Jump to content

Reg Wilson & Jp GPX 6000 Commentary & Tips


Recommended Posts


Aye welcome Reg, we thought the Z picked up scraps at crazy depths.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Welcome back Reg you rascal. 😀 

My post from Finders for forum readers:

What’s there to say about the 6000? Not a lot really 🧐 It’s been designed to be used by just about anyone, so my advice is to just switch it on and go detecting. 😝

Use the Velcro cable ties, one with a nice coil lead loop near the coil (just above the point where the coil edge touches the shaft when laid flat) and the other Velcro between the upper lock knuckle and the handle to prevent cable movement near the connector. Leave a little looseness in the cable between the two, too tight and there will be noise created by stiction on the lead when the shaft flexes. 

I do not recommend using the inbuilt speaker but I say that about every gold detector with a speaker as I am not a fan of the audio source moving around, plus I hate the 6000 speaker with a passion because it is Shyte. Do not use the Quest Tx device or any BT Tx near the control box, the 6000 is super sensitive to electronic devices being anywhere near the control box, mobile phones included (especially when phone signal is weak). 

Do NOT be tempted to drive too much audio volume to achieve target sensitivity, I strongly suggest starting with the Volume low and gradually increase it as it is easier to adjust your brain that way rather than the other way around. It is much better to run a low volume and increase the sensitivity (I start at full Manual mode and adjust back from there). 

The BT headphones have a lot of volume range so it’s a bit of juggle to get the volumes correct between unit and headphones. Start at 2 on the control box and halfway on the headphones. If your right handed put the volume control side of the headphones on your right ear and opposite for lefties. This cuts way down on dropped audio packets. 

The 6000 takes a while to stabilise from a cold start so boot it up and leave it running for a bit while you gear up, you will notice the threshold is extremely dominant and target sensitivity is drowned out. When I see someone on YouTube turning on a 6000 and immediately waving over a target I just shake my head. You will also notice the threshold takes a while to stabilise after performing an auto tune so give it a few seconds to stabilise before checking suspect targets etc. 

In extremely saturable ground the 6000 has two ground balance heights, one is a general height at usual detect height levels in most ground types but in extremely saturable HOT ground there is a 40mm to ground GB that requires a bit more care, slow careful pumping of the coil in this zone will allow for careful close to ground detecting in extremely variable ground. 

A good operator from the VLF era will soon work out you need to be on the Quick-Trak button on a regular basis, the 6000 is extremely sensitive as such it will express audio responses over variable ground that the auto GB will not keep up with, GOOD operators understand this intuitively and keep on the QT button as par for course. Do not get sloppy with the QT process, take your time and move the coil in a measured and controlled way, the days of a quick pump and walk in hot ground have long gone, that’s the price we pay for the incredible sensitivity of the GPX 6000 platform. Adhere to these precepts and you will soon discover the 6000 is nigh on as sensitive to small gold as a high frequency VLF (I kid you not, I personally do not chase the fly-chit stuff but you can easily find ‘wet your finger to pick up gold’ with this detector). 

The shaft needs to be firmly held to prevent twisting below the lock knuckle when tightening, so hold the shaft ABOVE the knuckle your turning with one hand and tighten with the other till it is firm, repeat the process on the lower one. I leave mine loose enough that I can place my foot on the coil and apply a firm twisting pressure to align the coil with the control box. If you find it is twisting out of alignment during detecting or when lifting the coil while you scrape at a suspect target with your boot then just tighten the offending knuckle using the above described method. 

In Quiet ground Auto+ has the ability to achieve more sensitivity than the manual modes, by default the Auto modes are threshold off so you need to long press the Ground Type button for 2.5 seconds to get threshold. (this will revert to threshold OFF on a power cycle BTW). Small target sensitivity comes from the Difficult mode, so in Normal the timing is a blend of Normal and Difficult. If the gold is primarily tiny then there will be little difference between Normal and Difficult so do-not unnecessarily put up with ground noise using Normal in the hopes of achieving more sensitivity on tiny gold. There is also no need to re-ground balance when going from one timing to the other as both timings are ground balanced in the background regardless of the timing selected (Thanks to GeoSense) 
😊


JP

Crikey, JP your right again, you`ll make a dinosaur yet, I suspect those of us who came from the VLF days will find the 6K easy as. Not over driving the audio and slow coil control are the go for sure, the exact opposite portrayed by most of those vids out there, but that`s not new, before vids every gold field caravan park had a xter knocking anything new

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • The title was changed to Reg Wilson & Jp GPX 6000 Commentary & Tips

Hey Reg,

   Great to hear your initial field report on the Minelab GPX 6000.  I have followed your post for many years on the forums and know you always have been a larger coil guy and depth (from what I gathered).   

That being said, keeping as much as we can similar, despite the different technologies, what is your overall opinion on larger gold at depth between the two?  I'm well aware that the GPX 6000 is going to be better at small gold and there is more small gold out there for the most part. 

This question might be too early in the game for you to answer as it sounds like you just got the Minelab GPX 6000.  

Wishing you much success and hope to hear more successful stories as it gets over more gold.

Rob

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...