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Is the 4500 inherently quieter than the 5000?

Hi all, I work for Avantree, and I stumbled upon this forum and noticed that many of you in the prospecting community are enjoying our Torus for use with your detectors! We would love to continue supplying quality audio devices for the prospecting community. We're currently developing a new product called the Sky Infinity. It is a bundle including our Infinity earbuds (https://www.avantalk.com/products/infinity-multifunctional-wireless-earbuds) and the Relay Bluetooth transmitter (https://avantree.com/relay-airplane-bluetooth-adapter-for-headphones). We will also include a 6.3mm to 3.5mm adapter so you can plug the Relay into your detector. The Infinity earbuds have the aptX Adaptive and LE audio codecs. aptX Adaptive's latency levels are slightly higher than aptX Low Latency (which the Torus has) at 60ms delay v.s 40ms, but provides far superior sound quality. LE audio is a new technology as phrunt mentioned earlier, which trumps both aptX Adaptive and aptX Low Latency. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a transmitter that supports LE audio, but if there's enough interest in this, we can definitely develop one! If you're interested in trying the Sky Infinity bundle for use with your detector, let me know via message. We can send you one to try! If you have any other ideas for a product that would work well with your detector, please share and we can develop something great for you.

Hello all, So, I am hoping that maybe someone with a little experience in the electronics of detectors can tell me what could possibly be the problem with my machine. But, first, a little back story on the recent journey this machine has taken. I got this 6000 used around Aug/Sep of last year. Since it still had some warranty left on it, I sent it in to Minelab and they ran a check on it and verified is authenticity as well as functionality. During that check, however, they realized that the machine needed the audio upgrade/repair for the inductors.. which they performed. The machine was sent back to me. Now, here is where it gets a little wonky! Once I got it back and started using it, I noticed there were a couple of things happening that I hadn't experienced before the repair/upgrade. One was that the machine would sporadically, and sometimes frequently, just go completely bananas for 3 to 5 seconds and then smooth out and work fine for a while. I thought maybe it was because I carried my cell phone in my pocket and it was causing EMI, so I stopped bringing my phone out on the hunts, but the problem persisted. THEN, I started noticing that from time to time I would experience very loud static through my headphones but ONLY while on a target, whether it was in a scoop or in the ground. So, I decided to call Minelab again and explain what was happening. After looking over the records from the previous time it was sent in, it was found that the audio repair/upgrade was not actually performed correctly. Apparently, when they had the machine that first time and did the upgrade, they were out of stock on the boards that they would normally replace. In order to get me back to hunting as quickly as possible, they made the decision to just solder in some new inductors on the old board. I was fine with that because they were really trying their best to accommodate me but still perform the repair (Kudos to Minelab). So, they had me send the machine in again (along with the headphones to check the on the static complaint) and still covered it under warranty even though the machine was now out of warranty at that time. They get the machine, replace the board as well as some sort of amplifier in it, check the headphones and Bluetooth connection, test it, and send it back to me. I receive the box, undamaged, and placed it on a shelf in my closet, unopened. Since I couldn't get out to hunt, it sat there for 32-days while I helped with my daughter and her cancer struggle. Two days ago I finally get to go out and hunt. So, I open the box, attach the control box to the shaft, attach the Coiltek 10x5 Goldhawk that I've been using, jump in the car and drive 2.5 hours to the nearest "producing" goldfields. I get out with excitement, get myself geared up, hike about a mile away from my car, stop and turn the machine on... and wah wah wah.... ERROR!!! The little center circle depicting the coil and ground conditions setting started flashing as well as a little triangle with an exclamation point in it on the right hand side of the screen. The machine would not even go through the noise cancel procedure. I thought maybe the battery had died over the 32-days that it sat in my closet, so I threw a freshly charged battery on it, and the same thing happened. I checked all connections and tried it again a couple of different times to no avail. I hiked all the way back to the car, pulled my phone out of the center console and called Minelab. After speaking with them I was told that the particular error I was describing was due to the machine not recognizing the coil. He asked if I had another coil that I could try on the machine. Well, I did, but it was 2.5 hours away back at home...lol. I told him that I would get back to my house and attach my other coils to rule out whether it was the machine or perhaps the Goldhawk coil has gone bad. When I got to my house, I connected the 11" Minelab stock coil, the 14" Minelab stock coil, and the 17" Minelab coil and got the same error with all three. I called Minelab again and told them what was happening and sent them a few videos, and they sent me a shipping label to send it back so they could get it fixed for me. It is currently in transit to them. Now, after that long-winded story, I will get to the questions that I have. What do you think could be the issue with this machine? Considering the fact that it has new boards in it, was tested before being shipped back to me, then sat unused in my closet for a month, what could it possibly be that would make it think there is no coil attached to it? Has anyone else experienced the issue of the static sound only when targets are sounding off? What about the instances of the machine just going haywire sporadically for a few seconds then correcting itself? When I asked if I could be told what the findings were that caused the issue, I was told there was no guarantee because it all depends on what Minelab considers sensitive information. Which, I completely understand where they are coming from. So, I figured I would throw it out here and see what happens. Thanks in advance!!!

Can the upper shaft twist screw/lock nut be removed from the shaft without destroying it? Can a replacement lock nut be purchased? I saw an after market, upper S-Grip shaft on a 5000, any one use one of these before and are they still available?

I figured I'd contact Nugget Finder to see what's going on with the other GPX 6000 coils, I quite like my Xceed 12x7" so intend to buy the 8x6" also, I think it'd be a weapon on the 6000. So, to save anyone else wasting Rohan's time replying to endless emails about when the coils will be available, I thought I'd post it here. This was his reply. Hi Simon Releasing the 16x10 is our priority at this stage, I don’t expect to have the 8x6 ready for sale until sometime in 2024. I understand these delays may be frustrating and I appreciate your patience. Regards Rohan Perhaps that means the 16x10" may be released this year, but the little guy is a fair while off yet, a shame as spring/summer (now) is when I do most of my detecting so I'll miss out this season. I'll stick to my GPZ and 8" X-Coil for the most powerful small coil detector for now.

https://www.minelab.com/usa/support/knowledge-base/discontinued-products Looks like both these great models have been added to the discontinued list as of April 2025. GPX-5000 had a 15 year run. 6000 and 7000 is the only high end gold option available now from Minelab, they must have something coming to fill this huge market gap especially at the lower-end.

A friend without Youtube filmed this video so I'm putting it up for him, he was playing around with his Algoforce and comparing it to the GPX 6000 and Manticore in some black salty sand and he did a good demonstration of how well the Algoforce can handle these difficult conditions that the GPX 6000 cannot handle at all. He's using a MK2 Sadie in the video, you can make it work even better and deeper with a less sensitive coil. I've had good results in my testing with the 11" Commander Mono in this sort of situation. I've never understood when someone says the GPX 6000 handles tough conditions well, just because the packaging says all gold, all soils, all the time doesn't mean it's true 🙂 The older GPX models were much better in very tough ground like this black sand. I've seen the same results as in this video around here, the 6000 fails badly in tough black sand conditions where the earlier GPX 4500/5000 worked much better and as you can see in this video the Algoforce also does very well and can even accurately Target ID accurately in the black sand. The GPX 6000 also fails in hot rocks around here that the Algoforce handles well. We have some of the worst black sand in the world in NZ at some of our West Coast beaches, I'm yet to take my Algo to the worst pure black sand beaches but the mixed sand and black sand beaches I've tried so far, it's worked remarkably well. I hope to get a chance to go to some of the really bad beaches soon as I'll have a good advantage over the previous attempts by people to detect them, I think, the Tarsacci that was touted as handling our beaches was a massive failure and didn't work well at all, I expect the Algo is going to do much better from what I've seen so far. I'll get some video when I make it to a good black sand beach showing how I go.

I have just a few questions for Steve. I'm "tuning up" for the Summer. While re-reading your advice, especially "Minelab GPX 4000-5000 Manuals & Timings Charts", I was not certain what you ment by "Interference". Do you mean radio interference or maybe ground mineralization interference? In a recent post you advised tuning "as high" possible without getting too many false targets. I'm sure most people know what you meant by "high", but I'm still struggling to come to grips with timings etc. Explain please. Thanks, and good luck this Summer.

The audio from Micks microphone is atrocious and the video'ing is less than ideal, but you'll get the gist. To be fair, Micks 5000 has an audio booster with speaker so it is a lot louder....but the benefits of the mods are obvious. See video below:

I find the speculation that the E1500 will somehow outperform detectors costing much more money to be, well, how to put this nicely… questionable at best. If this detector was GPX 6000 class it would be stupid to sell it for one quarter the price of a GPX 6000. I don’t think Alex is stupid. Here is the current price structure in Australia (U.S. prices at bottom) as of today after Garrett just introduced the lower priced stripped down Axiom package: 1. Minelab GPZ 7000 $10,499 2. Minelab GPX 6000 $8,999 with two coils 3. Minelab SDC 2300 $4,399 4. Garrett Axiom $4,399 with one coil (Axiom Lite) 5. Algoforce E1500 with Sadie & Battery $2649 6. Minelab Manticore $2499 7. Minelab Gold Monster $1299 From my use of the E1500 I think that you are going to get what you pay for. The E1500 is a very affordable option at close to the price of a top end VLF and will outperform said VLFs on gold in mineralized ground. I think the E1500 falls short of SDC 2300 and Axiom level performance, essentially being a bridge between VLF detectors and those models. The 6000 and 7000 continues to rule the roost but at twice the price of the SDC/Axiom level you are not getting twice the depth. Pulling a number out of my posterior I’d assign a very debatable expectation of about a 15% increase in overall performance at each major step up in price. People can of course argue that number all day long but I think it is very important to give newbies some sense of reality. Twice the money does not get twice the performance. Gains are more like 10% - 15% - 20%…. pick your number, but it’s not double, triple, quadruple. If I was still selling detectors I’d explain to this new customer that they can go find a gold nugget with a Gold Monster or a Manticore. I’d explain that for not much more than a Manticore they could get an AlgoForce E1500 and be able to deal with mineralized ground and hot rocks that will give the VLF models real trouble. I’d tell them that for substantially more money they could get some very solid bang for the buck in the Axiom/SDC range, a step up from E1500 but still not top tier. Finally, I’d tell them that if money is no object and they simply want the best performance they can get, to look at the 6000 or 7000. I’d comment that out of the box with provided coils the 6000 would have the edge for smaller gold, and the 7000 the edge on larger gold. Adding aftermarket coils (and more money) to the 7000 can close the gap between it and the 6000 on small gold, but nothing you do to the 6000 will have it hitting the big stuff as deep as the 7000. That would be my short and sweet sales presentation and I offer it up as the most simplified big picture no B.S. look at the scene as you are likely to find. My somewhat educated opinions only, feel free to toss in trash bin if you don’t agree. In the States this is the situation as of 2/19/2025 1. Minelab GPZ 7000 $9,499 2. Minelab GPX 6000 $6,999 with two coils 3. Minelab SDC 2300 $3,699 4. Garrett Axiom $1,999 with one coil (Axiom Lite) 5. Algoforce E1500 with no battery or coil $1650 (figure about $2000 at least once battery and coil added) 6. Minelab Manticore $1,799 7. Minelab Gold Monster $849 8. Garrett 24K $679

Limited time only? Some old stock found, not a return to production? Three coils, low price? U.S. also or Oz only?

Hello all, I'm using a Gpx 4500 usually with the stock DD (i know crazy but it works for me) 9 out of 10 spots I go it runs perfectly smooth. One spot during the winter especially I get a lot of chatter, false signals, random pulses I have messed with setting doing all the right start up processes ect. Still the detector will not calm down. I believe the culprit is electric fences in the area. They are on both sides of the property roughly 100 yards away. So..could the coiltek anti-interference coil help in this situation? Thanks

Rumours have been swirling around for weeks on social media about Nugget Finder discontinuing their current line of GPX coils and thinking of remaking some of them in a new design to better suit modern detectors like the Algoforce, and the rumours are larger sizes are all discontinued permanently. I'm hearing the Sadie is completely discontinued with a new small coil coming in the way of the 12x7" by using the GPX 6000 Xceed coil housing which I've seen a Youtube video of someone testing that particular coil on the GPX 5000, that way at least it can be a spiral or semi spiral and more sensitive than the Sadie, as the spirals leave it in the dust. I was quite disappointed by the Sadies performance on my Algoforce and it's by no means the detectors fault, it works brilliantly with better coils, I bought it specifically for that detector, a brand new coil at the time I bought the detector so pretty disappointed to hear it's now a discontinued model due to problems, the feedback is it didn't work well with the modern GPX compatible detectors like the Algoforce, the other detectors that had problems with the current Nugget Finder GPX coils were the modified GPX's from the likes of Detectormods. Sure the coils were intended for the GPX in it's original form and worked well with it but I guess the volume of sales now are more from Algoforce users and perhaps the modded detector crowd as the mods now seem to have matured to be a very good performance enhancing product. Further rumours are Detectormods have been working with NF on this matter. I thought it was just rumours swirling yet it became too real to be rumours when I saw it on the Nugget Finder website. A dealer from the Prospectors Patch released a Facebook video confirming this is taking place, so that's why I'm now posting it as I hate supporting rumours, this gives it some credibility seeing NF aren't very good with communication, although their website has been updated to say the coils are discontinued except for the 12x8" EVO and 12" round but others have said that's just until it runs out., although I'd highly recommend not buying one for the Algoforce, lots of reports of the 12x8" in particular not working well. Not sure about the 12" but people did say older serial numbers worked well but not newer ones (this was part of the rumours) I know many don't use Facebook so here's the Prospectors Patch video on Youtube. Looks like it's the end of an era for the NF GPX coils, hopefully they can get a few models up to scratch like the 12x7" new shell design and the 12" round working well for the Algoforce and re-release them sometime in the future. I've been using my 14x9" EVO on the Algoforce and had no problems, always loved that coil, works as expected but it's an older serial number one that I've had a few years from my GPX, it seems the problems were newer serial numbers, again rumour I can't verify the validity of that, it could be all of them. Have any NF dealers or anyone on here heard more about this to enlighten us? On a side note, all mention of any other Xceed coils for the 6000 have been removed from their website too, so it looks like the other two sizes are possibly never coming out, bit disappointed in that, I wanted the little one.

Let's say I'm getting a gpx 5000 / 4500 and going to use it in the Victorian gold feilds (Australia) What coils would you recommend to have to cover most situations. Thanks in advance Roy

I have purchased 2 of Doc's Gold Screamer Power Pack systems over the years as I have owned a GPX5000 for 10+ years. The control box cover bottom tents to wear out after setting it down several times over time. I have used iron on patches on the inside and outside to prolong the life of the cover. In my case, I found camo patches to iron on the outside, looks kinda cool, anyway, this is one way to fix your covers.

Sent my 5000 to Mick at Detectronics to have it modified, just a heads up, the cost to ship by UPS from Utah with $500 insurance, is $450. 93. Mike

So, for the first time in over eight years I'm going to get a vacation later on this year (a whole 1 week off!!!). My wife and kids got a week off last year to head north to Queensland for a break during our unusually cold Australian winter, while I got a casual reliever in to help me run the shop. This year it's my turn and I'm going to take the week off during winter/spring and head to our property in Rheola for a week, to detect in the neighboring districts goldfields. The best I had managed up until covid four years ago was one day at a time three or four times per year. The rest of my free time has been spent on renovating the place. I want to have some fun for that week, and seeing as I'll be detecting every day (weather permitting), I'm going to forgo my usual fruitless search for big deep stuff with a big heavy coil, and instead concentrate on a seemingly untouched area where I pinged a 1.5/ 2 grammer a few years back. I'm going to buy myself a small coil and see if I can do better than with the 25"DDX and find some smaller stuff to give to my kids and make them smile. I've been reading some of the threads in this forum about the older Sadie 8"x6" Evolution coil vs the newer Sadie MK2 8"x6" Advantage. What I Still don't understand though is this- is the older Evo Sadie just not so good on a modded 5000 and some other newer detector/s? My understanding was that the MK2 Sadie Advantage was upgraded to run smoother on a Modded 4500/5000. In which case does that mean it's not the best choice for an unmodded 5000 when comparing the two? Also a couple of people have mentioned that the MK2 version being black gets hotter in the sun. If this is true would it's performance vary when it gets hot? Finally, what about say a 9" Coiltek Elite or a Detech 8" Mono or perhaps the Detech 6" Little Brother? I realize of course that just as with detectors, some people are one-eyed about coils too. My only success thus far has been with a Nugget Finder 25"DDX (which I believe is half spiral wound and half bundle??). Either way I had no success with any of the Minelab coils ( 12"Mono, 12"DD, and 18"DD Commander), the 20" Nugget Finder Advantage (other than a quite deep Lead Musket Ball), or a Detech 21" x 17" SEF. Having said that, all of those coils were before I had more understanding of my GPX5000 or even the most basic understanding of Goldfield Geology, so it was probably more the archer rather than the arrows that let the team down. I try to be above brand loyalty with most things, but I feel torn between the two Nugget finder Sadie versions. Any thoughts from users who are experienced with either (or both) of these coils on an Unmodded GPX5000? Thanks in Advance, -Gary

I asked ChatGPT to create a flow chart to help me decide whether to dig a target or not. I have been using a Minelab GPX 4500 for 2 years or so and feel that I have not learned much. I need a way to organize my thinking and experiences so I don’t forget them. I want something that I can revise and extend as my experience grows. We all know that we won’t agree, but this is a good way to start thinking about it. Please make comments and suggestions whether you agree or not. The more, the better. It is pretty simple, but here it is: Decision-Making Flowchart for Metal Detecting Using a PI Machine Part 1: Searching for Shallow Gold 1. Signal Detected - Proceed to analyze the signal. 2. Signal Type - High-Pitch to Low-Pitch (Falling Tone): Likely non-ferrous target; proceed to the next step. - Low-Pitch to High-Pitch (Rising Tone): Often ferrous or trash; proceed cautiously (exceptions exist). 3. Signal Sharpness - Sharp and Clear Signal: Indicates a solid, shallow target; likely worth digging. - Broad or Fuzzy Signal: Likely trash or an irregular object; consider skipping unless in a high-potential area. 4. Signal Consistency - Stable Across Swings: Strong indicator of a desirable target; dig. - Inconsistent or Changes with Angle: Likely trash or irregular material; consider skipping. 5. Final Decision - If the signal is high-pitch to low-pitch, sharp, and stable: Dig the target. - Otherwise: Ignore or move on. --- Part 2: Searching for Large, Deep Gold 1. Signal Detected - Proceed to analyze the signal. 2. Signal Type - High-Pitch to Low-Pitch (Falling Tone): Often non-ferrous target; proceed to the next step. - Low-Pitch to High-Pitch (Rising Tone): Can indicate large, deep ferrous targets or irregular trash; proceed cautiously. 3. Signal Strength - Weak Signal: Likely deep or small target; worth further investigation in areas with high gold potential. - Strong Signal: Likely shallow trash or a large target near the surface; evaluate carefully. 4. Signal Sharpness - Broad Signal: Common for deep, large objects; worth digging in high-potential areas. - Sharp Signal: Rare for deep targets but possible for compact, high-conductivity objects. 5. Ground Balance Check - Ensure proper ground balancing to rule out mineralization noise. 6. Signal Consistency - Stable Across Swings: Likely a desirable target; dig. - Inconsistent or Changes with Angle: Possibly trash or mineralization; consider skipping. 7. Final Decision - If the signal is weak, broad, stable, and persists after ground balancing: Dig the target. - Otherwise: Ignore or move on. --- Additional Notes: - Iron Falsing: Rusty iron may produce good signals; use "wiggle" techniques to confirm. - Digging Questionable Signals: In areas with known gold deposits, err on the side of digging. - Practice: Regularly practice identifying targets by sound and digging to refine skills and improve judgment. This decision-making framework can guide your efforts and improve efficiency while detecting for gold in various conditions.

I see the Minelab GPX 4500 is being discontinued. If the price goes down is it worth it to pick one up or has what replaced it that much better? Perhaps a premium will now be asked for the remaining new GPX 4500's? Is now the time to buy??

Seems like I am pretty well outfitted these days. There is just not much I need when it comes to metal detecting. But I did just decide to go ahead and spring for a 25" Nugget Finder round mono coil for my GPX 5000. One of my main coils for the last few years has been an 18" Nugget Finder mono that Jonathan Porter gave me when Chris Ralph and I were in Australia. It was a coil I borrowed early on and then used nearly the whole month I was in Australia. I liked the overall combination of ground coverage and large nugget depth, yet it surprised me with how small a nugget it could still detect. JP saw how much I liked the coil and was kind enough to let me take it back to the States with me. I actually owned an earlier four spoked white version of the 25" coil that I used at Moore Creek a few times. I ultimately decided the coil was more than I wanted to swing and it was too big to pack into a suitcase for air travel. I sold it and have not missed it much. I spend so much time in brushy terrain and steep terrain that I rarely am someplace such a coil would be practical. What you need is flat, open, deep ground with a possibility of large gold. It turns out there are some places like that I will be visiting this summer. I decided a larger coil would be a good idea but was still worried about going too big. I considered the 20" mono, but it just did not seem like a large enough difference compared to the 18" to be worth the money I would be spending. So I decided to go all the way and go for the 25" Nugget Finder Advantage. I did prove to my satisfaction at Moore Creek that this huge coil can pull up large gold others miss. We had a flattened tailing pile next to the cabin that produced so many nuggets it was called the "Honey Hole". After one week of it getting pounded by the visitors I went up and flagged several deep, weak targets and then I cheated. I went and got the backhoe and dug them up! A 25" coil should actually come with a backhoe. Three out of five targets were nice nuggets a weeks worth of people carefully hunting had missed. At over two pounds I will not use this coil a lot, but I will give it a good go in relatively flat, open ground that has been hunted already to the point of being dead of targets. One decent nugget will pay for the coil so that will be the goal this summer - to at least find a nugget that pays for the coil. But maybe, just maybe, it will find something really noteworthy. I will report back when and if that happens. The new Nugget Finder 25" Advantage is a three spoked gray coil. These silly things are going for $629 these days. A good chunk of that goes to get the coil from Australia to the US and then to the dealer. The shipping cost on these coils is horrendous; they do not weigh much (37 ounces) but they bulk out something fierce when put in a box. I have not actually purchased the coil yet so if somebody has a used one they want to part with let me know. Looks like I need to take a good picture of one of these to post later. Nearly every photo on the internet is actually a smaller coil billed as a 25" and the few that look like they are 25" coils are watermarked. Photo of my new coil added 4/20/14

My 6000 won’t power up. Yes the battery has been charged and checked with the 12v volt charger and the 110V charger. I have checked the voltage of the battery and it is 8 volts, but I am not sure what it really should be. I am in Quartzsite, Az. If anyone is here and would be willing to help, by let me try your battery in my 6000 it sure would help me out. Miner Depot is not open yet and won’t be for another week. If it is something other than the battery I would like to ship it off to Minelab repair as soon as I can, or get another battery headed this way.

Woody's done a decent video on the chip in the 6000's coils. It's there for absolutely no reason other than being an authenticator to prevent unsanctioned aftermarket coils. You can read about the security chip here at the manufacturer's website. Video is of the newer model. This video shows how they program the chips, all very interesting stuff. There were rumours flying around Nugget Finder did this wrong when the Xceed coil was delayed, no idea if that was true, probably not. It's really not all that hard to do a dongle using the chip, the only thing different to the GPZ is you have to cut open the coil to make it a donor coil rather than just chopping the cord like the GPZ, the coil can work on the dongle without a chip in it so can still be used but I think many aftermarket coils are more likely to appear once GPX's are out of warranty and the stock coils are prone to failure so once people have a heap of dead genuine coils what other use do they have other than dongle coils 🙂 It's a shame Minelab are so against aftermarket non-sanctioned coils, they're holding back their detectors doing this, I suppose it makes life easier to bring out future models by doing so with self-imposed performance restrictions though. The funny thing is another common use of that chip is printer cartridge authentication to prevent people using aftermarket printer cartridges. We all know the agony of buying printer ink. There is big money in printer ink, Minelab gold detectors feel like they're worth their weight in gold, printer ink actually is worth more than its own weight in gold :)

Just thought I would share my wireless setup for anyone thinking of trying this. I have used Avantree Saturn Pro (Low Latency) bluetooth Transmitter/receiver and some Camcorder batteries. I have also got a couple of Lipo batteries from my RC which run the 5000 really well as they keep their voltage for longer. The leads I made myself with genuine power plugs and a deans RC battery plug and a 1/8 audio jack so as to go straight into bluetooth wireless module. These little module are very good and are lasting well over the 8 hour mark on a charge, and their size and weight make them very versatile. The 7200mah pack and wireless module come in at 325 grams with leads included this lasts about 5-6hours I have made up a couple of 3400mah packs with 18650 cells and these weight 180 grams with module and leads and lasts about 3 hours. I have a 5000mah Lipo hardcase which weight 200 grams with both wires and module, this goes for 7 hours before the low voltage alarm comes. Lipo batteries aren't for everyone as they can be a little volatile, but I am yet to have one explode and treat them with care when charging with a good lipo charger.

Hi Folks, Have you ever been out prospecting, noticed a quartz vein and run your detector over it with fingers crossed? I think we have all done it and generally move on as most of these veins or stringers are barren. Yesterday was a new adventure for Joe and I as we were getting into a new area that we had never detected. It was a small creek that had a history of containing gold with the surrounding hills being mined about 130 years ago. As we walked up the creek we found numerous rock bars and bedrock which contained beautiful and potential gold traps but they were all empty. Narrow veins of quartz crossed the creek at regular intervals and sections of the bank were quite mineralised giving us hope. There was evidence of human activity with the usual rusty steel and lead shot but the yellow stuff was not showing up. The plan was to move quickly upstream leap frogging each other until we found something that would pull us up. We wanted to reach an area close to a couple of hard rock mines that were situated on the hills above the gully. Each quartz vein we walked past was a magnet for the coil and a quick swipe with the detector confirmed what we always expected. After about an hour we hit a spot where a rock bar crossed the creek and there was the usual evidence of quartz stringing it’s way into each bank. I ran the 10x5 across one of these veins and was surprised to get a sweet signal. It was in a few inches of water and was surrounded by some really hard host rock. If it was to be gold, it would be a major effort to break up the quartz to release the target. As it was an exploration adventure, we decided to keep going and have a closer look on the way back. Here is a picture that I took which shows the narrow vein attached to the host rock. Unfortunately the light created an awful reflection that doesn’t clearly show what we were looking at. The vein is about 25mm wide and was visible for about 1m before disappearing into gravels. We continued upstream until we stopped for lunch. At this stage the rattle jars did not rattle and we were beginning to think that we may end up being skunked. After a break we continued on but at about 2:30 we decided to start heading back as it would take us an hour or so to get back to the ute. Joe finally got a signal that required a large rock to be moved as the target was under it. Being in water, it took a bit of work to retrieve but finally a nice little piece of gold popped out. The Coiltek 10x5 did a great job to pick up this target at good depth. Joe and I continued to work our way back until I finally had a hit and started digging out a small piece of gold. Joe at this point was about 20m further upstream and decided to stop so that his machine would not start sending my detector into a screaming fit. He detected up on the bank and also picked up a piece of gold. We decided that this area would need further investigation but not today. We had to keep moving. We finally made it back to the quartz vein and decided that we had to try to chip out the target. Joe started hacking away at the reef like a man possessed and after about 5 minutes we noticed that the target had moved. The small pieces of quartz that were chipped out started moving down stream over the host rock. It was acting a bit like a sluice with the light material washing away quickly. As the water cleared, a small piece of gold appeared. It should have been photographed at that point but when when gold is spotted, logic goes out the window. The gold was placed on the coil and photographed close to where it was removed. You can see the vein above the coil and some of the broken quartz on the right hand side. If you zoom in you may also see another piece of gold sitting on the bedrock. I didn’t know it was there at the time but the coil told the story a few minutes later. A small amount of gravel was then moved and Joe ran the 6000 over about 1m of the vein. Another two signals were detected indicating that more gold was present. And here’s the hard bit. We had to walk away as it was getting late and light was fading. Looks like another trip back to the creek is in order. We will take cold chisels, a hammer and crevice tools with us to make life a bit easier. Any thoughts or ideas as to how we approach this task would be appreciated as it’s going to be a difficult job recovering the gold. What do we do if there’s more gold deeper in the vein? This will obviously do our heads in but in a good way. Here is a pic of the gold we found yesterday. Not a lot but enough to create another interesting memory. I might try to video the next step as it’s a bit different to what we normally do. cheers Les

Please help me out with some GPX experiences. Living in the eastern US I don`t have the opportunity to use the 5000 much. I try to do two or three trips a year in gold country, so my actual time on the machine is limited compared to those who can get out more often, so any advice or helpful hints are much appreciated to shorten the learning curve.