Pinpointers

[Geotech]

No, I'm saying that the street price for pinpointers is headed to sub-$100 prices. No one wants to continue paying $150 for a pinpointer when they can buy a decent full-featured metal detector for just a little more than that. So no manufacturer is going to develop a new pinpointer expecting to maintain a $150 price point.

Yes, pinpointers are fairly cheap to produce, especially the very simple ones. To hit a $79 street price ($99 MSRP @ 80% MAP) you need to have a total production cost (components, labor, overhead) of $25. The Garrett Pro Pointer might be able to achieve this, but the White's TRX was almost twice this. It's a far more complex IB design that's harder to make, but it's what's needed for TID.

So the question is, is there a market for a wireless TID pinpointer at $150-200? Maybe, but I suspect it's a small market when other pinpointers are headed to half that price. It was a more viable plan back when average PP prices were closer to $200.

[phrunt]

Disappointing to hear, but makes a lot of sense.  You can't get much more simple than most pin pointers on the market.  Some have taken the giant leap and done discrimination where as most haven't.  Some are more sensitive than others, others slightly deeper.  

Tones would be nice on a pin pointer more than ID's I think, with tone ranges.  I like the Sphinx has a red light on the back of it for iron and the light goes green for non-ferrous.  It's the most feature rich pin pointer I've got, consequently the best too.

From there I drop right back in features to the Garrett AT being my second favourite, a very basic pin pointer but it just works very well and is reliable, set it and forget it.  

I always thought pin pointers were kept so simple due to their user interface, a button or two with a bunch of crazy button configurations to try and configure it where unless you configure it often you need to do it sitting in front of the manual.  That's where the Sphinx phone app comes into play, makes configuration simple.

Another method manufacturers could use is the pin pointer connects to the detector, and is setup using the detector display, it keeps people brand loyal, a bit like the XP Mi-6 and Garrett AT Zynk, then again so few detectors have a good enough screen capable of doing this, Minelab could do it with the Manticore though if they made a decent Pro-Find 245, I have to jump up so high in the numbers as they will need to go through a lot of generations of pin pointers before they get one good enough for that 🙂

I don't mind paying good money for a decent product, I wonder how it goes with brands like Minelab where they make a bunch of the same pinpointers with features disabled on lower models like the Pro-Find 15, 25, 35, 45, if the 45's the best seller maybe there is a market for a higher price better model.  If most buy the 15 then we have no hope.

 

[Knomad]

13 hours ago, Geotech said:

No, I'm saying that the street price for pinpointers is headed to sub-$100 prices. No one wants to continue paying $150 for a pinpointer when they can buy a decent full-featured metal detector for just a little more than that. So no manufacturer is going to develop a new pinpointer expecting to maintain a $150 price point.

That make more sense. But then again many pay 4 to 9 grand for detectors, so a couple hundred for the best pinpointer is no big deal, IF it truly is better.

I don't care much about the wireless, especially if it only works with one detector brand, so it makes more sense to concentrate on depth, and sensitivity performance, and accurate ferrous non ferrous I.D.  It appears the Sphinx is now the top dog.  It seems a series of LEDS of different colors showing probability of iron would be the way to go.

[pavelka72]

2 hours ago, Knomad said:

That make more sense. But then again many pay 4 to 9 grand for detectors, so a couple hundred for the best pinpointer is no big deal, IF it truly is better.

I don't care much about the wireless, especially if it only works with one detector brand, so it makes more sense to concentrate on depth, and sensitivity performance, and accurate ferrous non ferrous I.D.  It appears the Sphinx is now the top dog.  It seems a series of LEDS of different colors showing probability of iron would be the way to go.

The presence of functions in the pinpointer is determined by its role in the search, as a tool: quick turn-on, sensitivity, response speed, stability, ground balance, clear and understandable indication, case protection for operation in any conditions - this is the basis that determines the time (!) with which you get the target.
Next comes the ease of setup, energy efficiency, you can have a ferromagnetic / non-ferromagnetic division, which will give an advantage in time (!) during land search, when the target is in tree roots, garbage or stones, but will save more time during underwater search, since time is valued higher there.

But I am ready to object that VDI or target ID will give an improvement (reduction in time), in addition to a beautiful advertising slogan, it will rather confuse the search engine - with different orientation of the object, the number will be in any range (nowadays there are examples on the market when they add a function (hello marketers), which simply confuses the search engine) or will not give anything during the search.

[☠ Cipher]

The feature I’ve always been most interested in is depth. Mostly for seeded hunts where I can pinpoint the token or coin from the top of the ground before I ever dig or flip the plug. Last weekend our club had the 54th annual seeded hunt, and the coin planters got a little carried away somehow going a little deeper than usual. Plus the grass was unusually high. It was the guys with the Bullseye TRXs, Fisher F-Pulses, and of course my Sphinx 03 that did the best at retrieving coins and tokens this year. I had it riding on the razors edge of stability. 

[phrunt]

I do the same, tune the Sphinx so it's sparky but stable enough to not be annoying, even then it's more stable than my Pro-Find 35

[Caliche]

How does someone in the USA aquire one of these mythical Sphinx 03 pointers?  Discreetly I presume.

[phrunt]

1 hour ago, Caliche said:

How does someone in the USA aquire one of these mythical Sphinx 03 pointers?  Discreetly I presume.

They have a South Korean distributor.  No idea on the shipping pricing though, could be crazy, never bought from South Korea before, other neighbouring countries have cheap shipping though so it might be good.  Mine come from Kazachstan that a friend there bought on my behalf and sent to me. 

[Caliche]

Anyone know if any of the F-Pulse frequencies play nicely with a Manticore in Multi-IQ mode?