Andyy

Hey guys.  I've done some searches on here but have not seen much on my issue.  Not a major issue but one that I am noticing more and more.  Recently I have noted that there is a slight delay in the response from when I press a button on the GPZ and when the display responds.  (probably 1/2 second) Has anyone else noticed this?  

I've only had my Zed for a little over 3 months.  Previously I flogged my known places with every GPX 5000 coil known to man.   Since moving to the Zed, however, I also have found many more small bits that my 5000 just couldn't hear through the ground noise.  .2 gram was my typical small piece size for the 5000.  But the ZED showed me those reeeally tiny pieces that I had been walking over (<.1g)  Very humbling to go back over and find SDC size flakes previously missed.  At least I am skunked much less.  I figure the tiny pieces are practice for hearing those lunkers that I have yet to liberate from the earth with my GPZ.  But I will ...  Oh yes I will :)  

Yeah, Minelab Gold has some great videos on youtube.  Another good one of his is the ones on ground balancing out ground noise.  It is my opinion that this is one area that a lot of people could improve upon.  I know that when I first started, I was not ground balancing very well and was quicker to switch to a timing for hotter ground when the timing I was on would have worked fine with better ground balancing and coil control.

I second JasonG.  My preference is to open up .kmz files in google earth.  Certain Garmin GPS will allow you to import images from google earth. this is my preference.   Identifying the faults even when you are right where the map tells you, is still somewhat difficult to me as well.  It would be nice to see a crack or obvious fault like the San Andreas, but i have never found them this way.  I am looking for contact zones of different minerals or dikes created by minerals being forced up through these faults. 

I have definitely found nuggets near trumpet plants.  But this mineralization usually covers a very large area and there are many trumpet plants throughout these areas.  I just take it as another sign that I might be close.  I have never thought to use it to identify hidden contact zones.  Interesting thought.

I must add that I have found more than a number of barrel cactus sticking out of quarts reefs that set off my detector and make me "think" the cactus has a hearty skeleton full of gold.   Only to be sadly disappointed digging a crater around said cactus.

Funny, I did spelunking before nugget hunting and we would look for agave as possible areas for caves.  Just happens they like a specific type of limestone.  But again, it was just an added sign.

Interesting topic ...

Oh no.  "WARRANTY VOID IE REMOVED".  They couldn't even spell IF.

Sorry for your loss.  Good luck to you in the future. 

Ha ha.  LMAO.   I may need to borrow that excavator for some pictures.  My gold keeps shrinking 

Well darn it.  Missed it by thaaaat much ;)   Hope you get some great gold, Mitchel.

8 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Hi Andyy, the reason the GPZ is a different animal is down to a number of factors.

• Better EMI and Sferic rejection compared to any other detector made by Minelab before.
• Super D coil which manifests its signal response differently and also handles ground signals differently compared to a mono coil.
• Factory preset for Audio Smoothing (Stabilizer) is equivalent to 15 on a 5000.
• More aggressive Tx.
• Exact control over Rx sample times thanks to ZVT.

The most obvious difference to an experienced MPS user is the audio of the GPZ, it is very quiet but also busy at the same time. Target responses are subdued because of the coil design but so is the ground response. Also the threshold is demonstrating more information about the ground rather than being constantly affected by sferic and EMI noise, so now you can actually hear when the coil is passing over magnetic gold bearing soils. 

If you want to understand why the threshold and general detector behavior of the GPZ 7000 is so different to MPS then place the detector flat on the ground in an area with no EMI, go into the settings and  select Audio Smoothing OFF and listen to the threshold volume, after a minute take the Audio Smoothing from OFF to High (High is the Equivalent setting of 10 FP on the GPX 5000), notice how the detector sounds really quiet and Smooth? Audio Smoothing on 10 (Eqiv to High on GPZ) is baseline for the GPX 5000 and even then it still suffers from EMI, whereas the GPZ can easily run on OFF but there is a corresponding increase in threshold and Detector Volume, this is because you can easily work with the GPZ unfiltered thanks to major improvements in its electronics allowing you to tap into the full amount of target information of the detector. 

However that extra unfiltered information means you have to relearn the way the detector behaves from a volume point of view yet at the same time come to terms with the ground cancelling effect of the SuperD coil. The coil runs quiet, the detector electronics run quiet, but ZVT is aggressive. That is why I always advocate conservative settings if you want performance/depth, let the electronics do the work, don't hamstring the detector because it sounds too quiet on target responses, come to terms with the more subtle way ZVT/SuperD behaves, the information is there you just have to learn how to recognize it.

JP

JP - thank you so much for taking the time to clearly explain the GPZ in your response.  I now see that I truly need to understand that I am not just hearing noise, I am hearing more information than I ever have before.  I think a lot of time and practice will help me with this.   

Lunk, I do like your settings as well.  I fall back to these fairly often as the settings seem especially sensitive on the small gold in my area. If I recall correctly, you had a very low setting on the volume limit which I thought was strange.  That was another reason I thought I would toss the question out there.  Now after hearing from everyone, I think I just over thought it a bit.  Thanks again.

Andy

ok guys, I appreciate the input.  Apparently I misunderstood the manual.  To me it almost made it sound like it rescaled the volume based on the limit.

Reason I had asked the question is that I used to run the GPX 5000.  First thing I noticed on the nuggets I found with the GPZ (running conservative settings) is that you would hear volume rise on some gold targets when you ran over them.  I found this strange but I learned to listen for this.   It was very obvious on the GPZ and I don't remember that on the 5000 so much.  Another difference is that the GPZ threshold seems completely different than the 5000.  The 5000 threshold would always stay the same fullness and sound but just get louder or quieter.  Not so with the GPZ.  Threshold gets fuller (busier) as you increase the value.  It's a different animal or seems to be anyways.

Just trying to understand a little better what settings do what.  For me, in my area, I now know that the bulk of the adjustment will be Sensitivity, Threshold, and Volume.  

This question has been touched upon in some other topics, but I still am not clear.   The manual says that:

a high volume limit will "allow a greater difference between a small and a large target". 

a low volume limit will "reduce the volume difference between a small and large target"

If I want my small gold or large gold signals to stand out, I would think  a medium to higher number would give the best volume response to really make a target stand out from ground noise.  Just curious on the thoughts and experience of others with this setting. 

Jeez. so that means no detectors, right?

Very cool cake.  And Happy Birthday.  Bet I can guess your wish...  ha.ha

12 hours ago, Gold Hound said:

My pinpointer is a minelab one it dose not interfere with the detector when off.

Interesting.  Another member just told me about wrapping once with thick foil (in the sheath).  Worked like a charm :)

Nice work, Lunk.  Also appreciate your other posting on your settings.  Really helps me as a GPZ novice.

I am really surprised you were able to use pin pointer.  My last trip out, I found out my pin pointer (Garrett) was affecting the 7000 more than the pick! (even when off and high up on my shoulder)  I had to extend the coil way out in front of me.

Great find!!  And thanks for the depth info.

I've noticed the same, Tortuga.  I just excavated a Palo Verde tree for 2 1/2 feet.   Sound didn't increase but I had to check it.  So glad I didn't have a 19" coil.  I probably would have had to remove the entire tree.

Also noted that Pin Pointers are definitely out when using a GPZ.  Doesn't matter how high I carry it, even a 14" coil will sense it.

Very cool, Tazman.  Thanks for remembering to share the after pics (most don't).