Where Are All The In-field Reviews Of The E1500???

[Steve Herschbach]

This is a brand specific forum and like all brand specific forums is for people with an interest in the brand. Like all the brand specific forums they are created for people who don’t like being reminded constantly that some people think their interest is stupid and they should really be interested in this other brand. People who persist in this behavior are called trolls, and I take a very poor view towards trolls. If they persist they get banned. I have a forum specifically for this versus that brand comparison commentary where you can compare away all you want. So this is not me censuring anyone, it’s me saying take it to the appropriate forum. Anyone who thinks this or that brand is better than the E1500 is welcome to start a thread on the comparisons forum and lay out their case for that. I’m all for critical comparisons as long as they are honest. But persist on any brand specific forum with comments on how some other brand is better and you will be tagged as a troll and ejected.

To be clear just a casual mention or even two is not an issue. It is when any one person repeatedly keeps doing this, especially in the face of little push backs I might drop in now and then. It’s this type of repeated, persistent, and frankly boorish behavior I’m talking about here.

On the other hand it’s a given that members of a brand specific forum might rag on and look down on some other brand. So members of the Minelab Forum might be derogatory to other brands and that’s not unexpected. People on the Fisher Forum might take a dim view of Garrett detectors. That is what brand loyalty is all about, liking this brand but not the other. So pay attention to context, which specific forum you are on, and consider how what you are posting fits in. Again, the Comparisons forum is gloves off, and by and large so is the main DP forum. Brand specific forums, not so much.

People who insist that the E1500 should outperform much more expensive detectors need to just get over it and move on.

[phrunt]

5 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

The machine ran really good, nice and stable.

He's running in 22 sensitivity too, so hasn't had to wind it back, I tend to run on about 22, 23 myself most of the time so far.  

Anything over 25 to 30 seems like it's in some sort of boost power mode, where the jump from 24 to 25 is quite significant.  There are places I can do it, and it will run stable over 25, coil matters there too, my 10" does it better than the Sadie.   As it's a detector that the smaller gold depth and sensitivity improves noticeably with higher gain it will be interesting to get a bit further away from EMI sources on my next gold hunt and see how far I can push it, my last two places detected were too close to power lines.   

Any gain over 20 to 25 seems the sweet spot for stability and sensitivity though, I like to run my detectors sparky though so it will be good to try out those 25+ higher gain settings in a lower EMI environment.

They could have cut off the gain control at 24 and people would think it's a remarkably stable detector even at maximum sensitivity, so I'm glad they left those extra few numbers there so we can really push it.

[araratgold]

11 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

Sorry Rick, can't help with running videos (at the moment) but a few finds are starting to be shared. This one was from WA, accompanied by this note:

Hi Nenad,

This is the first time out with the E1500 and got these three in the first hour. The machine ran really good, nice and stable. The targets stand out, and it’s easy to use. The design of the stem and control box is really nice – well built. The display is unreal and can be seen in broad daylight. Just went and bought the 14x9” Nugget Finder – will give that a go as well.

This is good machine, I’m able to tilt it and it stays quiet. The ground where the nuggets came from is where we are working and has been pushed. Going to go to some ground where it has only been detected. Well done to AlgoForce, top unit, can’t wait to see what they bring out next.

(Prospector in W.A.)

 

Thanks Nenad, that is slightly encouraging.
However, working small areas of pushed ground is a whole lot different to patch hunting, where the ground varies constantly.
Patch hunting in hot variable ground is what I would like the Algo to be able to do, time will tell I guess. Here's hoping !

Rick

[Taz]

3 hours ago, araratgold said:

Thanks Nenad, that is slightly encouraging.
However, working small areas of pushed ground is a whole lot different to patch hunting, where the ground varies constantly.
Patch hunting in hot variable ground is what I would like the Algo to be able to do, time will tell I guess. Here's hoping !

Rick

Hi mate. Yeah can pushing change things dramatically or what! Even just scrape raking away the gravely stuff sitting on top of the ground can, ironstone little stones and bits of other gravel that is sitting there loose. Not for depth but the masking it can give as im pretty sure your aware of. Can create a real barrier at times just a cm or two of it. But I am looking forward to getting on the end of the Algo and finding where it's strengths and weaknesses lay. Just a waiting game now but I guess the positive I can see in that is by the time I get it it will already have any updates done saving me doing 80km round trips to libraries or community centres to do them. Its coming across to me that at the moment its a bit of an on the fly sorting things out for it updating things and whatnot. That's good they do it, great they do it, but I cannot but wonder how on earth it was field tested sufficiently to warrant such early updates. I'll explain where im coming from. A faster response pushing the bal button. If you can do that right now then why wasn't it faster from the start? Why if you can make it faster didn't it have the maximum it could operate with? I cant help but feel that there wasn't greater actual in field overall testing and feedback. It seems it was done in a limited way. Now im not saying those who did field test it were stupid, they may very well be highly intelligent and capable, but I dont think a sufficient cross section of typical gold detecting scenarios, ground types, mineralisation types, or even needs of the operator were in the mix. I'll draw fire from saying those things im sure but I'll stand by them. Said it earlier and still think it though, that it appears to be cleverly made/thought out, enough to me that I'll invest in it.

I'll put my hard hat on now. 

[phrunt]

IRelease Notes for AlgoForce E1500 Software v1.0.8:

1. The activation time for a long key press function has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 0.7 seconds. For example, the time duration between pressing and holding the ground balance key and the commencement of actual ground balancing is now 0.7 seconds, as opposed to 1.5 seconds. Other functions requiring a long key press are similarly affected, including vibration adjustment and auto frequency scan.

2. In version 1.0.7, Pinpoint mode and the main detection mode shared the same volume and vibration controls. With the introduction of v1.0.8, Pinpoint mode now features independent volume and vibration controls separate from the main detection mode. Users can customize their preferred volume and vibration settings in either mode. Furthermore, the volume and vibration settings in both modes are saved during power down for convenience.

The modification was the time needed to hold down the dual-purpose button to activate the second function, for example, the ground balance button is also the move right on the menu button, if you just press it, it moves across the menu, to activate ground balance you hold the button in, the duration it needed held in before ground balance started was 1.5 seconds on the initial firmware, now it's halved to 0.7 seconds, meaning you hold it in for almost a second less before it kicks into ground balance mode.  We are talking miniscule amounts time let's face it a second isn't very long, but its noticeable and by doing so speeds up ground balancing.  They couldn't have ground balance as the primary function of the button, imagine having to hold the button in for a second each time you wanted to move across a menu, it would be very awkward, anyone's who has used it will understand what I mean.   Think of it in GPX terms, you press your green quick track in, and before the ground balance begins to take place its 0.7 seconds, which is really nothing.     It's a user preference thing really, make it too fast and it might start ground balancing when all you wanted to do was change menu field.  

Another example if to change volume you press the volume up or down button, to change vibration settings you hold the button in, for 0.7 seconds and it will change the vibration intensity, another 0,7 seconds and the intensity will increase and so on,

The second update was just a separate volume control for pinpoint mode, as pinpointing can be quite loud, yet you don't want to change the detectors overall volume just to lower pinpoint volume, this was just my suggestion to them with me being fussy about such things, not a fault or problem by any means, just a useful suggestion that they took on.

[Steve Herschbach]

Some people might see a company that is very willing to listen to new customer feedback and immediately implement suggestions as a good thing.

[Norvic]

Righto, I`ve put many hours behind the E1500 got enough weight to stick my neck out a wee bit. With the NF EVO12 round it is dynamite on depth with subgrammers, up there close to the Z with the X 12 spiral in sensitivity and depth. Like the spiral EVOs and Elites did before the 6K GPXs, brought them right up to near GPZ performance. I suspect there will be many who end up being just E1500 users, a spiral 12 round on the 6K might be the only thing that competes close with it overall, taking not just performance but ergonomics and weight with the E1500s massive coil choice availability Of course the user has to be prepared to tweak settings and use a Fixed GB that requires GBing often in noisy ground but that is how most experienced users used the GPXs back to the SDs (not the 6K of coz)  

[Lead Detector]

34 minutes ago, Norvic said:

With the NF EVO12 round it is dynamite on depth with subgrammers, up there close to the Z with the X 12

Sounds impressive for sure

[araratgold]

Thanks Norvic for that.

The lack of automatic ground tracking is a deal breaker for me, as I would mainly want it as a lightweight patch hunter in WA, then follow up with ZED and X coils.

Your mention of " GBing often in noisy ground " kills any prospect for me. No doubt others will find a use for it though, especially if they don't already have a detector.

Rick

[Norvic]

No worries Rick, just to be sure I`m not misunderstood, Nenad corrected our use of the terms auto GB, fixed and tracking in another thread recently. The E1500 has auto GB and fixed but not tracking, same as if you use the Z and GPXs (not 6K) in fixed you press the button/trigger to auto GB when the ground changes.