PI Technology

[Anonymous]

Eric Foster and Detector Pro have come out with some innovated new products in the last couple of years.But nothing from Whites,Garrett or Fisher.It seems like there just using the same technology in a new package from 10 years agr could it be that the market is just not big enough for them. Just my opinion .HH John

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

They changed a solid state device with a newer one, presto ! New detector.
In all fairness to White's, they did change the gains around a bit, and did improve on the older Surfmasters performance. Neverless the circuirty design is very old. They realy haven't done anything to make a new PI detector since they first introduced the Surfmaster PI in the mid 90's.
Mr. Bill

 

[Anonymous]

John,
Garretts came out with the Sea Hunter a few years ago, which was a much improved unit than previous models. Much greater depth and also the Discrete Discrimination is definitely a major advancement/improvement.
The Garrett Infinium is definitely an advancement in PI technology in the goldfields. Normal PI detectors are generally useless in the Australian goldfields, whereas the Garrett Infinium LS and the Minelab PI's are the only ones that can handle this type of highly mineralised soils encountered here. Also the Infinium has two types of discrimination that basically works to the depth of the target in this high mineralsed ground, which others do not. When both types of discriminations are used together, it makes it a very powerful detector in the goldfields. There are improvements being discussed on PI's, but generally most are only enhancements of what exists now. To improve greatly on PI detectors depth capabilities that are now available, would be a major achievement.
Minelab would have to be one of the major developers of PI units over the last eight years, but their depth capabilities have not really increased much. The Garrett are now giving a good alternative with the Infinium, as basically it gets the same depth as these units. External enhancements, such as better coils, headphones, etc will probably be the best we can hope to see in the next few years.
Phil