Woody

For the general changes in detecting settings I can do that without looking, but as you say using the GPS function with such a badly lit screen leaves me looking for the nearest shady tree or using my spare hand to cover the screen from external light. The other options you speak of would be awesome too :-)

I personally find the Zed's LED backlight to be somewhat lacking and was wondering if any of the electronics guru's or even minelab had considered an upgrade?

I wouldn't mind shorter battery life and having to change to battery number two at lunchtime if I could see the screen better.

What are others thoughts on this and has anyone heard of anything?

Steve

I have had this "Warble" signal many times. Not all the signals I have had like that have been solid nuggets, in fact a lot were good sized specimens(squash ball size) at depth(500mm+). The Warble usually gets me excited :-)

I agree with you Chris his swing exaggerates the effect.

"Reality is those big deep nuggets just out of reach are far rarer than people think"

So true Steve

It is just a matter of time before someone swinging a 19" walks over a thumper and things will settle in the realm of hypothetical comparisons. But as per normal there will be those who will still disbelieve no matter the evidence and those who believe without any convincing at all. For me the proof is in the pudding and that will have to wait until cooler days.

Couldn't agree more, I think I could swing it Ok for a day or maybe two. But for me the coil is too difficult to maintain coil control for everyday detecting in my area, there is just too many things to snag on and to go around. I would be more likely to target specific areas of a patch, such as further down a wash as it slowly drops into deeper ground or a rock bar trap downstream from a patch. But this coil will mean different things to different people depending on the ground type and their ability to swing it.

This talks about sweep length, but doesn't take into account sweep speed. Now I haven't done a direct comparison on sweep speed in a technical way, but I believe you would lose all of that advantage and maybe a bit more on the loss of sweep speed. Of course sweep speed is not solely dictated by coil size, other factors come into play, like ground depth and type or the likelihood of gold at depth, but all of that comes down to the detectors response and the operators ability to hear.

In my opinion the target volume setting has a significant effect on the GPZ abilities in saturable ground when used with lower sensitivity settings and threshold.  Just my observations on the ground I swing on.

If it's worth anything BB, my experience was pretty much the same thing. False signals in Gen/Diff with a general unsteadiness when coil control was not precise(like when you have swung it for a few hours).  I did find three small pieces less than a gram, but would have found those with the 14 if I had swung it over it. I did do a little testing with a 43g piece buried in the ground to be detected prior to starting to swing it. The responses varied greatly in different gold modes and ground types.

Personally I can't see myself using this coil for regular searching.

Steve

Thank you for the time taken to post JP.

I collect my 19" on the 14th and will head out to some patches as soon as there is a few cooler days strung together. I was hoping you might(when you get time) go into more detail on your first point. "The deeper the gold the larger the range of controlled coil sweep required to assist a suspect target signal to be recognizable from ground signal"

That's some nice pieces of gold you found congrats!

1 hour ago, fredmason said:

good detecting, Condor!

Detecting takes considerable concentration, you really have to pay attention to hear faint signals. From your results it appears you have found an excellent set-up for you. As you said your good sounds may be bad to me, too loud, too harsh or even not audible...we all have to find our own path in life and in detecting...

fred

Never a truer word spoken

24 minutes ago, Bada Bing said:

Steve. I've been running two modules for over a year -.never had a problem. One on each shoulder - no drop outs and great sound. The main reason is purely reduncancy - you know if you're 200kms out of meeka having a backup is the go. I can't do headphones in the heat ....

Cheers

BB

Well I am glad to hear your doing OK with it. Mine was so bad I rang Minelab technicians from in the field. It was then that I found out the transmitter was in the handpiece area and that it work on the same principals as Bluetooth or WiFi and that they had their hands tied on signal strength and frequencies etc by laws in Australia. I was told that the frequency did not transmit very well through the human body. I was recommended to use the WM12 on my right shoulder and have not had problems since. 

It maybe because of my swing or height or something I haven't thought of yet.

Regards Steve

On ‎10‎/‎04‎/‎2015 at 4:41 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

I have considered getting a second one. JP always runs stereo external speakers, one on ear shoulder. To do that you need an audio booster and two external speakers, not a cheap date if you get the good stuff. You can pair multiple WM 12 modules to the GPZ so I have toyed around with just getting another and putting one on each shoulder. Something to think about anyway.

When I first started using the GPZ I had the WM12 mounted on my left shoulder and swung the detector with my right arm. On the far right part of my swing the WM12 would have an intermittent loss of signal which was very annoying to say the least. Although with two modules you would always be able to hear something, I fear the loss of signal in the left module would still prove frustrating. 

44 minutes ago, WesH said:

I wondering from looking at the connection on the coil that it screws onto the machine inside the shaft.  What would keep someone from making a modification to access that connection to where you could use an aftermarket NF or Coiltec coil and just wind the cable on the outside of the shaft like we have always done.

They are two different technologies. The Z coil has three windings.

One of the uses I have had for extra deep on Z is in a large deep hole( past 1m) where the detector seems to get overwhelmed(saturated) in General or High Yield when taking the detector into the hole. It will be interesting to see if the new coil behaves differently in these circumstances.

Thanks for the info Steve I will look into the merging process and see if it is something I should make time for or not.

I like the inbuilt GPS for covering the ground on patches but it has some shortcomings. The screen is at times very difficult to see and the trail line left behind in 10x10 mode is a bit wide and patchy on the screen. Not being able to adjust the screen facing in direction of travel instead of always north can prove difficult at times winding through the trees. Not being able to save you path to a geo hunt even though it is on the screen.

But I am sure you like others have a list of things you would like to see changed added etc.

Regards Steve

The GPZ has two options.

DD.MM.MMMM

DD.MM.SS.S

Yet Xchange2 has three options including Decimal degree's sorry for the confusion.

I am still curious to find out if Geo hunts can be merged? Any help would declutter my index

Regards Steve

On ‎15‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 7:40 AM, goldbrick said:

It is too bad these machines do not display coords in "decimal degrees " format. IMO its much easier to use.

As far as I can tell there are options in preferences to allow you to change the format, well at least there is on my GPZ7000

Regards Steve

Is there a way to merge your geo hunts into one file?

Steve

Thanks Chris

I missed that earlier post from Steve(probably out bush swinging). I look forward to putting the coil over some patches if my shoulder will play the game. If the photo's are anything to go on the included shaft length is the same, which is a bit of a shame. Being a few inches over six foot and feet to match I find the shaft length a bit short at times.

Steve

Still no indication of weight, or if there will be a longer shaft to accommodate the larger coil.

???

Steve

The info worked a treat, the little gold bug 2 is back up and running again.

Many thanks gents :-)

Thank you very much Carl and Steve, that is exactly the information I required. I am pretty sure I can resolve the issue now.

Many Thanks gents

Steve 

Thanks Ridge Runner,

Unfortunately the wires have already been removed and unsuccessfully soldered onto the incorrect pins.

There are two wires involved here. Both have a insulated central wire and a shield wire with an outside sheath also. There are five pins on the plug and number one pin is not used. I was hoping we may have a tech here who may have some help.

Cheers Steve 

One for the tech's

I would like to find out the wiring of the five pin coil plug (10"DD) for the Gold Bug 2. A friend has an issue with his and I would like to re-solder the wires back on correctly for him. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards Steve

Well since they have a 19" coil already in the pipeline (not sure what the hold up is there?) and we should see how that performs before heading larger. The only logic is a small elliptical. I say elliptical because a small round would make it somewhat difficult to pin point given the size of the colours your likely hear. The lower weight perhaps would allow a partial rear mounted coil for poking in under shrubs etc without increasing the leverage weight to significantly.

My two cents worth.