Jin

5 minutes ago, Reg Wilson said:

Perhaps Howard should be aiming for the African market with the QED.

Think he would have to get past doing everything himself first. Might not be able to keep up with demand

If i were buying another 4500 it would be the older version not the re release.

I cant guarantee the following information is correct but its information i read in an Australian gold gem and treasure magazine a couple of years back 

"Quote: "After some time removing the white paint, that the feedback resisters located on the dual AD797 input opamps (voltage amplifying devices) were a lower value than on the original GPX 4500 models". (the board inside the GPX's are painted white - to cover up what components are used - presumably)

His feeling was that the lower capacity resisters (also on the 5000) made for a quieter detector  but resulted in  loss of depth on some targets. Testing showed that the newer 4500 lost about 15% depth on big, deep target responses compared to the original 4500 

He then replaced the resisters on the new release 4500 with the same ones used in the original 4500. The result being that the new 4500 now detected targets at depth the same as 2 other older 4500"s he had. 

Maybe thats why some people say the old 4500's  punched deeper than the newer ones or the 5000's

Source: Australian Gold Gem & Treasure - August 2017

51 minutes ago, jasong said:

Do you have one of the stock Minelab ferrites Jin? They are a bit black colored on the back.

Yes, came with the detector

Not sure if im doing things right but im just using auto ground balance now instead of semi auto with the x-coils. Couldn't achieve a proper ferrite balance and was finding i was getting too many phantom targets.

After running auto for a day things seemed to be much better. I was detecting very small targets quite deep with the 10" so i presume auto ground balance works ok.

My only concern with ferrite balancing with the Gpz14 and then switching back to the x-coil was that after half an hour or so when the 7000"s electronics get to operating temperature (if the weather is coldish) the ferrite balance is going to be out again.

Well back from a few days away detecting and thankfully the rain stayed away as well except for a few moments of drizzle.

The x-coils aren't water proof? Is that right?

Was heading away for 4 days of nugget hunting in the caravan this week but it looks like it's going to rain??️

Any thoughts on whether the rain may cause any problems to these coils?

I know i used to detect in the poring rain with the coiltek elites and the 11" and 18" were fine but my 14" used to false when pressed against the ground. This only ever happened when it rained and i think moisture was getting in where the cable entered the coil.. I was thinking maybe taping some plastic over where the cable inters the coil on the x-coils just to be safe. 

Any other time id just cancel and go the following week but this is the last opportunity according to my wife to go for sometime. (new puppy that will need toilet training etc)

 Im keen to try out the new x-coils and hit a spot that may soon be exempt from prospecting in a few months time.  

X Coil 2021 News

9 hours ago, Northeast said:

I used to run my Volume at 1 and then turn the booster right up to my desired volume.  JP once wrote that he felt turning the Volume up by 1 was akin to turning the Sensitivity up by 2 when it came to increasing the unwanted noise

Thanks Northeast, Ill test this out on Monday and see if I notice any difference. 

Thanks everyone else for your comments/suggestions, there all very welcome and helpful.

I often see others using a high sensitivity setting of 16 - 20 on the 7000. Is there really much of an advantage doing this? I used to think maxing out my 4500 gave me some kind of advantage over the poor suckers who ran factory presets or slightly higher, now im not so convinced. 

Today i tested out my new 10" and 20" X-coils and tried many different combinations of settings to see what would suite me best. I did most of my testing with the 20" coil on a 2 gram bit of gold. I dug a skinny trench 200mm (nearly 8 inches) in some reasonably hot ground and placed my 2 gram bit in the bottom. High yield/Difficult were the better settings. (Ferrite and ground balanced, Semi auto ground balance,  Ground/audio smoothing off,  volume 8 (using a booster),  threshold 27,  threshold pitch 63,  volume limit 7)

First i tried a high sensitivity and the target signal popped out nice and loud. Then I started detecting the surrounding area and felt there was so much other ground noises going on that the quieter signals may be masked. Eventually I found my sweet spot where the detector was quiet as a mouse and i had no problems hearing a slight change in the threshold no matter how small it was. This was at a sensitivity of only 3.

I then went back over the 2 gram bit and it still gave a great response using sensitivity of 3 (although slightly less than when the sensitivity was a lot higher).

When i started detecting and raising the sensitivity up around 6 -8 a lot more ground noise came in. Now im used to ground noise as i used to use my gpx in Normal timings most of the time. But after reading how the zed is a different beast and not to drive it to hard i decided to try less aggressive settings to see if less is infact more. Obviously im new to the zed and have much to learn so will continue trying different things until i get my head around things. 

8 minutes ago, phoenix said:

I certainly hope this turns out to be the real deal but to me that coil looks to be about the thickness of a rice cracker.

Was thinking the same thing. But could be the angle of the picture. Sort of got the feeling that the ferrite issues with the x-coil was due to the windings of the tx and rx being so close together. If this coil is thin then the same issues may exist.

28 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Judging by that photo there is obviously no patch lead adapter, but it does look like the end is snipped off a genuine coil and joint on. They carefully positioned to cable to make it hard to see.

Where it comes out of the coil is the same as the gpz14"

Dont think the chip end has been put on the cable. rather the whole cable is genuine. Just my observation after looking at the picture and my gpz14" coil at home

The same poster (on the other forum where the picture came from) who apparently has used both the 12" x-coil and this prototype mentioned a few interesting things 

........"Australia made and nation wide warrenty from Australia dealers, as for the plug may be like the sdc ?"...............  

......."Should reframe, maybe the same person making the sdc plug will have the wright to make the new plug just saying"............

One would think that the tester would have some idea as to whats going on. But then again maybe not. 

Im thinking that Nuggetfinder made the coil using the mounting plate, cable and chip from a gpz 14 or 19 coil, but the version that comes to market will still need a patch lead. 

Maybe Nenad who has previously made and sold the Audio Adaptor Lead for the Minelab SDC 2300 could be the person the tester is referring to and who will make a patch lead for the coil.

Note: All speculation on my part.

From my conversation with someone at Luckystrike 2 weeks ago (Minelab and Nuggetfinder dealer) an announcement is due shortly concerning these coils.  

Heaviest coil i ever swung was the Coiltek 24" DD which weighed 1,840 grams. Even with the hipstick it got pretty uncomfortable after a few hours. According to Dave the 20" X-coil that i now have weighs 1670 grams. Will find out next week if its a back breaker.

2 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

I don't see the use of user names, unless you have something to hide or are frightened of your own shadow.

Ive been on the run from the law for 20 years. Would be a little stupid to use my real name incase the police googled it.   

 Can rest easy now. Was always curious how Phrunt and Madtuna got there usernames. Its also been very interesting to hear every other forum members story. 

Looking at some usernames on this forum i sometimes wonder how they came up with their name. Obviously some have user names that are their real name but others are a little more bizarre. When i decided to join prospecting forums i didn't know what to have, so googled how you say Gold in different languages. I came across "Jin" which is the Chinese term for gold.

Thanks Dave, The 20" coil arrived this morning. Going to make a good patch hunting coil I think. I miss my 18" Elite.

Just checked the tracking and it should arrive tomorrow. Sent my 14" coil off yesterday, so as soon as Pat makes the patch lead and sends it back ill be able to get out and try both coils.

28 minutes ago, Andyy said:

You would still have to drill a hole in the housing of the ZED to have an alternate connector exit. 

No i was thinking you would just remove the gpz connector (bin it) and replace with a gpx connector on the housing. The chip mod could sit inside the housing behind the gpx connector. You all ready need to sacrifice a coil for the chip, so just put a gpx plug on the end the sacrificed coil to continue using that one and the X -coils. Anyway to late for me to worry now as im posting off my gpz14 coil in the morning and getting Pat from "Steelphase" to make a patch lead. 

1 hour ago, Norvic said:

Got to agree patch huntings the go

Thats the problem for me. Many miles from the goldfields and a lot of my time is spent well away from diggings looking for patches. Come home many times with no gold. I only get out about once every month for 2 days detecting atm. Once you've found a few nice patches looking for crumbs in surfaced areas or mullock heaps just doesn't excite anymore.

1 hour ago, Andyy said:

I think that if you open the case, you void the warranty.

You do but a lot a machines are out of warranty now. Im looking for a solution that doesn't risk bricking the machine should a patch cable short out now or in 5 years time. Placing it inside the machine behind the plug is a better option in my books. Of course i wouldn't do the job id get someone capable. The only issue i see is Minelab may not want to fix the machine if they see a mod done inside.

30 minutes ago, jasong said:

If the patch could be done so that it's connected in the lower shaft or lower part of the middle shaft (basically, a very long patch cable) that would avoid this issue too, and make changing coils in general really quick. The chipped connector would always stay connected and no opening of the control box would be necessary, nor would threading cable through the shaft as the same curly cable could just always stay in the middle shaft. As long as the connector protruded out a centimeter or so you could just grab it and pull it down slightly to make the connection and off you go. Same with the cable coming out of the coil/lower shaft.

I'm curious if the manufacturer has tried that yet, or if it's not possible because it vibrates/moves around too much if the patch isn't in the control box? If so, maybe just make a simple plastic centralizer/stabilizer to hold it put.

*not to mention it would give a person a heck of a lot more wire to use for instances like breaks. If mine breaks again I'm not sure I can fix it. I'll have to operate and splice some more wire in, but it's within a shielded cable so that isn't easy and space is almost gone to peel insulation back further. Also, I think the tiny wires had foil wrapped around them, so exposing that much of the RX without the foil I'm guessing is going to eventually introduce noise from radiation from the other wires within the connector, but that's just a guess.

I cant remember if this has been covered before but why cant we just fit the chip on the inside of the gpz's case before the plug? Then change the gpz plug over to a gpx plug (cant buy the gpz plug apparently as Minelab have them specially made)  

I too have been thinking that with constant changing of coils it could be only a matter of time that a wire breaks and shorts things out. I guess that answers the question why the Russian guy suggests using glue to try and make the plug fitting as solid as possible like a factory plug.

8 hours ago, phrunt said:

I would 100% use Pat for it Rick, he's an electronics guru and $100 is a tiny price to pay to know it's done perfectly and I am certain he can do it perfectly.

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.

5 minutes ago, araratgold said:

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

Thanks Rick, Ill send Pat a message and see what he says.

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

Thanks jasong, Some more helpful information to think about. Ill be more than likely doing my patch lead next week.