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It's not really deserving of a thread in of itself, but since I just made a patch cable (and I'm in the US too) I thought I'd illustrate some potential hangups for any of those following after me: 1.) I think Andy already mentioned it before, but I think it's absolutely critical to test for shorts between pins after soldering. It's very easy to make a little solder bridge by accident. Any multimeter can do this. I'm somewhat ok at soldering and I still managed to bridge one connection (I caught it via the multimeter). This could short and kill a control box. 2.) 220 and 320 grit sandpaper worked the best for me to remove the wire epoxy, cleaned off remaining dust residue with acetone for a good solder joint. 3.) The signal RX wire is incredibly thin. Be very careful with stripping this wire, get it right the first time because you don't have enough to correct an error if you remove too much. 4.) "Helping hands" make the job go way easier if this is your first time soldering. Harbor Freight has them for $5, and they have the 3/4" shrink tubing that is about as close as you can get for standard sizing. 5.) A nice small, precision chisel soldering tip works great for soldering those connectors. I use a standard Weller WLC-100 solder station, set to "3" temperature and the chip survived just fine. 6.) This is a fairly easy job for anyone with a little experience in electronics, having all the tools around already saved a lot of money too. However, IMO, if you've never done anything with electronics before you may want to consider paying someone else to do it, there are a lot of little ways to short things out and while some things can be corrected, you only get one chance for some of this stuff. 7.) Hot glue is definitely necessary for physical support of the tiny wires. So, I made the patch no problems 2 nights ago, turned it on in my yard with no problems other than squeeling like crazy - but no coil errors. I took it out today away from any noise sources and it was still squeeling like crazy. Dissected the patch cable and discovered my signal RX wire had broken at the spot I cut the insulation (this, ironically, does not throw a coil not connected error). Almost certainly I cut it too deep and of course steel will cut copper too. Oddly, I tested continuity after soldering, tested again after shrink wrapping, and all pins had connection. Double checked each phase (so checked 4 times total) and I got it all on vid which I reviewed and it was definitely not broken. So, it must have occured in the process of pushing the coil wire up into the shaft and something bent and snapped - a process which is a bit more difficult because (also as Andy noted) the spiral cable section is wider on the X Coils than the stock coil so it's quite a tight fit. Some are bigger, some are smaller. I made sure to put more hot glue on this time to prevent movement/bending. I still am not quite sure how or why it broke, but it did. Anyways, just got done remaking the patch cable, all seems to work. It's still quite noisy around my house so I have to wait to go drive some distance away tomorrow to actually see if the 3 X Coils all work now too, but the detector appears to be working with the stock Z14. Just figured I'd pass these lessons learned on to anyone else doing this.

This is the most spoiled detecting dog there is..My son named him Buddy...We got him at around his 12th week...I was told he was born in the slums of Stockton Ca...When I first saw him he was in a pen with 5 other pound pups. The other pups were all Pitt bull/Lab cross's and Buddy was about less then half their size...He was getting into fights with them and holding his own... I said I'll take him ...Problem is he still thinks he is bigger then he is and therefore daddy has to bail his butt out from a fight once in a while otherwise he would have been dead by now. I knew it would happen some day and it finally did a couple months ago. He got tagged by a rattle snake right on the kisser... messed him up for a couple days..but thats about it...The money I invested in rattle snake vaccine was well spent...the money I invested in rattle snake training when he was a pup was well wasted..I think he knows what they are now but I'll not be taking him in the low foot hills during snake season any more...Did I tell you that one day a golden eagle was making a bee line for him while out detecting? wings cupped full speed from a half mile away...I was able to wave it off before it got too close. Merton was with us that day...Buddy goes to work with me every day and is sort of my Siamese twin...he's always getting into trouble but I wouldn't have it any other way. strick

This is about the finest detecting dog around. Rooster is his name. He is my eyes and ears when my head is down concentrating on signals. He never strays far at all. He works for jerky, ham sammichs, and water. And even the grumpiest prospector I know, the infamous Klunker, even let's him ride in the front seat. ??⛏️

Reading these post is hard, lost my Kasey Girl last July. You're the best friend a guy could have! You never let me go off on some foolish adventure alone, always needed to be there to make sure I come outta that hole alive. Although you weren't the best at finding gold though, seems your mind wandered from time to time? Who am I kidding you were always dedicated and serious. Miss you Kasey Girl

Hey Guys/Gals - Still playing around with my camcorder/digital camera to get back in the groove of HD videos. I'm still struggling with the upload time, video like this one around 5 mins are taking several hours to upload in 1920x ..... resolution. Here are a few quartz/gold specimens I have found over the last couple of years. The bigger piece I still need to break up.

Well....not exactly new, but new to me. My wife was thrift shopping yesterday and picked me up an old used Estwing 12" steel gold pan as a surprise gift. I was happy that she recognized it and bought it for me and I think its pretty a cool pan. I normally use a green plastic pan but I think it will be cool to swirl a metal pan. She wants to see it in action. She "suggested" I go pour some gold into some yard dirt and pan it out and see how I liked it. I "suggested" that we go out Sunday morning to a local spot and see how it works on fresh gold. She then suggested we wait and do a road trip and make it a long weekend thing......oooh......better and better.... I have no idea how it will turn out but I'll let you know. HH Mike

Yea I'm totally out of likes too.. so heres a smiley face for all the dog lovers strick

I shot out the prairie real quick because I couldn't stand to wait to see if the coils all worked. Happy to report all 3 are in working order. I'll try to do some controlled testing and depth comparisons on video later next week to verify what I saw tonight before I say much more so I can be certain of the results. Initially, based on a very brief run of all 3, I see some indications of measurable performance gains that go beyond simply size related issues and getting into tighter areas, but I would need to run controlled tests before standing behind that statement. Unfortunately I realized today that I left my ferrite in my camper in Arizona so I have a 2nd one on order. I ordered a new one from Rob on ebay, if you see the order feel free to overnight it. After changing coils quite a lot, one thing I do want to say now in hopes that it can be addressed soon for future coils though is that X Coils absolutely needs to improve their coil cables. 2 of the cables are so wide that you have to "thread" them into the middle shaft, or sometimes cram them in if they get hung and won't rotate anymore. And in fact require me to take the machine apart into 3 pieces just to switch coils, which gets to be incredibly tedious. The 3rd coil cable however goes right in and takes way less time to change. Also, if there is any way to make the connection in the lower shaft, or lower part of the middle shaft that would be vastly preferable. It would make changing coils a breeze and right now changing coils out is kind of a hassle. If Minelab is considering some gesture of generosity for their lack of follow through by offering a patch cable to customers who already paid a ton for their equipment, this would also be something to consider in design of such a patch cable.

My boy "Major". Sadly lost him to Lymphoma cancer 3 months ago. This picture is a day before we had to say goodbye. Been very lonely and miserable since hes been gone. Decided we really need a dog in our home so have another one coming on the 12th of August. Not sure what to call him but have been thinking " Miner/Minor" Which sort of resonates with the name 'Major' and my hobby

Well I got the 11"" Coiltek coil for the SDC at roughly same time I got the 10"X coil for the Z, gave them both a days run each, could not differentiate in performance, although I lean a wee towards the 10"X for depth, trouble is the son left his 12"X coil and that hit the spot big time, thus I don`t see either the 11"SDC or 10"XZ seeing a lot of work. The 12"X and the 15"X will see plenty of work, as they suit the ground I work. Without knowing the ground someone works I`d recommend the 12"X if they were going for just one and had a Z, will complement the standard 14"ML and give them a much more versatile Z. In cost well the 15" &12"X in the short time I`ve had them have well & truly paid for these recent coil purchases, but detect gold is almost all I do in our winters. I suspect as you do Rob we will not see a smaller ML GPZ coil...…..but maybe a solution to the patch lead is coming.

My best friend Hank, they always leave to soon.....

So here is my most successful so far,nuremberg jetton Est india company button and other bits hard to describe how cool it is to detect the spoil as you never know what you gonna find.......it s like playing lottery.....using the 9"HF .Pipe was found while reaching the water line to clean the button Enjoy RR

Hello All, Out here in Arizona, USA, it's been very hot and now humid as the Monsoons are right around the corner. That being said, I have been poking around an old placer location loaded with iron rubbish in search for overlooked gold nuggets. I have made it a point to start very early, right at day break and hunt until the heat runs me out (typically 4-5 hours). I was using the Minelab GPZ 7000 and placering a wash bottom down to bedrock like the old-timers would. I'm lucky every so often to get a nugget here and there wedged in the bedrock cracks/crevices that the old-timers missed or overlooked. It's always a mystery to wonder what the old-timers really discovered in some of these really rich coarse gold placer areas. I'm not sure of the rules about Youtube videos, but I have attached two of them for your viewing. Hope some of you that are not able to get out right now can enjoy the adventure with me.

We are far less “cultured” today than 100 years back before radio. Most homes had a musical instrument or two, violins, pianos, guitars, accordians, organs.....the list goes on and on. That’s why we find so many harmonica reeds. Before radio and the music business came along and found a way to sell entertainment people made their own music and entertainment.

I did try to get the thread off on the right track Steve, just thought it was a pertinent piece of info with all the discussion going on. Thanks for cleaning it up.

Being new to the hobby I was fortunate to pick the brain of a 30 year prospector, right of the bat he said he sometimes goes months without any gold, sure he could go to known spots and get some, but he is always looking for new ground. It sort of calibrated my head a bit not to get discouraged after all those kms walking on the hunt and every so often it pays off with a new patch.

Lila B. McNaughty loves to hang at the claim....protects me from all the chipmunks and squirrels ?

Billy The Kid, my current prospecting dog, where it is safe to take him.

Out last night and got a nice 1892 S barber dime. Pk1, 5 tone, recovery 7, iron bias 3.

I did stretch the cables before pushing them in, they went back to regular size when it came around to the 2nd time reinserting the same cable (and 3rd in the prairie), I mentioned this in a subsequent post. I'll keep doing it and see if they get smaller. Also as mentioned, on one of the coils the cable still gets stuck even with the "threading in" so it requires some further finagling and pulling, at least for now. I put calipers on the cables and all 3 are definitely different sizes. Like Goldilocks and the 3 bears, one is too big, one is a little tight, and one is just right. Of course the largest one is the one I chose by chance to use the first time in my backyard. I'm pretty sure it was that pulling/stretching, extending the shaft, or me pulling on the patch lead up through the shaft when I finally finagled the end of the patch out that broke that wire now as I've looked at my work, testing, and trying to figure any other potential way it could have happened. Even once I got it pulled through, I could feel it was difficult to extend the shaft all the way out, which is how I normally detect, it was binding up as I tried to extend it and wouldn't go all the way. I was able to get it to extend all the way in the prairie, but it was definitely pulling hard on the cable/patch doing so. I tested the patch numerous times before using it, so I'm positive it was connected on my bench, the break happened sometime during putting the coil on the first time or extending the shaft. Wether it was pulling, vibration, or something else I don't know but I know that wire was connected before I used the patch so something in that process must have contributed at least a little to breaking that wire. Just relaying this so someone else doesn't potentially do the same thing. If that cable is pulled on, probably best not to pull by the patch cable. For the taller people among us who need to extend the shaft all the way out, this is impossible to avoid for particularly tight cables. *edit: I just tried this again and even stretching the cable it is still binding up in the middle shaft if I try to extend it, and it requires tugging at it a few times to get it to extend all the way, this is almost certainly putting strain on the patch. This occurs when I push the shaft back in too to fit into my truck, and then again when I extend the shaft once more to use. Opening the control box and holding the patch only marginally helps since the connector end in question is still in the upper shaft and cannot be grabbed so the strain on it persists. I think if there is any possible way for the manufacturer to make the coil curls smaller and more consistently sized, he should do it. My 17" fits perfectly, so it seems possible. Just my input.

NokMak uses a proprietary wireless system so no go on any standard BT earbuds. You would need to use a separate BT transmitter. However being that they pay attention to forums and what users are looking for, if enough people showed interest they would probably bring something to market for us!!!!!!

Messaged Pat and hes going to do the patch lead for me. Will send it (gpz14 coil) off on Monday. Although ive made a patch lead for the 4500 i was a little concerned about some of those fine wires that needed soldering. Bit enoyed that i chickened out on doing it myself but something was telling me to get someone who had done this before.

Yeah, I imagine that the fellow that makes the coils on reading these issues will modify, certainly they are not ideal as are. Even a piece of string cord instead of wire, even the bungee cord that comes with the Z. I look forward to your review of them in action.

A Tip...….One of my coils also was a wee tight in the outer shaft, I found by just simply pulling it through using a guide wire and taping to the cable just below the conx, rather then trying to push it through, worked a treat. By pushing it through you are expanding the coils which compounds the problem, pulling it through does the opposite.

Hey Rick, if you want someone to do patch your lead for you, I can highly recommend Pat from SteelPhase. He did mine and I can not fault the service. Cost me $100 including return post of the GPZ14, and he also put a new plug on the GPZ14 so it can still be used. He apparently has done a few now. Cheers, Rick

Hey Jon, How goes the battle? hope you're finding some gold up there on the NSR! Jim

I did the first river hunt with the floating sifter and shovel last night. The sifter worked well (I ordered the netting from amazon) and is so light it just skims along the surface, there is no noticeable drag. The hunt was a failure though. The water is just too fast still. It was hard to keep my footing, hard to use the shovel as the current was constantly washing it away from where I wanted to dig it in, etc. I recovered some junk targets within 10 feet of shore where the current was less, so I know the method will work once the flow goes down. In the fall after irrigation season the river drops to 1/6th the flow it's at now. I just have to be patient. So, the floating sifter works great in heavy current, everything else, not so much.

Youtube is great for knowledge. Just this week i Youtubed how to fix a leaky toilet. Replaced all the seals on both toilets. $$ saved by not getting a plumber in. Then how to get something stuck out of a zip. (my daughters expensive top stuck in a bag zip ... not my willy, lol) Use it everyday for things relating to repairs of cars, computers, houses. Then comes Facebook. Mostly couldn't care less what everyone else is doing i mainly use it for knowledge about prospecting. Amazing when your in 100 or so groups and you want to do some research on an area. Ive found spots to go by typing in an area and reading all the comments from within all my groups. There may be a post that starts out talking about one subject but by the time 20 comments are added the conversation turns to a particular spot someone found nuggets. Worth knowing either for places to avoid as its now general knowledge or some place you may want to try. I also do similar research on places within forums. Instagram I rarely frequent other than for business purposes.

Like this one

Hey Guys, I agree, the SDC 2300 and GPZ 7000 is a powerful combo, but I think it comes down to your invest cost. I'm sure most of the customers out there would love to have a combo of $12,000 in detectors. Most of the average prospectors out there might not even be able to budget the SDC 2300 @ $3,750. A matter of fact, I know this for a fact, as I talk with customers daily that would love to own just an entry level PI. I ended up selling my SDC 2300 as I felt like I could only use one detector at a time and didn't want a $4,000 detector just sitting around most of the time depreciating in value. The smarter solution might be a good Pulse Induction detector (Minelab SD, GP, GPX unit, White's TDI, Garrett ATX) and a high end VLF detector for your shallow ground or clean up. I'm not trying to take any steam or attention from the Russian "X-coils" for the Minelab GPZ 7000. I would be very interested in one of these coils, if it was proven and didn't require any type of modification or adapter. I have very little hope anymore of Minelab making a smaller GPZ coil ......

Should not surprise, the Deus is a great machine. At the end of the day there are dozens of machines I can use and do well with. Not one of them finds anything... I put the coil over the targets. I’m the one succeeding, not the metal detector. I proved that to myself countless times and I think it’s true of all the better detectorists. To the point where I think I will stop mentioning detectors when I post finds. It’s time we take the credit for our finds and quit giving the credit to the detector!

With the concentric you can certainly use iron reject seems to work well you can switch to mono for pin pointing as the outside becomes live and sensitive Regards Pete

yes...they break our hearts in the end, but all we can do is give them the best life possible, and then say "goodbye". then go get another. I'm on my 14th now. God, I pray they'll be waiting for me when I pass. Jim

This is my prospecting dog Dasha, yesterday. After detecting a good spot she often helps by dropping big yellow nuggets in my pan. Now if I could only adjust her discrimination for sticks and tennis balls....

It's tough Norm when they get on. I swore off any new dogs when we had four (three English Bulldogs and a Golden) go over the course of two years, and it just seemed like two years of heartbreak. My English Bulldog Teddy in particular was real hard on me. But my wife and I would come home and it was just way too quiet... no little happy herd at the door. And so back into the land of furry people we went. And never a regret as all the rest have been some of the best. This was probably my best behaved prospecting buddy. Actually my fathers pup back in 1979 but I would "borrow" him for prospecting trips. He was a purebred Golden Retriever registered as Autumn Blaze but we just called him Blaze. A perfect trail dog in bear country. He always went ahead on the trail, but never out of sight. He would stop at turns and such and wait. Just a great guy and like most Golden's a friend to everyone. I liked this photo I took on the trail into my old claims at Stetson Creek, Alaska. Autumn Blaze in the middle of autumn colors.

My assistant Jaffa ? He doesn’t wander away at all, always by my side trying to get me to throw a stick. He drops it on my coil while detecting to force me to stop and throw it .

This was my new pup also called Elvis. I didn't want a new mate because of the risk of baits, but everybody else said I needed a new dog. I got back home a couple of weeks ago to find this little fella waiting for me. He was very hard not to fall in love with in the short week I had him. Unfortuately he took a bait and I had to shoot him too. We don't bait anywhere near the homestead and all I can think of is maybe one fell out of the bags when the baits were delivered and he found it. The bait truck driver was the fella who delivered the pup. Not a good idea bringing a dog out here.

A western grey kangaroo, not a dog but I have no doubt she`d follow me about out there. She was one the Missus (Wildlife Carer) raised from a joey, but unfortunately because of her head injury that killed her Mum she could not be released into the wild as most are.

Yup...Heidi, the rabbit dog. Wouldn't know what to do without her.

Mia, the prospecting Dog. To her detecting is just walkies all day long. Relegated to accompanying me here at home on our property since being tagged by a snake in 2017 then 2 weeks later getting smacked again! You wouldn’t know it because she’s so fit and active but age is now catching up so afternoon naps are now the norm, for me anyway if she’ll let me. ? JP

Also recently we got another dog, so he is now in training. He is a king shepard border collie mix and is only 5 months old and 50 lbs, full grown he i will be around 110 to 120 lbs. So needless to say he is going to get a pack and carry stuff for me and ward off bears and other wild animals lol.

Yep Jax the gold dog, he is my overwatch when my head is in the water.

Hey Guys, Thanks for all the comments. The camera I'm using is a camera/video recorder. I believe it's a Sony, but now I have to double check. I have been uploading the videos in HD, but it takes 6-7 hours to upload a video that size to YouTube ..... Beatup - Thanks! Alaskaseeker - Thanks! Mn90403 - So for the audio, I lay the WM12 wireless remote under my camera and stand. I place the GPZ 7000 off to the side, as if it's too close to the camera or pick it will scream. I don't place it in manual, just move the detector to the side. I have been using Semi-Auto in the morning to initially ground balance over the Ferrite ring. Hard Prospector - Ya, I need to probably bring in a vac-pac and drywasher and see what type of smaller gold is hidden in the cracks. I have been talking about doing this for years, still haven't done it. Jasong - I have been pretty good, or lucky about not hitting a nugget in a crack in a long time. If I think it's a decent nugget, I won't take chances. However, on the smaller gram and smaller gold, I just hammer away with the pick, but around where the target is so I can undermine and pop it out. The Hermit pick is sharp, so it would easily damage a gold nugget. Swegin - Thanks! Andy - I got the itch to get back out there. That being said, it's getting hot and humid, so I might back it down a bit. Steve - Thanks. I wasn't sure on the video stuff and don't want to make it look like I'm spamming. I will post some more soon, thanks for the encouragement. Hope all is well.

Well we finally got thru obligatory rehab work, and we dryblowing work. Drove the backhoe to the next area and decided to scrape a little while we were there... Glory be!!! 10grams right off. Most were in the dirt above the cap. Did a repeat the second day with 16grams? Got most of the gear ready to go... piddling today...enjoyed Sunday with a couple of mates. Getting my camper all ready to go bush... I repaired some tears and old loose seams yesterday with a Speedy Stitcher... handy tool to have if you ever have to sew canvas....works like a charm Built a new battery/propane housing frame on the tongue so I can boondock with 2 propane and 2 deep cycle batteries on hand. Also got a Yagi antenna from Trent that should give me Internet... that will be crazy out where I’m going... I already took the water trailer with 250 gallons down day before yesterday. Hopefully this area will keep producing well for us. Picture of me below shows how I love dryblowing.

Followed the instructions, wrapped cotton thread around the bundle, as described. That doesn't provide any longitudinal strain relief though as does the original thread in the ML cable. I did when I built it, they were screwed down as tight as I could get them to go, to the point I thought the screw would strip any tighter the clamp was fully in contact with the other side of the clamp and the screws would not tighten further. However, I bet I know what might have happened in my case. I just took the calipers and measured the ID of the clamp and the OD of the ML wire. They are both roughly 6.6mm. There are some jaws set further back in the clamp that decreased the effective ID, but I wonder how close they are to the cut line of the rubber? I really don't want to cut this patch open again to check since it's working, but it could be they didn't quite clamp on far enough the first time, or were so close to the edge it sort of bent the rubber down instead of clamping onto it. Or maybe I cut the rubber a mm too far, or who knows what else could contribute to it moving slightly. All it would take is just a tiny fraction of a mm of movement to put strain on that RX signal wire, especially since it's pretty difficult to get the hot glue to match the inner dimensions of the connector exactly without injecting it in and just molding by hand and cutting with a knife and guessing it's close. If I made another one I'd make that RX wire just a tiny bit longer than the others so the beefier wires take the strain if that happens.

It’s a reed from an old pump organ. Just google search pump organ reed and you will find pics of similar reeds both old and new!

My elliptical Hf Coil must be from the detecting gods. It was in stock beach settings no adjustments. Maybe it’s our sand locally I really don’t know but it sure did very well. I’ve read on other forums about how smooth and quiet the HF Elliptical Coil is from others that own and use it. I just updated to 5.21 last night and I hope it continues to perform as it did on the dry and damp sand in version 4.1.

That is interesting. Some detectorists have come down with Equinox derangement syndrome, much to their detriment I think (hint,hint,Strick. LOL). That elliptical coil on the Deus is deadly in pitch mode in relic scenarios.

Hello to all been supra busy visiting houses and working like a donkey but i manage to squeeze some pure digging and detecting the spoil. BUT yesterday when for a metal detecting only session and i had that beauty.6000 years old tranchet Adze blade from the Mesolithic period,i ll well pleased with that. More pictures of my trench only session soon Enloy RR

Hey Fred, Great to hear from you. Ya, I know you have went many times and would agree, the experience alone is worth it. That would be the reason I would go, in hopes of finding some decent gold, but the adventure and seeing Australia first hand would be a blast. Maybe some day when my Daughter is out of the house and I'm closer to retirement I could see Australia first hand. Heck, by that time, I might be too old and broke down ..... ? Hope all is well on your end Fred.