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phrunt

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Everything posted by phrunt

  1. Awesome, now that's a great maiden voyage. I'm glad I'm not the only one with the red/blue headphone problem as now you've proven it exists, no one seemed to reply about that. I've drained mine flat and recharged and tried various chargers and all sorts of things to fix that. Still waiting back to hear from Minelab what they want to do about my GPX and headphones, they're obviously in no rush to resolve it. I knew you'd like the 6000 over the 4500 🙂 You'll have to go over all your 4500 spots all over again now! The 6000 does indeed hate the coil being angled, I can no longer use the edge to pinpoint, it gets angry at me and tells me off for doing it.
  2. The Thunder and Storm are the only ones they made that look like that, and with the SuperFly being their latest coil design they went back to the more rounded Tornado winding look. I don't have a Superfly, I ordered one ages ago but it was lost in the post so I never reordered it and just got the refund, I do love my Tornado though, great coil that one. I'd be interesting in what you think of the Thunder, it seems a bit of a stock coil alternative more than anything. It'd be good to hear how it goes on the Simplex as I'm still considering buying an alternative coil for my Simplex to try improve it's Target ID capabilities if possible.
  3. A brand new never used Minelab Quattro FBS has popped up for sale in NZ. Imagine that, a 14 year old detector, never used https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/business-farming-industry/industrial/electrical-equipment/gauges-meters/listing/3585346977?bof=zX9L8oFH Interestingly included in the advertisement is the distributor for Minelab at the time's invoice selling it to the retail store so perhaps the retail store never sold it and it got put in a cupboard out the back or something for 14 years and it just got forgotten, it's a shame they're not collectable as this one would be gold. 🙂
  4. Ok Nenad, your tips were very helpful, I appreciate that. I just drove about 20 minutes away from the nearest power line, in a remote farm area with no known major EMI sources to me, my GPX had a threshold I'd even call a nice threshold on the highest manual sensitivity, much better than what I've ever had with it previously. It still went crazy with EMI randomly especially when I put it down to dig something but a noise cancel fixed it up and it went good again, sometimes just picking it up and walking a bit calmed it down again, Geosense confuses me 🙂 Running the detector on the lowest volume caused quite a marked improvement in stability I think, it also made smaller targets easier to hear, that and it was running far nicer. I was using headphones so even though the GPX volume was on lowest it was plenty loud enough. I've also fixed my coil cable to keep it further away from the coil, much like Sheppo's example in his photo. I didn't take my phone with me for two reasons, one was any introduced EMI and two I wasn't going to bother doing a video as I had my doubts it would make any meaningful difference in performance adjusting a few things. What took me by surprise is there was virtually no performance difference at all when using difficult over normal with the GPX, not that I could see anyway, I expected it be be like the GPZ where if I switch to difficult the detector becomes neutered on small gold compared to normal, it makes quite a difference. Then I had a lightbulb moment. Because I can run my GPZ maxed out in normal the performance is unlike those that have to run in difficult with their GPZ where as with the GPX those that would normally have to run in difficult on their GPZ with the lesser performance also run in difficult on the GPX yet the GPX performance isn't hindered by being in difficult. This possibly means they'll get better small gold performance on the GPX than they would the GPZ. It's all starting to make sense now! 🙂 While in these settings like difficult and lower volume level along with a different location away from EMI I didn't really get much of an overall performance improvement I did get quite the usability improvement and I could also hear the faint small targets a fair bit better than before due to the lower GPX volume. I'm now thinking I need to rig up my SP01 Enhancer to the GPX and take advantage of this lower volume stability. Thanks again, they were great tips. I also found the Avantree Torus neck speaker thing on Amazon Australia so that's been ordered, free delivery to NZ and only $149AUD.
  5. Things certainly aren't improving. The top chart is the past month, the bottom is the year to date. And this is for the past year I'm so glad I dumped mine after the highs of the Equinox. Losing 63% in a year. We'll they just squeezed $8500 NZD out of me late last week so that might help them a bit 🙂
  6. thanks, that's the only video of hers I've ever watched 🙂
  7. I'm hoping its a battery contact issue and am talking to my dealer about it being the possibility and hes talking to Minelab about it too to see if its possible a bad battery contact would cause the ! error., the ideal situation for me is Minelab just take a look at it rather than replace it, then at least I'd know what was wrong. If it was the battery contact problem then tapping it lined them up properly or popped them through the little holes if they were misaligned at the factory and the problem should be resolved forever. I didn't even look at the terminals when I was having a problem to check if they were there, not that I knew to as I could have just popped them into place and then not even done this thread had I have known. Thanks for all the tips Nenad, yep, I was running full volume so I'll drop that back a bit, I tried difficult when looking for gold for an hour or so until I noticed after doing one of my multiple factory resets to calm it down, I haven't tried difficult when testing nuggets so I'll give that a shot. I'll give it a go in manual with it at 12 or 1 o'clock, sounds about right as it did seem to improve a little dropping down to around there. I'll bury some targets and see what difference if any it makes on performance. And I'll re-adjust my coil cable 🙂 I'm waiting to hear today what they're going to do with it. I'm going to have to buy some vinyl adhesive covering or something and cover my coil like Sheppo, I've scratched the crap out of it with one day detecting from my scoop. The plastics quite soft, it's like its made from recycled ice cream containers. Oi, don't get lippy about my 0.03 of a gram nugget! It's what we have around here 😛 When I found the 4 gram nugget the other day I struggled to fit it into my gold bottle, I just don't need a big gold bottle 🙂 These are the nuggets I've compared with so far, it hasn't won on any of them. When I mixed up nuggets it was the two on the left, the top left and the bottom left, you can see they're the most used with their containers scratched up from my rubbing the coil on it trying to get a hit on it with the GPX. As you can understand burying this little nugget is going to only have 2 to 4 cm of soil over it before the GPX no longer gets it if that, it's almost nothing. They're a good indication of nuggets I find around here though and why my focus is on the small stuff, they're some of the nuggets from the past few trips out that I haven't dumped into the collection yet. Here is an unexpected positive though, this is my battery, it's only ever had the initial charge when I got it, this has done a detecting day from about 10am until around 5pm with about an hour of hiking and eating lunch so I would say just over 6 hours, along with about 1 to 2 hours of testing and it's still only 1 bar down. This was having used the speaker for the time between 10am and about 1pm and the headphones for the rest of the day and a majority of the 1-2 hours testing has been on the speaker so I could record video. I must say I'm pleasantly surprised with the battery life.
  8. It's come to my attention from a helpful fellow owner my GPX may not have a bad solder joint like some other buyers have had, I think my GPX 6000 problem may have just been just poorly aligned battery contacts and not a fault at all, for GPX owners if you look there are two little spring loaded pins that connect the battery to the terminals surrounded by rubbers, it's quite possible one of these spring loaded contacts was not extending properly, initially it may not have come out at all causing there to be no power, after tapping on the control box the terminal popped out a bit further causing poor contact and coming up with the ! error on the screen as seen in this video. After knocking on the control box again and again when it was playing up it's possible it popped all the way out causing good contact which explains why after doing that my GPX has worked fine ever since. Obviously this is an unproven theory. If this is the case it's a possibility my GPX was never "faulty" at all, I was just unlucky with a minor problem and if this is my problem then it's not an issue at all.
  9. I'm not sure what nationality she is, she's certainly not Australian, European of some sort. Man those flies were bad, I don't miss that about Australia although you never need to take lunch along, you've got plenty of protein from all the flies you accidentally eat. It was funny when one went up her nose, who knows what happened there, she didn't seem to get it out.
  10. I get a kick out of it too, that's awesome man! I'm envious, I've never found a chain. Put them all on at once and you'd give Mr T a run for his money.
  11. I think they've resolved that on the GPX now Rob, have you checked a newer one from your stock? I used mine quite roughly, its a 3 day old GPX and had no problems at all with shaft twisting, if it was going to twist on me with what I was doing in the long grass it would have twisted. I didn't even think I did the shaft up particularly tight. I spent the day flattening out grass with it.
  12. I look forward to trying one out 🙂 I intend to try all the small coils. Fortunately GPX coils should be cheaper than GPZ being simpler to make.
  13. It's easy for experienced users to forget how difficult things such as EMI can be to a beginner, and how confused things like that can make them, I don't think it's a good beginner machine. I think the GPZ is significantly easier to use mainly due to the EMI/Geosense stuff and more stable threshold, of course the GPX has no settings you need to mess with and is more like the Gold Monster in that way, but nor does the GPZ for me, its been a set it and forget it detector for the most part. Although I'm finding the GPZ reacts just the same if not more so to tiny iron fragments and little tiny bits of wire especially, it goes nuts, that could be to do with my coil selection though more so than anything, iron and steel are the easy targets and I find bits I can barely see, the small round lead is the more difficult. If anyone thinks they can hit a number #9 lead pellet with the GPX 6000 they're a hell of a lot better at using it than I am.... not a hope in the world would I ever find one with it.
  14. Yes you're correct there, I always say its not mineralised but that's just compared to Australia, as you've likely seen in some of my videos even the GPZ was reacting to the ground badly on occasion, there are patches of it where the GPZ has trouble balancing or reacts to the ground giving false target responses, if its in normal and requires difficult and I've demonstrated my pick handle covered in black sand many times from my dig holes. If I bury a nugget in my backyard and try detect it with my Equinox I get far more depth than if I bury the same nugget in the gold areas, the soils look completely different too. My backyard is nice brown vege garden looking soil, the gold areas are this very light coloured almost golden colour soil and so different. The Equinox doesn't get near the depth in this golden coloured soil as it does in the brown stuff. Would you say the GPX prefers a slow or very slow sweep for harder to get edge of detecting targets? You may notice in those comparison videos I did whenever I was trying to really get a target I took the swing very slow hoping it'd appear as I've found this works on the GPZ.
  15. I'm the first to admit I'm not super experienced and highly skilled and the first thing I noticed about JW who is far more experienced than me was he was using the GPZ swing arm on his GPX , he was also only using headphones on his GPX even though on his GPZ he was almost always 99% of the time using his B&Z booster twin speaker setup so I think you're right on the money there JP and I'm taking the advice. Their target market however on the GPX has been inexperienced users, easy experts, I find the GPZ easier to use but in saying that I've had a lot more hours on it, I don't recall my first day using it but I think I came back pretty happy and found it easy to use, in saying that my soil conditions significantly take a lot of the challenge away from detecting. As Sheppo pointed out he's constantly using the quick trak to keep his 6000 happy, I can't notice the difference between using it and not using it although I do use it just in case there is something I don't know or understand which is very likely 🙂
  16. Thanks, I tried to buy an Avantree yesterday, a few months ago when they were all the talk I googled it and found a place selling them in NZ, now I can't find that place anymore so I think it's no longer sold here and can't find anywhere selling them in NZ anymore, I would have to buy it in Australia and get it shipped over by the looks of it. It seems a popular choice and Norvic loves his one too and he's a real straight shooter. If any Aussies know places to buy it please let me know, I'm not having much luck every place I find it at will only ship domestically in Australia.
  17. I think that's also well engineered. Imagine the chances of finding a watch in the middle of nowhere like that, the odds were incredibly low, she was so lucky 🙂
  18. I'm sure you'll find places where the 5000 is better than the 6000 and 7000. I'm never going to sell any of my gold detectors I like them all, the only one to ever go was the QED and that was more personal than anything. I have a 4500 and 5000 and even then I'm seeing reasons to keep the 4500. Although more ratty I find it more hot on the smaller stuff in sensitive extra with tests, not actual gold finds as I've never even taken my 5000 out for a gold hunt although an area with crazy hot rocks is the reason I bought it in the first place, I just haven't been back there yet.
  19. Thanks, it seemed to do pretty well, is that Coiltek test site near a bit of EMI, you seemed to struggle a bit with EMI although not as bad as mine seems. It's interesting how at low sensitivity levels it still performs pretty good on the bigger deeper stuff with a more stable detector. I'm sure it is going to grow on me, it's very early days, one prospecting trip so far. I think my instability is due to the solder problem, I appreciate your video.
  20. and the Gold Monster for the tiny stuff, Minelab have got it all worked out 🙂 I may as well have walked into my dealer and said, I'll have one of everything thanks. It's funny, and sad at the same time Minelab are competing with themselves with their detectors.
  21. I loved the idea of the speaker, now I'm not so sure I like speakers anymore on any detector, after being forced to use headphones with the GPX I found the advantage of them, the nugget the 6000 did find me was a very faint signal, I know I'd not hear that signal with my speakers as my hearing just isn't that sensitive with background noises like wind or even just having the speakers further from my head, the clarity of audio with the headphones was significantly better, I've never been a headphone user for anything so didn't really know the difference. I run my GPZ so loud with speakers it annoys JW but that's so I can hear all the faint stuff, headphones make that much easier. I think I might even find some headphones I like and move onto them on both detectors. The 6000 headphones fit my head really well and were very comfortable apart from I kept hitting them with my pick and it made a much louder bang than it should due to the ear muffs being on as headphones stick out a lot and I carry it over my shoulder a lot, that's just something I can adjust for. I'd be happy using them on both detectors if they didn't have the high pitched hissing sound all the time, maybe if I get them replaced the new ones won't have that, and if that's the case I'm going to start using them on both detectors. So am I now a headphone guy? quite possibly, I just need to find some I like, at least there are hundreds of options from many brands. I'm still excited about my GPX, just not as excited as I was and having the ! mark fault on it has really made me question it and I spent the entire day using it questioning if it was even working right so finding the bit of gold at the end of the day perked me up a bit. It is early days and I've got a lot of time on it yet to learn it and it's benefits. In their standard form with standard coils I honestly don't know which I'd choose, the GPZ's threshold and ease of use is more my style but I think the GPX performs better on the smalls over the standard GPZ and that's what I care about most so if I could only have one in that scenario it'd be the GPX.
  22. Yes Steve, we did discuss it a fair few times, you did tell me on multiple occasions so I've only got myself to blame, an excited puppy dog with a new toy. JW also gave me a bit of a warning about it too when I asked if I should get one the week before I bought it. I'm certainly not blaming anyone. If the performance of mine is a bit off it and it could very well be, the guy that sent me his repair form that had the same problem felt his was under performing too and his repaired one he thought performed better and was certainly more stable, but he sold it anyway once he got it back. I hope the new one comes back slightly better, if not I've always got the smaller coils to look for which will close the gap. If it ends up my GPZ is better on the small gold with my setup that's fine, I will use the GPX for what it's good for, hiking long distances, biking into places with it in a backpack or for when I'm tired and can't be bothered with the GPZ and I just used to use a VLF in those situations and the GPX destroys a VLF. The weight is certainly it's advantage, I absolutely love that about it, if it means someone can spend a day or days swinging that they couldn't do with another detector, it's a winner for sure. It's a shame they couldn't put a GPZ into a GPX housing and make it a similar weight, perhaps that's the GPZ 8000, I better start saving my pennys for that now. My reason for checking the performance against the GPZ was to establish if its faulty, I didn't want my dealer to have to take it back and swap it if its performing as it should, I still have some hope its got a performance fault based off the other guy with the same ! mark problem on his where he was tapping the control box. I don't want Minelab to replace it if its not faulty and the ! mark error was just some form of loose connection or something. On a side note my dealer mate found a very impressive nugget with his 6000 on his helicopter trip, a real beauty too. I probably shouldn't have tried to fix it by doing the side taps as when it wasn't even turning on I could have swapped it over straight away as a dead DOA and not have to worry about anything else, now its working it's not as simple. Anyway, as JW said to me there might be a cross over point on gold sizes where the GPX does better and there are many variables even the prickly bits that change results, he's really enjoying his one and using it a lot and doing well with it, finding gold that was possibly missed by the GPZ combo, he wouldn't do that if he didn't like it, so I'm sure it will grow on me over time especially when small coils arrive. I will now just report what happens with the detector, if they replace it or not etc, other than that there is little more to say, hopefully my next post is me showing some nugget finds with it 🙂
  23. I can't believe Ford are telling you to buy a new truck when your existing one is still under warranty with a bad gearbox, tell them to rip the gearbox out of the new one and put it into yours 🙂 Sorry to hear things are that bad. I've no concerns about Minelab's warranty, I've virtually had to claim warranty on every product I've ever bought from them from minor things to major and they've been fantastic every time and I'm sure it will be the case with the GPX too.
  24. That is a stellar weekend, they don't come often like that, especially to me. Well done, the Good Ol' Gold Monster.
  25. Yup, same nugget, It's worth a shot checking as I'm trying to determine if my GPX is playing up with performance too so I'd appreciate if you could test a couple of very small nugget sizes and compare. I'm using the rocks so I can show I'm not manipulating heights and so on, there are always skeptics and rightly so, I'm sure a lot of people rig videos to make them how they want them to appear. If I don't end up giving the GPX back tonight for whatever reason I'll do the tests again tomorrow with a different assortment of nuggets as I already know the results. I only have one nugget I found with the GPX so far and it's that 0.08 of a gram so it's a bit big for a small gold test. I could drop down to a 0.02 of a gram nugget and take the scales down and prove the weight also I guess, make it even harder. I'm really not fussed, I've got nothing to hide. I know what I'll do I won't hold the camera I'll sit it on the ground zoomed in so you can see from side on the coil heights better. By the looks of it those with a Nugget Finder Z-search for their GPZ can have confidence knowing their detector isn't much different to the GPX 6000 on that particular .03 of a gram nugget anyway and they don't need any cable modifications. The dealer has contacted me now, the balls starting to roll. If I end up with another one I'll redo the tests above. Sorry to hear about all of your troubles, hopefully everything comes right for you 😞 I hope you don't lose your entire season, that'd be terrible. UPDATE: It's not the same nugget sorry, I mixed them up, this nugget is the 0.044 of a gram I found just the other day that came up 0.03 of a gram on JW's scales, I accidently mixed up the two little containers, either way it makes no difference as I ran the GPX over this slightly larger one again anyway. My apologies, they look the exact same size but it has a bit more meat on it. The only video with the 0.03 was the first video comparing the 8" coil to the 11" GPX, all the rest of the filming was done with this 0.043. The 0.03 is a 0.039 nugget so very similar size but less thickness. It all comes down to how accurate peoples scales are, the 0.0X of a gram scales tend to be inaccurate on small targets, mine are 0.001 of a gram scales.
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