GPZ Technical Question For JP

[nvchris]

Ive had success by throwing the GB way out, then re gb'ing over the F'ring. Then a quick GB  several times in a session to build a library of local GB. I got the idea from JP's comment about not throwing out "hard earned data" 

 

That got me to thinking,,,, "what if the stored GB data is garbage now" dump the garbage and build a new data set from todays/current conditions and ground type.

 

The machine has a limited amount of storage for the GB data and I feel it likes/runs best with as much "localized" data as posable.

 

Your milage may vary!

[Swifty]

What I've been doing in one area where there's lots of hot rocks  is picking up a few positive and negative hot rocks in the area, toss them and the ferrite ring in a pile, gb to a count of 8 then again 2 or 3 times each time with a count of 8.  The zed gets close enough to stable where the hot rocks are no longer a problem.  This did not work in all the areas I've tried

[mn90403]

Well here is something to add to the GB memory.

 

When you hit a target you swing it for several seconds/minutes in different directions.  This loads a very specific profile into memory.

 

Now you start digging the target and what do we do?  We lay the coil on the ground and dig.  It is not moving for several seconds/minutes.  We swing a little to see if the target is out of the hole.  Repeat as necessary ...

 

When you start hunting again after the target is the machine in a better or worse balance and memory than before you found the target?

 

Mitchel

[Lunk]

Hi Mitchel,

The ground balance software update fixed the issue of throwing the ground balance out in a scenario such as you described: http://www.minelab.com/usa/treasure-talk/gpz-7000-ground-tracking-software-update

If however you are still concerned about throwing the ground balance out, once you get a target response just pump the coil up and down away from the target zone to make sure the ground balance is in. Then select "manual ground balance mode" which fixes the ground balance. Then after recovering your target (hopefully a gold nugget) select "auto ground balance" and resume searching. It saves time if you assign the ground balance mode to the user button.

[Condor]

I inadvertently left my machine on after shutting down the audio then laid the machine on my tailgate. Ouch, that must have throughly f'd the ground balance. Maybe that's why it's running so smooth. I'd better start all over.

[jasong]

My GPZ squeeled on the ferrite the first time I tracked over it, and that was it. If it's not out of balance over it then I don't understand the point of continuing to throw it down every session? I'd be curious to know, because honestly I just stopped.

 

Also, from my testing there is no repeatably measurable difference in depth on the GPZ between manual and autotracking running in HY/Normal, give it a test if anyone doubts. Just put it in auto and sit back and let the machine do the work... I doubt a guy can track out a non-hotrock/non-clay lens type target (actual gold, a bullet, etc) as you dig  if you heard it on surface, if anyone can show that happening in a vid I'd be really interested to see it because I've tried and I can't get it to happen intentionally at least.

 

Honestly, for me, the GPZ makes ground tracking even simpler than the GPX. Even when I hit different ground it'll learn it just leaving it on autotrack and detecting as normal for 5 minutes or so.

 

I spent hours, days, experimenting around with ground balance, triple reading the stuff ML and JP posted. And honestly all I do now is just leave it in autotrack and detect, haven't had any problems and I've been over everything from white sand mild to fires of hell hot ground from NV to almost every part of AZ now. Am I missing something?

[jasong]

Also, the other benefit of keeping it in autotrack is that when you go over some of those hotrocks that are indistinguishable from a good target you can actually hear that they are hotrocks in autotrack but not manual.Or at least you can do this a lot easier:

 

As you sweep your coil you will hear the tracker adjusting after the initial target attack dies down and the coil moves past the target. Sometimes you can tell just by lifting your coil up over a hot rock and then put it a few inches away over onto mild ground and you will hear it rebalance even though the target sound itself could have been gold. A good target won't do that (unless its under a hotrock).

[Norvic]

Jasong... if your missing something your not alone, I have not quick tracked my Z for months. If it sounds out a little in up/down just side/side as per detecting a few swipes and keep going. Although I have my user button programed to go to manual GB when target recovery, even stopped doing that as I`ve become more practiced at recovering sub grammers. Tis a no drama switch on and go detector to me. Love it.

[jasong]

We gotta be missing something, maybe JP will explain later. But for me, if my machine isn't getting out of balance then I'm not sure what more could be improved over "not out of balance"....really really not out of balance? 

 

Condor: I would not reset your machine if you got it purring smooth right now. If we had to reset after a tailgate then we'd also have to reset after running over a buried old oil can or a big old bolt too, running over overload level iron trash is pretty normal in detecting and shouldn't require resets.

[Jonathan Porter]

The cumulative effect of the GPZ ground balance storage

 

Observation:  I ran Steve's Hot settings, HY, Normal, Sens 20, Threshold 35, Smoothing Low for several days in a row and the machine seems to be running as stable as before I switched to the hot settings. 

The desert southwest ground is fairly mild, especially where I've been working lately, but I know when I first started running these settings my machine was noisy, growling and squealing unless I slowed my sweep speed way down to a crawl.  Now, the machine seems to have really settled down and I can increase my sweep speed without a bunch of extra noise.  I did the Minelab update but I never had the ferrite to do that particular ground balance procedure.

Question:  Is the machine storing the ground balance information such that it now recognizes this ground and has made enough internal adjustment to account for a noticeably quieter machine, or is it just my own brain and hearing have made the adjustment and I have imagined the improvement?

I just received a Minelab ferrite,( thanks to Rob @ NuggetHunting.com), but now I'm afraid to re-ground balance and F up a good thing by clearing that stored data. 

What's a guy to do in this situation?

By the way, I got a deep, faint tone today and experimented with the settings some.  The results are probably moot since the target was a piece of wire down about 14 inches, but I got as good a tone if not better on this target with the General, Normal, 20 sens setting.  When I backed the Sens down to 15, neither HY nor General picked up the signal.  Switching Smoothing off, I got an awful lot of chatter and the signal was very hard to hear through the chatter. 

 

The detectors electronics will react to any Ferrite component in the soil and all soils have that component in them even mild soils. If that component is present then the detector if not balanced to that signal properly will generate noise. The best way to determine this is to ground balance the GPZ in Manual mode using the Quick-Trak button then with the coil in the air wave the Ferrite over the winding to left or right of the GPZ 14 sticker. The signal you hear is what you will hear when swinging over the ground if there is any Ferrite signal present (in the natural environment this occurs in differing degrees).

 

The old GB software was too aggressive in its ability to change the Ferrite balance so would swing from one end of the Ferrite Balance range to the other giving inconsistent outcomes in detector behavior, especially for those operators with poor coil control (mainly caused by the weight).

 

The new software is much more stable and less likely to move about which means even if the Ferrite balance is out slightly at least now it's consistent. If the ground only has mild amounts of Ferrite signal then you the operator will not hear much variation in the detectors threshold, but I still advocate people use the Ferrite to balance with for optimal results.

 

JP