Critterhunter
New member
This spawned out of this response in another thread...
That's true. They could at least put a light that changes to another color on the thing when it's charged. Talk about a piece of junk. It seems like Minelab puts all their money into research and development of their electronics/software, but has a building maintenance guy at their labs design the hardware for them
Do you know how many more machines they'd sell if they just changed the hardware a bit? I'm not even talking about re-designing the Sovereign control box here. It's a good box and the layout is fine. Just stick a stereo jack on the back for a remote pinpoint switch, use a thinner aluminum upper shaft and a carbon fiber lower one (like Whites), replace that pig of an arm cup (weighs half a pound!) with one that is lighter, and like you said throw in a cheap charger for a Nimh pack (lighter I think than Nicads) that will at least tell you when it's done charging. Better yet, get rid of those old school Sub A cells which weigh a ton and at least put high capacity AA cells in there. They'll drop probably about a pound off the weight of the machine and also draw more people to it that want a remote PP switch like any other detector on the market. I mean, the hardware does not have to survive a small nuclear explosion like they build things now. Way overkill IMHO.
I bet many people take one look at the GT and say "if they didn't even have enough sense to put a trigger PP switch on this thing and it's built so heavy and unfriendly then how good can the performance possibly be?" People mistake it's looks for some primitive hack job of a detector, but nothing could be further from the truth. That said, even the Explorer and Etrac (though the Etrac is a bit better) are total dogs in terms of weight and balance when it comes to hardware.
Come on Minelab, less heavy hardware would also SAVE you money in materials. Imagine all the extra money they spend in metal for those heavy upper shafts. While they are at it I'd get rid of the coil lengths. Make the coil just long enough to reach the box. Make the meter's only long enough to reach the box as well. Package an extension cable with the machine so people can hip/chest mount if they want, or at least just sell that as an option. I've seen less rings of "rope" around a hangman's noose. Do they realize how much money they could save in materials and also how much more in sales they would make if they did these little things? Oh, and one more...Supply a meter WITH every Sovereign. These meters are simple volt meters and probably cost about $4 in parts. No reason to sell them separately for $170, and just about everybody wants to use one these days.
They could increase sales, open up a wider range of customers (like to women), and not have to spend a dime in R&D for the existing electronics. All they need to do is a few simple things in terms of hardware. Easy as NOT buying this shaft and arm cup starting to buy THAT shaft and arm cup. Drilling a hole in the box and soldering a few wires for the remote PP jack. Throwing a $2 charger, a $5 nimh pack, and a $4 meter in the box at their cost. Call it the Sovereign XL (Extra Light), and sit back and watch the money roll in. I'll tell you what Minelab, put me in "charge" of these simple changes in hardware which require no design or development and I'll work for free based on just a percentage of increase in sales.
Here's the clincher...Let me do a little advertising of this unknown machine. Something like...Our "Old" Technology is still light years ahead of the latest "advancements" in technology from our competitors. No flash, no dash, no shiny screen that takes a computer programmer to run. Just sure, raw, and extremely powerful performance that will get deeper, unmask better, and hit harder on coins, rings, and relics and hold it's own against anything "new". If you want "new" then you have to look back to our Sovereign, because what's "new" from others is the same old tired technology they've been cranking out for the last 40 years.
jenkiel said:
That's true. They could at least put a light that changes to another color on the thing when it's charged. Talk about a piece of junk. It seems like Minelab puts all their money into research and development of their electronics/software, but has a building maintenance guy at their labs design the hardware for them
Do you know how many more machines they'd sell if they just changed the hardware a bit? I'm not even talking about re-designing the Sovereign control box here. It's a good box and the layout is fine. Just stick a stereo jack on the back for a remote pinpoint switch, use a thinner aluminum upper shaft and a carbon fiber lower one (like Whites), replace that pig of an arm cup (weighs half a pound!) with one that is lighter, and like you said throw in a cheap charger for a Nimh pack (lighter I think than Nicads) that will at least tell you when it's done charging. Better yet, get rid of those old school Sub A cells which weigh a ton and at least put high capacity AA cells in there. They'll drop probably about a pound off the weight of the machine and also draw more people to it that want a remote PP switch like any other detector on the market. I mean, the hardware does not have to survive a small nuclear explosion like they build things now. Way overkill IMHO.
I bet many people take one look at the GT and say "if they didn't even have enough sense to put a trigger PP switch on this thing and it's built so heavy and unfriendly then how good can the performance possibly be?" People mistake it's looks for some primitive hack job of a detector, but nothing could be further from the truth. That said, even the Explorer and Etrac (though the Etrac is a bit better) are total dogs in terms of weight and balance when it comes to hardware.
Come on Minelab, less heavy hardware would also SAVE you money in materials. Imagine all the extra money they spend in metal for those heavy upper shafts. While they are at it I'd get rid of the coil lengths. Make the coil just long enough to reach the box. Make the meter's only long enough to reach the box as well. Package an extension cable with the machine so people can hip/chest mount if they want, or at least just sell that as an option. I've seen less rings of "rope" around a hangman's noose. Do they realize how much money they could save in materials and also how much more in sales they would make if they did these little things? Oh, and one more...Supply a meter WITH every Sovereign. These meters are simple volt meters and probably cost about $4 in parts. No reason to sell them separately for $170, and just about everybody wants to use one these days.
They could increase sales, open up a wider range of customers (like to women), and not have to spend a dime in R&D for the existing electronics. All they need to do is a few simple things in terms of hardware. Easy as NOT buying this shaft and arm cup starting to buy THAT shaft and arm cup. Drilling a hole in the box and soldering a few wires for the remote PP jack. Throwing a $2 charger, a $5 nimh pack, and a $4 meter in the box at their cost. Call it the Sovereign XL (Extra Light), and sit back and watch the money roll in. I'll tell you what Minelab, put me in "charge" of these simple changes in hardware which require no design or development and I'll work for free based on just a percentage of increase in sales.
Here's the clincher...Let me do a little advertising of this unknown machine. Something like...Our "Old" Technology is still light years ahead of the latest "advancements" in technology from our competitors. No flash, no dash, no shiny screen that takes a computer programmer to run. Just sure, raw, and extremely powerful performance that will get deeper, unmask better, and hit harder on coins, rings, and relics and hold it's own against anything "new". If you want "new" then you have to look back to our Sovereign, because what's "new" from others is the same old tired technology they've been cranking out for the last 40 years.
they still provide the damn S shaft over this side of the pond
, now thats something to gripe about, the S one is a pain in the butt, they still sell them on the excalibur and muski too.
