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GPZ 10" Xcoils In USA


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When I had gone to my second test location, I am pretty sure I heard the issue before I even hit the QT button.  The ground was walking distance away but changed drastically in saturation noise, apparently.  It was really strange that it did not clear just running normal GB.  But when I switched back to the 14 coil and did a QT, everything was quiet.  Put back on the 10" coil, and it was still quiet.  

So far I have only seen the ferrite issue in one area.  If I run into other areas, I will just set the ferrite with the 14" and then switch over.  I don't see it happening that often.  I was just lucky enough to run across it my first day of testing.  It is good that I did because it brought up that there is still work to be done, but also that there is a workaround for those who do not want to wait.

I don't really see hiking far out into the field with the 10" coil (patch hunting).  I typically start with bigger coils to cover more area, anyways.  Only when I know there is a good area, the 10" coil could be used as my cleanup coil or in those rocky stream beds.  Before, I would do cleanups with my GM1000, which I will sometimes throw onto my pack.   It is reeeally good for getting the small pieces of told that the 14" coil misses.  My guess is that the 10" coil will keep me from losing as many of these small pieces.

One tip (probably common knowledge to some) is before you throw the dirt back into your hole, spread it out flat a little bit so you get good contact with the bottom of the coil.  Recheck this dirt well, not just the hole.  You will be surprised how much gold you catch and release.

 

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Andy, do you mean the ground itself wouldn't balance on the X Coil, or just the ferrite wouldn't balance on that ground?

I was unable to get the ferrite to balance on any coil, not even a little bit (I could "fool" it with the nose method slightly), but all my coils did balance to the ground itself just as well as the Z14. I'm in very mild ground though so, limited in what I can test. I'm just curious with your hotter ground if it's still only the ferrite it won't balance to or if the ground also is hot enough (in that one bad spot you reported) that no tracking method will balance to the ground itself either?

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1 hour ago, jasong said:

Andy, do you mean the ground itself wouldn't balance on the X Coil, or just the ferrite wouldn't balance on that ground?

My limited experience is that if the ferrite is way out then your GB will stay out. (as in saturated ground)  But if you set the ferrite with the 14 coil first, GB is not a problem.

That said, even with the 14 coil, I am not always able to silence it on the ferrite.  This was the case when I wanted to compare to average sdc depths recently.  The ferrite was a little extra noisy for both coils but both still GB no problem.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just to close this out, I did get the replacement 10" coil, as well.  Improvements have been made so that it fits very nicely into the shaft and includes clamps on the end (like Minelab) that prevent the unraveling.  I think this new version will do quite nicely.

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Not sure if im doing things right but im just using auto ground balance now instead of semi auto with the x-coils. Couldn't achieve a proper ferrite balance and was finding i was getting too many phantom targets.

After running auto for a day things seemed to be much better. I was detecting very small targets quite deep with the 10" so i presume auto ground balance works ok.

My only concern with ferrite balancing with the Gpz14 and then switching back to the x-coil was that after half an hour or so when the 7000"s electronics get to operating temperature (if the weather is coldish) the ferrite balance is going to be out again.

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Do you have one of the stock Minelab ferrites Jin? They are a bit black colored on the back. I bought a replacement that wasn't made by Minelab, with a white backing, and the manufacturer said it wouldn't balance on anything but the stock ferrite. Sure enough, it screamed on the white backed ferrite and wouldn't balance it. I haven't tried the Minelab ferrite yet.

Andy might be gearing up for some night detecting, dunno. But, here is a picture of my replacement coil/cable inserting into the middle shaft, no problems. Next to it can be seen the old coil cable being re-wrapped onto a 5/16" (~8mm) spindle as the manufacturer suggested I keep the coil and rewrap it rather than send it back. The newer cord is slightly blacker but I'm not sure if that means it's a different material or if it's just because my old cord is discolored from leaving it in the sun to rewrap twice before (this time I used a heat gun).

Also, the patch I made in the upper right. Apparantly I still need to wrap it with a lot of layers of tape for strength according to the manufacturer. I think a few layers of adhesive shrink tube should work too though, if that's what Steelphase is doing?

cords2.jpg.ef74226ef977bc326f3c0ee066961d1a.jpg

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51 minutes ago, jasong said:

Do you have one of the stock Minelab ferrites Jin? They are a bit black colored on the back.

Yes, came with the detector

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6 hours ago, phrunt said:

Out of interest can you bang up a photo at some point Andy?

 

Sorry, I've been out curing world hunger, helping little old ladies cross the street, and night hunting for some gold.  I think my season is on hold now for a while as the monsoons have really brought in the mosquitos.  It's just too miserable to keep your head clear and listen for feint signals. 

Below are a couple shots of the new coil.  I'm not sure it could be seen in Jason's so I wanted to focus in on the coil clamp.  You will also notice my patch cord is a bit bent, which happens when the old coil comes unraveled and doesn't allow you to collapse the unit very far.  Thankfully, my patch cord uses Unobtanium (small upgrade), so it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. :cool:

 

c1.JPG.f7b44e872d7387f55ca2ffb48da60ee4.JPG       c2.JPG.f5c146422b4c5554adcc20a8508b9264.JPG

 

 

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Not visible in my photo because my coil didn't come with them. 

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One more update, after talking to the manufacturer it looks like all coils will now come with these plastic spikes/clamps on the cables. 

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