Post your updated thoughts on the ATX

[WaterWalker]

Well, I have been swinging my ATX for six months – 100+ hours in the salt waters of New England – and the following is my opinion of Garrett's newest AT Detector.


I chimed in on the forum just after receiving my ATX for Christmas. There were many discussions and first impressions posted. Some I have found to be very relevant others not so. I'll start with the most important aspect the ATX, its target finding capability. In the salt waters of New England it surpasses that of my Infinium and Excalibur in finding smaller and deeper targets. I will attribute this to the PI vs a VLF in the case of the Excalibur and the improved control of the detector's operating parameters when compared to the Infinium.


The ATX is NOT my ALL Location detector. For me it is just too sensitive for fresh water when looking for recent losses. I think I will stay with my Excalibur with the 15” WOT coil in that situation. And my Infinium with its 8” coil will remain my winter, hunt among the rocks in salt water detector.


I am impressed with how well the ability to control the sensitivity, volume, Iron Check, Motion/Non-motion operation, automatic best frequency check, pinpoint and low battery warning have improved my pleasure of detecting. The low battery warning gives you a warning at least 30 minutes before the detector becomes unusable. What more could you want? Maybe a guarantee to find gold everyday?


I do not like the camlocks. Even with rinsing them out before leaving the water, spraying them with fresh water from a portable power washer and compressed air drying when I get home the still tend to either not hold the upper shaft tight or they are very difficult to unlock the shaft. I bought a wrench from Garrett, but have yet been successful in getting it to unscrew the “nut”. I have not put so much torque on the wrench as to slip that might cause destruction of the nut.


The perceived problem with the shaft connected to the rear of the coil proved not to be a problem for me. However, I do not have the closed coil cover on the standard DD coil. I have automotive wiring harness cover over the coil, held on with electrical tape for now. The coil with a closed coil cover, when used in the surf, would surely cause the coil to flip upward. This happened with the Infinium. There I cut out the two larger sections and left the two small sections in place. This stops the water pressure from flipping the front of the coil up.


The ATX's weight in shallow water detecting is no problem. However the mass of the shaft and coil has slowed my swing down. Not a bad thing and may even help me hear softer targets. I also can get a coil wobbling effect if I start to swing too fast. Out of the water, on the wet / dry sand, it is a different story. The sling supplied with the ATX is not bad, but the top of my shoulder was a bit sore after 3 hours of detecting. I have to believe the Minelab ProSwing 45 will be one of my future purchases, if I plan to do much more wet / dry sand detecting.


I thought as others did that the headphone connection was going to be a source of detector damage. I looked at the Infinium, it is in the same place! However, the ATX, does not have the protection of the arm wrest as does the Infinium. Many detectors have the headphone connector in the same general location. You just have to be aware of the danger and treat you equipment well. Accidents can happen.


Battery life is a bit short at about 11 hours. I would love to see at least 13. Why? Well I detect according to the tide and 2 hours before to 2 hours after low tide is 4 hours. With this in mind I recharge at any time over 8 hours on the batteries. I did get the 13+ hours with my Infinium.


The battery charger supplied with the ATX is the same one I bought 5 years ago. It has been working like a charm on all my AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. I did buy a BM200 charger that shows the true condition of of a cell. I use the BM200 to sort cells according to their capacity.


Optional coils: The cost is out of sight. I have to believe it is mainly that they come with the 3 piece shaft. I could not imagine using the 20” coil in the ocean. The 15” WOT Excalibur coil is hard enough to handle in the surf. The 8” would be a nice addition, but I think I will stay with the Infinium and its 8” coil. I have not seen a comparison between the two detectors and their respective 8” coils.
If I do see one and there is a significant difference I may have to rethink the optional coil.


As I had Gray Ghost Amphibian Headphones on my Infinium there was no need to even try the Garrett Blue waterproof headphones. But with the volume control on the ATX, the Garrett Blues would be acceptable. Just take note that the original Blues for the Infinium may not turn the speaker off as happens with the ATPro and ATGold. The NEWER BLUES will function on all AT-s and the Infinium.
I have heard of at least two instances where the ¼” Headphone Adapter was used with other headphones caused the same results, i.e. the speaker did not “turn off” when using headphones.


The ATX Deepseeker Hard Shell Case is now available form Garrett for $200.


The open coil cover for the standard coil is shown in the newest Garrett catalog as COMING SOON.
The price on it is $20.


The Garrett Instructional Videos are a must to see. They are very helpful. Not only for the ATX, but for other models as well.

 

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[Sir Gala Clad]

I like this updated posting, even though I am not knowledgeable as to what the first impressions on the ATX were?

I would like more details on the 100 plus hours of usage in the salt waters of New England: For instance, how much of this time was in protected bays, open unprotected beaches and under what water conditions: currents, surges, force of waves.

I appreciate Water Walker’s helpfulness in stating at which locations he uses his detectors. I assume that there is just too much trash in the fresh water where he is hunting and that the problem in detecting fresh dropped targets is one of selectivity rather than sensitivity?

I would like more information on how the improved control of the ATXs operating parameters enhance detecting capability verses the Infinium which I have heard is a very capable detector but rather challenging to use.

I especially liked his identifying the cam locks sticking and difficulty of cleaning as problematic. I have encountered similar problems with the inside and outside shafts on the CTX – 3030 sticking when grit gets in/salt builds up between these shafts. When this happens, it is not possible to adjust the shaft length for proper sweep height (shorter so you can see the display when shallow water hunting, longer when detecting for dry and wet sand so you can cover more surface area. I have also had problem(s) with accidentally pulling these shafts apart when adjusting.

Overall, I have found this update objective and helpful and would like to see more postings and reviews like this!

Well, I have been swinging my ATX for six months – 100+ hours in the salt waters of New England – and the following is my opinion of Garrett's newest AT Detector.


I chimed in on the forum just after receiving my ATX for Christmas. There were many discussions and first impressions posted. Some I have found to be very relevant others not so. I'll start with the most important aspect the ATX, its target finding capability. In the salt waters of New England it surpasses that of my Infinium and Excalibur in finding smaller and deeper targets. I will attribute this to the PI vs a VLF in the case of the Excalibur and the improved control of the detector's operating parameters when compared to the Infinium.


The ATX is NOT my ALL Location detector. For me it is just too sensitive for fresh water when looking for recent losses. I think I will stay with my Excalibur with the 15” WOT coil in that situation. And my Infinium with its 8” coil will remain my winter, hunt among the rocks in salt water detector.


I am impressed with how well the ability to control the sensitivity, volume, Iron Check, Motion/Non-motion operation, automatic best frequency check, pinpoint and low battery warning have improved my pleasure of detecting. The low battery warning gives you a warning at least 30 minutes before the detector becomes unusable. What more could you want? Maybe a guarantee to find gold everyday?


I do not like the camlocks. Even with rinsing them out before leaving the water, spraying them with fresh water from a portable power washer and compressed air drying when I get home the still tend to either not hold the upper shaft tight or they are very difficult to unlock the shaft. I bought a wrench from Garrett, but have yet been successful in getting it to unscrew the “nut”. I have not put so much torque on the wrench as to slip that might cause destruction of the nut.


The perceived problem with the shaft connected to the rear of the coil proved not to be a problem for me. However, I do not have the closed coil cover on the standard DD coil. I have automotive wiring harness cover over the coil, held on with electrical tape for now. The coil with a closed coil cover, when used in the surf, would surely cause the coil to flip upward. This happened with the Infinium. There I cut out the two larger sections and left the two small sections in place. This stops the water pressure from flipping the front of the coil up.


The ATX's weight in shallow water detecting is no problem. However the mass of the shaft and coil has slowed my swing down. Not a bad thing and may even help me hear softer targets. I also can get a coil wobbling effect if I start to swing too fast. Out of the water, on the wet / dry sand, it is a different story. The sling supplied with the ATX is not bad, but the top of my shoulder was a bit sore after 3 hours of detecting. I have to believe the Minelab ProSwing 45 will be one of my future purchases, if I plan to do much more wet / dry sand detecting.


I thought as others did that the headphone connection was going to be a source of detector damage. I looked at the Infinium, it is in the same place! However, the ATX, does not have the protection of the arm wrest as does the Infinium. Many detectors have the headphone connector in the same general location. You just have to be aware of the danger and treat you equipment well. Accidents can happen.


Battery life is a bit short at about 11 hours. I would love to see at least 13. Why? Well I detect according to the tide and 2 hours before to 2 hours after low tide is 4 hours. With this in mind I recharge at any time over 8 hours on the batteries. I did get the 13+ hours with my Infinium.


The battery charger supplied with the ATX is the same one I bought 5 years ago. It has been working like a charm on all my AA and AAA rechargeable batteries. I did buy a BM200 charger that shows the true condition of of a cell. I use the BM200 to sort cells according to their capacity.


Optional coils: The cost is out of sight. I have to believe it is mainly that they come with the 3 piece shaft. I could not imagine using the 20” coil in the ocean. The 15” WOT Excalibur coil is hard enough to handle in the surf. The 8” would be a nice addition, but I think I will stay with the Infinium and its 8” coil. I have not seen a comparison between the two detectors and their respective 8” coils.
If I do see one and there is a significant difference I may have to rethink the optional coil.


As I had Gray Ghost Amphibian Headphones on my Infinium there was no need to even try the Garrett Blue waterproof headphones. But with the volume control on the ATX, the Garrett Blues would be acceptable. Just take note that the original Blues for the Infinium may not turn the speaker off as happens with the ATPro and ATGold. The NEWER BLUES will function on all AT-s and the Infinium.
I have heard of at least two instances where the ¼” Headphone Adapter was used with other headphones caused the same results, i.e. the speaker did not “turn off” when using headphones.


The ATX Deepseeker Hard Shell Case is now available form Garrett for $200.


The open coil cover for the standard coil is shown in the newest Garrett catalog as COMING SOON.
The price on it is $20.


The Garrett Instructional Videos are a must to see. They are very helpful. Not only for the ATX, but for other models as well.

 

[WaterWalker]

There are so many first impression of so many detectorists I am not going to try to recap all of them. There were so many on multiple forums and YouTube that I researched before asking Santa for an ATX I can not remember them all. Also this post is of MY impressions and findings.


The 100+ hours were on many beaches of differing types from just south of Boston, south along the coast around Cape Cod, west into RI and CT. All the time so far was while wearing waders in water temperature from the mid 30s to the mid 60s. Air temperature from 30 to 85 degrees F. Time was two hours before to two hours after low tide. One night in February I was in the water way after dark...the cold and dark could not hide the silver and gold for three days straight. Very light surf, no crashing waves, some snow and some rain fall had to be put up with.

You are correct about too much trash, well not really, just tired of pulling up bobby pins that are iffy signals while the Excalibur just does not give a positive sound, but rather a null. Most of the trash left in the fresh water I talked about is pretty clean...this morning at four different ponds I found one fresh drop of 5 coins in three hours of detecting. The only other target I dug was a barrette, and I knew that it was trash before digging it, I just wanted to dig something. There is no need for a deep seeing detector this time of year in the fresh water ponds. Also the larger coil covers more ground faster.


I have used the Infinium for the past 7 years (over 2000 hours shallow water detecting). Very seldom did I ever check for iron, now with the iron check...I use it several times a week, just with a push of a button. Setting the threshold akin to a VLF detector is sweet. Finding a clear frequency with one button push, likewise, sweet. And a volume control, YES! Even though I don't really need it with the Amphibian headphones – they have one of their own.


I would also like to see other's opinions after 6 or more months of use (hours of use would also be nice info. I am still learning the ATX as well as the Infinium. You might think with over 2000 hours of using one detector you know everything about it...NOT.