Norvic

The below link will take you to directions for converting Minelabs mlx files into google earths kml file. You do not use Exchange2, just access your GPZ as if it is a usb stick. kml files can be imported into Oziexplorer.

http://p.briggs.home.comcast.net/~p.briggs/CTX3030/CTX3030%20TRACK%20DATA%20EXTRACTION.htm

Whilst I am far from an expert on Oziexplorer  I use it always,  I can help anyone who genuinely may wish to go this way. I also do not have any interest in Oziexplorer, I just consider it is a top tool for prospecting and like Minelab is Ozie.

Vic

It appears I am the only one that has a problem with the GPS software on the GPZ, JP and Steve do you use moving map software such as Ozies Oziexplorer, USA`s Fugawi etc? I note one of the Gold Hounds has such mounted on Mtrbike. I use and have used a GPS almost as long as a detector, to combine it with the detector is a logical step, to me that is. Not about safety from getting lost, is about lowering the amount of country to detect. Find a run of nuggets, clean up but which way to the next shed, if you`ve found that run on a fault follow the fault, but if there is no mapped fault, look back at two runs follow same direction, it`s there, it is not luck, there is a pattern.

Argyle,

            I`ve got 13 years plus on you so hopefully I`ll invest in a GPZ 7100, but if you believe the GPZ 7000 has the go, which I have no doubt it has, why not go for it. I knocked them running the GPZ too "hot", but I would not do so with their use of the 5000, they have the runs on the board. I just know from my preliminary use of the GPZ, there is no need to "pump it up", well not for me anyway. But then I`m not young and impatient, I know I`ve had a magic run and are privileged, no need to rush into a gold rush.

Steve,

Tall poppy syndrome yes, but I disagree with that articles assertion that it came from our convict past, if it had, we`d never developed the way we did in our first 200 years, no it is a more modern disease, we have become a spoilt nation of underachievers who require spoon feeding. Indicative of this, the GPZ 7000 is made in Malaysia, I guess we should be content that at least the R & D and brains behind it are OZies. If you follow OZ news you`ll also note the whole OZ Mining Industry is ridiculed, but hypocritically we ride on its back.

No I understand completely JP`s attitude towards the knockers. I only hope the GPZ 7000 can breath some life back into Codan`s (Minelab)share price, I selfishly want a GPZ 7100 in a few years.

Giancarlo,

"Who does not love me does not deserve me", Can I please flog that saying, tis a ripper, my wife`s Italian, Pleaseeee.

JP,

I`ve got to agree with your annoyance with OZ armchair prospectors, they exist also in the fishing forums and probably others. I go further and feel it is a symptom of a sad disease inflicting a lot of OZies, things just have to be handed to them, hard workers who get ahead are to be ridiculed. In a country where we are losing our technology and brains to overseas, Minelab should be put on a pedestal, it is sad.

On the bright side, if they all had the drive to succeed there would be less gold out there.

argyle,

Is true that the GPZ 7000 will be followed by models with refinements that further enhance ZVT technology, we experienced that from the SD 2000 to the GPX 5000, also true that a lot of gold was found by the SD 2000. I suspect a Gold Hound video that hasn`t been made yet will show a lot of GPZ 7000 gold, although they may be doing that now, their young and weatherproof.

Problem is it takes years of R & D to get there, meanwhile we keep aging and our feet can no longer do the yards so easily. Embrace the GPZ, learn how to use it, I reckon the Gold Hounds will, and I will if the feet let me.

Got to agree, Gold Hound videos will be important part of the history of the electronic gold rush, not for just the gold but the feel the watcher is a participator. They are unique something that will be watched with awe in a hundred years or so. We are very privileged to live in this era, keep them coming this vegemite gives you a ten.

There`s a rum at my digs anytime fellows. Tremain knows where I`m at.

That`s it D-TEX, yeah they had a little edge on the A2B when the A2B was king. In some ways I miss those pre-PI days, less of us about. Lot of surface gold in places sometimes multi signals on each sweep for many meters, the beginning of the electronic gold rush.

Gold Hound

Next time I run into Tremain, will have a chat with him, firstly to apologise for incorrect spelling of name (shouldn`t listen to teacher missus), and then to see how the GPZ is going. Certainly as stated is early days for GPZ, but so far I`m impressed. Just a wee frustrated as it seemed we were going to have a early start to the prospecting season, now with those cyclones harassing us ?? Love the videos, but they are a bit of a tease on a wet day. GPZ may be weatherproof but I`m not.

Vic

Looked at the video, could be wrong but believe Treymane may have turned up sensitivity & volume too high thus instability, perhaps ok for the 5000 but from my preliminary use the GPZ operates very good at the default, I got into trouble early giving it heaps and resorted to a reset. Early days, will have to wait and see.

I have been pretty quiet about how long for my first nugget, but Steve I feel I can say now it took me 3 years of swinging a RB7, and once the A2B come on the scene I know I was walking over it for years. But am probably still doing that, the GPZ is starting to show that is so.

My take on paying for updates is to allow Minelab to have some source of income from detectors already sold, to pay for the R & D involved in those updates as we do when we purchase a detector for $10000 that has probably got $500 worth of parts. To stretch the life of that detector. Gold detectors are not mainstream consumer products like PC`s, tablets etc ,thus the economy of scale do not apply to them. Come on Minelab make the GPZ`s GPS more useful.

Thinking on this luck thing, Steve, like your 1 ozer, I can think of a day in mid summer, hot as hell, myself, mate and son went for a drive in A/c Troppie to check out road condition re. recent wet conditions, we threw in our detectors in case as per norm. Got out on track a fair bit after couple of hours and decided to return home. For the hell of it we started detecting on a likely flat, I had gone 20 metres off track, massive signal. 4 inches or so down a quartz speci. size of cricket ball, on crushing had a whisker under 8 oz. Not another piece got off that flat, although will be running GPZ over it this winter.

But you know how many times over 30 years done a similar thing for nothing, of course mate and son gave me plenty, it called you etc etc.

Luck or is it due to happen if you do it enough, sort of cutting the odds? We could have stayed and been comfy in A/c Troppie, stubby in hand. Lucky, fortunate don`t know but it definitely was a Magic moment.

Recall a Detech or similar spelling (senior memory) back after the A2B came out, it`s coils were interchangeable with the A2B, and gave better performance. If they are the same Co. they have been silent for many years, at least in OZ.

My software update, wish at this early stage, to add to others above.

Make a conversion and import tweak to allow GPS data, waypoints, tracks  assessable to moving map software like Oziexplorer. This will allow the use of mapping software that doesn`t require internet access, Oziexplorer mapping software allows the importation of geo, topo etc maps from sites such as QLD Mines complete with georeferencing. Probably even a touch screen on the GPZ with such maps also down the track a bit.

Big wish I guess, xchange2 whilst I understand is proprietary and gives security, surely the conversion of GPS data only is not going to hurt Minelabs patent protection. Buying such updates would be no drama.

Thank you, Fred, rereading my post again I may be a little brutal, but many years ago I stopped showing nuggets to even family, the first comment you get is aren`t you "lucky". Makes me see red, I`ve dragged my wife and kids into dry remote locations, just a wipe down each night with little water for weeks at a time, worn out boots, bruises etc. You`ve gotta walk in those shoes to really understand and appreciate where I`m coming from. But regardless of the hardness, it has been Magic, love it, there is no thrill greater for me than to dig up a nugget and then the scenery of those locations, the nuggets are a bonus.

May our electronic gold rush go on.

My take there is no such thing as luck, how often I`ve heard individuals say they should have followed that creek right up to the ridge, and then comment on how lucky the fellow was that did follow that creek. Operators make their own "luck", out of bed with the chooks, work all day, back to bed with the chooks because your knackered. Sorry tis not luck. But that is my opinion.

I think JP will remember being introduced to some gold as a young fellow, he had a SD and this old codger a VLF, he run rings around me, regardless that I`d had 10 years or so start. I don`t expect it would be any different now even if we were both armed with the same detectors. Comes down always to the persons ability, attitude and experience. Learning how to use a detector and getting gold with one do not necessarily go together. But it has been a exciting detecting gold rush, and a new detector always adds a little extra. Perhaps we should give a new detector 25% rather than 20% while it has it`s gloss. 

14 inch is the most used coil for me, but I`ll get around 10 inch when available. I have used elliptical coils but think round perform better. Although the GPZ14 is a wee elliptical, maybe elliptical suits the GPZ. I also believe they`ll get lighter(hopefully), remember the "garbage lid" coil that came out with the SD`s.

Tis an old saying, "Why do the honest people always run around calling others dishonest" or perhaps another that applies also to detecting "How come the busy always have time to stop and say their busy"

Steve, take bugger-all notice of the knockers, the worlds full of them, be very content to be a doer, there`s not enough of them. In Gold Trust.

I go with that 20% for detector, and add another bit of tech at 20% too, the GPS in conjunction with geological maps, especially the smart phone-oziexplorer app combination. Time prospecting in NQ Oz has shown that.

A logic tree would be very useful, as I feel we do that in our minds and sometimes create bad habits doing so. By that I mean I make incorrect assessments by finding nuggets and believing that is the setting to use.

I think the 5000 with its multitude of settings illustrated this. eg I used fine gold almost always but probably left a few signals in quieter ground. One such .4gr solid the GPZ picked up(distinct signal) at approx. 6 inches in a small clear area I`d flogged with the 5000 and others before. I feel that piece should have been recovered with the 5000.

GPZ 7000 with the GPX5000 as back-up, maybe purchase a SDC2300 if I have a good run.

Great thread, just had a couple of days use of the GPZ. It has the edge on the 5000, depth, smoothness and size wise, the wireless and no battery cable a godsend. But to sum it up IMO, if you own a gold detector whether VLF or PI and have not found gold the GPZ will not improve your lot. To be brutal if that is so, it is not the detector you should change. Takes perseverance and a ton of foot work and also very importantly faith in your detector. 

On the GPZ`s inbuilt GPS, it is hampered by Minelabs software. Having used Oziexplorer (OZI) (another OZ product), for me that is the way Minelab should go. Allow waypoints and tracks to be imported into OZI PC version now, with a future touch screen that will allow OZI to be installed on the GPZ, like the OZI android app for smart phones. Geological maps in digital form, showing those fault lines, intersections etc are as important as the detector.

On 3/3/2015 at 3:15 PM, brogansown said:

Minelab has made a commercial decision to both create a powerful innovative gold finding machine and simutaneously price it out of the reach of 90% of the metal detecting hobbyists.  So as an engineer who built his first metal detector in 1964 and used every trick and innovation to eek out another 1/4 inch of depth, I applaud what appears to be a great leap forward in detection and at the same time I am confused at Minelab's marketing tactic.

Steve is right, we are, at least here in my area, pretty much at the tail end of our nugget finding efforts with metal detectors  and the GPZ 7000 will, it seems, take us to the end and I think the 90% would like to be in on it.  Having said all that, I am reading with great interest the pros and cons of the 7000 and the 2300, which I might be able to afford if I can prove to myself that it will outperform my 4500 and Gold Bug 2.

So I encourage those of you who have the 7000 to provide videos and pictures of your finds, but please mention all the bullets, nails, tin and tobacco tags that come along with the effort.  Most of us devoted nugget finders I believe, have our own secret patches that we think are worked out, but hope that a few more pieces lie just six inches below the reach of our GPX's and I guess that is where we will have to leave them for now.  Maybe I can morgage the house.

To me Minelabs pricing has a lot of R&D factored in, I have no problem paying for that, they have come up with the goods each new detector. Their share price has been declining over the years, lets hope the GPZ can stop that decline.

 I got into this back in 79, VLF was king and the refinements until 95 led me to believe we were at the end of the electronic gold rush, PI proved that very wrong and perhaps ZVT or another tech will keep the electronic gold rush running. I personally will know if ZVT is the go once I get my GPZ this weekend, but age will definitely stop us. I`ll be ten years younger for awhile but, tis exciting.