Do Digital Detectors Lose Depth Over Time?

[mn90403]

So, there is a bit of AI/algorithmic chatter going on in our detectors!

[mn90403]

On 3/8/2024 at 9:26 AM, phrunt said:

I can't imagine a 5-year-old Nox performing any different than a brand new one unless it's developed a fault or the battery is failing.

There is 'something' that degrades over that period of time but it also is somewhat enhanced.  My personal hearing has gotten worse.  That means I can hear less if I depend on un-boosted/enhanced natural hearing.  That is just a fact.  I lose frequencies.  Hearing aids (and different brands of them) make a difference in detector performance.  They have chips too.

But a curious thing also happens is that I can hear the language of the detector better over time.  My 800 is still finding targets over 15 inches deep.  Sometimes I choose to ignore them but other times I'm surprised.  

[phrunt]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

With Minelab it stated as Carl notes with the old X-Terra series and V-FLEX. The whole thing about using chips to keep others from building coils is more a side effect than the original intent, which was to improve performance.

That makes some sense for the VLF's, The GPZ is a different story with its chip up the top end of the coil cable.

Oddly, my Go-Find uses V-flex yet it doesn't have a chip in the coil, The Russians managed to get another coil on it by just having a coil made to suit it from Mars, along with just doing a cut in the cable and putting plugs on it.

I guess the Go-Find being entry level they were able to sacrifice the benefits of the chip in the coil.  The odd design and the fact it was entry level was likely enough to prevent aftermarket coils for it.

Detectors like the X-Terra 705 also had no security measures with their chip system, which is why the aftermarket were able to make X-Terra coils, Nel in fact made a really cool one, a three-frequency coil when the original coils were single frequency and you had to own various coils to get different frequencies, Nel put all 3 frequencies into one coil and to top it off were able to patent it 🙂

 

The new chips are encrypted and are designed in such a way to prevent aftermarket coils, they may serve more than one purpose, but it's pretty clear their intention.

A big thanks to @Nokta Detectors for supplying their chips to Nel, as now Nel are having a full range of coils for the Legend.

[Steve Herschbach]

4 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The new chips are encrypted and are designed in such a way to prevent aftermarket coils, they may serve more than one purpose, but it's pretty clear their intention.

I'm not arguing otherwise. I just don't think that was the original intent, but something they realized they could do later. There is no doubt in my mind the chips are now being used also as a way to control the aftermarket.

[phrunt]

17 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

There is 'something' that degrades over that period of time but it also is somewhat enhanced.  My personal hearing has gotten worse.  That means I can hear less if I depend on un-boosted/enhanced natural hearing.  That is just a fact

That's a good point, the operator is going to degrade far more over time than their digital detector 😛

 

[UKD2User]

Besides coils, LCD display panels, batteries, and passive components like capacitors that can age, most recent detectors will contain flash memory - for programs and/or data - which can fail after a period of repeated use. I guess that a 'sticky bit' of flash memory is more likely to create an unpredictable level of degradation in performance.

[Geotech]

The core purposes of VFlex were (1) to transmit coil parametrics (like "this is a 10" DD coil optimized for 18kHz") to the control box and (2) to use a security check to limit 3d party coils. Whether or not #2 was an afterthought I don't know, but I suspect it was planned and deliberate, as it was for printer cartridges. A great way to limit competition. Otherwise, a simple resistor in the coil could be used to ID the coil type.

The inclusion of a preamp in the coil might be considered part of VFlex, but in reality it has nothing to do with the micro that is the at core of VFlex. That is, you can do VFlex without the preamp in the coil, and you can put a preamp in the coil without the micro. But if there is no micro in the coil, then there is no VFlex. I don't recall that the original Go-Finds used VFlex, but the newer models apparently do.

[lobokai]

No

[phrunt]

7 hours ago, Geotech said:

I don't recall that the original Go-Finds used VFlex, but the newer models apparently do.

That statement about Vflex was listed on their website when the first Go-Finds were the only ones, I was quite chuffed at the time my Go-Find 40 had Vflex.

Don't get me started on the rip off of printer cartridges, their inks more expensive than gold. 🙂

Go here and click on Tech Specs.

The Go-Find's work remarkably well on the Beach, even in the wet sand they're working quite well.

The thing I've always found somewhat interesting is Geosense never appeared in their key technologies section on the website where the Vflex information is coming from, although my theory is it's nothing more than auto sensitivity / auto ground tracking so hardly ground breaking.