Minelab Eureka gold tips, settings, questions

[Chriso1988]

Yeh thats true , i did start useing fixed and rebalance every few meters or so when the threshold was becoming unbearable.

 

[Chriso1988]

The eureka is good , but its slightly annoying not being able to hit the wet sand , im up in Broome , big tides so alot of it . I smash the dry tho and its awesome discrimination works well .

Definitely consider what you will mainly be doing with it , target id / lcd screen on the 705 is a bonus and being able to handle wet sand too its ticking the boxes .

Being VLF the eureka becomes unstable in heavy mineralization and for me in ths north west i found it unworkable in some areas , consider the gold ground you maybe be on and how mineralized it wil be , its very high here down south maybe easier on the EG

Good luck tho mate ! You'll have fun regardless what you buy

 

[Ballina1]

I have a Eureka Gold. Good for coins in parks and on the beach away from salt water but I am not so interested in finding a few bucks. I am interested in gold. No good where the sand is wet as it screams. I have found interesting things like an old peppercorn gun at Hill End, but to date .... NO gold. Of course, I HAVE found enough horse shoes to kit out a Melbourne Cup plus more nails than Bunnings. I can find wire the size of 1/3 pin but even "nuggletts" (bigger than a picker) that I have found by panning only registered a signal within 30mm. Don't expect too much from EG but if you stumble over a sizable bit (more than 1 gram) near the surfaceyou should find it. Likewise you should find big bits. Sadly, you will not have the depth of GP, GPX & GPZ machines which have newer technology.

 

[Chriso1988]

Ballina1 ~ sounds exactly like my experience and yeh if you walk over a sizable nugget on the top you'll find it . Mineralization kills my EG up here

 

[roy cobb]

They are good gor there price but a VLF will not preform the same PI detectors

 

[What_Trigger]

Just browsing around the net and discovered the Eureka is NLA.

Miners den dont list it and gold city detecting actually lists it as discontinued

 

[mbasko]

Minelab are reportedly releasing a low price gold detector aimed at the African market. Maybe it's replacing the Eureka Gold?

 

[What_Trigger]

Will be interesting if that's the case. But having owned the eureka for around 6 months I dont think ill buy another minelab vlf gold machine.

Playing in the back yard with the Eureka where the ground is pretty tame (around 30-35 GB on the 705) i drop a .42g nugget on the surface and the 20khz hits on it harder than the 60khz in fine which in the field would be dismissed as its only a tiny wavier which i dont think is right and thats with the sensitivity around 3 o'clock.
Running the eureka in 60khz in Durakai i have no choice but to run fixed GB and fine audio as running in any tracking the threshold is all over the place and normal audio it again is all over the place plus nulling heaps and this is with the threshold turned up full and sensitivity around 10-11 o'clock.

Now with me playing in the backyard today as per earlier in the post im thinking whats the point in running 60khz (which is why i bought it) as running in 20khz i can use tracking and normal audio and remain steady on the threshold plus pick a smaller item and deeper... very confused with this machine.

lol, Nenad you may have a sale soonish on the gold racer if im not scarred from high frequency's by then or it'll be the fors gold+ after i sell the eureka

 

[neddy]

I used to use a minelab 18000 which is the earlier model it had the same three frequencies. I always ran it on 60 klz. It found me hundreds of tiny nuggets. I was able to get a six inch coil for it and it was great for going over old low mineralised mulloch heaps. If you can get one they will fit on the eureka gold. The six inch coil on that machine would be a real asset.

 

[What_Trigger]

Thanks Neddy, im not sure just running a smaller coil will help my problem though in the 60khz.

Here's a small video of just hovering the coil about 2-3 inches off the ground with the settings shown. Slow tracking also does this but with a slower pulsing rate.
Not sure this is normal but to me having it at minimum sensitivity it should not do this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXUFmW-KEuI

 

[bob]

Looking at your video I think that you are running your threshold way too high for 60khz and using fine audio could be a problem too. Early in this thread the use of fine audio was discussed and not recommended by Argyle who seemed to have some extensive experience with this machine. Au fever and I tested fine audio in our local areas and it was not a good search mode. Fine audio just made hot rocks and mineralisation sound more like targets. I set up as follows. I first set the frequency, always fast track and always normal audio. Discrimination is always off as well. The tone always remains set at my favourite pitch. Threshold is turned right down, sensitivity is set at maximum, then I turn on the machine and slowly increase the threshold. I set the threshold just past the mosquito buzz so that it is a steady hum. 60kHz is very sensitive and it is difficult to get it to run smoothly if mineralisation or hot rocks are present. If you are expecting the Eureka to run smoothly like the PI detectors then I think that you will be disappointed. The only way I can achieve this is to set the sensitivity to its lowest and the threshold to its highest. In this configuration the detector shows little ability to find deep targets or small ones. The manual suggests only lowering the sensitivity enough to make the detector usable. Also I noticed that your coil cable is loosely wound round the shaft. In the field if you bump rocks and plants the cable will vibrate and cause false signals. Early on when I first started I though that I had somehow damaged my detector. It was playing up a bit like yours and making false signals. When I got back to the car and started to disassemble the detector I noticed the cable lock ring was not done up. I tightened it, tested the detector and went back searching. I have another post to add here that you might find interesting considering the area I have been working is highly mineralised with iron stone, no quiet grey mullocks heaps anywhere.

Cheers Bob.

 

[What_Trigger]

Hi Bob, that video was normal audio, just the angle makes it look like fine.

Regarding threshold, if i lower it the machine is just ballistic and makes the video look tame unless its run at a strong negative threashold.
lol I did have the coil cable taped up earlier in the day but needed to adjust the shaft length, guess where i had all the cable tightly wound and fully taped over

Im happy with the machine in 20khz and 6.4khz it does warble groan etc but is plenty usable still. I have looked over the basics with connectors etc.

I also understand that 60khz is more prone to feedback but hell the dam thing aint moving and that definitely ain't usable as it continues if it sits perfectly still resting on the ground, the only way i can use that frequency is fixed GB and fine audio and yes sensitivity is shot to shite. You say you can get yours to run smooth with the sensitivity turned down? I cant go any further down except to turn it off

 

[PhaseTech]

I think your coil might have a problem. Do you have another one you can try?

 

[What_Trigger]

Unfortunately not Nenad, the unit and coil was sent to back to minelab around 4 months ago due to small bumps making the unit false severely. They sent the unit back with a new coil in which fixed that problem also the control box had been opened as the minelab sticker was broken.

I think it may require a second return???

 

[PhaseTech]

There is a chance it's EMI. Was it sounding the same in 20 kHz? Maybe send that video link to ML service.

 

[What_Trigger]

20 and 6.4 are perfectly steady while the detector is still and spent the day happily detecting even close to my fathers 5000.
The 60 only starts that as it gets closer to the ground and has been like that for a couple of months.

But i will send that video to minelab tomorrow per your recommendation and see what they say

 

[neddy]

Running 60 khz. Don't run in fixed. Turn sensitivity down. Turn threshold to silent. With tiny test nugget set threshold. Turn sensitivity up gradually until machine starts to give false signals then back it off slightly.

 

[bob]

I had a closer look at your video and then went outside to see if my detector would do the same as yours. Setting up my detector to match your settings the only time my detector behaved like yours was at start up. If I held the detector off the ground it warbled and wavered like yours until I lowered it to the ground and the ground balance took over and a smooth threshold formed. So maybe you are right and there is still something wrong with the detector. Strange that the other two frequencies are okay but maybe they compensate for the inability of the machine to correctly ground balance. From my brief experiment it would seem as though you could have a problem with the ground tracking switch perhaps it's stuck in fixed mode or something. That is the switch appears to be working on the outside but not on the inside. I think that your idea of sending the video to minelab is a good one and hopefully you will get a quick and satisfactory fix.

Cheers Bob.

 

[What_Trigger]

Just had a quick fiddle in the back yard with pretty normal soils.

with the same settings i could get the sensitivity to around 1 o'clock before it started to become a little too erratic. So something must be wrong with the tracking if it plays up in pretty calm ground.
Currently awaiting feedback from minelab themselves

 

[bob]

This is slightly off the current topic but I think I have a good story to tell. In June 2016 I was excited to post my first gold find dubbed 'The Mitten of Hope' weighing a massive 0.118grams found with the Eureka Gold after three and a half years of searching. Late November a friend of mine asked if it would be okay if his dad came over and did a day with me in my local area. I was very pleased to say "Yes" as Jim is an experienced operator who uses a GPX 5000 and SDC 2300. He finds small gold on a regular basis and the occasional bigger bit. Problem....."Where would I take him?" I didn't want to waste his time spending a day digging junk which is my usual reward for a day out so I decided to go to my sluicing spot where I found my first nugget. Maybe he could find gold where I couldn't and show up the deficiencies of my Eureka.
Jim set me up with the 5000 and he went off with the SDC. I needn't have worried because twenty minutes in Jim had his first piece. By morning tea he also had a brown rock that gave a good signal. After morning tea I got to drive the SDC. I was impressed with the smooth threshold of both machines and picking a target was easy compared to the Eureka. The Eureka struggles as the area is littered with hot rocks. No gold was found in the areas that I had previously detected which was good for me. After lunch we moved and Jim was back on the SDC. He cracked the brown rock into a sandwich bag and 'hey presto' he had his second small nugget. Back at the car for a mid afternoon break Jim had a third small nugget. I was pleased that he had some success. The last session saw me back on the SDC and I managed my second ever nugget 0.13grams. So four small nuggets between us was a good day out. Jim thought so too and I was very pleased when he asked "What are you doing tomorrow?"
Day two another location close by. The result for the day one small nugget each. Jim was very pleased to try a new location and find a bit of gold. What did I learn? Well the difference between my usual sessions and the last two days was the number of tiny pieces of shot that we found with the SDC. Using my 11" and 10x5" in 20kHz , I have found my share of larger shot. Jim called them BBs. The shot we found with the SDC was tiny. So the last five trips out I changed tactics and went back to the 10x5" and because I've been a good little boy Santa delivered a 6" Coiltek Goldseeker for Christmas.Three days using 60kHz I started to find the small shot with the 10x5". I have had the 6" Goldseeker out twice and it found shot as well. Monday 1st Jan 2017 second day out with the 6" Goldseeker I got my second small nugget with the Eureka, 0.144grams. I used the 6" to check areas that I had done with the 10x5" but this nugget was found in an area I hadn't searched. The picture shows the two nuggets found with the SDC (eyes) 0.13 and 0.127grams. The nose is "The Mitten" at 0.118 grams and my latest find (the teeth) weighs 0.144grams both found with the Eureka. The shot is what I have found in five days detecting since Jim's visit. Three days using the 10x5" and two days with the 6" coil.
Thanks to Jim I know that I can find gold using the Eureka. Using the small coil on the SDC showed me that I needed to work slower and lower and look for that small shot. To find the small shot I need to use the smaller coils and 60kHz frequency. This is tough going in my area due to high mineralisation and hot rocks. Small coils and 60kHz works great on quiet grey mullock heaps but they are non existent on my home fields. I wouldn't rush out and buy a 6" goldseeker either as it hasn't found anything new on heaps previously detected with the 10x5". It does give a slightly louder response to small targets but it is also prone to be more unstable in high mineralisation. It is recommended for low mineralised soil

So until I can afford something better I will continue to kick aside hot rocks and put up with the warbling threshold and hopefully snag a few more nuggets.

Cheers Bob.