phrunt

7 minutes ago, Gold Dust Ernie Jr said:

My new F-19 shipped direct from FT in El Paso (purchased on e-bay) has 2 red rubber washers...  

I found it in the GBP manual where it clearly states you only use one washer, so I'm wondering if the second washer they provide with the new F19 is just a spare, and using both washers when you're not meant to might put undue stress on the tiny little thin coil ears? 

7 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

does either of yours have the 3.5 mm socket for the small headphone plug?  They advertised for a while that the Bug came with both sockets but mine only has the 1/4 inch. 

Yes, mine has both

The F19 has a nice cover over the headphone socket though which is something I appreciate as I don't use headphones.

and my Bugs are like this

See about the silver wrap around in my new post here comparing the two detectors.

I was always interested to see the differences with a new model 19kHz Fisher detector, they seem to slip in updates to firmware over time as they work things out, and do other changes to enhance performance and the 19kHz Fishers are really good detectors.

With my Gold Bug Pro's being quite old now, I wanted to compare them to a newer model and see if they had fixed the problems I knew about with mine, and thankfully they have.

My Bugs were bought when I first started detecting, I bought them at a Fisher stockist in Australia as NZ's dealer had no stock and went out of business shortly after, I did manage to get my GBP 10x5" Coil from him before he went down.

The trio

What I noticed immediately was the Gold Bug Pro's ran at 100% gain more stable than the F19, at first I was disappointed by this, especially when the larger Detech Ultimate 13" coil went on the F19 it was noticeable how much more unstable the detector was, 90% gain on the F19 was as stable as 100% gain on the GBP.  

This is the coil I noticed it most on, the smaller Nel snake both ran at 100% gain fine.

With a bit of further testing I've established the F19 has a higher overall gain than the GBP's, this gives increased target sensitivity and depth, so, as a prospecting machine the F19 (new model) is better than my Gold Bug Pro's (many years old models) 

When the GBP is running at 100% gain with the Nel Snake, the F19 with the same coil at 100% gain slightly betters its performance on tiny gold.

These were my test nuggets for comparison.

I also put it up against a much higher performance detector on small gold, the Gold Bug 2, while the audio on the GB2 is much louder on the targets, the F19 was able to give near equal performance as the nuggets were bigger, and the smaller ones the GB2 did better, but the difference wasn't as dramatic as I was expecting.  I retired my GBP's from prospecting detectors a long time ago, but it was a pleasant surprise to see they still do pretty well, especially with the Snake, it gave a significant boost over the Nel Sharpshooter (Cors Fortune) coil, and of course the 10x5" stock coil on small gold. 

The other problem I had with my Gold Bug Pro's was the 99% silver large coin wrap around to iron issue that the Gold Bug Pro had, I am not sure if they have fixed this in newer models but it was a problem on both of my Gold Bug Pros.

Here is a video of the problem I took when I first discovered it.

I was able to fix the problem with my Gold Bug Pro's by opening them up and adjusting a POT, I was careful when doing so, it was ever the slightest turn to get the silver wrap around to go away, I also tested using a ferrite and small lead targets to ensure they were falling into the right place before and after doing the adjustment.

Here is the same Bug once I'd adjusted the POT on a few different large silver coins.  Working well now.

I found this comment on a Youtube video about the F19 and silver coins by someone, they indicated Fisher had fixed up the silver coin problem on the F19, so I tested it out, and indeed it is fixed.

My UK 99% silver crown test coin now comes up in a good spot, this was with the same Snake coil.  I'm going to now re-tweak my GBP's so they come up the same numbers as the F19 by adjusting the POT again, as I'm sure Fisher worked out a better spot to put it than I have, mine was guess work, they would have the proper knowledge to adjust it correctly for best results.

Now the odd thing is when Fisher compare the two on their website they say this

They completely neglect that the F19 has better notching, a backlight, volume control and this new higher sensitivity than the Bug, at least the Bugs I have as the big differences between it and the Bug.

The other odd thing is in their specifications for it on their website they say it takes two AA batteries, buzzzz wrong! It takes a 9v.

Fisher really needs to get their act together, you can't even download the GBP or F19 manual from their website, dead links, and to give incorrect information about models is just wrong, how could they think it takes 2 AA batteries? Some bad cut and paste work going on no doubt.

So, as it stands, unless the GBP has improved since I bought mine someone would be crazy to pay for a GBP, especially if it still costs more like it historically has just for the name, as the F19 is significantly better, I think I may even start using it.

By the way, you can check your Bug firmware version by having it in disc mode, holding down the pinpoint/GG button when you fire it up, mine both come up version 4, and to check it on the F19 you hold down the pinpoint button while in disc mode when you turn it on, not the menu button, and my F19 is version 3.  I wish we could see a changelog of the firmware updates for both detectors.

11 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

The original F19's came in two camo varieties -- green and pink.  Presumably the latter were for women?  When they eventually released the non-camo models the price for those were lower (maybe $50 less), even though they kept the camo model prices higher.

So, there is no difference between F19 models other than the paint colour?  FT detectors are confusing as they make a F75 and keep adding little tiny features and calling it a F75 Turbo Nitro, and add another little software feature and call it a F75 Turbo Nitro LE V2.

If all F19's are the same software wise then the manual I've now got should be the correct one, although it looks like it was written by someone on the booze.

I think I got a paper quick start guide manual with it, but I can't find where I put it.

It's always been hard to take FT seriously, they seem so amateur in the way they run their business, if ever there was a fall of the mighty, they've done it perfectly.   From a dominant force in detecting to rock bottom.

Did you have the large silver wrap around to iron problem with your Bug? Both mine did, I adjusted the pot myself to fix it.  I'll track down a large sivler coin today and test if they got it right on the F19.

I vaguely remember my Gold Bug Pro only used one rubber on the shaft for the coil, I think I remember reading it in the manual or maybe I just couldn't fit both it's been so long I don't remember, I was trying to track down the Gold Bug Pro manual yesterday to verify this but the Fisher website is broken and manuals can't download, I've since re-discovered this forum being the wonderful resource it is has all the manuals so I'll check, but that doesn't change the fact I need to know if the F19 is meant to only use one too? I would assume so being the same detector.  It came with 2 rubbers on the coil bolt and the shaft has the place for both rubbers, but when I try it seems like I'd snap my ears off by using both and these Fisher coils have paper thin ears so I don't want to risk it.

I couldn't see anywhere in the F19 manual that discussed the rubbers but found this page showing the elements of the shaft, it looks like it was written by someone on the heavy stuff, the entire manual has bits through it that look like someone was not in their normal state of mind when they wrote it.    It doesn't mention the rubbers at all.

I sourced the manual from here

I hope they do, although their coils are still being made, they're extremely difficult to buy at the moment, that's to be expected given the circumstances.  I can't see how that will change in the near future though, I'm just glad I have 3 of their coils as they're going to increasingly get hard to get, I think, pricing went sky high initially, it's settled down a bit now but they're still very expensive compared to their previous pricing.

If they do make "storm" coils, it will be a big boost for the detector, having such a large range of coils available for it, and if Garrett sticks to their no chip methods that increases the chances greatly, the problem being these SMF detectors seem to benefit from having a chip in them, it's not just there for security reasons.

Thanks, Not a surprise this is a better resource than the manufacturer page. 

It looks to be the correct manual for my model. they've likely changed the F19 a number of times since release like their other models, I can't remember seeing a F19 super turbo LE V2 Camo release like the main detectors get though, now to see if it has the large pure silver coin wraparound to iron problem the Bugs had.

Well, their new website sucks, looks fancy, but whoever made it did a poor job, the manuals are missing, the links are there yet the files are not.  

I thought I'd download the manual to my new F19, yet, of course... it's a dead link, I tried the French manual link, and it gives me a manual to an entirely different detector, so I tried my Gold Bug Pro to see if I could get it's manual, no joy.  Same error.   Then I thought I'd grab my Gold Bug 2 manual while I'm at it, Yay! it worked, and due to Fisher's incompetence, I was lucky, the manual was for my old model Gold Bug 2, prior to their new can't get the parts anymore downgrade, so people buying a new one will only get the old models manual 😉

Anyone would think they're a business run from someone's Garage.

I think this one is just AI generated.  I knocked one up now and they appear to be using the same coil type.

Tried it on various detectors, did nothing.

The QED added them on to prevent the detector EMI going outwards, not the EMI coming in, a shortcut to doing it properly.  Detectors like the GPZ have them internally at the coil cable entry point.

The GPZ

From the QED manual.

I hate that big thump in your stomach when you buy a new Minelab product and it's a dud when you first fire it up.  Happened with my 6000.  In fact, I've never bought a product from them EXCEPT the Manticore I've not had a warranty claim on for some reason over its life, I guess it's early days for the Manticore.  The funniest one was my Pro Sonic with the upside-down decal so you wouldn't even see the lights and the buttons were in the wrong place to use them because of it 🙂

I'd like to know what their failure rates are, I'm sure they have to be well above industry norm.

I don't think Minelab products are even remotely tested prior to being packaged, rolled off the production line and out the door, not like the old videos I see from the Garrett and Whites factories where they're testing with objects to ensure detectors are meeting specifications, I'm not even sure they work that way anymore at Garrett and Whites died, they're old videos, I think those days are gone with these mass produced detectors, not that it is unusual, most electronic products would never be tested before being packaged up and sold, they just rely on the product quality meaning the DOA levels would be very low.

Do you think people have been digging out under that bank to look for gold, there was a spot around here that was very similar to that, I kept smashing away the edge of the bank and finding gold in the collapsed soil.  I kept going and going until it ran out.  Prior to smashing it up no gold was detectable in the soil.  Mine was a lot rockier than that though.

It was a great visit by Mitchel and his family, very short though, he's so rushed I can see why he's had no chance to put up photos, by very definition it's a whirlwind trip.  We made use of the time we had, unfortunately my wife came down with covid a couple of weeks ago, last weekend JW and I went detecting while my wife had it and I didn't, I even tested myself the morning of our detecting to ensure all would be well and I wouldn't spread it, I came back all clear.  JW found 7 nuggets that trip, I was skunked.  

Fast forward to this weekend and JW is down for the count in bed with Covid, damn it, bad timing! So, he was unable to join us for our adventures, not wanting to spread it to Mitchel and his family while they're on holiday.  I did my best to take Mitchel to spots I hoped he'd come away with a piece or two, places I thought I'd have hope of finding something, but gold is gold, if I knew where it was, I'd have it all already so I just took him to productive areas where I'd found gold.

We also went to the local gold shop, where the guy that runs it is a very experienced detectorist and had been detecting my local area well before even JW came into town, he was telling Mitchel all about the areas we were detecting and how much gold he used to get out of these areas, let's just say Reg Wilson would be happy to detect these spots back then 😛

The shop also has lots of big nuggets found in the local area on display, including a 500 gram nugget found on the West Coast and plenty of large nuggets found locally, even in the river right beside the shop.

Mitchel got some great photos, I was not using my phone much for photos or anything as I'd forgotten to charge it, I plugged it in before taking off but I forgot to plug the other end into the charger plug so it was just plugged into the cable!!! I had to conserve whatever battery I had and I didn't have a charge cable in my car to use while driving.

Either way, I hope Mitchel had a good trip, short but sweet, now he'll know when I do my gold posts what I've been going through to the find the gold and the basic idea of the areas I'd be in, a bulk of the gold I've shown found on this forum has come from the two places he went to including my two biggest nuggets, one from each location and both just over 4 grams.

Mitchel was very kind and used some of his suitcase space to bring me over an F19 from the Fisher fire sale, I got this for my daughter on the odd time she comes up to the ski fields looking for coins and rings after the seasons over.  It's about the only time I can get her to use a detector as it's at her favourite place, the ski fields and her favourite detector is the Gold Bug Pro.  I have some really great Nel coils for the GBP and the Detech Ultimate 13" so the F19 is a good update to give me volume control.

Now the other wonderful thing Mitchel did is bring both JW and I a selection of his finds, we each got a little baggie with some [Place name of them here, I've forgotten] and a meteorite.  As Mitchel likely knows, meteorites are a massive deal in NZ, they're impossible to ever find, and when one hits people go by the hundred in organized groups to try find it, it's something I'll treasure forever.  I can even look like an American now crusing around in my new Santa Monica T-Shirt. 🙂

Day one we went to a place Mitchel had a good chat to the gold shop guy about, we only had the afternoon there with it being such a busy trip.  Its a place my best patch was over 15 grams with the biggest nugget being over 4 grams.

I used the 6000 and my favourite coil on it, the 10x5" Coiltek.  

I managed to get a short little video of the target when I first found it as I was starting to clear the dirt off the bedrock, I knew at this point it was very likely to be gold as it was inside the schist, not on top of it like a bit of junk or pellet would likely be so I walked over and gathered up Mitchel and his wife to come have a look.

As you can see, even my sparkly new F19 would have found this one.

This is after the bedrock was smashed away, Mitchel actually helped doing that as he was using the heavier pick which was better to smash the rock away, his wife I believe filmed the whole thing so he maybe able to put up a proper full video when he gets home.  Took us a while to get it out of the rock.

And this is it.

Close to half a gram, not too bad.

A shame we didn't find any more than this the entire two days, but that's gold for you.  A real shame JW wasn't with us, I think he would have found a few more, he has the special knack.

The next day I went back to old faithful, my GPZ with 8" coil, one of my favourite combos, probably should have used the 15" CC in this big open country area but I'd previously done well at this spot with the 8", probably the combo that's found my most nuggets there, and one of my biggest, a 4.1 gram.

This is the only photo I took yesterday.

It shows all the exposed bedrock Mitchel was talking about.

And here are the videos of my best two days in the area.

These are for you Mitchel, the 8" At the spot we went yesterday.

And the 15" Concentric when the patch was found

They were in the same general area you were in yesterday, walking distance from where we were and I could see where the 4.1 came from while we were there detecting, so you can see why I had hopes we might find some gold around there.  You'll probably recognise the area a bit when the camera moves around 🙂

We stopped in to see JW on the way home, Mitchel got to see JW's gold collection, thousands of bits. 

Anyway, I hope you make it back to this side of the world again Mitchel, and I hope next time you have a lot more time to spend here to give finding some local gold a really good shot, thanks again for coming to meet us.

56 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

MMMMmmmm.... You wait a further 12 months & there will be less gold for you to find. Early bird gets the worm. One thing for sure is that ML honour their warranties & your mates who get the new detector straight off the bat will get the gold you would have most likely shared in with them. Food for thought.

D4G

Waiting doesn't work anyway, I waited over 12 months for the GPX 6000, still got a dud 🙂

49 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

Bit like Steve's insane high end settings. Not for everybody & obviously not for you but can be the difference in hearing signals among that "noise". The reality of that "noise" is that it just becomes part of the threshold to your ear & your brain/hearing adapts to it almost subconsciously given a bit of time & any target signals stand out.

I run HY/Normal/19 all the time on my GPZ, they may be considered insanely high settings but to me they're normal, they're not ratty, if the GPZ let us put up the sensitivity to something like 25 then it would probably become ratty, the reason I don't go to 20 on the sensitivity is it gives that little bit of instability that 19 doesn't.  I haven't noticed an improvement in performance using 20 over 19, so I just prefer to keep it purring along perfectly at 19.  The GPX on the other hand even on lowest sensitivity is more ratty than the GPZ on 19.  Well at least for me it is as soils conditions don't create noise, so I guess a way for someone to replicate that would be to run their GPZ holding it up in the air away from soil 🙂

I find the little 8" runs really nice too as it's just not affected by EMI as much as bigger coils being so tiny.  

I understand people loving the GPX for its performance, it's great, I'm just a GPZ type of person, and I'm not at all bothered by its weight.  I get no more worn out swinging the GPZ all day than I do the GPX,  it's not my arms that get tired, it's my legs 🙂

I have neither, but do have the 800, Manticore and Deus with both HF coils which is almost the ORX, I'd pick the Manticore first, Nox 800 second and Deus with HF coils 3rd.  

The Nox with 10x5" is more like the Deus performance wise on small gold in milder soils, with the 6" coil I find the Nox better for smaller gold.  

At this point for me, buying anything other than the Manticore is settling for second best.  I just hope the Manticore gets more coils in the future from Coiltek.

1 minute ago, dig4gold said:

@Phrunt. I thought after the EMI fix on your 6000 that you loved it. What's changed?

D4G

I used my GPZ again after some time of having it stored in the cupboard to try get my monies worth out of the GPX 🙂

I just love my GPZ, it's a detector that suits me, I like the stable threshold, I like the double blips on pellets from the DOD coils, I like that I find it easy to use, I like that it talks to me in a way I can understand.    I've always liked really stable detectors, and always struggled with ratty detectors, the GPZ maxed out is so much more stable than the GPX on low sensitivity.  I guess I just like the GPZ more no matter how hard I try to like the GPX.  

My GPX is dramatically more stable after the fix, if you recall my earlier posts on the GPX I hated it, I can now deal with it, but just prefer the GPZ.  It may be detrimental to my detecting as the GPX may find some gold I'll miss with the GPZ, no way to know, although I'm sure that goes both ways.  

I just gel with the GPZ and the GPX is something I put up with.

I think they're behind in the single frequency VLF gold detectors, with Garrett in the lead there.  They have stated they're moving away from single frequency detectors although broke that already to bring out budget models, but their next Gold VLF is likely to be some form of multi-IQ, but needs to give something they've not already done to the multi-purpose units.  They can't just give it better coils like nice solid ones and think it'll sell well; I'd not spend the money to buy it when I already have the Manticore.  Maybe they'll release one, but it's not going to be a smash hit with people rushing out excited to get it.

I'm wondering if we are at the end of dedicated gold VLF's even being viable, and even then, they'd have to be cheap seeing a multi-purpose machine can do it well now.  

The GPZ is a tricky one, the more people that have invested in aftermarket coils the harder it is to bring out a new model unless its significantly improved.  Can they significantly improve it? I wouldn't buy it if it were lighter and added discrimination.  That's not worth 10 grand or more to me, it would have to blow my GPZ away to think about buying it, the hard-core prospectors that find a lot of gold will buy it and think it's great, but they're a much smaller portion of the market, Minelab needs a lot of people to buy it, just not the very successful gold finders as they need sales to bring in a good profit especially with the African market being close to dead.

I wasn't blown away by the 6000, but its small gold sensitivity over the stock GPZ seems to have the market excited and has likely taken over as their best seller by far and they're going to happily let that be the sales winner for them for some time so they don't need to rush a new detector to market, competitors are starting to nibble at their heels but nothing to be too worried about just yet in taking control of the market, but the competitors are taking a lot of sales Minelab missed by high pricing.  These sales won't show on Minelab's figures spreadsheets as they were never going to be Minelab customers anyway, but they've missed a lot of PI sales that have gone to Algoforce especially and Garrett in the US by people who were not willing to pay the big money but happy to pay less for a detector.  Nokta is going to come out at some point and take even more of this market.

My expectation is a new GPZ is not coming soon, they'll more than likely release a detector to fit into the Allgoforce, Axiom and Nokta PI range, and be competing in that area of a well-priced PI.  You could say the 5000's already there, but a new detector gets a lot of sales, not an old one.  They won't want to lose that market share of the lower cost PI to competitors as that's just the start of things to come, like VLF's all over again.  Minelab have completely lost any dominance over the VLF market, and their share is shrinking by the day, hence the deep discounting of the Manticore.  They will want to get into this lower priced PI arena before it's too late.

Looks like a Garrett AT in the middle, and a Fisher to the right, but they're saying the best finds are made with good company, meaning that a Garrett person can get along with a Fisher person, they don't have to hate each other for using different brands! A good message behind that.  I don't know if it was intentional, but people don't need to look down on people for choosing a different brand or model detector than they use.  

yea, if you're in ground the EVO's on the GPX 4500 were noisy I think you would find the same with the spirals and it's the reason X-coil make standard bundle DOD coils too like the Z-search coils, the sensitivity would be the main benefit other than being able to pick the size coil you really want to use rather than the Z-search which is almost the same size as the stock coil, if you don't need that it's a pointless exercise.   

As Lesgold was pointing out he was able to find gold deeper with the 12" than the 14x13", that makes sense as at the right size gold there is always a cross over a smaller coil will do better than a bigger one on some gold, even if it's only slightly smaller, pretty hard to find that sweet spot in the wild but I guess they were able to do that with various target checking between the two.

As we all know different ground changes results.  I cruise around in HY/Normal with a sensitivity of 19, I can easily run 20 with any of the X-coils so I'm one that benefits a lot from the extra sensitivity as it doesn't change my stability at all and we are a place that tiny gold is the gold you're going to find 99% of the time, but I find 19 sensitivity has a more stable threshold which I like and going that extra notch to 20 doesn't seem to provide anything much more than a little bit more unstable threshold.  In saying that, the 7000's a dream even at 20 to run for its stability over the 6000.

I was just using the 7 with 8" yesterday after not using it for a few months as I wanted to get my money's worth out of the 6000 as if it plays up out of warranty, I'm just getting rid of it, I may even offload it before the warranty runs out as I don't have a lot of faith in it being a long lasting detector, what a smooth nice running detector the GPZ is by comparison, I'd forgotten how smooth it runs compared to the 6000, in fact it was just purring along perfectly.

A fault that makes it run fine yet not be as sensitive as the competitor's coil 🙂

With the background of the story behind it they had the opportunity to replace it if they thought it was faulty, but how would that go when the replacement arrives and I put up videos of it in comparison again being no better? Better to leave that shadow of doubt in people's heads than take that path.

Anyway, old story, new story is people who have the same X-coil have since had the same results, you can check on the X-coils facebook group with the users if you like.

NF are excellent at making spiral coils, had they been able to make the Z-search a spiral I'm sure it would be different story.  

11 minutes ago, dig4gold said:

From my understanding he got one 2nd hand, considered it a lemon & chopped the chip end off it to make an adapter for his X coils. There was a long standing debate from JP that it may have been a faulty coil from production but Phrunt just roasted it & gave it no 2nd chances.

D4G

Correct, I thought it was a lemon because it lacked performance compared to the 12" Spiral I was comparing it to, it works fine, but is virtually no more sensitive than the stock coil.   The previous owner had X-coils and bought it to compare, had it a couple of weeks and sold it to me as he didn't see a need to have it, it came with receipt I could have sent it in for warranty, he could have swapped it out at the dealer it was so new but neither of us think its faulty, we just think it's not as good for performance.  

It was a given that a shadow of doubt would be put over my coil being faulty as I was putting up videos showing it lacking performance compared to the competitors right as it first came out.  There is a story to go with this but I'll not put it here.

7 hours ago, TE Gold said:

I have question for Phrunt, have you used 12"NF Z Search?

Are the equivalent X coils really noticallby better, not the CC just the spirals?

Yes, I have the 12" Z-Search, had it since it first came out, if we ignore the CC's as they're vastly different and we go 12' X-Coil vs 12' Z-Search the stand out factor is of course the 12" X-coil is a spiral coil, the Z-Search is a bundle wound coil the same as the stock GPZ coil, so that's the main difference.  It's also why I don't understand people saying the 12" NF is far more sensitive than the 14x13" stock coil, they're both the same windings, only slightly smaller coil and from all my testing they're very similar on small gold sensitivity just like jumping up a size on X-coil is, such as the 8" is very similar to the 10" X-coil for sensitivity, both bundle wound coils due to their smaller size.

If you have used a Spiral coil on the older GPX, and then used a bundle coil of the same size you would have a bit of an idea of the difference in sensitivity or you could use something like the 12' EVO vs the 11' Commander for an example.  The Commander being smaller should be more sensitive, yet it's nowhere near it.

Somewhere on Youtube I did a video showing the 12" Spiral detecting a small bit of gold under rocks, then I showed the Z-Search doing the same, the Z-Search was very disappointing compared to the 12" Spiral.   I also did a shotgun pellet test between the two in another video, again vast difference in performance.  This is only for someone that cares about small gold.  As gold gets bigger the two coils probably even out a bit...

Of course it's not all roses though, I'm sure there are tough soil situations the stock coil and Z-Search will handle bad ground better, being less sensitive.

With Australia and NZ never having experienced a GPX 5000 stock issue and the US dealers saying it was discontinued there was some confusion going on, I asked here and was told it's not discontinued.    Now it appears it's back at the US dealers, so was this a false alarm? Did the US dealers think it was discontinued for some reason without being told it was? Maybe due to a stock shortage or low demand in the US so stock being allocated to other countries with better sales.

New Gpx-5000’s W Warranty Back In Us And Others - Metal Detecting & Prospecting Classifieds - DetectorProspector.com

Brand New Minelab GPX 5000's Available, 2 Coils - Metal Detecting & Prospecting Classifieds - DetectorProspector.com

The GPX 5000 sounds like it is still a popular choice for Africa, good value and just works, built tough for tough conditions and they're just used to using it and know it gets results.  That doesn't sound like a detector you would discontinue unless you had a genuine replacement, which the GPX 6000 is not, very different detector.

I think they do, this file is version 2 of the manual

and it has the stabiliser setting, which is only available after the update

They just don't mention in a changelog in the manual the changes associated with the new firmware.