained up, although it all went on at a bad time of year so a week or two there was probably time nothing much could happen. Probably the biggest problem has been their lack of communication, had they kept you informed during the process I'm sure you'd be far more forgiving for the time it's taking, it could come down to they had a lack of stock and had to wait for a shipment from Nokta, yet you were never told this. Best thing to do is let @Nokta Detectors know when you're having issues like this, and they can see why and sort it out if it needs sorted out to help future customers. You could contact them on info@noktadetectors.com We had a shocking Nokta dealer in NZ in the earlier Nokta days, they''d not even respond for months when you wanted to buy a detector and sent them an email saying you wanted to buy as that was their only good contact method, I contacted Nokta directly, and they sorted it out quick smart, soon we had a new dealer and a good one. Either way, yours is on its way back to you, hopefully they've just replaced the detector for you, it's meant to be a good detector. You've been terribly unlucky, as Garrett are known to be really good too, in fact I've not had bad customer service from any of the detector companies I've had to claim warranty with, they've all been good to me.

Most certainly aftermarket coils are worth it, a bulk of the aftermarket manufacturers mostly only make spiral wound coils now, they're more sensitive to small gold than the bundle wound Commander coils supplied with your detector, they also give a bit more depth on the sizes of gold the spiral windings help on. They also make sizes that very greatly from the standard sizes, and to top it off they're generally better build quality. It all depends what you do, and where you hunt to recommending sizes and coils is difficult, although people in your area may help there. The added bonus is if you ever find the need to buy an Algoforce you'll be able to use them on it too. The Nugget Finder 8x6" Sadie has always been a popular choice for a small coil, the 9" Coiltek Elite is probably the most sensitive of the spirals readily available, closely followed by the 12x8" Nugget Finder, these smaller spirals can be a bit noisy in some bad ground though and the 14x9" EVO by Nugget Finder is a popular choice for general use, it's significantly more sensitive than the 11' Commander coil on small gold too. The bigger deep gold hunters tend to go for the 15" or 17" spirals and then there are the monster size coils available if that's your thing. An alternative battery setup might be worth it too, although if you're considering getting an Algoforce probably not worth the spend on that, as the Algoforce will be able to hit on gold the 4500 won't. The 4500 with a big coil I think will hit on gold deeper than the Algoforce though, so both would complement each other.

I was a big fan of the 6" for prospecting with the Nox 800, after the firmware update on the Manticore and putting the M8 coil on it it's now difficult to be able to quantify the performance advantage on tiny gold over the 6" coil, the M8 appears to keep up well with it even though bigger. It's also a very deep coil on coin size targets for it's size. It's very impressive, the M8 will become your "mate" in no time.

I've dealt with that sort of thing hundreds of times, if not thousands Chet, we tended to make it clear to them the second repair was nothing to do with the first, even providing evidence where necessary, although it's very likely they didn't believe you anyway, however we told them as a courtesy we would do the repair for them at our cost on some occasions, if it was a minor repair. If it was severe or something that was clearly their own fault like a physical damage situation it was a different story. It's a fine line between good customer service and being a push-over and getting taken advantage of and just because someone's got a bad attitude doesn't mean they get better treatment, in fact I tended to go the other way being far more helpful to nicer people. Being the biggest business of the sort in the city we didn't have to be as concerned as much as being a small business in a small town though, and see your point.

I hope you like it; my first impressions are things like hot rocks it excels over the 6000, it handles every type of ground and hot rock I've thrown at it so far while maintaining good sensitivity to small targets. While I don't think it's quite as deep as the 6000 on the tiny stuff, I'm yet unsure as the gold gets bigger, in some situations it might outperform the 6000, in many others the 6000 will likely win.

It's probably in the service bulletin sent to the service agents to ensure connectivity with the shielding paint. When I look back on my service form from the technician it says "Perform modifications for the Audio issue as per Minelab instructions" so who knows, could well be in their instructions, I do hope so.

I'd be interested your thoughts after the mod to see if its worthwhile, seems Woody and Mick do virtually the same mods when you compare on their websites so they must be the tried-and-true methods for modding a GPX. It seems there isn't as much they can do to a 5000 than the earlier models.

Well, a positive update on the Nugget Finder Website, it's finally had a bit of a change, probably a concerning one for GPX 6000 owners wanting the other two promised coil sizes, they're no longer mentioned at all and no longer having unrealistic promised dates of release, the Coming in 2022, 2023 and so on for them has disappeared of course. Home | Nugget Finder Coils The good news if you could call it that is the two GPZ coils, the one DDX coil, and EVO coils have now been put back onto the website after a year or so of absence, although with no information about which sizes still exist on the GPX 5000 coil range, I assume they're still making all the EVO's and the Sadie, the fields of course just for the Evolution coils but they usually just put the Sadie in there even though it's not one as it's the last of their Advantage series to survive.. I just don't get why it's so hard for them to have a decent working website, hire some school kid and pay them 50 bucks and a few pizzas while they make it, they'll have it done in a couple of hours at most.