Anybody remember the 440 series?

[Mike T]

I was scanning ebay and noticed a couple Fisher 442's for sale, and I remembered my 443 from a while back. It was my first detector and I lived in an apartment right on Venice Beach in California. I would pick a different area, kids swings, shoreline,towel line, it really didn't matter as once I ground balanced it to the + it would be sizzling as I ever so slowly would cover ground that was pounded over and over. Never have I had a detector that hit as hard or as deep it was pure power, it ate 16 AA's and was a big square box I would wear in a chest harness, had no Disc but what the heck! Sometimes I would spend 6 hours in a 15'x15' square, slowly overlapping sweeps and always found deep, deep coins.
I thought about bidding on one of the 443's but know I couldn't deal with the weight. It had battery connections that were always requiring fixing, forget about any IDing and to change the batteries you end up with a handful of wires. So in the end its like everything else- a tradeoff. I'll continue swinging a detector that sounds like a swarm of mosquitos, and wonder why they don't make them like they used to.

 

[Dave J.]

Metal detectors a person used to have and was fond of, get deeper with age as long as you don't actually still have 'em.

With the 8 inch searchcoils, the 400 series were good for about 8 inches max in an air test on coins. And, you can still buy one new (sort of)-- a couple of our industrial metal detectors are repackaged 400 series machines. Not many electronic gadgets are still in production after nearly 40 years but these still are, our industrial customers like them.

The 400's were designed by a British (or possibly Australian?) engineer, Jim Jones, whom I met once (very tall guy). The design was subsequently adapted by Jack Gifford (then of Fisher) to become the discriminating 500 series. Jack left, and later formed his own company, Tesoro. Fisher then hired another design engineer whose name I don't remember (I never met the guy) but he seemed incapable of producing anything and he and Fisher parted ways.

I was hired in '81 and my first product (introduced in 1982) was the 1260-X. .......That project was an odd story. Design of the revolutionary mechanicals was underway before I showed up, they had no idea what sort of electronics they were going to put in it, and I was hired to invent some guts to put in it. Another odd part of that story is that I spent several months trying to put a good static pinpoint circuit in it but they all drifted too much, so I gave up and we decided that the 1260-X didn't need a static pinpoint mode anyhow-- at the time, a revolutionary idea. With its newfangled second derivative motion circuitry that beeped over the top of the target, with a little practice you could tell where the target was. ......Another peculiarity of the 1260-X project was that most beeperists back then were used to hunting in a static (non-motion) mode with a background threshold hum, and when testing prototypes the fact the machine ran quiet they found very unsettling. So we added a fake threshold knob to dial in a background hum (produced in a separate audio circuit) to reassure the user that the thing was still turned on. The subsequent generation of customers accepted the concept of "silent search" so the fake threshold knob was not repeated on later products.

--Dave J.

 

[Mike T]

Thats funny about the fake threshold knob, I imagine silent search was not an easy sell at first. I remember keeping a nickle in my shoelaces that I would sweep the coil over to make sure it was accepting them but more often to check if it was working or not till I got used to my first silent search model.
Do any relic hunters use the Fisher industrial detectors sucessfully? they seem perfect for that purpose.

 

[Dave J.]

Modern consumer market metal detectors that have a ground phase balanced all metals mode are much better suited to relic hunting than the Fisher industrial units are. Besides which most relic hunters want some kind of iron discrimination available and may prefer to search in that mode having no need for a ground phase balanced all metals mode.

The Fisher 400 series platform based industrial units are fine for their intended purpose. The basis 400 series models were competitive in the consumer market back in the late 70's, and even got a last gasp during the early 1980's with the 660 which was a modified tuned-to-the-teeth 400 series unit pitched for gold prospecting before we came out with the original Gold Bug. For consumer market use they're all thoroughly obsolete.

--Dave J.

 

[Mike T]

I want to thank you for your time in answering these posts, it was through your efforts and others that we have machines now that are lighter, more efficient, and affordable and puts a great hobby into the hands of many who would otherwise be unable to enjoy THunting.
I guess a BH Platinum is on the horizon for me. About 6 years ago I sent in to First Texas an old BH Big Bud Pro 220 the last one in the series. It was old and worn out and really a piece of junk at that point, I asked them to see what thay could do , about1 week later a box arrived and inside was a brand new Landstar with a note" We were unable to fix your detector due to lack of parts, we thought you might like this as a replacement", now thats class!

 

[parrott]

Well Dave, i well remember the 660 Motherlode. Fisher described the 660 as a second generation 440.
Back then the 440 was popular and Fisher eventually thought the 660 would be a great nugget shooter.

I field tested the 660 for Fisher back in 1983. It was published in Western & Eastern Treasures. I bought the
660 I tested through Jim Lewellen. I still have the control box. It is yours, if Fisher wants it. Prototype #9...

It was modified by Fisher several times. i wanted to have an auto tune feature. But I was told it could not
be done. Years later I was talking to Bill Lahr. Bill said it it was simple to add an autotune to the 660. I drove
to Bills house and in "jig-time" Bill added the autotune feature and then I could ground balance it by simple
pumping...Bill charged me $20 for the modification.

Dave... again, if you want the prototype control box just email and I'll be most happy to send it... Jim Straight