Search

Cancel
Minelab

Minelab GO-FIND Series Field Test by Gordon Heritage

08 Dec 2015

There seems to be a plethora of new beginners’ detectors coming to market, for new users with an interest in history. But none of these seem to be catering for the youngsters more interested in technological gadgets; brought up on video games, smart phones and social media.

Minelab’s new GO-FIND series address this untapped market, and I’ll be testing all three to see how they differ to what’s already available.

  • Operating Principle: VFLEX
  • Frequency: 7.7kHz
  • Standard Search Coil: 
    8” square (GO-FIND 20),
    10” waterproof square (GO-FIND 40/60)
  • Weight: GO-FIND 20/40/60 - 1.0 kg (2.2 lbs)
  • Battery: 4 x AA alkaline
  • Warranty: 2 years

Fig 1 The machines are preassembled, so it’s just a matter of extending and locking the two-part shaft, press the two red ‘padlock’ buttons to release the handle and then click it into the operational position. Then finally extend the arm cup. All of which can be done as quick as reading my explanation above.

The first time I did this I found myself humming the theme from ‘Transformers, more than meets the eye!’ Fig 2 The GO-FIND detectors all operate on 4 x AA batteries, which fit into the front of the handgrip. Fig 3

Once started, they transmit at an operating frequency of 7.7 kHz, which is an ideal compromise between good depth and sensitivity. There’s also a Velcro arm cup strap supplied for extra stability while swinging the detector. One of the things I like about these machines is how the stem can collapse down too. My eight-year old short-person tester could swing the detector with just the first stem extended. With both stems extended, it becomes the right length tor a fully grown adult.

Control pod

The control pods of all three models are the same size, as are the display screens. The GO-FIND 40 and 60 models have an eight-button soft-touch keypad, and a slide on/off switch on the left side of the panel. This can be easily operated with your thumb while gripping the handgrip with your right hand. Fig 4

Looking at the keypad buttons from left to right, the first has a strange graphic that older people might not recognise … it will however be instantly known to gadget users as the Bluetooth symbol. This button is used to connect the GO-FIND 40/60 to an Apple iPhone or Android smart phones. Fig 5 & 6

The other buttons are used to adjust Volume, Sensitivity, and control the backlight and Pinpoint. The big red button with a magnifying glass icon is used to edit the Discrimination groups.

The GO-FIND 20 can search in All- Metal or with Iron Discriminated, leaving three non-ferrous group icons visible in the display.

The GO-FIND 40 allows users to discriminate two of the four icons; iron and foil. While the

GO-FIND 60 can discriminate an extra non-ferrous group (three icons) containing pull-rings and tabs.

The button layout of the GO-FIND 20 differs from that of the other models, with the omission of Bluetooth, Pinpoint and backlight buttons. Fig 7 The coil is also smaller, so this model is the best choice for the youngest budding searcher. There are five LED lights along the top of the screen. These illuminate from left to right to show a targets strength.

When the Pinpoint button is pressed (GO-FIND 40/60 only), the LEDs illuminate from the outside in as a target is centred in the middle of the coil. There are also LCD meters for battery levels, Sensitivity and Volume. And even one for a detected targets depth; based on a typical coin sized object. All three models have a 3.5 mm headphone socket designed for earbud style headphones, commonly used on smart phones. The GO-FIND 60 is supplied with one of these style headphones as standard, as well as a small digging trowel and an arm-strap phone holder.

Tones

All the detectors in the GO-FIND range have multi-tones for different target groups that can be discriminated. The GO-FIND 20 has two tones; iron lowtone and the three non-ferrous groups are all the same high tone. The GO-FIND 40 has three tones, the same high and low tone as the GO-FIND 20, with an extra mid-tone for the group including foil targets. The

GO-FIND 60 has separate tones for each of the four target groups; iron low-tone and each of the nonferrous segments progressively higher. On all models, as target groups are deselected, so are the tone responses.

Phone apps

There are two types of phone apps available, a ‘Standard’ and ‘Pro’ app.

These can be downloaded from the Apple App Store (iPhone iOS 8) or Google Play (Android 4.3). These apps work with the GO-FIND 40 and 60 models.

Note: The GO-FIND 20 isn’t Bluetooth enabled, so will NOT work with these apps. The standard app works with both the GO-FIND 40 and 60, while the Pro App works only with the GO-FIND 60 model.

Pairing the detector to a mobile phone is simple. With the app open in my iPhone, I press the Bluetooth button and the icon starts flashing in the screen. Then on the iPhone I pressed the bar at the top of the app Fig 8, and the phone connected to the detector, and a map loaded and my position was shown in a throbbing blue light.

Swiping down the screen loads a virtual detector pod, with buttons and screen. Fig 9 This mirrors the detector screen, and as you change the settings on your phone app, the settings change on your detector. It is now possible to turn down the volume and just listen to the sounds through your smartphone.

This then opens up all sorts of fun possibilities.

Along the bottom of the app are a series of menu icons. Fig 10 The first is the music icon represented by a musical character. When activated you enter the smartphone’s music library, where you can choose a playlist to listen to while detecting. Once you get a signal from a buried target, the music is muted so you can hear the detector’s response.

The next icon is in the form of a cog, and is where you control the app. Fig 11 Here you can adjust the ‘music-muted’ period from 1 to 5 seconds when a target is detected. If you enter the

Audio Tones settings, you can adjust the App tones. In the Pro App you can also change the detector tones for each target group. So you don’t have to listen to detector beeps any more, you could hear an alarm instead as you pass the coil over a silver coin. To the right of the cog symbol is the help icon in the form of a question mark icon. Here you can learn how to use the detector and app.Fig 12

Using the detector through the Pro app

So you have your favourite music playing through your ear buds from your smartphone, and you’re swinging the coil side to side over the local car boot sale field, and you get a signal. The first thing you’ll see is a ‘finds window’ appear with an image of the potential target. Here in fig13 you can see a pound coin. Once you dig the target, you can record its position on the map.

Press ‘Other’ below the image and then write what you have found in the new window, before saving it. This is then saved within the phone app. In use I found the coin recognition very good, and the car boot sale scenario is a very viable way of quickly paying for your GO-FIND detector … just by digging one and two-pound coins!

Test bed

Time to try all detectors over my test bed, and the first surprise is that all three machines hit milled 5p coins to 7”, more than adequate for a ‘beginner’ machine. What was surprising was the smaller coiled GO-FIND 20 hit a coin at 8”, and the two-way responses were very crisp. The GO-FIND 20 also gave better responses to a small hammered silver coin buried at 5”. Where the Go

Find 40 and 60 came into there own was on larger targets, getting two-way responses on a deep crotal bell, Roman sestersius and Victorian penny. So the larger coiled GO-FIND’s are more suited for coin shooting for milled coins than the small coiled Go Find 20.

These results were a surprise to me, and as my style of detecting usually involves finding small silver targets on worked-out ploughed fields, the GO-FIND 20 would be my first choice.

Conclusion

The new Minelab GO-FIND detectors are very intuitive. Minelab haven’t taken the easy route of looking at the competition, and then bringing out something similar. They have designed something completely new to market.

Everything about these machines is new; square coil, overall design and smartphone integration.

There are a couple things I don’t like; the arm cup feels a little too flimsy at times, and there is a slight delay when listening to the detector target responses via a smartphone, with the detector’s volume turned down. But overall these would all make good first time beginners’ detectors.

So who are these machines most suited for? I don’t see many seasoned UK detectorists buying them, unless they are going on a beach holiday and they want to clean up on the Euros around the sunloungers. The ideal customer is the techno savvy teen, who has spent far too much time in his room playing video games and talking to friends on social media. These detectors have the potential of inspiring them to venture out and discover our exciting hobby of metal detecting.

GO-FIND Series test results

(Scores out of ten based on price category)

Ergonomics (weight/balance): 9

Simplicity/User Friendliness: 10

Build quality: 9

Weather resistance: 9

Discrimination Performance: 9

Overall detection Performance: 9

Value for money (£259): 9

Gordon Heritage, The Searcher Magazine, December 2015, Issue No 364 pages 25 - 27

Return to Top

arrow_back Minelab
arrow_back Main Menu
arrow_back Minelab
arrow_back Product Filters
arrow_back Minelab
arrow_back Filters