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Some great news everyone, this one has been a while in development but a good one, the new v3.0 firmware for the Algoforce. NOTICE - Introducing the latest Software Version 3.0.0 Release Date: 11/10/2025 Overview Version 3.0.0 introduces major usability enhancements for both beginner and advanced users, building on the foundation set in Version 2.0.0. Key highlights include: A new Standard Mode designed for beginners. A Quick Start Guide in Standard Mode to simplify setup. Restored full flexibility in Advanced Mode, giving expert users more control while maintaining informative coil compatibility feedback. What’s New in V3.0.0 1. Three User Modes The previous Standard Mode has been renamed to Intermediate Mode. A new Standard Mode has been added, tailored specifically for beginners who want maximum simplicity. Advanced Mode remains available for expert users who prefer full control. 2. Quick Start Guide in Standard Mode When powered on in Standard Mode, the detector now launches a simple 7-step Quick Start Guide to help new users get detecting quickly and confidently. The guide walks through: Coil Calibration Detection Mode Selection Frequency Scan Volume & Vibration Adjustment Sensitivity Adjustment Ground Balance Display Adjustment This guided workflow ensures new users start with optimal settings right from the beginning. 3. Restored Flexibility in Advanced Mode Based on community feedback, Advanced Mode now gives full access to all detection modes: Modes for which the coil is not ideally calibrated will still appear greyed out to indicate they are not optimal. Greyed-out modes are now selectable. The real-time coil status for the currently selected mode can be viewed in the Coil Selection menu, with three possible states: Uncalibrated Ready Not Optimal Coil Status Accuracy – Important Tip When the coil is close to mineralised ground or large metal objects, its electrical characteristics can temporarily change. This may cause the detector to report the coil as suboptimal, even if it is functioning normally. To avoid false coil status readings, follow the usage tip from the user manual: 💡 Tip: For accurate coil status detection, fully extend the shaft and lift the coil at least 50 cm above the ground before checking status. Compatibility and Installation Compatible with all existing E1500 and E1500 Plus units. Please follow the standard firmware update process as outlined in the user manual. Currently, the AlgoDownloader (firmware upgrade tool) is only available for Windows PCs. A Mac version is still in development. A new v3 Manual V3 Firmware Software Update Tool for Windows

I made it up to a high altitude site 2.5 hours drive from my home to do some testing. Worst dirt in my area. This location has mostly really small gold from 0.15 gram to microscopic. It also has tons of magnetite and mantle type hot rocks that are metamorphosed granite. So, finding any gold with a detector is a miracle. I tested the Algoforce 1500 plus with an older Nugget Finder Advantage 10X5" coil, Deus 2 and HF2 coil using Goldfield in Pitch 2 and Pitch 1, and the new Goldmonster 2000 with the 5" coil in A2, Difficult soil with Echo Wave audio ON. The dirt at the test sight has been mined and is unsorted small pebble to house sized boulder metamorphosed granite with no structure. Disturbing the top few inches of the ground is no big deal since it has been totally disturbed already. Targets are 0.04 gram gold nugget at 1" depth, 0.1 gram gold nugget at 2" depth, and a 0.15 gram gold nugget at 3" depth. This is not a comparison video. I don't say much and I don't want to influence anyone unless they ask my opinion. Sorry for my disjointed speech. I have a speech impediment and stuttered really bad until I got some help early in life. Before the test, I hunted with the Goldmonster 2000 for about 2 hours. After the first 30 minutes of getting used to it and digging many hot rocks and a few iron/magnetite targets to get the feel for them, due to limited time, I got much more selective and just dug anything with a target ID below 10. Most of the hot rock target IDs and the larger magnetite and nails had target IDs above 10 with iron audio responses and iron probability graph responses. I hit my first small non ferrous target and it had the typical high-low-high-low audio response and an 02 target ID. It was a small shotgun pellet. I recovered several more lead targets and one small 0.04 gram gold mini nugget. I didn't have much time for this hunt with 5 hours of driving round trip but I have to say, the time spent with the Goldmonster 2000 was the most enjoyable that I have ever had running a VLF at this site. The Goldmonster 2000 audio is just the way I like it. It is almost like Whites Mixed Mode audio with the addition of that really high pitched extra non ferrous tone and with a very pulse induction type flavor to the audio instead of just the typical VCO gold prospecting specific VLF detector type audio that can get old fast. The threshold tone was super nice and only got a little chatty when aircraft flew over the site. The test area was about 30 yards from some big power lines. No way I could run an Equinox, SDC 2300 or a GPX using a mono coil that close to those power lines without lots of EMI issues. Also, the smaller magnetite bits and the numerous hot rocks were simply not an issue. I could hear them often but their audio and displayed responses were easy to interpret. The GM2K's automatic ground tracking worked great. I am VERY impressed with the GM2K. Thanks to everyone from OZ, especially JP and USA based Steve H. and Andrew for all of their fair and honest information about this new detector. I haven't been this happy with a detector since the original Equinox release.

Seems to be a ton of interest in it for sure. I plan on getting one, once the pros in the US have time to evaluate and report on it.

How does the E1500 compare to the GM2000?

@phrunt if you get time could you compare the GM2000 to the Algoforce?

I find the speculation that the E1500 will somehow outperform detectors costing much more money to be, well, how to put this nicely… questionable at best. If this detector was GPX 6000 class it would be stupid to sell it for one quarter the price of a GPX 6000. I don’t think Alex is stupid. Here is the current price structure in Australia (U.S. prices at bottom) as of today after Garrett just introduced the lower priced stripped down Axiom package: 1. Minelab GPZ 7000 $10,499 2. Minelab GPX 6000 $8,999 with two coils 3. Minelab SDC 2300 $4,399 4. Garrett Axiom $4,399 with one coil (Axiom Lite) 5. Algoforce E1500 with Sadie & Battery $2649 6. Minelab Manticore $2499 7. Minelab Gold Monster $1299 From my use of the E1500 I think that you are going to get what you pay for. The E1500 is a very affordable option at close to the price of a top end VLF and will outperform said VLFs on gold in mineralized ground. I think the E1500 falls short of SDC 2300 and Axiom level performance, essentially being a bridge between VLF detectors and those models. The 6000 and 7000 continues to rule the roost but at twice the price of the SDC/Axiom level you are not getting twice the depth. Pulling a number out of my posterior I’d assign a very debatable expectation of about a 15% increase in overall performance at each major step up in price. People can of course argue that number all day long but I think it is very important to give newbies some sense of reality. Twice the money does not get twice the performance. Gains are more like 10% - 15% - 20%…. pick your number, but it’s not double, triple, quadruple. If I was still selling detectors I’d explain to this new customer here in the U.S. (that's important given price differential elsewhere) that they can go find a gold nugget with a Gold Monster or a Manticore. I’d explain that for not much more than a Manticore they could get an AlgoForce E1500 or an Axiom and be able to deal with mineralized ground and hot rocks that will give the VLF models real trouble. I’d tell them that for substantially more money the SDC 2300 is pretty much fully automatic and also waterproof but other than that the less expensive models will serve as well or better, especially given the lack of SDC coil options. Finally, I’d tell them that if money is no object and they simply want the best performance they can get, to look at the 6000 or 7000. I’d comment that out of the box with provided coils the 6000 would have the edge for smaller gold, and the 7000 the edge on larger gold. Adding aftermarket coils (and more money) to the 7000 can close the gap between it and the 6000 on small gold, but nothing you do to the 6000 will have it hitting the big stuff as deep as the 7000. That would be my short and sweet sales presentation and I offer it up as the most simplified big picture no B.S. look at the scene as you are likely to find. My somewhat educated opinions only, feel free to toss in trash bin if you don’t agree. In the States this is the situation as of 2/19/2025 1. Minelab GPZ 7000 $9,499 2. Minelab GPX 6000 $6,999 with two coils 3. Minelab SDC 2300 $3,699 4. Garrett Axiom $1,999 with one coil (Axiom Lite) 5. Algoforce E1500 with no battery or coil $1650 (figure about $2000 at least once battery and coil added) 6. Minelab Manticore $1,799 7. Minelab Gold Monster $849 8. Garrett 24K $679

Hi Guys, Happy Australia Day!! Kind of cool to have another Aussie developed PI raising some eyebrows today. I should start by saying that unfortunately, FCC testing has not been done yet, so the product cannot be sold to the US at this point in time. But is available to NZ customers - so ignore my email Simon ? I have done a little testing on the E1500, and a few of my features/suggestions were added in, but the detector was already quite developed when I was approached for some feedback. There was a software update and then the user manual needed to be updated to include the changes. I've only had limited time on the latest version, but here's some info that will get you up to speed a little bit. 1. First of all, performance wise, this thing sits between a Gold Monster/Gold Kruzer and SDC2300. It is extremely sensitive to tiny targets, but depth won't match a 5000/6000 on large targets. I think the SDC2300 will remain superior in really bad soil conditions, but the E1500 is quite adjustable (broad sensitivity range), and obviously with different coil options, e.g. round/elliptical/semi-elliptical and flat wound/bundle wound, you can kind of dictate the performance a little bit. 2. It is for mono coils only, but works very well. Coil calibration feature is a nice touch, and optimises the electronics for any slight variations between coils. It will also tell you if you need to calibrate or not. 3. Current wise it draws about 700 ma on average, so a 10 AH power bank should run for about 13-14 hrs. Great for guys hiking into remote spots with no power. Just carry three power banks and you're good to go for days. 4. Tested on a 0.05g bit of gold and the E1500 was better than a 4500. With a Sadie coil it is super sensitive, and the tone modulation is very sharp. With an older Minelab 11" super gold search coil, depth is improved, but signal sharpness is not as good, but runs extremely stable. The 14x9" Evo seems to be a great coil for it. I think a Detech 8" mono, Minelab 8" Mono and NF 12x7" Advantage would be the pick of the coils for really hot ground, as they are bundle wound. Possibly add in the old Coiltek 11" round terracotta, and Minelab Commander and earlier Super Gold Search. But in average mineralised conditions, the Evo coils work great. 5. Hotrocks. A 6000 with 11" Mono is a little more immune to hotrocks than the E1500 with Sadie coil in Ultra Fine timing. With a slower timing, and larger coil, hot rocks are far less detectable as you'd expect. But, being a PI it is vastly superior to a VLF. 6. The shaft and hand grip feel great. 2 arm strap sizes is excellent and should cater for most people. 7. Buttons feel really nice. They have a very positive click about them. 8. The Auto ground balance works great, but is on the slower side. Slower than 4500. This is a ground balance reset only, i.e. after it has ground balanced, the ground balance is locked - just like a GP/GPX machine in Fixed. It is not continuously tracking like the SDC2300 or 6000. However, you can see when the ground balance is going out with the Ground Drift function - so it is sort of tracking in the background, but it's up to the user to reset it. 9. Interference with other detectors - I've only been out once with another prospector who was using a GPZ7000 with a 12" NF coil. We found that I needed to be about 10 metres away, that's with a Sadie on the E1500. Any closer and the GPZ would start to pick it up. 10. The Sensitivity range is great. I expect most people are going to run it in the low 20's, but in super quiet conditions, 26-30 are kind of like boost. I've got a lot more testing I'd like to do, and still playing around with headphone options, but having independent threshold and volume controls as well as adjustable tone, it should be able to adapt to pretty much any wired or wireless options. The target ID feature was demo'd to me, and appeared to be quite stable, but I haven't played around with it much at this point. So what is? It is a very well built PI machine, with a collapsible 3 pc shaft, has the benefit of being compatible with legacy 5-pin coils, a very well thought out user interface with a simple menu, and all the important functions you need. It is not waterproof, and doesn't have built in wireless, and comes as a bare bones kit, but all these things have allowed it to be offered at an attractive price point. It is not a deep machine. If you want depth on a budget, get a S/H 4500 or 5000 with a 20" mono or 25" DD. If you want to find small gold as well as specimens and reefy gold, then the AlgoForce E1500 is worth a look. Hope that gives you a bit of a better understanding of its capabilities. Yes, I plan on doing some videos so you can see how it behaves and what it sounds like.

There are a few murmurs of discontent floating around regarding the E1500 in hot ground and I was hoping to see some actual field reviews of this detector, but apart from a couple short remarks and Simon's testing.....NOTHING. If I am to part with my $$ to buy one, I'd rather hear from an actual user here in Australia first.

I don't know if anyone will find this interesting or not, I personally don't as my soils very different and I don't know how the conditions in this area would relate to my own but it was good to see the difference between the NF EVO and 14"x9" Elite. It just refuses to hit that 18" target at the end, I would have liked to see another detector in the mix to see how it went on that target, a 6000 or 5000 would have been nice to see, I'm sure the 5000 would be all over it.

Video is down now. GPX-5000 & Algo teamed up with the Nugget Finder New MK-2 [Semi-Flat Wound (Rectangular)] Coil

I decided it was time to give a brief report about the use of my Algoforce up in the California Sierra Nevada mountains now that I've had it a couple of weeks. First off, I agree with most users that this machine is very nice to use with all of its outstanding features such as being light-weight, capable of using a variety of coils, very low succeptibility to EMI, a fantastic, easy-to-view screen, and some unique functions such as the non-motion pinpoint mode with ID. While I've only used this unit for about 12 hours total, I felt right at home using it from the get-go since its easy to understand the settings and target responses for a seasoned nugget detectorist like me. My dad, who has experience using his ML GPX 5000, used it for a couple of hours and once I showed him the very basics, he was off and running. He noted how super quiet it ran and how it was easy to swing. I primarily ran the Algoforce in some old hydrauilic pits in the high sierras. I did manage to find 1 nugget during that time. In general, I find large hydro pits to be the PITS for detecting due to them being obvious spots for detectorists to search for the past several decades. Not to mention they still contain an abundance of trash, nails, flat metal and wire being chief among it. I brought along my Nugget Finder coils, including the 8x6 Sadie original, 12x8 Evolution and 14x9 Evo. All calibrated in Ultra Fine timing with no problems. I could use them all at 22 sensitivity or a bit higher in the case of the Sadie and all ran stable and ground balanced just fine. After a brief test swing of each coil, I planned to settle on using the Sadie coil since I figured I'd primarily concentrate on areas with exposed or shallow bedrock. However, while quickly using the 12x8 Evo, I scored the nugget of my first trip. It was a .34gram flat piece with some rough texture, found at about 3.5in deep under some loose decomposed bedrock and just under the hardpan beneath. Not a bad start at all. I figured that was a good omen snagging a nugget so soon. But, alas that was the last nugget for me. I sent my brother and his ML GPX6000 to the spot and let him mop up the fairly contained area of bedrock while I wandered and tested audio settings on the Algo. My brother did find 4 tiny nuggets in the area around my initial find. I had him run his 11in coil in Auto+2 to have the best shot at finding any others. Of course he found 3 nuggets in the .06gram range each while I was off elsewhere so I couldn't compare signals with his Minelab. But, I went back to that spot once I heard he was having some success. Shortly after I was back, he got a very faint, but repeatale signal about 15ft upslope of where I'd found my gold. Using the NF Saidie 8x6 in Ultrafine/Hot, sens 23, I could also hear the signal he located using the Algoforce. Soft and faint, but definitely just the type of signal nugget hunters look for. Luckily, before digging the target, I remembered to test the pinpoint feature and check for an ID#. I got the coil centered and saw a "00" ID# and told my brother it was likely to be a shotgun pellet since those almost always tend to read a low number like that, whereas gold will ID as 01 or higher. WOW, imagine my surprise when about 1.5in down my brother pulled out a tiny, round nugget about 1/2 the size of the lead pellets we'd found in the area. I later weighed it and it came up at .095grams, so quite small. The irony, my first time using pinpoint ID and a "00" reading was actually gold! It goes to show, dig it all on sweet-sounding signals is best if you want to find gold reliably. I did later pinpoint 2 other soft targets and true to the "00" ID# both were pellets. I imagine the next 97 times I get a "00" will also be pellets, but I have to dig them all and can't skip them now that the first one was gold, haha. I'd include a few pictures of the Algo in action, along with the gold my brother and I found, but my phone had "location services" active, so word might get out where my brother got his .27 grams of gold in 4 nuggets and I got my whopper .34gram one. Can't have that, haha!

Here is a video of the Algoforce being used and finding a few decent size (Aussie small) bits of gold with the 10x5" and 9" Elite Max coils.

The new V2 firmware for the Algoforce included a change around coil calibration, in past versions an out of spec coil would fail calibration, basically saying the coil needs calibrated, usually for ultra fine mode however you could still manually select and use ultra fine mode for detecting, albeit sub optimally and you would likely be better off using it in fine mode where it did calibrate for best results. Since V2 the modes that don't calibrate have been blocked from use and you can no longer select them on an out of spec coil, this has bought to light just how many out of spec coils are floating around out there. Common offenders are the older Detech coils, especially the smaller coils and the two Nugget Finder Sadie coils, the original and the Mk2, I've noticed a number of people with the Sadies and the problem and the Nugget Finder 12x8" EVO is also hit and miss although I'm sure there are more. I would assume this is something to do with being hand wound coils and just not getting it perfectly right every single time. With the Detech coils they're generally really old coils people are using and I'm not sure if that's something to do with it, coils going out of spec over time or just out of spec from the start? All of this went unnoticed on the earlier GPX series. Some people have been upset that in the older firmware they were using ultra fine with their coil and now they can't with the new firmware, the idea of blocking out the out of spec coils from using modes they don't calibrate in was because they were not going to work properly in that mode so using ultra fine with a coil that won't calibrate is more like a placebo, it makes you feel good you're in ultra fine but you're not benefitting from doing so. The coil calibration algorithm in the v2 firmware is the exact same as in the previous firmware so both would have the same results with pass/fail on coils, the only difference being version 2 blocks the sub optimal coils using the modes they won't work well in. Here are some examples of the discussion around it the past couple of days with people having these problems. One person thinks their Sadie MK2 is a Coiltek coil, mistake on their part there. The good news is it looks like Nugget Finder or at least the dealer replaced the out of spec MK2 Sadie for a customer and he got a working replacement, this seems the best path forward on coils that are under warranty still if the dealers/manufacturer will replace them, I'm sure Coiltek will if the problem pops up for their coils as they advertise them for the Algoforce although I've never seen one of their coils having the problem. Where the guy in the original post says his ground balance numbers disappear, this behaviour is normal he's just only new to the detector, after 3 seconds the ground balance numbers do go away after performing a ground balance.

Is there a thread here that compares these two? I'm just thinking about the small gold comparison with the M8. I think Simon is new to both of them if he has an M8. He was comparing the Manticore to the 800 and some others. Does Norvic have a Manticore?

I got to do a short 2 hour hunt/test of the Algoforce 1500 Plus using the new Coitek Elite Max 9" coil at a site in Central Colorado that has so much magnetite that as Steve H. calls it, it's like detecting on a big sheet of cast iron. Magnetite at this location goes from microscopic to golf ball size and every detector goes off on it. Thankfully, the Algoforce ignored all of it that was sub gram size for the most part. I did chase a few really hot spots where there was a concentration of pea sized magnetite 4" or more below the surface or where the magnetite was so concentrated in one area that I could not keep up with ground balancing since it was below the surface and I only noticed it after walking into the concentration. This site not only has huge amounts of magnetite, it also has a major set of power lines running right through it. Anyway, I have taken these PI detectors to this site. GPX 4000, GPX 4800, GPX5000, SDC 2300, GPX 6000, and the Axiom. None of those detectors could get within 100 yards of those power lines without being adversely effected enough to seriously hinder detecting. The SDC2300 was basically unusable and I had to switch to DD coils on the GPX models to get them to run quietly enough to hear smaller sub gram targets. The Axiom focused core 11X7" DD coil could not ground balance at this site until I switched to Normal timing and lowered sensitivity a lot. The mono coil handled the ground well but got killed by EMI. The Algoforce did not suffer from any EMI issues. I was able to walk to within 10 yards of the power lines before I had to lower the sensitivity below 20 and do a noise cancel. I was running it in Ultra Fine. Just lowering sensitivity to 17 allowed me to walk right under the power lines. Amazing. Sometimes PI detectors that are not affected by EMI too much especially using a DD coil, also lose some sensitivity. Not the Algoforce. I did not find any gold but I did find some really tiny targets that only a gold prospecting VLF can find usually. That was using Ultra Fine with sensitivity on 20 with the Coiltek Elite Max 9" coil. Part of this is the sensitivity of the Algoforce, but a huge part is its sensitivity AND quiet running with a dead steady threshold tone. Even the US Air Force jets that over flew the site barely wiggled that threshold. All of the sub 0.1 gram targets were easy to hear even at 2 to 3" deep. The shotgun shell head stamp was a full 9" deep and gave a clear hit before I started removing dirt. Something interesting. There are plenty of metamorphic mantle rocks at this site that are hot rocks. The Algoforce was barely responding to them. However, if there was a target nearby one of those hot rocks, just moving it out of the way a bit really cleaned up a weaker legitimate target response. I did not hunt by target ID. I just hunted by tones. Larger pieces of iron and nails had obvious double beeps when they were closer to the surface. Bits of tin had an unsteady, wavering tone depending on size. The lead targets shown in the photo gave classic High/Low audio responses that were strong and screamed "dig me"! Hot rocks had weak, off center hits. The Algoforce 1500 Plus was running so quietly (just kidding since I was using headphones) that two Rocky Mountain Snowshoe hares just walked right up to me. One sat down nearby and I got a nice photo. They looked to weigh about 5 lbs and were at least 2 feet long with huge back feet. I wish I had been able to hunt longer but it's a 3 hour drive one way from my home. There is plenty of flour gold at this site. I have found specie and sub 0.3 gram pickers with VLF detectors at this location. I have no doubt that I will be able to find some gold at this site with the Algoforce.

Trialing the 2nd prototype of the 10x7 cleansweep coil and for the 1st time ever, I got a 00 ID on the E1500 that turned out to be gold!

I sent Alex some general questions about coils and connections. First, while damage is unlikely, the detector should not be powered on without a coil attached. Also, coils should not be connected or disconnected while the detector is powered up. The E1500 is designed specifically for the use of mono coils and is wired to run one winding as both transmit and receive coil - the definition of a mono coil. A DD coil may be attached to the E1500 and it will normally operate but with only one half the coil active. One half of the DD coil will act as a mono coil, and the other half will simply remain an open circuit. The is identical to what happens with Minelab GP and GPX models when you run a DD coil in mono mode. From the GPX 5000 manual: "Using a Double D coil, running in Mono will often increase the sensitivity of the detector but may also be a little more unstable in heavily mineralised ground. Pinpointing is not centred in the middle of the coil, but to the left side, and may give a complex signal when the target is very close to the coil. It is recommended you use the left edge of the coil to pinpoint shallow targets." To clarify, when they say that the detector may be more unstable in heavily mineralized ground, they mean compered to the DD coil being run in DD mode. Running it in mono mode turns the coil into a smaller, hotter mono coil, which not only increases it's sensitivity to small gold but also ground and hot rock effects. Alex emphasized that they did no testing with DD coils but that there is no problem giving them a try. This raises interesting possibilities for people who own a DD coil and want to try it. For instance, a Minelab Commander 10" x 5" DD coil would be transformed into a roughly 10" x 3" mono coil if attached to the E1500. It would obviously still be the same physical size and weight, but also might be a very sharp small gold coil that would cover a decent swath of ground. As the DD coils get larger you would be paying a significant size and weight penalty, but on 11" and smaller coils they are light enough already it should not pose an issue. And mind you, I am not recommending people run out and get DD coils to do this. It is just that there are a lot of these coils out there sitting unused and perhaps a E1500 user will already have one, or get one dirt cheap to play with. Good article here by forum member Nenad (phasetech) on mono and DD coil differences. Algoforce E1500 Specifications & Manuals Double D (DD) coil in both DD mode and Mono mode

Good news, a new firmware is ready to roll. Release Note for Software V2.0.0 Release Date: 08/05/2025 At AlgoForce, we are deeply committed to continually investing in research and development to enhance the performance and user experience of our detectors. We proudly provide these improvements to our customers through free software upgrades — and we’ve done it again. Just like smartphones and other advanced electronic products that require continual software upgrades to unlock new features, improve performance, and enhance user experience, the E1500 series also evolves through ongoing software development. This ensures your detector remains at the cutting edge without the need to buy new hardware. Version 2.0.0 represents the most significant update to the detector’s interface and usability since the launch of the E1500. It is highly recommended that all E1500 and E1500 Plus users upgrade to take full advantage of the new features and improvements. What’s New • Dual User Modes: Standard & Advanced This version introduces two selectable user modes to better suit different experience levels. Users can seamlessly switch between modes to match their detecting style and skill level. Standard Mode simplifies the interface for beginners, focusing on ease of use. Advanced Mode provides greater control and customisation for experienced users. • Improved Menu Layout & Navigation Menus have been reorganised for more intuitive navigation. • Enhanced Visual Feedback Updates to on-screen messaging improve clarity and usability, enhancing overall interaction with the detector. Note: · Please refer to the Software Upgrade Instructions on page 23 of the user manual to perform the software upgrade. · After upgrading from an older version, any customised coil size settings and coil calibration data will be reset. Once the upgrade is complete, be sure to calibrate the coil as you would with a new detector by following on-screen instructions under Calibrate Coil in Standard User Mode or Coil Selection in Advanced User Mode. You can download it here: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0793/5416/7570/files/AlgoForce_E1500Plus_software_V200.bin?v=1746620816 Also, for those with a Mac, you'll notice the Mac Firmware upgrade tool is coming soon on their website, Downloads – AlgoForce Pty Ltd until then, it's borrow a friends computer. Here are some photos of the screen with the new firmware, ignore my dodgy install of a screen protector 🙂 I've never been good putting them on. New user mode selection screen, default is the basic mode, and after firmware install it will be in basic mode wanting to calibrate the attached coil. You just go left for basic, right for advanced. Doing a noise cancel. Detect mode screen on the Large Gold setting where you can select between 3 pulse delays, helps if you want to cut out detecting pellets and only find bigger stuff to go to Pulse Delay 3. My favourite Ultra fine mode. Volume is top left of the screen, its on 2 at the moment as I'm just at home, backlight is the 0 on the right. This screen works very well in the sun so you have the backlight off generally unless you're on a very cloudy day or night time. The soil types screen, I stick to Low Mineral here, mostly others will be on the left for Mineralized soils when looking for gold, unless they're lucky. The default soil mode, hot! Lucky last is beach mode. The Calibrate coil screen, easy to do just follow the instructions on screen. This is in mild mode, you'll see there is no ground drift down the bottom of the screen, valuable real estate too so hopefully Algoforce can come up with something to put there to benefit mild soil users. There is a G up near the numbers at the top now, the reason is people were confusing this with Target ID which is only in Pinpoint mode, it's the ground phase number. A photo in mineralised mode, showing the Ground drift, my ground doesn't drift here so the bars don't move but they extend outwards indicating when you need to ground balance, the bigger they grow the more you need to think about doing a ground balance. Here is me attempting a ground balance but as I'm in mild mode, there is no GB required as GB is disabled, although I never really need to balance in my soils around here anyway. And the new coil selection screen, it's been modified a bit to be more descriptive, and the default selection of coils has changed to more suit the available coils on the market currently, these can be edited to describe your own size coils, the Coiltek 10x5" now leads the list. A good default selection though. Connected is my 10" spiral X-coil so I'll edit a slot to take it soon, likely the 8x6" as I'll likely never use my Sadie and will use the other sizes pre-configured. This is going over a target in detect mode. And pinpoint mode with Target ID, this is in 100 tones pinpoint mode, once I get over the target I'll get the arrows on the bullseye and the most reliable target ID. This is near to a target, but not centered on it. This is a different target and I'm centered on a target, note the arrows up the top on the bulleye. This one is done in 5 tones pinpoint mode. I think this firmware will be much easier for beginners to use and understand, and still the advanced users are not cut out as they have all the features they always had with an improved interface.

I found this interesting, a Turkish coil manufacturer has made an 85" cm coil for the Algoforce and seems happy with the results for use in artifact and treasure hunting in Europe. These type of people hunt for long hours looking for large deep objects and they seem quite happy with the Algoforce for the purpose, I guess it would be very light compared to something like a GPX 5000 and appears to be doing well with depth. 180cm depth on 20*20 copper metal 120cm depth on 10*10 nickel.. And an air test video When he asked me if the Algoforce would be suitable for this task I said no, turns out I was wrong, he's very happy with it for the purpose and now wants to become a dealer for Türkiye likely bundling it with his giant coils.

A friend without Youtube filmed this video so I'm putting it up for him, he was playing around with his Algoforce and comparing it to the GPX 6000 and Manticore in some black salty sand and he did a good demonstration of how well the Algoforce can handle these difficult conditions that the GPX 6000 cannot handle at all. He's using a MK2 Sadie in the video, you can make it work even better and deeper with a less sensitive coil. I've had good results in my testing with the 11" Commander Mono in this sort of situation. I've never understood when someone says the GPX 6000 handles tough conditions well, just because the packaging says all gold, all soils, all the time doesn't mean it's true 🙂 The older GPX models were much better in very tough ground like this black sand. I've seen the same results as in this video around here, the 6000 fails badly in tough black sand conditions where the earlier GPX 4500/5000 worked much better and as you can see in this video the Algoforce also does very well and can even accurately Target ID accurately in the black sand. The GPX 6000 also fails in hot rocks around here that the Algoforce handles well. We have some of the worst black sand in the world in NZ at some of our West Coast beaches, I'm yet to take my Algo to the worst pure black sand beaches but the mixed sand and black sand beaches I've tried so far, it's worked remarkably well. I hope to get a chance to go to some of the really bad beaches soon as I'll have a good advantage over the previous attempts by people to detect them, I think, the Tarsacci that was touted as handling our beaches was a massive failure and didn't work well at all, I expect the Algo is going to do much better from what I've seen so far. I'll get some video when I make it to a good black sand beach showing how I go.

A friend without Youtube filmed this video so I've uploaded it for him, he was experimenting with the Target ID feature on the Algoforce, it's a good demonstration of how they work.

Not my video

I'm only new to the SDC having just got one, although it doesn't take a rocket scientist to use it 🙂 I find it quite a nice detector to use, I don't find its ergonomics bad at all, a little awkward with the coil the way it is but nothing that I wouldn't get used to, it feels quite light, obviously not near as light as an Algoforce but nothing I'd be worried about weight wise. I love how it folds up and will be taking advantage of that to put in a backpack to take places I wouldn't normally bother taking a detector due to the effort involved. Some may wonder why I don't bury the little jars, firstly, it's a waste of my time, these types of nuggets are found so close to the surface with both detectors and normally only found in shallow bedrock areas it's just not worth my time, and in my mild soils what I see in the air is what I see in the ground, there is very little difference if any on the inground and above ground results, with my soils being so mild. All I care about is outright performance, and the one that does best, as my inground results always mirror that. So far initial impressions are the Algoforce is slightly more sensitive to small gold even with both running a bundle wound coil, I'm yet to compare using a spiral on the Algoforce. It also benefits from having more settings such as for me the mild soil mode which gives it a bit of a boost over the SDC that's fixed in its timings. I hadn't used the SDC prior to this morning as we haven't had idea weather, now a big high has come over and it is becoming fine, our big high is pushing that cyclone over Brisbane which isn't good. Anyway, I made a mad dash down to the river behind my house this morning to compare the SDC to the Algo on some small nuggets, all in the 0.2 and under size, maybe the biggest one might be .4 and the smallest 0.03 , really can't remember most of their sizes as they're just recent finds I put into little tubs. To be fair on the SDC I used a bundle wound 10x6" coil on the Algoforce as it was the closest coil I had to the 8" round bundle coil on the SDC, I can't help but think if I left my 10" Spiral on the Algoforce the gap between the two detectors would grow quite a bit and the SDC would be left behind, that's something for another day. I was happy with the performance of the SDC, I found it very similar to the Algoforce with estimated depths on the nuggets with a slight edge to the Algoforce across the board I think, and that increased a bit when I switched to the mild soil mode on the Algoforce which lucky for me I can hunt in around here so for me at least, I'd prefer to take the Algoforce on a hunt than the SDC, in saying that I'm sure in different environments the SDC would be the most beneficial with its tracking and potentially better soil handling, I'm no expert on mineralized soils by any means so really don't know performance differences in that scenario, hot rocks are my issue and both the SDC and Algo so far appear to handle them similarly although the SDC doesn't see some at all that the Algo needed to balance over. Anyway, I did this little bit of a run over these nuggets for my own benefit so I could see how the difference was between them, you're seeing it as I saw it, I had not done the test before I started filming and had no idea what the results would be. I quite like the SDC so far, a pleasant surprise.

Well, it was a bit before I was going to, and it is used instead of new, but I bit the bullet and purchased an Algoforce. Many of you probably missed it as it was only up in the Forum classifieds for a few hours but Phrunt decided to sell his Algoforce. And the price was simply too good to refuse. Sorry @PhaseTech but you missed a sale. Probably hear from me shortly re: a Quest Wire Free Mate though 😉 I wanted something as a back-up detector for the 5000 and also something for friends/family to use as a few of them have started getting interested. Was thinking about a new Algo or waiting to see what the Nokta PI might be like but was swaying towards the Algo with the easy battery options and being able to use GPX coils I already have. So, I took it out for 1.5 hrs last evening for a little trial with the Sadie MK2. Went to a little area that I generally test new detectors when looking at what their 'tiny nugget' capabilities are. Found 3 bits, a tiny piece of lead shot, a few bits of tin, etc. 1 target that ended up being gold was actually a target that I knew was there and had left for a mate to see if he could hear it with his Gold Monster, but he's become disinterested in detecting. Originally had been found with the 6000 and the 11" mono. I had tried that piece with the modded 5000 in its 'smallest' setting and the MK2 Sadie and it couldn't hear it. The Algo heard it no worries at all which sort of did and didn't surprise me. It is designed for small gold so it makes sense, but I've also found some tiny bits with the 5000. Different gold make-up maybe? Settings were pretty easy and straight forward. I need to read up a bit more about the noise cancel and how to do it most effectively. Mostly ran about 25 Sensitivity. 27 was too much and 23 was a dead flat Threshold. Feels like a sturdy construction, obviously finds the tiny bits and should be really easy for family/friends to pick up and use knowing that they are a genuine chance of finding some yellow. Having been a QED owner I can't help but think this is the sort of final product that Howard was aiming for? A lightweight, easy to use, good value PI for the general hobbiest fossicker/prospector. Probably try the 12" round EVO next and will also put on the NF 11X7 Advantage that didn't seem to work well at all on the 5000 and see if it calibrates. Bit more learning and trial and error yet but thus far quite pleased with the purchase. Oh and P.S. - this is an original E1500 with a few of the newer bits blinged on. However, the speaker is the original and it is the only complaint I have so far - it is terrible. With a Quest and earbuds it will be fine but it is a shame they made it out of the design stage with such a poor speaker set-up.