Gpx-6000 1 Year Anniversary. Is It The King?

[Steve Herschbach]

18 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Steve a lot of knock sensitivity is actually caused by the cable being wound too tight and it being tugged/twisted by shaft flex stiction. The coil is crashed into an obstacle which the flexes the shaft which then puts a twisting effect onto the cable which then causes noise. Especially noticeable in warmer weather.

Note: This is assuming there is no actual fault with the coil, I had a coil last week from the first releases batch that has gone bad, it would purr along fine then if you clipped something directly under the coil it would go mental, it is being replaced under warranty and while my customer waits for the new coil to arrive they are using my coil, lets see an online box shifter offer that sort of service!!😳

JP

Cables wound too tight would not be a manufacturer fault, but still falls into “something wrong with that detector.” I have no idea what the cause is, though coil failures have not only been common, but repeat. Lunk with three bad coils? The fact four other people used the machine and “don’t like it” simply confirms something is wrong.

That’s a problem for Minelab, when at least four potential customers say “no” over just one unit that is misbehaving. Multiply that by the number of other machines out there not performing as they should. It’s not just warranty cost for Minelab, it’s lost sales. 

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

The picture shows two Velcro straps being used to secure and prevent coil cable ends from being pulled on. From my experience the cable at the coil connector is where most of the failures come from.

 

[phrunt]

10 hours ago, Aureous said:

Its actually quite amazing the amount of small shallow gold that should've been heard by everyone, but wasn't. Only the 6000 appears to be able to sense they're even there. Same goes for the multitude of lead shot. There's obviously a lot more small  gold around that has poor conductivity than we thought. Even today I got 3 bits that were on the surface where I had gridded previously with 3 other detectors. Its a head scratcher......

I saw that first hand the other day when I was playing around with my GPX 5000 and tested it over the last 12 small nuggets I'd found mostly with the 7000, and it saw 9 of them perfectly fine, I was in fact impressed by it and it was quite competitive with the 6000 on of the ones it did see, but it missed 3 of them for no apparent reason even touching the coil.

The small target sensitivity on the 5000 using the 10" Spiral wound X-coil I thought was quite competitive although keep in mind I can max it out in sensitive extra so in a real world situation in hotter soils all bets are off there with the 6000 taking a clear lead I'd imagine, however the missed targets was just odd.  The 5000 hit the smallest 0.03 of a gram nugget yet would get no signal at all even touching the coil on a .06 of a gram nugget.

I think this is part of the reason people are liking the 6000 so much, it's finding these bits the earlier GPX detectors missed entirely that should have hit fine but the makeup of the gold made it undetectable with the technology.  Maybe there is just lots of these weird bits still around as they were missed by earlier GPX users and for the 6000 they're no problem.  They're also no problem for the 7000 but that is using an aftermarket small coil of course, I have no idea how well the standard coil would go with them, probably the smaller ones might be missed or if they were too deep for a large 14x13" GPZ coil to see they'd be missed so the 6000 again has the advantage there.

So I do understand why people like the 6000 so much, I can see where it has a clear advantage compared to the previous detector that they were using.

[Norvic]

19 hours ago, phrunt said:

I think this is part of the reason people are liking the 6000 so much

Aye, tis why one cannot with any certainty know the capability of detectors/coil combinations in different gold fields they haven`t detected on, also why tests of planted gold over undug gold are not a certainty but just an indication  eg. JW found the SDC was of little use in his ground yet in other grounds others found it the go. Another eg. VLFs still are tops on some gold, the PIs, then the Z/X combos now the 6Ks I consider are closing that gap on my ground. Yet on your ground you consider Z/X combos are closest to the VLFs, (coil size specific). I suspect this "certainty of uncertainty" will always be the go as it has since we migrated from older tech to newer tech MDs/coils.    

Different jockeys on different horses for different courses.

[phrunt]

3 hours ago, Norvic said:

Different jockeys on different horses for different courses.

Yes, well explained Norvic, it's why peoples opinions offen differ so much and it can cause conflict too.  Watching that dealer marketing video the first thing that hit me is why on earth have the VLF users not gone in and cleaned out all that easy surface stuff, VLF's here can do remarkably well not just getting surface gold but getting some depth too.  JW indeed thought the SDC was a piece of crap, he even sent it back to Australia to be examined as he thought it just had to be faulty and they couldn't fault it and said its performance is within specification, he was likely better off using a VLF but his 4500 at the time flogged the SDC on small gold.  He wouldn't even sell it to me when I offered to buy it to get my first PI as he knew I'd be disappointed. 

The same conflict goes on with the VLF's too especially lately, with some far better than others in certain peoples conditions and situations, now lately its started to cause conflict there too and the VLF users were always such a peaceful crowd with the rowdy bunch being the grumpy prospectors 🙂

[Norvic]

On 6/25/2022 at 4:03 AM, phrunt said:

He wouldn't even sell it to me when I offered to buy it to get my first PI as he knew I'd be disappointed.

If you want a lightweight, ergonomic, lithium powered super modded SDC23000 (probably unique as could be only one in existence) with two coils, 2 batteries, USB battery charge cable. I`ve mine for sale. Sure could be organized to be sent over the ditch. I found like the 6K it beats the Z/X combos on scraps of low conductivity which are common in my backyard. But it does not have the depth of the 6K. 

[phrunt]

17 minutes ago, Norvic said:

If you want a lightweight, ergonomic, lithium powered super modded SDC23000 (probably unique as could be only one in existence) with two coils, 2 batteries, USB battery charge cable. I`ve mine for sale. Sure could be organized to be sent over the ditch. I found like the 6K it beats the Z/X combos on scraps of low conductivity which are common in my backyard. But it does not have the depth of the 6K. 

Thanks Norvic, it seems it was later discovered the SDC runs on something similar to the fine gold timing so it's benefits are really for people with bad soil, in our mild soils its a real under performer.  It'd be like my wandering around with my GPX 5000 in fine gold and the depth implications that brings on mild soils.  For someone in hot soils your super cool modded SDC would be an awesome buy.  Someone should snap that puppy up quickly as I think you're right, yours is unique and a brilliant modified detector.

[Gold Catcher]

2 hours ago, Norvic said:

If you want a lightweight, ergonomic, lithium powered super modded SDC23000 (probably unique as could be only one in existence)

Super modded lightweight SDC? mmmmm...this sounds interesting. How did you manage? The regular SDC is so clunky. But yeah, the MPF timings can come in really handy. You guys are so blessed with your mild soils over there! I have grounds here where the SDC is the only detector that is working on shallow fast gold.

GC

[Norvic]

 

Being a mad SH Engineer as all are helped.🤪

[Gold Catcher]

1 hour ago, Norvic said:

Being a mad SH Engineer as all are helped

Very cool! I would keep it! ML should learn from you. I have hopes for a more modern SDC coming out sometime in the near future

GC