Minelab GPX5000 tips, settings and questions

[Narayan tobin]

Thanks for that sorry about the number and the 2 nuggets I found were just on the surfaces next to each other they made a what would normally be trash noise, anyone could of got them easily I just struggle with the depth and I'm hearing a lot of noises that sound like targets then digging them and relising they are just ground noise

 

[old hand]

in Melbourne there are several metal detector club and one in Bendigo there are many experienced people in these clubs that will help you :Y: regards john

 

[PhaseTech]

Aussie Gold Prospector "stoppsy" does 1 on 1 days in the triangle.

 

[Nuggetbuster]

There's a local guy name Tim who knows the local goldfields well. If you can track him down, he's your man.

 

[HarryHoudini]

https://www.facebook.com/Bendigo-Prospecting-Club-289894031107103/ Great for help. Day trips and weekend trips

Cheers

 

[gef12]

bit of an old thread ..
But my Nugget Booster V.3 VK8023 works on GPX units .....

 

[shakergt]

What settings are people running for salt lakes with the GPX5000? I have tried detecting on a salt lakes with the settings set on salt gold, fixed ground balance (set in general), volume set at 15 and 11 inch mono coil. The problem is that targets are very faint to hear even with my sample bit of gold it is stil very faint. Any suggestions as to why this may be? I have even tried to change the volume up with no success

 

[shakergt]

.

 

[autitch]

Hi all. Im looking to get back into the hobby after some time away and Im pretty settled on getting a GPX 5k. Finances arent limitless and I was looking for a lightly used second hand machine rather than buying new, preferably with some factory warranty but thats not a show stopper. The GPX 5k has been out for about eight years and I was wondering if there is any discernible difference between the operation (i.e. how quiet they run etc.) between the early units and the later units or any other refinements that users have noticed between the early and later models.

 

[madtuna]

Hi mate,
got my first 5000 the day of release and my second one about 3 or 4 years later.
The second one did appear to me to run a bit more stable in the threshold using the same coils but that was about it.

Wether that was from refinements or just the difference from machine to machine I have no idea.

 

[user 4485]

I had a reasonably early GPX5000 & so did a mate of mine. Both of them had the PCB fail about 6 months apart & we both thought prior that they ran a little noisier than they should have. Only Minelabs service dept. could answer but maybe there was an issue with the PCB in the early models causing noise + some failures that has since been fixed/replaced? Edit: when I got it back from warranty repair it ran as smooth as!
Also over 8 years you would have to assume that there has been improvements to some of the electronic components & the firmware based on servicing/warranty repairs? Again only Minelab techs could reliably answer that.

IMO you are better off buying one with some factory warranty left or buying from a dealer with their warranty. That's not to say that there aren't any good out of warranty machines around just that for most of us it's a fairly big purchase for a hobby & having some piece of mind in case of an issue is good.

 

[drstocka]

I only new at this and used my gpx 5000 for the first time up in the mount crawford forest area
can anyone help me out with any settings I can use

 

[user 4485]

http://phasetechnical.com.au/services/#

Would be money well spent :Y:

 

[old hand]

Great detector make sure you have it in special on the front switch and on the lcd screen run fine gold regards john :Y:

 

[drstocka]

thanks I need all the help I can get

 

[nightscale]

all i can say is play around with it and right your settings down i made a little spreadsheet that fits in one of them pocket notebooks. can refer back to the setting etc. worse case is you need to reset the machine back to factory if you get lost.

Also when you go out dig everything, and i mean everything to get to know what sounds the machine is telling you.

PS i live in sa as well if you want to go out pm me and see what we can do.

 

[filternozzle]

I use the GPX5000 in the UK. The best advice I can give is to read and keep re-reading the User Manual pages 28 through 76. Pay attention to the switch positions prior to detecting as it is so easy to knock a switch. With the GPX you really need to understand the controls, what they do and the effect one setting has on another. There is no quick fix, it takes time and effort.

Of course you could just go with pre-sets or settings provided by another person but at the end of the day you really need to get into a position where you can set up the GPX no matter what the ground conditions are. Good luck

 

[rickgpx5000]

I have just fitted my 11" DD coil t try and discriminate iron. Did all the settings as per the book, but when I tried a bench test in the back yard it screamed its head off. Set up a 20c a beer bottle top and a $1.00 coin. They all gave off the same signal.

Would love to know what I am doing wrong. I am searching an historic sight in my area but keep coming up with bottle tops, ring pulls and bits of fencing wire. Would love to eliminate these.
Any advice would be appreciated regarding settings that I am getting wrong.

Cheers Rick

 

[Dignit]

Rick
The problem you are experiencing is the coins are predominantly copper and some nickel so should sound off. Just google what they are made of as I did. Not sure about your beer bottle top. The descrimination is for iron.
I suggest you test with iron based targets and I'm sure it will descriminate fine. Cheers

 

[Goldpick]

If you want to discriminate the mentioned non-ferrous objects, you will need to do it with a VLF, not a PI detector. Even then you could run the the risk of discriminating out possible gold targets, as per usual better off to dig all. Remember those old stories about what was thought to be an aluminium can, actually turned out to be a nugget (ie. Previously written off as a junk target by others).