New Garrett Detector In 2024

[Jeff McClendon]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

I can't agree with that, as much as I think it's absolutely fantastic Nokta regularly update their firmware (on the current hit detector neglecting others) they have had to do a lot of updates that should have and could have been done while in beta testing prior to release.  Sure, some are customer feedback, which could possibly have just been tester feedback had it been tested properly, but the list of updates says it all really and I guess many of them have been long forgotten, there was also hardware issues with the USB controller, flash tool and speaker that could possibly with luck have been picked up with more testing.  I'm not knocking Nokta, I think they've done a brilliant job with the Legend and I give them 100% for the updates they have been doing, still had they have done many of them prior to release it would be a much better experience for the end user, remember the days without firmware updates? All of these updates they've since done, nobody would get.  As much as we like to support Nokta's efforts, it was not even remotely ready at release.

Changelog of the firmware versions they release the updates for, others are suppressed or just noted as "various bug fixes" which all programmers know are bugs that are too embarrassing to admit, don't worry, even Minelab use this generic term on their firmware updates 🙂

System Software V1.13 (2023.10.16)

Updates Made:
This update allows for easy switching of the Bluetooth headphones connection between AccuPOINT and The Legend, and better compatibility with your devices.

System Software V1.11 (2023.03.01)
Updates Made:
1. A new level “0” has been added to the Iron Filter (IF) setting in the Park, Field and Goldfield modes. In addition, a new level 9 has been added to the Iron Filter (IF) setting.
There has been no change to the levels 1-8. Level 9 will become handy when trying to discriminate some unwanted mid-conductors such as shotgun cartridges as iron.

2. The Backlight setting has been reconfigured as below:
The Backlight setting’s levels have been increased to 6 from 5. Levels 1-5 in the software version 1.09 is now equal to 2-6 in this version. Level 1 in this version is now the reduced level.

3. The automatic Backlight setting has been reconfigured to work as below:
a) When the automatic Backlight setting was on, the automatic Backlight was not activated when the pinpoint button was pressed to turn on Tracking in the Ground Balance screen. This now has been updated.
b) When the automatic Backlight setting was on, the Backlight was turning off once you exit the Settings menu. This now has been updated so that the Backlight goes off within the normal time-out period.
c) When the automatic Backlight setting was on, the automatic Backlight was not activated when the pinpoint button was pressed in the Notch Discrimination Pattern. This now has been updated.
d) While in Automatic Ground Balance, the auto backlight will now be lit until the ground balancing is completed.

4. M3 multi frequency in PARK mode has been updated to prevent coins from being masked by aluminum foil.

5. Bottle Cap Rejection setting has been added.
When the device is in multi frequency, select the Recovery Speed setting and press the pinpoint button. When you navigate with the right and left buttons, you will see the letters “bC” appear on the right side of the screen. You can adjust the bC value between 1-8 using the + and – buttons. When the bC is 0, it means that it is off.

6. Ground Suppressor setting has been added.
It is used to eliminate false ground signals in tough terrains. To access the setting, select the Recovery Speed setting and press the pinpoint button. When you navigate with the right and left buttons, you will see the letters “GS” appear on the right side of the screen. You can adjust the GS value between 1-8 using the + and – buttons. When the GS is 0, it means that it is off. It is recommended that you leave this setting at off position unless needed.

7. The audio emitted as the Tone Break points are changed while in 60-Tone, has been modified with increased bass.

8. Audio Gain setting has been activated in the Gold Field Mode.

9. Warning tones have been added to the buttons.
The buttons will now emit a warning tone in the following cases:
a) To indicate the minimum and maximum levels of settings.
b) When an inactive setting in a specific mode trying to be activated.
The loudness of the warning tones will work directly proportional to the Volume setting.

10. Bluetooth Chip Version will now be displayed.
When the Bluetooth headphones are paired with the device and the Bluetooth setting is selected, press and hold the Discrimination button. The Bluetooth chip version will be displayed in the clock section. When the button is released, the clock will be displayed again.

11. The loudness of the Volume Level 1 has been reduced in PARK, FIELD and BEACH modes.

12. General improvements have been implemented.

System Software V1.09 (2022.07.12)
Updates Made:
1. Iron Filter and Stability settings have been added.
When the device is working in Multi frequency, select the Recovery Speed setting and press the pinpoint button.
Letters “IF” (Iron Filter) will appear on the right side.

Iron Filter (IF) setting ranges between 1-8 and the default value is 8. Default value 8 is the same as the previous versions (v1.05, v1.07) Legend with no iron filter setting.
Lower IF setting will increase the probability of ferrous targets to be classified as non-ferrous targets and vice versa.
Stability setting (st) is the fine tuning for the IF setting.
When the IF is set to 8, the st setting will be inactive in the Park, Field and Gold Field modes.
When the IF is set to any value below 8, the St setting can be activated by pressing the right or left button and can be adjusted by using the + and – buttons.
NOTE: The st setting in the beach mode is different than this new st setting!

2. A new multi frequency (M3) has been added to PARK and FIELD modes.
Ideal for humid, wet and/or conductive soils.
It reduces the effect of moisture in soils which can cause falses. It also weakens the response of targets generating 10-11 IDs such as coke and aluminum foil.

3. Tone Pitch has been added.
In Tone Pitch, as the coil approaches the target, the audio frequency will change in proportion to the signal strength. It can be selected from the number of tones setting and is shown with a P.

4. Audio Gain setting has been added.
Audio Gain setting will increase the volume of weak target responses.
In the PARK, FIELD and BEACH modes, after selecting the volume, press the pinpoint button. Letters AG will appear on the right side. You can adjust the AG using the + and – buttons between 1-6. The default value is set to 3.
Audio Gain does NOT increase depth.

5. Mute function has been added.
On the main screen, press and hold the Frequency button to mute the device.
Letters “AO” (Audio Off) will appear on the right side. You can unmute by pressing and holding the Frequency button.
Even if muted, the device will revert back to unmute in the custom discrimination pattern (notch), ground balance and settings menus automatically.

6. Auto sensitivity drop in the custom discrimination pattern
When you select the custom discrimination pattern (notch), the sensitivity drops down to 5 automatically. However, if you are using the automatic notch, you may not want the sensitivity to be lowered. In this case, press the Ground Balance button once to revert back to the current sensitivity. Letters “CS” (current sensitivity) will be displayed on the right side.

7. Hearing the audio through the speaker and the Bluetooth headphones at the same time
When the Bluetooth setting is selected, if the Bluetooth HPs are paired, press the up button and select 2.

8. Reverting Back to Factory Defaults
After selecting the user profile in the settings menu, press and hold the pinpoint button until letters Fd appear on screen. Fd will disappear after 2 seconds.

9. Discrimination Pattern is now saved.
Default discrimination pattern for PARK, FIELD, and BEACH has been defined as “F (Ferro-off)” and as “G (Ground-off)” in the Gold Field Mode.

10. Mineralization Indicator
In the ground balance menu, press the discrimination button to activate the mineralization indicator. Letter GI (Ground Indicator) will appear on the right side. When you press the discrimination button again, it will revert back to Ferro Check and FC will appear.

Ground Mineralization refers to the naturally occurring minerals in the ground that affect a metal detector’s performance. There are two main types of ground mineralization: Iron particles and salt such as saltwater beaches. This causes the ground to become conductive. Both produce false signals that mask targets.
Left side of the mineralization bar shows iron particle mineralization and the right side shows mineralization due to salt. The right side works in multi frequency only!

11. The selected setting in the settings menu will now blink for easier viewing.
12. The default threshold frequency level in Park, Field and Beach modes have been changed to 10.
13. Threshold parameters have been updated in the Park, Field and Beach modes.
14. Audio during ground balancing has been updated.
15. Ground balance and pinpoint function parameters have been updated. In automatic ground balancing, if the ground response is too weak or if there is metal where you are trying to ground balance, the detector will now drop the ground balance value to 0 automatically.
16. ID stability has been improved for changing ground balance values.

System Software V1.07 (2022.04.14)
Updates Made:
1. Beach Mode Multi-W and the Pinpoint in this mode has been improved and updated.
2. Bluetooth headphones pairing criteria have been updated. The device will now search for the headphones it has been paired with initially and try to connect to those. This will prevent the device from connecting to other Bluetooth devices when the Bluetooth setting is on. If you want to pair the device with different Bluetooth headphones (other than those it was initially paired with) you must delete them from memory as explained in the manual.
3. The sensitivity value will now be displayed also in the Target ID section.
4. The ground phase value calculated through automatic ground balance as well as tracking will now be saved.
5. Multi-1, Multi-2, Multi-D, Multi-W frequencies will now be saved. The device will start with the last frequency used.
6. The default Number of Tones for Park and Beach modes have been changed to 2.
7. The default Tone Volume level of ferreous tone has been updated per each mode.
8. The Ground Balance menu icons and the tones have been updated.
9. The battery bar levels have been updated to be more linear.
10. Bugs have been fixed.

System Software V1.05 (2022.03.16)
Updates Made:
1. Pinpoint function has been improved.
2. M 1 Multi Frequency parameters have been updated.
3. Audio alert for Automatic Frequency Shift (Noise Cancellation) completion has been extended.
4. Factory default Tone Break value has been changed from 11 to 10 in Park mode.
5. Ferrous Off Discrimination Pattern has been updated to reject IDs between 1-10 in Park & Field modes.
6. Threshold audio level has been increased in Gold mode.
7. Audio response during ground balancing in Gold mode has been updated.
8. Backlight levels have been re-configured.
9. Bugs have been fixed.

My point is, I hope Garrett if they are releasing a SMF detector, have its problems and features ironed out better than this.  Yes, it's fantastic they do it, but they're using users as testers as much of this should have been resolved before release, as every programmer knows though, once software hits the wild, the bug reports flow in far more than small scale testing.

Many of these improvements listed, I have a feeling Jeff, you would have noticed yourself and reported had you been one of their testers.

Nope, you just don't get it.

The vast majority of that change log list is the beauty of the Legend and its willful co-creation between the end user and Nokta. Sure, there were some bugs in V1.04, 1.06 and 1.08. Those versions were quickly pulled as soon as Nokta or end users reported issues.  Digalicious and I were both beta testers for the huge V1.09 change log along with a few other end users. So, V1.09 was the culmination of a really careful, creative collaboration between several of us end users and Nokta and they could not have been more open to suggestions and accommodating. V1.11 was literally created from suggestions by anyone that was willing to download and test the V1.10X beta version. 

So, no Simon, you are wrong about how you are perceiving this entire process. Sure, Nokta could have just stopped at V1.05/1.07 as soon as the saltwater issues were taken care of. The Legend would have been a fine detector. But Nokta wanted to make it better and they knew that the best place to go for suggestions to do that was with their customers and they trusted us.

Thankfully, XP have been very open to suggestions for Deus 2 and have been fairly quick to correct missing features between the main RC and the WS6 Master puck and to improve/upgrade other features that end users asked for. End users also informed XP of bug issues with two of their software updates that were quickly corrected.

I can only wish that Garrett and Minelab would consider this kind of true creative collaboration and actually trust their customers to make suggestions that could make their detectors even better.

[phrunt]

Thanks Jeff, that's awesome they have had you involved and well done to Nokta for doing so, as you are one of the most suitable for the task that I know of, never letting any issue pass you by that you notice and being relentless in making sure your woes are satisfied.  Between 1.09 and current little needed fixed compared to previous versions, in saying that it appears the final niggly little issues have been resolved.  I agree through, if every manufacturer took on feedback the same without hurting egos it would be great, and hopefully Garrett are just as open to feedback.  I would argue Minelab were very responsive about the small gold sensitivity issues with the Manticore, it was corrected quickly once they received feedback.

I'm sure they have to filter through something like 80% of the end user feedback to find the gems though, it's really not that simple and could throw them off if they listened to everyone.

I truly hope Garrett are doing the right thing with testers on their new detector, they did well with the Axiom and its testing, yes, they've had hardware issues like it seems every manufacturer has causing inconsistent product, when people have a good one which is most buyers, they really seem to be pleased with it.  Hardware issues are difficult, you can't control the production of parts you buy to assemble your product, like Nokta can't control their speakers, Minelab can't control their inductors and so on, that's just bad luck and to me personally, what matters is how they handle it once it happens, and Garrett are known to be outstanding with their warranty serivce.

[Jeff McClendon]

Working on V1.09 was really fun.

Speaking of Garrett, for me, the Apex would be an even better detector with just one simple change. Offer 1, 2 and maybe 3 tone audio as an alternative to just 5 tone. Should be simple and could have been easily done with an online update. Didn't happen eventhough many suggested it.

You and I and many others could go on and on about constructively improving the Equinox 800 but Minelab decided to do something completely different with the 700/900. I don't know who they were listening to but I would love to know.......WHY.

[JCR]

This is a good discussion. The “new” detector introduction processed certainly has changed for the better. I think we can thank Nokta for this trend. Garrett is an astute company, and like XP & MInelab, they will see the benefit of better user responsiveness. Garrett makes their money primarily from the Security side of their business but metal detectors are their point of pride, their heritage. They will do a solid job on what may be coming.  Us fanatics will huff & puff about it just like we did and do on all the recent introductions. It’s a great time for the hobby and to be a member here.

[DIG5050]

Garrett usually makes detectors that are fun and easy to use, i.e. the Ace SF series, Apex and AT series, that allow one to get out there and hunt without a lot of fiddling with settings.  I hunt with an Apex and the D2.  The Apex does a decent job in most situations, once learned. The D2 is obviously more capable, and has the complexity of many settings to adjust, which is both good and bad and expected; one pays a lot more for the performance and flexibility of the D2.

Some detectorists comment on the high price of the Apex, but at the time it was released, I believe it was the only other SMF detector besides ML offerings, and the Apex was priced below most of them.  Since the offerings from Nokta and the release of the ML Xterra Pro, The Apex now seems lacking for the $ cost. I was hoping like Jeff McC said above, that Garrett would update the Apex with a some of the settings that I and others have asked for, so far nothing in over 2 yrs.  Some firmware changes would make the Apex more of a contender considering the other offerings available now at lower cost.  It's still not too late to update the Apex firmware with a few more features before the next product roll out.

Perhaps the new Garrett detector will incorporate some more advanced settings, but keep the same fun factor, ease of use, ergonomics of the Apex, build quality and water proof capability of the AT series. Bring it, Garrett.

[Bill (S. CA)]

I'm so glad that my post prompted a lot of discussion about the upcoming Garrett detector.  For me personally, I just want to wait and see what they come up with.  The Axiom proved that they can make a great machine if they put their minds to it.

I would like to ask one favor.  This discussion was about the detector and was not a forum for discussing Dawn or her detecting methods.  Like many Youtubers, she is a bit of an entertainer.  But she is a pretty good hunter and finds a lot of interesting stuff.  If she had a bad day swinging her coil too high, just leave it alone, okay?  I doubt if there is anyone on this forum who hasn't done the same thing.

Not looking for commentary here.  Just keep the discussion to the new detector please.

[phrunt]

Sorry Bill, my apologies, I don't watch many videos at all so I was taken by surprise in the few seconds I watched.  I'm sure I had bad swing technique often, especially as the day gets hot and I get lazy, its only if I find a good target my swing technique improves later in the day so I'm glad nobody follows me around with a camera 🙂

I've been thinking more about this new Garrett, they make a good quality build of detectors so that seems to come naturally to them, and the Apex demonstrated a modern design I prefer over the mobile phone pod style others are taking up.  I like the nice big screen, other detectors from some manufacturers are so difficult to navigate and complicated due to trying to cram too much onto a smaller limited display screen.  A design like the Apex with its large screen allows for easy configuration of settings so I hope they stick with this with their SMF especially if they're adding a lot of configuration options and not copy the others, a point of difference and if you rowed up a few machines and asked someone with no idea about metal detecting which is the most expensive out of a few SMF models, they may possibly pick the Apex as it just looks expensive with that design.

[abcoin]

To me, it says everything that Garrett still lists the GTI 2500 among its detector lineup on its website: GTI 2500 | Metal Detector with Imaging | Treasure Hunting (garrett.com)

They're past due to release something new. It feels like the AT Pro was their last big hit, and that was over a decade ago!

What kind of price point do we think this new machine might aim for? Maybe an updated SMF Ace at the intro level? That's probably where they could sell the most units, but there are already lots of great alternatives there (think ML's new Xterra or even the Simplex). 

Alternatively, I could see them finally putting some of the White's tech to use and coming out with a SMF, Garrett-ized V3i. All the longtime White's users would love that, and as the GTI 2500 shows, they could really use a new flagship machine. 

[Chase Goldman]

33 minutes ago, abcoin said:

Maybe an updated SMF Ace at the intro level?

Not sure why they would make ANOTHER SMF Ace with the Ace Apex already out there (The Ace line is synonymous with entry level).  Perhaps a firmware update for the Apex is in the works as many have been wanting for years, but I don't think that would qualify as an exciting new offering from Garrett.

It's probably something more ambitious to update the aged AT lineup building on an improved SMF platform from the Apex with multiple SMF profiles (not just multiple discrimination profile presets as with the Apex and salt vs. Land SMF modes), adjustable recovery speeds, submersibility, and a full range of accessory coils available on the same day the unit is released for sale.  But it's crowded out there in both the mid/high and low market segments with Equinox/Manticore, Deus 2, and Legend/Score all vying for the low/mid/high end SMF detector market share.  And with Xterra Pro and Simplex clogging up the entry level segment with low profit margins I doubt Garrett woukd even try to undercut their own Apex (which until the original Legend price dropped and Xterra Pro came out was the cheapest selectable single frequency machine you could buy), Garrett has their work cut out for them to make a splash and gain a foothold.  No easy feat.

So it is also a possibility they may swing for the fences and attempt something with high end capability and advanced features - perhaps something that eclipses ML or XP in visual or audio target tech (e.g., leveraging and updating the Spectra graphics IP they now own, incorporating long lost features such as true All Metal and/or mixed audio modes) or incorporating machine learning or AI aspects into the platform to enhance versatility.  

 

[abcoin]

22 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

Not sure why they would make ANOTHER SMF Ace with the Ace Apex already out there

The Apex retails for around $420, while the XTerra Pro goes for around $250. Even if Garrett intended it to be entry-level, it certainly isn't anymore from a price standpoint (IMO the Apex always was in a weird spot between intro and mid-tier machines, which might've been why it wasn't a hit at a time when there were fewer SMF machines on the market).

All that to say they might do well to come out with something in the $200 range with SMF and some other features.

25 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

It's probably something more ambitious to update the aged AT lineup building on an improved SMF platform from the Apex with multiple SMF profiles (not just multiple discrimination profile presets as with the Apex and salt vs. Land SMF modes), adjustable recovery speeds, submersibility, and a full range of accessory coils available on the same day the unit is released for sale. 

This is a good point, though I also agree that mid-tier machines are a very crowded part of the market. Hard to come out with an SMF AT Pro for $600-$700 when people can get an XP Deus 2 if you're willing to go without the remote (and that's saying nothing of the Nokta Legend, ML Noxes, etc). On the other hand, maybe that just means there are lots of potential customers at that price point.