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Question For J. P. - Zed 19" Skidplate & The GPS


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1 hour ago, flakmagnet said:

Opinion only of course, but I simply do not understand Minelab's decision to put such a clunky gps into the 7000. Why bother? It would not have taken much more engineering to include a really good gps system, but barring that, it seems so haphazard and almost lazy to go half 'way. I love the 7000 but the gps is silly. 

Yeah, after using a droid (smart phone) GPS with mapping software for yonks, I`ve formed the opinion the Zs GPS is akin to lighting a fire by rubbing two sticks together when you`ve a perfectly good gas lighter in your pocket. But that is my opinion, there seems to be bugger all prospectors using a GPS with mapping software as a tool to locate gold, this along with a detector is a powerful combination. ML is on track combining the GPS with the detector but they are over 20 years behind on the GPS side, not on the detecting side but, the Z is magic for sure.

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21 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

Opinion only of course, but I simply do not understand Minelab's decision to put such a clunky gps into the 7000. Why bother?

Why bother? Why get up in the morning? You have to start somewhere. ? As poor as it is Minelab currently has the best GPS system available from any detector manufacturer. Hopefully XP will show them up - maybe that will give them the impetus to improve the system. As long as there is no competition things move slowly if at all. XP is basing their idea on linking to a phone however, so I don't see that as being as compelling as an on screen option.

I guess what I (and you apparently) find annoying is it would take so little to make the Minelab GPS system shine. With just a few changes I think just about everyone that currently uses some other GPS would use it. As it is the limitations are just enough to put people off and keep them using whatever they already have.

One fix will have to wait for the next hardware update to the GPZ. I am disappointed however that for the price of the detector that the screen is no better than what was included in the CTX 3030. At this price level it is not out of line to be expecting an OLED screen. Or at least a better quality transflective screen with brighter backlight option.

The other I have already touched on - a memory upgrade is needed. I have to really pick and choose about what data I want to reload before heading into the field and the more I hold the more limit I have on acquiring new data. It is very useful to have previous finds loaded and on screen while hunting, and the current 100 point limit is far too little. I need more like 1000. Memory is super cheap so there is no good excuse for having to worry about memory limits. It reminds me of my old computer with 64K of memory that required constant juggling.

The software fixes are so trivial I am a bit aghast they have not been implemented yet. The number one thing that would make this entire idea work better is an export/import function for XChange. Many people already have existing data they would like to import. Or, because of added functionality in other software packages, they would like to export easily out of XChange into some other system via a common exchange format. At this time exporting to Google KML would seem to be a minimum requirement but a GPX data format option would allow for more information to be transferred. Minelab, you really need to do this one thing! This one change would vastly improve the use ability of the system.

Currently, XChange has no way I know of to use downloaded maps. It requires an internet connection to show a map. If I am in the field and run out of GPZ memory, I need to do a data dump to XChange. If I dump the data to XChange I can't view it until I go someplace where I can get a data connection. Very useless except for the clearing of the GPZ memory so I can acquire more data. If saved maps can't be used with XChange it is all the more imperative that an import/export function be implemented. Other software applications can use saved maps.

A very minor thing I would like to see is the ability to toggle track start and end flags on or off. They clutter the screen so much I can't see the Findpoints and tracks clearly. My only work around at this time is to put Findpoints in one folder and tracks in another by location to easily toggle between the two.

XChange2 is based on open source information. It is possible to import and export data but too painful for most casual people to undertake. Details can be gleaned here. I will write as simple a guide as possible on how to do it when I get a little more time.

I have had manufacturers tell me nobody wants GPS capability in a detector. I would have said that about telephones once upon a time. Now my phone would be half useless without it. A properly implemented GPS can be a very compelling competitive advantage in a detector. In this day and age when manufacturers are trying hard to seek competitive advantage and add value, I am amazed so little attention is being given to this particular feature.

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17 hours ago, Mike54 said:

 I mainly use a small GPS/Backtracker in case I get disoriented to find my way back to camp/vehicle.   :rolleyes:

Mike have you tried using the inbuilt GPS to mark your camp/vehicle as a way point.   When I am in unfamiliar country I always mark my vehicle as a way point.   You know how thick it is up at Inglewood. One day I was up there, head down and wandering and at the end of the day if it hadn`t been for the 7000 GPS, I would have set off 180º in the wrong direction to get back to the troopy :blush:

cheers Dave 

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One change I would like to see in the gps, and I phoned Minelab about this about 6 months ago,  the largest scale the gps has is 100 meter or 100 yards.  If you create a way point, say your vehicle, once you get 400 meters away from it you can no longer see your vehicle on the screen, you can only see you.  I think it would be simple to do, I asked the nice lady at Minelab if they could build in a  constantly varying scale so you could always see where you were in relation to the way point you had created.  Either constantly variable or more scales.    Maybe 200 meter, 500 meter and one kilometer. I always carry a little compass for if me and the way point are both not on the screen, I then use the gps compass to tell me where the way point is.
The lady at Minelab said she thought this was a good idea and said she would move it up the chain.  For me at least, it would be good if this change was in the next upgrade.

Dave

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A lot of GPZ features were just ported across from the CTX platform with the main focus during development of the GPZ 7000 being around ZVT tech which was incredibly time consuming and expensive. Hopefully in the future we will see improvements. I for one would love to be able to dump to an app on my mobile phone, it would be excellent if it could access maps in my smart phone that have already been downloaded regardless of phone signal.

JP

 

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Regarding the GPS on the Z, I know the way I use a GPS is not mainstream and probably never will be, my opinion is just that my opinion it is not a criticism of Minelab. I concur with JP, the most important feature of the Z is its ability to detect gold, no way do I wish ML to buggerise around with and waste resources on the GPS at the sacrifice of ZVT technology or whatever detector tech  advancements we know they are working on. I am happy to leave the GPS duties to the "droid in the pocket", ML just keep on doing what you do best.

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42 minutes ago, Norvic said:

Regarding the GPS on the Z, I know the way I use a GPS is not mainstream and probably never will be, my opinion is just that my opinion it is not a criticism of Minelab. I concur with JP, the most important feature of the Z is its ability to detect gold, no way do I wish ML to buggerise around with and waste resources on the GPS at the sacrifice of ZVT technology or whatever detector tech  advancements we know they are working on. I am happy to leave the GPS duties to the "droid in the pocket", ML just keep on doing what you do best.

An 'outsourced' or 'in-house' state of the art interface with other devices and platforms would not be too distracting I would think.  They just need someone to write the code.

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Yeah I reckon Minelab worrying about GPS in their detectors to be a waste of resources when new tech to find us more gold needs to be funded and researched.  I can carry a GPS on my pack with ease as have always and still do and I have never actually turned my GPS on the Z as the CTX version is sluggish and quite unusable compared to a dedicated GPS with mapping.  I have one GPS on all of the time making a track of where I have been, then this is downloaded to OziExplorer and saved.

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