Aureous

The Exceed is a multi-layer rectangular winding....squarish if you like. Its set about an inch into the cel-foam former from the coil shell edge. On mine, the pinpoint ability with tiny targets starts at the inch (25mm) from the edge...roughly where your 'X' is shown. I still think the Exceed is better at EMI rejection than any Coiltek coil. I can get closer to powerlines with perhaps a 25% improvement over all other mono 6000 coils Ive tried. For rocky areas or old diggings, the 10x5 Goldhawk is currently the only coil I use. The Exceed 12x7 is used for ALL other detecting options. This will no doubt change when the 15x10 Exceed becomes available.

Another great use for the copper tape. A friend had a cheap Digitech pinpointer that had this issue. Solved by lining the holster with copper tape.

....as a side note, has anyone seen any ML reference to this product in their FY 23/24 literature? I know its only a minor product in their line-up, but it goes to show that not everything they bring to market has a multi-month 'unveil' period. We're all still waiting on the GPZ replacement of course.....but thats gonna be a big woohoo 'whole shebang' type song and dance show when that happens. Waiting on the FY 23/24 report to be released to the public. Supposedly next month.

Theres a Minelab Pro Find 40 available now.....hopefully they have solved most of the issues...

Isn't there an embargo on Russian products? I suspect you cant buy direct from Russia due to payment issues anyway. Source from Kazakh, Poland etc most likely.

Ha, if its new and novel, we can always rely on Simon to buy one and let us all know how good it is!

Copper tape is available everywhere, common for shielding electric guitars. I got mine from Ebay for about $10 a roll.

Simplest way is to shield like a coil, except using copper tape. Once your box cover (or entire control box) is covered in the tape, run a screen wire (fine fuse wire works great) diagonally or zig zag to touch and connect every individual piece of copper tape and then use masking tape or cloth tape to secure the screen wire in place. Then solder or connect the end of the screen wire to your internal shield connection. The screen wire ensures that your overall shielding is resistance-uniform. It averages the resistance across the whole coverage. Next time I'm in Bendigo, I'll ask the ML technician there if he's up for allowing an internal shield connection to be externally connectable. If an official tech does it, it wont void the warranty....in theory...

One of ML's biggest failures is that they dont attribute much weight to shielding issues. There are several noted examples in the past and currently that show electronic 'noise/EMI' from part of the internal circuitry that is inhibiting other parts of the circuitry. Shielding is either minimal or non-existent. The control box shielding on the 6000 is woeful. Basic graphite paint as per usual. A copper shield with a painted isolate would make heaps more sense and only cost a few extra cents. My copper taped CB cover improves perhaps 15%+ of noise reduction which is proof of concept (at least to my ears). One day I'll get a ML tech to create an active shield wire that protrudes out of the Control Box. I can then actively connect my exterior copper shield to the internal one. One day... Oh, and their customer relations suck... Love the 6000 though, for all its faults its an awesome detector. I found 774 bits of gold last year and already for this year, here in July, I'm up to almost 800.

Until Rohan & Co announce the 'ballpark' release date, there's little to update. Its happening....the prototypes were built and field tested but the delays caused by Minelab and the chip wiring diagram fiasco have set back the whole shebang by some months 😞

With the huge demand for the 12x7, expect later this year.... Sept earliest. Did you buy via Miners Den? Anyone pre-purchasing via them will get priority due to the proximity of MD head office and the NF factory.

No question.... Agree 100%. I think a smaller DD in AI mode could beat it though lol. Prob have to wait a year for that though 😞

I know that feeling..... not so long ago I owned 4 detectors and choosing only one felt like a betrayal to the others lol

What makes the biggest difference between the stock coil and the 12x7 is the winding type, the shielding quality and the 'footprint'.... The stock coil is a flat-wound mono (with some winding defects thrown in) which accentuates the ground noise signal. The shielding quality is low (less than half the ohms what it should be) and unequal with an ineffective screen wire. The footprint is 11" width versus 7" although the overall sq Inch is similar. That narrow width in conjunction with correct shielding and a more sensible & effective winding type (overlaid square bundle) makes for a far superior coil with a lot less ground signal for the processor to combat and pluck audible signals from. I've said it before....the stock 11" is a junk coil compared to the Coiltek and NF offerings. It works, but not well. Well done on the 1/2oz per week average, I got half that here in Vic over the course of my 1st 3 months on the 6000.

Checking my diary, I can see that I haven't switched over to the 12x7 for a couple months, so here's a selection of purely 10x5 gold found since May.....all on old ground that Ive already hit hard previously.

I have both the 10x5 and the 12x7. The 12x7 wins with EMI rejection and depth on medium to larger sized targets (say half .22 bullet and up) but the 10x5 wins thru sheer sensitivity and smaller size for getting closer to the ground and between rocks, bushes, sticks etc. Ive found almost 700 bits of gold so far in 2023 and 75% have been with the 10x5 on spots Ive flogged to hell previously. Horses for courses....the 12x7 gets used for open terrain and covering more ground quickly. For everything else, the 10x5 stays attached. When the 8x6 NF mono is released, the evaluation begins anew.....

My 2cW.... yes that was painful to watch. Made me wish I was there and get the target within a few seconds. Ive seen vids where other Axiom owners turn the coil USD to get a better response (Steve) but I see that as a minor detraction....annoying but tolerable. Ive done numerous tests with the SDC on tiny targets heard with other detectors and the ground balance needs about 5-10 seconds of swinging to get an accurate lock with the tracking system. A forced GB would have helped in that instance. The 10x5 mono is equally as sensitive as the 8" stock coil but is far more effective in handling ground and allows better depth on tiny targets....the size is smaller and the 'footprint' is smaller, meaning less ground noise for the processor to pluck targets out of the receive signal. Everyone I know who changed to a 10x5 on the 2300 significantly increased their small gold take....its like a supercharger. The SP-01 amp adds a noticeable % of performance as well.....Nenad did a wonderful job on both the audio patch lead and the Sp amp for the 2300. I am about to add another 2300 as a backup unit and for when the Brother visits to go detecting with me. I would never consider using/owning a 2300 without the 10x5 coil, headphone/audio patch lead and the SP-01. Its like driving a car and only getting as far as 3rd gear....

Always lots of tid-bits of info inside these reports and I'm guessing its due sometime in July? Current and ex investors normally get the juice early....

PCB= Printed Circuit Board....basically the entire guts has been replaced.

A couple months ago a guy approached me in the bush whilst detecting with his 2300 and asked me if I thought his detector was playing up... I couldn't shut the thing up, very noisy with high-low oscillations. A reset, on/off and frequency tune did nothing. He owned the 2300 for a few years and suddenly it started playing up in the days prior to our meeting. I said take it to the local ML repair center coz it was totally un-usable. Hope this isn't a common thing coz Im arranging to get a 2300 in conjunction with my Brother to act as a backup machine and his primary unit when he comes up to the goldfields.....

Minelab's big safeguard was their ravenous appetite for patents, including obtaining Govt grants to keep them running well beyond normal time limits. Their PI ground tracking, MPS and DVT patents kept all of the opposition out of the field for 2 decades. But now all of these patents have expired, the major players are slowly expanding on new designs, with Garrett and Nokta being the only ones likely to shake up Minelab in any reasonable time-frame. Fisher have a viable design to work with but FTP are (quite frankly) pathetic in their efforts to bring anything timely to market. The big player to watch for is Nokta. Their ability to produce quality at a lower price than Oz or US products will become a major nuisance for all manufacturers.....but a boon for us consumers. The next few years are gonna be interesting....

Ive found 100's of pieces from SA, but we're talking the 80's and 90's....getting hard there now unless ya got access to private property or wanna travel way up North.

I've had a known gold-bearing patch stare me in the face for over 35 years, denying me any semblance of gold under my coil. I've tried my luck there dozens of times, with almost every new detector or coil combo, all to no avail. The place just thumbed its nose at me..... until Monday. I used my 6000 with the 10x5 Goldhawk mono, wound up to Auto 1 in difficult (my 'go-to' setting if soil conditions allow) and I found 2 small bits weighing just .3gm. Then yesterday I went back....just to prove it wasn't a 'fluke'. The result was the nugget in the attached pic.... 3.1gm. Another 2 small bits followed. My Nemesis is now conquered! Anyone else have a 'Nemesis' patch that defies all efforts to pluck gold from? Of all the places here in Victoria that I've tried, this one was the only patch that defied me....but no longer! Sorry but I had to tell someone....just to celebrate

A full sized mono is always more ideal, but if you are anywhere near salt terrain, a folded mono AI coil will be a godsend....plus if a petrol vehicle is used, the EMI from that will be nullified. And yeah, if the AI is used, ya can run the gain higher or play with various timings/settings. Both of the drag coils I built were AI designs for use with quad bikes. Sensitivity was C. half a .22 bullet and depth was about 2 feet max on a 5oz lead ingot, so not the best. Reg is right....if ya can run a mono, go with that.

So far, the only two people who have any experience with 'drag' coils have said 'flat out' that ya gotta mount the thing behind a vehicle. NE, I strongly envisage that you will put the thing together, get it running, give it a try dragging it about in the scrub personally for half an hour, then throw the thing into the back of the ute and curse that you ever thought of it. Hope I'm wrong, but its no fun attempting to pull a wide, heavy object for hours each day.....let alone attempting to dodge bushes, trees and rocks & snapping your head behind you every few seconds to check that you've avoided the last bush or tree. Sounds like a nightmare to me.....