GPX 6000 Noise

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Horses for courses Dave.
Some can't swing the GPZ for long periods & want something lighter with a bit more boogey than a SDC gives.
The GPZ can be a cumbersome bit of kit in some eastern state areas too. Being trussed up in harnesses with guide arms etc. isn't my idea of fun on the side of a gold bearing hill.
For my areas the 6000 has been great, I wouldn't swap it for a GPZ here, even if it can be a bit cantankerous at times 😁.
I liken it to driving a sports car. To get the best out of it you've gotta stay on the controls & know when to back off on the throttle.
While I agree with most of what you have said. I also found the zed hard to use. I don't think there is much more challenging country to swing a detector than up here.
I ended up buying a combat vest, with pouches everywhere on it, I feel like a cross between of inspector gadget and Rambo when I wear it, however, when it's done up, and I use the buggy on it, It's just as easy to swing as the 6000, no joke.
Before I got the vest, I had terrible tennis elbow, or zed elbow, now it's as easy as. In fact, if I put the 14" on the 6K, the 6K wears me out faster!
No, I don't use a hipstick, or other device, just the vest and a D ring. The vest also has a 3 Lt camel back, pocket for the wm12, UHF, another water bottle, smokes, gps, phone, and whatever else I want to carry, including my pick, which slides down under the arm. It's easy to forget I'm carrying the pick, so I constantly check to see if it's there. The vest distributes weight so well.
As for performance, yep the 6 finds really small gold, and it's easiest detector to use for sure. But at that price, I think a zed is much better value. I still find tiddlers with the zed. The 6k is terribly effected by EMI here. Early morning sunrise and sunset, it's almost unusable. And even on hot ground it squawks and carries on all day. I am trying to like it as much as my zed, I had visions of the zed gathering dust.....but no longer.
Also, the battery recharge seems to take forever. I even got a 2nd battery for the 6 because of that. I actually thought about selling the 6, but think I'll keep it and keep trying, maybe later in the dry, it will settle down. I know a lot of people up here are finding good gold with the 6, both small gold and some very very impressive nuggets as well.
 
After another headache Sunday with the 6000, it has been returned. I am awaiting on word from Minelab.

In the end, I could not get the machine to stop giving me false targets. I dug more ground noise than actual targets.
If I balanced out the dirt I dug out, then it falses everywhere else.

I don't want to just dig screamers. The whole art to detecting is to hear those slight repeatable dips and rises that indicate a deep target, that others may have missed. Can't do that with my 6000, impossible. So what is the point?

The worst thing than can happen is to have no confidence in your machine.
I also tested another unit, and it had exactly the same high pitch squeal static in the headphones when retrieving a target near the coil. This seems to be on all the units, and probably only heard by those with a keen ear. I have never had that with the GPZ or SDC wired or wireless. It is not a deal breaker though, something that might be a side effect of the extra sensitivity. And the 14 inch coil just makes this machine nonergonomic , might as well use a 7000.

I will let you guys know what they say. I really do hope I just have a faulty unit and the 6000 is not the troublesome #$%&* it has been for me.
 
It will be the coil as I have said in other threads all 6k coils will stuff up over time as its a design flaw by minelab. Just imagine when your 6k is out of warranty. how many coils on a monthly bases will you be needing and at what cost per coil. Might be great idea to always keep 6k in warranty.
 
It will be the coil as I have said in other threads all 6k coils will stuff up over time as its a design flaw by minelab. Just imagine when your 6k is out of warranty. how many coils on a monthly bases will you be needing and at what cost per coil. Might be great idea to always keep 6k in warranty.

Well hopefully it is something they rectify. I had a GPZ mainboard die. Minelab replaced it on the spot without an issue, and extended the main unit with a fresh 3 years of warranty. So far my dealings with them re problems has been good. So far. Knock on wewd.
 
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GeoSense-PI™ technology analyses and responds to ground signals with great clarity and precision, so you can detect in difficult environments once thought undetectable.

It rapidly suppresses unwanted signals via three overlapping feedback systems for superfast detection of even the tiniest gold pieces.

Powered by GeoSense™ technology, the GPX 6000® is in tune with you and the earth.

Find all gold, in all soils, all the time.

With automatic features and an easy-to-use interface, you'll be an expert at finding gold from the moment you turn on your GPX 6000. Because Automatic Ground Balance continously adapts to changing soil conditions as you swing your detector over the ground, there's no need to adjust any settings. Finding gold has never been easier.

MY REALITY

Doesn't like any abnormal ground conditions so it sounds off on ground signals with great clarity so you can be frustrated in environments that were previously detectable.

It has problems suppressing unwanted signals, but if you happen to swing right on top of a surface piece of gold it might let you know. Might ;-)

Powered by GeoSense technology, the GPX 6000 is constantly playing a tune, for you, from the earth.

Find all soil, maybe some gold, all the time.

With automatic features and an easy-to-use interface, you'll be feeling like a beginner from the moment you turn on your GPX 6000. Because Automatic Ground Balance continuously (NOTICE I SPELT CONTINUOUSLY CORRECT, GOOD OLD QC MINELAB) alerts to changing soil conditions as you swing your detector over the ground, there's no need to adjust any settings, because there are none. HAHAHAHA. Finding gold has never been this frustrating.
 
Okay, just got an email, so word from Minelab is that they know about the high pitch squeal that the headphones make near the coil. Obviously at an arms length from the coil when retrieving targets. They say it is there and normal, and can only be remedied by using the cable. (Not a deal breaker)
Also the speaker interfering with the EMI or feedback can be remedied by doing a noise cancel. (Not a deal breaker if it works)

They also say the 11" on the 6000 is very hot/noisy. Which is concerning. I do not remember reading any of that in the specs, manual or advertising literature.
If noisy they mean extra sensitive, then maybe that is the word they should use. HOT/NOISY will not sell units I guess.

Anyways, soon as it gets there, they will inspect it.
 
I just had four weeks away with the GPX6000 and then another five days after that. It's an annoying noisy little machine but very capable when it comes to finding little gold. In some cases the machine is making so much noise that I surely walked over quite a few nuggets and there seemed to be no fix for it.

I had the same problem we've had with the SDC2300 on many occasions, when swinging fast slow or otherwise from left to right or the other way the detector squawks, almost quiet at one end of the swing and almost screaming and the other end of the swing. The worst patch was over very stony (like big pebbles) quartz patch that was giving up dozens of shotgun pellets and a few 0.5g and 1.0g nuggets. The noisy patches came and went instantly, one swing they are there and the next gone. Take a step back and the squawks are back again for a few more metres so it was definitely ground related. I was chaining a length of about 50m and the same areas were giving the trouble heading east or west. There will still be gold there. I was following the chain marks of a guy swinging a GPZ7000 followed by a lady swinging a GPX6000 with threshold off. She watched me and couldn't believe the 8g or so that I pulled out. Later on the second day she switched to threshold on. I only took on the patch because I saw all the dig holes left, some filled and some not. The not filled were usually nothing but deep red clay.

One problem with the GPX6000 is that it gives very little indication of the depth of a target. It's ok if the target is right near the surface, that noise is identifiable but if the target is down a bit it sounds the same when you progressively dig checking the hole. Digging 50mm, 100mm or 200mm the signal remains the same until the coil gets very close to the target like it does on a surface target. Where the problem comes is when digging a good signal in mineralized soil you never know whether to continue to dig or give up and call it ground noise. The best indicator is how defined the spot is that's giving off the signal. If it starts to pinpoint better at depth then it's most likely a retrievable target. This wouldn't help if it was a big heavy nugget at depth, perhaps I've left a few behind?



This little bit of BIF is embedded in conglomerate. If it would have been under the surface I'd still be there digging ;)

The GPX6000 loves hotrocks....
 
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Minelab have not yet received my 6000 as of Friday. I have a loan 6000 I am taking out tomorrow to compare.
Very interesting read there Moneybox, I will watch the video too, and I will pay more attention when out tomorrow and see how it all goes.
 
Just out of curiosity what volume/s are ya's running?
One thing I've found with the 6000 is less is better, not more. I use the headphones though.

It does like hot rocks/hot domes/wet red clay etc. but probably not a lot more than a GPX4500/5000 running hot settings with a flat/spiral wound coil would?
I think that's where we really need to try the 14DD with conductive ground cancel, in areas of numerous phantom or hot rock signals, but I'm going ok with the 11" mono so just put up with the odd noisy area (obviously nothing like Moneybox would get in WA). I need to push myself to try it out, I keep procrastinating!
 
I put the 14" DD on in a particular spot in Maryborough where the mono was going right off. Did not change anything other than coil & had no issues whatsoever. That ground is really patchy in spots, so a lot of patience & experimentation needed. The ground was soaked at the time but the DD was crystal clear on every signal.
 
Ok. So the loan 6000 was a different machine. I would be very surprised if Minelab says there is nothing wrong with my machine.
8 bits for a gram is not bad for a day out in a GPA. But not just that, I dug more gold than rubbish. Also, any ground noise was easy to distinguish with the threshold breaking away from the target not towards (if you know what I mean). And I was able to ground it out very easily without tracking issues.
I have to say, that it was actually a pleasure to use. I am looking forward to my next hunt.
As soon as Minelab responds I will let you guys/gals know.
 
Okay, just got an email, so word from Minelab is that they know about the high pitch squeal that the headphones make near the coil. Obviously at an arms length from the coil when retrieving targets. They say it is there and normal, and can only be remedied by using the cable. (Not a deal breaker)
Also the speaker interfering with the EMI or feedback can be remedied by doing a noise cancel. (Not a deal breaker if it works)

They also say the 11" on the 6000 is very hot/noisy. Which is concerning. I do not remember reading any of that in the specs, manual or advertising literature.
If noisy they mean extra sensitive, then maybe that is the word they should use. HOT/NOISY will not sell units I guess.

Anyways, soon as it gets there, they will inspect it.
I believe that ML acknowledge the coil is "noisy" and recall a rumour from a couple of months ago that they (Minelab) were working on a new/different coil to overcome that issue, pretty sure a pending patent application was mentioned but these things take ages to become a reality.
In the meantime I guess a few will be opting for the NF or Coiltek options due for release in the next month or so.
 
I don't think i'll buy one for a fair while. Quality control must be improved.
Yes please don't buy one. Give me time to clean up first. ;-)

But in all fairness. It is a very capable machine, and Minelab has always sorted me out in the past, so I don't expect any problems, I just had a bit of bad luck. It happens with everything, no one is perfect.
 
I used one for 5 days out from Leinster WA. First 3 days it ran very quiet and the signals from gold were easy to hear then the weather got very cold and overcast and the 6 got so noisy it was pretty much unusable. Screaming with every swing and constant hot rocks and ground noise.
 
That's where the dd comes in to its own.
Here in the NT our season is cut short due to the wet season. Storms and emi can be hundreds of km away and effect us. Very rare from Nov to march to get low emi. One of the reasons I got a 6k was for the ability to detect when it's like this.
Would love to see an after market dd in a smaller size, say 14x10.....
 
Minelab Customer CareThu, 16 Jun, 10:13 (1 day ago)
Hi Rick, Your detector has arrived in our service department. Our service technicians will be taking a look at this as soon as they can for you.

Take your time Minelab. (That was yesterday) Must be busy in the RA department at Minelab.
 

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