More Counterfeit Detector Trouble

Up to now, I had only heard of "look alike" fakes, where the guts are some cheap VLF board. I saw this post about Minelab GPX detectors this morning on an Australian stock Trading Forum discussing Codan, Minelab's parent company, posted by a regular contributor.

"Today i examined a Chinese counterfeit GPX4500 metal detector.
The circuit board was identical to the genuine detector and performance was identical to a genuine detector. How did the Chinese get hold of the Hitachi HD series processor source code? Did the Chinese develop their own version of the code?
These detectors are flooding into Africa via direct shipment and via distribution set ups in Dubai. The quoted price from the Chinese is GPX-4500 $2000 USD GPX-5000 $2100 USD Genuine article $6400 Aud. Codan need to do something about this as it totally undermines their profitability."

If this is true (and I have no idea if it is) , it represents a big theft of intellectual property - of course with China, enforcement against the manufacturers is probably hopeless. I understand Minelab as well as First Texas have been active against the distributors of fakes of their detectors in Dubai however.

Quote:"Up to now, I had only heard of "look alike" fakes, where the guts are some cheap VLF board"
The Tek T2 fakes are pretty authentic copies, by all accounts, just not very well done.

And regarding the quoted article stating;"How did the Chinese get hold of the Hitachi HD series processor source code?"
It's not an easy job, but reading out the code from microcontrollers is possible in many cases. This isn't the actual "source code", but the raw code programmed into the device, but if all you are wanting to do is make an identical copy, that's all you need.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2014 05:17PM by Pimento.

Thats a hard one..... since a lot of people even if they know its a knock off would pay $2000 over $6000 for the real deal. The only problem.... did you get junk insides vs the upgrade. Once the company saw they were making sells..... what would keep them from going back to junk insides? Nothing... a thief is a thief.

Dew

Makes you wonder if the Chinese are that good at copying now if they would even be any noticable in field long term difference..

SAD..

But when corporations send all their Property to China to have it made in the first place what would you expect the outcome to be...

I know Minelab does not deal with China but what about Malaysia..

They cant even keep up with an Airplane can they keep up with source/programming codes for a metal detector??

What im saying the chinese knock off and the real thing might be made on the same line...Sad but true...is it not...

Keith

Quote" "What im saying the chinese knock off and the real thing might be made on the same line...Sad but true...is it not.''..



ML GP and GPX Detectors have been overpriced IMO, that's a more reasonable price, but I would not buy one,.

ML painted themselves into a corner by progressively turning an overpriced $3000 gold detector (the SD series) into a ridiculously overpriced $5500 detector as the gold price soared. Now, they would have a hard time cutting their prices. Their GPX 5000 is unchallenged as the best PI gold detector, but even the best needs to find a customer willing to pay the price. Their big new opportunity was Africa and now that's pretty much gone. First Texas ate their lunch by understanding the market better and making "good enough" VLF machines at a fraction of the sales price. The wave of Chinese fakes was the last nail in the box.

Still, the GPX 5000 is awesome.