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Everything posted by phrunt
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The Equinox is switch on and go, that's why it has default settings, park, field, beach, gold.... go into the suitable one and off you go, if you're struggling with the Equinox you're not going to find any other detector much easier to use. These default settings were set by the designers that knew the detector inside out, I have a funny feeling they knew what they were doing when they selected the default settings. The settings are there if you're trying to get the most out of it as an advanced user, you don't need to use them. Turn it on, pick the mode you want for example Park, set your desired volume level and off you go... find stuff. Worse case scenario do a ground balance or ensure tracking is on if your ground is bad and do a noise cancel if EMI is a problem. Have a flick through the manual, it gives a few hints on using it. Changing from the Equinox to any other detector isn't going to make your life easier. Don't be scared to lower the sensitivity, having the sensitivity maxed out can be daunting if you're struggling to understand it, settle on about half way and get used to it, it's still mighty good with a lower sensitivity and far less troublesome for someone learning it.
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Depth Vs Sensitivity: The View From My Foxhole
phrunt replied to ColonelDan's topic in Metal Detector Advice & Comparisons
This is 1,000,000% correct for me, My Teknetics T2 is probably as deep as my CTX, only it tells me all deep targets are iron or are so wild on the ID's they seem like junk, my CTX and to a slightly lesser extent my Equinox tells me if those deep targets are good, almost to the point its unbelievable by comparison to every other detector I've tried, depth means nothing to me if the ID's are so far off they're useless. If I wanted depth with no decent discrimination and no target identification I'd wander down to my coin spots with my GPX 5000 and it makes the VLF's seem like a toy when it comes to depth. I don't want to dig a million holes in public areas so having accurate identification is a must anywhere other than a beach or an farm field which in NZ is pointless hunting as we have no history. This is why I found the Simplex useless, yes it has good depth if you want to dig everything but it's ID's drop off at very shallow depths by comparison to the Nox or Vanquish or even the Gold Bug Pro or Ace 300i, they all do far better on deep targets than the Simple Simplex. Around here if a coins been there for a while it's very deep so depth and identification mean a huge amount to me, we have soft soil, if we get a lot of rain and you walk on the grass you leave a dent about an inch deep with every foot step in winter ? It's even worse further towards the coast, I had to dig deep holes to put fence posts in at my place down there, they took about a two minutes each to dig 20 inch holes. At my other place in the dyer part of the country inland and at a higher altitude I had to dig holes for posts and it took me about 30 minutes a hole with the same depth with the ground being far harder at a similar time of year. So far for my purpose of deep silver coins in public places the CTX is superior to any other detector I've tried as it's very deep and has great target identification. I really hope Minelab make another CTX type detector and don't discontinue the FBS 2 technology in favour of Multi-IQ, both are good and both have their strong points but they're very different to each other and one has benefits the other does not. A little plug for the Detech Arrow too, for an area with fresh drops after an outdoor concert or something it's an awesome coil, it's a shame it's limited to primitive detectors but still, well worth having in the tool kit. -
He's a very likeable guy and shows and tells it how it is. I'm glad his misguided rock throw didn't land on his control pod or it would be game over. Might be best to throw down wind next time ? The best part about his videos is he doesn't make out like he finds a massive amount of gold and shows the hard work involved with finding a nugget and he seems just as excited as I do with every nugget find, he keeps it realistic. If anyone found fists full of gold when they went out they certainly wouldn't be wasting time talking on a forum or working a day job. I need to take my 6000 further afield from EMI so we can get better antiquated, I'm sure our bond will grow with more use.
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And instances like Bill Southern where his GPX was introduced to a rock in a bad way. I linked the video to start at the juicy bit ? That's one where he should answer NO to the poll question about shaft problems ? I love his attitude in the video, the show must go on!
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That's true, it's impossible to know by a poll like this if any improvements have been made with later release detectors. I've no doubt you look after your customers, I've had some contact me saying you were great with their GPX problems. My dealer was also fantastic and just as annoyed as I was with my problems, my problems become his problems so it's not a win for anybody and it costs him money when things go wrong. On a positive note let's be happy we even have Minelab making our detectors, without them we'd be in trouble ?
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Yes, it seems the competition between users is more fierce than between manufacturers with the VLF's ? The Nox/Legend/Deus 2 thing has gone wildly out of control with even manufacturers stepping in to argue with users and really makes this GPX thing look pretty tame. Even with 70% margin of error those numbers aren't good. It's bound to be something that was beyond their control, and I'm sure it will improve. Prior releases although there have been problems have not been anywhere near like this one. They did this release during a really challenging time around the World and surely that has played a role in the problems. Malaysia was and still is a very hard hit country with Covid. On the plus side it's a great metal detector and plenty of people really like it and we all have our warranties to get problems resolved if and when they pop up. Right now I'm looking forward to trying out some aftermarket coils on it and I'm glad it has a good range of them, a very positive change. JW used a bit of sand paper on his shaft and improved it a lot, if mine bothers me too much I'll do that but it's only twisted a few times so far so I'm not too bothered by it yet and over time plenty of aftermarket alternatives will appear I'm sure.
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The poll seems to have reached its peak now with little change in days so probably captured a bulk of the forums GPX 6000 owners, 34 people have responded to the poll, without including the shaft issue 7 have had a faulty detector, 5 have had faulty coils and this is without including the people that have had two coils fail, or sent their detector back in twice for faults, we know for a fact these people exist that were unable to vote twice with their problems. So at least 12 people have had a faulty GPX 6000 with the coil or detector combined out of 34 people. I'm pretty bad at maths but I'd say that is a 1/3 of the people who have bought one have had a major fault with it. Then as I predicted 50% of the 34 people have had a shaft that twists, so that one can either be put down as a fault or just a poor build quality shaft and I'm sure the other 50% will join that club with some more use especially if they use larger coils for it. Those who haven't yet had a coil die or their detector fault remember, it is early days yet, I just hope if it is going to happen it happens inside your warranty period rather than outside of it so clock up those miles with it while you can just in case. I don't see how it's anything but logical people would have a right to feel angry about this for a $6000 USD metal detector, with the competitions nearest performance detector although widely acknowledged the performance isn't near as good is I guess the Garrett ATX at about $2300 so we are paying a massive premium to be Minelab owners which is OK as long as we get the performance we know they deliver, and the quality we deserve for the price. I'll ride out the rough patch and hopefully different coils and a new shaft make it into what I want from it. The Aussies already have shaft replacement kits appearing at their dealers to resolve the twisting problem and they even say they're essential when using the larger coils. The one they have doesn't shrink the detector down as small so I'm holding out for a better one as one of the attributes I like and that is an improvement over the GPZ is that it shrinks down small for my backpack. I can tell why Steve's business in Alaska was so successful, any person can sell a product, customer service makes or breaks a businesses reputation and he knew exactly how to run a service department, as someone myself that spent many years involved with service departments his statement above was exactly how a good business deals with the difficult task of disgruntled customers with faults. You'd be surprised what having a heart and some empathy can do with turning the most furious customer into a happy one and it makes you feel good when you achieve that. I don't expect Minelab will acknowledge the problems as there are ramifications for them if they do, I'm quite surprised this far into the release the problems still exist as if we are at day one of the release though. It's like they believe if they ignore problems they'll go away. They did this with the CTX coil ears breaking, they used the same damn ears on the Equinox and look at the grief that caused, and now they've used the same ears on the Vanquish. It must be cheaper for them to just keep replacing faulty stuff than it is to actually fix the problem and if anyone has any idea about actual manufacturing costs they'd know the GPX is really not even remotely a $6000 USD metal detector so swapping it out for someone doesn't cost them all that much ?
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Forum Members Hunt Together Sometimes
phrunt replied to Jeff McClendon's topic in Metal Detecting For Coins & Relics
Always good to put a mug to a name. It's a shame you didn't find anything worthwhile but Jeff's crazy soil doesn't really help with that. -
Those English are lucky to have such great hunting grounds with ancient stuff to find, this woman just sniffed out a 2000 year old silver penis with her metal detector https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/metal-detectorist-penis-pendant-kent-b2091712.html
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Who Has Had Issues With Their Gpx 6000?
phrunt replied to Goldseeker5000's topic in Detector Prospector Forum
Gm1000 - Internal speaker failed - replaced under warranty Gm1000 - Coil cracked - replaced under warranty Equinox - Wobbly shaft - replaced under warranty GPX 4500 - Ribbon cable for PCB hairline cracks in wire (outside of warranty, replaced myself with aftermarket cable) Old GPX is built tough. Very happy with my older GPX 4500 and 5000 build quality so can't complain at all about them, tanks! Go-Find 40 - Fold up hinge fell apart - Didn't bother claiming warranty as it's never going to be used, glued it. Hinge seems improved on newer Go-Find 44 model. Pro Find 35 - Unstable / DOA GPZ 7000 - WM12 rubber cover for USB broke in half within weeks - replaced under warranty GPZ 7000 - Lower shaft clip broke replaced under warranty CTX 3030 - Coil ear cracked on 17" coil, fixed myself as what's the point getting it replaced for it to happen again and didn't want the hassles of sending it away and then I'd be doing the fix to the new one straight away anyway to prevent it. Pro Sonic - First one arrived decal upside down so buttons didn't line up, replaced. Pro Sonic - Second one arrived and charged once then never worked again, refunded. GPX 6000 - ! error on startup (DOA), Twisting shaft I think I've remembered all of my problems, I've had so many I probably can't remember them all. I'll update the post if anymore come to mind. I have no problems with Minelab's warranty, they're perfectly normal, just as good as any other company really, the time away and the cost of shipping the products back to them is the big problems with the number of faulty products they sell. -
Running The 15" Cc X Coil Over A 6000 Patch
phrunt replied to jasong's topic in Minelab Metal Detectors
Yes for mono coils you'd need to use the mono coil to make an adapter, for concentric coils you'd need to use the DD coil to make an adapter. The chip tells the detector which type of coil is plugged in, that's it's other purpose. It did it on the GPZ too, my GPZ tells me my X-coils are a NF Z-search when I use my long adapter cable. It seemed the perfect coil to use as I'll never use it anyway so I don't need it's warranty. -
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I've tidied up my unnecessary comments in the discussion with JP. In respect of JP I thought my comments were best tidied up, they were not important to the poll itself and we were a bit off course with our discussion. Thanks to everyone that has contributed to the poll so far, it can be a bit daunting for a potential GPX 6000 customer to read these big long threads with people talking about their problems with very little balance on the other side of it with how many people are happy with theirs and so far the poll results are demonstrating the faults while they do exist are not terrible numbers like it may seem reading the problem/fault threads other than the shaft twisting so new purchasers will know that is something they can likely expect to have happen to them. That's the point of a poll, to get a real balanced result consolidated into an easy to understand result without having to read many pages and threads all over the place to work it out.
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There is another big flaw in the poll too, people that have had multiple problems, some have had their 6000 replaced twice, or two coils fail, all these extra figures don't get to count in the final tally as they can't vote twice. If anything the poll is very in favour of giving a result skewed towards less problems than their really are.
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I understand from a retailers perspective, I've been there, there is nothing worse than customers who think they've got faults and it turns out they just don't know how to use something and it happens far too often ? I've dealt with many thousands of warranty claims in my time. This poll is likely really beneficial for someone selling the detector, and for Minelab, the results may well fall into a normal percentage for the level of faults on a product, if it's under 5% then there is really nothing to be concerned about for customers as it's pretty normal for electronic products. There is no question people will get any faults resolved and that's not the issue at all, that's what warranty is for and LAWS protect the customers there, no matter what any genuine faults get fixed so the poll has nothing to do with if Minelab is good with their warranty, they have to be and they've mostly always been excellent with my warranty claims.
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My guess is 50% of people have had some sort of problem, mostly the shaft obviously, we'll see the final tally with the other stuff over time albeit in a short time sample as it's a 3 year warranty and most haven't had theirs long at all. It really was intended to be a harmless exercise to put everything into perspective rather than all the speculation. A poll on somewhere with a lot more 6000 users would likely give a better sample of data but a smaller sample still gives an idea.
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So far the poll is doing as expected, it's showing the results in favour of less problems than it sounded and after reading threads of GPX problems it does look a lot worse than it is because you hear from people with faults far more than you hear from people without them, with electronics the average failure rate is usually under 5% throughout the warranty period, with often more failures in the first few weeks than through the rest of the warranty period and when faults go over a certain threshold the manufacturers start to take notice and find the source of the issues to correct in future production runs. There is even various software companies making software to help manufacturers deal with this stuff, and it estimates the cost of warranty repairs and the components they need to set aside to get them through the warranty periods. A poll like this is likely to show the problems with the GPX aren't as bad as they seem, shaft aside so it's not really trouble making, it's putting things into perspective and showing the problems may not be as bad as it seems.
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Thanks Norvic, yes but the poll was more about genuine faults where people have sent it into Minelab to get replacements and obviously if it was sent in and comes back no fault found then that wouldn't be included as a fault, it's more if they've had something replaced under warranty. Sorry for my lack of clarification there. The shaft one is tricky as we all have different views of what a quality shaft is it seems.
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The aim of this poll is anonymously clicking boxes showing if people have had problems or not so we can get an idea if the problems are widespread or not. Nobody can vote twice of skew the results as you have to be a signed in member to vote. Please keep your answers honest as the point is to determine how bad the problem with faulty detectors is if there even is an abnormal number of faulty ones to put it to rest if there are an abnormal number of those rather than having to read around threads all over the place where people have had problems or haven't had problems. It just makes it easier to get a general idea.
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Running The 15" Cc X Coil Over A 6000 Patch
phrunt replied to jasong's topic in Minelab Metal Detectors
I agree wholeheartedly with that, a more experienced operator than myself is likely to do a lot better than I do regardless of equipment, JW proves this almost every time we detect ? -
There has been a bit of debate about how widespread GPX 6000 faults are, so what better way than to do a poll and see. I didn't bother including accessory faults like headphones into the mix as they don't really matter as much but would likely increase the number of people with issues. It would be interesting to see how widespread the problems are so a poll seems the best way to work it out. Please be honest with your answers or there is no point to the poll. If you haven't had a fault don't say you have just because you're disappointed about the build quality overall. If your shaft twists but it doesn't bother you you should say yes it twists, this sort of thing helps Minelab be aware problems that they may offer us a solution for, so why hide it? They replaced everyone's Equinox shaft when they had wobbly ones. I've changed the poll to anonymous as some people prefer that they don't reveal who they are in this case.
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Running The 15" Cc X Coil Over A 6000 Patch
phrunt replied to jasong's topic in Minelab Metal Detectors
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Running The 15" Cc X Coil Over A 6000 Patch
phrunt replied to jasong's topic in Minelab Metal Detectors
That was because so far all coils they've made and completed are small monos and my comment was related to larger size coils for the GPX like 17" round and up, not so much Concentrics. After seeing the demand for Concentrics then perhaps it's worth looking into? ? Note all manufacturers have stuck with smaller size coils for it, even though typically in Australia people seem to like 17" round and larger on the GPZ. -
Running The 15" Cc X Coil Over A 6000 Patch
phrunt replied to jasong's topic in Minelab Metal Detectors
No I didn't say that, I said they're not going to make GPX coils at this time not what the reason was, It's nothing to do with the adapters and they've got their guy in Australia willing to make everyone's adapter there which is the biggest market for X-coils outside of their own region, it's no different to the GPZ situation except GPX coils are a lot cheaper. It's the shipping costs making it too difficult to do them at this stage, when the shipping costs a large part of the cost of a coil it's just not viable. The instructions for a GPX adapter will never be public, that was a mistake with the GPZ letting people make their own adapters, that'll never happen again and largely stopped with the GPZ a long time ago now and there has been absolutely no adapter problems with ones that have done it the proper route since. You can't throw someones coil on a ship and have them wait 3 months for it, it has to be done express on planes. Someone in Australia who buys a NF coil has some small domestic shipping fee to get their coil, X-coils have a long haul express flight to take which costs many hundreds and increases the bigger the coil size and weight. Hard to compete in that situation on a lower cost coil even if the coils are significantly better which would not be a surprise but shipping still makes it hard. You'll note they discontinued their older model GPX coils for the same reason, they were very popular and just plug and play but shipping made them no longer viable. Events like the pandemic and the war have only make these shipping problems worse. It's not that they don't want to provide people their coils, it's just too hard. The best solution is time, maybe if people buy the other coils and X-coils come along and release coils that are significantly better then the higher price will be justified, or shipping may start to settle down to pre-pandemic pricing then all bets are off. To think they won't be looking into Concentric coils and all types of windings would be foolish. If there are Minelab restrictions on the other manufacturers with the coils they can make then X-coils will have a big advantage once again.