The New Coils For The 23 And 7

[Reg Wilson]

Big companies that have virtually monopolized a market become arrogant.

Profit, profit, profit.

Minelab is now Codan.

Made in Malaysia.

[Steve Herschbach]

You remember correctly Rob. It just never happened. It was even in the first edition of the owners manual. The U.S. guys wanted a small coil. The aussies wanted a large coil so it got done first... and then nothing. That’s why I’m kind of bent out of shape over it. I had visions of a smaller coil that weighed less and the CTX battery on the GPZ both together knocking a pound off the GPZ. That’s the detector I wanted since day one and never got. Would have been perfect for poking around desert sagebrush plus bouldery canyons and such.

[Andyy]

11 hours ago, Rob Allison said:

Hey Guys,

   What ever happen to the 11" GPZ coil that Minelab promised?  I'm 99.9% sure when the unit was first released they mentioned a future  11" and 19" coil release, beyond the stock 14x13" inch.  Correct me if I'm wrong? 

There was originally a printed page that said 11" and  19" coils.  I am not sure where I saw it, but that has since been removed from all documents I can find.

[Reg Wilson]

Andy, disappeared 'like straw in the wind'.

[Rob Allison]

Hey Guys,

    I was pretty much positive that we were originally told a Minelab 11" GPZ coil would be released.  I understand that it didn't, but I thought I might be going crazy .... ?

I think the stock 14x13 is plenty sensitive to very small gold, down to a grain or so on the surface.  I have also found specimens with just a trace of gold showing.  That being said, a bit smaller would make it easier to work in tighter and smaller areas.  

JP - Great to see you on the forums.  I think to many of us, you're an Australian mentor when it comes to electronic prospecting. 

 

[afreakofnature]

So.....JW....How did that 10” work last weekend?  

[Jonathan Porter]

Back on topic.....

There are four key things that are super important with the ML coils for the GPZ.

• Saturation noise
• X signal *Ferrite signal
• Rub and knock sensitivity
• Phase between left and right receive windings

Minelab invested a lot of Engineering time and effort into getting these key requirements to come into line. If these weren’t addressed properly then there would be a ground swell of complaints much worse than people not being happy about weight or the lack of coil choices. IN fact these features are so important to Minelab they are then bound by the coils being much heavier than traditional coils, unfortunately for us that’s the trade off. Hopefully this will change in the future, after all the GPZ is the first of its type so its early days for the tech.

An aftermarket manufacturer has a lot more latitude in this respect because often customers do not have the knowledge to know if negative aspects of the coil are actually related to the coil, the detector or the environment.

As an example the Spiral wound Mono’s for the GPX machines are notorioious for saturating and also because of the forced early demod a fair bit of X signal sneaks in not to mention elevated Salt signal. Even though the coils have provided users the opportunity to find more gold on old patches the method or way the coils achieve this is not eloquent and as such I hate using them. Don’t get me wrong if I did not have a choice then I too would be going down that path, but I know what they’re doing and how they are doing it and the way they make the detector behave takes away from a smooth detecting experience.

JP

* A signal off the Ferrite or X signal in the ground is determined by two things, X signal being present in the ground and the temperature of the electronics relative to the X balance position. If the X balance is not calibarated properly relative to the temperature of the detectors electronics then the detector will manifest a signal off the Ferrite or any X signal in the ground. This is why I advocate using the Semi-Auto GB mode, you calibrate the Ferrite then when you release the Quick-Trak button the X balance is locked, check again an hour or so later when the electronics have warmed up, re-calibrate and your good to go from then on.

In Auto mode the detector try’s to follow the X signal in the ground, but saturation signal and salt signal can interfere with the calibration which then introduces X signal to the audio, costing you performance. Any noise that is introduced to the detectors audio can affect performance, especially if the noise does not need to be there through a combination of good calibration techniques and good detecting techniques.

[goldwright]

Yeah JP I understand all of that as do most of us but now over 4 years on Minelab have left us out in the cold.  They have had the time to make the Equinox and 3 coils for it havent they?  On Minelabs part this make smart money sense as they sold crate loads of them, dont get me wrong I love my nox but I will be cutting the plug off my GPZ14 in the next week or so and making patch leads as I need a smaller coil and Minelab wont make one simple.  Giving a long list of technical reasons why they havent done so yet are basically just excuses in my opinion, especially when they introduced the Z, it was marketed with a future smaller coil.

[WesD]

My guess is someone at Minelab probably figured they would make more $ selling  complete detectors, as in sdc2300s, than by offering a small coil option for the gpZ