Myers Depot Metal Detectors

Fisher Impulse AQ detector update

TDI’s - one original (thru hole) within a few weeks of introduction, I used in Oman where I was working at the time and later at Virginia Beach while I worked in Yorktown - I sold it after I moved back home to AZ. I spotted a local ad for another of the surface mount component ones after that. Bought at a good price and re-sold. The last one was with all or Reg Sniff’s mods, best of the lot with a smooth threshold - I bought it from a guy on Treasure Spot and then sold to Paul in CA who still has it.

The AQ in SAn Diego was compared against the Equinox 600 I had with me.

The AQ I got in December was fine. Fisher asked me to return it because the had made some changes after completing certification of the production configuration and didn’t want a different configuration out there.

Any more questions, just ask. Stuck at home with the plague on - I have time.
 
Rick, maybe you say back 40 pages or so, but since this machine is for the beach, why were you interested in it so much if you’re in Arizona?
 
I am interested in it because it is a PI detector. I first used one in the late ‘80’s - an early Eric Foster Machine. Since then I have used TDI, DFPI (at beaches) and (inland) TDI, Minelab SD2100, SDC2300, Garrett ATX and a Vallon.

I carefully followed the various Eric Foster machines that successively appeared on Mr. Bill’s storefront website and began to read a lot of stuff by Reg Sniff to begin to educate myself about how PI’s work and the variables which influence their performance.

When Alexandre first posted something about his work on Carl Moreland’s Geotech forum about 5 years ago, my ears perked up. When I found out 3 years ago that Fisher had acquired the project, I started posting what I could find out on various forums - never dreaming it could take more than 3 years to turn a prototype hand-built by Alexandre into a production machine.

The AQ works fine inland by the way, it will be interesting to see what happens when folks try it on some famously bad dire like Culpepper VA. Minelab GPX machines dominate there currently.

Much more interesting for my area will be the Impulse Gold (that’s my guess as to what the nugget detector which is under development be called). The AQ is not a nugget hunter, the 2 channel setup is not a conventional wide-range GB system and the device is intentionally not super sensitive to fly speck low conductors.

If they finally manage to launch this machine, I expect to head to the west coast and see first hand what it can do. My VERY brief experience in late 2018 with a prototype AQ in San Diego impressed me a lot.
 
lytle78 said:
I am interested in it because it is a PI detector. I first used one in the late ‘80’s - an early Eric Foster Machine. Since then I have used TDI, DFPI (at beaches) and (inland) TDI, Minelab SD2100, SDC2300, Garrett ATX and a Vallon.

I carefully followed the various Eric Foster machines that successively appeared on Mr. Bill’s storefront website and began to read a lot of stuff by Reg Sniff to begin to educate myself about how PI’s work and the variables which influence their performance.

When Alexandre first posted something about his work on Carl Moreland’s Geotech forum about 5 years ago, my ears perked up. When I found out 3 years ago that Fisher had acquired the project, I started posting what I could find out on various forums - never dreaming it could take more than 3 years to turn a prototype hand-built by Alexandre into a production machine.

The AQ works fine inland by the way, it will be interesting to see what happens when folks try it on some famously bad dire like Culpepper VA. Minelab GPX machines dominate there currently.

Much more interesting for my area will be the Impulse Gold (that’s my guess as to what the nugget detector which is under development be called). The AQ is not a nugget hunter, the 2 channel setup is not a conventional wide-range GB system and the device is intentionally not super sensitive to fly speck low conductors.

If they finally manage to launch this machine, I expect to head to the west coast and see first hand what it can do. My VERY brief experience in late 2018 with a prototype AQ in San Diego impressed me a lot.
Click to expand...
A production machine ? There are landfills and dump sites all over the world filled with production products that never made it to market...:laughing:
 
Cfmct said:
First off you are not a beach hunter... ...
Click to expand...

I know you do not mean this maliciously . It's all just for hobbyist chit-chat. And we ALL very much appreciate Rick's inputs here !! But if I can piggyback off of this : I think I know what you are driving at :

I know of some nugget enthusiasts (in the Sierra foothills of CA) who have never done anything more than shoot for nuggets. And if you were to spell out for them a "problem" of "seeing through black sand" and "getting small gold targets" and "going insanely deep", they would IMMEDIATELY point you towards any of various high-powered nugget machines. (GPX, GPZ, etc...). Which, YES ! Will accomplish all those tasks with ease. Right ?

Or if you spelled out for them a turfed park where the barbers are hard to reach, because coins-that-deep are nearly out-of-reach of standard coin machine, then they would point you to various high-powered nugget machines, that can effortlessly reach many-more-inches than wimpy coin/relic machines. Right ?

But in each case, yes, the terrain and purposes and environment of the beach or turfed parks is NOT like nugget terrain/purposes. A person trying the GPZ or GPX is going to be in for a rude awakening, to try it in those type venues.

So on the one hand, yes, it can *do* the desired objectives (insane depth, ability in black, and possibly even disc.). Yet in the *real* world, variables/goals differ.

Not saying that this machine won't bridge the 2-different-worlds. But .... just sayin' ... that I understand what CFMCT is saying.
 
Tom... Of course I didn't... I am a realist.. I can sound harsh but I am after facts not assumptions which are being made in my opinion.. This new detector will react differently to each area of the country just like detectors today do... I would not have taken a NOX to the beach I would have rather have seen a detector like Dew's MDT 8000...


Tom_in_CA said:
I know you do not mean this maliciously . It's all just for hobbyist chit-chat. And we ALL very much appreciate Rick's inputs here !! But if I can piggyback off of this : I think I know what you are driving at :

I know of some nugget enthusiasts (in the Sierra foothills of CA) who have never done anything more than shoot for nuggets. And if you were to spell out for them a "problem" of "seeing through black sand" and "getting small gold targets" and "going insanely deep", they would IMMEDIATELY point you towards any of various high-powered nugget machines. (GPX, GPZ, etc...). Which, YES ! Will accomplish all those tasks with ease. Right ?

Or if you spelled out for them a turfed park where the barbers are hard to reach, because coins-that-deep are nearly out-of-reach of standard coin machine, then they would point you to various high-powered nugget machines, that can effortlessly reach many-more-inches than wimpy coin/relic machines. Right ?

But in each case, yes, the terrain and purposes and environment of the beach or turfed parks is NOT like nugget terrain/purposes. A person trying the GPZ or GPX is going to be in for a rude awakening, to try it in those type venues.

So on the one hand, yes, it can *do* the desired objectives (insane depth, ability in black, and possibly even disc.). Yet in the *real* world, variables/goals differ.

Not saying that this machine won't bridge the 2-different-worlds. But .... just sayin' ... that I understand what CFMCT is saying.
Click to expand...
 
Lots of folks think the NOx is pretty good at the beach. Only a very few have or have used the MDT. I took the Nox because it is what I had and I got the AQ with only 3 days’ notice. I could have taken my CZ-6, but the Nox is about as good overall and much easier to manage.

I probably should have never mentioned the AQ’s use inland. It is NOT a nugget machine and no one that I know of including me have used it enough inland to say what good it is at any particular job. It runs fine inland, but whether it is good for deep relics in your ground is something the user will - for right now anyway - be on his own with. It is DEFINITELY NOT a silver coin hunter. It does better air testing on a nickel than a silver dollar. The focus is all about gold jewelry.

The user manual will say clearly what the AQ I’d for. Finding gold jewelry at salt water beaches. Everything about its design is a result of trade-offs in the direction of making it great at that one thing.
 
Well guys , I must confess. I have been saying for years that all I wanted was a detector that would only pickup gold. Nothing else. Could this be it ? I (or we) may or may not never know. The problem is how much gold does one reasonably expect to get with this that will justify the cost compared to what I already have. That is the unknown. What is known for me is how often I hammer So.Cal beaches and the lack of gold recovered. Last years counts were great for me. This year , not even close. Conditions of course are the #1 factor contributing to this. There are others , but that is another topic. I'm afraid of walking miles on end at 4 different beaches for a goose egg after 8 hrs. I don't need another detector to do that !

So , what do I do ? Wait for the perfect conditions , locations to present it's self and whip out this detector ? My other detectors can do that. I spent a bit on my old Nox , with all the goodies. It paid for itself , but just wasn't as good as my TDI bh ( that I blew up) or my DF for my hunting style before I sold it. I don't want to repeat that scenario again.
 
KOB - excellent summary of where a lot of beach hunters seem to be. One thing for sure, the AQ will find all kinds of junk in all metal. In discriminate A lot of the ferrous stuff can be ID’d - and experience and ear training can even help improving the odds in all metal.

Whether somebody can justify a purchase of a new above $2k detector or not is a very individual matter. Early buyers will be betting that the AQ does all the great stuff which has been described At their own locations and under their conditions.

One thing worth thinking about is that if it does well and word gets out, even if one of the early Buyers doesn’t “Take to it” - the low production rate which Fisher has planned might mean an easy resale at a good price. Of course if it doesn’t earn a good rep in the marketplace, that’s another matter.
 
KOB said:
Well guys , I must confess. I have been saying for years that all I wanted was a detector that would only pickup gold. Nothing else. Could this be it ? I (or we) may or may not never know. The problem is how much gold does one reasonably expect to get with this that will justify the cost compared to what I already have. That is the unknown. What is known for me is how often I hammer So.Cal beaches and the lack of gold recovered. Last years counts were great for me. This year , not even close. Conditions of course are the #1 factor contributing to this. There are others , but that is another topic. I'm afraid of walking miles on end at 4 different beaches for a goose egg after 8 hrs. I don't need another detector to do that !

So , what do I do ? Wait for the perfect conditions , locations to present it's self and whip out this detector ? My other detectors can do that. I spent a bit on my old Nox , with all the goodies. It paid for itself , but just wasn't as good as my TDI bh ( that I blew up) or my DF for my hunting style before I sold it. I don't want to repeat that scenario again.
Click to expand...


Ummm No..

I keep hearing its tuned for gold... well this picture has gold but it finds a lot of other stuff as well... Its a PI and a PI is going to find junk including bottle caps and bobbie pins Rick said so yesterday..

Right next to the headphones are quite a lot of bottle caps.. I'll stick with my modded Excal and leave the bottle caps for you guys :lol:
 

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KOB said:
..... I have been saying for years that all I wanted was a detector that would only pickup gold.....
Click to expand...

Kob, haven't you seen the late night infomercials by Whites Co, for their detectors that " .... tell you what's in the ground before you dig it" ? You could have bought one of those, years ago, and been digging "only gold" already. Tsk tsk.

Hence you're obviously way-behind the times. Get with it !

Sure, this new AQ will "only pick up gold" too. Right ? :laughing:
 
Cfmct said:
Ummm No..

I keep hearing its tuned for gold... well this picture has gold but it finds a lot of other stuff as well... Its a PI and a PI is going to find junk including bottle caps and bobbie pins Rick said so yesterday..

Right next to the headphones are quite a lot of bottle caps.. I'll stick with my modded Excal and leave the bottle caps for you guys :lol:
Click to expand...
That's alot of trash. Quite a bit of gold too. Right now , I would take that ratio. But for almost a year now , in So.Cal , those conditions haven't really be conducive. Funny how you can tell what kind of conditions one is hunting from just their pics ! Experience I guess. The inland bays maybe , but not the Pacific side.
 
KOB said:
That's alot of trash. Quite a bit of gold too. Right now , I would take that ratio. But for almost a year now , in So.Cal , those conditions haven't really be conducive. Funny how you can tell what kind of conditions one is hunting from just their pics ! Experience I guess. The inland bays maybe , but not the Pacific side.
Click to expand...

Of course its a lot of gold they had to get a special permit to hunt that beach as its off limits to hunting.
 
lytle78 said:
It is DEFINITELY NOT a silver coin hunter. It does better air testing on a nickel than a silver dollar. The focus is all about gold jewelry.
Click to expand...

Rick, I haven’t used Pi’s too much. I got frustrated digging the junk they get and rather quickly transitioned to my CTX. I don’t recall finding any silver coins with the CTX although I did find a few with the surf pi’s early on. I think it more due to the times rather than any difference in sensitivity to material - but your statement above got me wondering why less sensitivity with silver, then I Googled and found this regarding a detector called the Mirage. So is the AQ less sensitive to silver because of the TX frequency? Have you tried a Mirage?
 
I don’t know the reason, but it is a result of deleberate design trade-offs.

Here’s what the designer - Alexandre - wrote me a while back about being more sensitive to gold than to silver....

“Yes it's true, it was not programmed for that and it’s not a coinshooter.
In view of the world economic situation that I had anticipated, I think I was right.
After the crisis there will be a lot of gold detectors, there is already since 1 month a global shortage of physical gold!
It takes 120 grams of silver for one gram of gold.
For a ring of 3 grs of 18k gold you need 100 silver ring 920/1000
Gold and only gold! “
“
 
I left out the link: www.treasurelinx.com. He mentions that higher frequency tx rate is good for gold but not silver. There is more discussion on geotech - I’m an electronics geek so I love reading this stuff.
 
Tom_in_CA said:
Kob, haven't you seen the late night infomercials by Whites Co, for their detectors that " .... tell you what's in the ground before you dig it" ? You could have bought one of those, years ago, and been digging "only gold" already. Tsk tsk.

Hence you're obviously way-behind the times. Get with it !

Sure, this new AQ will "only pick up gold" too. Right ? :laughing:
Click to expand...

Yes Tom , very slow ! I'm just a poor old peckerhead trying to eek out my meager existence on the beaches of So.Cal.
 
I don’t think the White’s had a gold symbol, did they? Thus they sucked at finding us gold at beaches.
The XLT has a symbol we all thought was for a diamond ring but instead was a pull-tab warning indicator.
 
Old Yorkshire expression - “Where there’s Muck - there’s Brass” - if you want to find gold, you must deal with !!!!.

Nugget hunters mostly use all metal machines - PI, Constant Current IB (the GPZ) or VLF’s. Those poor saps dig 1000 pieces of birdshot, 500 boot tacks and untold bullets for every itsy - bitsy nugget.

Beach hunters knock off some scrap too, but their gold comes in comparatively huge chunks.

Yes - aluminum and gold live very close to each other in conductivity (for phase shift discriminating VLF’s) and eddy currents decay (for PI’s).
 
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