First Gold Nugget Finds With The AlgoForce E1500

[phrunt]

6 minutes ago, TE Gold said:

Love to see how the ground balance went Phrunt. Did it need adjusting?

I'm in quite mild soils especially at this spot, I could have used it all day without even using the ground balance.  although the QED when I used it here required balance or it responded to the ground.  The GPX 4500 didn't need balanced.  Seeing it's very easy to do I ground balanced occasionally.  The good bit is the information is right there on the screen for you to see, it's very easy to know how your balance is tracking so you can do a balance when necessary.   When I did a balance the two sets of ground balance numbers only changed slightly, for example from 50 50 to 48 51, when I balanced on a hot rock the numbers were more dramatic going down into the 30's.  It'll be interesting to see how those on very bad variable ground go, I've no doubt it will balance out the ground, how often they need to adjust it is more the question.  Seeing the detector is tracking the ground all of the time and giving you the information, I wonder if patents stopped them making it track and adjust.

[Northeast]

52 minutes ago, TE Gold said:

De hydration....I know a thing or 2 about this.

Good post TE.  I know this is a prospecting forum but probably nearly worthy of a thread on its own.  Very important subject and one that many people don't realise can have such dire consequences. 

 

[flakmagnet]

8 hours ago, HardPack said:

Allow me to expand.

That makes more sense...

[phrunt]

6 hours ago, Aureous said:

Watch sales of used and new SDC2300's fall dramatically now....and possibly 6000's too. Not everyone will like the E1500 as an alternative coz the 2300 and 6000 are almost 'automatic' and easy to learn for beginners. But a significant number of buyers are now gonna look at the E1500 as a 1st option now.

I think ML left the price gap open out of disinterest, rather than intention. The gap between the GM1000 and the 2300 is very wide!

I think, if people were going to buy these high-priced units as that's all that was available but they're not overly serious about prospecting and just want to have fun with a decent detector and find some gold and all they had confidence in was Minelab, then yes, they may reconsider and buy an Algoforce instead especially once word of mouth starts to spread in their local areas if it suits them which I think it will. 

I hope to hear reports coming out of users in Australia soon, Nenad did a post somewhere in response to someone that was saying it's crap because it doesn't track the ground, and he pointed out how many people used tracking on the 4500 and 5000? Almost everyone I've ever heard of ran in fixed and pumped the coil every once in a while, and that's now primitive as the Algoforce is tracking the ground, and makes you well aware when you need to fix it by the screen display.  I've never hunted in highly variable ground to know what it's like, but if they used the legacy GPX with success for many years nothings stopping them using the Algoforce manual ground balance method with it tracking for you on the screen, after all its easier than the early GPX was for all those that used fixed.  A thing I don't like about the 6000 is the forced tracking.  

The other really great benefit is that the screen is awesome, the GPZ screen is very difficult to see in the sun, the 6000 isn't all that much better but you don't need to look it very often being fully auto (something I don't like about it) The Algoforce screen is weird in a very good way, the brighter the sun the easier it is to see.  In the shade you may need the backlight, in the sun its brilliant, and you can invert it to make it really nice for night or very low light detecting, it's a cool screen.

I think Minelab need to watch their back and sleep with one eye open, there is change coming and I very much look forward to seeing what's next from Algoforce.  Garrett now really needs to seriously reconsider their price point or they're a dead duck in the Au/NZ region, soon once the Algoforce lands in the US they may need to think about it there too even though its significantly cheaper than here, to many people the cost of a product is a very important factor in their purchase decision.

[Aureous]

2 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I hope to hear reports coming out of users in Australia soon, Nenad did a post somewhere in response to someone that was saying it's crap because it doesn't track the ground, and he pointed out how many people used tracking on the 4500 and 5000? Almost everyone I've ever heard of ran in fixed and pumped the coil every once in a while, and that's now primitive as the Algoforce is tracking the ground, and makes you well aware when you need to fix it by the screen display.  I've never hunted in highly variable ground to know what it's like, but if they used the legacy GPX with success for many years nothings stopping them using the Algoforce manual ground balance method with it tracking for you on the screen, after all its easier than the early GPX was.  A thing I don't like about the 6000 is the forced tracking.

The lack of tracking is what killed the QED to a large degree. From what Ive heard, the E1500 is far less dependent on accurate GB and somewhat self-tolerates moderate ground changes. Id need to handle one myself to see how factual that is though...

[phrunt]

8 minutes ago, Aureous said:

The lack of tracking is what killed the QED to a large degree. From what Ive heard, the E1500 is far less dependent on accurate GB and somewhat self-tolerates moderate ground changes. Id need to handle one myself to see how factual that is though...

The QED was an absolute pain in the backside to do the ground balance, you were doing it manually with plus and minus buttons with 200 numbers to deal with, the Algoforce you press down the ground balance button and pump the coil a few times, they're not even comparable. 

The Algoforce is the same as pressing the green button on the GPX handle and pumping the coil a few times, and as you see in my hot rock balance video it's pretty quick.  The Algoforce also has a clear display on the screen showing you when you should do a balance.  You can see the bars heading up and fix it before its even a problem, having the screen that loves the sun will be a big benefit in that regard.

[Aureous]

7 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The QED was an absolute pain in the backside to do the ground balance

Yes I remember that with 'fondness' lol. Glad to hear the E1500 has that issue totally and sensibly alleviated. 

[mn90403]

Simon,

Glad to know you recovered and will give it a go again under better conditions.

You found two little pieces in a flogged area.  How do you explain them?  (missed or unseen)

[phrunt]

26 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Simon,

Glad to know you recovered and will give it a go again under better conditions.

You found two little pieces in a flogged area.  How do you explain them?  (missed or unseen)

Easy, first one I flipped a rock that's never been flipped before, second one I was stupid enough to climb down a cliff that had a lot of thorned briar rose bushes just waiting for their victim ?  In both instances I was the first to do something. ? The point is being out there using any capable detector gets you in the game, you have a good chance of success, it doesn't take the best of the best to get a bulk of the finds, yes it helps, but it's not vital, I'd bank my money on someone putting in effort and covering miles more than someone with all the gear with no skill and no effort.