Bidens ic chip mandates on China

[detectormods]

Seems like the US is stopping supply of advanced semiconductors to China, those that rely on China for manufacture migh be in for a hard time having anything manufactured, might even see some product lines become unavailable.

[reddirtfisher]

It seems like this is already happening. American detector companies are dying out and foreign companies are flourishing. I can't wait any longer for First Texas and Garrett to produce anything new. I dont like it but looks like I'm joining the overseas brands crowd.

[reddirtfisher]

Well I just got a new Quest x5 starter unit to see how I will like it. so far communication with the company is very good. They are maintaining a good website and are offering more and more accessories. It's really sad that some companies are not keeping up with the times, but the world is changing and I'm so old school that is is hard for me to change with it but I slowly am . Best wishes and Happy Hunting

[searchbear]

The chip mandates are not relevant for metal detectors. Everything used in them is so low tech, that it will not be affected. In general, the state of technology in metal detectors is pretty bad. Newer Minelab designs have some clever elements, and Deus as well, but most of what's sold is 20-30 years old in terms of technology and design.
Look at the Krot Pro Metal detector build by a guy from Ukraine. That's the way how it should be done: Synthesize a TX signal in software, have a DAC and amplifier send it and use a single Opamp in front of a high dynamic range ADC to read back the signal. Do all analysis in software. I don't understand why I'm still seeing CD4066s on the PCB of current machines.
However - even the modern approach doesn't require any advanced chips covered by export restrictions. These are for high end CPUs, GPUs and AI-accelerators. Completely irrelevant for metal detecting.

[Carl-NC]

The newest MF designs (starting with the Equinox) all appear to be direct sampling, no hardware demods. They all use H-bridge TX drivers which are software-driven.

[searchbear]

Exactly. That's the way to go imho. But nothing in them is affected by the chip bans.

[Carl-NC]

No, the chip ban focuses on supercomputer-level chips. Obviously no consumer electronics will be affected. But I also don't know any detector manufacturers that produce in China, at least to any extent. Garrett & FTP manufacture boards in North America. Minelab uses Malaysia, and XP manufacturers in France. I suspect Nokta manufactures locally as well.

[searchbear]

Here in Europe Quest is gaining market share. They are Chinese, I believe. At least they hide it so well on their website that it's virtually impossible to not be a Chinese company.

[Davor]

Politicians are very bad at picking winners in business. I trust them to make a huge mess.