American Metal Detector Manufacturers

they adhere to the mantra ''if it aint broke dont fix it '' so its surprising any of em are still trading in the face of ruthless global competition .tesoro gone and who else will follow...whites is still making lunch box machines of heavy metal ... such as the TM808 when carbon fibre should be the material of choice by now

What some manufacturers haven’t realized is we are now in a throw away society when it comes to electronics.
Like bic butane lighter in a sense.

Computers are like this.
What happened to all those pentium 233 and 266s?? Garbage can.

Cell phones, many folks upgrade pretty quick.

The in thing. Get the newest and off the older.

Yeah, there are some that don’t off as fast or rarely do.
Some still use old flip phones.

But catering to thesee kind of folks is this where the $$$ is for electronics manufacturers??
Don’t Think so,

White’s should have put V3i into a lightweight plastic body years ago and furnished with lighter coil. Even dumped the color screen and went li pro battery route.
More ways to show what original V3 series showed (freq/screen) wise without having to use color.
Instead White’s went the Vx3 route.

MXT could have been refined and put into smaller lightweight plastic case. Even waterproof. Sorry MX sport ain’t it !!

So White’s all they had to do is redesign their detectors really and they would have been better off in long run. Poor souls should have been reading here over the last 7 years. And taking action and make happen.

Minelab too could had redesigned Etrac and it would have sold extremely well. Li pro battery, better screen for viewing and,lighter weight,

Sometimes I don’t understand why manufacturers do what they do.
Maybe I am not supposed to.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2018 03:36PM by tnsharpshooter.

TNSS - you are right and the list goes on...

Garrett’s ATX imprisoned in that heavy plastic armor instead of light and handy for nugget hunting. The only thing I can think of is that the military mine detection model quit selling and they got stuck with thousands of the case components.

Whites, mostly a lack of capital. Classic case of founder and boss gone from the company and successors seeming to have difficulties with the way ahead. The heirs see the company as their inheritance, but will they commit to building the company and therefore their equity or will they milk it for cash.

Minelab, Why it took so long to bring out a light multifreaker is anybodies guess. Probably too focused on the goldfields?

My pals at First Texas. My own theory is that when you have such success in a gold rush in Africa and in mass market sales here, it takes a lot of time and money to keep all that going, ongoing tweaking of existing models etc.

One general observation...these are ALL smalll businesses. Investment capital is scarce in the best of them and a single development program which never makes it to market can eat up years worth of available R&D money.

Along that line - I suspect that making a successful and competitive simultaneous or sequential multifrequency detector must be REALLY hard. Designing the transmitter and receiver can’t be that tough, but the signal processing software is probably a bear and unwise choices in circuit design can make it too noisy to be of any use. There has to be a reason why Makro, XP, and many others haven’t managed to do it and why FT and Whites have not been able to move on beyond their current now elderly multifreaker designs.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

Rick,
I wonder sometimes if maybe the reason(s) a detector manufacturer won’t redesign an already ‘good working’ platform is they are afraid of admitting or give appearance of lackluster original decision in design of detector model. Or maybe it would be a stick in the eye of the engineer(s) who were behind originally designed units.

If this is the case, it is too bad.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/2018 04:14PM by tnsharpshooter.

For the past 20+ years I've worked in networking and now, more specifically Cybersecurity. Most networking gear and firewalls have a shelf life of about 5 years (most less, some more). We're talking gear that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more per box. It wasn't made to be throw away perse, but technology has driven it to be obsolete with faster and faster network interfaces being developed, the number of endpoint devices continue to grow at exponential rates, much more computing power then just a few years ago, streaming everything, cloud everything, these bandwidth hungry technologies continue to create a technology catch-up scenario, quickly obsoleting last years latest and greatest. It's simply the world we live in, perhaps some are shielded from it, or don't care to pay attention to it, but it's here and moving fast. Like it or not, it is what it is, and it's a fact.

I've always said that we live in unprecedented times, we've been privy to more technological advancement in the last 100 years, than all of time combined before, think about that for a minute.

Cal_cobra Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For the past 20+ years I've worked in networking a
> nd now, more specifically Cybersecurity. Most net
> working gear and firewalls have a shelf life of ab
> out 5 years (most less, some more). We're talking
> gear that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollar
> s or more per box. It wasn't made to be throw awa
> y perse, but technology has driven it to be obsole
> te with faster and faster network interfaces being
> developed, the number of endpoint devices continue
> to grow at exponential rates, much more computing
> power then just a few years ago, streaming everyth
> ing, cloud everything, these bandwidth hungry tech
> nologies continue to create a technology catch-up
> scenario, quickly obsoleting last years latest and
> greatest. It's simply the world we live in, perha
> ps some are shielded from it, or don't care to pay
> attention to it, but it's here and moving fast. Li
> ke it or not, it is what it is, and it's a fact.
>
> I've always said that we live in unprecedented tim
> es, we've been privy to more technological advance
> ment in the last 100 years, than all of time combi
> ned before, think about that for a minute.


Well said Brian!!

I belong to the greediest group of all - the American Consumer. We nearly always go for the item that benefits us the most. Either financially, functionally,or egotistically. We are the original bean counters and are responsible for the success of foreign manufacturers. Even while wrapped in the flag we are the ones killing American manufacturers.

There used to be a Sunday newspaper comic strip that had a character who once proclaimed "We have met the enemy and they is us".

Rick,
I think Carl's statement is relevant here. Middle of page 5. [www.detectorprospector.com]

Multi-frequency isn't that hard, its the transmit power requirements for each frequency that limit what can be done. Current power generation limits to 2 or 3 frequency.

HH
Mike

tnsharpshooter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Rick,
> I wonder sometimes if maybe the reason(s) a detect
> or manufacturer won’t redesign an already ‘good wo
> rking’ platform is they are afraid of admitting or
> give appearance of lackluster original decision in
> design of detector model. Or maybe it would be a
> stick in the eye of the engineer(s) who were behin
> d originally designed units.
>
> If this is the case, it is too bad.

This is most likely true as we know some peoples mindsets do not like to be changed no matter how wrong they are -

You only have to look at the old manufacturers who bang out a product with a 'like it or lump it' mantra

Then you have companies who release a fantastic unit only to follow it up a year later with an improved model that their customers wanted - ONE YEAR - A company that listens YET the kickers only response - "no new tech changes there"

Until the big players get their head around the fact that the customers are their bread and butter, more and more of these manufacturers will simply disappear as the new players know how to look after their customers -

I have also found that US manufacturers will try to milk you for every last cent when it comes to gear - You get what you pay for but if you need arm cuff straps, spare parts, etc they are usually an extra $$ - Others simply make sure you have everything you need when you open the box MEANING that they have put some thought into the customer when they unbox their item - Not having to run around getting batteries and ordering the extra parts to compliment the original purchase, meaning possibly more delay's at a time where YOU do not want any delays at all - UNBOXING DAY

Sure, there are those that do not want the extras because they are already sorted - Good - Better to have spares than NOT have spares

Price - If they can sell & manufacture complete packages off-shore for less that what you get a US made detector with limited extras then there is no problem I can see with manufacturers selling their goods ready to go with all the necessary extras included. How frustrating it is to do water hunting with a detector with NO arm strap? A simple $1 item could easily save the entire unit from being dropped into water. Again for those who DO NOT use arm straps, leave them in the box for when you turn your unit over to those who DO use a arm strap - IMO they are a must for the detector - I have no idea who came up with the penny pinching measures but that is TIGHT -

Basics, yet greed seems to dictate some manufacturers more than others (disclaimer NOT picking on any specific company)

[www.earthscan.co.nz]