Jonathan Porter

And don’t forget all the back yarders who are beavering away designing add ons that will make it work properly because ML don’t know 💩 from clay, or who delve into its windings and allude ML have copied someone’s ideas. 🤨 🥱 😒

The only reason why I’ve highlighted the so called ‘issues’ with the 6K is to head all the negative naysayers off at the pass, I am so used to them coming out of the woodwork that I now actually find myself arguing the case before they even start, which is just plain nuts!! 😜 Simon I would be very interested in where you got your “someone who knows” info 🧐 , the word spiral wound or flat wound was never really used or alluded to during field testing. The 6000 sensitivity is all about the electronics that is where the performance is coming from. Flat wound aftermarket coils on the previous GPX machines actually forced the electronics to do something they were never designed to do in the first place (it works pretty well though) and is why they seem to saturate so badly in hot ground when in reality it is more likely X signal (VRM) that people are hearing combined with the saturation due to the forcing of the electronics. JP

With the 6000 it takes a while to train your brain to listen to the quieter rock solid threshold and not all the little pitch changes, it is what I call a busy detector and can take some getting used to coming from a 7k or a muffled 5K. Do not be afraid to lower the sensitivity to half to smooth things out then slowly increase from there once you have your ear in. The 5k out of the box has its Stabilizer control set to half way (10, equivalent to High Audio Smoothing on the 7K), this artificially smooths out detector behaviour and is akin to running the 6K on about 2 or 3 (sort of, the sensitivity control on the 6K is more complex than that oversimplification). Good going on the gold Northeast 😊 JP

I just want to talk about detectors and gold, I do not mind robust conversation but this constant nit picking just wears me down (and yeah I probably deserve some of it).🥴🥵 I NEVER expect a detector to BE exactly what I want, you know why? Because what I want is constantly changing like shifting sands. I’m getting older I can’t stop that, so that means the goal posts are constantly moving as well. The GPX6000 is fast becoming the perfect detector for me as my body clock shifts with time, BUT I’m not quite there yet. 😂 This picture is why I do what I do, for me detecting gives my life purpose regardless of the detector or equipment I have hanging off my worn out arm, it gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning and it gives me a reason to push through the pain barrier to that amazing sunset.🥰 And yes that’s an X coil hanging off the end of my GPZ because an hour on sunset to try out something different while my elbow still held out was all the incentive I needed to make the effort. 😊 I’m a very lucky guy, gold has been good to me, I’ve achieved a lot of goals in its pursuit. But do you want to know something ‘real’? 🤔 That sunset and being there when it happened was worth so much more to me than almost anything else, being able to share it as it happened with my loved ones and then later with like minded people is just a small bonus. That picture is the epitome of perfection in my world, a simple uncomplicated thrill of joy surges through me when I look at it and remember that moment taken seconds after I pinged a 0.4 gram piece to finish off the day. Pure detecting bliss. 😊 JP

It was written tongue in cheek because I go through this crap fest every time a detector goes to the masses.🥴 All of the things being complained about were brought up during field testing, but I’m just one voice and at some stage the detector had to be released. There’s always someone taking a pot shot with absolutely no clue what’s involved with testing or even having anything invested in what it is they are sniping about. 🤯 It could be a cloudless sunny day and an argument would ensue about it being heavily overcast and night time!🥵 I should have known better and avoided responding, same schist different day!! 😔 All detectors are flawed, all detectors have their gremlins, all detectors could have been designed better. Don’t like it then vote with your dollar and buy something else or not at all I could care less anymore. 😖 JP👣

I hang my head in shame 😞, during testing I knew full well about the twisting along with other not-perfect issues like the inbuilt-speaker and the performance not being anywhere near the GPZ7000 with an X coil and said nothing. 😢 It is really hard to take this criticism, I should have known better but it happened on my watch so I will own it. 🤕 JP🥵

I’ve witnessed that method first hand and it blew me away how you pulled gold out of what I would have called barren ground!! Every piece is hard earned but it all adds up at the end of the day. Job well done Steve. 😊 Looking forward to your write ups on your trip away, any gold during this COVID nightmare is a bonus. 😃 JP

Norvic, I am all for receiving your forgiveness but right now I cannot perform miracles unless I want to be drawn and quartered by the people already on the list 🤕 😝. If I was nearby I would be more than happy to give you mine for a play but alas you live in Gods own country and I am down here with all the tourists (actually I think they are all up in your neck of the woods at the moment, this year is one of the quietest we have had in 5 years of trading, hence why I have been sneaking out bush even with a broken wing 😊). The 17” coil gives me the poops, in every way it is brilliant except for the blooming thing going out of alignment with the main shaft all the time especially in grassy/tussocky areas. I use the GPZ7000 guide arm which I attach over the coil cable just above the first knuckle and that goes a long way to helps the worst of the twisting but it still rotates on the upper knuckle point and I find myself constant realigning the coil by placing the coil flat on the ground placing my boot on the coil and twisting the shaft back straight again. 😖 I’m a bit OCD when it comes to alignment even by 1 degree, and find even the thought of it being even slightly out extremely distracting.... everything has to be just perfect when I’m out and about detecting trying to make a gold pattern out of chaos. 😝 So the first thing I plan to do when I get some time is to scavenge some clips (preferably the metal ones) out of a GPX5000 shaft, set up the 6000 at my preferred length and drill a hole in the top shaft to act as a locating pin 📌 I shouldn’t have any fouling issues as the Coms cable is external on the 6000, same with the mounting bolts for the handle, so there should be no restrictions internally in the shaft. JP

There have been a piddling amount of coils released which have been swallowed up by early orders but I have been told there will be greater stock numbers hopefully sometime this month But as always there are no guarantees thanks to the freight being a hit and miss affair these days. Same goes for 6000 batteries, so we just have to be patient and wait it out. The coil is incredibly sensitive and takes practice to get pinpointing right, the whole coil edge to the line in from the edge sensitivity is off the charts so you have to make sure the target is at the front of the coil rather than the sides, took me a few days to get it right. Move away from the target and approach with the front of the coil till you start to hear the signal, then move away and come in again at 90 degrees. Overall the balance with a 7000 bungee and wrap, a Hipstick and the GPZ7000 Guide arm is perfect for a wounded soldier like me. The Guide arm also stops a lot of the twisting associated with the lack of a locking tab on the lower and mid shaft which can twist out of alignment with the bigger coil due to leverage imposed on the shaft when you clip the front or rear of the coil on grass tussocks etc. Sensitivity is amazing, it is a bit milder than the GPX11 over variable ground but still wacks a 0.01 gram bit with ease. Coverage is where its at with an amazing amount of ground covered with each swing which is what its all about in open country. Probably the only negative is it is a lot more prone to salt (about the same as the GPZ 7000 with the GPZ14” coil, maybe slightly worse) so in salty/conductive ground the wa wa’s can liven you up a bit. EMI is not an issue at present thanks to our winter but when the monsoon starts to act up I expect there will be a fair bit more EMI as per usual. Depth is good for an elliptical but I‘m not focusing on depth I have the 7000 for that. In quieter ground Normal is a treat with this coil, it is very stable thanks to the larger size. JP This target BOOMED in.

I think this is a timely reminder of just how much DP forum means to us collectively, and the amount of unseen work that Steve does in the background. I personally could care less about Google rankings (Steve probably does if the forum makes him money I suppose) but do care when my favourite site is on the blink. Here’s to sending good luck vibes and lots of gold finds moments to Steve wherever he is. 😊 OH and BTW Steve was 100% correct about the GPX6000 with the GPX17 coil, I’ve managed to injure my arm recently (really bad tennis elbow from swinging big heavy coils for way too many years) so as it mends I have only been able to swing the 6000 with the 17 inch coil. That combination is right up there for THE best rigs I have ever used for prospecting/patch hunting. 😃 JP 2 weeks of very casual detecting/prospecting in new ground, around 3 ounces.

No it won’t, in essence the 6000 has about the same outright performance of the GPX5000 but does benefit from improved electronics performance in the form of less Sferic noise. However inexperienced users will benefit from the more recognisable target signal from the mono coils on the 6000 compared to the DOD design of the 7000 which requires more input from the operator and a GOOD understanding of ‘Range of Motion’ for those deeper targets. If you want DEPTH then the 7000 is king, if you want depth on the smaller ‘fast time constant’ targets then use the 6000. If you want good sensitivity with a bigger ground coverage and a bit better depth then use the 17” elliptical on the 6000. The 17” coils primary role is excellent sensitivity whilst providing greater ground coverage, perfect for patch hunting. JP

The 6000 really helps those people who struggle to get the best out of the 7000, mainly due to less weight and superior ergonomics but also thanks to being exceptionally good at sniffing out the smaller gold that is still in the ground. For any tech to work well it has to be used in areas where gold is still present, in the case of the 6000 there is still easy gold to be readily had even by very inexperienced users (those people will still benefit hugely from training BTW). The GPZ7000 can quite easily find a lot of the gold the 6000 can find but it requires an experienced user at the helm driving it, that person needs to have a number of attributes namely physical fitness and strength and also a good understanding of the ways to get access to that performance because the GPZ7000 requires a lot more input from the operator to get the easy for the 6000 gold. New coils like the Nugget Finder 12” Zsearch and the latest Russian Concentric X coils have really lifted the bar for GPZ users who are unwilling to trade off what the GPZ is really good at and which no other detector can do when it comes to outright depth on larger gold in extreme ground conditions (not conductive ground though). I personally am spoilt for locations and have the experience so the 7000 rarely leaves my hands, however there will come a time when the 6000 will be the only option on a number of my detecting sites if I want to procure a piece of gold no matter how small. JP

The 6000 is extremely wide band width, but I’m surprised a light plane at 1000 foot could set if off that bad. Fences can also be problematic (not as bad as a 5000) but fences will cause some irregular jitter when you get too close. The key is to keep the coil as flat as possible during periods of instability.

Why don't you give it a rest Geof, you're just dangling bait in the water to see what bites. 🙁

Rick, it's MLs call because it's their gig and they get to call the shots, calling me arrogant because I'm telling you something you don't want to hear isn't going to change that.😳 🤯🥵 Maybe it could be because of past issues with out of spec coils that has cost them money or maybe it is just greed, we are all just guessing what drives their decisions, at the end of the day it's their call because it's there party. JP

Why, if they are so clever, don't they build their own detectors?🤔 Kind of makes all these claims a mute point me thinks. I'm all for seeing more coil choices but seeing you guys come wriggling out of the wood work every time the subject of coils comes up claiming ethics and anticompetitive behaviour just plain smacks of hypocrisy!! It's MLs gig, suck it up cupcake. 🤨 So Rick are you going to tell me where your latest patch is? It's anti-competitive if you don't going by your reasoning. 🤨 JP

The 6000 is barely released and people are already disgruntled? 😣😳 Manufacturing enough of them is the current dilemma and like it or not COVID is having a huge impact on that closely followed by component shortages. The 17” elliptical mono is a standard coil in the African pack out, that market is huge so it should be no surprise that that specific coil is not yet available in our markets. 😯 I do not speak for ML but do know the GPZ 7000 and GPX 6000 are very tight tolerance ultra specific electronic designs, especially the GPX 6000. ML know this and have acted accordingly in limiting aftermarket access to their latest detectors. The 6000 is pushing the electronic envelope extremely hard, as such the coils were a nightmare to GET right, at least 30% of the time I spent on R&D was focused on coil testing. So if so much attention was required in coil development would you, after throwing so much money at R&D, allow unfettered access to uncontrolled outside sources on a product you’re trying to get established and get a return from? 🧐 Even if ML had 10 coil choices there would be someone wanting something else, it’s just endless. Yes they deserve some criticism on the GPZ7000 and took way to long to do something about it but we DO have choices now. I did considerable testing for NuggetFinder on the Zsearch 12” and I can assure you it had to go through a lot of revisions and changes to meet very strict requirements which was extremely time consuming. Hopefully ML have learned from past experiences and speed things up this time around COVID permitting 😣 JP

That throw away comment is simply astounding. For your statement to be true you would also need to include ML in their own equation because THEY ALSO make coils for their own machines and they won’t work on the 6000 either and for very good reason.🤔 🤪 Secondly how is it an unfair fight when it is ML’s hard earned R&D dollars that go into developing the actual detector tech in the first place. Show me a metal detector manufacturer that has matched the performance of any of the ML PI machines since 1995? There are a few PI machines that are kind of OK, Garrett Infinium, Garrett ATX, Whites TDI and the QED, yet no-where have I seen any images or regular written comment about people finding regular DEEP gold down to the 3 foot mark. So if ML are restricting KNOWN technology please show me the detector that is ‘successfully’ using that KNOWN technology other than ML!!! Therefore how is it an unfair fight? They are not stopping any other manufacturer from legally making a PI machine that does not infringe patents as has been shown by Garrett and Whites etc. Minelab are big boys and I for sure do not need to go into battle for them but these throw away TALL POPPY anti-competitive comments just grate on me when in reality it’s basically a one horse town anyway, unless of course you’re suggesting that ML should stop being anti-competitive and give up their IP to open Source?!!! 🤨 As it stands there has been plenty of opportunity for another manufacturer to develop something reasonable with the current lapsed patents! ML have every right to prevent others from making coils to ‘maybe’ work with THEIR detectors, it is their patented IP after all!! Considering this is a GPX6000 thread this subject is even more poignant! Would you want to spend millions pushing and innovating the PI tech envelope on developing a new metal detector then millions more in getting it to market and promoting it to then have customer confidence destroyed by potentially an out of spec badly made aftermarket coil that you have absolutely no control over? Now if you want to have an argument about how frustrating it is when ML do not, in a timely manner, offer up more coil choices for their detectors/customers or in the case of the GPZ7000 taking a VERY long time to do so (oh thats right ML have finally opened up to another manufacturer🤩) then you will have to change the subject!! 😜 JP

Not to put too fine a point on it Norvic, they haven’t actually done anything clever about circumventing the security chip, if anything it’s probably the reason why the chip is now inside the coil rather than the connector. 🤔 However the latest CC coils are quite clever and do actually work quite well in all ground types if you have the muscles to swing them after being thoroughly spoilt by the 6000. 😊 😝

Then you had better hope the ACM makes a DD because the detector will think that’s what’s attached and will load and calibrate its settings accordingly. 😂

Bogene’s setting will will not completely eliminate EMI on the 7000, but they do help to some degree. I found the best way with the 6000 using the 11” Mono is to use Zero Threshold in Manual Sensitivity mode (2.5 second long press the Ground type button) and just keep lowering the sensitivity till the EMI stops breaking through. The 6000 still has pretty good performance on shallower gold even with the sensitivity on its lowest point. If the ground conditions are mild Auto+ has the ability to increase the detectors outright sensitivity much further than flat out manual mode, so in variable EMI areas the EMI will sound worse in Auto+ compared to full manual mode. If EMI is bad it might pay to just use Difficult mode rather than Normal, Normal is a combination of Difficult and Normal all at once whereas Difficult is a dedicated timing which even though offering less outright depth will help create less confusion in the target signal. Sensitivity to small gold even at depth will remain the same as all the small gold sensitivity/depth comes from the Difficult timing when in Normal anyway. If you find yourself continually performing EMI tuning then it is a good idea to fully reset the detector from time to time by holding in the power button at switch on, this clears everything back to factory default allowing you to start afresh. I also recommend giving the detector time to warm up from start up before doing another EMI tune too soon, you can tell when the detector is functioning properly when the threshold stops being dominant. Hope this helps JP

Lunk where do you keep your mobile phone while detecting? Nice gold BTW 😊

Safe travels Steve and may all your GPX6000 signals be gold. 😊 Looking forward to when you pop your head up again, hopefully fully recharged and full of great stories to share with your prospecting mates. JP

I see you spotted my scoop in the pic 😂. Part of me is stinging right now to think I left that much good gold in the ground and part of me is thrilled that the lease paid off for you, those things aren’t cheap!! Glad I was able to put you onto some colour and thanks once again for letting me detect on your leases. 😊 I had a Minelab Engineer out there a few days later (testing the proto 6000) and showed him the open hole (I think you wanted to take a few samples from the cap rock), his mouth fell open when he saw how deep it was. I have a picture of him here somewhere here in the actual hole, it almost swallowed him. 😀 Out of respect to his privacy I won’t post it up. Funnily enough I think from memory it took more than 3 beers to dolly and melt that speci I found 😂, there’s a lot of work in them things and you need to keep hydrated. 🤔 😝 SteveH we camped a few Ks south of this location to help you visualise the area. An amazing place WA and its been too long since I was there. 😞

Good answer Trent 😆, although Hand Tool was the specific term 😂. Would have thought it was pretty self explanatory going by the content of your previous photos that you have leases. 🤔 Speaking of ‘Big Boys” what direction from that hole we dug did you end up getting the BIG speci? JP