Gold Bug 2 New Ground Reject LCD / Knob

[Desert Dawg]

On that note, I am finding that the new version LCD readout gold bug 2 is missing something with that fine GB control gone, I miss the second fine control, it seems to smooth the machine quite a bit and quieter. This new machine is more noisy. Less tune ability. I do not think it was a good move removing the fine control on GB at all. I got to use my lcd version GB2 extensively a few weeks back at Rye Patch. 

I am pretty sure this new GM2000 will eliminate any need for the vintage gb2 anyway. I hope so anyway. I am pretty sure I will move my gb2 to Loaner and/or extra emergency machine only after the GM2000 is available.  

[Geotech]

31 minutes ago, Desert Dawg said:

I do not think it was a good move removing the fine control on GB at all.

Not much choice, that weird dual control went end-of-life and there was no similar replacement. I argued to replace it with a 10-turn pot but was out-voted.

[Nikko]

2 hours ago, Geotech said:

Not much choice, that weird dual control went end-of-life and there was no similar replacement. I argued to replace it with a 10-turn pot but was out-voted.

Can you share the rationale behind that decision?  Doesn't seem like it would be a customer driven decision.  The cost for the components should be insignificant.  Did some exec just go rogue and insist he knew what was best?

[Geotech]

3 hours ago, Nikko said:

Can you share the rationale behind that decision?  Doesn't seem like it would be a customer driven decision.  The cost for the components should be insignificant.  Did some exec just go rogue and insist he knew what was best?

I don't understand... the rationale behind replacing the dual control? Or the rationale behind replacing it with what it got replaced with? BTW, before Honeywell discontinued the dual control the price had climbed from $5-6 to $40-50 each. 

[Geotech]

I've never used the new GB2, but I believe the knob is a rotary encoder, not a pot. Each click is 0.1° (or maybe less, I'm not sure what the numbers really mean) so it takes quite a few turns to go through the full GB range. If you turn the rotary quickly, it moves the GB in greater steps. The LCD isn't even needed, you still GB by sound.

From a user perspective, it's not better, maybe just more familiar since 10-turn pots have been used for GB before. From an engineering perspective, the 10-turn pot was a 10-minute solution, whereas the rotary+display+internal circuit changes took a lot longer.

[Tony]

7 hours ago, Geotech said:

I've never used the new GB2, but I believe the knob is a rotary encoder, not a pot. Each click is 0.1° (or maybe less, I'm not sure what the numbers really mean) so it takes quite a few turns to go through the full GB range. If you turn the rotary quickly, it moves the GB in greater steps. The LCD isn't even needed, you still GB by sound.

Learn something new everyday......I found the GB didn't need much tweaking once set and adjustments were minor. I only ever rotated the GB control very slowly which I guess was the "fine" adjustment. Never spun the control fast ("coarse adjustment") and didn't know that advanced the GB range faster.....pretty mild creek bed gravels and shallow bedrock. I don't recall ever advancing the control anywhere near the fully clockwise or anti-clockwise positions.....rotary encoders often spin infinitely and don't have physical "stops". Not sure what the new GB2 GB control does? Like I said, only used the machine for a day.

[Desert Dawg]

The 10 turn to one fine adjustment acted as a buffer for GB allowing greater lattitude before changing balance, which allowed more swinging and less adjusting GB. Now with 1:1 its not good in hotter variable soils, is way more noisy per swing, less ability to get a good tune and keep very long, I am pretty much done with mine after one trip out with it. Annoying.  

[Steve Herschbach]

49 minutes ago, Desert Dawg said:

The 10 turn to one fine adjustment acted as a buffer for GB allowing greater lattitude before changing balance, which allowed more swinging and less adjusting GB. Now with 1:1 its not good in hotter variable soils, is way more noisy per swing, less ability to get a good tune and keep very long, I am pretty much done with mine after one trip out with it. Annoying.  

A ground balance setting is a ground balance setting on the GB2. The control does not impose a "buffer" on the setting and would have nothing to do with how often the setting would need to be changed. The only difference between the controls is how far they must be moved to change a certain amount of GB setting. A single turn control requires miniscule moves of the control, a ten turn or more control allows for easier, finer adjustments. I'm not going to swear there were not other changes made in the GB2 that might account for what you are experiencing, but the ground reject control would not be the focus of your problem. Bottom line I guess is you think the old models worked better.

Despite what was said earlier the new ground reject knob is an “infinite turn” knob. Slow turns make fine adjustments like the old fine control, spinning it engages a coarse adjust like the old coarse turn knob. The setting goes from 00.1 to 99.9 and so there are 1000 potential settings. I’m not sure how the resolution of the older analog controls is measured, but I’m not seeing that there is a loss of fine tune capability here.

[Desert Dawg]

We had 2 of the older GB2's with us last trip to rye patch this June, and this newer lcd model, the two older models were fine, and worked as normal in ground we had worked in the past, I ended up borrowing one of the older models for part of the trip. This newer model is a much different story. It does ground balance, but is much more noisy and harder to keep in balance than the older units. I suspect if they had used the ten turn GB pot alone things would have been fine. Like Carl voted for.