I Don`t Understand What Minelab Is Doing

[Steve Herschbach]

Well I am as puzzled and frustrated as much or more than most people. Same deal with Equinox, perhaps the most popular detector on the planet. I thought we would have a 6” x 10” coil by now for the Equinox but like with GPZ I’ve given up hope on Minelab and coils. I look at companies like Nokta/Makro rapidly populate new models with full suites of coils and by comparison Minelab basically does the least possible. I’ll bet the new Nokta/Makro Simplex has more coil options when it’s available than we have with Equinox after two years.

I sold my GPZ for several reasons, the most by far being I am busy and not detecting much now. But there was also a small element of Stevie passive/aggressiveness there, sort of a “F This” kind of feeling over the small coil never happening. I seriously wanted to run the GPZ with a smaller coil and smaller CTX battery... would have been sweet. And no don’t tell me about X Coils. I wanted the real deal from Minelab and their not delivering on that left me disappointed. I had thought the worlds most expensive nugget detector would turn into a fully supported platform. I should have got the hint when an update broke XChange and they could not bother to fix it for a year. That’s what some early buyers paid $10K for? It exudes lack of interest in the large number of people that went all in and that made GPZ a success for Minelab. It is obvious a lot of people are not feeling the love. Well obvious to all but some key people at Minelab it seems.

At one point I was going to write a long letter to Peter Charlesworth about all that and more, but it’s telling I guess that I just don’t care anymore to bother. Seems like a waste of time. Minelab does a lot of wonderful stuff and I am extremely grateful they invest in and truly advance the technology while other companies sit on their hands. But their handling of accessories during and after machine introductions is in my opinion their glaring worst point. Key accessories are never ready when detectors come out, and we are often talking basic stuff like skid plates.

Part of the problem had been Minelab’s refusal to develop a coherent ecosystem where there is some commonality in components or operating systems. There is reasoning that such thinking boxes you in as far as innovation, but having every detector be a unique product with almost nothing that works with or is similar to prior models leaves us all starting from scratch each and every time when a new Minelab model comes out. Accessory items are suffering the most in that regard, and getting costs down via economy of scale is kind of out the window. It sure makes being a Minelab dealer difficult, and near impossible to keep a decent stock of accessories since even stuff like every battery pack and charger is unique.

[mn90403]

Could it be as simple as a development shop that is throttled by an economic financial model that doesn't allow for coil R&D money?

[Steve Herschbach]

Could be lots of things but from a consumer standpoint it’s all just excuses. I could care less about why, I just wish they would do something about it.

[cobill]

6 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Could it be as simple as a development shop that is throttled by an economic financial model that doesn't allow for coil R&D money?

OK, then outsource the coil R&D to the industry experts...Coiltek & Nugget Finder! What is so hard, let it go!

Bill 

[flakmagnet]

56 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Could be lots of things but from a consumer standpoint it’s all just excuses. I could care less about why, I just wish they would do something about it.

I too am over it from a consumer standpoint. There is no excuse for not following through on fulfilling real or implied advancements and additional coils on a ten thousand dollar detector. It is simply ridiculous.

[WesD]

Likely the golden bean counters at Minelab didnt want 2300 sales to drop with introduction of a 7000 small coil, and put a stop to that ever being released.

[Rick K - First Member]

If you read ML’s tech literature, you will find lots of stuff about the benefits of the digital link vs analogue between the coil and control box. I’m sure that there are a number of advantages, hence the presence of the chip in the coil. It isn’t ALL about blocking the aftermarket.

None of this answers the complaint on the lack of original ML coils however.

[Jonathan Porter]

Look outside the box for a minute before casting judgment! I’m not trying to defend Minelab’s stance if it was just corporate greed we were talking about here, instead think about things logically for a bit before going down the ASS U & ME path!

Firstly why did it take so long for the GPZ19 coil to come to market? I can tell you why because I was there and I know first hand how much effort went into getting it electronically right and also how many Engineers were involved. Minelab cannot just pop off and throw a few coils together like has been done with the X coils. As I have said in other posts the X coils are nowhere near consistent enough for Minelab to even consider them saleable from their standards point of view. It took MANY MANY hours of R&D to get the GPZ 19 coil up and running properly (weight issues aside), this meant people were taken away from other major projects to do this, because of electronic constraints/requirements the coil ended up being heavy.

The GPZ has always been about depth on large gold that was what it was designed for right from the start, but it just so happens ZVT is also very good on the smaller gold which is more plentiful thanks to the inclusion of High Yield, which BTW was created much later in the development path due to the big gold not regularly coming to light during testing. Believe it or not Minelab are just as much in the dark about how much actual gold is out there in the ground as we are, so it was a wait and see approach on how well the GPZ actually did around the world. 

To develop a coil for the GPZ takes time and a lot of R&D dollars, but worse it requires man power which is the big bottle neck at Minelab due to so many different projects going on at once. Minelab are innovators, they spend the big bucks on R&D not rebadging and marketing the same old same old year after year! I feel people should be a little less critical of the way Minelab do things especially when you look at other metal detector manufacturers around the globe! As it stands even if Minelab were open to allowing acces to their dongles they would not currently allow the X coils to have them due to electronic inconsistencies. IMHO anyone making an aftermarket coil for the GPZ would have to lift their game considerably before gaining access to the dongle was ever an option.

JP

[Rick K - First Member]

There’s always the possibility that they just couldn’t get the bloody things to work! Lol

[schoolofhardNox]

I will probably never own a GPZ, but do own the GPX. My perspective on this, however unimportant, is that Minelab ignoring its customers only deepens the riff. I can not believe they can not make a coil work within 6-8 months. I think it's all management that is the issue. It's rarely the engineering side. Whatever the reason, they do not technically owe anyone an answer. However, we do not owe them our loyalty either. Loyalty is earned by trust. Right now I wish that the next generation of PI detectors would be released by Minelab and Fisher. Then I could choose who I trust more to get my money.