Aureous

Only spent about 3 hours this afternoon for 4 bits, all with the 14DD....total was only .5gm. Doing testing under powerlines plus cross-testing my 11" mono with a mates 11" mono coz he thought his was noisy. Turns out it was....now on its way back to ML for a replacement. But...the test spot under the powerlines was a big surprise! Only 20 minutes and I got 5 signals, 2 were gold so I'm heading back there if the rain doesn't interfere tomorrow. 36.7gm to go.....

Outstanding audio response! My 6000 sounds very similar, quite calm and stable....although today I was at a high EMI area due to a power line about 50m away. I might trial the 14DD tomorrow and see how well it handles underneath the powerline.

I am wondering more and more...how will the various aftermarket GPX6000 elliptical coils sound? With the narrow field width, I am anticipating a sharper signal on smaller targets....the 11" is so mild with audio response (but still obvious) that I'm hoping the NF 12x7 will be sharper...

Bit better day today, 9 more bits of gold for 1 gram exactly, 35 bits of lead shot, a .22 bullet and 8 other bits of various other junk. Had a run of luck (all bad) where I dug 22 lead shot one after the other without any gold....was very annoying. But Oh well, another gram down, 37.3 to go....

Yeah thats quite true, the lead shot size versus same gold size (weight) provide a different target response for sure.... the gold is denser perhaps, giving a much better eddy current to the receive circuit on the detector. Just my educated guess... My modded 4500 with the 9" Elite mono could ping lead shot down to No.7.5 but some I got with the 24K, the 4500M couldnt get at all. I have tested several 6's and 7.5's that sound way better than others and at a guess, I'd say they have higher antimony % alloyed with the lead. The 24K could easily get 50% of the lead shot I found today (less than an inch depth) but, the noise from a high frequency VLF is very tiresome after a few hours....

All good mate, I think we all need to know our expensive new toy is working to spec. I almost had a dud day today, tried the 6000 at a different spot where I got a heap of small gold in 2020/21 and aside from one tiny .05gm bit, all I got was 62 bits of lead shot + a few other random bits of junk....all targets I missed and any one of which coulda been gold. But, the ground here is very shallow so perhaps I shouldn't be too surprised. I'll dodge the rain tomorrow and go to a different spot....I'm trying to get a feel for the right ground conditions and I should get the tally running better soon.

No, just a mosquito-like whine when the headphones are really close to detector. In normal use, no background noise at all...

I already had value tied up in my other detectors which were for sale, so all I needed was $3K (which I paid for in saved gold). Rough scrap value is AU$80 per gram so I rounded it up to 40 grams to keep track. I bought a box n screen cover set also which was $100.

Although I havent looked at the main board, I'd imagine that a simple SMD potentiometer on a tiny sub-board, attached to the threshold output should solve this issue....a simple solution that ML could add at a tiny cost and take up less than 2D 1cm of space. Or, a software upgrade in conjunction with the SMD pot to activate the volume control to become the threshold control??? I'm sure all us serious operators would welcome this, even if we had to pay a coupla hundred $$. Thoughts????

Simon, I think given that most of everyone gets the same 'symptoms', the issue must be with the manual, not the headphones. If it stays solid blue with a red flash every 60 seconds, its charged. Maybe time will prove us all wrong, but after 12 months of user feedback, I reckon this must be correct.....

One other thing I noticed that others have mentioned is the low quality plastic of the coils, it DOES scratch incredibly easy and even just after 4 hours, there are lotsa marks there after swiping my scoop across the top....I think Simon commented that it seems like recycled ice-cream containers or leftover lego scraps lol. I totally get it now and I might add some tape just to protect it better, looks silly but obviously a practical move....

In all my travels, the worst spots for flies was Oodnadatta (Outback South Australia), Tibooburra (Outback New South Wales) and Halls Creek (Kimberley, Western Australia). The latter took the record, one swipe of yer hand across a backfull and you had a 50+ flies! Love the 'welcome' sign at Glendambo (SA), keeps things in perspective!

A friend of mine bought one of the 1st batch 6000's and I tried to tighten his, full twist on and it still wasn't tightening the lower shaft. My guess was the shaft was slightly smaller diameter than the lock was designed for. My new 6000 is rock solid and once tightened, it stays there. Very happy!

Thanks GC, yeah I have to accept that the charging is always gonna be solid blue/slow flash to red instead of how the manual says.... I cross tested a few targets, switching from normal to difficult and couldn't see any difference except on one hot patch that sounded great in normal and vanished in difficult....I dug it up and was nuthin there.... proof I suppose

Yeah the headphones don't seem to show full charge, its supposed to stop ANY light (just go out) when fully charged. But mine and yours simply dont....it still works (brilliantly I might add) but no clue as to when I should stop charging em... Yeah my 4500 was fully modded and I used Elite coils most of the time so it was a leadshot killer as well....but not on the same level as the 6000 Ive learnt. Yes I will certainly go back to all the spots Ive hammered with the 4500. Will certainly keep me busy for a coupla years lol

Only used it each time I played with the difficult/normal option.....I didnt even really need to, just thought I should. And once when I got a hot patch. Other than that, it was a totally superfluous button this time....

Well, I'm only a year late..... I finally got my own GPX6000 and gave it a 1st run this afternoon. I went to a spot only 5 minutes from home where I'd gotten over a hundred pieces over the past 18 years. My modded 4500 got over an ounce and a half there back in 2021 and I gridded the main area (25x10m) until I was sure there was nuthin left....or so I thought! I spent just 4 hours there this afternoon and got 9 bits of gold for 1.7 grams. Plus 40 bits of lead shot, a .22 short bullet, 3 bits of flake iron and a percussion cap. 7 bits of gold, plus 75% of the junk came from the gridded patch! The 6000 has the edge, thats for sure. 2 of the gold 'nuggets' were over 7" deep and were just whispers. Overall, the 6000 ran well....coupla scans to eliminate EMI, but fairly quiet. I used difficult mode coz its got lotsa ironstone and had zero hotrocks. On the plus side: Light weight, amazing BT headphones (actual, real 'low latency') stem locked tight, no wobble, ease of use, ground balance kept very stable. On the minus side, the threshold needs a control to reduce it....way too much, I'd prefer a whisper of threshold. I was at the lowest volume setting. The 6000 hates the coil being angled, makes it hard to work mounds, mullock etc. My headphones don't fully charge as the red/blue flashing goes on forever.... This detector owes me 40 grams so its still got 38.3 to go.... I'll keep yas all posted as to how long it takes.

Well, I finally picked mine up and its a runner. Only spent 45 minutes running thru the settings, checking target audio quality etc and I was actually satisfied! I expected the threshold to be like a demented Bumblebee, driving me insane....but, it was quite OK. Too loud for my liking and I would have loved an actual threshold control to reduce it to a whisper....volume just don't cut it. But overall, the threshold was very tolerable. I found the balance to be terrible coz the coil is so light....I'll try to alleviate that with some adjustments... The Bluetooth headphones are actually the 1st ones Ive ever used that are truly quick and I couldn't perceive any latency. Comfy and easy to pair. Mine has no loose coil stem issues, once locked, it stayed there. Very little EMI and the couple cancels I made solved it easy. Got some tiny lead shot that sounded bigger than they were so that was pleasing... I was annoyed that the headphone jack was a 3.5mm one, I'll have to find an adapter to trial my old headphones with it. The little orange-topped gold bottle that was included was a nice touch....but it doesnt fit in the Kangaroo nut-sack that I use. Oh well, will make a nice backup bottle. Proper days test tomorrow, weather permitting... hopefully I can make a start getting the 40 grams that this machine owes me.

Who else noticed that JP was using an Xceed 12x7 coil on his GPX6000? How are you finding it Jonathon? Looks the goods....it will be my 1st aftermarket coil on my 6000 for sure.....

When I pick up mine on Monday, the 6000 will owe me 40 grams. I'd better like it....

Weather report for Clermont says 27 degrees C, cooling off eh? We were all shivering here with 1 degree overnight and 14 degrees C for the day in Central Vic. This ex desert boy thinks he'll swap you any day lol

Haha, laughed my head off Sheppo..... typical Queenslander, barefoot prospector lol....betcha only wore a pair of stubbies and bare chest when ya was video'ing that lol. Ya got lots of odd glances from passing traffic 😉 Thanks heaps for posting that video, gives us poor worrying near-future 6000 owners something to aim for, signal-wise....Cheers

Well....that makes me nervous! I'm picking up my GPX6000 on Monday {biting fingernails}.... I've requested that the dealer charge up the batteries so I can test it for the whole day once picked up. I also asked the dealer to test it prior to me arriving. Its a 2 hour drive and I don't wanna go home without it...if I have to hand it back for warranty repair/replacement, I'm gonna be as pissed as you Simon!

These cables are INTERNAL as I said....not visible unless you open up the control box. Even then, its always not obvious that there is a breakage in the ribbon cable. A technician will need to inspect and test.

Various internal ribbon cables can fail and leave odd audio symptoms. I had my 4500 fail this way and got Mick at Detectronics to repair it. The audio became very faint with a hissing crackle. The replaced ribbon cable fixed it.