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'ZVT' is still a pulse induction detector. A very fancy and highly advanced BiPolar PI, using a DOD coil...but a PI still at its heart.

-or cheap and nasty, if you prefer. 1: Remove steel pins and remove lock lever 2: Separate brake pads from lock lever 3: Carefully apply a smooth layer of epoxy resin to the tops only of the brake pads, allow time to set hard and file excess off if necessary. 4: Reassemble, then go find a colour- :)

Minelab GPZ 7000 metal detector Are you tired of it yet? All the Minelab GPZ 7000 posts? The implication that what you have is no longer the best? The following is from a post I made February 24th at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/686-minelab-sdc-2300-vs-gpz-7000/?p=5883 The thing I am always trying to convey is no one detector is best for all people under all circumstances. Life does not work that way. If it did there would be one model of car and we all would drive it. Just because the GPZ 7000 came out all other gold detectors did not become obsolete. I think it is 80% operator and 20% detector and that is probably giving the detector too much credit. As things stand right now the GPZ 7000 has some areas that would make a person consider other detectors: 1. The price 2. The weight 3. The lack of small coil option 4. The lack of large coil option 5. Lack of discrimination Until we get the GPZ 10000 at 3 lbs for $1000 with full discrimination and full range of inexpensive coil options there will be plenty of room for alternatives. I will be amazed if there are not a good number of people who have a Minelab GPX 5000 or earlier model that prefer to just stick with what they have. Anything otherwise would not be normal. The main reason this would make sense is that a. They already own them and b. They are not only comfortable with the machine but quite expert with it. There is a great deal that can be said about becoming expert in the use of a particular detector and then just sticking with it. Switching detectors constantly can be a bad idea in that you can never really become "one with the machine". There are many, many expert detectorists out there using older model detectors that can run circles around people using the latest and greatest. I bet Ray Mills can find more gold with a $499 Gold Bug than most people could find with a GPZ 7000. I am saying that to puff Ray, up but to put a real point on what I said above about this detecting thing being far more about the operator than the detector. It is not that good detectors excel, it is that good detectorists excel. The majority of people who buy metal detectors never fully learn how to operate them, and never fully commit themselves to getting out and using them regularly. Ray knows the Gold Bugs inside and out, and uses them almost daily. So you have a GPX 5000 (for example) which you know inside and out, and you have a full set of coils and other accessories. You have that setup dialed to perfection. Do you need a GPZ 7000? Of course not. Honestly, that is just silly. The GPX 5000 in my opinion at this time still represents the best value in pulse induction prospecting detectors. The model has a solid history as a performer and nothing has changed overnight. In fact right now, a person can buy a used GPX 5000 with remaining transferable factory warranty in like new condition for as little as around $3000. I know this because that is what I recently sold my like new GPX 5000 with remaining warranty for! That is a smoking good deal, great value proposition. Even brand new full warranty from a dealer a few phone calls will get you a GPX 5000 for half the cost of a GPZ 7000. The point being 10K is a whole lot of money, and other viable alternatives exist for a lot less money, all the way down to that $499 Gold Bug. The coil thing is a biggie. Right now the only coil for the GPZ 7000 is the one that comes on it. A three pound 14" x 13" coil. Even though I have decided to jump in with both feet with the GPZ 7000, I have felt compelled to have a couple other detectors available, to address this lack of accessory coils. Small coils are a real necessity for me to work in very uneven ground that has crevices and depressions a larger coil can't get into. A mono coil in particular with its superb on edge sensitivity can be a real boon for working in thick brush, trees, or cactus. The edge of the coil gets the detection area right up against the base of a tree trunk or rock, something that will be difficult if not impossible with the GPZ 14 coil with its unique DOD winding configuration. My answer to this problem has been to hang on to my SDC 2300 with its hard wired 8" mono coil. When people think big coils they tend to think depth, but I am not worried about that with the GPZ 7000. What concerns me is ground coverage. When I stand on one side of a huge area in northern Nevada and want to scan it all I need a large coil. It is all about getting over the target - extra depth if any is secondary. Since I did decide to sell my GPX 5000 with large coils, I have to say I only did so by having an insurance policy in the form of my Garrett ATX. The ATX is indispensable for me as a water hunting unit, the best I have ever used for my own particular needs. It also is a capable prospecting machine, and so I was only able to justify selling my 5000 by getting a 20" x 15" mono coil for the ATX. I really do intend to seek out areas where the GPZ will do what it does best. But inevitably I am going to run into areas in the Sierras where I need a small coil, and in Nevada where I need a big coil. There will come a time when the GPZ offers those coil options (at a cost!) and the issue will be alleviated to a large degree. For now however I am plugging the holes with two other detectors, and a person with a GPX 5000 and a coil selection may want to possibly hang onto it, at least until the GPZ coil options become available. No matter what though I do not see the GPZ as ever coming remotely close to the GP series when it comes to having over 100 available accessory coils. I do not expect GPZ coils to be cheap, and it will greatly limit how many coils a person will be willing to invest in. That in turn will limit the number of coils made for the machine to just the few that have a very good chance of selling. The weight. It is just a joke with me now. I want detectors to get lighter but prospecting PI detectors keep getting heavier. Oddly enough I see comments about the GPZ being nose heavy, when it is actually perfectly balanced if the rod is kept at the proper length for operator height. However, I see that most people want to swing that coil in a wide arc and so they run the coil out longer than good ergonomics calls for, and that is going to hurt. There are solutions with harnesses and bungees, etc. but nothing changes the fact the GPZ weighs over seven pounds. That alone could be a show stopper for physically challenged people, especially in uneven terrain that requires more than just pushing the detector around on a bungee. Obscure stuff. The GPZ audio is not as lively as the SDC 2300 audio, but it is livelier than the GPX audio which reached levels of smoothness that put many VLF detectors to shame. The GPZ audio can be smoothed, but to get best performance you have to go back to getting used to a sparky threshold. Some people will just not like this. It is a regular comment with the SDC 2300, and I expect it to be also with the GPZ though to a lesser degree. The display? It is absurdly faint given the price of the detector. The CTX display was not state of the art when it came out, and for Minelab not use something better in the GPZ is annoying. Honestly, that is all it is, an annoyance, but it is real. If I want to make adjustments in the field most of the time now I automatically just stop and turn until I can see the screen clearly instead of trying to make out the barely visible screen. Luckily once things are set there is little need to do more than turn the detector off or on. The problem is I really, really like the built in GPS and mapping capability myself, but the inability to see it clearly at all times takes the shine off the system. Another minor niggle. The coil feels and sounds like a hollow drum on the end of the rod. Not too bad when using good headphones, but quite loud if you let it ride on the ground, as I often like to do because of the weight. I like being able to use an external speaker, but then that coil bangs away loud and clear. These last few things may seem like I am being picky, but I am trying to call out some issues that some people coming from a GPX series will notice and may not like. Finally, the discrimination. I never trusted the Minelab PI series discrimination and never used it so I do not miss it. But for some people they are having what they feel to be reliable results with the GPX discrimination and the lack of it on the GPZ could again be a real show stopper. My genuine intent here is not to trash the GPZ 7000, but to show why the GPX 5000 and its kin are still machines to be considered, and in many cases may be the better alternative for people for the reasons listed above, and probably others I may have missed. Some people flat out will not like the GPZ because it is not what they are used to. I truly believe the GPZ represents the future and that it has real performance advantages, but I also truly believe that people using other detector models can do every bit as well with those detectors as with a GPZ. It is all about being a good prospector and applying whatever tools you have at your disposal to best effect. If getting gold was the only measure we may as well throw dredges, highbankers, and excavators into the mix as to what may or may not put the most gold in a prospectors pocket. The GPZ is just that, another tool for your consideration. But not the be all and end all of all tools. One last note. I made this post with a purpose. I am afraid people believe critical thinking is not allowed on this forum. That is 100% not the case. What I do not like is product and company bashing, especially from people that do not even have the product. You notice how I could be critical and point out issues with the GPZ without going on a tirade about Minelab? As if they have some evil intent? The reality is the people there have worked very, very hard, and invested a lot of money, in producing the best detector that they could at this point in time. Nothing is perfect, and it has shortcomings, but it was not from lack of trying. There are a great many problems to be overcome and compromises to be made when designing a detector like this. Not everyone will be happy, and there is no need for everyone to be happy, with the GPZ. If you do not like the detector or something about it than I encourage free discussion of these things. But please, just stick to the facts and state what does or does not work for you. Thank you! Minelab GPZ 7000 versus Minelab GPX 5000 Package

Hi Guys, New forum member here. My 40th birthday is coming up, and my wife's onboard with a new machine. I'm thinking the GPX 6000 or GPZ 7000. I can only afford one, plus an extra coil or two. I could use see help deciding. This is not a case of what detector is better; this is a case of which detector is better for me. Overall, I have done a lot reading on the forum (and watching youtube videos) trying to get up to speed. Many thanks to all who post here sharing their experience. Thank you Steve, JP, and everyone else who has contributed. Seriously, thank you guys for the wealth of knowledge. For fun, I've also set up a poll. But I would very much appreciate written responses and dialog. I realize this got long. But I wanted to explain my use case. I've tried to summarize, skim over as you see fit. *************** Background info: I'm a long time hand panner, I also run a Gold Monster 1000. I'm primarily work in the Rocky Mountains in BC Canada; on the site of a major gold rush (Wild Horse River). Terrain wise, it's very similar the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I'm currently working a mix of friends and acquaintances claims, or other claims in the area. Sometimes (rarely) I make trips to other regions. Since the 1860's gold rush, the river and source creek have been heavily worked over the years. Typically I stick to areas less worked. Lots of hillsides, newly washed out areas, old tailings, water cannon bowls (aka; hydraulic mining), old possible gravel channels, difficult to access old ledges, etc... Outside of the river, typically there is 12-15ft of material to bedrock. Either covered with layers glacial till, or old river gravels from as it moved, or both, plus overburden. The bedrock does surface in places. The area's where it peaks out have been previously worked, but I'm hoping they could be reworked with a better detector. I would like to find areas where the bed rock gets near the surface (say within a few feet), but doesn't break through, and thus are still virgin ground. These represent great potential if I can find them. As a side, not many people seem to use detectors up here. Those that do usually have a Gold Monster. I've been told most people who have shown up with them (non locals) usually give up. Partially because of the limited access to claims (it takes time to make friends), and the lack of understanding of the area, and how it's been worked. As I've shared, it's been heavily worked. Almost all the easy gold is gone. Part of why I want a detector to try and speed up the discovery of new areas. Another thing I would like to try is, to dig holes in areas which are known to be gold bearing, and try to find pockets with the detector. Extend its reach so to speak. Which I can then work with a high banker if water is available. Or with a detector where access is remote/difficult and/or water is no longer available. So there is really a mix of scenario's and use cases. I would like to use the detector both as a primary and secondary tool. *************** Gold wise: This varies depending where you are, and the claim. Beyond fine gold which is continually moved and redeposited in the river, small pickers are the most common. Many in the 0.3 - 0.5g range. Large ones are in the 1-2 gram range. Really nice larger ones are up to the 5 gram range. Anything over that would be considered exceptional in this area (based on what's being found currently, that people are willing to talk about anyways 😉 ). This type of variety would represent a regular season for those who work a good claim. However, larger nuggets do come out. The largest I can personally vouch for is just over 2oz (seen below). The record was 36oz during the original gold rush. I've shared photos below for reference. *************** Ground wise: There are lots of hot rocks here, of multiple types. Lots of iron, so heaps of magnetite and some pyrites, galena, etc). I can't say it's as bad is Australia, but it's not great. Even the gold monster jumps back and forth. I dig all targets. Not to mention all the old timer trash, and even more modern trash.... I do wonder if the DD coil will outperform the mono's here. The 19" Super D looks very attractive. *************** Now, 6000 or 7000? Here's a quick summary of my understanding, starting with the high points: 6000: Great all around machine. Excels at small (sub gram) gold. Super light, easy, and fun to use. Very zippy. Ergonomics are great, which is not to be underestimated. Over all good value for money. Almost like a Gold Monster, SDC2300 and GPX5000 in one upgraded machine, which is better than all of them, while being lighter. 7000: Takes more skill. One must work slower and more methodically. Keeping good coil control, paying attention... but once learned it's a fantastic all around detector. What it gives up in small gold (where the 6000 excels) it gains with big deep stuff. It's still king, but very heavy and much more expensive. Weak points: 7000: I see three weakness. Its first weakness is with small gold, which can be mostly mitigated with a NF12 coil. Its heavy weight will always be there, so wear a harness and deal with it. Finally, it costs a lot more in Canada. Compared with a 6000 kit + 17", the 7000 kit + 19" costs 54% more. I have no idea why the price jump is so big here. Plus more money for the NF12 on top of this. 6000: Weak points are depth and heavy mineralization. I can deal with the mineralization, in that I dig all targets (although less digging is better). But its depth capabilities is what I'm most wondering about. How much can this be helped with the 17" mono coil? And what is the likelihood a better coil for larger deeper gold will come out? Something like the 19" Super D would be ideal (Minelab, please make a larger D coil which can punch deep! Or let someone else. 🙂 ). These are probably my two biggest questions. As trying to find shallow bedrock is something I see good potential with. Otherwise the 6000 seems like the machine for me. **** Help me Decide: Kit wise, I'm thinking either: 6000 kit. Plus the 17" mono. And I pray a bigger coil (for larger deeper gold) comes out eventually. 7000 kit. Plus the 19" and probably a NF12. I think this covers all bases. Both machines make trade offs. Both are good. I'm just trying to decide which is right for me. I go back and forth here. The 6000 fantastic for sub gram stuff. I much prefer its price and weight. I'm just not sure how much benefit the 17" mono will bring to depth. If I knew a larger coil would come out later, to help me hunt deeper, I would probably take the 6000. As I want to find areas of shallow bedrock close to the surface, and speed up the discovery of new patches which can be worked. 7000: The 7000 does do everything. At the expensive of price and weight. The NF12 closes the gap on the small stuff. The 19" is great for the deep stuff. Overall a great combo. Price wise (while expensive) I can probably swing it (pun intended 😉 ). Buy once, cry once. But the weight never goes away... I would love to get everyones input. I think depth is potentially my biggest concern (based on how close it gets), with weight, then price being close behind. How much depth does the 6000/17 give up to the 7000/19? Secondly, what are the odds a depth focused coil will come out for the 6000? If one does come out, how close to the 7000/19 do people think it will get? Depth could potentially get better with a new coil (if Minelab allows it). However, weight and price of the 7000 never will. I can see pro's and con's to both for my situation. Ideally I would have both, but I need to choose one. Thus I defer to the greater community who has vastly more experience, many of whom have run both machines at length. Please help me decide. I'm flip flopping. Many Thanks, Nick

This is an excellent comparison from one of my favorite Youtubers. I don't necessarily agree with the initial intend of the video (which one is the better detector?), but the comparison is well made for surface detection in difficult ground with hot rocks. Overall, the 7000 (run with her settings) is much less susceptible to hot rocks, but looses some sensitivity for small gold (not much however). I can very much relate to this video, for instance when detecting in iron rich volcanic ground that is littered with hot rocks (i.e. many places in the Mojave desert). The 7000 is much more benign there but still catches much of the smaller gold as well (NF-Zsearch and X-coils). I like her conclusion at the end, both detectors being absolutely superb. I totally agree, but having the 6k will not make me sell my 7k as I view both detectors as being complimentary, at least in some aspectes. PS: Man, those flies..... GC

Yesterday JW and I went for another gold hunt to the same place we'd been going on all the previous missions I've posted about in the past couple of weeks, I've always liked this spot, it's been my favourite. You do deal with a lot of junk here though, mostly shutgun pellets but I guess it's good practice for me sorting the junk from the gold. I felt like I was up to a bigger walk this time, JW invited me up to the spot he did last time we were at this place, If you recall I stayed right at the start and spent the day in a very small area last time while JW went for a stroll far further into the area and he managed to find 8 nuggets. This a photo of the 8 nuggets JW found in the area on the previous day when I stayed at the entrance to the area. It seemed a worthwhile spot for me to take on a big walk to get to, my broken foot seems to never feel better, it's been a long time now and it feels no better than it did at the start, although it has its good days and bad days and it felt like it was going to be a good day. We walked up to this area and JW showed me around and told me where he'd found some nuggets in the past, I hadn't been here for a couple of years back when I was using my GPX 4500 and I found nothing with it in this spot from memory. So we fired up our weapons and off we went. I headed up higher and JW went off to the right and down from where we stored our packs, the higher ground looked alright to me although my detector was nutting off constantly on pellets straight away, big pellets like someone had been hunting elephants in the area, only NZ doesn't have elephants, but the really large size rusty magnetic pellets, I don't normally encounter these sort often, usually it's the tiny little lead ones. They were absolutely everywhere and driving me mad. I kept going in the area anyway and then I encountered a target noise that was not like the others, a softer quieter sweeter sound, a few scrapes to remove the chances of it being a small lead near surface pellet and the signal improved, I kept digging and digging and the signal was better and better, this was getting exciting although I'd dug so much junk since getting here I had it in my head it's 90% chance some sort of junk, maybe a boot tack or something so I wasn't overly concerned about doing any video. Once I was fairly deep I decided it might be time to flick on the phones camera just in case and I'm glad I did, now I have some memories of my second biggest ever nugget find! Over a gram nuggets or even gram size nuggets are an extreme rarity here, so it's a happy day when you score a gram size nugget, this one however was a lot bigger than a gram. This is it's hole, and if you'll see the video you'll see it wasn't a fisherman's story about the size of his fish catch, exaggerating the depth on the hole, this is precisely the depth of the nugget. A beauty, and very odd for a NZ nugget based off what I've found before, mine are generally always pretty smooth, this one was a chunky rough looking nugget, more like the nuggets found in Australia. And here is the video, I'm so annoyed I didn't film the entire thing from the start as I like having videos for my future watching of my nugget finds, especially when it's a nugget out of the ordinary for me. Oh well, at least I got some of it on video. Pretty happy with this one, my second biggest nugget so far and only just behind my biggest by .1 of a gram. I ran down to show JW, we were both pretty shocked a nugget this size was found here. I now had a dilemma, the likelihood of me finding a nugget now was low, usually if I find a nugget right at the start of the day I find no more 😛 Hours passed and exactly that, plenty of junk and no more nuggets, I had some lunch and figured I'd move out of the bigger nugget area and see if I can find something down lower on the hillside. I didn't really want to walk too much on steep ground with my foot but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. At this point JW had found one nugget also from memory so I didn't think my hopes would be too high down lower on the slope where he was but that's gold for you, you never know. It wasn't even 20 minute and there it was, my second nugget. A nice easy signal, the 8" loves small gold, even a bit of gold weighing 0.03 of a gram is a booming signal compared to a very small lead pellet. This piece wasn't exactly small though, well for me 🙂 within a few steps of that nugget I found another one almost straight away, another easy target signal. Here is what the ground looks like we were hunting, from a cut out the old timers had done. Things dried up again for a while now and JW appeared crossing over a ridge into sight, he was heading back to his bag for lunch so I decided I'd go sit with him and have a break, we had a look at the nugget again after the initial shock had passed and at this point he had 3 little nuggets with his GPX 6000, so we were sitting on 3 each at this point. his were similar size to my smaller two. Back at it, this time we both just hung around near our bags for a bit where I'd just found the two nuggets, and after an hour or so of nothing we gradually moved on, I decided I'd go back a fair bit in the direction of the car so I took our bags to save us having to go back for them as JW was slowly heading in that direction too. I went for a walk to some thyme bushes on the downward slope hoping the little 8" would give me an advantage over anyone else who had detected there as the spaces between the bushes are so small it takes a small coil to get between them and the 8" had done extremely well doing this in the past, it slides between the bushes no problems. I don't know why I didn't take a photo of them. I was only in the bushes for 20 minutes and digging plenty of pellets and junk and then I had a signal that seemed different to the others, I scraped away the grass and could clearly see I was on some bedrock. The signal was pretty good, unmistakable, although tiny it was a nice little bit of gold. It was my smallest bit of the day so I wanted to see how it responded on JW's GPX 6000 to compare it in my head to how it responded with my GPZ and 8" X-coil. I was very satisfied with how good the target response was on my GPZ so it would have been good to compare, I walked over to where JW was to find him fiddling with his GPX unplugging the coil and removing the battery and so on, he said it was doing its usual EMI thing where he just turns it off and does a factory reset and it seems to clear up the EMI, however this time when he switched it off and on again it came up with an error so he was unplugging everything and making sure it was all secure in an attempt to revive it. After many attempts it was clear the thing had died. Either the coil or the detector. We took a video of it which you can see here. This put a bit of a downer on what was otherwise an excellent day. Minelab have really outdone themselves with the build quality of the GPX 6000, for the price things are not too great I think, it's pretty disappointing. I told JW we should just leave now, I didn't want to continue with him having to sit around and wait for me to finish, it was sad enough his detector died without having to sit around watching me have all the fun so we left to go get some Chinese food on the way home, we got there right as the place opened for dinner so the buffet had all the good stuff! We got ourselves an excellent meal. Once we got back to JW's house we tried another coil on the detector and it worked, so it was the 11" coil that failed. My theory is the security chip in the coil has failed, my reason for this is the detector was working fine until it was turned off, so a fault with the windings or cable connection or anything like that is HIGHLY unlikely to be the problem, the EMI he was getting that prompted him to turn it off and on was nothing out of the ordinary, he does this many times during a detecting session to fix the EMI when a noise cancel doesn't seem to do it. When the detector was turned off and on it uses that chip to verify the coil, if the chips dead the detector will error exactly like what's happened. A bit of a downer on what was a good day. JW ended up with his 3 little nuggets, I can't remember his weights but his total was about .3 of a gram from memory, I'll put up his total photo if he sends it through on email, he normally sends me his photo of gold weights. We also weighed my gold at JW's house, I wanted to know if my big one was my biggest ever, it was close. The little one I wanted to check and compare with the 6000 came up as 0.03 on JW's scales, when I arrived home checked the weights on my scales as they're more accurate and it came up slightly heavier than on his. It's not my smallest GPZ nugget which is 0.023 of a gram on my scales but it's getting down there. It's heavier than it looked. Here is my junk for the day lots of tiny little metal shards, they were so annoying as they're a great signal. I think I lost a fair few pellets out of my pocket, it happens pulling my scoop in and out all day. And my days total My best day in about a year I'd guess, pretty sad about JW's GPX though, now he's got the hassles of dealing with the warranty.

Today I picked up my new GPX 6000, well in a way I had it delivered, my dealer was coming down to Queenstown from Christchurch about 7 or so hours away as he's going looking for some gold this weekend so he brought it down with him to give to me so it was great not having to get it shipped, he's an awesome guy, always beyond helpful. As I was in the area of a gold prospecting spot I fired up my GPZ and went on a gold hunt, I've done this area a lot and seeing JW lives right near it he's been there a zillion times so I didn't have much hope for myself but it's hard to resist when I'm right there anyway. The new toy, I'll probably take it out this weekend to the spot I just found the 4 grammer with the GPZ last week, although I really want to hit the spot I found the 4 gram nugget with a bigger coil to get more depth, I found it using my 8" so I want to run the 15" Concentric coil over it just in case there is anymore big ones lurking nearby that are even deeper than the 8" can reach. I might take both detectors, it's good to have a backup with the GPX anyway with the reliability issues it seems to have, especially for it's maiden voyage. JW's GPX 6000 coil is still at the service agent waiting to be replaced, I doubt he'll have it back by the weekend. The spot I wanted to detect had people around and I don't like detecting near people so I wandered far further away which isn't ideal with my sore foot but I'd rather walk than detect near people. I was following the path and saw some good looking bedrock that I've never detected before so I fired up my detector and started detecting, and right at the path I found a target, it was almost certain to be junk but seeing I'd only just started detecting I wasn't yet too lazy to dig it 🙂 Fortunately it was worth my time digging it, I found a silver ring. You'll see the walking track, it's right at it. A hiker or person riding a bike must have lost it I guess. I did have to dig for it, it wasn't a surface find but it was shallow as there was bedrock almost straight away. You'll see the white looking bits where my pick hit the bedrock, it's lucky I didn't damage the ring. Because it says stolen on it I was able to google it pretty easy, it's a local designer ring from a NZ brand called Stolen Girlfriends Club. Unfortunately no gold, I kinda went to the spot already defeated though, I didn't expect to find any but at least it wasn't a skunk.

I’m in the field searching for nuggets with the GPZ 7000 and I lost my ferrite ring. Help. What can I use till I can get a new ring? I’m still in the field. Thanks all.

Hello, Please Help. I Have A Gpz7000 Battery That Does Not Work With The Detector. After I Removed The Battery, It Became Clear That The Cells Were Working Fine And There Were No Problems. I Checked The Cells With A Voltmeter At The Outlet Of The Battery مرحبا ارجو المساعدة. لدي بطارية gpz7000 لا تعمل مع الكاشف. بعد أن قمت بإزالة البطارية ، أصبح من الواضح أن الخلايا تعمل بشكل جيد ولا توجد مشاكل. راجعت الخلايا باستخدام مقياس الفولتميتر عند مخرج البطارية. لا يوجد جهد 7.2 فولت تشغيل الكاشف مع العلم أن جميع الأجزاء المثبتة سليمة ، لا أعرف ما إذا كانت عبارة عن برنامج

On Sunday JW and I went back to one of our old detecting spots, it's the place I've been to the most and have detected it with various detectors all the way back to my GPX 4500 and Gold Monster and JW goes much further back than that with his detectors. It seems no matter how hard I try there is always more gold to be found in this spot, especially when new detectors or coils are involved. The place is heavily covered in shotgun pellets and unless you've got extreme patience you're going to miss some tiny gold by ignoring the small surface pellets which means you'll likely ignore the smaller surface bits of gold also. I used to dig and recover everything that beeped but I've lost patience for that in this spot, remarkably JW did just that on this day, he had a good handful of pellets where as by rejecting everything that moved in the first couple of pick scrapes I only ended up with about 10 pellets all day, I certainly detected a hundred or more though. It's good going detecting with JW, you can't buy experience and he has a lot of it so I always end up learning quite a bit on days detecting with him, he's a wealth of knowledge on the local areas. As I was seeing the GPX 6000 for the first time I took along my little test sticks that Geotech sent me for testing my QED on shotgun pellets to compare the result to other coils and detectors. I only bothered with the #9 and #6 lead shot as they especially the #9 are the most difficult for detectors to pick up. So JW turned on his GPX with the 11" Mono coil and we went to see how it responds on those pellets, it wasn't meant as a scientific test I just wanted to get an idea of how the GPX compares to the 12" CC and obviously other coils I'm using. Unfortunately the GPX was a bit unstable when first turned on, JW has been normally using headphones with it and not the speaker but we needed to use the speaker so we could both hear the response. A few retunes and me turning my phone off helped a bit but it wasn't overly stable, we pressed on and tested anyway in manual and auto+ and the results were somewhat of a surprise to me and not what I was expecting. Unfortunately the little #9 pellet fell off the stick into grass somewhere in the area as I was walking around so not as much testing was done as I would have liked to have done. I guess I'd hyped the GPX 6000 up in my head to be much better than it ended up being by comparison to what I've got and I guess I did this due to all the talk of Gold Monster type sensitivity with it, there is no chance its as sensitive on tiny gold as a GM, it is however like a supercharged GM once the gold is a bit bigger. I'm pretty confident with my current setup and coils along with the fact I can run in HY/Normal with a high gain and not be troubled by EMI so I'm really not missing much, if anything at all so I'm quite glad I didn't let my excitement of a new product make me jump onboard with a GPX prior to at least seeing one in action. I really don't think I need one now so that saves me some money, the light weight was fantastic though, it felt like a VLF in weight, although it seemed to me build strength has suffered a bit because of the weight, it's lost that solid feel of the GPZ. It's not that I don't like the GPX, I thought it was fantastic, I just don't see the cost / benefit ratio adding up at all. In saying all of that the difference for someone in hotter soils could be very different, the GPZ performance in difficult on small gold as is not near the performance it has in normal so the 6000 may well shine then, the difference in mild soils is less telling especially with the coils I have to use on my 7000. I'll wait and see what future coils add to the 6000 and revisit the idea of getting one then if necessary, I am sure JW will want to get his hands on the 10x6" X-coil once it's released. We decided enough messing around and started detecting, I just turned on the detector right where we dumped our backpacks and started detecting there, I figured I may even find the missing #9 pellet, and it was not even a couple of minutes and I had a target, it survived a couple of pick scrapes so I was confident it was less likely to be pellet and started to get a bit excited, surely not, gold already? It did turn out to be a little nugget. My photography skills let me down, it's sitting o nthe coil above the O in X-coils 🙂 I went over and saw JW and showed him the nugget, he was about 50 meters away I guess, we were both surprised I got one already, especially with how often we have detected this spot. He was in the middle of recovering a shotgun pellet at the time with the 11" Coil still on. I went back to the spot and detecting around it hoping there might be another one, and there was! This time I was more prepared as once I was confident it wasn't a surface pellet I turned on the video on my phone to capture it. I'm no Hollywood producer, so you'll have to put up with my rudimentary video skills, I didn't do any editing just stitched a couple of parts together to make it a single video. I'm pretty sure this is the photo to match the video 🙂 and the nugget. I kept detecting around the little area and had a 3rd target, this is getting weird, I just don't understand how we both have missed these in the past, that's gold prospecting for you. As I was again confident I had a nugget I also filmed this one. This was the one I think, hopefully the photos match up to the video, it's hard to tell as all the gold bits look similar size 🙂 This is the area my first 3 pieces came from, the hole in the front of the photo is the second piece I found, the pick is where the 3rd piece was and the second bit was behind that rose bush between where the pick is and the big rock. They're all sort of running down hill from each other. At the end of this video I looked up and showed the dirty great big high voltage transmission lines above us, these seemed to act up a bit on the GPX where as I was completely immune to them with the GPZ, JW had all three GPX coils with him to try them out at this spot, he'd never even used the 17" or 14" DD before and the 17" felt a bit heavy without a harness which he didn't have with him and also acted up more with the EMI. After the morning part of the day and him sifting through a handful of shotgun pellets and finding 3 little bits of gold he decided he'd give the 14" DD a go after lunch. He was very dedicated, digging so many pellets to get his bits of gold where as I was ignoring all these little surface to a couple of inch type targets aiming instead for deeper targets, I wasn't hunting the bedrock instead going for the grassy deeper soil areas. We were discussing the depth advantage these Concentric coils give us so I wanted to stay off bedrock and hunt the deeper ground hoping to find something. We were now on 3 nuggets each and decided we'd have some lunch. Once the DD was on his GPX is really quietened down, it ran really nice, the performance on small gold seemed good too, and we were able to detect near each other without the GPX being bothered by it, the GPZ is no issue, especially with the Concentic coils. I'd just found my next piece of gold and walked over to JW who was now able to detect quite close to me and he was digging a target, his first deeper bit of the day and it was with the DD, a similar size to my pieces, it was good to watch the recovery. You'll see someones quite substantial dig hole just below my smaller dig hole where my coil is sitting, this was my next nugget. My smallest bit of the day, a reasonable depth too, and the target really stood out, unmistakable. Whoever dug the hole below it missed this one. Hard to see the dig hole in the photo. Here is a photo of the power lines, it's a shame they look a lot further away in the photo than they really are. It's only a short walk up to them, I once found a piece of gold right under them with my Gold Monster, I've not taken any of the Concentric coils up under them but I should, it handles other power lines fine and I may find gold others have missed with detectors that struggle more under them. Things were starting to dry up for both of us now, we had 4 nuggets each at this stage so we stopped for a drink and snack and decided we would walk over a little gully into an area I haven't detected as much, I'd been over there with my Equinox some time ago, I don't recall finding anything except a zillion pellets. As I was largely ignoring shallow targets I was likely missing some small gold but I wasn't worried about that, it was too hot to recover so many targets when almost all of them would be pellets, I admired JW's determination doing that, his pellet collection was getting huge. I then had a quite shallow target, but it was not a pellet, I thought it might be a boot tack as it was a loud booming signal. I figured I'd recover it as you never know, at least it's not going to be a pellet. The hole was quite shallow, and it turned out to be a bit of gold, glad I dug that one. It really screamed too. Around a similar time JW had found his 5th nugget too, we were neck and neck all day, once one was ahead the other caught up, the challenge of keeping up with JW on gold finds works as a good motivator to me, the little competition is pretty fun but I rarely could keep up with him, this time I managed to. Anyway, here are the weights of mine This is the second last nugget I found, the smallest one of the day which is no surprise as I was avoiding shallow targets on purpose, it was the one that had someone elses dig hole just below it. This is quite funny, two the exact same weight, vastly different looking nuggets though. and my total, almost a gram! And here are JW's nuggets, mostly smaller than mine with him targeting those surface targets but it's hard to tell in the photo, we checked his smallest one on my coil and I was able to get it. We just put all his nuggets on the DD coil, 3 of them were found with the 11" Mono. The biggest one was with the DD. So all in all a fun day out, and we both managed to get some nuggets in a place that we didn't expect to really get anything much if at all so can't complain about that. These last two photos are just some shots of the area we were detecting, the grass is quite an annoyance but smaller coils handle it fine, I just use the GPZ to squish it down as I run over it, JW has a bit of trouble with the shaft twisting on the GPX doing that sort of thing.

I have been holding off posting this, as I worry it could get people who do it into trouble, or cause people running the way I do to blame my settings on the GPZ itself. Reality is what it is however and my journey with the GPZ 7000 has taken me to interesting extremes. I decided it is time to just tell you what I have been using for settings and let the cards fall where they may. My early posts on the Zed all advised taking it easy with the settings early on, especially for beginners. I took my own advice and slowly ramped things up over time. The entire time however I have been going in just the opposite direction from where I headed with the Minelab PI detectors. The goal with the GPX 5000 and its predecessors was to seek the smoothest, quietest threshold possible. Every advance the units made moved in that direction, until with the GPX we reached the pinnacle of smooth, well behaved performance. The GPZ 7000 experience for me has been more like a return to my roots running hot VLF detectors. Most common and very sensible advice including that I have offered myself always has been about trying to get the machines to obtain a smooth steady threshold if possible. And good advice it is. The funny thing is, I usually never run my machines like that myself. I crank them up and run them hot and noisy. A novice listening to me run a Gold Bug 2 in bad ground would be baffled by all the sounds the machine is making. To me however after decades of detecting it is all just feedback about what is going on under the coil, with the key thing being that the magic sound of a real target just jumps out at me out of all the ground and hot rock sounds. The first thing I did with my GPZ 7000 was pay close attention to every tidbit Jonathan Porter would reveal. Two things got my attention. First was his mention of how the Zed has a livelier response to the ground when in operation. The second was his obvious dislike for audio smoothing. The first thing I did was turn audio smoothing off and I have basically never used it. The second step was in determining that in most ground I worked the Normal ground setting was far more powerful than the default Difficult setting. I used Difficult a bit initially, and fell back to it a few times, but going to Normal was something that happened very early on, and if you look at my earliest posts on the GPZ 7000 I advised people to always at least give Normal a try before going back to Difficult if need be. High Yield is the default GPZ gold mode and I have always stayed with it. Minelabs unfortunate naming of the gold modes make people think the other modes are deeper but they only are so in a relative sense, relative to the ground you are in and the gold you are hunting. More details on this thread at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/1236-gpz-high-yield-general-or-extra-deep/ High Yield is the high frequency mode on the GPZ with the transmitted field switching pole directions three times faster than in General or Extra Deep. You could say there really are only two modes because General and Extra Deep are just two versions of the same mode. Yes, yes, yes, before people chime in, I am very aware there are times and places for General and even Extra Deep. In fact, I will always downshift to General before I will come off the Normal ground setting. For me default mode is Normal/High Yield and if things get difficult then go to Normal/General. The next shift down would be to Difficult/High Yield and then finally Difficult/General. I doubt I will ever use Extra Deep until a larger coil is on my GPZ. And even then not much. The last step was the Gain. I ran 12 a long time, then 14. Then two months ago I just jumped to 20. The GPZ the way I run is almost always making some kind of noise, all of which lumped together is what I use as a threshold sound. I control things mostly through three audio settings. To preserve my sanity I keep settings low. I never use headphones these days unless the wind is really bad, other wise I keep the wireless module on my upper left chest closer to my better ear. One oddity on the GPZ 7000 is that there really is not a basic volume control so you have to fiddle with several settings to get comfortable sound levels. What they call Volume on the GPZ 7000 should have been called Audio Boost. From the owners manual" "Volume controls the amplification of a target’s audio response, relative to the target signal strength. This audio setting is most similar to volume adjustments in other devices (e.g. radio or television volume controls). The Volume control has a range from 1 to 20 with a default setting of 8. With a setting of 1, weak target signals will sound quiet, medium target signals will sound mid-range and strong target signals will sound loud. There will be greater differentiation between target signal strengths; however, weak signals will be harder to hear. With a setting of 20, all target signals will be amplified to a loud audio response. At this setting there may be less differentiation between medium and strong signals, but weak target signals will be easier to hear." That last note might make you think more volume is better - you do not want to miss those weak signals! I tend the other way as I want my targets to exhibit as much audio variation as possible. This is one setting I still need to possibly tweak but for now I seem to have settled into 4 as the one that works best for my ear. Volume Limit is much more like a regular volume control. I would have put Volume Limit on the main settings page, then relabled Volume as Audio Boost and put it on the secondary page. Future update hint Minelab? Again, from the manual: "The Volume Limit sets the maximum volume for target signals. When detecting, the sound produced by a target can be very loud. Adjust the Volume Limit to ensure that loud targets do not hurt your ears. The Volume Limit has a range of 1-20, with a preset of 12." More like a blast limiter than a volume control but this control is the one you really need to use to control how loud the GPZ is. I find 12 to be way too high for me, and by coincidence 4 turned out to also work for me there. The final piece of the puzzle is the actual threshold setting. I find 22 works well for me when I am in very quiet locations, and I bump to 25 if there is noise from wind or whatever around me. There are other audio settings but I try to mess with as little as possible to keep changes simple if I do a master reset. On full reset I: Main Settings (Detect) Page 1. Switch from default Difficult ground setting to Normal 2. Sensitivity from default 9 to 20 3. Volume (Audio Boost) from default 8 to 4 Next Page - Detect Plus 4. Threshold from default 27 to 22-25 depending 5. Volume Limit from default 12 to 4 6. Audio Smoothing Off Next page - Settings 7. GPS from default off to Enhanced 8. Wireless from default Off to On 9. Connect to WM12 wireless module 10. Finally, go to Map Menu under View and turn View Geotrail from Default off to On Only after all this is done do I go through the Quick Start frequency scan and ground balance (with ferrite). These settings all will be retained with power off so done once and I am pretty well set. All I do from then on is fire up in morning and do the Quick Start routine, which I will repeat at lunch time or if I move to a new area. The only thing I have to really remind myself to do is when starting each hunt to go to the Create Geodata page to initiate saving my path to memory. If you are reading Minelab, why can't I assign this to the user button? And, if I forget and walk 1/4 mile before before doing it, it sure would be nice to be offered the option to pick up and save that last 1/4 mile, which is clearly there on screen and in memory, instead of losing it. But I digress....... Again, once all this gets set up it is retained on power off and repower, so for me I fire the GPZ 7000 up, do the Quick Start, go to Create Geodata, and start my hunt. The only setting I mess with may be the threshold, which I use as a sort of final audio sensitivity control. The secret to all this pretty much boils down to a hundred hours or more of using the GPZ to get used to the audio and the way the machine responds to the ground. In doing so it all becomes about coil control and sweep speed. When I run into ground noise, hot rocks, or other issues like salt ground, the only thing that normally changes is how fast I hunt. Everything quiet I go faster, more sounds I slow down. In salt ground I am moving at a crawl, letting the audio feedback dictate the sweep speed. I set up an artificial threshold of rising high tones and descending low tones by using a carefully controlled slow sweep. Even small nuggets still pop for me in salt ground. In other ground no matter what else is going on with these settings a nugget just goes "BANG"!! Chris Ralph and I hunt together a lot. He tried not even the full bore version of this, and immediately went back to his quieter settings. WARNING! I AM NOT RECOMMENDING THESE SETTINGS! All I am doing is telling you what I am doing. I am not saying they are the “best” settings or any such nonsense. They clearly will not work for many people and in many locations etc. etc. whatever. Running too hot can be counter productive. The happiest thing about the GPZ 7000 is in most cases it gets the gold if you get the coil over it using almost any settings. Chris certainly does as well as I using the settings he uses and he is happier for it. There are various “quiet” settings being used by others out there and they are finding lots of gold doing what they do. You do have to put the coil over the nugget first and foremost, and I am not going to be a settings snob and claim I know best for anyone besides myself. I have no doubt someday I will run into ground where I do something completely different. Always remember, there is never one magic setting for all times and places, otherwise all we would need is an on/off knob. Use what works for your ground and your own personal comfort level. But now at least nobody can say I did not tell you what settings I am using. Last warning though – getting a new GPZ 7000 and doing this would be like buying a new race car having never driven one, then getting in and just flooring it. You are going to crash and burn. If you are new to the GPZ, do please take it easy and give it time. It is one of those machines that really grows on you with time. Anyone giving up on it with under 50-100 hours really has not even tried. Or maybe GPX style hunting is just better for them. Just my opinion. Again, whatever works.

Hi Steve. New To this site and pretty new to gold detecting. I read your article on gpz 7000 hot settings. I am trying to run them. But……The last couple of days out I have been under and around high voltage power lines. I am finding gold but it sure is noisy, Emi. Is that just the nature of the beast, just deal with it. Or without losing power/sensitivity is there anything to try? Thanks.

Just an observation, been several GPZ 7000 for sale and sold for under US$5000 recently. I think we can all guess why. Some good buys though for those wanting max performance on large gold.

Hey Guys, Well its that time of year where most of the US Prospectors are searching for gold, in the Southwest at least. I managed to get out this weekend with some friends, just roaming around some old stomping grounds in hopes to turn up a few bits missed years prior. I was toggling between my GPZ 7000 with the NF 12" coil and my GPX 6000 with the 11" coil. My other two friends were using the GPZ 7000's with the stock 14x13" coils. Later in the day I can across some old piles left from prior mining and got a softer sounding signal and decided to investigate. My friends both had a few dinks now, so I was behind on the gold count. There's a lot of left behind rubbish in this area due to prior mining, hardrock and placering. I figured it was just another deep nail or something, but as I got down deeper, the target was actually on bedrock below the pile. I ended up scratching everything away from the bedrock and pinpointed the target in a crevice or depression (seen in picture below). Low and behold, it was a nice gold nugget, 4.6 Dwt's, just shy of 1/4 Troy Ounce. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least, didn't expect it. I thought this would be good time to see if my Minelab GPX 6000 would hear this target with the stock 11" coil on it. I walked back to my truck, got the GPX 6000 and hiked back to the target location. I figured this would be a crude, but interesting test as there is so much debate on depth and how now many believe the GPX 6000 is better. I fired the GPX 6000, balanced and make sure the EMI was good, then scanned over the target area with the nugget back in it's original location. I couldn't hear a peep of a signal, which honestly is what I figured. I didn't expect to find it, or hear it with the GPX 6000. I played around with a few settings and even had my buddies come over to check it out. They both scanned their stock coils (GPZ 7000 with 14x13") over it, both heard the target, but it was still faint (not a super obvious signal). This is one reason it's hard for me to put down the GPZ 7000, I have found many nuggets at depth, but deal with the heavy, bulky unit. I thought about going back and trying the 14" DD to see what it would have done, but for the most part, I never use the 14" DD, so it wouldn't have really proved anything to me, as I don't use it. It would have been interesting to see what the 17" coil would have done, but I didn't have it with me. I would think the 17" would have heard it. I'm swinging the GPZ 7000 with the NF 12" Round coil 90% of the time, the GPX 6000 about 10% of the time. There are some bedrock gullies I have revisited in years, so I'm looking forward to spending more time there with the 6000 and 11" Mono coil. I think I also might be able to pack the GPX 6000 into a few canyons as I wasn't easily able to do that with the GPZ 7000. Here are a few pictures below. I didn't have a tape measure, but Doc's pick is 22" handle length. I'm thinking between 18-20 inches was the true detection depth, but faint signal for sure.

Is there or has there been any comparison testing done in the field on depth with the 6000 vs the 7000 using the NF 12" Z-search coil. Thanks . . .

Is there or has there been any comparison testing done in the field on depth with the 6000 vs the 7000 using the NF 12" Z-search coil. Thanks . . .

So, just one more issue during my Outing... I have been in the habit of tossing my ferrite on the ground...foolish me. They break into many pieces...so no more tossing... I wonder if the ring can be super glued back to one piece and function correctly? Or is it more like a metal ring that no longer gives the same signal once the circle is broke? Or do I need a new one? so many questions.... fred

I haven't done a story on a gold find for a while, partly because once you find a patch with a bunch of nuggets everything else seems pretty insignificant, a couple of months ago I did just that, it's only my second patch but had quite a number of nuggets, I'd guess at least 40 (Correction: at least 80 nuggets) and over 30 grams in total. I lost count of both the nuggets and the grams we got out of it in the end. I did take a couple of videos on the first and second day of it, after that I stopped filming and just worried about detecting as filming videos is very time consuming and wastes valuable detecting time 🙂 That patch has been the highlight of my detecting time and hopefully I can find another in the future, I'll put links to the videos for anyone that wants to watch them and hasn't seen them already. https://youtu.be/qs-e8HO7xdU https://youtu.be/tppU5XZe77o Now to the more recent adventure, one of the most common gold spots I've been to is being developed, very soon it will no longer exist, already a large area of it has disappeared over the past few months with more to go yet, seeing it's probably the closest gold spot to home and one I've found a reasonable amount of gold before so it will be missed greatly. It's obviously getting extremely hard to find gold there as it's not a huge area really and it's been done a lot over the years by a number of people being an obvious spot to look. My focus on this day was to take advantage of how well the GPZ and Concentric coil handles EMI to hunt almost exclusive in and around the power lines where people including myself with previous setups were unable to really detect very well, especially with my GPX 4500, it was terrible near the power lines, and what inspired me to try out a QED which ended up working quite well under the power lines but just didn't have the power of the GPZ. I didn't take all that many photos as my aim was to get some video, I always struggle to get gold finds on video as I just use my phone to film and I have to put it down to do the recovery 🙂 I have a GoPro but just haven't bothered to use it yet. I went to some bedrock and worked my way up digging every signal and recording and deleting all the recordings as they were turning out to be shotgun pellets, this is entirely normal in this area as it has a big rabbit plague and shooters love spreading their pellets around all over the place for me to dig back up again. Here is a video of the first gold find, a .109 of a gram nugget, I was pretty happy with that to start the day as often at this location I go home empty handed. I didn't get the entire thing on video and I had my detector in difficult from when I was messing around the other day doing some testing and didn't check my settings, I'd never normally use difficult in my soil as Normal works just fine. Fortunately it didn't prevent me finding the gold, or the numerous pellets before it Once I'd finished that bedrock area I walked up under the power lines to detect hoping I'd find something others couldn't get, I took a little video there of how the detector was working under the lines, I really love how well the GPZ handles power lines seeing they're in many of my gold areas. You'll also notice at the end of the video the millions of bits of rabbit poo on the ground, this is the reason for the shotgun pellets everywhere. You'll notice in the video I discover I'm in difficult and seem a bit surprised, this is when I worked out I may have wasted the past hour detecting in difficult and it went through my head now I'll have to go check that bedrock again 😛 I was quite happy at that point I took the video or I may not have noticed for the rest of the day. I started detecting along under the power lines and ended up in a little area I don't think I've been into before, I'm terrible with directions and locations so it's quite possible I have been there before and don't remember it but it didn't look familiar, I was still recording every target dig to try get a gold find on video and managed to do it, I think this might be my first time ever getting one from start to finish on video, quite happy with that. And a couple of photos of it. And my lucky last nugget of the day if you could call it that was a 0.038 of a gram nugget, very shallow on some bedrock, it took me about 20 minutes to recover this one, but I only got a portion of it on video, I kept moving it around but couldn't pick it up, I had no idea where it was in the cleared area, I was wishing I had a VLF with me with tiny coil to narrow it down. I'd imagine there are quite a lot of these little guys around it's just the amount of pellets you'd have to dig to find them would be crazy. I do it more for the challenge but the novelty wears off after digging a massive amount of pellets and not finding any nuggets and if you ignore the pellets you'll miss these little bits of gold. So here are the 3 little bits for the day and the weights All a bit of good fun, I really enjoy chasing these little bits especially after the first one pops up to get you into gear looking for more. I can't compete with the photos lately out of Alaska for gold though, I'm just glad I can do the hobby near home and find a few bits to keep me happy. Here is a little tour video of where I was detecting. Keep in mind to run these coils you need to have an adapter and that involves cutting the end off your existing GPZ coil and making an adapter out of it, it should only ever be taken on by someone very skilled at electronics or really the best thing to do is get a professional to make the adapter for you to avoid any problems.

I change coils more than most, in fact I've changed coils 10 times in a day when testing out various coils on bits of gold, by doing this I'd caused myself some lower shaft wobble, it turns out I'd cracked part of a clip on the shaft, the clip with the little rubber pad had a crack in it, so the shaft wasn't holding on tight. I suspect the people that had upper shaft issues where it wobbles a bit have either got the same crack on the pressure pad or they've just worn the little bit of rubber out. Fortunately it's a very easy and cheap fix. Here are the part numbers for the clip mechanism X2 8008-0056 Pressure blocks X1 8008-0072 Camlock lever X1 4308-0033 Pin The part I'd broken was the pressure blocks. They come in a twin pack for replacement and are very easy to replace. You dismantle the clip by removing the pin, I used a small screw driver to push it out of the clip. You then just use a small flat head screw driver to lever them off, pushing each side of the pressure block away from the camlock lever as pictured below. This is the shaft with the clip removed. You can see the grooves cut out of it where the pressure pads need to slide into so when reassembling made sure they're straight so they fit into the groove. You can see the little circular lump on the left hand side pressure pad, it's what goes into that dug out groove. This is how the rubber pads look, I guess they can wear out over time and if they do your shaft would be wobbly. Minelab sell all the parts individually, so you can just order what you need for the repair. They were very helpful with me, and had me solved by the next day using express shipping. I bought a heap of the little parts so I have spares seeing I change coils so often. In my case I just needed the pressure blocks, the pin and camlock lever were obviously fine. So if anyone's putting up with some shaft wobble, it's cheap and simple to fix.

I've read a few posts from those who have both and their input is pretty much what I expected. Having fun (especially with others) is the majority of why I enjoy detecting. Only a select few actually do it for a living and do well. The rest of us (me included), enjoy the hunt, adventures, comradery with like minded friends, and getting some gold on occasion. It's looking like the GPX-6000 is getting the majority of gold better than the GPZ-7000. So, is the extra weight worth the rare occasional big nugget? Lets go a step farther. Say the ZED hits a 4 ounce nugget at 34". Will the 6000 hit that same nugget at 30", 32" 33" or 34". Say it's 2" less and only gets the chunk at 32". It's still near 3' deep which is deeper than most folks enjoy digging and or most other detectors out there. So the reality for most folks, the GPX-6000 at a cost savings of $2000 and over 2 pounds lighter, better ergonomics, no more tethered into a harness, more user friendly, real wireless Bluetooth phones, is the best option for most. Like I said in another post. There should be a convoy of GPZ users heading down the highway to get the new GPX-6000 and having more fun, more gold more often. I can help make that smile happen. Anyone have a point I am missing or totally off, please chime in. Pic of the nugget will probably only be a few inches in depth difference between the 6 and 7. But the majority of us would probably hear if with both machines at 30 or more.

Hey Guys, I figured we can stir the pot just a little while we wait out the release of the Minelab GPX 6000, right? That being said, Minelab still claims the GPZ 7000 can get "up to 40% more depth" over previous GPX detectors. We can all question, does the GPX 6000 still fit in this category, as Minelab stated GPX detectors. The upcoming Minelab GPX 6000 is still a GPX series detector, but primarily using GeoSense Technology. I don't see where GeoSense really talks about any more depth ability over the previous GPX 5000, but it does mention about better ground response/clarity, maybe allowing you to hear something in higher mineralized ground over previous GPX series. I don't claim to be an expert electronic prospector, but my specialty is in detecting for gold nuggets with the best detectors available. We call all talk about how much gold we found, years of experience, regions we hunted and such ..... The bottom line is I still feel the Minelab GPZ 7000 is the KING of detectors when it comes to depth. Many Australian, African and US prospecting friends still feel the same. I personally have found many large gold nuggets and specimens at max depth where I doubt any detector with a similar sized searchcoil would have found. I also know that probably 1% or less of those large gold nuggets/specimens are out there still and the ones at max depth range of the current detector technology. Does this justify the purchase of a Minelab GPZ 7000 over the upcoming GPX 6000, or should GPZ 7000 owners dump their units now? These are questions I personally can't advise anyone on, but it's something to consider when you make a purchase of a metal detector in the thousands of dollar range. What I can leave you with is my personal experience over the last 25 years chasing gold nuggets .... If you are in areas where there has been historically large gold nuggets, overburden to bedrock/paylayer/caliche/false bedrock that can be several feet and deeper in depth, you might seriously consider either holding your current GPZ 7000 or consider a purchase of one at some point. I personally will not be parting with my trusty GPZ 7000, we have a 5+ year personal relationship. We have been through tough times, bad weather, I even yelled at her and dropped her a few times! Like Steve mentioned before, you could actually fall in love with your detector. Wishing you all much success with whatever detector(s) you swing. P.S. Below is a recent GPZ 7000 find, max depth, just a break in the threshold (yes the GPZ 7000 has one). Nearly a pound in weight (uncleaned in picture) Rob

I’ve been following the battle between the old dog (GPZ-7000) and young dog (GPX-6000) with keen interest.. From what I can make of it, the young dog’s winning its battles in the USA and the old dog in Australia.. So far it seems the old dog can handle a scruff on heavily mineralized and ‘hot rock’ infested grounds better than the young dog, who prefers milder grounds.. But it’s too early in the day to scorn the young dog, it’s only just finding its feet in the world.. The old dog might’ve fought it out with other GPXs and always come out on top, but this young dog seems to have more sense of geology than its cousins.. Maybe a few more dust-ups in the old dog’s yard might do the young dog some good.. Or maybe the old dog won’t let the young dog anywhere near its yard no more? Maybe they should flog it out on neutral grounds somewhere, another 'Rumble in the Jungle'? Only time will tell who emerges Top Dog of the World , as with most other dog fights.. Hackles come up and fur starts to fly..

Has anyone had any issues with their coil chip failing? l bought a second hand 19” coil for my GPZ and it worked fine for several months and then out of the blue, it failed. Minelab suggested that I buy a new coil. After a bit of research I decided to have a dongle made up from my 14” coil and now 12 or so months later the chip in the dongle has failed. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a problem with the detector or am I just very unlucky?

Hello gentlemen, finally someone from the Australian guys made an honest comparison