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WE WANT CHANGE (and it ain't political)

D

D&P-OR

Well-known member
Here's one I've thought about for a long time! What improvements/changes would you guys like to see on the Explorer?? Who knows the prison better than the prisoners? IF we got a few workable/usable/feasable (whew-such words) improvements listed. Who knows, maybe the prison supt.--or somebody in the prison--(Minelab), would even listen to us. I've got a few that I think are reasonable & may be workable. But I have two pet peeves--and I've talked to Minelab 2 or 3 times about them and they said it could be done. They said they wrote down note of them for possible future changes (but it sure hasn't happened yet). My pet peeves: Minelab, do something about that ridiculous glare on that face plate! You can adjust the contrast all day long and it doesn't help hardly at all. They have solved the problem (glare) on the Xterra and they can do it on the Explorer, a Minelab person told me that. You name it-I've tried it-to cut down glare. The thing that I've found that still helps the most is polarized sun glasses. This problem has been in the Explorers from the start, you would think that they would have addressed it by now. #2---Incorporate a depth guage in the large face plate reading. With the SE, you would just have your cursor or 2 sets of numbers & the depth guage (all kinds of room for it). Again-I was told by Minelab that it could be done. You can switch back & forth, but------- Don't get me wrong on this--that Explorer is my baby, I love the thing. I just think a few inexpensive changes to a great detector could make it even greater, without raising the price on it thru the roof. What do you guys think about all this?? Any list of changes/improvements presented to Minelab would have to be organized & reasonable-also, some things are cost prohibitive. I do think Minelab listens to us as individuals to a certain degee, but as the old saying goes "there's strength in numbers" (us) and "the squeaky wheel gets the oil" Have I gone COMPLETELY off the deep end?? I knew I was getting close!----Not trying to stir anything up here-just trying to see what your likes/dislikes/improvements/changes (reasonable) would be on the Explorer. Let's hear from you guys on this. Later my friends, Del
 
1. Make it lighter by about a pound. Maybe make it hip-mountable.
2. Fix the "cursor is stuck until threshold returns" problem.
These have also always been problems with the Explorer. I have listed them in order of priority. I use the tones for 90% of my ID, so the stuck-cursor is not really that much of a problem for me. Cannot get around the weight of the thing though.

Are you listening Minelab?

Now a good seller would be a lighter weight version of the Explorer that is waterproof (underwater). This would replace the way-too-heavy Excalibur.

That's my two cents, HH - BF
 
the glare on the screen at what seems to be ALL the time. I agree with Robin on the "stuck" cursor...but again like Robin...I hunt by sound 90% of the time anyway.
 
The screen glare is an issue that should have been fixed long ago... a matte finish screen isn't too hard to change to. My main issue is the poor design of the battery contacts - the springs in the machine. I'm consantly pushing on the rubber battery door to get the battery to "bite" into the contacts better everytime the low battery alert sounds, a couple pushes and voila! the battery is back to half strength. Still the best machine on the market and I gladly put up with it's quirks
HH, Mike.
 
A trigger pinpoint would be nice. I agree on the glare issue.
 
Lighter, Lighter and more ergonomic. Along with that lighter weight would naturally come the lower cost.
Man you would sell a ton of them.GR
 
I agree Bryce. The more you know the machine the less you use the display,but it woud be nice for minelab to to look into it because it is a problem.
 
HEY MIKE--Question for you-----I never had the problem as you described but when I bought a new EX II, one of the first things that happened was a battery spring broke. I sent it in for repair (of course they come with 1600 batteries). When they sent the detector back repaired with the original 1600 battery and Gus gave me a new 1800 as well "for my inconvenience". How's that for customer service? I really appreciated it!-----My question--Do you think that battery contact problem you mentioned could be due to the batteries themselves (rechargeables in that battery pack)? What do you think their "normal" lifespan is? I thought I read somewhere that after 2 years (no matter how much or how little they are used) nickel metal hydrides CAN act up on you. When I get a new Minelab rechargeable-I always run it CLEAR DOWN when hunting before charging. I do this 5 times before I ever charge them at anything less than a completely down battery. I know NMH's aren't supposed to have memory effect and this is probably overkill--but I'd rather be on the safe side. And I never leave them on charge more than overnight, because I don't care what the book says- you can fry a battery by leaving it on longer than that on a consistant basis. Can Minelab build us a better moustrap???--uh, I mean BATTERY! (snap out of it Del--fer kryin out lawd) Later, friends-Del
 
GUYS---I absolutely hunt by sound to-just using the cursor or #'s as a confirmation on shallower targets & very, very rough confirmation on deeper targets. They're "out the window" anyway on the really deep stuff. The point I was trying to make on the glare of the face plate---I hunt most all of the time with the reg. size face plate-but I do look at that depth gauge a lot. I can't even see the face plate 80% of the time from the glare-much less the depth gauge. So if you want to go to the large face plate (in an attempt to help with the glare)---now you haven't even got a depth gauge. True, you can switch back and forth but why should we have to?? It's just one more thing to screw around with! For the price we pay for this machine, they can and should incorporate that into it. Now that they have taken those kindergarten pictures off of there, they could easily do it. It's a great feature, being able to hunt with a continuous running depth gauge--but you've gotta be able to SEE IT. Man---Minelab, do SOMETHING about that glare. Del
 
ya...the screen is horrible ! The worse I have ever seen. It should also come with a pin pointer like the x-1. If someone used one they would never go back to not using one. Lighter would be nice and a waterproof version of the SE would be great !
 
I hunt with high gain..therefore I do need to glance at the depth gauge. Not much help when you can't even see it...no matter what angle you turn.:thumbdown:
 
I have to say i spent a good deal of time looking over all the flagship machines on the market. I even traveled a few miles to hold and test the different ones. Whites DFX, Minelab Explorer, Fisher F75, Tesoro Cortes etc. I was se out to buy the right one the first time and after a long drawn out ordeal i ended up with the 75. To be honest i had my heart sold on the explorer SE. But it came down to all the small things that made the difference for me. Screen glare, Button pad setup, Having to use a shoulder harness to use for 8 hours strait. Battery's that cost almost 100 bucks that after awhile will no longer hold a charge. Having to buy multiple coils to get all the use from the SE. What MineLab needs to do "like Fisher did" is take a couple of the best top named engineers in the industry and put them in a room with a blank check and shut the door. Not add a hyped up coil and put pro at the end of a name on an already existing machine. I really wanted to like the Explorer SE.

Just my two wheat's
 
I'm a big fan and use mine every weekend but would like to see:

1. All metal shaft to get rid of the flex and plastic parts that are problematic. Make it look more like the Xterra series or like an F75 / T2.
2. Reduce the overall weight.
3. Fewer batteries, 4 instead of 8.
4. Metal arm cuff.
5. Software selection to turn the VCO pinpointing OFF or ON (SE).
6. Depth indicator in inches.
7. Water hunting option and hip or chest mount versions.
8. Longer battery or pack life.
9. Display readability improvements.
10. Improve the metal stand to prevent it from bending.
 
If I had a choice, I rather have the coil wire outside or just a bit bigger housing to run the cable through for chaninging out coils. Course, not an issue now for me finally recieved the X-1 probe.
 
As we as all the other good suggestions, I think my main fix(beyond the glare/viewing angle issue and the stuck cursor) would be fixing the pinpoint. The main thing would be to allow one to toggle the ratcheting mode on and off. But there is also some other weird behavior that I see in general but is most pronounced with the probe in the hole. It cuts in an out and does wacky things. I usually have to turn it on and off several times to finally get it to settle down so I can find the target. (Turning it to auto for the probe helps some but not always that much and seems to lose depth in doing so.)

I'd still like for them to add a USB port, to enable software updates if nothing else.
 
If there are so many issues with the Explorer SE and its heavy weight as well, why don't you go to the featherweight X-Terra 70 and get an extra 10.5" Round DD coil also. Since one person here says he hunts with the Explorer SE by tone-sound and dual-VDI numbers are only reliable on shallow targets, not on the deep ones. Also since Jack Lange says the X-Terra goes just as deep in all soils (except damp salt soils) as the Explorer and also has very good target VDI numbers. Isn't it a better choice to buy an X-Terra 70 instead of an Explorer SE ? One person here chose a Fisher F75 over everything else but isn't an X-Terra 70 better than that machine also ? Just being an advocate for food for thought.

This is a review about the X-Terra 70 written by Jack Lange, I think he is an Australian Christian Pastor if I remember correctly:
http://www.jacksgold.com/articles/xterra70.htm
DEPTH
"This detector goes as deep as the expensive models (Explorer Quattro Sovereign) in dry beach sand, all soils, but does not go nearly as deep in damp beach sand because of the salt effect. Especially when set in
 
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