Who Makes The X-coils? Who Sells Them?

[Guest AussieDigs]

3 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Steve I'm a big believer in democracy. I'm more than happy to put 'Leave' or 'Stay' to the vote and let readers decide if they like or dislike my forum presence. A 'Leave'would sure save me a lot of time and you a lot of editing of posts and others the need for blocking.

JP

No Jonathan thats not how it works!

If someone has an issue with a post of yours posted within the guidlines of a particular forum, its just that.....their issue. They have choices. They dont have to read it,  they can place you in their ignore list.

[Northeast]

4 hours ago, mn90403 said:

I vote we don't take a vote!  haha

I agree.   

I'm here for knowledge sharing and I value all contributors reviewing/helping/suggesting about all sorts of prospecting related issues as long as they are coming from the angle of trying to help fellow prospectors.  

It can be terribly hard to gauge intent from the written word.  As childish as emojis may seem I often use them simply to try and ensure that what I am writing is not read with the wrong intent. 

I value your knowledge and contributions JP and I think we would all be worse off for you leaving.  

Onward and upward  ✈️  ?‍♂️  ?

 

[Northeast]

12 hours ago, jasong said:

Data can be measured, it's how its interpreted that often matters to us.

Absolutely!!!  Interest rates are down - that's wonderful says 1 political party.  Interest rates are down - that's terrible says the other political party.    Same data - different interpretation.  

 

12 hours ago, jasong said:

I believe this sort of disclosure should be sentence #1 in every review.

Absolutely again.  

 

12 hours ago, jasong said:

In this case, I didn't even have to bring it up, X Coils just said flatout there were no expectations.

It is refreshing to hear  ?

[Steve Herschbach]

10 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Steve I'm a big believer in democracy. I'm more than happy to put 'Leave' or 'Stay' to the vote and let readers decide if they like or dislike my forum presence. A 'Leave'would sure save me a lot of time and you a lot of editing of posts and others the need for blocking.

JP

The forum is not a democracy. I do the best I can moderating and people can participate or not as they choose. I am for waiting until the morning when everyone realizes these are metal detector coils, and not worth the effort of fighting over. They are experimental, work in progress, buyer beware, hand made by a nameless supplier with no website, might work great, might not, no sympathy if your detector blows up, blah, blah, blah. Has anyone not got that message yet? No? Fine, maybe we can all move on now. Or go a few more rounds if anyone still has the energy for it. 

Carry on....

[fredmason]

Oh, Steve, Solomon would be proud of you!

Personally, I love the drama...much better than Days of our Lives.

And I learn stuff 

fred

[Lacky]

I love it. It was a huge leap for me to buy an equinox, sand scoop, and a used wetsuit. This is like lifestyles of the rich and famous for me! (I decided that was nicer than comparing it to real housewives of Beverly Hills ?)

[flakmagnet]

By now most of the posters in this thread are known by their unique posting "voice." It's their personal method of writing that we all (mostly), understand where it's coming from. Some are - for lack of a better term - more 'direct' than others. That doesn't delegitimize what they are trying to get across. I like that it's not a democracy, this is why I am here; we are required to stick to clearly set-out ways of talking to each other. By posting we are tacitly accepting those guidelines.  

[Jonathan Porter]

The guy who makes the coils is in my opinion a decent person, he has never once asked me to remark or promote favourably on the coils. He has not once questioned or interrogated me on any of my comments here on the forum, and I’m pretty sure he has been well appraised of proceedings. In my opinion he is extremely honorable. He seems to be a passionate detectorist and has shown me some impressive gold during our conversations and I’d say he originally started making the coils as a hobby and local demand soon took over. I’d also say he’s reached out to the wider community to try to connect up with Minelab users around the globe, especially here in Australia in Minelabs home ground, because he feels he’s created something of merit and wants to expose what’s hes done to a wider community. I’m pretty sure Money is not his main motivator.

So then you must ask yourself the question why I’ve been so voiciferous on the subject? There are a blend of issues going on here which has been well documented, some of which I do not need to go through again.

However the main key issues were:

• The coils are electronically inferior to the standards set by Minelab when they established the design parameters of the coils for the GPZ, I’ve used those same testing techniques when I’ve tested the X coils and gave feedback accordingly. This is FACT and NOT agenda driven.
• Secondly there is the major issue I have with the circumvention of Minelabs IP.

So as Steve has mentioned the coils are highly experimental, so buyer and user be aware, the subject is highly emotive because there are obviously some issues with a lack of clarity around the subject, largely in part due to the language barrier and what I feel is a lack of upfront information provided by others.  

Then there are my own personal standards around integrity and being honest and upfront, call it duty if you like but I can’t just stand by on this subject when I was instrumental in bringing about the confidence to market them in Australia in the first place in a misguided attempt to access the much needed IP permissions and accordingly the big need for electronic improvements.

So are the coils any good? Absolutely, my first impressions have been quoted elsewhere around the net and I stand by them. I was pleasantly surprised they worked so well. So what does ‘GOOD’ actually mean? It means the ones I used did not cause any damage to my detector, that they generally worked OK and found nuggets and one coil in particular found gold on a flogged training patch which impressed me. 

In summary the standard wound coils in ground that is not too extreme will provide an advantage thanks to size differences. They will be also be slightly more sensitive because the housing is thinnner thereby bringing the Tx and Rx closer to the ground compared to the thickness of the Minelab coils but that will also exacerbate other issues like saturation etc. They will be easier to use thanks to weight savings which could also equate to better performance due to better coil control and longer detecting hours. You would be amazed how much of a boost a positive outlook will provide to a person going back to an old spot with something new.

The Spiral wound coils do seem to provide a sharper signal response but I would only recommend them in quieter soils (non variable soils like in the Pilbara and Kimberly regions of WA or areas that Normal can be used), I’m not certain how many spirals are actually being used in Australia but in a lot of ground they will be problematic. The Spiral wound coils were the only ones that provided a like for like performance difference in my opinion during the testing I did, the others were just down to coil size and shape.

Coil weight, size and shape are more than enough reasons to justify the X coils because they are seriously lacking with the GPZ, in a lot of ways Minelab have brought this problem onto themselves for not addressing this HUGE need in a way that is palatable for the faithful end user. The ball is now right in Minelab’s court about how they proceed going forward, I don’t have a crystal ball so have no idea how this is going to play out. It’s seems I’m in a “damned if I do” and “damned if I don’t” situation, I had to choose between getting vilified by people not wanting to hear the truth or getting vilified by my own conscience and end users when they found out I was in possession of the truth, right now going bush prospecting is extremely tantalising. 

JP

[mn90403]

Thank you JP.  I agree with this the most:

Coil weight, size and shape are more than enough reasons to justify the X coils because they are seriously lacking with the GPZ, in a lot of ways Minelab have brought this problem onto themselves for not addressing this HUGE need in a way that is palatable for the faithful end user. The ball is now right in Minelab’s court about how they proceed going forward

 

I know for a fact that Minelab knows about this forum and this thread among others.  I sent the sales department an email about this discussion as a loyal Minelab owner.  I want them to know and respond.  That was two weeks ago and there has only been more conjecture but no response from anyone at Minelab.

Mitchel