Peteren

On ‎24‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 0:18 PM, Jonathan Porter said:

The GPZ is not as problematic for large targets in front or behind the coil compared to conventional monoloop coils. This is mainly due to the way Super D coils receive, so essentially directly under the coil is the place you will get the best depth not so much out in front or behind. This means having a pick placed sensibly on your hip (to the rear of course) should not present major problems with the new GPZ 19 coil.

JP

This is interesting JP as I have been scratching my head on ways to build a fully non metallic pick.

Some ways to do this but they all cost lots in time, effort and cash

20 hours ago, klunker said:

But Petern- There is no profit in a firmware update.

Microsoft and Apple seem to do OK with this

As long as the discrimination function  comes as a firmware update and not another $10k machine

12 hours ago, scoopjohnb said:

Comparing a Landrover to a Minelab?

The thing has all kind of weird electronic wizardry trying to overcome an obstacle in its path.

I would much prefer you'd compare a Toyota to a Minelab.

On a Toyota you lock the diffs, shift the big V8 diesel in gear and point it at that rock your going to climb.

On a Minelab you set the ground balance, fiddle with the sens and swing it away at the meanest ground you can think off.

Landrovers are for Sunday afternoon tea whilst James loads your most favourite pheasant tickler!

Toyotas are for Monday morning bacon and egg while watching the weather radar!

Not comparing so much the Landrover, rather the level of service.

If you pay top dollar for a product, which you do with a GPZ, you expect exceptional service.

ps, I thought Toyota was a "bit on the nose" in the US of A currently :-)

I hope Minelab are listening here.

They need to engage someone to trawl their customers for their views, likes, dislikes and issues with products.

Case in point, I purchased a new Landrover Discovery in 2015 and receive constant surveys on my views on the car. General ones about the product and specific ones on servicing. The two times it has gone in for scheduled servicing I get an emailed survey asking specific questions on the experience and how it can be improved. Not that it can get much better when a suit meets you at the door and asks "sir" what his needs are today, escorts you to his office to sign the service sheet then onto the leather appointed waiting room complete with free refreshments and a glass wall to view the service area so you can watch them service your car.

Minelab need to take a leaf out of Landrovers book and implement something similar.

Rant over

Gnarly veg man!

Love the pics, try B/W HDR?

That's great news Steve

I just hope it's at a normal coil price and not the Minelab "special" price!

Can I throw a curveball into this discussion?

I get the black sand (magnetite) issues but my closest goldfield is covered in volcanic material which includes a mineral called specular hematite.

This stuff drove my local geologist's crazy trying to work out what it was and it took a full spectrum analysis to nail it down.

It is 96% FeO2 with the remaining 4% made up of rare earth minerals, the "unobtainium's"

It drives PI machines nut's, mono coils cannot be used and DD's need to be dumbed down to near useless levels to be usable.

The last thing that makes detecting very difficult is that this stuff does not stick to a magnet which means every targets needs to dug and sifted to find the target. Pieces the size of match heads sound off like nails so they need to be dug

Photo below of some bits that I have dug

I voted straight shaft and post grip so you might think I'm biased towards Minelab machines, sorry but you are............correct :-))

The sand seal is interesting

With my pessimistic hat on is this an "update" that by chance fixes some of the water sealing issues?

Can agree with Goldhound on this.

I have a patch that produced lumps up to 15gms at 18" with a 24" UFO on a 2200 in its day that have not produced anything with a 5000.

This ground is currently locked up but a large coil on the 7 should see some nice results

Thanks Steve, its clear I need to spend more time sorting the CTX.

It aligns with the non gold detecting I do so it should be the goods once I can get my head around it

Cheers Mitchel, will give that a go

Steve

I note you have sold your CTX and I'm presuming in preference to the XP Deus?

If this is the case can you list your views on the pro's and con's of each machine.

I have a CTX and cant seem to get to grips with it as yet and am in two minds as to persevere or go the XP direction. I think the main problem is that I have an ear tuned to more than ten models of XT, SD, GP, GPX and GPZ Minelab machines and cannot seem to retune it to the CTX

Your views, as always, are appreciated

Cheers

Peter

Some work colleagues hamming it up on Australia Day

Cheer's JP, all the best with your venture into the depths of the detecting trade

Set up some one on one sessions in the NQ bush and I feel you will do OK

One limitation for powerful gold machines will be the phone battery life, but even that can be fixed with piggy back lipo packs.

Using the phone as the brains and having a box containing the power electronics would resolve this

Anyone up for a patent application here?

A note on Windows 10, I installed it into my 5 year lap top and 3 weeks later the hard drive locked and the machine would not boot. Turns out W10 does this to older machines, hard drive was not recoverable.

Apart from several kilo's of scrap metal some interesting items have come to the surface while digging targets in the Australian goldfields

The coin is an 1846 sixpence and was found in Victoria

The object is, I think, the top of a walking cane. It is brass and is weighted with lead in the domed end. I found this with an SD2200 down about 2 1/2 ft with a 18 inch elliptical mono coil

These are lumps of natural copper that I dug up in northern South Australia in a very small long forgotten goldfield

The same location produced some nice clear quartz

The same location also produced some nice lava samples including this section of lava tube

What interesting things have you found?

Cheers

Peter

LoL Steve, that picture looks like me after 10 hrs of digging fly shit sized bits of lead shot with the Zed

Do like your words, detecting needs to be "in the zone" with total commitment to coil control

I posted this in an Aussie forum and had several entertaining responses so I thought I would post it here and see what the members made of this.

I have just spent two weeks detecting in central Victoria for 9 very small bits. Not complaining, it was two weeks away from work with beautiful weather, fresh air and long overdue exercise every day.

On the second week, just south of a little town called Dunolly, I came across a tree wrapped in coloured wool and adorned with jewellery along with a little key chain man.

Not sure what to make of this so I left it alone. 

This happened just down the road from me in Cowell. The town is a very small coastal fishing centre that might, at best, have a couple of hundred people living there.

It has me intrigued as I have not heard of any prospectors living there, it is half a days drive from anything resembling a goldfield and certainly nothing that would produce 80oz in 8 years. I can only presume that he, or she, spent most of their time over west.

Back to the town, I would be shocked if everyone in Cowell did not know everyone else and if the foul deed was carried out by a local then their identity will not stay secret for long.

Sounds a bit like some are cutting everyone else's lunch? 

My view on this is that those that have taken the time to get best out of the GPZ have all gone quiet so no one else finds out how much gold is being pulled up.

Also justifying owning a top of the range detector can be likened to hunting, you are not going elephant hunting without an elephant gun, Australia is the gold equivalent of elephant territory so it follows that you need the best elephant gun.

Thankfully no mutant ticks here!

Just a lovely little local called the common death adder, specialises in lying motionless and invisible under the leaf litter only to strike out without warning when your foot lands nearby