Minelab GPX5000 tips, settings and questions

[WalnLiz]

Great choice lucky, I will have some pretty interesting info soon on all the PI machines, as presently underway with some serious testing. All 4 PI's have their good points and bad points.....from what we have tested so far, in our mineralized goldfield test, your 5000 will be the choice of the serious professionals and with good reason. Will post a vid and report when all is said and done.

Cheers Wal.

 

[RottenRon]

Hi RottonRon
Wound up biting the bullet yesterday and got a good deal on the 5000 from brisbane gold.
I did read your post the other night but thought after using a 4500 after running my infinium up at Clermont last year it was like chalk and cheese. I've only had garretts up until know, gti1500,infinium and an atpro,they all work well and the infinium is great for beach work. I bought the infinium because of the claims made of its gold detecting capability. I spent 2weeks in the fields for about 3 or 4kg of scrap metal and 4 days with a 4500 around the same area for about 4 or 5gm of gold,7 bits all up 6 sub grammers. I'm a bit shy of the garrett hyp now and I know I'm still at the bottom of a big learnig curve on the 5000 but I'm banking on it to pay off.

i

All good mate.
Like most tradesman's tools,,, it's how good you are at using them that counts. But there is no doubt the GPX 5000 deserves it's good reputation. I just hope the ATX gets a similar reputation.
From what I hear, the ATX is pretty good on the small stuff as well as the big stuff, so that's a big plus for me. A lot of little bits make a big chunk. As I've already found out, for the money I can't fault it's depth abilities.
When I finally get mine, we ought to do a side by side comparison, depending on where you are of course. Assuming we end up with similar skill levels, it could be interesting.
Anyway, what sort of deal did you end up with out of curiosity?

Cheers, Ron

 

[trenchfighter]

Great choice lucky, I will have some pretty interesting info soon on all the PI machines, as presently underway with some serious testing. All 4 PI's have their good points and bad points.....from what we have tested so far, in our mineralized goldfield test, your 5000 will be the choice of the serious professionals and with good reason. Will post a vid and report when all is said and done.

Cheers Wal.

please hurry....., not the testing, dont rush that, but....u know...... hurry

 

[lucky]

Hi WalnLiz
Heres hoping....lol I think i've gone the right way. Havn't had a chance to get out yet but weekend might be the go.

Hi RottenRon
Not knocking the ATX, just a bit shy of garretts marketing. I bought my infinium a few years back on the write up of a few who said that they had been picking up 1gm's and a sub or two. I tested my infinium with the subs I found with the 4500 at different depths and the results not flash. I'll still use it but i,m more realistic about its purpose. The depth is good on it and I've picked up hairpins and coins and scrap, deep on the beach but small bits of gold.....nu. I'll be moving up around hervey bay soon so we might be able to 't' something up.

i

 

[mozzie1957]

Methinks my 5k may be needing a trip to the doctor.
Sucking a battery dry in not much more than a coupla hours. Thought it may be the
battery but did the same thing with another battery pack. Can't put my finger on the
prob so it may be off to the doc. Under warranty at least.

 

[HeadsUp]

I have to send my battery back . 5 month old machine and the battery loses its charge in a week just sitting on the shelf not even connected to anything

 

[WalnLiz]

Methinks my 5k may be needing a trip to the doctor.
Sucking a battery dry in not much more than a coupla hours. Thought it may be the
battery but did the same thing with another battery pack. Can't put my finger on the
prob so it may be off to the doc. Under warranty at least.

Are you running an 18" coil, ????..You get substantially less battery life with the larger coils than you do with the smaller ones.

Cheers Wal.

 

[trashmagnet]

Are you running an 18" coil, ????..You get substantially less battery life with the larger coils than you do with the smaller ones.

Cheers Wal.

that's what I thought as well wal,
until Narrawa measure the power consumption with big coils and small coils, the power consumption read the same with big and small when in use.
the coiltek dd pro coils were meant to use 17% more power but when measured they use the same as standard coils.
which surprised me as I would have agreed with what you said.
regards tm

 

[WalnLiz]

Might have to get a new Battery myself then mate, as i can run all day with an 11" mono,.....but 4 hrs with the 18" and I'm changing batteries. Might have to give the minelab techs a call on that one. :/

Cheers Wal.

 

[mozzie1957]

Methinks my 5k may be needing a trip to the doctor.
Sucking a battery dry in not much more than a coupla hours. Thought it may be the
battery but did the same thing with another battery pack. Can't put my finger on the
prob so it may be off to the doc. Under warranty at least.

Are you running an 18" coil, ????..You get substantially less battery life with the larger coils than you do with the smaller ones.

Cheers Wal.

No Wal, running a 14 X 9 mono. Got me scratching me head. Some days good as gold, other days an hour or two and I get the low battery sig
and then it shuts down. Did the same with a new battery pack. Think I'll let the techies sort it out.

 

[WalnLiz]

Will give Minelab a call myself as have experienced similar, but always been from swapping small to large coils. Will report back once I've spoken to them.

Cheers Wal.

 

[Mystyk59]

Just a question , Are you using a rooster booster ? . I was having the same probs for a while with my 4000 . Sometimes i would only get 2 hours out of a fully charged battery, sometimes it would go for 5 or 6 hours. I was going to fork out for a new battery but then the plug to the battery from the rooster booster fell apart when i was disconnecting it ! Sent it off to Bendigo gold and while it was away borrowed my mates Nugget Booster and was getting the normal 10 or so hours from the battery . The same with my coiltek mini booster . They put a new plug on the R/B for $40 bucks as it was out of warranty and it has been fine since i got it back. So it might be worth running a different booster on it to see if that solves the problem if you are using a R/Booster, before forking out $400 for a new battery . Hope this helps
Regards Bill

 

[trashmagnet]

Might have to get a new Battery myself then mate, as i can run all day with an 11" mono,.....but 4 hrs with the 18" and I'm changing batteries. Might have to give the minelab techs a call on that one. :/

Cheers Wal.

yeh that don't sound good wal

I'd be interested what minelab say also

where I detect I can go for 2 days with no signals,no bullets trash nothing.
I can get almost 2 days with a 11" or a 40" when theres no targets
but if I'm on a patch or trashy area I can only get one day with a 11",17" 25" or 40" it don't matter.
so the difference for me is because of signals using more power.(screamers use the most power)
bit like a phone, if you don't ring it the stanby last ages but start ringing and the battery goes down quicker.

another way of seeing this happen is when you first get the low battery signal, if no targets are gone over the battery warning comes every couple of minutes then with shorter gaps between warnings as the battery goes down, but if you go over a target after the low battery signal then it will give you another low battery warning sooner.

if I was mozzie when my detector give flat battery warning I would put that battery on another detector and see what that detector says the battery condition is. that way he can be sure it's his detector either draining the power somehow or it just thinks there not enough power..

regards trashy

 

[axtyr]

Bury a large lead sinker at depth.

Axtyr.

 

[mozzie1957]

Just a question , Are you using a rooster booster ? . I was having the same probs for a while with my 4000 . Sometimes i would only get 2 hours out of a fully charged battery, sometimes it would go for 5 or 6 hours. I was going to fork out for a new battery but then the plug to the battery from the rooster booster fell apart when i was disconnecting it ! Sent it off to Bendigo gold and while it was away borrowed my mates Nugget Booster and was getting the normal 10 or so hours from the battery . The same with my coiltek mini booster . They put a new plug on the R/B for $40 bucks as it was out of warranty and it has been fine since i got it back. So it might be worth running a different booster on it to see if that solves the problem if you are using a R/Booster, before forking out $400 for a new battery . Hope this helps
Regards Bill

Not using a Rooster Booster, don't see the point when the battery pack for the 5000 has its' own amp, but borrowed yet another battery and all seems good. What's the chances of two packs bein' dodgy? Or a case of 3rd time lucky?

 

[Shane]

Hey all,

Im buying a 5000 this week and I want to make sure I get the right accessories.
I want the best coil for finding deep small pieces of gold.
I know the unity come with two 11" coils inc a DD.
Anyone?

 

[micks nugget]

hi i have had great success with nugget finder mono 14'coils
good huntin
mick

 

[Diggerdude]

18" round mono, minelab or nugget finder are both good. Great on depth and will still ping 0.1g nuggets.

DD

 

[WalnLiz]

Agree with both Mick and DD. The 14" NF would be at the top of my "must have" list for general prospecting, and recon the 18" is as big as you need to go. The difference between an 18" and a 20" is pretty insignificant in my depth tests. The extra weight leaves it out of my collection.

Cheers Wal.

 

[dave14110]

I agree with above both standard coils + nugget finder 14" round And also smaller elliptical nugget finder are also great if money is not issue. I have small one it's great think it's about 12x6