Lynk

Gerry - When is the Minelab Worldwide Conference?

@midalake thank you for your writeup. Great color on your testing. I am glad to hear your positive take on the 900. Sorry if I missed it, but did you use the 11" coil for the 800 and 900?

The best engineered rechargeable small devices for off grid use would have a design that allows the rechargable battery to be swapped with some common disposable battery. For example, I like the Petzl Core system which has a recharge battery that can be swapped out for 3 AAA if need be. To that end, common format rechargeable batteries have been recommended here. That way you have a wider number of platform options (as mentioned), but you can also always carry spare disposable batteries.

That's where I am, too. I sold my GB2 when I got the 800 and haven't looked back. As many said, the GB2 is a classic and a great machine to learn on given the analog nature and the solid coils, but there have been so many advances in other models that I just couldn't justify it anymore.

I guess the question is, from a business perspective, will companies realize more revenue/profit from increased consumer exposure that these channels may provide. Currently almost all exposure is to a targeted end user meaning folks who are already seeking out platforms because they have an interest in the topic. With wider distribution to an adjacent audience (sporting goods, outdoors), they probably sell more units to those who never knew they "needed" one. Lower custom service/higher sales. It's an inevitable trade off. It's obviously bad for the dealers, many of whom have built careers. It's likely a net negative for most buyers as knowledge and experience dry up, even though prices will eventually decrease more through this model. Most product categories have followed this path and there have been a number of specialized retailers that are now gone in my area that had very knowledgeable employees. I hope the dealer model endures, but people vote with their fiat and time will tally those votes.

I found this graphite (I think) chunk with the Nox 800. It was a TID of 1 and my hopes were up, too! The piece is very light weight and it took me a bit to figure out what it is. It was a keeper from a TID testing perspective, as well as just interesting.

Completely agree with Phrunt that both are great coils and my experience echoes his. If you have a lot of nooks and crannies to poke around, the Coiltek might make the most sense. If your area is more exposed and you want to hit the smallest pieces, the Minelab is maybe the way to go. One could also always just give in and buy both. I know I did. 😆

Good call.... It did work quite well, I think. Not surprisingly the two things that cause issues are iron (negative numbers) and very low positive numbers. A couple gold nuggets were off by 5 or 6. (Not sure why these don't paste smaller!) The square nail was by far the largest issue. Ex that the standard deviations come in a far amount.

Thanks for the inspiration @BigSkyGuy. Here is a very similar chart to yours, but done in Excel, for the 800 vs the 900. There were 40 items tested with both using the 6" coil. The settings are below. The 900 had lower than max sensitivity for stability purposes. (Sorry if the pic is huge. I couldn't adjust it.) A couple of notes: The one iron item was a square nail. The stack at 1 on the 800 is foil, a 0.054 g flake, a 0.65 g nugget with host rock, and a 1/2 vile of dust. A chunk of graphite was 1 on both. The stacking of data points for the 800 may represent more perceived stability, but versus the larger scale could just give that impression. To test the last bullet, here is a chart of the 900 TID divided by the 800 TID vs the 800 TID data point. It's not surprising on the low end (1 or 2) the multiple gets out of whack as a 4 on 900 would obviously 4X a 1 on the 800, but that extreme doesn't carry through. The chart does provide another way to look at and, I think, confirm the attempt at a higher resolution mid range.

That's a great chart. Thanks for sharing it! The fit of the scatter plot is tighter than I would have guessed.

Definitely makes sense and I wish my hearing was more tone/pitch sensitive to entirely hunt like that. The Minelab charts are mostly interesting to me as a conveyance of intent, either marketing or design, and I like to see them for that information.

Ah. Thank you. Seems like a good chart to release when the detectors were released in order to help guide to a framework on how to think about the expanded TIDs. Maybe it was around, but the company didn't widely publish it. Again, thanks.

Where did you find that, Simon? If it's a newer release I am almost more interested in the intent (ie, why now).

Thanks for your report. I was out yesterday with the 6" coil on the 900 in an area with EMF and it ran fine. So maybe the 10x5 may not be as stable/too sensitive on the 900. That makes me wonder if anyone has experienced that with the other Coiltek coils on the 900?

The 900 is controversial. I have both the 800 and the 900 and feel way more confident in the 800. So depending on the mineralization of that area, I would recommend the 800. It is an excellent detector for gold and, of course, general use. The water proofing should suit your needs and there is a wide section of coils. While a new one is already less expensive than a 900, you also may be able to scoop a quality used one and have even more money left over for coils.

They are spending, but they said Minelab spend is largely "consistent" and I would read that to be flat. Much of the overall increase is coming from M&A, which is largely comms. It would be great to see a modernized SDC. The could also put the MF5 in a new form factor at the same time.

In the call an analyst asked about new products. Management said they are "heavily" focused on the next generation of "probably" the gold products. They said they need a refresh in gold and that we will "probably" see those in FY2025 (July 2024 to June 2025). There is a commercial I keep hearing that says "probably" is the most disappointing word in the English language. I don't know if it was management's intent to sow doubt, but they did not instill confidence. They go on to talk about technology spend and that a lot of the segment spend is on development of e-commerce and B2C. Said another way, they have been spending research and development dollars on market share and not new products. I imagine we will see something gold related next spring, but I also imagine it will be very incremental and not revolutionary. Hopefully they prove me wrong.

I have some concern my Coiltek 10x5 caused my 900 to act squirrelly, so it's interesting to hear your experience. Winter hit and have not been able to go out and verify, but I have actually bought another Minelab 6" coil just in case it is an issue. (My other 6" coils are on Nox 800s) The same Coiltek coil was fine on my 800, so it's not a bad coil at all. Again, I need to confirm all this as the weather warms, so take my comments with a grain of salt for now.

Thanks for sharing that crazy story and congratulations on a successful go with the Algoforce! Quite an exciting report of the detector's potential. I hope all the competition is reading it.

Such a small world. We met Mindy in our neck of the woods through a completely different channel than metal detecting. I have had the pleasure of seeing some of her finds and hearing some of her stories. Really wonderful. Good to see her post and thanks for sharing the picture.

Fun find! Those are really sharp points. Wow. Would be cool up in a cabin or den. Thanks for sharing!

Spot on, Jeff. In fact, I recently picked up a used 800 and now have two. If you find the right seller and price, they are really great values and still very relevant.

Jeff's original post was April 25 and very thoughtfully highlighted the 900's issues with numerous examples driven by many hours of experience. As mentioned, we know Minelab reads the forum. So we are a year past the release, about eight months past Jeff's post, and past the Manticore update. So what's going on, Minelab? Even a verbal acknowledgement you understand our concerns and are doing your best to address them would be constructive. I very well understand business decisions are made from the point of being economically rational, but damaging your brand value has real economic consequences. It leaves people assuming you can't or you won't. Both are losing propositions. So again, what's going on Minelab? A company's reputation has to be built every day on the foundation built yesterday. It's a new day Minelab. Start building.

I use and really like Doc's Stalker pick. The weight is great, the narrow pick end let's you get in some crevices, and I really like how sharp the shovel end comes. While I use gloves, I often refinish the handle to a burnt finish and did with Doc's too. The Apex I own is really heavy duty, but the weight and profile just don't fit most situations for me.

Chase, Thanks for the suggestion. I was having the same random erratic behavior while using the 6 inch coil hunting nuggets. I generally push sensitivity and then back off when it becomes too chirpy for me. I was hunting the same area, so I wasn't facing variable ground conditions from day to day. There also isn't an EMI issue there. I have a 6k and that ran well and there are no power lines or even cell signals for miles. I ultimately need to send it in, but life and work keep distracting me. Ha.