The Detectorists Vinyl

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Chris Domino

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Aug 3, 2024, 4:33:36 PM8/3/24

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Released: 30th January 2023. Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones are Andy and Lance, two eager metal detectorists who share a dream of finding a buried treasure that will change their lives, in a deeply humorous and heart-warming portrayal of male friendship and metal-detecting. We follow their lives, loves and discoveries as they search for the past, finding connections and striking oodles of comedy gold along the way.

I am saddened by what I see being reported as depth issues after performing online available software updates for detectors like Deus 2, Equinox 600/800 and of course, everyones whipping post, the Legend. I have not been to a Manticore Facebook site yet. Maybe there are depth issues being reported there too. I am sure there will be similar issues with the Equinox 700/900 if there ever is an update.

I am saddened because being able to do an online software update is one of the real advantages of these detectors that are offered by their engineering teams. Plus, these really are state of the art, excellent detectors.

It also saddens me because after reading these reports, I wonder if there is something wrong with my software updated detectors, the software itself, the downloaded update tool or are there different board level components or different main PC boards being implemented by some of these manufacturers post production due to supply chain issues that simply work better than the original parts/boards or just the opposite. My last reasonable wondering is: are the variables in computers and their capabilities, operating systems, firewalls, virus prevention software along with the differing quality of various internet data services just too big of a hurdle for these company's software engineers to plan for properly?

Then there is the remote possibility which is just nuts.........are these companies trying to sabotage each others detectors online by infecting each others software and update tools or is there a third party source for this malign behavior. Please tell me that is not going on.

There seem to be others that simply are setting up their detectors to fail judging from their postings and supporting videos which usually show improper settings for the task they are trying to do. Then there is the piling on/placebo effect.

Just to put my mind at ease, I took both of my Legends, Manticore, Equinox 800 and Deus 2 with their biggest 11" coils out to my test area to detect some 8"+ deep in the ground small high conductor US coin targets. Even in their most basic/conservative settings BUT with lowered iron filter/iron bias settings and with the iron target IDs/audio accepted, they easily and fairly equally hit all of those targets.

I wonder if there is something wrong with my software updated detectors, the software itself, the downloaded update tool or are there different board level components or different main PC boards being implemented by some of these manufacturers post production due to supply chain issues that simply work better than the original parts/boards or just the opposite.

My last reasonable wondering is: are the variables in computers and their capabilities, operating systems, firewalls, virus prevention software along with the differing quality of various internet data services just too big of a hurdle for these company's software engineers to plan for properly?

Although possible a board level component change is affecting certain detectors and not others, I think it's unlikely as the replacement components they would use the engineers would have been testing and verifying they're suitable. Electronic components have tolerances and I would think the older analog detectors would be more prone to these problems than digital detectors.

We've seen recently the GPX 6000 with detectors having variable performance inductors causing some detectors far worse self-generated EMI problems than others, so that's a recent example of this problem however I think this was more a problem with the quality of the product than anything with varying performance between inductors, every cent matters, so this of course means other components they're using could be causing their own problems.

The computer the end user is performing the update on can have an influence on if the update works, as in their computer may error saying it can't do the update for whatever reason or not detect the detector when plugged in, however if the update goes on the update goes on, the update tool will be doing a Cyclic redundancy check (CRC) on the file to ensure there is no corruption with the firmware prior to updating and then after updating it will compare the CRC to ensure the file once written is the same as the original file like a signature check, if for example the computer doing the firmware update has a RAM problem with the computer corrupting the firmware during transfer the tool flashing it would fail the verification and flash again, or error. The firmware update I put on my Manticore is the exact same one everyone else has on theirs, there will be no variation caused by the computer used to update it.

One of the reasons I keep my old detectors around, as some seem less prone to many of these issues! Sorta reminds me of the transition from vinyl, to tapes, to CD's, to digital music; some specific problems just don't get better with technology (and loose something in translation), no matter how good it is!

That was an enjoyable post of yours and frankly I find the subject of perceived depth loss to be amusing, not sad. Before I get to why I say this, let me state this based on 25+ yeas of field testing and evaluating prototypes for metal detector companies.

Want another example? You know the new Nokta pinpointer? Guys are acting like it is going to be a game changer for them and can't wait to get one. Uh, news flash: IT'S A PINPOINTER. Last I checked, you find the target with a metal detector and then if necessary, use the pinpointer for recovery. Watch Nokta get hammered for lost depth on a pinpointer. It's coming...

Anyway, don't be sad, Jeff. As you said, these new detectors are marvelous machines. They are so superior to detectors of just a few years ago it isn't funny. So laugh the next time a self-anointed social media genius rips an update for lost depth.

We've seen recently the GPX 6000 with detectors have variable performance inductors causing some detectors far worse self-generated EMI problems than others, so that's a recent example of this problem however I think this was more a problem with the quality of the product than anything with varying performance between inductors so this of course means other components they're using could be causing their own problems.

The computer the end user is performing the update on can have an influence on if the update works, as in their computer may error saying it can't do the update for whatever reason or not detect the detector when plugged in, however if the update goes on the update goes on, the update tool will be doing a CRC check on the file to ensure there is no corruption with the firmware prior to updating and then after updating it will compare the CRC to ensure the file once written is the same as the original file like a signature check, if for example the computer doing the firmware update has a RAM problem with the computer corrupting the firmware during transfer the tool flashing it would fail the verification and flash again, or error. The firmware update I put on my Manticore is the exact same one everyone else has on theirs, there will be no variation caused by the computer used to update it.

Simon, thank you for answering these questions so carefully. I literally am just a digital electronics end user with zero experience beyond ancient analog/beginnings of digital component experience where I literally had to physically set binary switches on simple PC boards, replace easy to handle board level parts and run crude spectrum analyzers back in the early 1980s, day after day.

"They are constantly searching for the one detector that will do it all and are discouraged that it doesn't exist. They are consumed with the idea that they are missing good targets, insisting on searching in all metal in trashed-filed parks so they don't miss the "carpet of gold" that is hidden below the layer of foil and tabs."

I definitely hunt those four in almost all metal (I notch out the two or three lowest iron numbers to take care of magnetite) and I definitely hunt a lot of full auto machine gun fire carpeted levels of aluminum and steel trashed parks and school yards where the amount of targets I hear is impossible to count even in a minute of detecting.

And yet, I am having my best year ever both for the amount of US clad, silver jewelry and especially deeper silver coins. Gold jewelry has fallen off a little but it's still happening. I have already found more in the ten months of this year than I did all of last year and I was out of commission for the entire month of January. I did better last year than the year before and I couldn't walk during most of November and December of 2022. Ever since I got my hands on an Equinox, my finds have steadily increased, not decreased and these newer detectors like Deus 2, Manticore and the Legend just keep finding deeper, good quality targets even through a sea of modern trash.