New Fisher PI Detector In the Works

I read on a forum yesterday that Fisher is building a new PI detector, its on the bench, now in the works. This was leaked by Head of Sales & Marketing Tim Mallory on a Facebook Fisher site. I am hoping for iron id to depth, as well as 8usec timing for very small gold. 8usec and 10usec timings would be great to have switchable. Both Carl Morland and Dave Johnson are engineers for Fisher now, so this should be an exciting new detector with these guys at the helm.

Interesting news indeed gold bug sniper. Your hoping for Iron ID at depth,which would be a feat in itself on a PI. While I'll be hoping it can handle some of our highly mineralized ground conditions here in Vic Australia. Fingers crossed we see a bit of both incorporated. Looking forward to seeing,what these 2 brilliant minds come up with. Cheers for the update.

     Kon. 

I just dug up another possible "new detector" lead, Carl Morland had built a pi detector for White's before leaving the company,  that was shelved by white's, its a pi with its timing set at 6-8 usec, with iron id. So maybe we will be seeing a tiny nugget detector from whites in the near future since Carl said it was a completed detector. In the same thread another credible person said that Whites had pulled it off the shelf recently which I guess means they are considering producing it. With the sdc2300 I would suspect other companies to come out with a similar type detector for tiny nugget hunting sooner than later. Face it, there is way more tiny gold out there to find than big gold anymore.

Agreed gold bug sniper.Why have they waited so long.I can understand the money/sales of cheaper products to satisfy the masses is most profitable,but to let Minelab get so far ahead in pulse detection technology,to the point where many of those masses are now buying Minelab engineered products all over the world,when at the same time Garret,Fisher,Whites,have more than enough knowledge between them,to engineer something up as good as,if not better than Minelab themselves beats me. Oh well,they(Fisher,Whites,Garret) allowed the horse to bolt ahead,its only fitting they bolt after it trying to catch up.  

   Cheers Kon.

I look forward eagerly to finding out what, if anything finally emerges from the development programs which US makers have underway.  Meanwhile here are my latest ruminations on what's up.  Mind you, people pay good money for expert market predictions.  My thoughts are free - which probably means they are worthless!!

Will Garrett do the obvious and put the ATX in a lightweight land only package is known only to them.

Nobody seems to know what, if anything is going on at Whites after Carl's departure.

US courts are pretty sympathetic to lawsuits brought by companies against the present employers of their ex-employees - on grounds that the new company has obtained the old company's intellectual property from the employee in question.  Besides all that, I know Carl to be an honorable and upright individual who would never be involved with what amounts to theft - so I doubt Whites designs and technology will make their way to FT

I have good reason to believe that First Texas (FT) the makers of Fisher and Teknetics - are proceeding with their new gold detector based on their own research and development.

They have made statements which clearly indicate that currently Africa is their most profitable market and one in which they clearly dominate.

I would be VERY surprised if their new gold detector were anything other than a light weight, battery thrifty machine which is very easy to operate.  I would guess that whatever technology it uses, it would aim to provide  performance at least a good as the Garrett ATX at a price point of less than $2000 and perhaps as little as $1500. The advantages of PI technology like depth in mineralizes soil, hot rock immunity are balanced by the inherent disadvantage of non linear response "holes" caused by the time delay based ground balance method. New technology, whether from FT or ML will likely be aimed at providing VLF like "hole free" detection along with some substantial fraction of Pulse Induction's capabilities in bad ground.  


First Texas is almost certianly the largest producer of metal detectors in the world by unit volume.  For them to invest dozens of man-years of engineering and technician labor in a new gold detector indicates that they envision as selling them in the many thousands (even tens of thousands) of units - most likely in Africa, Asia and South America.  Sales in North America and Australia would be welcome, but the total would likely fall well short of sales in the rest of the world.

What market exists for $6000 - $7000 gold detectors outside Australia and North America is a question which Codan must be thinking a lot about.

On the detector prospector nugget hunting forum, in the detector technology section under, pi's and small gold, I read that Carl had built or designed a 6-8 usec tiny nugget detector with iron id while working for whites and plans are still in Whites posession, well same thread further down in the discussion Carl said that he could replicate the same detector now with an entirely different circuit to circumvent patents by whites, so you never know what will show up at Fisher, I also posted what I heard on the Whites Forum hoping this would spur Whites to build the machine, uh, the whole thread with several replies was deleted in several days. No surprise there, this has happened to several others trying to respectfully discuss detectors on that same forum. Go figure.

I don't think iron discrimination is such a big deal in our gold fields. 99% of all the junk I find is lead. More important is that it can handle our highly mineralised dirt. Beside just adding to the cost of the new machine, the iron I.D will dumb the machine down. So is it worth it just so it can discriminate the odd nail? And...... can you trust it??

It can be a problem even in remote in areas where there has been extensive scraping with dozers, the blade shavings give you grief when hunting tiny surface grain size gold, and can easily and accurately be discriminated out with current discrimination technology, since near the surface. A pi small gold type detector would only be used as a specific tool to find gold in the first several inches of ground, I agree that discrimination does affect and dumb down targets at greater depths. But for what this detector is built for it needs discrimination in my opinion. I envision a pi detector capable of taking the place of my Fisher Gold bug 2, so I can hunt tiny gold patches in hot ground in peace, without all the vlf noise associated with the GB2. Hopefully if one is built it will be affordable as well, unlike what is already on the market.

I also wouldn't want discrimination in use on a powerful pi for general hunting to depths, as it will surely dumb the detector down as you say. We have done extensive tests on gram size gold to depth with the gpx's and GP detectors, even a battery change from a fully charged stock minelab large battery to a fully charged lightweight camcorder batt will dumb down the detector on deep gram size nuggets. A lot of things affect detection of deep small gold.

We have done extensive tests on gram size gold to depth with the gpx's and GP detectors, even a battery change from a fully charged stock minelab large battery to a fully charged lightweight camcorder batt will dumb down the detector on deep gram size nuggets. A lot of things affect detection of deep small gold.

Strange...both GP & GPX are internally regulated.

As long as the DC flows...all is well.

New information starting to hit the net about Fisher's new technology CZX nugget detector, deeper than VLF, no ground balance adjustments, etc. Exciting times ahead in 2016!!! I am going to upgrade from the gpx 4000 to something new before spring, already sold the 4000 when Minelab started lowering prices on the new package deals and 4500, that has decimated the used minelab market, was going to go to a 4500 or 5000 since the Elite coils are working so well but going to hold off till spring to see whats new and how well it works before buying again, and maybe upgrade the Gold Bug 2 as well to some new tech.

http://md-hunter.com/fisher-is-making-a-clever-metal-detector-new-2016/    **scroll down to read about the new CZX nugget detector. Lots of interesting info.

Iron descrimination could be of great benefit in a lot of areas. Like where old timers camped, most of those camps are where the gold was, and very few take the time to clear the ground and detect it. In WA there is lots of these areas and very few that we know have really been detected as the effort is just not worth it. With there old dripping cans, tobacco tins, wire and general metal rust every 6"s you need something good to sort that rubbish out.

Well, latest information on Fisher projects is the French engineer's Manta machine, its coming out shortly as a beach machine, and also very soon as a Manta Terra a nugget machine, word is it beats the z in depth by the tester. I guess Fisher hired this french engineer and his staff, plus bought his Manta project which was a completed machine. So we will see future machines from this new engineer. The Manta runs at 7 usec timing, interesting machine.

According to Carl Morland of Fisher, the CZX project has been scrapped.

ooks like the Fisher Aquamanta is nearly ready to go.
https://www.findmall.com/read.php?26,2465367

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/beach-shallow-water/579204-fisher-aquamanta.html

Yep, about time they came out with something of value to us. Or to some anyway. It was a bummer for me when Fisher said the CZX nugget detector project was a bust. Seems they need to get their tech from outside sources anymore. I bet that cost em dearly.

gold bug sniper wrote:Yep, about time they came out with something of value to us. Or to some anyway. It was a bummer for me when Fisher said the CZX nugget detector project was a bust. Seems they need to get their tech from outside sources anymore. I bet that cost em dearly.

Yeah maybe.
Something to take into account though is that Metal detecting gold prospectors are an extreme minority in the metal detecting industry.
Treasure hunters, jewellery, relic and coin hunters and sunken lost treasure ship wreck explorers, cache and hoard hunters far out number those who want gold only machines.
     So why waste time and money trying to make detectors that are good for gold in high mineral ground only....The market is small? OK so make enough to satisfy that market but the price will be high in order to justify making a specialised machine to satisfy a few. Also remember that in the near future in Australia at least, access to the gold fields is going to be made very difficult for amateurs and hobbyists due to land closure, plus the Chinese are eyeing off our gold fields. Do you reckon they will allow recreational prospectors to take their gold? Not a chance lance.
      Make a machine that will perform in most ground conditions that has top performance over salt water beaches, is water proof in salt water to a couple of hundred feet and has accurate iron discrimination while at the same time still detecting valuable metals.
     If the Aquamanta  can find gold beneath an iron item  or can ID the iron and the gold or precious metal individually then that will be a big plus.
For myself; I will accept it as true  it when I see it.

Just some thoughts.

New Fisher AQ beach machine makes appearance in Germany at some Detector dealer convention.

http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/discussions/read.php?2,145750,page=14

Sounds like a nugget version of this is not far behind the beach machine. I like all the knobs and lack of Screen. Lowest usec timing is 7 and is adjustable. Should be interesting to follow.

New Fisher PI for the beach.
http://hobby-detecting.com/fisher-impulse-aq-a-new-pulse-metal-detector-with-metal-discrimination-2019-novelty-first-photos/?fbclid=IwAR1M3tVtULxFnuYZtvIs4zbrYu_2NUDkrzvNM-LbRA_uiQzdN08pgMWl-48

Used second hand Fisher Impulse AQ limited edition for sale.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/14494-used-fisher-impulse-ltd-for-sale/

This one is not for sale via the First Texas "biased" dealer that sell the Limited Edition.

FT could have sent an AQ to Tropical North Queensland for testing.

Here we can beach/water detect all year and are free to move around.

Frankly I don't think anyone will catch up to Minelab with pi technology or vlf technology for that matter. Minelab has been perfecting pi technology for detecting nuggets for yrs. Minelab is the only detector company to have a large line of late model detectors. The rest are playing catchup or trying to.

Can't say I diss-agree with you there gold bug sniper & now with the announcement of Minelabs new GPX 6000 on the horizon, I too can't see any other detector company matching up or surpassing that of Minelab PI's technology.
As for the newly introduced Fisher Impulse AQ coin/relic detector, being a PI with good discrimination at depth, should keep many a coin/relic operator happy.
Can't comment on their gold version side of things, for that's yet to be determined/judged.
Bottom line, any promising, new, hand held detecting technology, is always a welcoming sight.

Cheers Kon.

Looks like the Impulse AQ Limited is now available directly from the maker First Texas

Prises in $US below.

IMPULSE-AQ-NIMH $1,499
PI-BATPK-NI $199.00 *Only if you want more than 1 battery pack
8COILPI-A $299

Looks like a nice machine but at approx 2000.00 AUD I will stay with the TDI. and my old Infinium is still an excellent beach PI.
Some info here.
https://mentalmetaldetecting.com/fisher-impulse-aq-limited-metal-detector-review/

I am so surprised Fisher is putting that much time and effort into a pi beach machine, where they won't sell a lot of them from start to finish over the yrs, I hope they are spending way more time with the nugget version of this pi, this is where the money is to be made with a great machine, however I have doubts they understand pi as well as minelab, it takes a lot to make a good gold machines in a pi. Minelab is light yrs ahead in tech with pi, and has been since 2000. A few have tried to catch up but the machines were less than stellar over the yrs.

I'm not concerned with Gold Prospecting detectors as this area is already well catered for, besides none of the Minelab PI detectors are waterproof except for the SDC-2300 which one dealer tried to sell me for beach detecting.  
My main interest is in beach/water detecting, so this Impulse AQ which I tried to obtain once before some time back, but didn't due to a sole dealer which is no longer the hurdle and so leave the path open for a second attempt.
As Adrian point out the Impulse AQ at around $Au 2000+ for a dedicated beach PI detector, is a good deal of money, but would still be my choice compared to $Au 4000+ for an SDC 2300 mainly Gold detector.

On a lighter/darker note; I'm going to try as many detectors as possible that have my interest, before the undertaker come knocking on the door.  

Around the same price as a QED, pity the QED did'nt live up to buyers expectations.

Hopefully developments will give Minelab some competition.

I think if you scored a good QED working as per specs then it proved to be quite a bit better than your average gold machine.

I'm with you Ivanll in that I like to try as many tectas as I can possibly get my hands on and beach machines are my primary tectas. As you say there are plenty of gold detectors on the market now and with the 6000 coming on line there will be a detector to suit near on everybody interested in this game..
The AQ has a hot All metal mode but the other modes are said to lose a bit of depth due to timings and ground balance. That sounds normal to me. My TDI achieves exceptional depth in the all metal setting although it can get a bit noisy at times, where-as if you select either High Tone or Low Tone only then depth is lost on particular metals and running the salt timings desensitizes the machine to small gold.
So maybe I might try the AQ but at the moment I will wait and see....I must admit that it is tempting.

PeterInSa wrote:Around the same price as a QED, pity the QED did'nt live up to buyers expectations.

Hopefully developments will give Minelab some competition.

QED is an excellent PI detector for persons that are capable of manual setup/adjustments.
Attach a Detech 18" Concentric coil and it have more depth than I have energy to dig.

ivanll

I've been informed (by Australia Post) that one box likely to contain one Fisher Impulse AQ Limited is in the mail bound for Australia.
If/when it make it to me in TNQ, I shall have to give it a workout on our Northern beaches.

ivanll

Knew you could not resist the temptation Ivanll.
Will be looking forward to your opinion.
I sent Fisher an email requesting info on how to obtain an AQ but no answer was the stern reply.

First Texas Fisher do not send/deliver outside USA, but they will send to a US postal address.
The no longer sole dealer in Arizona "lytle78" did not recognize this as a valid address and so missed out on a lot of sales.
To obtain an Impulse AQ you have to contact a person in the sales support at First Texas Products, once done a detector can be on the way within the next 2 days, keep in mind the time difference between US and Oz.
My first AQ purchase arrived at the facility in Sydney Sunday Sun 16 May, 11.47am and is still there.
Australia Post did contact me yesterday Thursday, to let me know they would look into having it forwarded to me in Qld.