Big Five Now The Big Four - First Texas No Longer A Player?

[abenson]

Just looked over Fisher, Bounty Hunter and Teknetics offerings a few days ago and totally agree they are out of the picture. Garrett is at least trying. But with exception to their Axiom, I'm not impressed with the current lineup. I still have a Apex hanging around and really the only place I can stand using it is at local parks looking for shallow clad coins. Resale on the Apex is terrible, so just as well keep it as a loaner. So for me it's the big 3 (Minelab, Nokta, XP) when looking at coin and jewelry machines and the big 2 (Garret & Minelab) when looking at PI's.

[V3i/MXT Pro]

1 hour ago, Mike_Hillis said:

If I was to win a big lottery I would consider creating a metal detector company and license with Garrett to take the V3i forward into the future.   Find a savvy marketing human that can navigate the world as it is today and can keep up with the changing market place venues.

Alas....odds are not in my favor.

HH
Mike

   

I just don’t understand why Garrett doesn’t put the V3i in a lightweight, waterproof package? They could also upgrade the microprocessor (recovery speed) while they’re at it. I doubt this would require a significant re-engineering effort and it would easily be the best VLF in their lineup… In fact, it would be on par, or better, than the Equinox and Legend right out of the gate.

Also, reintroduce the TRX pinpointer as a deeper alternative to their Carrot.

 

[☠ Cipher]

It seems like the mindset at Fisher is they aren’t going to release anything that is not revolutionary. They don’t seem happy to release something that merely competes. I for one would be happy with something as good as my Deus 2 with a Fisher label on it. I would support their effort to get back into incremental improvements. They are so far out of date now it would seem revolutionary enough for them to release something like a Simplex. 

[☠ Cipher]

1 hour ago, V3i/MXT Pro said:

Also, reintroduce the TRX pinpointer as a deeper alternative to their Carrot.

I can’t for the life of me figure out why they don’t do this either. They are different enough to run them alongside the Carrot. Plenty of people prefer tip only pinpointing. There are also plenty of people to whom depth matters a lot. I love to be able to pinpoint most targets above the ground before I ever even dig my plug. Most other pinpointers just seem impotent after using something like the TRX. That’s one thing I can say Fisher has done well, is they gave us a deep pinpointer in the F-Pulse/Tek-Point. One of the best.

[abenson]

10 minutes ago, ☠ Cipher said:

It seems like the mindset at Fisher is they aren’t going to release anything that is not revolutionary. They don’t seem happy to release something that merely competes. I for one would be happy with something as good as my Deus 2 with a Fisher label on it. I would support their effort to get back into incremental improvements. They are so far out of date now it would seem revolutionary enough for them to release something like a Simplex. 

If Fisher would simply add wireless headphones, waterproof design and rechargeable internal batteries to a new model. That would be enough for me to take a look.

[☠ Cipher]

11 minutes ago, abenson said:

If Fisher would simply add wireless headphones, waterproof design and rechargeable internal batteries to a new model. That would be enough for me to take a look.

Not too long ago their attitude towards waterproofing was that most of us never bring our machines into the water. That is changing I think. It’s one of those things where “if you build it, they will come.” Minelab, Garrett, and Nokta have carved out a niche that is now growing into something more mainstream. There’s been a very visible increase in water hunters with the release of all these waterproof detectors

[phrunt]

2 hours ago, V3i/MXT Pro said:

I just don’t understand why Garrett doesn’t put the V3i in a lightweight, waterproof package? They could also upgrade the microprocessor (recovery speed) while they’re at it. I doubt this would require a significant re-engineering effort and it would easily be the best VLF in their lineup… In fact, it would be on par, or better, than the Equinox and Legend right out of the gate.

Also, reintroduce the TRX pinpointer as a deeper alternative to their Carrot.

Upgrading the processor would require a complete code rewrite so suit the new CPU and hardware, it's not as simple as snapping some fancy new multi core processor on the board and they're good to go.    The person/people who wrote it may not even be around anymore or employed by Garrett and if so they may not be well versed in the new languages required for modern hardware.  In cases like this sometimes its easier to start again. 

 

[V3i/MXT Pro]

51 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Upgrading the processor would require a complete code rewrite so suit the new CPU and hardware, it's not as simple as snapping some fancy new multi core processor on the board and they're good to go.    The person/people who wrote it may not even be around anymore or employed by Garrett and if so they may not be well versed in the new languages required for modern hardware.  In cases like this sometimes its easier to start again. 

 

If I’m not mistaken the source code on the V3i is already written in C++ so it’s not like it has to be converted from assembly language. Yes, it would still take a highly-skilled software engineer to do this successfully. Remember, the MX-7 was a rewrite of the MXT code and the main improvement was a significant increase in recovery speed (the V3i’s main weakness)… Carl would know what the technical feasibility of this would be and whether or not it would be worth it. 

[phrunt]

It's not about the coding language, it's more about the software was written for a certain CPU instruction set which would need rewritten for the new CPU.  I wonder how well it would sell if they spent the time, effort and significant costs to do so.  I know many people liked the V3i and use one but they're a pretty small amount of people in the grand scheme of things.  

[Steve Herschbach]

On 7/12/2023 at 7:56 AM, Mike_Hillis said:

I don't think of Fisher after the buyout by First Texas as Fisher.   I think of Fisher as First Texas Products.   And I think Tom and Dave Johnson have achieved their mutual metal detecting goals and you will not see another headliner out of First Texas until Tom retires and the new guy wants his own metal detector legacy and can find an engineer to provide it.   Until then Tom/Dave's legacy in the (T2/F75/Goldbug Pro) will still be around for years to come. 

Well, it is a nice way to put it - resting on laurels.  The actual reality is Dave's last project, the CZX, was a massive waste of time and money that was ultimately axed before going to production. And the Impulse AQ (not a Dave project) has been an epic failure so far. 

 

21 hours ago, abenson said:

Garrett is at least trying. But with exception to their Axiom, I'm not impressed with the current lineup.

The current lineup is dated, and Apex underwhelmed people expecting an Ace to outperform top tier product. But fact is Garrett is hard at work, and Axiom was just a start, not a finish. It will be interesting to revisit this thread in a year. In terms of the present however, and actual buzz created by existing product, I will not argue in the slightest about it really being a big three at this moment in time...

The Big 3

1. Minelab
2. Nokta
3. XP