GPZ Settings

[Chris Ben]

Hello everyone, I am a relative new owner of a GPZ, also my first minelab product. So I don't have much experience with all the different settings. I have been doing really well in the last 6 weeks, but I get the feeling I may not be fully utilizing the capability of the GPZ. I have read the posts on the "insanely hot settings" and a couple on the "low sensitivity" settings. 

I have a few questions.

Do you have settings you like, and stick with?

Are you constantly changing setting during a hunt?

Are there specific situations where you adjust settings?

Any surprises when experimenting with settings?

I am in southern Nevada, the ground is relatively mild. Most of the gold is sub gram to 3 or 4g, with the occasional 10 grammer. I usually run relatively hot up to max sensitivity, I do get lots of warble. I understand the GPZ is relatively noisy (much noisier than my ATX) Is it beneficial to find the smoothest threshold possible? 

Thank you 

Chris

Excited to learn what I can.

[Norvic]

Go with JPs conservative or Steves Insane settings or anywhere in between. All else fails reset to default, it really is a individual thingo. Myself I very rarely fiddle and against most advice very rarely bother with the startup procedure, just let the auto GB do its thing, the Z to me is a turn on and go machine not much diff to the SDC. But as your doing well I suspect you have it nailed.

[Jonathan Porter]

If you want to run Audio Smoothing OFF so you can tap into the full depth potential of the GPZ then do not adjust the other settings like Target Volume and Sensitivity too high for your given area. The Target Volume control in particular is the setting that makes the GPZ noisy, use it sparingly.

JP

[Andyy]

I used to think the GPZ was noisier than the GPX.  I have since changed my mind.  The GPZ better allows you to read the ground in my opinion.   I may dig a few more holes for ground noise but now I can better track the mineralization.

For settings I have two.  One setting is similar to JPs but my sensitivity comes down until its smooth.  Often this puts me around 5 on sensitivity.  If EMI is just too bad... dropping sensitivity to 3, I go to Lunk's settings.  I also use Lunk's setting when I know the gold is less than .1g.  They pop out just a hair more in my opinion.

I tried those insanely hot settings once and slipped into a coma for a week.  Not doing that again  hee.hee.. 

Good luck to you.  If you're using good technique you really can't go wrong.

[fredmason]

I have a small notepad with many settings...my most used is Jonathan's with minor adjustments.

I know guys that find  a lot of gold and still worry there may be just one more thing that will increase their finds...and sometimes that is true. However, as long as the machine is on, it will find the gold.

fred

 

[Norvic]

Yeah, I went for 1 year plus on hot settings to JPs conservative after running around with the 19" coil for a few days for nix on ground I knew had deep gold, one hour after going JPs way on same ground, started a few days fun. Like Andyy says it is really quieter then the Xs, once you have the confidence and trust to turn it back.

[phoenix]

7 hours ago, Chris Ben said:

Is it beneficial to find the smoothest threshold possible?

hey Chris .I think a smooth threshold is one of the most important settings on the 7000.  I have found some nice pieces that were nothing more than a very slight change in the threshold.   If you`ve got a threshold that`s all over the place you`ll miss targets that are just a slight murmur .  cheers Dave

[jasong]

Best thing to do is test it and see how the settings change the target, ground noise, and EMI. Here's how I do it:

Find some typical ground similar to what you normally run in and bury a couple different nuggets down just past the point which the default settings no longer hear your targets. Now spend a few hours tweaking settings, first individually to see how each affects the target response, then in combinations to see how each setting interacts with the other settings and how the combo changes target, ground, and EMI response.

Find what you think is the best combination, then again dig up and rebury your nuggets to the point you can just barely hear them and then try to tweak the detector again to see if you can brighten up the signal even more if you feel like really maximizing your performance.

It may take a few hours, but trust me, it will save you weeks, or months of wasted time in the end. And you won't be left wondering if you left gold in the ground due to running inefficiently and thinking you need to drive back and redetect again. It instantly builds confidence in your machine too because you know exactly how it's performing on measured and controlled targets instead of always guessing on in-situ targets or waiting for one that just happens to be at the extent of your detection range. People will insist you can't gain useful info from reburied targets, but I absolutely disagree, give it a try yourself and see.

Now you have a good combo of settings that work for your particular area, you can use these as a starting point and then adjust as needed throughout the day as the environment changes and you will have your testing experience to rely on now to make those judgement calls rather than guessing.

Something like this should be done with every new machine before actually looking for nuggets IMO. It gives a good understanding of how the settings work, what they represent in physical terms. But better yet it helps you develop a "feel" for the detector way quicker, and that's important.

Running the GPZ too conservative will render it equal to the GPX in some aspects, or in some cases even less deep, know when this happens and why it does otherwise there is no point in owning a $10k detector instead of a $2.5k one. Testing it will show you where it's better to cut back and where you absolutely never should if the conditions allow it.

[Steve Herschbach]

I am more prone to changing detectors than changing detector settings in the ground I work in. My personal settings lean towards producing the strongest target signal, not the quietest background signal. What others hear as noise I hear as a background threshold and ground feedback. Targets just sound different to me. I more often change sweep speed and sometimes coil height as a way of reacting to on ground conditions than the coil settings.

[Jonathan Porter]

18 hours ago, jasong said:

.......... People will insist you can't gain useful info from reburied targets, but I absolutely disagree, give it a try yourself and see.

..........Running the GPZ too conservative will render it equal to the GPX in some aspects, or in some cases even less deep, know when this happens and why it does otherwise there is no point in owning a $10k detector instead of a $2.5k one. Testing it will show you where it's better to cut back and where you absolutely never should if the conditions allow it.

jasong, the key to burying targets is to walk around the general area familiarizing yourself with ground conditions and general detector behavior before coming in over the target, and to then be 100% honest with yourself on the question "would you have found that when you didn't know the target was there?" It is very easy to tweak a detector to give a "better" signal response on a "known" target and then go off with those settings with a false impression of actual real world performance. (I'm not saying your doing this BTW, just alerting forum readers of the potential pitfalls)

The thing to understand about metal detectors is the detector has to convert the receive signal into an audio platform as a  means of interface, that interface can be impacted upon by so many factors of which the major one is our brains uncanny ability to control the levels of perceived volume dependent on how loud continual exposure to the audio source is. 

As an example if you listen to a loud volume for long periods it will take your brain at least an hour or even longer to readjust to a lower volume level thereby giving the operator the false impression a target signal is weak when in actual fact it is the operators brain that is controlling the perceived volume levels. As an example after a long car journey you will notice you feel deaf when you finally reach your destination especially at night when all is quiet, this deafness is due to your brain adjusting the audio volume levels and taking a long time to re-adjust to the new noise levels without the road noise present, usually a good nights rest will correct this.

Sound and the volume of sound has a very big impact on an operators ability to recognize an "edge of detection" signal response, in my experience increasing Volumes and Sensitivity too high will only really impact on the near to coil target and ground signal responses and could potentially mask or hide the fainter signals. My absolute aim is to keep ground signals and other non essential audio responses at a minimum whilst carefully listening for a disturbance in the receive winding feedback as the coil passes through the signal plume of a deep at "edge of detection" target, I always try to keep the volume variance resolution as wide as possible to fully tap into the nuance of the target signal.

My 2 cents
JP