Minelab GP3000 tips, settings, questions

[AuMan]

Hey mate, have you checked the power lead? And tried a different pair of headphones? Can you be sure that the camcorder battery is delivering voltage to the machine when it is switched on? Sometimes with these batteries, without load, they may appear to be alright, but when a load is applied the voltage will drop right down.
Failing all that, send it to Minelab for repair, no user serviceable parts inside. They are normally pretty decent with their repair costs.

AuMan

 

[cairnspom]

Thanks for the reply, I did another round of tests, and what you say about the battery showing 7.5v when off but drops to 2v when on load, so I've ordered a new battery pack from Peter Woodland. Hopefully that will cure it when it arrives!
Thanks again

 

[Goldtarget]

I've thrashed the forum for info on the old GP found a few things of interest but not heaps of info.

I have a couple of questions but feel free to contribute if you have some knowledge that would be helpful outside my questions and answers.

It came with a mono which I thought would really struggle in the areas I was in but seemed to do OK even under my inexperienced hands. What position would you run the switch in and at what point would you change the setting from mid point to mono? Some ground seemed more stable on mid and other ground in the up position. Is there a point you would change?

Detector came with Koss 30 headphones that worked pretty well despite the tatty appearance what would be a good upgrade? A recommended booster would be nice if anyone has a suggestion.

Lastly any recommendations on coils? I understand this is a subjective question but was there one you've used you absolutely loved? Performance was OK on stock coil but I'm open to suggestions.

Apologies for newbie questions I want to dispel any preconceived ideas in my mind and get some feedback from regular informed members to steer me in the right direction.

 

[user 4485]

Haven't used one mate but you might be able to pick these up cheaply & check them out:
Instructional DVD's:
JP - Unleashing the GP3000 DVD
Jack Lange - Nugget hunting secrets Vol. 4 (GP Extreme)

Not sure if this link still works (no video access on this PC )
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=8076

Minelab success stories:
http://www.minelab.com/consumer/success-stories?cmd=filter&f=167576&ft=89259

Manual (if you didn't get one):
https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/4111/Inst%20Manual%20GP3000%20Website.pdf

 

[Redfin]

There is 2,330 hits on the Finders Forum on GP 3000.
Some of these will date back to when they came out.

Trawl through them systematically and some good info will turn up.
Back in its day the Finders Forum was a good resource, unlike today.

http://www.google.com/custom?domain...:600000;GFNT:11593C;GIMP:11593C;FORID:1&hl=en

 

[Goldtarget]

Cheers gents appreciate it. Might yet have to turn to the old hands that had one back in the day.

 

[old hand]

PUT A GROUND BALANCE BUTTON ON IT MAKES IT A LOT USER FRIENDLY regards john

 

[PhaseTech]

Best accessories for the GP3000 were:

6.7v regulated power supply
Koss TD80 headphones (better options available these days)
remote GB button (as Old hand mentioned)
A Coiltek DD Pro coil or 3
A decent low noise booster if you wanted to run an external speaker.

The 14" DD Pro coils are a great general purpose coil on the GP's, and the newer Elites are meant to be even better.

Run them in DD and Tracking in hot ground, and Mono Fixed in mild ground.

 

[dwt]

Think I have a copy of the GP 3000 series DVD's floating around somewhere mate, I'll try and chase it up by the weekend

Ps, if I do find it, and you do want it, YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE JACK LANG DVD's AS WELL, allright !!! :lol:

 

[dwt]

Hahaaaa, knew they were somewhere, the new Explorer sox in the background are mine though!!!!

 

[Goldtarget]

I'll be hitting you up for a detecting session in the near future. Borrow the blue machine and/or its owner for the day and I'll make tracks over. Already booked time off while Mrs GT is working.

 

[dwt]

Yep sounds like a plan GT, have to make my way over to organise the other stuffs we were chatting about , and get the ball rolling
DVD's are all yours mate

 

[Goldtarget]

Hoping someone who used one can help out, as a newbie I'm still trying to figure this out and after observing material about this I'm still not any closer to understanding the ddynamics. I'm not wanting to use the adjustment for discrimination, but how exactly does this affect the detectors response? I understand the 3500 level adjust was fixed and also wonder why the change? Smarter minds than mine might need to give me a proper 101 instead of me just shrugging my shoulders and using a default setting.

 

[AuMan]

The level adjust also adjusts the ground tracking speed. Set it too fast and it can track out a target, too slow and it will take ages to ground balance.

AuMan

 

[Narrawa]

The level adjust was used for the pausing effect when used in tracking. The tracking on the 3k was fixed, all be it a tad too quick...hence the reason the 3500 had 3 tracking speeds.

 

[SHREEVE]

Hi Goldtarget, If your not using discrimination as Narrawa has said it also controls the pausing of the ground balance when swung over a target, if the level adjust is set too high and you are in tracking mode you may miss small targets as the detector just thinks its hot ground and tracks the target response out completely and the opposite if the level adjust is set too low, the default setting for this function on my 3000 was set to the 12 o'clock position. You may want to invest in a copy of JP's unleashing the GP series DVD as he runs through all of this and a lot more.

Cheers,
James

 

[AuMan]

The level adjust was used for the pausing effect when used in tracking. The tracking on the 3k was fixed, all be it a tad too quick...hence the reason the 3500 had 3 tracking speeds.

Thanks Narrawa!

 

[PhaseTech]

I nearly always ran the level adjust on the extreme and 3000 on 10 o'clock.
If using Discrimination, I'd set the ground balance to fixed, and turn the level adjust to 1 o'clock.

 

[dazza513]

How does the gp 3000 tracking speed compair to the gp 3500's fast medium slow?

I was in an area today with the 3000 and stock coil in dd, tracking and everything else in normal and was still being tricked by largish iron stone hot rocks at depths that I just had to dig as some sounded pretty sharp and nothing like ground noise, is this normal for the 3000?

A few days ago I was able to run sensitive deep in pseudo mono and fixed tracking very well near tarnagulla so I was surprised this area near heathcote gave me some grief with some larger hot rocks at depth. The 3000 is a lot more sensitive to small targets than my 2200 was so maybe I'm expecting to much?

 

[old hand]

Different day different conditions regards john