Goldquest PI

[Anonymous]

Hello everybody
The price of the Goldquest is very attractive compared to the Deepstar. The 3 defaults of the deepstar (I have used it and my hunting buddy swears only by it) is the battery life, weight and hard to use the first times.Not very good for travel too. But its depth is simply incredible.
I would use it for wet sand hunting only.
I would like to know :
How does it compare with the Deepstar in DEPTH for let's say a medium size gold ring.
How can you hipmount/chestmount/belmount it ?
How do you have to protect it from the rain and salty environment ?
Do you have to unscrew the 4 screws each time to replace the batteries ?
Thanks
Thanks again Mr Bill for my modified surf PI. Works great. See last finds from this week end attached.

 

[Anonymous]

Hello Francois,
Regarding the defaults of the Deepstar, the battery life is determined by the battery capacity. Up till about 6 months ago, the batteries supplied by our battery manufacturer were 2.2Ah capacity, which gives approximately 5 hours operation. As batteries improve, so the capacity goes up, and the present battery is 2.5Ah, which will give over 5.5 hours use. The Deepstar can be fitted with the 3.8Ah pack as used in the Aquastar and then you will get over 8 hours operation. However, this battery is more expensive and requires a higher capacity charger. It is also lighter in weight.
The Deepstar now has a transmitter power switch which shortens the transmitter pulse from 100uS to 50uS. This halves the current and, whichever battery you are using, you will get twice the number of hours operation for little loss in range.
The weight of the Deepstar with the standard battery is 5lbs, of which about half the weight is the battery. Carried properly on the waist and neck, or shoulder, this amount of weight is not a problem. Where weight is important, is on the search coil and shaft, and this is kept to around 2lbs so as to give little arm fatigue on long searches. A three part shaft is now available from the US which makes the whole unit easier to pack for travelling.
The Goldquest is a much smaller and lighter unit, which uses standard AA size batteries. Obviously, the lower power transmitter will result in less range, but it still does a very respectable job and will only be a couple of inches or so, short of the Deepstar. The Goldquest is designed for mounting on a waist belt, the same as the Beachscan, and can be used on the beach in the rain without additional protection. The Goldquest has additional sensitivity to thin and small low conductivity items, as its minimum pulse delay is 10uS. On very highly mineralised beaches, it may be necessary to turn this back to the more normal setting of 15uS by means of the frequency/reject control. However, this sensitivity is there for when you can use it, on damp salt sand, dry sand, freshwater beaches and some inland gold prospecting areas. The four screws holding the cover are quarter turn quick release, so changing the batteries is not a time consuming and fiddly operation.
Eric.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for answering so fast. How would you compare the Goldquest with a modified Whites PI ? With an excalibur ? My first goal is not to find chains or little rings but too go much deeper with a lightweight, turn and go detector with a good battery life.

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Eric,
I would like to see a PI gold prospecting machine
that has a much smaller, possibly elliptical coil
that can fit into the many tight spots out that
are necesary to prospect in. The Goldquest is
lightweight enough and would appear to pick up
small gold in mineralized soils without the bulk
and battery problems of the GP Extreme. Is it
possible to get a custom 10x5 elliptical rather than the standard 11" coil for the Goldquest?
Thanks! Robert

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Robert.
Not speaking for Eric, but as the US importer, and sales representative of his fine units.
The Goldquest SS was not really meant to replace all gold nugget detectors, but to offer the nugget hunter a inexpensive, lightweight PI detector that is very sensitive to gold nuggets. It