phrunt

They also tried to build customer confidence with the new models by now having an IP68 rating where as the original Equinox had no rating. So far so good, I haven't heard of any leaks yet.

The opposite side of that argument is an Equinox 800 may leak, a Legend may blow it's speaker, it seems to me a whole lot more Legends blow their speaker than Noxes leak, no detector is immune to faults unfortunately and Nokta could not predict the brand of speaker they were using was rubbish. What made this all that more jarring is how much Nokta attacked the Equinox about its faults. I was just reading a guy having a fit on Facebook last night that his 1 month old Legend speaker blew, not sure if it was new old stock or not but he didn't seem to think it was. Both require a pod replacement/repair so there is little difference to me the reason behind the fault and I'd personally prefer a replacement anyway. The Legend's fault is more common, far more speakers are blowing than people complaining of leaks. Some people have had multiple speakers blow, much like some have had multiple Noxes leak. If I had a Legend and a Nox, both bought at their release I'd be far more concerned about my Legend speaker failing than my Nox drowning, the reason, I don't often water hunt, I run the speaker full time and on loud volume. Hopefully Nokta have sorted the speaker problem by changing brands, and hopefully Minelab have fixed the leaking with the new design. I'm sure when stock runs out the Nox 600 and 800 will disappear from the market, they may then adjust the price of the 700 and 900 a little down once the initial flurry of buying is over. It does sound like it's lucky the Nox wasn't marketed and designed as a new diving detector though as if every owner was using them in the water the failure rate would be so much higher. People shouldn't act like the Nokta is a better quality detector though as it obviously has quite a big issue with the ones in the wild at the moment, speakers will be blowing for years to come as some don't use them all that much. I'd be trying to make mine blow under warranty if I had one just like I tried to make my Nox drown by leaving it on the bottom of my spa pool for a few days at a time a few times, I failed, I couldn't drown it. Minelab have no excuse for the coil ears, they were failing on the CTX, they used the same ears on the Nox, what did they expect? It took them to have a light bulb moment during the design of the Manticore that perhaps they need to fix the ears.

That's pretty awesome news, thanks for doing that, it makes for an excellent entry level prospecting detector far better than any other option I can think of in it's price range. It probably does pretty good with it's stock coil on the nuggets too I would guess, that would be an interesting next test for you. I'm loving this competition stuff, it's bringing prices down to much more reasonable levels.

I guess the same silly reason I bought a Simplex and XP Dues, to open myself up to disappointment 🙂 It's all part of my problem, I need to go to Detector Buyers Anonymous for some counseling, I can't help myself but trying out new toys but you've helped me hold off pushing that buy now button..... for now..... 🙂 If the Manticore coils would just come out that would resolve the urge.

Aussie boy's $20,000 find buried at popular beach The boy came armed to the beach with a 'metal detector and small shovel'. Thu, 23 March 2023 at 3:20 pm NZDT·2-min read A "very excited" young boy was able to dig up a man's prized $20,000 watch that he lost at a popular Sydney beach on Tuesday. Josh Shave, 10, went hunting for the valuable Cartier Santos watch at Balmoral Beach with his father Simon, when the stressed 79-year-old man couldn't find it in his shorts pocket after going for his usual morning swim. “Dad was in a real state and very upset,” the man's son, Justin, told the Mosman Collective. “He returned to the car after his swim, and when he went to put his watch on, it wasn’t there. “He parks in the same spot and swims in the same spot every day, but even after retracing his steps, it couldn’t be found. The 1975 watch bought in France holds great sentimental value for the man, being one of his "most treasured possessions". Article: https://nz.news.yahoo.com/aussie-boys-20000-find-buried-at-popular-beach-022053551.html

The X-terra pro is now available to buy in NZ, it's oh so temping as the price is crazy low Simplex pricing and the fact it can use Nox coils, I'm really having a hard time not buying it...............

Did a smurf take the photo on their mini smurf phone? 🙂 I was hoping to see what it looked like!

Yes, they're all Malaysian, ideally If it were me I'd be adding the glue to everything I've circled in this photo, and if you look at all of the different boards they all have these things glued on at least one of the PCB's, it's just missed on many of them, this one is quite funny the person adding the glue virtually completely missed their target in the top right corner, they have a little line of glue running off the capacitor barely touching it. More often that not they're just applying glue to one side too which isn't ideal especially when if you look how they've done it they've got minimal contact on many of the components they're applying the glue to. It's just a real messy job and they clearly take no pride in their work. The bottom left black wire looks like it has such a bad solder contact on it's pad, I will get the guy repairing them to check that as it may be his fault, this PCB was turning on and reporting the battery dead (when its not) and turning off. It's hard to see things when all you've got is photos, I've already zoomed them as much as I can without stuffing up the image too much. You'll likely have to click on the photo and click the + sign a couple of times to get the full zoom to see things properly. They've done a better job on this GPX 6000 PCB, I remember old 4500 board photos where the work was very well done with the glue. I can't find a photo at the moment. Norvic some time ago put up a photo of his SDC 2300 guts, it looks pretty tidy on the glue.

So very true. All I want is a little Snake 6.5x3.5" , I don't care who makes it although the tried and true Nel version would be fantastic, it's a brilliant little coil 😉 I said from day 1 I'd buy a Legend if it got a Snake coil, never happened, never got a Legend. At the moment for that sort of size in a high frequency VLF I'm having to use my Gold Bug 2, I have a Nel Snake for my Gold Bug Pro but the detector itself being only 19kHz lacks the sensitivity I desire so defeats the purpose of using it. I just want a Snake on a modern multi frequency machine, I don't care who makes the machine or coil, I just want it now damn it 😛 It's just a shame seeing manufacturers moving away from allowing aftermarket coils as their offerings don't always suit everyone and it's not viable I guess for them to make a big range especially with lesser selling sizes and that's where the aftermarket really took over, they just don't like when the aftermarket make better coils than theirs I guess.

No, it happened before that. I was talking to Nel about it on email about making the Snake for my Simplex and they said they can't do it because of Nokta but it is hard to understand them with the translations but they said they wont be releasing Nokta coils. Their Simplex coils were advertised as coming soon on their site for over a year before the mess in Ukraine and never released.

The thing that bugged me and the reason I never took the Legend path is because at first it seemed Nokta was going to allow aftermarket coils on their detectors as previous models were allowing it then the Simplex came along and Detech was able to do some coils for it in a partnership type situation, Nel announced Simplex coils that never happened as for whatever reason Nokta wouldn't supply them with what they needed to make the coils, then they were no longer going to make coils for Nokta's modern detectors. I'm not sure what went on there but it was some sort of coil protection Nokta has implemented, this was so disappointing. I realize they want to sell their own coils but the one thing that they could have potentially had over the other brands is being welcoming and open to aftermarket coils. The good thing is they have Detech coils available for the earlier model Simplex which probably can't be used on the new Simplex models but I've not seen anything from Detech either for the Legend which I'm sure they'd jump on if able to with how well it's been selling. All I ask is a Nel Snake type coil on any of these Multi-IQ machines and I'll stop whinging 🙂 Maybe that's going to take Garrett to come out with a competitive multi freaker for it to happen, they seem the only one left not trying to prevent aftermarket coils.

A 1 gram target is an easy find for a 5000 that's for sure. I don't know how the US market is going but if 5000's are going cheaper on the second hand market due to upgrades to the 6000 then it may make sense to go with a 5000, as it's widely acknowledged the 5000 can handle difficult ground and hot rocks significantly better than the 6000, the 6000 geared towards tiny targets I guess has side effects in that regard but in saying that, the 5000 can pick up very small targets, I can't remember my smallest nugget with the older model GPX but I'm sure it was down to 0.05 of a gram type size with a spiral coil. .1 of a gram and over is where it really starts to go well. Don't dismiss the 4500 either if you find one at the right price. It would be ideal if someone who hunts meteorites comes on and helps you out, I know @mn90403 has done a bit of meteorite hunting so he might chime in, he might not have noticed this thread. It all comes down to price I guess, if you can pick one up cheap you'd be pretty happy I think, second hand coils should be available at good prices too for the same reason.

Nice bit of gold for your first lump on your return to detecting. Looking forward to hearing about your future adventures and finds. There is nothing fun about getting old, I'm starting to feel it, I grunt now when I get up off the ground recovering a target, especially towards the end of the day 😛

I think you've proven it's a software bug and not an actual problem with the overall firmware, some little error in the code that I'm sure they'll fix in a firmware update. The more information they can get on it the better so it never hurts to contact them and let them know your findings, it's best to contact service in Australia to get the info direct to them rather than messing around with their US middlemen counterparts.

I'd guess they'll keep that information very confidential. They sure don't tell shareholders.

It's funny you should say that, JW had the main PCB replaced in his GPZ, it was quite an early model one, obviously the new PCB was the latest model and he noticed his detector was different when he got it back, I can't recall exactly what he thought was different but he knew the detector like his own right hand as he used it so much so he noticed the change in it after the repair. I'll have to ask what if he can recall what he noticed different.

Not sure about US pricing but the JBL Wind speaker is $40 NZD ($25 USD) and has brilliant loud audio. https://coolmobile.net.nz/products/jbl-wind-wireless-speaker?_pos=1&_sid=db9b2ab6a&_ss=r For those not into using speakers you could just plug in a Bluetooth LL transmitter and use wireless headphones, they don't cost much at all, $20 or so from memory. The Standard Lithium battery ready made is $158 AUD ($106 USD), it has a runtime of 7 hours but is lighter at 350grams or the High capacity Lithium battery is $228 AUD ($153 USD) with 13 hours runtime. The batteries come with mounting stuff for the control box so you don't need the canvas cover I'm using and the cord between the battery and detector is integrated into the battery. https://detectormods.com/shop/63/lightweight-battery-kit Then there is the carbon shaft, I'm not sure the going price on them, JW kindly gave me the one I'm using but it doesn't change the weight all that much and isn't a necessity. So the mods don't cost all that much really, and if buying a second hand GPX 5000 the battery it comes with is obviously used so buying a new battery isn't a bad idea anyway. Gets rid of needing any cords hanging off the thing, I don't find it heavy at all.

I don't know what all the fuss is about with the GPX 5000 being labelled heavy, it's not too bad at all and you can lighten it up pretty easily. Once modded it doesn't weigh all that much more than a GPX 6000 and having a bit of weight on the back of it with the battery/control box actually helps if you wanted to use bigger coils to balance out the detector, the 6000 is terrible with the 14" DD, so out of balance. The 6000 is great and nice and light running small coils though but do you do that with meteorites? I'm guessing you're not really after absolutely tiny targets. Here is my 5000 next to it's younger brother the 6000. It has a light weight lithium ion battery pack, lasts 13 hours on a charge, 13400mAh, the battery itself weighs 450 grams and just goes in my side pocket on the cover. I have a full carbon shaft on the 5000 too. It looks tiny in there as the cover is made for the standard GPX battery. Jut plugs in with a short little attached lead. Has a charge indicator. And for a speaker I have the JBL wind on there, very loud audio with adjustable volume, way louder than the pitiful speaker they used in the 6000. The 5000 maybe an oldie but it's a goodie and handles hot rocks far better than the 6000, the 6000 is more sensitive to small gold though, and finds gold the GPX 5000 misses for various reasons not just size. It may come down to which is best for meteorites seeing that's what you're using it for and that I don't know, hopefully someone else pipes up and lets you know. I really like the 5000, it's just so versatile, I really like the 6000 too.

They both struggle a fair bit with ground noise, then he puts the magnet to the ground and shows the black sand and that makes sense, he also said the ground was covered in snow a day or two earlier too which I guess the damp soil made it worse. The guys got his Axiom maxed out, doesn't seem a good idea to do that with the Axiom. The GPX seemed to do a bit better over all, but doesn't really mean much when the guy using the Axiom is running maxed out so it's playing up a bit, he's just learning the machine though. It was nice to see the sort of areas you guys hunt in, similar to here in many ways.

A guy I know repairs Minelab detectors in South America, he's currently working on four GPZ's that have faults and showed me a photo of them on his workbench. The immediate thing I noticed is the differences in construction, notably how random the glue is on the PCB. The hot glue/RTV silicone is often used on PCB's to help with vibration where they haven't used any sort of mechanical fixing, more of a cheap way to do it really, If you think about it tall heavy capacitors are only held on by little leads into solder pads so having some mechanical fixing helps prevent vibration and stress failure especially on something like a metal detector that has a pretty hard life being bumped around and dropped. Sometimes it's used to shield components from the one next to them to help with preventing heat transfer or just keeping components separated. In very high density PCB's its often used for electrical clearance ensuring components are kept apart, an example is if a high voltage mosfet is too close to another component the glue helps prevent arcing between the mosfet and nearby components. All four GPZ's are relatively modern versions, the newest one in the far right being a couple of years old, the others are 3-5 years old, all four are revision 3 PCB's, take note of that, it means there was a Revision 1 and 2 PCB so over the lifecycle of the GPZ there have been changes to the PCB since the original release, anyone wondering if the first GPZ is the same as the modern ones, it's not, perhaps in performance it is but they've felt the need to change the PCB 3 times since the first production run, sometimes this is due to components being discontinued or it's because they've found problems and resolved them on later PCB's, this is certainly not unusual and detectors on the market for a long time end up with many PCB revisions, for example here is my Gold Bug Pro, it's a revision 6 PCB as evident in the top right corner of the photo, they maybe even higher now, mines a 2017 model. The Gold Bug Pro The GPZ, all 4 are the same revision. So without further ado, here are some photos of the 4 GPZ's. I've chopped up the photo to individuals so you can look at the differences better and blanked out serial numbers for privacy reasons. You'll see just how different they are, some are well glued, some have no glue at all, it's all very random, I was so surprised by this inconsistency on such an expensive electronic product. It's not even put on well either, in some cases it virtually misses its target and isn't providing much support at all. This is not what you'd call quality work. The glue is likely hand done, in some cases it can be done by machine but with how random and inconsistent it is this is very much done by hand, and not done even remotely well at all. Doesn't give you a lot of confidence in build quality does it.

I don't remember the last time I ground balanced my Nox in a park setting, it just doesn't need it.

Someone's probably done a video thinking they can do it 🙂 I must admit when I first fired up my shiny new GPZ I thought I should be wearing my undies over my pants as I was a now a bona fied superhero as I now had super powers!

It's nice thinking our metal detectors are some super powerful beasts, some even believe pointing them at a plane flying over will interfere with it's electronics, in reality they're not very powerful at all and are not going to "charge" targets in the ground 🙂

wow, looks like a significant firmware bug there.

I've been going to my local field for a couple of years now, it's not like it was at the start pulling masses of coins every day but it's still producing, and the great thing is I get to try new technology as it comes out and see if I find stuff I've missed and work out to myself why I missed it, if it was the detector on me becoming better on my detectors. It was found with the T2, then the Nox did some heavy lifting and got a bulk of the targets, the Vanquish come into the picture and did remarkably well considering the Nox had already done the business and then the CTX came along to my collection and proved to me it's deeper than the Nox, possibly due to the 17x13" coil but I think there is more to it than that, and now the Manticore is having a go, while the Manticore hasn't been able to shine yet over the CTX it has the disadvantage at the moment of only having a 11" coil and I've not made my way to the junky area near the clubhouse yet and when I do I expect the Manticore may shine, although I've already done the best of my ability in that area with the T2 and 5" coil, Gold Bug Pro with Nel Snake 6.5x3.5" coil and the Nox and 6" coil so I may have to wait for the Manticores smaller coil to see. I may even take the XP Deus into the junky area seeing I have one now with all of its coils, the small HF coil may do OK, It's more of a dig it all detector though, I've found its target ID's pitiful so I may struggle, I've got a lot of learning to do with the Deus and I likely won't bother, I may just stick to using it for small nugget detecting then I don't need to care about its bad target ID performance, I've found it not even remotely a deep detector too, even with its bigger coils, but maybe thats my lack of ability using it. It's been interesting to see the differences between detectors and their strong points in the area, even the trusty old Ace 300 has done well on some of the small deep silvers, some I know I missed with the Nox that the Ace got, the low frequency and the 13x12" Nel Tornado coil I guess or just chance no way to really know but I certainly was surprised by how well it's done. For gold prospecting I tend to be a 9am to 5pm or 9am to dark depending on location, mainly due to the fact I have to drive an hour or two to get to prospecting areas which explains the 9am start, as I leave home at about 7ish, for coin hunting I tend to do the 9am until lunch time or whenever I know there will be no other people at the spots. 9am is usually a good start time as the kids are all at school and away from the park type areas. I only beach detect on bad weather days or at night when it cools off, in summer we don't get dark until very late at night so I have many hours after dinner time I can detect with few people around as the air temp cools off. Between lunch and dinner seems to be peak beach time for visitors, so that's the no go time for me. I hate people around when I'm detecting.