DDancer

Hehh, I doubt the after market thing would work. I am not fearful that turning off the detector will suddenly make me lose a target. Or that multiple cycles of power or GB are going to hurt my activities. Just that enhancing performance is a matter of using the technology properly. Its a new tech and a little care is all I'm looking for to back up my feeling that I'm doing it right. Not sure that it does mater, power cycling or Quick Track, but I'm looking at it from a standardization point of view Steve. I've been a calibrations technician and currently work on aircraft so when I look at testing and performance my thoughts are to make things as equal as possible as well as have the equipment working in a realistic environment at optimal settings. This allows me to pick out the relevant information I'm looking for as well a discover things that I may have missed. Kinda hard to do with two differing technologies but people are making the attempt and I do find it informative. Not for promotions sake of either the technology or product but simply as information and experience to gain what I feel is a clearer view of what is actually occurring with use. PI's set up very quickly and optimize very quickly when cycled. The GPZ does not and to optimize tests or comparisons between the units that has to be taken into account when I look at standardizing the testing. I'm not being critical on what others are doing. I'm being critical on the testing. Homogenous soils are fine however they are not a standard when testing. The standard there is that the machine tested is being used at optimum performance in the conditions its being tested in. So waving a detector around for 20 min to optimize it after a power cycle is not unreasonable if it is felt that that is what is required. As you point out the benefit is time and that is something the GPZ needs to get over the hump for optimum performance as those comparisons are assumed to be optimum tests to some degree or another. Just a thought. I don't think the results will be much different than what's been presented to date however its something I observed in the video's and its something that makes me wonder as I pick up new bits of information and relating it to observed information. I'm not looking for faults just facts. With something so new the quirks are noteworthy and the more I, or anyone, learns can make some impact for better experience.

I have to ask if any of these boots, besides Bates, suffer from the sole of the shoe coming unglued from the toe of the shoe over time and when exposed to campfires and repeated scuffing. Bate boots fall apart in a couple of months of heavy use/camping so I'm looking for something that will put up with my conditions. I'm of the thought to just have a shoe store sew the sole to the boot as I've been rather frustrated with boots falling apart.

Like the innovation Russ Who'd you get the box cover from? Looking to make a screen cover myself with a hoody.

That was a beauty Rob! Thanks for the gold fix

Great info. Thanks to the testers I've not gotten down to the beach yet however the video knocks out one question I had.

Wow, that really puts a kink in the testing that's been displayed. So if I get this correctly one has to normalize the detector after turning it off to get best data after re-doing a ground balance. That also seems to dove tail into what Cris Reno has been mentioning about redoing the EMI after cycling the detector off and on. Dumping the normalized data by power cycling verses dumping the old GB info with Quick track tells me its just better to leave the unit on or reset it if things get bothersome.

Read it last night and again this morning. Very informative and it falls in line with what JP has been explaining. The way its operating clears up a lot of my thoughts and confirms others. The processing involved is pretty steep as well as how the system is utilizing the new transmitting/receiving technique. Very cool. One thing I do wonder about is that the article focus's on large targets but does not mention the small stuff. I wonder if the increased sensitivity to small stuff and specimens are just an off shoot to what the article pretty clearly explains that the detector was pushing for large targets at depth. It makes sense that that kind of focus would create the offshoot however I have to wonder at the surprise people had when the itty bitties and species started singing. As Qld Sandy mentioned I have to wonder at the validity of the testing as well, and I did note the old mindset for GB being used on the GPZ pretty much always applied. I don't think it will make much difference but the testers might want to give it a go for accuracies sake. Addendum: Just read JP's comments on how the data is handled for the tracking and GB. Leaves something else to be said about independent testing~ and that's not a bust on those who have. I think its outstanding that those people are sharing. But being so new hic ups in testing are to be expected. My experience with the GB has already lead me to do what the manual says. I found that pumping the coil did not quite the machine down at all. Only sweeping for a minute or so did and pumping after hitting a test piece lead to a noisy machine that made picking up the test piece difficult. My thoughts on timing and a logic tree for decisions on settings were both confirmed and thrown out the window I'll just keep a quick reference with me on the modes and settings as relates to where I'm hunting. Great post Steve and thanks to Mr. Candy for the work and info.

Peteren, no worries I know where you want to go with your thoughts Like you I'd like a ready guide for that type of info but I have seen a lot of caution on taking one tid bit or another over the years. Hehh, I put up a post here about making a lodgic tree with the settings to use as a guide and one other agreed but the sound of crickets in the desert is deafening. Honestly though the tech is to new and I am hesitant to post anything about my own testing for reasons of soundness. As others are saying in a nutshell : Its a get up and go machine. Tweeking helps but overall its a beastly thing (not just on the pocket book or the detecting arm) and there's not much to be said about a big dog when it finds something it likes. Kosh headsets for kneepads! LOL The best setting is setting it down to dig that nugget, slug or reef.

Hehh Don't take this critical but your thought maybe more along the lines of keeping a patch a secret. Its rare someone will put you on the gold before they flog the patch and settings for this and that here and there are kind of like gold. I remember my old friend telling me about a conversation in Leonora at the laundry of an old fella who was commenting on his machine being noisy. Seems he got a bit of "good" advice from another prospector to run his machine in Cancel. The guy was most pleased that the noise stopped but was a bit put out he was not finding anything. I expect that one would have to take the moral of that story, don't believe what you are told and learn your machine, to heart. Though this is an honest forum such advice could be varied much like running in Cancel. Besides I think I find hunting down info as fun as learning it myself because there is often subtleties in the stories that go with the advice. I face it also as a fact that work was put into the information so I would expect others to work to get the same information Just a thought but I do look forward to what others are finding even if its not setting specific info for this or that particular location.

Interesting Didn't take long before this ball rolled on getting data around the packaged software. About what I thought as well. Not a bash on ML but I am curious why the developers did not think that prospectors would not be leery of the use of the GPS and tracking functions in conjunction with anything online and especially Google. This problem was immediately apparent to myself and others. I've never used a CTX, which appears to be where the base program comes from judging by the packaging, however I suspect CTX users have no real issues with the Xchange2 software.... its for lost treasures not for mining concerns which are rather kept secrete. Thanks for putting a candle in the window on what I consider a security issue. Look forward to its development.

No doubt about it, Gold is Where you find it. However knowing your limits is another part to the equation. It takes a fair amount of walking and deduction as well. Basic knowledge of geology and geography are a must and some knowledge of botany as well especially in Australia. In Vic it was looking for the Iron Wood and finding/following the faults. In WA its looking at how the plants set and the colors/composition of the hills and flats to point out directions to go. Bush walking will take you into old scrapes, potholes and various other spots *some flogged some not* that hold potential but always be on the look out for 9v and AA batteries *usually conviently put inside hollow tree's or goanna holes* that can lead you to VLF patches long since forgotten about. Lots of things. Thing is Use your Head First and Detector second. That's where the gold is.

Well said JP. Even with all the carping on the OZ sites the blokes down under do hold a lively conversation. Some of it even rather intelligent however I've long since learned to read between the lines in their postings. I'm rather disappointed that you and others are catching such flak *yet again* on this and many other ML products. Steve's set up a great spot here and your always welcome to my campfire. The machine is amazing and highly simplified so my hats off to ML as well as you JP and all the others who have contributed to bringing myself and others something I feel many of us have long dreamed about. Even if it has some drawbacks or ruff patches it incorporates many things I have thought long and hard on over the years and all who put effort into this have made those dreams a reality. Hats Off I Say! That being said, if I don't miss my read it looks like my mate has shown up here in the forum *finally*. Well met again AC. Hahh! I'm finding the Z is pretty darn good in my tests on stuff that I could only find with my Joey at a half inch going down to almost 10 inches in benign ground. But you have to slow down and really sweep methodically. Still having issue with pinpoint but I'll figure it out.

I found that to be a pretty fair run myself. It demonstrates that there is a learning curve and the Zed needs to be run as... well a Zed I thought that the machine could have been run a bit quitter and noted that no real effort was made to run ground balance after repeated on/off cycles or switching between modes. So I have a bit of question about overall performance. However they did point out some good information on target responses and overall I think it was very fair. Aside from a few targets both the 5000 and 7000 showed very similar response. My thanks

Smaller coil would be first on my list. 8 inches fits the bill nicely and 8 by 11 are prime deminsions. For me its much as Steve says about terrain. Gulleys, rocks and sidewalls on steep hills are exhausting~ I used a Joey or the 11 inch as I've never been a fan of the 8 inch because it gave up coverage. On the large side a 18 by 20 would pack a lot of punch and give the coverage for long walks though I feel it might be prudent to add an extra long shaft to the line up as well as a reinforced shaft attach point and heavy duty bungie and hooks. The current set up does not seem like it would take the load. I get the feeling coil weight is not going to go down due to the design however there needs to be a filler in the housing to reduce the noise of the coil when it strikes objects or is rubbed on the ground. The filler would also protect the workings~ and I've some concern about the current coil and its ability to take abuse.

Hawkeye its a very astute assessment of what it takes to prospect in any form. The tools are just the beginning, not the end. Shovel, pan and classifier are very basic but they are just tools. Cant pan gold in Kansas but you might have a shot in Colorado just next door. Thing is prospecting is a gamble and gamblers know the cards before they sit at the table. Its a tool. The latest and greatest is just another tool. No different than a rocker box or a Keene dry blower. You still got to do the work and a bigggg part of that is knowing what your about. Pretty plain and simple. Seen plenty of Noobs panning in dead sand. Been there. Told them what to do and where to go even.... seen more than a few noobs in the right spot doing the right thing and again told them to dig deeper... been there myself. Credit to the tool is one thing. Credit to the person who figures it out is another. You have opposable thumbs right? Well that means tool user and tools are only as good as the hands that use them. Sorry but ML got clever. Now we are trying to figure out how to use these thumbs and be more clever Hahh!

Here's the thought. I'm going to use some general terms that may or may not be applicable to how the Z works. When I speak of timing I'm not being literal its just a thought concept ok. And I'm setting things up in my own mind as to how things work to build a better logic as to how to adjust various settings.... so some terms may be wrong but its the thought that counts and I'd like to know what other thoughts are. In high yield, normal, timing is fastest. General, normal, timing is slower. Deep normal timing is slowest and sweep speeds should be modified accordingly. When the second modifier of difficult is added this sets timing for all three modes slower and reduces sensitivity accordingly regardless of the level set in normal. Increasing sensitivity or decreasing will have some net benefit in each mode I feel but it depends on ground conditions. Extreme sets timing to its lowest and seems to exhibit strong modifiers on both sweep as well as sensitivity. Granted I can not test this as the soils here are benign but I'm following a though path to help me understand adjustments that may be useful dependent on soil and search. JP had a good thing to put out about Audio Smoothing and got to sensitivity levels for various combinations in High Yield and General modes. And I agree that sensitivity is a got function when moving between modes. What I'm wondering is can a logic tree be made that will help one make selections more easily. Or if what I'm thinking is totally off the wall. My testing is not good but it seems to follow for various targets at depth.

Camel pack rules. As to front pockets I wear a jacket with cargo pouches or add a fanny pack depending on the weather. How much you pack is up to your situation but I keep it light. I don't see the added weight of the gpz to be a problem. My problem is where to carry my pick.

Well said Steve. You have pointed out, again, that its primarily the detectorists and not the tool that makes things happen. And I don't feel your belaboring the point should anyone care about my opinion. The screen is a small issue and a bit of nuisance for me as well. There are brighter TFT screens that could have been used. The coil is a gong I'm wondering if I put a thin bit of foam between the skid plate and the coil if that'll dampen things out~ another experiment. Weight is always an issue but as you pointed out properly adjusted the machine is well balanced and with a bungee I don't find this a problem. What is a problem is having the swing arm attached and placement of the bungee catch on the shaft. For me the bungee ends up hard against the handle and in my fingers. I'll figure it out. What was pointed out on the GPS is spot on and I pointed this out to someone else in another forum. The fallacy the GPS can be tracked is just that, a fallacy. You don't want to have your data taken then dump the memory before tying it to a computer or as you said use a computer off line and do not use the Google tied software to play with the data. Someone will probably be coming along before long that can tie the data to an offline maping software. I'm waiting for that personally. All else is pen and paper with a stand alone gps. My thought is anyone who wants to try this new tech on better have a healthy dose of reality for what it can, cant and wont do for one as a tool. That and be happy in their own skin for the learning curve, expense and personal justification for getting the unit. For me it was a toss up between tried and proven and new tech. Simple for me and I'm happy in my own skin for my choice even for the niggling problems that the current tech has. Thanks for having open thoughts Steve. I carp and winge at things myself but thoughts backed by facts are bread and butter for good conversation and debate.

While its minimal protection I plan to separate the control box from the rest of the unit when away for shopping and what not. Bit of a bother but kind of hard to do anything with the rest if the box is missing. A thought. Don't know if insurance will pickup. Thinking about OZ and Kal's parking garage in particular. Otherwise this unit is not going to leave my sight and as to armed robbery well what the heck does one do about that save keep a pig sticker convient. My thoughts. One thing that would be interesting and maybe someone can put a bug in ML's ear about is a kill switch like cell phones here for stolen detectors. These things can hook to the net and it don't take much to report it and have it turned into a 10000 brick. Or even put a Pin on the machine.

Thanks for that JP. I'm getting the same thought that the sensitivity is the goto adjustment as well while I work on getting familiar with the Z. A lot of emi where I'm practicing and the ground is pretty benign. Navigation of the menu's is coming to be the hardest part of the learning curve just now. Hehh, one of the video's I watched, goldchaser, was a bit of a laugh as he was switching between modes and like me stumbling around a bit. I laughed pretty hard, in sympathy, but his name for the deep mode was a riot~ porno deep gold mode I think he said.

Nice score Dave I've noted JP and now you use a booster. I have not used a booster since my 2100e as I've not seen the need for it... What are peoples takes on using a booster with the GPZ? What testing I've done so far does not make me feel it would enhance much with the refinements that are in the audio and sensitivity of the Zed. I felt the same way with the GP.... but then again I have pretty good hearing

Thanks Steve. I work with so many different names it gets a bit overwhelming at times but I full appreciate the information and reminder of what I'm dealing with. Typically I adjust sensitivity up till things are noisy then back off. With audio smoothing on can sensitivity be increased once you have found the quite point after adjustment in normal mode?

No Banjo Tinarse is not a member here but considering how fine the gold is that's what he would be pulling up around the camp fire Just not as much as Bearkat has. Tinarse has his own suction technique as your aware

Made wages I'd say! Good on ya How did it feel swinging it in the heat?

Selling a pot of them were they? Cool I'll invite them to my next meditation seminar on "Where the Gold is". I'll make a killing when I hand them my card saying "Gold is where you find it.".... well I'll get killed at 25 bucks a pop but hey I got happy feet and move fast at need Gotta pay off the GPZ.... But I have to be honest... dowsing does work in it own way. Personally I go to Ace Hardware and pick up what I need to find the treasure... septic line, power cable, new well.... ley line. You know what ever. And yes it does work depending on what your looking for *in a realistic sense*. Hope you get your moneys worth.