GPZ Anybody Else Having Issues With Undergrowth

[strick]

i noticed this with my my machine as well....reacting to fresh green Vegetation...I'm glad it's super sensitive in a way probably means I wont miss any gold. 

strick

[Steve Herschbach]

If the reset cleared things up and then it got progressively worse again, I would be exploring the ground tracking options like fixed.

[Andyy]

4 hours ago, Condor said:

Hey Jasong, good to see you back with your observations as well.   

The reset helped some, but as the day wore on they continued to get worse.  The problem seemed to be a particular type of desert weed, not all of them.  I also used General and it was better, but I didn't find any gold.  The noise is a short sharp spike above the threshold.  They are not at all like a true good target tone, perhaps more like a surface piece of bird shot.  A few times I thought there might be a target tone in amongst a gaggle of those weeds so I pulled them all out and not a peep left in the ground.  I guess it's something to endure until they dry out and get blown away in the March winds.  The Nox 800 was able to run right through them with only an occasional bleep on the weeds.  

I agree - great to hear from Jasong, again! :)

As for the extra noise, I was out in the Vulture Mtns (AZ)  and there were wet weeds all over the place.  A lot of targets, gold and garbage, were even rolled up in mud balls.  But my Zed did not show any issue with this.  In fact, the Zed, from my experience, is much better than the GPX5000 in wet ground.  I have detected in mud, through permafrost, right after a rain, and it just chews it up.  Perhaps it is the type of weed in your location that bothers it.  If it happens with all types of weeds, it might be your machine.  I hope you get it figured out. 

[Sourdough Scott]

I have dealt with this somewhat. A plant, shrub, or tree root with a high water content, can run somewhat irratic. Also slow you down and have to check out some possible targets a few extra sweeps to rule them out. Lowering the sensitivity slightly helps. Along with a slow coil sweep. But in my instances, this issue seems to be more prevalent when thunderstorms are nearby. 

[Steve Herschbach]

Roots are actually a separate issue. Quite a few detectors will detected a large root for various reasons.

Thunderstorms create a ground potential. Lightning as much leaps up from the ground as strikes downward. I could certainly see this as possibly creating issues in surface weeds. The GPX and GPZ can detect variations in the earth's magnetic field and lightning strikes many miles away. The receiver sensitivity is astounding.

Source

[DolanDave]

I went out hunting in Havasu Arizona Saturday and Sunday, running in high yield, sensitivity at 18, and had no problems, except the normal, where it goes off on roots/ cactus. The desert was blooming big time, with green grass everywhere. 

Dave

[jasong]

I'd like to meet up sometime Dave if we can and compare machines, I couldn't get my GPZ into HY at all, nor above 15 sensitivity, in places I hunted hundreds of hours in 2015 in the same settings you are using. I rarely ever had to go below 18 sensitivity or into general on my 1st machine. I have lots of it on video so I know I'm not simply misremembering, yet the Minelab repair cannot see a problem when I sent my machine in. They gave me a new machine and it has the exact same issue and I'd like to put a working machine on video to compare with mine if I can so I can try to get something resolved and get a working machine again.

I am starting to wonder if there is something weird with the new batch of GPZ's now, or at least some of them. HY is like detecting in a lightning storm for me, zipping intensely all the time no matter what part of the country I'm in, even in the exact same washes I have on video from before, like I'm detecting over a bed of tiny birdshot or something even in the most mild, neutral ground. I thought it must be the weeds or the wet soil, but I don't think so now because I've hit some places bone dry with no weeds and same thing.

[Chet]

My first GPZ, about 3 years ago had a similar problem. In High Yield, Normal it would run great most of the day. In the afternoon when the battery was around 50% down it would sound off like you describe “detecting over a bed of tiny birdshot”. I could charge it at the car for 10 minutes and it would settle down until the battery was again down around 50%. I think an internal voltage regulator must have been failing. The replacement detector cured that problem.

My standard settings are High Yield, Normal and 20 Sensitivity. Most of the time wet grass, mud and water have no effect. But in some areas at times I still experience the same severe effects in wet grass.

Chet
 

[jasong]

Interesting, thanks Chet. Mine seems to do it no matter the battery charge but I'll try it on a fully charged battery today to make sure. The weird thing on mine is it seems to work ok for the first 2 or 3 minutes after bootup, then it starts going on the fritz. General seems to work fine, High Yield seems to be the only one that causes the problems.

[Andyy]

18 minutes ago, Chet said:

My first GPZ, about 3 years ago had a similar problem. In High Yield, Normal it would run great most of the day. In the afternoon when the battery was around 50% down it would sound off like you describe “detecting over a bed of tiny birdshot”. I could charge it at the car for 10 minutes and it would settle down until the battery was again down around 50%. I think an internal voltage regulator must have been failing. The replacement detector cured that problem.

My standard settings are High Yield, Normal and 20 Sensitivity. Most of the time wet grass, mud and water have no effect. But in some areas at times I still experience the same severe effects in wet grass.

Chet
 

Wow, you are smoking on those settings.  I run HY/NORMAL (and much lower sensitivity) on almost all occasions and if I do make a change, it is to General.  But I never hear anything off the grass itself.  Roots, yes.  But not grass.

I am really curious if the battery has an affect on the noise perceived through the GPZ.