what to adjust first

I am using a gpx 4500 with coiltek 18 x 12 mono and external speaker. Nothing flash here.
I have some settings plugged in that work- found some sub gram bits.
It runs real smooth in some areas and not so good in others. Obviously ground types etc... but what settings should I adjust to hopefully smoothen it out again? I tried main tune but cant say it makes alot of difference. What do youse turn to first to adjust your machine?

Thanks
Edwood

G'day Edwood, not sure what settings you are using, but i have found that these settings work well, I don't use these all of the time but effective in most ground here in Vic, a quick flick into normal from enhance runs extremely well

MONO COIL
Front End Cap

Search Mode, Deep
Timings, Enhance
Ground Balance, Fixed
Coil/RX, Mono



REAR MENU

Volume Limit, 15
GB Type General
Special Sens Smooth/ irrelevant when in enhance
Man Tune 93


DEEP
Motion, Med
RX Gain, 14 or what ever you can handle on the day.
Audio, Quiet
Tone, 49
Stabilizer, 11-13 depends on the day
Signal, 16
Target Volume, FULL ON
Response, Inverted

Tracking Slow
Discrimination, 2

No worries GS I will try them out.

But how do you come to these?
I mean you must play around with setting to get it to where it works for you.
What do you start adjusting first n formost that makes the differences?
I want to learn the machine so to make adjustments as I go

Edwood

I think the best advice i can give is to understand what all of the settings do.
Easier said than done at first, read the manual and then read the manual, go detecting and start making adjustments, cause you now know what all the settings do....No? read the manual again.

When you understand what a couple of the settings do you then need to read and understand the manual.

I am not taking the piss, I honestly can not stress this enough, the manual folds and fits in your pocket, so have it with you, make notes in the back of the book on the blank page, play and underestand what and why you are adjusting what.

Certain things get adjusted for a reason, sometimes when you adjust one thing, something else needs to be adjusted, if you really want to know how/when/why, you do need to understand the settings you are going to use.

Slowly and surely learn them one at a time, ask plenty of questions and you will soon be on the track you need to be on....it is a long road at first.

I threw the manual out early on- too confusing.
Better get one.haha

hey bud the ground is pretty hot in the pilbara i found with my 4500 i could not run gain and stabiliser as high as goldstalker gpx recons.
need to learn what noises you are dealing with emi and ground noise sound diffent and delt with differnetly
auto/manual tune for emi, other settings for ground noise. also if you are not ground ballaced right can cause more noise too.

As FK said, this is one of the most important techniques to master

Hey GSGPX
Why would you have your discrimination set at 2?

I reckon the best approach is to start in FP and vary on setting at a time in this order.
Gain
Stabiliser
Motion

Just remember that if you can't accurately ground balance ANY Minelab PI machine, it's a waste of time playing around with settings

Each to his own I guess.

Robert

I agree with Robs Start up in FP method, its like when you get in ya car and always put ya seatbelt on 1st,
just to explain why - when goin to any given spot whether its WA or Tassie if you always start up in FP
it trains your ear for the differing ground types and affects they have on your detector, and then after doin this for a while you get a much more broader idea of which settings to adjust and the cause and affect of those
individual settings, so after a while you automatically know which ground types will suit which pattern
of settings etc and give you best performance characteristics.

So Obviously we always adjust the front panel switches 1st
Then my method is not to adjust the other settings in the order of the screen list but to adjust them in
what i like to think are the main adjustments in affects they have on performance.
So in order, i first adjust the Gain - Stab - Motion - (Audio boost) and so on, now this is just the 1st adjustment or course adjustment if ya like, now keep in mind this is how i personally do it and i run pretty extreme settings and my main goal is not a flat smooth threshold but best outright performance.

First i up the gain to a minimum of 15 and same for the stabilizer (max gain 18,stab 17) next i adjust the
Motion to V/slow if there is very high EMI or just Slow if normal EMI around.
By now the machine is usually pretty unstable and allowing maximum EMI interference in which is what i
actually want at this stage, ok, so next i adjust the Frequency Tune by using the turn in a circle method
and point in the direction of worst EMI, and then Manually set the frequency dependent on coil size used
at that time (small 11" and smaller = 200-255 the higher the better and larger + 14" coils =0-50 or the lowest quiet one) see this post for more info on this tweak - [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

now when i adjust the Tune i hold the coil at 45 degrees to the ground not flat on to it, and
i hold the coil only 6"-8" off the ground (detecting height EMI field) obviously i dont detect with the coil at that
height but you will find the EMI is very different at that level as to knee or waist height.

One i have done the tune i then go into what i call the fine tuning of the tecta which is the Volumes etc
and to give the Gain & Stab a final tweak, next i do a really good ground balance only lifting the coil
up and down 3 inch max and hold down on the last stroke for 3 seconds and release the button, if i'm
not totally happy with the GB i repeat it as many times as needed until i am.

Because in some areas you will have very high EMI from a given direction, the way to get around that
is to detect at 90 degrees direction from the EMI and not towards or away from it.

Now as i said i'm not aiming for the most smoothest flat mono tonal threshold here, i'm after best outright performance and if that means hearing some EMI and some ground noise so be it, i have done comparisons
on running the machine as per manual instructions ("ie" to obtain the smoothest threshold) and my settings
and although the threshold is a tad unstable the way i do it, it does allow the tiniest of signals to boom in
that the Settings in the manual will not...

So start with reverting back to FP by holding down the power switch and select ALL SETTINGS then
tweak the right hand knob to re set into FP.. and get adventurous, it will pay off..

Pete

goldnomad wrote:Hey GSGPX
Why would you have your discrimination set at 2?

When I detected with a well known seasoned operator, he said to do this, he also said don't ask why, just do it....so I do.

I know there is no point running discrim with a mono....I personaly wouldn't rely on it with a DD either
but when a bloke like him says something like that I am going to listen....dunno if there is any merit in it or not.

Funny thing with the discrim! Last time I was out I was so over the junk. I started marking the spots without diggen.
Chucked the double D on an with flat out discrim! Sure enough every target blanked out, fair enough, put me .05 test bit on the ground and almost had to scrub the coil on it to get a signal?? Put the mono back on, similar outcome, 2 to 3 inch's and the signal was lost! compared to a month previous where I could get a good signal at 10" with me little test bit, Loose dirt obviously??
The loss of depth didn't sink in for about an hour! The high discrim was dumbing down the Mono Not sure how or why, but it did!

Lesson learnt

Cheers
Chris.

hi guys, i was with GS when we were told that by a VERY well known prospector, his reason was that it helps to quieten the machine a little, gary

Yeah i'd believe anything when it comes to these GPX's, like i just bet there is
a secret combo of settings that gives us a GPX9000 & pays for ya Neck Oil with Minelabs Visa acc

Awesome response crazy Pete just what I needed to hear, thanks also Robert and the others. That gives me heaps to work with and a little more confidence too. Don't need that manual now haha.

Damn, I read it as free piss from minelab. Bloody visa card

edwood wrote:Awesome response crazy Pete just what I needed to hear, thanks also Robert and the others. That gives me heaps to work with and a little more confidence too. Don't need that manual now haha.

Yeah... ya do Ed. Very handy tool mate.

Ed, ya can download the manual at the following link m8 [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]