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Jonathan Porter

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  1. Hi Simon, you’ve made a decision you can’t see the value of the 6000 based on using it the worst way possible! 🙃 🤔 The GPZ7000 definitely gets a boost in sensitivity when using smaller coils but it still can’t hold a candle to GeoSense when it comes to early sampling. The science says differently to your reporting when comparing the two which is why Minelab developed the 6000 in the first place. There’s a reason why EMI is more problematic with the 6000 over the 7000 as per the science so attempting to do a comparison in a high EMI environment using a known problematic audio delivery method is fraught with potential pitfalls (As has often been discussed on these pages, IMHO the speaker is a rudimentary tool best used in remote locations or for basic target retrieval methods/convenience etc). I completely understand you’re very happy with your current set up and that’s fantastic but reporting negatively on something you clearly have no experience with to validate your position puts a downer on a really nice and appreciated post to the forum. I’ve spent many hundreds of hours probably more like thousands of hours behind the 6000 and I can assure you even with a very sensitive coil attached the 7000 does not even come close to what the 6000 can do, and I say that from the perspective of being a dedicated GPZ 7000 user. I prefer the 7000 over the 6000 because of what the 7000 can do scientifically, but if its to find a piece of gold no matter how small just about anywhere gold has been found before I would not even pause to consider anything BUT the GPX 6000 period. JP
  2. That’s most likely because the ones available for the 7000 are running very low gain and the Rx is tiny compared to the Tx, I’ve used plenty of concentric coils that have howled on salt and warbled like a cat on a hot tin roof around power lines. JP
  3. My apologies also for going off topic. The manual sensitivity control on the 6000 is extremely complex (much more complex than the Stabilizer of the older GPX machines and the Audio Smoothing off the GPZ7000) but outright sensitivity is not affected for near to coil targets even on its lowest setting (they sound fainter but that’s to do with the design of the control not the actual sensitivity). It’s quite easy to check this with a tiny nugget on the surface of the ground. The other way to get a glimpse of what is going on is to be in a quiet location and just raise the manual sensitivity from the lowest point listening to the threshold as you press the plus button until the sensitivity is at its highest point. Listening carefully to what is actually going on will soon give you a inkling into some of the cleverness of GeoSense. 😊 Once you get your head around the way the manual control behaves you’ll soon realise there will be some situations where you will not be able to use it to control noise levels, EMI is a good example but also salt conditions, conductive soil conditions and saturation. My general rule of thumb is once I find myself going down to below the 1/2 mark of the manual control I flick to the Auto+ mode and give it a few minutes to learn the ground, if that is too aggressive and has too much feedback then I will go to Auto mode and allow the conservative aspects of the mode to control the environment. I tend to find people cling onto way to much sensitivity for fear of losing depth and actually make their detectors way too noisy which then impacts on performance or more specifically your ability to find a target signal in amongst the overall noise levels. Lastly you need to keep on the Quick-Trak button, the better you get at keeping the detector in spec with the ground you’re working in the better the performance. Good coil control especially sudden lifting of the coil can impact on the Ground Balance fine tune that savvy operators habitually achieve. JP
  4. I just tested two GPX11 coils for different customers who were complaining about touch sensitivity, both coils when tested were perfectly fine. The 6000 is an incredibly sensitive high end metal detector and in both cases the first thing I did was take a look at the skid plate and sure enough both showed large amounts of wear damage from hard scrubbing in highly variable mineralised dirt (especially deep contact scratches/gouges), both coils were also used when the ground was damp and just as another huge weather front came through which has now drowned the surrounding area. Both coils when tested could be bashed and knocked about with NO touch noise, so the noise being heard was from the variable ground signal not from touch falsing. In variable soils that have saturation signals the particles in the gravels that cause the saturation along with clay particles become worse when wet so getting the coil right onto the ground will cause more than double the noise that was heard when the ground was dry, you combine that with high temperatures (36C and higher prior to the rain) where the coil cables become very soft the combination of increased salt signal and conductive signals in combination with more EMI from approaching weather and the constant ground signals created by scrubbing the coil will make the detector sound like it is touch sensitive. Best bet when the ground is wet and the ground is conductive is to keep the coil up a bit and not actually contacting the ground, this will allow the Ground Balance to function correctly and more than halve the variable signals created by close to ground contact. Keep the coil lead a little loose on the shafts to prevent stiction especially in warmer weather to avoid cable noise, try to avoid rapid coil change of direction movements as this will exacerbate cable wobble noise (left right rapid signals as the shafts flex, but also up/down salt signals because the ground is wet). Lowering the Sensitivity on the manual mode will not remove these problem signals, only good coil control and not contacting the ground will do that. If you actually want to reduce “actual” sensitivity then you need to use one of the two Auto modes, my recommendation when the ground is water logged and the ground is variable ect is to use the Auto mode and allow the sensitivity to measure the ground you are working without all the constant ground feedback, this especially helps if you do not have precise coil control. Auto and Auto+ are the only modes that actually change the ‘real’ sensitivity on the GPX6000, so in quiet soils the Auto+ can increase the actual sensitivity beyond the manual modes preset, whereas Auto mode is more conservative but in situations like we have here in Clermont at the moment it can make a huge difference to your ability to continue detecting after BIG rain events. Right now because of the conditions I have three choices if I want to go detecting with the GPX6000, I can either use manual mode on a conservative setting and maintain very precise coil control, or I can use the Auto mode if the manual mode is too fatiguing (especially if I have to lower the manual sensitivity control to below 1/3) or lastly I can revert to a DD coil and use Salt mode in extreme cases. I suggest the salt mode option last because it has the biggest impact on outright depth compared to the 11” Mono coil option so is best used in extremely salty ground where the mono coil is just too noisy. Hope this helps JP
  5. My super has been doing pretty OK this year too thanks, but it did take a tumble there at one stage along with the gold price. I often see their shares get a bit flighty when the Gold Price bounces around. A lowering trend just means an opportunity for people to buy in cheap IMHO, gutsing it out before you grab a bargain is the hard part or if you invested when it was higher gritting your teeth during the downward trends 😣.
  6. A lot of Australian shares tanked and took a BIG hit over that time frame, even gold took a dump there at one stage (my superannuation was another frightener, I really do need to stop looking at it so regularly 😞). A lower share price might mean a good opportunity to get in cheap on quality undervalued shares especially now that gold is climbing again. 🤔
  7. I’m grateful for your friendship Steve. Well said and truly appreciated. 🙂 JP
  8. If the mineralisation is low then there will seem to be little effect. The main thing is to not have much or any signal with the coil being lifted up and then pushed down to the ground again with a movement of say 100mm when there is a big signal and say 40mm when there is a small or minimal signal. The GPX6000 has a ground balance that is continuous, that is to say it is slowly tracking and compensating for ground signals all the time regardless of the modes used. The Quick-Trak button is for when the ground is extremely variable and the slow auto GB can’t keep up, at start up there can be a big difference in GB if say for instance you have driven hundreds of miles to a new gold field and the ground is completely different etc. A good operator in variable ground will be using the QT button all the time, successful VLF users from days gone by will know all about keeping on top of the ground balance as a means of wringing out max performance. When the QT button is depressed the tracking algorithm ramps up really quickly then throttles back over time while the button is triggered, in variable ground it pays to keep the coil controlled and accurate when pumping so the initial fast GB state doesn’t get knocked off course by excessive movement signal from things like salt ect, always used a controlled measured pumping of the coil just varying the height of the pump if the conditions require it. Usually a good rule of thumb is big signal, big slow pump, small signal, small controlled pumping of the coil. Hope this helps JP
  9. You got me Steve 😂. No one I know buys a lotto ticket in the hopes of not winning. I also know your 100% correct because I keep a steady eye on the gold price, a sure sign my gold hunting motivator is firmly attached to its value. And finally how I know your right is I’ve found many amazing pieces of gold over the years and I’ve basically sold them all, if gold was of no value to me then I would have a huge collection and now be a gold nugget millionaire. 😝 Good call Steve you pegged me good and proper you cantankerous old fart. 😂 JP
  10. I’d go look for gold even if it was worth nothing, but I have to confess I like that it has a value, I like it a lot.😁 Gold has paid for an awful lot of new toys for me over the years including a LOT of metal detectors. 😝 (or is that Mental Detectors 😂). It’s good to see a dealer not just ‘talking the talk’ but also ‘walking the walk’, every nugget a person finds is deserved IMHO even the ones that seem to just jump out at you. A bad day detecting is worth so much more than a good day at a regular job. JP
  11. I’m amazed there aren’t more reports out of Western Australia, this coil in Salt mode is perfect for that. There are miles and miles are nugget areas in WA that just make detectors moan especially after rain. Salt mode isn’t just for salt lakes it will work in a surprising amount of places where the ground isn’t too deep. Salt mode also offers a fair bit of EMI resistance as well and IMHO is cleaner on variable ground in Difficult mode. I’ve not been able to get to WA for 2 years now so only managed to do a small amount of testing with ML Engineers when the concept was in its infancy, Salt mode performed really well in the ground I tested in. JP
  12. EMI is probably not the correct term for what happens with the inbuilt speaker, it can get a ‘warble’ up which can be intermittent and non-specific to any external source. When you switch off the speaker by connecting to a bluetooth device or plugging in headphones the ‘warble’ dissipates but any EMI present will remain. The warble can be confusing because it is additive to the whole, so if any cable noise is present, if any EMI is present such as a nearby mobile phone, those noises will be added to the audio along with any ground signal, saturation signal ect. I have also found there can be some noise generated if the Bluetooth receiver is placed too close to the booster (not sure about the SteelPhase as it is pretty well shielded with that huge aluminium box), I personally use the supplied removable headphone cable and put the BT Rx unit in my right trouser pocket running the cable with an adapter up to my B&Z booster mounted on my right shoulder. This method works best for me and cuts way down on dropped packets because it is in plain line of site of the Pod’s Tx. Do not be tempted to run too much volume, keep the volume low on the 6000, think of it like looking at a kitchen table surface from standing height, it looks smooth but if you bring your head down to the surface and then put on 3 x magnification glasses you will see lots of little bumps and scratches, this is your threshold and general audio of the detector, the higher you raise the volume the more those nonsensical garbage noises break free of the threshold, if you really listen to the 6000 audio you will notice the threshold is actually quite dominant and very smooth, focus on that and you will find you can run the volumes quite low and still have miles of headroom performance wise. Steve has worked this concept out and its why he can run such insane sensitivity settings. I personally tend to run my detector as hot as possible, so if using manual Sensitivity I’ll get the unit stabilised (takes about 2 to 3 minutes from switch on till the threshold stabilises and comes smooth and about 30 seconds or so after a noise cancel), once the unit is happy I will then make sure I’m satisfied with the volumes etc then perform a ground balance and then crank the sensitivity to max and slowly back off from there till the unit is just on the edge of ratty (while sweeping the coil about). I will then lift the coil away from the ground holding it flat and listen to the threshold, if its not to my satisfaction I’ll perform another noise cancel and fine tune from there. Volume has a much bigger impact on a detectors behaviour than most people realise, cranking volume as a form of sensitivity control is a no no, get the volumes correct and then you can crank sensitivity as far as possible, so long as that nonsensical garbage noise just breaking free of the threshold isn’t intruding into your ability to recognise a target signal you’re good to go. Off topic a bit people sorry about that. 🤕 JP
  13. Here are a few pictures of some all time popular coils that are ‘similar in size’🥴, all of them have their place, all of them are noticeably different to each other, all of them have found a lot of gold and in a very large amount of cases all are collectively owned by individuals. 🙉 🙈............🙊 And I’d be prepared to put money down that Rob has successfully used them all. NF 12x8 Evo NF 14x9 Evo Coiltek 14x9 Elite NF 12” Evo NF Zsearch 12 Minelab GPZ14
  14. Agreed Steve and I don't know why there is so much confusion with people feeling the 6000 is an outright 7k beater or replacement. 🧐 When I swing the 7000 I know that I’m walking over easy gold, I also know I’m most certainly going to pass up on the odd decent gold mass that is just too fast a time-constant for the 7000. Conversely when I swing the 6000 I know that I’m passing up on the solid pieces from a few grams and up, even though the 6000 can do well on deeper pieces it requires a lot more effort to chase this sort of gold so I just focus on what it does really well and then cross back to the 7000 when required. JP
  15. The GPZ7000 is still king of the mountain for outright depth but it takes commitment and strength to use, this is especially poignant when you’ve had the privilege of using the 6000 for any period of time and discovered the joys of a well balanced lightweight machine. I have a picture in my mind for the use of these machines, the 6000 is a fast paced zip zip like machine that can be slowed down but its overall behaviour just loves to be scooted along, even its audio is zippy. It is very talkative and lively, constantly on the go ready for anything, so very capable of instantaneous reaction to the tiniest of nuggets. At the same time it has amazing depth for a detector of its ilk so time spent swinging it isn’t wasted if you do manage to get your coil over a deeper piece. It would have to be the best detector I’ve ever seen for out of the box ease of use, pushing well ahead of the SDC 2300 because of its ergonomics and light weight. The 7000 on the other hand just loves smooth control, pendulum like smooth control. The better you can control the coils movement the greater the rewards. It’s audio is set up to be slow and methodical, it is cautionary in all it does and likes to think and mull over everything before it speaks. It is oil upon the waters smooth and does not like to rush, as such its behaviour compliments the deeper more subtle edge of detection signal responses. To get the best out of the 7000 requires personal training and setup, in-depth learning and investment in time spent in the field, even after all this time I am still learning the GPZ7000. I‘m fortunate I have both detectors, depending on my mood I go easily from one to the other. Sometimes I just want to go have some fun without all the mental focus, my ultra excited super motivated friend the GPX6000 is always primed and ready to find some gold just about anywhere I care to go, it is the ultimate skunk-buster and has never let me down. Other times I just want to go swing a coil and focus on depth with smoothness and control, let my mind drift into the ultra smooth threshold and patiently wait for that one deep signal. I find the 7000 to be calming and soulful an un-flurried methodical order that just ‘feels right’, when in motion it has a grounded presence that suits its personality. It’s raining in here today and I’m feeling cool and reflective 😂 JP Pic of gold I recently found with the GPX6000, found the first piece with the 7000 and worked it with the 6000 as the size of the gold and frequency of digging suited it perfectly. 186 pieces in 4 x half detecting days. Pic of a nice chunky very deep 7 gram piece I got last Saturday found in perfect for the GPZ7000 detecting ground.
  16. I’m not at liberty to discuss some of the testing information but I can assure you the chip in the coil does not interfere with the detector, if this was the case it would be especially troubling for X coils because they now have the chip much closer to the detector. I’d say the EMI in Northeast’s case could be a combination of factors one being having a camera too close to the detector whilst filming (mobile phones are the worst and really set the speaker off), secondly if the detector was laying flat on the ground the cyclic nature of the speaker noise is much much worse when the unit is placed on the ground compared to being hand held in a detecting position (coil in air not on the ground). All detectors will get a good warble up if placed on the ground so I would say in the case of the 6000 it is just exacerbated by the speaker issue. I’ve used the 6000 with the speaker for many hundreds of hours quite successfully, usually a quick EMI tune deals with it and you can go on your way. I recommend that if you do more than say 5 noise cancels in a session you should perform a factory reset to bring all the Geo-Sense back to optimal (easily done by long pressing the power button at switch on). This was the best work flow for me till I sorted out a good quality APTX low latency receiver unit from Amazon (I bought a fair few till I got one that was actually Low Latency). https://www.amazon.com.au/Avantree-Pre-paired-Bluetooth-Transmitter-Headphones/dp/B00OPVWHRY/ref=asc_df_B00OPVWHRY/?tag=googleshopdsk-22&linkCode=df0&hvadid=341774279437&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3581841827715156339&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9069194&hvtargid=pla-521485039859&psc=1 This one is the best value for money as it is Tx and Rx all in one. https://www.amazon.com.au/Bluetooth-Transmitter-Gecen-Compatible-Headphones/dp/B07YCFHMXQ/ref=sr_1_224?keywords=APTX+receiver&qid=1636142067&sr=8-224 I then run a cable from the receiver to my booster and amplify out to speakers from there or bud style headphones. Also an FYI I have had a bit of a play with the PRO-SONIC for the SDC and even though it doesn’t show up on the 6000 with the + sign to show it’s APTX the delay/latency in the audio wasn’t too bad, if you already have one its worth a shot. JP
  17. Hey Reg nice to see you posting here again. It wasn’t meant as a subtle put down at all, anyone who has anything to do with R&D knows that you sometimes stumble across something clever, how you choose to read my post is down to you. 🧐 I have to smile at all the coil discussions though, that includes my own involvement at times because the subject is so emotive. At the end of the day people need to realise it is the brains behind the coil that is actually doing all the work, I am yet to see an aftermarket guy manage to innovate or even stumble onto anything even remotely approaching what has been done with any of the ML electronics we have all used so successfully over the years. If they are so clever why in heavens name haven’t they put their cleverness into developing a better detector? 🤔 It is for this reason I defend ML so vehemently, I know the effort that goes into a detector build, so to have someone suggest or insinuate that they don’t know what they are doing is perplexing to me. I do understand and appreciate peoples frustration with the limitations of coil choice however. Now if it was said “it would be great to see more variety of coil shapes and sizes, even if those coils were more specialised so would then not work everywhere” then anyone espousing that would have to change the subject if they wanted an argument from me, there is no need to imply that ML don’t know what they are doing or all the other negative put downs that go with peoples frustrations to achieve their perfect coil-size dream. Ever since I started detecting I’ve tried to source more options with coils, and still do to this very day, so from that perspective the subject of this thread is interesting. A GPX 6000 with a coil attached that suits your particular terrain is a desirable thing, circumventing all the pitfalls associated with that process unless the developer has access to the lead tech is going to be an uphill battle which on this thread seems to be the elephant in the room (and also the pathway to discord and argument hence Steves cautionary comments early on). So why does ML even have the chip you ask? Because counterfeiting is an ever present problem so measures to inconvenience counterfeiters is an important part of their right to protect their hard won IP. I’ve chatted with one of the Russian developers and he has openly discussed the hurdle that his coils will have to overcome to get any traction in the market place so in essence he is just tinkering and probably having a bit of fun along the way. For people to get in on the act they will eventually have to sacrifice a coil to make up the dongle so that will constrain things a lot. If he honestly thought his coil designs and development were an improvement performance wise over the ML offering he should build an 11” round or 17” elliptical Mono and have it peer reviewed in direct comparison with the standard coils (Steve is a good candidate). From my perspective different sizes and shapes are the way forward for aftermarket manufacturers to satisfy the need and hopefully Coiltek will adequately address this, the GPX6000 has a HUGE amount of detecting power headroom so there is no need to try and reinvent the wheel performance wise. JP
  18. A poor tradesman often blames his tools 🧰 😉 Innovate away I say, it’s what keeps the earth going round, with all the current world leader discussions about trying to achieve less than 1.5 degrees of global warming the human race will need a HUGE amount of collaboration and innovation to try and reach some of those targets, correlatively I feel it is through innovation that things like flat wound coils came to the fore so here’s to hoping the after market guys stumble across something clever and it then goes mainstream. 🥂 🍻 JP
  19. ML haven’t dumbed anything down on the Z coils. They have to supply the detector with a coil that will work well everywhere which is the GPZ14”. X coils like to tinker and as such pushed the envelope with their spiral wound stuff but those coils did struggle in a lot of places IMHO, the Concentric coils however have been quite good but they didn’t come out till 6 or so years after the GPZ was released which is longer than it took to develop the 7000, as such one would expect the science in coil making to be reasonably understood by then. NuggetFinder managed to bang out a very good DOD coil on their first try, in our shop I don’t think we’ve even seen one Zsearch coil come back in for warranty. Mono coils are not rocket science so the design for them has pretty much reached its ceiling, as Steve has said it mainly comes down to convenience of size and shape to suit a particular area. The big bug bear for any after market coil manufacturer other than the obvious problem of the inbuilt crypto chip will be the coil lead cable as Minelab have pushed the GPX6000 to the very edge of detection and beyond, which explains why they are selling so well. 😊 JP
  20. I just use the 12V lead off my GPZ battery charger (or you can also use the 12V lead for the SDC Lithium battery) to charge my GPX6000 battery when out bush rather than use the supplied alligator clip 12V charging lead. The other way to do it is to replace the alligator clips with an Anderson plug, most caravan people run an Anderson plug to provide current to the DCtoDC chargers on their rigs. JP
  21. Minelab still is that “much better company” they often go above and beyond on repairs and getting things sorted for people, even in some cases long after the warranty has expired. Every issue we’ve seen in our store since the 6000’s came out has been addressed promptly, so don’t think for a second Minelab have slackened off other than it’s a brand new detector release in the middle of a world pandemic. There are always gremlins with any new detector as the factory irons out the manufacturing processes, and as usual Minelab will be there for its customers if problems arise. The GPX6000 is still going to become an all time favourite that has set the bar for every other detector that follows, its universal ease of use and outright performance is beyond compare. I spent 4 years of my life doing my little bit to help as best I could to ensure that it was as easy to use as possible for just about anyone regardless of their experience, the power packed behind that light weight simplicity still amazes me. JP
  22. Running zero threshold is always going to miss gold no matter how you set it up, if the dead zone is adjusted too high/low (its a timeywhimey thing (DR WHO fan 😂)) then the break through becomes a major issue with the operator constantly being alerted to breakthrough target like signals which gets away from the whole concept. The 6000 has a massive amount of headroom sensitivity wise, if a target is within sensible range of the coil then the zero threshold option will bang on it, however if the targets are getting to the edge of detection depth then the signal response will not make it through the filtering. I do not advise using zero threshold in the Manual modes, Minelab engineers put a lot of thought and design into the Auto modes so there is a lot more going on under the hood than just turning the Threshold off. I have not had time to watch the YouTube vid sorry will do that later today if I’m no it too whacked form detecting in 39 degree heat. 😞 JP
  23. Best bet for ‘new new’ users is to use the Factory preset Auto with no threshold mode. I’ve pinged many a nugget and checked many others with that mode, it really does simplify the learning curve and allow room for growth without all the confusion. The 6000 is a twitchy beast the price we pay for all the early sampling I suppose, but at least there are controls built in to help newbies get through the learning curve. Back on topic, as a dealer I too have seen a worrying amount of problematic 6000s, there have been way too many coil failures and DOA units for my liking, far more than the 7000 release for sure. I honestly think COVID has put a wrecking ball through MLs QC, someone in the factory is supposed to be checking all this and obviously isn’t for whatever reason, I feel sorry for the guy at ML HQ who has the job of trying to sort this stuff out. JP
  24. In my mind no patch is ever played out, they are all worth ‘just one more go’ especially with new technology coming out regularly. Over time I’ve developed a number of places that have produced gold in a given district and will float between these historic areas in the pursuit of new ground. If I’m working in new ground I will often use an old favourite patch and the fond memories of the good gold I once found there as a reward if the prospecting wasn’t successful, even if I know the chances of finding something is slim the memories of what I found is a nice trip down memory lane as I go over the patch ‘just one more time’ 😂. Sometimes the tech leads you to gold adjacent to the original patch thanks to more performance in the form of either deeper gold in the case of the 7000 or a lot of smaller or specimen pieces in the case of the 6000 (with the potential of the occasional deeper piece too). I’m fortunate because I live near a gold field that is up there for some of the most variable ground in Australia, variability means that gold can be easily missed dependant on approach, angle of coil, speed of coil, height of coil, moisture, technology, etc etc as such none of my areas are truly played out. 😊 JP
  25. And my apologies for dragging the subject a bit off topic. And I agree the 10 x 6 for the Equinox is a thing of beauty. JP
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