GPZ7000: Info, Tips, Finds

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PhaseTech

Phase Technical
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Hi all,

Seems like all the info being posted on the 7000 is a bit scattered, so I thought I'd start a new thread.

Here's my latest blog post on the 7000: http://phasetechnical.com.au/minelab-gpz-7000-part-3/

There's quite a few members here that now have 7000's, so be good to share some finds, settings etc.

Cheers,

Nenad
 
Good idea Nenad, it seems the GPZ has dropped off the radar, look forward to reading some reports from users.
 
Did a test today in mild ground, using a nugget I found with the GPZ. Nugget weighs 1.26 grams and has a pale complexion
Looks solid and should get better depth but must be one of those "funny" pieces.

Was running the machine on: General, Normal, Sens 8, Smoothing - Off. Best I could get on it was 25cm (I could've sworn it was deeper than that when I first found it).
I mucked around with a heap of settings, adjusting threshold, sensitivity, volume, smoothing etc. and the best signal:noise was with the following:

Gold Mode - High Yield
Ground Type - Normal
Smoothing - Low
Threshold - 26
Sensitivity - 9
Volume - 10 (this was through the Sunray's plugged into the WM12 module)

I then pulled out the GPX4500 and a bunch of coils.

Enhance - no hope
Normal - no hope
Sharp - slight signal, but also reacting to the ground. On a very low Rx gain with the 15x12" commander I was getting a faint sniff but only because I knew it was there
Sensitive Extra - this was really the only timing that got some form of a signal that you would recognize. Here's the results on a range of coils all in Sens Extra:

11" Mono - thought I could hear something, but I was just kidding myself. Backed off the Stabilizer to check but no real signal
14" DD Pro in Mono mode - nothing
15x12" commander mono - nothing, but with pushed settings, backing off Rx Gain and Stabilizer I could hear "something" but whether it would pull me up or not..??
16" NF mono - initially nothing, so I played around with settings. Rx Gain - 11, Stabilizer 13, Signal 19, Target Volume - 12, on these settings I got a faint repeatable pull in the threshold, but the coil was being revved hard. I took ten steps back and started sweeping the coil and walking towards the target. The noises I was hearing were louder than the target response. Trying to pretend i didn't know where the target was, I walked straight past it.

So as a sanity check I fired up the 7000 again, and yep clear repeatable signal - faint, but a clear tone change.

Be interesting to see how the 14" Mono Elite fares on the same piece.
 
I know I should use my 5000 more but it's results like these that keep me using the SDC, I bet that would have nailed it. If I had a better Gold collection I would use the 5000 more but need a bit of a tally up before I stop worrying about the small nugs. I really don't want to spend up on a 7000 but I'm slowly being tempted little by little.
 
Nenad,

I'm over in Vic with my 5000 at the moment and have heard discussions re the 7000 and it's coil.

Can you confirm please,

Is the 7000 coil serial number matched to its detector?

Does this mean 2 owners can not swap coils?

Will Minelab produce other sized coils for the 7000?

and last, What will this do for the after market coils re the 7000 i.e. Coiltek - Nugget Finder etc?
 
minelab 7000,having owned twelve detectors,since 1976,consider myself to be experinced operator,have purchased a 7000, spent the last four days detecting the golden triangle victoria,25 + hours,NOTHING,found three good signals ,lead shot, lost all three signals trying to locate target,went over the same with 5000 found all three targets, contacted minelab today,they were most helpfull,i think the ground balance of the 7000, balances out the signals, as it continully ground balances.on a .3 grm. gold test piece it will pick up at 1-2 inch, no signal at four inches,all the tests were carried at factory recomended settings,the only exception was i had the sound turned up, due to hearing loss.minelab have given me a few tests to do,,i really want this detector to work, not looking for a refund at this point,minelab have not put out a dud detector, but in this case im not so sure.my three detecting friends have cancelled there orders of the 7000.two of the most experinced operators from inglewood victoria have returned there 7000 for a refund, all have said stay away from them,just hope that minelab fixes this problem,all the minelab people have said they are a great machine. i think i would like to see a independent test....ps minelab have asked after the test if it fails, the last one had a faulty coil just my luck. regards bob hillier.
 
Bob, I am not sure that I understand what is happening with your machine, but there are many on this and other forums that are just killing it with their Z's, so I wouldn't be sending it back. I have only found 1 bit of gold (1.6gm specie on my first outing) with mine in about 20 odd hours of use, but I am finding lots and lots of junk that just won't go away even if I wanted it to. So I know that it is doing the job, and it is just me not finding the correct spot to swing it.

In the early days soon after release there was some discussion regarding putting the GB into manual mode while doing a retrieval to avoid ground balancing it out, so I set up my user button to select Auto/Manual and used it during the first outing, but on the last couple of outings I have just left it in Auto and didn't lose the junk targets. Also ML said that the unit should not balance out a target. You could try this to verify if that is what is happening with yours.

So at the moment I am doing the environment a favour, cleaning up the junk of others, and having some enjoyable time in the bush, but with time and luck, some more will come my way.

Rob.
 
bob hillier said:
minelab 7000 gtz,having owned twelve detectors,since 1976,consider myself to be experinced operator,have purchased a 7000 gtz, spent the last four days detecting the golden triangle victoria,25 + hours,NOTHING,found three good signals ,lead shot, lost all three signals trying to locate target,went over the same with gtx 5000 found all three targets, contacted minelab today,they were most helpfull,i think the ground balance of the gtz 7000, balances out the signals, as it continully ground balances.on a .3 grm. gold test piece it will pick up at 1-2 inch, no signal at four inches,all the tests were carried at factory recomended settings,the only exception was i had the sound turned up, due to hearing loss.minelab have given me a few tests to do,,i really want this detector to work, not looking for a refund at this point,minelab have not put out a dud detector, but in this case im not so sure.my three detecting friends have cancelled there orders of the gtz7000.two of the most experinced operators from inglewood victoria have returned there 7000 for a refund, all have said stay away from them,just hope that minelab fixes this problem,all the minelab people have said they are a great machine. i think i would like to see a independent test....ps minelab have asked after the test if it fails, the last one had a faulty coil just my luck. regards bob hillier.

Sounds like more of the same GPZ7000 syndrome as in the video in this thread: https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11090
 
Some good info here Bob:
http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/tags/forums/minelab+gpz+7000/

From everything I've read it seems that experienced operators can have more trouble coming to grips with the GPZ than the more inexperienced as letting go of many years of SD/GP/GPX mindset is hard & something you need to do? Not sure as I'm yet to use one but have read reports from experienced blokes saying once they "retrained" themselves for the Zed they now find it much better. There are now quite a few independent tests & great results around.
Seen a few reports of people that sold quick after not coming to grips with the start up process etc. have now got another one after seeing how it went when set up correctly.
 
condor22 said:
Nenad,

I'm over in Vic with my 5000 at the moment and have heard discussions re the 7000 and it's coil.

Can you confirm please,

Is the 7000 coil serial number matched to its detector?

Does this mean 2 owners can not swap coils?

Will Minelab produce other sized coils for the 7000?

and last, What will this do for the after market coils re the 7000 i.e. Coiltek - Nugget Finder etc?
I know of a family with 2 x GPZ's & they swapped coils to test as they thought one may have been faulty. From memory it worked ok on the other machine & the issue was with the start up process but regardless they swapped coils without issue.
Minelab will release more coils when who knows? The rumour mill has Nugget Finder working on a coil/s too but again who knows?
 
minelab sent me a test,to try on different settings,they said they have had one the same, faulty coil,will post tomorrow,minelab will not let us down...regards bob hillier.
 
A few key things I've noticed with the Zed:

1. Use a very slow sweep speed - but you don't have to overlap as much as when using a mono

2. Keep the coil just off the ground, light occassional skimming is fine

3. Sensitivity is critical, often less is more

4. Go easy on your target Volume. 10 is plenty if using headphones.

5. Spend the time to get the optimum Tone to suit your hearing

6. Mellow, repeatable broad signals are usually NOT ground noise

7. Learn to trust the Tracking, it'll save you digging lots of ground noises
 
condor22 said:
Nenad,

I'm over in Vic with my 5000 at the moment and have heard discussions re the 7000 and it's coil.

Can you confirm please,

Is the 7000 coil serial number matched to its detector?

Does this mean 2 owners can not swap coils?

Will Minelab produce other sized coils for the 7000?

and last, What will this do for the after market coils re the 7000 i.e. Coiltek - Nugget Finder etc?

Not sure if this has been answered..
 

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