Finally Minelab Take Responsibility For Screwing Up The GPX 6000 Speaker

[mn90403]

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

That was my point, and why I mentioned it.

I know because I had the Fisher coil but for those who have not seen the other 'system' for coil attachment they don't know how stress free it is on the coil ears.  The Fisher system does not require that you pinch the coil ears together to keep the coil from moving.  The Minelab design for many years has relied upon a pinch to work and when you pinch the ears tightly at the bottom with a big-headed bolt, this causes the ears to break away from the coil itself when just adding a little more tightness/torque over the weeks and months of use.

[phrunt]

Yay Minelab got back to me quickly.  My detector is an affected serial number, I bought it in May of 2022,  Off it goes again on the courier to the service agent. 

[jasong]

5 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

The 6000 is a great detector, one of the best ever made. I more than anyone do not forgive Minelab for the lack of quality control on this release. But sitting on detectors with problems, instead of getting them back to Minelab or the dealer for service or replacement, immediately, is not a great solution either.

People did, and they got back another defective unit.

We were told no problem existed, it's just the nature of the beast and just noise cancel or use headphones instead. Nothing to fix here. It's not that bad. Only amateurs use speakers, just buy a torus, etc. (BTW, necklaces and tight collars literally make me vomit and gag, I'm not wearing a ring around my neck). There was supposedly no problem, so what exactly would sending a detector back do except get another faulty unit at that point? The problem needed a fix first or all else is moot. 

The only logical course of action was to proceed to prove there was an issue and not just a few random faulty units, so that we could all get an actual fix and not waste our valuable time.

This is 100% on Minelab, not the customers. Sending units in was resulting in just getting another defective unit sent back, $50 postage wasted, and 4 weeks of lost season, I had no desire to waste my time and money like that.

What was done was what needed to be done when all other avenues were exhausted along with patience. 

[strick]

5 hours ago, jasong said:

I doubt if all (or any?) dealers in the US were informed by Minelab prior to this thread coming out. I would expect many dealers were kept in the dark

Highly possible as they did not even know of the new Manticore release but this is not a new release it’s a recall and they should have been notified.. strange way for a big business to operate..

strick

[Steve Herschbach]

Hmmm, was I going after you personally or something Jason? No. I’m sorry if I ruffled any feathers. It just seems in some cases action could be taken, instead of repeating the same complaints too many times. After a couple times it’s just that - complaining. I have never personally denied any of the issues, and in fact I’ve done nothing less than give an open forum to discuss these issues. I have had very heated discussions, and made very pointed commentary on the subject, to those who are situated to take actual action on these issues. And not done myself any favors in doing so. Kind of like right now, actually. 

One thing we can all agree on. None of this needs to have happened, if product vetting and quality control had worked as it is supposed to. It would also be far less an issue, not forgivable, but less an issue, if it was a $500 detector we were discussing, top-of-the-line, ultra premium price product.

[phrunt]

Well, I got the impression it's every single detector except very recent ones just like Sheppo said.  So everyone may as well just contact them and get the repair over and done with.    They did point out I could just use the headphones and lots of noise cancels to get around my EMI problems if I didn't want to send it in, they're confident it's a speaker problem they're fixing and not a headphone problem so if I was to use headphones exclusively I shouldn't get the problem.

It's funny to hear them ask how you heard about the problem Northeast, they're surprised people find out about it as its deliberately hidden on the Minelab website.  Who is going to be looking for downloadable updates for the 6000 when it's pretty clear if there was one it would be spreading around like wildfire all over internet there is a firmware update for the 6000, so it's really by chance people clicking around and click on updates they would find it, very unlikely without a thread like this anyone would know about it, even more so people outside of Australia who are blocked from seeing it.

I'm just relieved they're dealing with it now, I just wish they did it sooner but perhaps they were in denial there was an issue.  The first notice when they told everyone just to use headphones for best performance certainly seemed a bit of denial going on or they didn't want to face the problem as if it is every detector that's a pretty big issue for them.

I complained a lot about the problems, no doubt about it as so many people inferred the problems were normal behaviour and I wasn't satisfied with that response, it was considered the price you pay for high sensitivity, the nature of the beast.  I expect much better for the money it costs.

If this repair means I can use my internal speaker without it being detrimental to performance of the detector, and along with aftermarket coils calming the detector down I'll be pretty happy with it, I'll feel it's the detector I expected I was getting when I bought it so happy days for me, I really liked the idea of having the speaker on it.  I'll just need an aftermarket shaft at some point to resolve the twisting but I can live with that, although I shouldn't have to on a $9000 NZD detector.

[Sheppo]

13 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Where? I've not seen this, but maybe I missed it. Links please.

I doubt people started using their detectors any differently than they have in the last 20 years. Model designs are what change, and how they stand up to the use. Coils come with skid plates, and many Aussie posters over the years have told me how fast they wear them out. There are entire threads about skid plate replacement. That does not happen treating coils with kid gloves, and skid plates themselves imply an expectation detector coils may be in contact with the ground. I sure don't baby my coils, so I guess I'm one of the guilty parties here. Oddly enough, coil ears cracking has never been an issue for me on Minelab detectors, including the 6000. But that does not mean bad batches of plastic never get used in coil manufacture. It happens with all the companies, as they source their materials used in coil manufacture out of house.

One thing I would caution people about is not using excessive force when tightening coil bolts, no matter the detector you use. Just tight enough to keep the coil from flopping, no more. Some people way overdo it, and this can stress the coil ears. I have seen a few new coil designs lately that seek to change how the coil is tightened to alleviate this issue. The XP Deus coil setup comes to mind, but I've seen others, like the Fisher Impulse AQ, that use inserts that take the force, instead of the coil ear itself.

I apologise, I can’t find anything official, but it’s been mentioned on Facebook groups and here by others. I’ve also tested this theory myself and have found a stark difference between scrubbing the coil and not scrubbing the coil.

In my experience, scrubbing the coil induces chatter and unwanted noise, aswell as picking up the hotrocks you wouldn’t normally pick up.

[Steve Herschbach]

2 hours ago, Sheppo said:

I apologise, I can’t find anything official, but it’s been mentioned on Facebook groups and here by others. I’ve also tested this theory myself and have found a stark difference between scrubbing the coil and not scrubbing the coil.

In my experience, scrubbing the coil induces chatter and unwanted noise, aswell as picking up the hotrocks you wouldn’t normally pick up.

I agree there are times the coil should be off the ground. In milder ground, small surface gold, not so much. If I am hunting the tiniest gold possible, I want the gold as close to the coil winding as possible, and so if the ground and rocks allow, scrubbing works very well indeed. In highly statuarable ground, you definitely need some space. Like most everything detecting it just depends on the ground and the gold. I've found that the more places a person detects, the more open minded we need to be about what works, and what does not. What works for northern Nevada gold, is most certainly going to be different than what works for Western Australia gold. And Alaska... that's a whole different story. You can toss the PI entirely in some locations there, and use a VLF for the best chance of success. Something most people still can't accept, but true nonetheless.

[Norvic]

Aye scrubbing the coil is totally dependent on where you are, scrubbing in the long grass of FNQ OZ is just pushing as small as a coil as you can as close as you can to the ground but very soon it is cattle station property owners time of the year when they burn big areas of vegetation to allow just the resilient grass seeds to germinate during the wet and destroy most of the weeds. Than tis my time to get out there scrubbing the coil right on the ground the time to put away the brilliant 6K and attack with the Z & 17CC. Jockeys for horses for courses. Enough of those 6K scraps time for the Zs door stoppers.

[mn90403]

Norvic

I'm not allowed to react!  Show us the door stoppers.

Are the problems with the 6000 more costly than the problems with the Equinox?