Calmark

My numbers with the Nox 800 in Park 1 using my new 10x5 Coiltek coil give ID numbers pretty much exactly like F350Platinum is getting with his coil.  I've yet to dig a half dollar or old silver coin, so I can't confirm those though.  

I dug up a corroded wheat cent today.  It looks like a 1924 and it rang up at #22 for me and was shallow at 2-3inches.  The more corroded pennies are, the lower they tend to read is my experience.  

I've been running sensitivity at 19 in trashy spots.  I find it helps to keep signals cleaner sounding and makes target separation even less of a problem.  I've tried 2 tones instead of 50 tones my last 1.5 hunts and I find its giving me the clearest and smoothest signals when I'm going slow and working a spot.  

Good luck with your new coil!

One thing I'd do is check that both Equinox have the same software update.  If they are different, then that could explain the performance difference you observed between the two machines!

So far I've been a lucky early-adopter and I have had no issues with my newly-arrived GPX 6000 in 3 trips out detecting for a full day each time.

But, hearing about all of your problems, I think it might be wise if I take my 11in mono and 14DD with me on my next outing and test to see if they work correctly since some of you have had coil issues.  So far the 17x13 mono has worked smoothly and knock on wood my other 2 will also run well.

I'm sorry for those of you who've had issues.  What a chore to have to deal with returns and repairs right off the bat!    

Saludos Luis!

I own the Detech 15DD Ultra Sensing coil for use on my GPX 5000.  I can say it runs extremely smoothly in both normal and sensitive extra timings in medium to high mineralization areas I've used it.  It was much smoother in difficult ground spots than when using my mono coils.  

This coil is also quite sensitive to small items, both ferrous and non ferrous.  I found many small bits of iron wire and small shards of nails going over old areas, along with a few small lead pieces of bird shot.   I managed to find a couple of 1g+ nuggets with mine at a depth of around 8 inches in a spot with high mineralization where mono coils are not able to run in normal or sensitive extra timings.  These nugget signals were clear and repeatable, though starting to get faint.

I ran my machine with the "iron rejection" setting on a a level of 5 of 10.  When I encountered larger or shallower trash items, the detector blanked out the signal and the few I dug were in fact iron like nails or flat iron.  I found at a setting of 5, small ferrous items would not blank out until within a few inches of the coil.  I did not try higher rejection levels since I tend to dig most targets in this spot, as it has had a lot of nuggets for me.

The coil also pinpointed well for me, even on smaller items as long as they weren't deeper than 3-4 inches.  The main disadvantage of this coil is the weight.  It weighs 1350g and after 2-3 hours of swinging, I rigged up my bungee cord for the rest of my detecting time.  15 inches also makes it necessary to dig wide holes, so that is something to consider in areas with rough terrain or a lot of rocks.  

I've seen a few reports and viewed several videos where relic hunters use this coil successfully.  For general coin hunting, I don't think this coil would be ideal since the discrimination on the GPX 5000 isn't likely to be useful in areas with extreme amounts of modern trash like aluminum or areas with dense iron objects.  

I've held onto my White's DFX even though I haven't used it much the past 5 years.  Maybe this new coil is the reason?  I definitely look forward to some reports from users in the field.  This coil definitely looks great for wide open field cherry-picking.  I swing the Equinox 800 now for coin hunting.  If only a similar coil were also built for that machine.  

I have used the supplied headphones with cable when I hunt with my Equinox 800 the past 3 years.  This means I don't have to mess around (and maybe forget) to charge the headphones when in parks or fields.

I use the headphones wirelessly when running my GPX6000 since areas with brush and sticks make detecting so much nicer with no cable to get snagged.  I plan to really try not to leave my headphones at home accidentally on the charger when heading way out to nugget hunt.  My solace is the 6000 has a built in speaker unlike my 5000 in case I do forget....

Crazy I know, but pairing the bluetooth headphones to my GPX6000 was the first use of wireless I've ever done.  It was easy to do and I recommend the headphones since they allow hearing faint signals near flowing water and the signal sound they give is great.

Thank you for sharing!  Many people refrain from posting about big finds I'm sure to stay under the radar.  

Your success gives us all hope and determination that our own time out prospecting may also yield a spectacular find like yours. 

First off, a big thank you to all of you who have provided your in the field experiences as well as tips and tricks and troubleshooting info on this forum and elsewhere.  Rigging up the new detector coil, I knew to screw and push the coil cable in 3 times and then continue to tighten it down fully,  to use the factory reset if needed and that lower sensitivity still provided plenty of power. 🎇🏆  Everything else was pretty easy.  This detector swings great and is simple to use!  

 The availability of the extra batteries and 17in mono coil in the USA finally are what made me jump in and get all of the accessories at once, even though I generally don't care to be an early adopter for electronics.    I knew I couldn't go wrong with all of the good reports from all of you here on DP and everywhere on the internet.

So, I took out my new GPX6000 today to an area I've had success in the past.  I had one fully charged battery and the spare was 1/4 charged.  I used the 17x13 the entire time, even though the 11in was in my pack if needed.  I was able to run normal timing at around a sensitivity level of 5.  Higher and things got a little noisy, so I just went with this set up for the first trip.  I was pleasantly surprised I didn't have to run in difficult timing.  It was very simple to use and coming from a background of running a GPX5000 the past 3 years, it really was a breeze to get right to detecting and not worry at all about controls.

The machine ran great!  I had zero hiccups, no loss of audio using the wireless headphones, etc.  It didn't fall over all day even placed on slopes or atop rocks, unlike some of my other no-so-ergonomic gold detectors.  Apart from becoming noisy and performing noise cancels as needed, I restarted the unit to factory settings around midday when it got a little squirrely and after that it behaved the rest of the day.  I got in 9 hours of searching and the extra battery was enough to get me through until quitting time. 

I ended up with 5 nuggets walking along some steep creeks.  None were huge, but all decent sized.  This spot generally seems to lack tiny gold, as the slope I assume lets the lighter gold blast right through the area during high water. I'm not too surprised no sub .1g pieces popped up.   None found were too deep, maybe 5-6 inches on the largest one, but signals were unmistakable, even if faint.

I look forward to more outings soon, especially as its now the fall season and cooler days are just around the corner!   

46 minutes ago, Jonathan Porter said:

The issue is when making a smaller coil they will inherently be more sensitive due to the smaller size (more winds of wire to get the inductance right), everything gets more cramped inside a smaller coils housing so things like the solder joints can become incredibly problematic along with the proximity of the coil lead itself (I’ve discussed the GPX6000’s ability to ‘see’ its own coil lead on another thread).

An elliptical shape can very quickly leave the developer will nil room to put anything. I’m not saying it can’t be done just that there is a high chance that such a small coil could be problematic with GeoSense. The good thing about this forum is one of the developers is actively participating on the forum and will see the comments here and take them on board, the more people who ask the more incentive there will be to invest time and energy into overcoming any pitfalls. Demand will always drive incentive to invest. I highly recommend my American prospecting mates to put their name to this thread and push hard for this to happen, this is your chance to finally get the coil you desire. 😊 

JP

 

I can definitely imagine the construction of a smaller coil while keeping within the confines of the GPX 6000's requirements and managing it's extreme sensitivity will be a challenge. 

I know fully flat wound coils for the older GPX detectors were a maximum of 8-9" along the smallest dimension, due to space issues.  I wouldn't be surprised if there are considerations in manufacturing smaller coils like these that also hold true for the 6000.

I just hope we don't get something like a "plain vanilla" 8 inch round as the smallest coil due to technology or economic constraints.  While still much more user friendly at 8in over the 11in round, I'd be a little bit disappointed if that's as small as it got, as my SDC already has a stock coil that size for small gold.  Sure, the 6000 will beat the SDC for depth, but in confined, cramped areas, depth isn't everything.

I'm located in California, USA and would also like to see an elliptical coil with a width in the 5-6 inch range. That size would make scanning bedrock crevices and rocky areas much easier to accomplish.

I don't want a more sensitive coil than the 11in factory round, as it already finds tiny nuggets. I think a traditionally wound small coil could tame it some against really nasty ground, yet the small size help it still find gold the size the partially flat wound 11in round Minelab already cleans up on.  

I had similar frustrations with my GPX 5000 about 3 years ago.  I'd hear sirens when planes would fly over, and no change of settings would really quiet it down enough to make it usable.  Some days I'd have to swap to my SDC after 10 minutes of arriving at my spot since the noise the machine made would drive me crazy.  Later in the day it seemed to be worse, but could have been my imagination.  I even bought a used GPX 4500 after being forced to use the SDC most trips for a year since my dad and brother would snag the deeper nuggets I'd miss with the SDC with their 5000's.  Both of their identical machines would behave when we were all out hunting together.  

After trying out tons of combinations of coils, batteries of my own and swapping in my dad's and brother's parts, I finally figured out my GPX 5000 preferred the "DD" position on the switches over "mono" and that it acted up with tons of false noises and siren noises most when running my 14x9 and 17x13 NF evo coils.  My conclusion was the machine hated the spiral wound coils and they weren't a good match for my unit.  I discovered this when I put on a 10x5DD Commander coil at home during troubleshooting one day and the thing was quiet...even around my house where there is a lot of EMI from powerlines, etc.  I just recently got a Detech 15in DD spiral coil and it also purred at my house when I put it on.  I hope to use it in the very near future in the very same spots I had so much trouble before with my 17x13 equipped in particular and see how it behaves.  

I'm glad I figured this out before selling the GPX 5000 at a huge loss and now my plan is to have it use DD coils for use in super trashy sites and someday buy a GPX6000 for use in areas where things are cleaner and for general use.  

I remember Jonathan Porter has mentioned a time or two in his posts the older GPX machines were not designed electronically for use with the new spiral/flat wound coils.  Seems my GPX was a good example of that with how it rejected them.   

I'd definitely take a closer look at your GPX 6000 coil and try to use a known good coil on your unit if you can.

Best of luck!  

I don't think I'll rush to get a GPX 6000 even though I could afford to get one right away and keep my older machines.  I don't really have too many patches to beat people to where I need the advantage of the newest technology to find what's been missed. 

I want to try to find more patches and my old GPX should be good enough for that since most nuggets in areas I hunt are fairly solid and river-worn and not specimen or crystaline/wirey in nature. 

Also, without extra batteries and the 17x13 mono coil being available for a while for the 6000, I'm ahead of the game having plenty of batteries and 17x13 evo for all day patch hunting currently.  I have a 19" Evo coil if I want to go after big, deep stuff too. I pretty much have a coil for every situation at this point.  😂

I also weighed my GPX 4500 on my postal type scale with Doc's battery set up + 12x8 NF Evo coil and it was 6.5lbs weight or so.  My SDC 2300 will work on the shallower bedrock areas and find the small stuff there or help in areas I want to target specimen or coarse-textured nuggets.

I like the versatility of the older PI machines and if you have a wide variety of coils like me and don't mind making several passes over an area, I feel its still going to be a really great setup for many.

I saw this video when it first came out.  I advise looking at things with a bit of skepticism. For one, I remember reading in the comments the SDC was on max gain. It was at its very maxed settings while the other 2 machines were not. Easy to miss important details with the Minelab flags flapping in the background. 😁

That sounds like a great plan.  I look forward to a report.  Best of luck and keep on those nuggets! 😀

Kingswood, since I see you have other Minelab detectors, perhaps you'd do a little experiment for all of us using the new 6000 to scour your new patch and then hit it AFTER with other detectors.  Most reports are of the exact opposite.  People rush back to old patches with the newest technology like the 6000 and find what's missed.  I'd be very interested to see what your 6000 missed if anything when you go back with the "old" technology.  

Norm,

Keep looking toward the future and enjoy every day!  

Best of luck to you,

Mark

To me the new 6000 looks a lot like the GPX line of detectors.  It can be seen in how the coil cable wraps around the shaft, interchangeability of coils, control box below the rear arm cuff and such.  It also has a ground balance button on the handle.  Previous GP and SD models were similar in appearance and function. 

I really think the SDC 2300 is the one that was mis-named.  It has an entirely different look, folds up, fast sampling for small gold sensitivity, is waterproof, etc.  It should have been the model with an entirely new name in my opinion.   Like wih the current GPX 6000 designation, I think Minelab are capitalizing on the well known model names of previous models to help people feel confident in them from the start.  Not a bad strategy for marketing, though it can make things confusing as with the case of the SDC and now a bit more so with new models with how newer technologies blur the lines between models even more.   

Looking good!  I think what I and other users would really like to know is whether or not there is a smaller coil option. I personally would like a small elliptical for when I search for lost coins under sofa cushions or under the seat of my truck. The stock coil looks a little large for that. 

"La Vencedora" carved onto that bone or ivory roughly means "The Winner" in English.  Maybe it was originally given as a prize to somebody?  I look forward to future 10x5 coil reports. 😀

Come to think of it, "La Vencedora" could also be the brand name for that item.

My control box is the source of the extra noise.  I've changed out coils, headphones, factory ML battery and tried 2 different Doc's Gold Screamer battery systems and nothing changes.  I've done this at home, but also on site in the mountains and at both locations still get the extra noises.  

Thanks Aureous for the suggestion to check into Detectronics or Woody for possible repair.

My point comparing my dad's unit to mine was I could swap 1 or all of his known good, new components onto my GPX, including a box swap and still mine would have the issues.  I know I've gone over areas I worked with the 5000 with my 4500 and found missed gold, though I've done that to areas covered with my SDC too.  Conditions, coils and gridding different directions are all variables here along with the use of different GPX machines.

With the GPX 6000 coming out soon I've considered possibly trading in some or all of my gold detectors toward the new GPX.  I've been thinking of my GPX 5000 more lately and wonder what value it has since it doesn't make much sense in a lot of ways to spend $2100+ on a new circuit board.  Its noisy to use for me and tests my concentration.  The 4500 gets EMI too, but not to the same degree.  I have an MP4 audio file of it being noisy but I can't link that here.  I wonder if the 5000 I have sounds defective to other experienced users or not.

Thanks for the help so far.

I can still use my GPX 5000 and find gold with it. Its quiet enough to use temporarily, but invariably starts to act up. In the same spot on the mountain I have issues, my dad and brother's GPX 5000 will experience a momentary zing of EMI siren noise or pick up a plane overhead as expected but quiet right back down.

Mine on the other hand will go from working ok to siren like wails and beeps with the coil still on the ground and using conservative settings and across various timings.  This can continue for a minute or more at times and I just have to wait and hope it passes quickly.  Does anybody else out there have prolonged problems like this?  I've swapped control boxes with my dad's unit in the field and the issue is definitely in the box itself.  

I'm in a similar situation with a GPX 5000 with extra coils I bought 3-4 years ago for close to $3,000.  It had no factory warranty left though it did have 60 days from the place I bought it.  Being relatively new to the platform I wasn't sure the random noises and occasional fits it made weren't more than EMI or something like bad ground patches, etc.  After about 6 months and dealing with increasing spurious noise problems I sent it in for a checkup and repair.

There wasn't much found to be wrong by the repair place other than straightening an internal switch pin and I thought maybe I was just being hyper sensitive or something.  But then my dad bought a brand new GPX5000 and it had none of the issues I was experiencing.  So I sent it back for another look since by then the problems had only become more frequent and more intense.  I was told after the second check up my GPX would need a new board at the cost of around $2800.  At that point I stopped taking it out due to how it became frustrating to impossible after the first 15 minutes to use.  I relied solely on my SDC 2300 for future hunts.  The SDC makes a great back up unit and kept me in the game.  😀

Missing the ability to cover more ground and use my 2 NF evo coils, I ended up buying a used GPX 4500 for $1500.  I figured that was about half the price of a repair of the 5000 and I'd be back in the game for cheaper.  My GPX 5000 has been sitting in the garage unused for a couple of years now and I've wondered what I can do with it like get a cheaper repair or sell it off for parts to recoup some of what I spent on it.  I'll definitely be very interested to see what you all can recommend to Swegin to help with his GPX situation.  

I have the latest software update downloaded but I haven't been out and actually used it, so at this point I don't change the Fe settings at all.  I generally go out for nugges with my GPX.  The Equinox is for occasional coin hunts though I put on the 6" coil this winter and plan to try for some nuggets soon.