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  1. My last trip to the desert was to an area where we are treated with many hot rocks. I've dealt with them each time I go to the Mojave/Mohave Desert. We picked up a few so that my son could give them to his classmates. I brought 50 or so home and washed them and tested them with a magnet. To my surprise there is a great difference in attraction to a super magnet. Some give an indication of repulsion rather than attraction. So, what exactly is a HOT ROCK? This article gives me more information about hot rocks and metal detecting than I've ever read. It makes some of my personal observations about ground, hot rocks, gold and meteorites come together. Hot Rocks (metaldetectingworld.com)
  2. Hello. It's my understanding that BBS and FBS have slow recovery, and therefore are not ideal in trashy sites compared to the newer detectors. As such, I have a couple of questions regarding that. 1) Does FBS and BBS have slow recovery due to the more robust frequency transmitting and receiving, or is it because they have slow processors compared to modern detectors? Or is it a combination of both? 2) With BBS or FBS, could a user match the separation performance of modern detectors by slowing their swing speed to a crawl? Thanks for reading this. I'm looking forward to the replies 🙂
  3. Google failed me in my quest for an answer. Modern metal detectors are obviously based on some microchip(s) to be able to do all that they do. So I was wondering what chipset they use and what type of language do they use to make the detector do what it does. I am guessing that this may be confidential company information in some or even many cases and I am not asking anyone to break any laws. I am assuming other than the D2A and A2D chips/circuits it is probably mostly like any other programming language like C++. I know there are some very talented members on this forum who can dive very deep into the weeds in terms of modern metal detector designs.
  4. Hello. I didn't see a general detector talk forum, so I hope this forum is ok for this topic. I own 3 detectors with emi noise reduction, and on all 3, it does little to nothing to reduce emi noise. I've also watched countless videos in which numerous types of smf detectors are very noisy due to emi, then a noise reduction is done, and as usual, it does diddly squat. They end up doing what we do, and reduce the sensitivity, or use a single frequency. SMF is so prone to emi because apparently, when the frequencies are combined and "added together", then emi noise from the various frequencies, is also added together and therefore the noise is exponentially increased. So, my question is: What exactly is technically occurring when you run a noise reduction? Does it filter out or reduce the sensitivity of the frequencies that are receiving noise? If so, why doesn't it work very well? Is it because if it worked well, then that filtering would significantly diminish the benefits of smf? Also, is it possible that if a particular detectors noise reduction works significantly better than a different detector, then it's because the noise reduction was achieved by reducing the "hidden" fundamental sensitivy? If so, that means you wouldn't see the sensitivity drop, but you would indeed lose sensitivity. So what's up with all that?
  5. This is probably one of the dumbest questions I'll ever ask. Is there any advantage of an old Analog detector like the original Gold Bug over a newer Digital model? Thanks!
  6. Hopefully I put this topic in the right place. This is always a good topic for discussion and has been discussed many times in past. Everyone always has great input and people really do extensive testing on the subject. So it is nice to hear everyone’s thoughts on recent testing techniques/thoughts. Funny this started on another thread, but it needs it’s dedicated place to not take away from the other threads main topic. Actually I was working on a PM then went back to the thread and said wow here come the responses oops should have started this thread first. Someone did mention BASELINE — I agree that sums it up in my opinion, but I do get tunnel vision at times. Don’t we all. I am not a 100 percent on air test as there are many variables in the real world/environment and most notably I do not detect coins/targets in air. This is just my thought process. Although in past I have done a bunch for curiosity. The data though is extremely valuable and worthy of documenting. I applaud/thankful to everyone that provides the information and truly think it helps people understand what a coil can possibly do. Notice I said possible. That real world thing can throw us all for a loop at times. My thing is get the coil/detectors out in the field on unknown targets that are in the ground and see if the different machines can pick up the target in that type of condition with its best settings. Of course it is never apples to apples, but we try. Like when the Karate Kid said ‘when do we get to break boards and he said boards don’t hit back’ well air doesn’t hit back like the ground. Had to poke a lil sick fun. Would like to hear everyone’s thoughts/opinions on what they think a proper air test is and what they are trying to get at vs what’s in the ground testing. Be respectful all points should be well taken. A little debate is good. Know a lot of people put a bunch of time into the testing, so it is great to see a transfer of knowledge. Note I have been offline for awhile dealing with health issues, so I am playing catch up on my readings. I have seen some neat testing setups since I jumped back online while playing catch up. Some are very elaborate in design it’s great seeing this. Gary — ‘The Pulse is Strong with this one”
  7. The World's First Smart Detector & Imaging System that can display the shape, depth and dimensions of underground metals in real time. Ideal for Deep Treasure Hunters, Archaeologists, Municipalities, Utility Companies, CSI and Law Enforcement Agencies. http://noktadetectors.com/invenio-metal-detector.asp
  8. Hi guys: I have been watching youtubes lately and I wonder if anyone had those GER detectors? I wonder why people not using this kind instead as it seems have more depth than our normal detectors such as minelab etc.? Obviously for sure its more expensive. or 3D imaging as well... such as these: https://orientdetectors.com/product-tag/okm/ Kind regards, Ethan
  9. Maybe a stupid question but I do need an answer as I have been mostly nugget hunting and been away form coin hunting for many years. I may have an opportunity to hunt a part of Europe with great potential of finding some nice roman coins. If one was going to hunt coins, and jewelry would you bring a vlf detector or a pulse induction like lets say a sdc 2300 for more depth. I know all about vlf disc and benefits of p.i. in mineralized soils and all the stuff. What I an interested in is depth and not so much avoiding iron junk, I was thinking sdc because its compact and water proof. Does the sdc 2300 go deeper then lets say a Minelab 800 on a small coin ?
  10. While browsing some of my archived files I found some service information for vintage Whites metal detectors, geiger counters and other instruments. Unfortunately I could not fine the source information so I can not give due credit to the source but these documents were originally produced by Whites Electronics. Because Whites is now closed I could not contact them for permission to publish. Steve H: if it is inappropriate for this information to be posted, please feel free to remove it. I thought this information might be useful for those who collect vintage Whites equipment and would like to have some service information. I suspect that, within limits, the information can be projected forward a few years too. Enjoy. 🙂 1946-1971 25 years of metal detector service.pdf add on 25 years.pdf
  11. Hello everyone, Of all the metal mods you've ever used, which was the best metal detector?
  12. I am a late comer to the hobby, and sound quality has become a primary interest. There are areas where headphones are not feasible and in those conditions we are relegated to listening to tones that are moving away from us and subjected to reflections before reaching the ear. That is the farthest thing from sound quality that I can think of. Furthermore the volume has to be elevated because the speaker is not facing us. Where metal detecting is tonal and in many cases tone is or should be a higher priority than a VDI I am at a loss in 2022 to understand this design flaw, or lack of it being an option. Weight? No. Space? No. Electronic Capability? No. What gives? Thanks.
  13. This subject comes up so often it is time to get it into its own thread so I can just link to it in the future. It is best to think of metal detectors made for prospecting as "nugget detectors" as that is the truth of the matter. Nuggets have some size to them. Metal detectors are electromagnetic devices, and as such can detect items that are conductive and non-magnetic, like gold, or non-conductive but magnetic, like magnetite. Or both, like metallic iron. When dealing with gold you are dealing only with conductivity. The more conductive the mass, the easier it is to detect. In general what this means is bigger is better. Any detector has a limit to how small an item it can detect. Here is the kicker. Multiple undetectable targets do not add up to create a detectable target. I do not know how many times I've seen or been told of people throwing a vial of small gold on the ground and running a detector over it and declaring the detector will not find gold because it does not pick up the vial of gold. Or people thinking the detector has a problem. Let us say that on a scale of 0 - 10 zero represents an undetectable piece of gold, and 10 one that really beeps. 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 still equals zero. So lots of tiny gold is just as undetectable as a single piece of tiny gold. You need a single conductive mass. Fine gold usually has a coating, and putting a bunch of fine gold in a vial still results in little or no signal. If the gold is super clean and packed tightly you will get a weak signal. Melt it all together, and now it goes beep. Another way to look at it is take some fine gold and pour it in a pile. Get a multimeter and test your little pile of gold for conductivity. It is hard to get much current if any through a loose pile of gold. So bottom line is you might have 5 ounces of fine gold right under your feet, and you will walk right over it with your metal detector. Rich gold ore where the gold is finely dispersed in the rock will be hard to detect or undetectable. Wiry or spongy masses of gold are hard to detect. Jewelry hunters run into this when trying to detect lost necklaces. A fine chain is very hard to detect as each link is undetectable and the connection between the links is poor enough the signals does not add up to much. Often all you can detect is the clasp. Rings even display this issue if the weld breaks. A complete ring really gives a great signal. Break the ring, it will be very hard to detect. Now once an item is detectable, it does add up. 10 + 10 = 20 so two large nuggets in the same spot are easier to detect than each by itself. If each link in the gold chain can be detected, then it will add up into a more detectable target. A fun trick with target id detectors is to tape 5 nickels together and run them under the coil. They will read as 25 cents! It's hard enough to detect loose items in air tests. It becomes impossible in saltwater.
  14. I see some folks lamenting the lack of concrete ML "official" video and written documentation on M-core. Many of these folks also state they are already on the various dealer waiting lists (which implies they have already made their "buy" decisions regardless of not having that additional information in hand). I too would like to have that information, but I have also not jumped on the dealer waiting list bandwagon and don't intend to actually make the buy decision until I have that concrete information and also hands-on feedback from users I trust. I have no idea what the waiting lists look like for M-core. But presuming they are anything like Equinox (despite M-core being primarily a refined Equinox with some bells and whistles and, hopefully, apparently addressing the design/manufacturing faults of the original Nox (with the requisite price increase) then ML would likely be less motivated to get that additional info out there any sooner than necessary because folks have apparently already made their buy decision, regardless. Think timing for the user guide and instructional videos being closer to, or just in time for, detector release later this year rather than the recent September marketing "launch" (which some are confusing with "release"). This approach, though not uncommon for ML, is consistent with what many view as a pattern of behavior that places the user as a secondary consideration to profit. Why do more than you have to, to make that sale. Yes, not uncommon for businesses, especially successful businesses. But this is in stark contrast to the direct competition like Nokta, Garrett, and even XP who are listening and mostly reacting to customer feedback, in a timely manner. Imagine having to cajole Nokta, et al into admitting, much less addressing, fixing coil ears/coil issues, leaking control pods, speaker problems (GPX 6000), wobbly shafts, enabling cross platform compatibility of accessory coils and audio accessories, releasing manuals well before product release, etc. In some cases there are direct correlations for the competition quickly addressing and fixing these things (even outside of warranty periods) to keep its loyal customers, loyal. And while its true all these players are in business to make profit, ML seems to be too big to worry about these "little" things that users notice and, as many successful businesses do, keeps them under the radar, blame shifts and then quietly addresses them as "improvements" rather than the "fixes" to defects in previous products. ML's ability to outpace the competition in the raw performance and sophistication of its product line (and M-core will surely keep up that tradition and will be a legitimate detecting power tool) is both a blessing and a curse to the customer base, in this respect. The competition has to keep up. It's not enough to keep the customer #1, the product needs to at least be competitive as well. The three competitors mentioned earlier have done a lot in the past year to keep pace. They need to keep pressing to force ML to pay attention to these little things too. Yeah, sitting out the early adopter phase waiting lists on this one. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to snag a like-new unit off the market after release that was dumped by an inexperienced/delusional purchaser who mistakenly bought the YouTube influencer hype and polished marketing and thought was going to be Harry Potter's magic deep keeper magnet and pull tab rejector. These are the impulsive/impatient folks who mistakenly think that detectors make treasure vs. research, site selection, experience, and putting the hundreds of hours in to learn the ins and outs of your new detecting toy. I ought to know, because that was me when I first started out. A little more jaded and experienced now. Been burned (hello MX Sport) and burned again. But even though M-core is not overly compelling compared to what I have right now (that wasn't the case when the game changer Equinox arrived on the scene), I can also still get excited about a new product that even provides marginal improvements and upgrades to what I have now. I'm certainly eyeing M-core. Unless there is some fatal flaw we don't know about, M-core will likely eventually make it to my arsenal, but it will have prove itself BEFORE I wait in line and hand over my cash (this time). But I am hoping these other manufacturers prove something to ML in the near future. Having multiple, competitive manufacturers in the hobby/business is just a good thing for all of us who are passionate about the detecting.
  15. I was in a Treasure Hunting Club meeting one night and someone asked “What’s the Purpose or Advantages of (Simultaneous) Multi-Frequency?”. I went on to explain how different metal objects react to a specific frequency better than others. Some (lower) go deeper and handle mineralized ground better, while others (higher) like small lower conductive targets such as gold. He owned a Nokta Makro Anfibio MF, but can only choose one at a time. So far, my experience hasn’t always been good. In areas with a high concentration of Iron of various sizes and stages of degradation, which can ring anywhere on the VDI Scale, a single frequency Metal Detector excels. I found the same thing in a trashy park, recently. There were too many signals with so much noise, I had to run in a single frequency to quiet everything down. Even then, I had to wiggle the coil and PULL a target out from the various tones around it. Now, I’m not talking about the tried and true, Minelab BBS (17) and FBS (27) technologies. They don’t seem to be plagued by these problems possibly due to the fact that the frequencies are more plentiful and closer together. Neither have I had a problem, with Dual Frequency machines like the DFX and CZs. Most likely because they have fewer frequencies that are farther apart. These are just my educated guesses and not based on any technical data as I’m not “That Guy”. I’m just a Dealer and end user. The ones I’m in reference to are the Equinox, Legend, and Apex where the majority of their frequencies vary by 5kHz. Walt
  16. Hi, I am looking for a way to get a digitised data feed of a metal detector so I can write my own metal detecting system. Any experience with this? A recording of numbers that I can feed in to a programming tool on my laptop is where I would like to be. I assume developers of commercial systems have tools for such. can I buy or make simple powerful diy detector with some coils, amplifiers and a digitiser? There are some diy guides that mention multimeters. Perhaps I could find a usb connected multimeter or a Bluetooth multimeter that connects to a streaming api on the laptop? would these diy multimeters be comparable to commercial systems? Is what makes commercial systems good their special software sauce or are there hardware differences that can’t be acquired by normal people?
  17. Welcome, I was wondering if anyone if using any form of artificial intelligence in their gold detectors? I'm an artificial intelligence (AI) programmer. Last night I was watching Aduk gold on Netflix and suddenly wondered if anyone was using AI? A quick google didn't return much. I'm not sure how familiar everyone is with AI, but essentially since around 2015 it's blowing away peoples expectations year upon year. Simply put, traditional computer programs require humans to code in rules that then lead to a result. AI does that backward, it takes the results and creates its own rules to get to that. To do this with gold would require the creation of training data to feed into the AI. I don't know anything about gold detecting but I imagine you'd bury some pieces of gold and go over it with the detector, then save the waveforms (or equivalent) onto a computer. These become the gold samples. Then also bury things that most often give the most false positives compared to gold, and save those waveforms. The exciting thing compared to a few years ago is that not a huge amount of training data is needed. It's possible to take huge AIs trained by Google and then teach them the new gold samples far quicker with a lot higher accuracy. The process of training is basically the AI guessing 'gold vs not gold', and over millions of iterations it starts to learn. It then can be saved and used in the field to give a percentage estimation of how likely it thinks something is gold. I don't know anything about gold detecting but this is how I would see it used practically. Am I right in thinking that a fair amount of time is spent digging up false leads? If it's not and most of the time is spent surveying the area then the AI isn't very useful. But if there is a lot of time digging up false leads, then if the AI could save someone digging up 90% of the false leads would this create a lot of value? I'm really interested in any thoughts that any of you have regarding this. Cheers Ben
  18. Is this the future of detecting? I think so. Take a set of data points and process them (just as we do with our brains) and voila! It doesn't have to be magic when you have good science to make it repeatable. Watch out missed nuggets! Currently, a type of software based on a machine-learning algorithm called deep learning has been shown to be effective at removing the blurriness or noise in images. These algorithms can be visualized as consisting of many interconnected layers or processing steps that take in a low-resolution input image and generate a high-resolution output image. https://scienceblog.com/520757/smart-algorithm-cleans-up-images-by-searching-for-clues-buried-in-noise/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+scienceblogrssfeed+(ScienceBlog.com)
  19. Steve's post on the merging of metal detectors and smart phones inspired this extremely witty response.. I can see why someone could easily mistake their smart phone for a control box.. 😁 I guess for people glued to their phones all day, nothing much will change when a 'control box app' on our phones becomes a reality.. Can't say I'm looking forward to that day..
  20. Hi I see this software in some one's laptop and I don't know what was that? Can you please tell me where can I purchase it?
  21. I can't but help notice how poor quality metal detectors have become, for such expensive electronic devices the quality is frankly pitiful. I like everybody buy a lot of stuff, from TV's to Vehicles and everything in between and the products I have the most trouble with are metal detectors. Most things I buy last fine, I never really cared about warranty and rarely kept receipts until I started detecting, I'd never needed to use it. Almost everything other than detecting gear I've bought in the last 20 years has lasted well beyond it's warranty period trouble free and most things I've bought in that time I've still got now are working fine or I got rid of them while still in a working state because they were simply replaced with newer stuff. I have a LCD TV that's 15 years old and never had a glitch, it's now just used by my daughter as I couldn't bring myself to throw it out, I had a very large rear projection TV from about 10 years before that and it still works fine but I gave it away and the people are still using it, . I have an original Atari game console from 1983 that I had as a kid that still works, and my original Sega Master System from 1986 still works like it was new yet a lot of the detectors I buy screw up in the first year or two and it's not just me, I see it happening to lots of people. I still have my first ever metal detector from when I was about 8 years of age and the thing still works! I've only been detecting a few years so wasn't overly aware of the history of detectors and their failures but looking around seeing people using old whites metal box machines and people still using Gold Bug 2's from the 90's gave me the impression detectors were built to last. I thought the poor reliability was just a Minelab problem with recent machines like the known build quality issues with the Nox and now the GPX 6000 but if I look back the CTX had it's share of issues too and I would guess other models. The GPX 6000 is dismal, worst quality detector I've seen in my time with a crazy failure rate although some are in denial of this until theirs joins the long line of failures at some point. Nokta come out fighting saying their detectors are far superior build quality than the Nox indicating their Legend would be built tough and reliable and it's turned out anything but, with countless people complaining of problems with some examples being the speaker failing which seems to happen all too often, faulty PCB's, updating issues and an abnormal number of faulty coils, to me from what I've seen their failures are just as bad as any Nox ones, if not more so as they've happened so close to the release date and the problems extending into a range of parts on the detector where as the Nox was mostly leaking which may or may not be a valid warranty as who knows if anyone with a leak used it within it's limits. Yes I know the Nox had other issues like wobbly shafts and I'm certainly not saying the Nox was good build quality, neither of the two are. Fisher came out with the Impulse which was a shambles and had endless faults, although at least it was a beta detector, albeit one people paid for the privilege of testing for them. XP have had their share of problems with the Deus 2. It seems no brand is immune to making rubbish, I haven't had any problems with Garrett personally but their Apex certainly had its issues. I have an original early model Gold Bug 2, my antique and it works a treat, solid as a rock! I have an early Aussie Built GPX 4500 and it purrs along like the day it left the factory, in AUSTRALIA. Whatever happened to detecting companies building good quality products, they used to be able to do it.
  22. Greetings to all! My name is Alexander, I am from Ukraine (Eastern Europe). I represent myself and my friends, we developed a portable type GPR many years ago and gave it the name EasyRad. We have developed a georadar and software for it. We would like to get in touch (get contact) with those people or organizations who need to search for gold in the United States and Alaska. To my regret, on forums of gold prospectors and forums of archaeologists there are no sections "georadars", there are only metal detectors. I would like to convey to the searchers the information that GPR is not expensive and it allows you to explore underground spaces quickly and with great interest 🙂 We produce this GPR equipment, so we can answer all your questions. Our radar has a very affordable price for individual use, unlike other radars. See the web link below for examples. EasyRad GPR is a portable multi-purpose scanning ground penetrating radar of sub-surface probing for the problems of engineering geology, hydrogeology, archeology, ecology, field engineering as well as for search and rescue operations. https://www.easyrad.com.ua/index.php?r=index_en
  23. I had read in Bruce Candy's autobiography that some of the amplifier circuits he developed before coming to Halcro measured interference in the millionths of a part. Does anyone know if these super fast new detectors are approaching that level of efficiency? I'm trying to figure out how they do what they do... ...probably a dumb question...not my first...nor last...😆 cjc
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