Who Has Had Issues With Their Gpx 6000?

[Steve Herschbach]

2 hours ago, phrunt said:

From what I can tell, it wasn't an identified problem by ANYONE until many months after release,

Sept 2021 JP says this on thread about reported EMI issues, which is how it was being perceived at the time. I thought it was a Geosense going out of whack thing. JP was closer to the mark, tying the speaker as interfering with the circuit....

"The speaker is the pits, it generates its own EMI or the speaker being in close proximity to the very sensitive electronics housed in the plastic housing does anyway."

I was insisting that it was not EMI, because I was experiencing it in areas where EMI was impossible.

"JP has mentioned he thinks the speaker has something to do with it, like a feedback loop where the machine is picking up its own speaker, then amplifying that back via the audio? I do actually wonder if a Geo-Sense programming bug is at fault, as it did occur with mine in remotest Alaska, where it is impossible it was man made EMI. A natural source, like aurora activity? Perhaps, but feels more like something inherent in the machine."

Long story short the issue was being noted and was in active discussion by Sept 2021 and was no doubt on Minelabs radar by then or before.

[phrunt]

I can't even remember when it first came to market but people were saying in April 21 they had them in Australia, so it was quite a while after release it was being talked about. 

Both you and JP were on the money really, knowing it was behaving like EMI but not caused by external EMI sources.  The speaker was the explanation as the problem was worse when using speaker as JP noted in September 21.

It took until March 2022 for Minelab to come out with an evasive excuse product notice basically saying there is no fault.

"Because the detector is generally used in an outdoor, open environment, the speaker plays the audio with a high volume to account for wind and other ambient noises. Due to the highly sensitive nature of the GPX6000, in some circumstances the speaker itself may introduce detector noise that sounds like interference.

If you experience this situation, Minelab recommends first performing a Noise Cancel by holding the coil still and about 10 cm (4”) above, and parallel, to the ground. Press the Noise Cancel button on the control panel and wait for about 5 seconds until the confirmation tone signals the end of the Noise Cancel procedure. This will cause the detector to operate on a different frequency where the noise should not persist. Typically, the speaker is best to use when digging to locate a nugget.

Minelab recommends for best detecting results that operators use either the wireless or wired headphones which will not have this problem and will also suppress any environmental noise and ensure the Operator detects the smallest and deepest of nuggets.

Should the problem persist, please contact your Dealer."

They put this little line at the bottom saying if you've tried everything above and its still noisy to contact your dealer, in other words if it works better on headphones you're fine, if it is crazy on headphones too you may have a bad coil and need it replaced by the dealer which no doubt by that time they'd been replacing a number of noisy coils.

Finally on the 26th of August 2022 over a year after release they posted the new notice saying there is indeed a fault causing it, although this notice was only visible to those in Australia for quite a time after that.

It's hard to know the reasons for their delays, perhaps they were genuinely slow at finding a solution, or they were reluctant to admit fault as they know that's a big expense doing all the repairs. 

I don't know if Minelab did wrong by their customers in this process as they never speak so you never know what's going on behind the scenes but it sure seems like there was a cover up going on but the voices just kept getting louder and forced their hand.

[TE Gold]

On 7/16/2023 at 3:41 PM, Gold Catcher said:

Get yourself a Coiltek or NF coil, do the audio fix, and you will love this machine.

GC

I have a coiltek. Don't think it needs an audio fix.

I love my GPZ. It works 1st time every time. It sees gold that the 6k does not. The 6k sees tiny stuff that I'm not really looking for anyway. I got the 6k as a patch finder and to use during our wet season with the dd coil, when storms are an every day event. The dd works ok with the storms, but generally,  it's too hard to prospect then anyway. The only thing I love about the 6k is the light weight, that's why I want it as a patch finder, apart from that....meh.

[Aureous]

One of ML's biggest failures is that they dont attribute much weight to shielding issues. There are several noted examples in the past and currently that show electronic 'noise/EMI' from part of the internal circuitry that is inhibiting other parts of the circuitry. Shielding is either minimal or non-existent. 

The control box shielding on the 6000 is woeful. Basic graphite paint as per usual. A copper shield with a painted isolate would make heaps more sense and only cost a few extra cents. My copper taped CB cover improves perhaps 15%+ of noise reduction which is proof of concept (at least to my ears). One day I'll get a ML tech to create an active shield wire that protrudes out of the Control Box. I can then actively connect my exterior copper shield to the internal one. One day...

Oh, and their customer relations suck...  Love the 6000 though, for all its faults its an awesome detector. I found 774 bits of gold last year and already for this year, here in July, I'm up to almost 800. 

[GotAU?]

21 minutes ago, Aureous said:

One of ML's biggest failures is that they dont attribute much weight to shielding issues. There are several noted examples in the past and currently that show electronic 'noise/EMI' from part of the internal circuitry that is inhibiting other parts of the circuitry. Shielding is either minimal or non-existent. 

The control box shielding on the 6000 is woeful. Basic graphite paint as per usual. A copper shield with a painted isolate would make heaps more sense and only cost a few extra cents. My copper taped CB cover adds perhaps 15%+ of noise reduction which is proof of concept (at least to my ears). One day I'll get a ML tech to create an active shield wire that protrudes out of the Control Box. I can then actively connect my exterior copper shield to the internal one. One day...

Oh, and their customer relations suck...  Love the 6000 though, for all its faults its an awesome detector. I found 774 bits of gold last year and already here in July, I'm up to almost 800. 

When my warranty runs out that may be a project too- just need to get adhesive backed conductive metal foil tape that can be soldered for grounding and with adhesive that can stand the heat of the sun on that dark cover, else paint the cover all white! 😆

[phrunt]

You can use EMI paint to paint the wire onto the tape, you don't solder it.  You can also buy electrically conductive wire glue .

[Aureous]

Simplest way is to shield like a coil, except using copper tape. Once your box cover (or entire control box) is covered in the tape, run a screen wire (fine fuse wire works great) diagonally or zig zag to touch and connect every individual piece of copper tape and then use masking tape or cloth tape to secure the screen wire in place. Then solder or connect the end of the screen wire to your internal shield connection. The screen wire ensures that your overall shielding is resistance-uniform. It averages the resistance across the whole coverage. Next time I'm in Bendigo, I'll ask the ML technician there if he's up for allowing an internal shield connection to be externally connectable. If an official tech does it, it wont void the warranty....in theory... 

[Aureous]

1 hour ago, GotAU? said:

When my warranty runs out that may be a project too- just need to get adhesive backed conductive metal foil tape that can be soldered for grounding and with adhesive that can stand the heat of the sun on that dark cover, else paint the cover all white! 😆

Copper tape is available everywhere, common for shielding electric guitars. I got mine from Ebay for about $10 a roll.

[fi4451]

Well, I'll join the club of GPX 6000 owner with issues.  I bought mine new when they first came out. I knew from the start my coil wasn't the best, but I  kept it for 6 months (wayyy touch sensitive).  Minelab replaced my first coil with a new one and what a difference!  Much better.  Recently, my detector speaker would not work, but detector still works when paired to the headsets (so it still was usable).  I turn on the detector, and no sound...only works with headsets.  I sent it back to be fixed, Minelab wasn't sure of the problem, they told me at least 3 weeks to get parts to fix the issue.  I am still waiting.  I wouldn't have sent it back if I would have known it was going to take so long (the headsets would have been fine for a while).  The frustrating thing for me, detecting is just a "hobby".  I don't even use the machine daily, weekly, etc....I am worried about how much money I will be dumping into this detector when 3 years is up (the warranty).  I've already spent a small fortune sending the unit back to Pennsylvania for warranty work.

[GotAU?]

36 minutes ago, fi4451 said:

Well, I'll join the club of GPX 6000 owner with issues.  I bought mine new when they first came out. I knew from the start my coil wasn't the best, but I  kept it for 6 months (wayyy touch sensitive).  Minelab replaced my first coil with a new one and what a difference!  Much better.  Recently, my detector speaker would not work, but detector still works when paired to the headsets (so it still was usable).  I turn on the detector, and no sound...only works with headsets.  I sent it back to be fixed, Minelab wasn't sure of the problem, they told me at least 3 weeks to get parts to fix the issue.  I am still waiting.  I wouldn't have sent it back if I would have known it was going to take so long (the headsets would have been fine for a while).  The frustrating thing for me, detecting is just a "hobby".  I don't even use the machine daily, weekly, etc....I am worried about how much money I will be dumping into this detector when 3 years is up (the warranty).  I've already spent a small fortune sending the unit back to Pennsylvania for warranty work.

Sorry about your bad luck! I sent mine in for the audio repair and that worked out well, and they replaced my 11 inch coil due to cracking. So that was at least two expensive postage billsthat I had to pay. Since then I cut off my slipping twist locks and I added $20 worth of snap locks.  Then there was the nugget finder coil upgrade, and next maybe some foil tape and who else knows what?