Nugget Finder GPX 6000 Coils Delays

[geof_junk]

Good table, most of my 1 oz nuggets are about the size of an Aus/Eng. silver 1 shilling or an USA quarter and shows there is not much gain in going over 18" round coil for that size.

[Aureous]

33 minutes ago, Chet said:

I know of some areas that have produced some large nuggets. So in pursuit of large gold I have experimented with winding some test coils and did some air testing

So you plucked the 'handshake' chip out the stock coils and made up an adapter for these tests? Fascinating results... The 6000 is not regarded as a deep-seeking detector, with both the 5000 and 7000 obtaining better results in all tests that Ive seen. But, these tests seem pretty good. All obviously mono's with but with proper shielding????

[phrunt]

Just look how close your pick can go to the 6000 when you have to work hard to keep it away from the 7000 😁

[Chet]

20 minutes ago, Aureous said:

So you plucked the 'handshake' chip out the stock coils and made up an adapter for these tests? Fascinating results... The 6000 is not regarded as a deep-seeking detector, with both the 5000 and 7000 obtaining better results in all tests that Ive seen. But, these tests seem pretty good. All obviously mono's with but with proper shielding????

I purchased a used GPX 6000 Mono coil and removed the cord and chip module together to accomplish the tests. I use a two conductor male and female connector to attach the test coils. I have tested some of these coils on my GPX 5000 which is unmodified. The GPX 6000 results are a few inches better than the GPX 5000. I shielded two of the coils with graphite conductive paint (100-150 ohms per inch). The before and after measurements where the same. The GPZ 7000 coils are more difficult to make and balance but is a better choice so that is that is the way I am preceding.

[Aureous]

45 minutes ago, Chet said:

I purchased a used GPX 6000 Mono coil and removed the cord and chip module together to accomplish the tests. I use a two conductor male and female connector to attach the test coils. I have tested some of these coils on my GPX 5000 which is unmodified. The GPX 6000 results are a few inches better than the GPX 5000. I shielded two of the coils with graphite conductive paint (100-150 ohms per inch). The before and after measurements where the same. The GPZ 7000 coils are more difficult to make and balance but is a better choice so that is that is the way I am preceding.

Cool, thats the smart way to do it, keep the coax attached to the chip and remove the whole lot. Shielding is spot on. Are these results all air tests??? Were you able to ground balance any of the larger coils or were they all board-builds only....without shells???

[Chet]

9 hours ago, Aureous said:

Cool, thats the smart way to do it, keep the coax attached to the chip and remove the whole lot. Shielding is spot on. Are these results all air tests??? Were you able to ground balance any of the larger coils or were they all board-builds only....without shells???

 

Two GPX 6000 coils; a 6" RND and a 26" x 22" were completed and tested in the field. They both ground balanced and worked fine. The 6" picks up smaller bits than the stock 11". The 26" x 22" was wound with 12 AWG stranded copper coated aluminum wire to reduce cost and weight. That was a big mistake that cost some inches off of depth. Litz wire is expensive so when possible it is reused to experiment with on the next brainstorm.😄 The attached photo is the 6" coil with the coax and module. The chip and ferrite housing is inside a blob of epoxy which now is covered with heat shrink tubing. The coil shield is connected by a separate spade connector
 

[Aureous]

4 hours ago, Chet said:

The chip and ferrite housing is inside a blob of epoxy which now is covered with heat shrink tubing. The coil shield is connected by a separate spade connector
 

Ha, you're full of great ideas Chet! Re-use the cable and chip for multiple coils....brilliant! Giving me ideas now... 🤔

[jasong]

Good stuff Chet. This kind of DIY experimenting is part of almost every enthusiast community from cars to computers, it really makes it fun and interesting to follow or participate in modding equipment for many of us. Goes to show Minelab isn't going to stop it with silly chips, and they should embrace it instead. Everyone wins that way! Good on you for keeping the experimenting, modding, and innovating spirit alive in the gold machine world. 👍

[PhaseTech]

Chet, your air test results, where these with the detector in Normal or Difficult setting? 

I know Normal has a noticeable improvement over Difficult with the 14" DD. 

[Chet]

3 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

Chet, your air test results, where these with the detector in Normal or Difficult setting? 

I know Normal has a noticeable improvement over Difficult with the 14" DD. 

The areas that I detect are mostly mild sand and soil so I run the GPX 6000 in Normal, No Threshold and Auto 2. I take the coils out of town to get away from EMI and run the air tests with the same settings. I test my GPZ 7000 coils with Normal, High Yield and 20 sensitivity.

When in the Nevada desert I have accomplished a lot of testing in the ground lowering nuggets down a vertical PVC pipe. The results are pretty close to the air tests. The big variable is the shape of the nuggets. I record all of the data on test sheets and when later entering the data into Excel charts and plots some of the extreme nugget data is thrown out. The next outing some of the wild nuggets stay home.