Paseclipse

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About Paseclipse

  • Birthday 12/02/1975

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    So Cal
  • Interests
    Meteorite and gold hunting

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  1. I've dug some that started off sounding almost like a deep hotrock. The only reason I continued to dig was because the signal sounded the same from every direction and it got louder as I dug down. Your best bet is to dig any signal that sets your detector off until you know what it is. My last decent sized nugget at depth started out as a really faint inverted signal that I thought was probably trash... Oh how wrong I was! Del
  2. Gotcha John, I'm sure you know how iron meteorite finds are. Unless it's obvious a find is debatable since there's so much man made junk out there that can easily be mistaken for one. Certainly not like chondrites where a window is usually a dead give away. Del Goldstudmuffin- That's a beauty! Congrats on that find.
  3. Hey Doc it's great to be an optimist but optimism won't turn that into a meteorite. There's no fusion crust, the surface isn't smooth enough and there's no thumbprints on the surface. These are all indicators of a meteorite and that has none of them. If you want to see a good picture of something that is most likely a highly weathered iron meteorite have a look at this link- New Meteorite Hope this helps Del
  4. Definitely isn't a chondrite like some have suggested. Heavily weathered chondrites look nothing remotely close to that. It has a nice shape, but that’s about the only thing it has going for it. Best to be very skeptical since iron and stony-iron meteorites make up less that 5% of the overall meteorite finds especially if it was found in an old mining area (we all know how much trash is in old mining areas). One thing I've noticed with heavily rusted man made iron trash is that layered flakes sometimes peel off of the surface. Whatever you do please don't take it in to have one of the meteorite research institutions look at it. Why? Well the places that classify meteorites are overwhelmed with so many people bringing in what they think are meteorites it's starting to suck up their research money. It makes it harder for those of us who get meteorites classified to bring the real deal in. There's a couple things you can do to help determine if it's a meteorite- 1. Get a nickel test kit. Grind a small window into it and dab a little of the test kit on it. If it turns pink there's a chance it has nickel in it. These tests aren't the most reliable though and I've read accounts about false positives using these kits. 2. Calculate the density (probably the best test in this case)- Weigh it on a scale in grams then drop it in a graduated cylinder with water in it to figure out the volume. Divide the weight by the volume and if you have something that is over 7 grams per cubic centimeter there's a chance it might be something. I'm not trying to burst your bubble or anything and I'm certainly no expert with meteorites but looking at the pictures I'd have to say no on that one. Del
  5. Beer Beeper yes that information is correct and it is for the GPX-5000. I even double checked the numbers just to make sure because I didn't believe it at first too. All I'm doing is putting the numbers into Excel and it calculates the average for me. For the GPX-5000 I had a total of five data sets to use and what's throwing that number down some is a GPX-5000 that sold on eBay for $3,000. Here's the link for that auction- GPX-5000 for $3,000 Looking at this auction someone either got scammed (because the price is to good to be true) or they got a VERY good deal (which does happen). The only way to tell is to watch and see what sort of feedback is left for the seller once the item is received from the buyer. I know I personally would be very skeptical about that auction because to me it has a couple elements of the typical eBay Minelab PI scam. If I was the buyer I'd have an ulcer until I had detector in hand. There is a term for data sets like that one in statistics but I forgot what it's called and how to calculate it. Whats interesting though, is that when you take out the $3,000 auction and average the other four you get an average of $4,606. Today an auction ended for a GPX-5000 and it was pretty high ($5,106). I put that number in (minus the $3,000 auction) and the average now comes out to $4,706 for a Minelab GPX-5000. It's my understanding the Minelab SD's did have Dual Voltage technology and yes I believe the V2 does stand for Version 2. However I'm not 100% positive on this and maybe someone here who has been around a lot longer can correct me? A GP Extreme is a GP Extreme and thats just it. The data I put together doesn't account for different models and any nuances that particular model might have had in the past. Also too there were many different versions of the SD's and again it doesn't account for that as well. Is anybody starting to see all the variances in this yet? This is exactly why I stopped doing it (minus the fact that I lost the original file) because it can get time consuming. Now I certainly wouldn't consider the price ranges I list above as an "all inclusive" guide to the values of Minelab PI's. Maybe a starting point to give a person an idea of what private party Minelab PI's have been selling for over the last few months. The most accurate way to figure out the values is to collect data over time and see how it all comes out. Del
  6. A few years back I used to track what Minelab PI's were selling for on eBay and the forums in the United States (didn't count Australia since they typically sell higher). I created an Excel spreadsheet that would take the final values and average the prices out. Unfortunately my computer crashed a little while back and I was unable to retrieve the Excel file and after this I decided to not keep track of everything plus it started to get a little time consuming. I decided to do the same thing today and look up values then average them out. Went back a few months on a couple of the forums as well as eBay. Also I had to figure out some of the ranges based on what I remember seeing back when I used to keep track of this. Here's the used values I came up with- SD2100- $700 - $1,200 (average was $900, found only one SD2100v2 for sale that was sold) SD2200- $1,200 - $1,500 (average was $1,437.50) GP Extreme- $1,500 - $1,800 (average was $1,625.00) GP 3000- $1,800 - $2,200 (average was $2,166.67) GP 3500- $2,200 - $2,500 (average was $2,400) GPX-4000- $2,500 - $3,000 (average was $2,500, only had one example to follow) GPX-4800- ???! (couldn't find any that have sold) GPX-5000- $4,000+ (average was $4,284.80) What throws a monkey wrench into the whole equation is when you factor in accessories such as coils, signal enhancers, non-stock headphones and batteries which a lot of the time is included by sellers which I included them in my spreadsheet. Also too, the value of green box SD's can sometimes be a little surprising. I'd say the high numbers are for brand new barely used detectors or a used detector with lots of accessories. The low end might be older models (SD's and such) or detectors that aren't in the best condition. Another thing to factor in, is that there will alwyas be someone who scored a REALLY good deal. For example I've been lucky enough in the past to score a GP Extreme for $1,000 and also a green box SD2100 for $400. However this is certainly the exception and someone can score a deal like these IF they're patient and pounce on the opportunity when it comes up. I haven't done this in a few years and I have to admit I was a little surprised to see the price range for GP Extreme's and GP 3000's go up a little bit. I seem to remember them being $100 - $200 cheaper than the price range I see above. Another thing that surprised me, was somebody recently scored a GPX-5000 for only $3,000! Almost to good to be true! Unfortunately you get a lot of people who are trying to sell their detectors for the price they paid for them a few years back. I've always figured these people never think about the fact that these metal detectors are consumer electronics and unfortunately when you buy consumer electronics brand new you will lose money. I mean who's going to pay full price for a DVD player that's four years old? It's almost the same thing only there's a lot less Minelab PI's manufactured than DVD players and there will always be a demand for them. Hop this helps! Del
  7. Better pics would be nice especially since you need to see the details up close. The pics they have in there I honestly couldn't tell the difference between any of them except for the battery and I'm familiar with Minelab PI's. Perhaps Minelab should put some better resolution pics up that clearly points out and explains the differences for the potential new buyer? It's kind of like artwork... If you know what to look for you can spot a fake without even touching it. Just a thought. Del
  8. Hi guys, just wanted to throw in another pair of non-metallic boots you can get- Blackhawk Warrior Wear Light Assualt boots. Here's the link for them- Blackhawk Warrior Wear Light Boots I was in the market for another pair of boots because my Bates were starting to wear out and decided on these only because I get a 65% discount. When I ordered them I wasn't sure if they were non-metallic but a quick swipe of the GMT over them confirmed it for me. I'll see how they hold up in the field! Del PS- The Converse are great too, I have a pair of their hiking boots I use for meteorite hunting and boy they are comfortable!
  9. Hey Rob I've seen this supposed detector mentioned on the forums now for well over two years now and have yet to see anything come of it. I've seen a couple pictures of some sort of prototype and a lot of claims on what it will do and that’s about it. Nothing more except for a few pictures of something that looked duct taped together. I work as a designer for an engineering services company that develops new technology for NASA and I can honestly say it doesn't take over two years to develop something like that if you have qualified people working on it. All you need is a good electronics engineer, a PCB designer, and a mechanical designer. The EE develops the circuit, the PCB designer lays the circuit out on a board and specs the parts, and the mechanical designer designs the enclosure. Add a few more weeks for fabrication and testing and your done! In my office on a design like that I would say it would take about six weeks to design and test everything for a metal detector which is a pretty simple project. If you ask me I'd say it looks like there's a person with a giant polished turd that’s trying to get some money for it! Del
  10. Hi all, thanks to all who signed! When I signed it I was #2068 and now it's up over 2,600 signatures. Hopefully this will help put a stop to this nonsense! Del
  11. Hi All, I tend to stay out of the politics on the forums, but I just couldn't pass this one up and wanted to get the word out. Came across this on one of the 4WD forums I occasionally lurk on and I just wanted to pass it along and try to get more signatures for the petition- Opposition to 2010 Desert Potection Act If you don't want to read all the information and just sign the petition go here- Sign the Petition For your affiliation... just say your with the Sierra Club! Sheesh man... will this crap EVER stop?! Del
  12. Funny Chris, I thought you might have put it into your software too since our estimates were close. No thought process on my part- Just extruded a cylinder to the average size of a coffee cup, assigned gold as the material, and did a Mass properties. It took about a minute. I figured since it's overflowing from the top this would account for some void spaces. As for the other uncertainties... that why I used the tilde(~)! I'd say my estimate is probably the maximum. Del
  13. I say it's ~15.6 pounds (not troy) if it's an average size coffee cup. Not a WAG! Casey I know you'll get a chuckle out of this! Del
  14. You can't go wrong with any of the Garmin eTrex series GPS'. Only problem they do have a small screen because they're designed to be lightweight and small for hiking. I do a lot of hiking around with my unit and it's nice to not have a bulky GPS strapped to me. I had an eTrex Legend for a couple years, it was a great unit but after two years of heavy use I outgrew it and upgraded to a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and I'm happy so far- Garmin eTrex Vista HCx My HCx has a 4 gig memory card and I've uploaded all the topgraphic maps for 4 states to it with room to spare. Also has the capability to upload unlimited Points of Interest which is a very usefull feature because 1000 waypoints isn't enough for me since I mostly hunt meteorites. Whatever GPS you decide on make sure you get one that has the capabilities to plug into a computer so you can upload and download your tracks and waypoints. Here's a great website where you can do unit side by side comparisons- GPS City Hope this helps