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Results 1 - 30 of 1917
"When I look at the First Texas AQ design ...the "walls" of the hollow cylindrical part of the clevis that fits inside the carbon tube are much thinner than I would have expected"
I agree, it certainly contributes to the weakness, probably along with a plastic choice that's not ideal.
I wish you all the best.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Obviously I cannot see the engineering details from the photo, but the 'weak point' in that arrangement is the transition from large ( 22mm ? ) diameter to small ( 20mm? ) on the plastic part. If there's a sharp internal corner, that's where the break will occur. I would prefer to see an internal radius at that transition; and as a result have a heavy 45 degree chamfer on the
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
That's a nice looking lower rod. But I do wonder if it may be less sturdy that it could've been. I'm thinking of the issues a few people had with the Fisher AQ, where the clevis part broke where it attached to the carbon rod:
I'm sure those AQ failures were on machines that were submersed, so subject to heavy drag forces. But the Mandingo is also likely to be used by many s
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Quote:"I’m talking about detectors that are multi but also allow you to use one at a time"
This probably is not the best way to compare multi vs single. I think single-freq operation was added to the Equinox as a useful secondary feature. Most of the R&D went into the multi-f operation, and the single-f options are a bit 'vanilla'. Evidence from users of the new X-Terra P
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Quote:"What specifically would make a higher performing coil heavier?"
It's almost entirely down to the housing - the outer case, foam / resin in-fill , the cable. The copper wire weight is only a modest part of the total, and also, it varies very little with coil size. [ aluminum/aluminium wire could be used, and indeed has been used, but it offers little benefit, and there are t
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
"Anyone have any ideas?"
If you have some PC skills, you could try using the 'developer diagnostics' that is included ( I think ) with Edge. The most likely issue is going to be the 'css' style sheets. Your browser sees them as 'insecure' , and fails to load them as a result. This then makes the page layout look like it's from 1985 ... no fonts, just
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
"You think it's the original 100 batch maybe left unsold?"
I understand not all 100 were sold ( update: about 70 have been sold ), so it's very likely they've got enough parts etc to finish off the batch, maybe even with minor improvements?
First Texas have seemingly had a 'clear-out' recently, selling spares and such-like that have been sitting around, and th
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
That looks like the original 'Limited' version, with the small battery pack connected to the rear end of the shaft. The final version is apparently going to have the battery integrated in the shaft hardware somehow.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
That's good. I was going to suggest some coil ear related checks, but it appears you've dodged that one.
It's a very effective machine, and the lack of '800' features is easily lived with.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Yes, they are good equivalents, better in most ways. I use them in my pinpointer.
Freshly charged, they measure 8.4 Volts ( that's 2 x 4.2V , a standard full-charge limit for Lithium cells ), and they stay above 7.5V for most of their discharge. And like other rechargeable batteries ( NiCad /NiMH ) they tend to hold their performance, then 'die' quickly, rather than fading away wi
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
The voltage works out correct, it's really about whether the 9V blocks can supply the current demand, and give useful operational hours. I would be more inclined to use 4 PP3's, connected up with two diodes to balance the discharges, like in the CZ20 machine.
See this thread on Steve H's forum:
Rechargeable PP3's based on two internal Lithium cells have decent capacity (
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
OK,
Some mathematics about targets, for those curious:
Over on the Geotech1 forum, we did a lot of work on target modelling, testing on VLF and PI machines. For the straight solid wire test, we used electrical grade copper wire, various lengths were tested, 19mm ( 3/4" ) a common one, longer wires helped give a stronger signal to measure. The target time-constant was found to increase in
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
I think I have the solution:
The wire itself is very hard to detect. The target frequency of 'long & thin' items is entirely dependant on the 'thin' dimension. The length merely affects the strength of signal you get. For 20 AWG wire, the target freq is in the 100 kHz region , so no machine is really going to be hot on it.
What DOES matter, is what the wire is connected
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
"I always thought this the problem. Cold flow as the plastic oozes up and around that area."
It's not a common failure, by a long way, most go at the bottom, at the high-stress point where the thickness suddenly changes from thin to filleted. But it is a very distinctive and identifiable failure mode, often with a 'pizza-slice' chunk missing from an ear. If you carefully
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
I can't comment on the beach vs. dirt failure rate. Here in the U.K , dirt-hunting is by far the most common style, and so most of the failures occur to dirt-hunters. But the failures typically occur when the machine is not in use .. "I took the machine out of my vehicle, and both coil ears were broken" .. "I had my machine on charge ready for tomorrows session. When I came to
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
"I'm not familiar with the way the AQ coil attaches, unfortunately."
The rod end splits into a C shape, with a hole through each end of the C. There are two bolts/nuts, one for each ear/half of the C shape.
Edit: Photo on Steve H's forum:
"So .. swinging the coil and accidentally smacking into a tree, or whatever, would STILL put "stress" on the coil ears
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Regarding 'adaptor pieces' ( so eared Eqx coils will couple to an eared lower-rod ):
The adaptor does not have to squeeze together the two ears in order to function, they could attach independantly ( something like the way Fishers AQ coil attaches ).
And the adaptor doesn't need any frictional forces on rubber washers etc to hold it, it can rely on the flat area of the coil, for
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
I think Mandingo coils will be expensive, so no freebies. They will have 'brains' internally, and a CTX-like accelerometer, to determine sweep direction / sweep speed. Plus being built to a tighter spec than the Eqx ones, I assume.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
The guys on Steve H's forum reckon they've sussed it. There's a publicity flyer for some new headphones - which are compatible with the Mandingo, AND the Equinox 700/900 machines.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Quote:" Why the extra support? I never knew this was the weak area of the coil?"
I suspect it's not for strength, but rigidity. Anything that disturbs the careful alignment of the coil windings ( the Induction Balance ) can upset the detector operation. Most commonly being bumped against sand/stones/vegetation, the bump moves the housing and the wires within, giving a false signal
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
A lower-freq bias for high-conductor targets ( similar to Eqx Park1/Field1); a higher-freq bias for low conductors ( like Park2/Field2 )
Combined with:
Wet salt sand; Dry sand / freshwater sand.
That would give my 4 combinations. The 'Dry sand' mode would have higher gain/sensitivity than regular 'Land' modes.
Edit : well .. it was just a guess.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
"Stereo audio should be an option on any high performance detector ..."
Definitely. I told NokMak to design the Legend to be stereo-capable, when the 'naming contest' was running, and they asked for features requests. I believe I posted similarly about the Equinox before its release.
Whether either of these machines ARE stereo-capable is still an unknown. I can say the Equin
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
But the difference with Ground Balance is that there IS a correct GB setting, and any other setting is to varying degrees sub-optimal. Whereas there is NO correct coil size, and no 'best' recovery speed, and no 'best' detector frequency choice, etc.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
You're never going to detect ALL the targets, for a plethora of reasons. Changing reactivity will find a few more than sticking with a sensible 'medium' value, but it's a trade-off. Do you have the time to go over a given area several times, with different settings?
It's difficult to choose the 'best' settings, or the 'best' coil size for a location,
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
Quote:"So how do you know how many other targets you are missing if you hunt with a low recovery speed and are never alerted to those additional targets? Are there any indications given out by the machine?
Sub question - how do you figure out what reactivity speed setting to use for the area you're hunting?"
Generally, you would be hunting in a medium recovery-speed mode. Tha
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
The round 5" coil is a DD configuration. I used it regularly on my F75, I found it very capable. Parkland is one place I have seldom used it, though.
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Pimento
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Thomas Dankowski Metal Detecting Forum
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