settings for for a newbie

hi all. a mate has just bought a 4500 and has not detected much at all so i was wondering what whould be the best settings to get him use to his detecter  any help whould be great! cheers,

G'day Joe

Just leave it in factory presets, and use the 11" Commander Mono until he is used to the machine then try a few tweeks.

cheers dave

Spot on Dave regards john

Heaps of info here.

https://golddetecting.forumotion.net/f12-gpx4500

cheers for the help fellas will get him goin factory and then tweek it as he gets better! thanks again,joe.

joe82 wrote:hi all. a mate has just bought a 4500 and has not detected much at all so i was wondering what whould be the best settings to get him use to his detecter  any help whould be great! cheers,

how long is a piece of string?  pretty much sums up your question and im not trying to be a smartarse.

where will you friend be detecting?  australia?  if so, which state?  in any given state, what area?  in any given area, do you realize that the ground mineralisation can, and often does, change every few meters?

what size gold is he targeting?  is it small (less than once ounce)?  or large (more than 10 ounces)?

what type of gold is he after alluvial, eluvial, colluvial, reef, specimen?

and if you think im kidding asking those questions, ill have plenty backing me up.

i live in victoria and detect the golden triangle.  the golden triangle (from what ive heard and read), rates as the worst for mineralisation in the world.  "yeah, but what does that have to do with my question johnny?".........EVERYTHING!  

if your friend uses factory presets like some suggest in the golden triangle, say, around amherst, he'll either think his detector is crap or faulty or both, or he'll never detect again.  either that, or he'll think gold is EVERYWHERE (it is, but thats another topic) given how often the detector goes off.

i own a 4500, and these are my settings:

switches
search mode: normal (factory preset, a good start)
soil/timings: enhance (good luck using "normal" (suggested setting by minelab) in victoria)
ground balance: fixed (good luck using "tracking" (suggested setting by minelab) on nuggets weighing less than .2)
coil/rx: mono (because i use an 8" mono)

ill refer to "factory preset" as fp from now on.

menu
backlight: off (fp 2) waste of battery power
volume limit: 18 (fp 12) god only knows why 12
gb type: general (fp general.  yay, they got another one right)
motion: slow (fp slow, another one right.  never try "medium" or "fast")
audio type: silent (fp normal. if you like hotrocks, you MUST use normal)
rx gain: 10 (fp 8, others who have doing it for years: "never go below 12 or youll miss all the gold")  i can demonstrate otherwise
stablizer: 6 (fp 10.  testing mustve been done in a lab cos it sure wasnt in the triangle)
signal: 18 (fp 16, close enough)
target volume: 18 (fp 8.  are you kidding me?)
repsonse: normal (fp normal. why minelab has an inverted option is beyond me)
tracking: slow (fp depends on search mode, for "general" so its "slow")
iron reject: off (fp off. another, "why has minelab included a feature that doesnt work or is useless?")

special: this is an option that causes alot of confusion.  some people seem to think that it needs to be set, well it does, but ONLY when search mode "SPECIAL" is selected, otherwise, it does NOTHING.  once again, im at a loss as to why its listed in the menu if its not selected.

and finally,

manual tune: i always autotune (oh the irony) the area im in before detecting (fp 128.)  the only time this needs to be adjusted is when a plane is overhead, there is another detector close by, or its starts to get noisy.  you simply increase or decrease the autotune value by a couple of points til it quietens down.

before your mate tries my settings or anyone elses, make sure he uses the factory presets first so he can make a comparison.  and when your mate does make changes and realises, "****, its bloody worse than before but i cant remember what i changed because i made so many changes", tell him, "johnny said hold the power button on for 5 seconds and itll reset the machine to factory presets".  he will also have to set the following:

search mode: normal (suggested by minelab)
soil timings: normal (suggested by minelab)
ground balance: tracking (suggested by minelab)
coil/rx: depends on the coil

let me know how it all goes,

cheers johnny.

NOTE: as pointed out (see below), my settings are NOT based on the supplied 11" DD coil. they are based on an 8" mono (commander). i will be conducting tests shortly using the supplied DD.

JohnnyTheGreek wrote:
soil/timings: enhance (good luck using "normal" (suggested setting by minelab) in victoria)

As an aside, I'm pretty sure that when Minelab recommended using "Normal" in the manual, they were assuming that the supplied DD Coil was being used.

JohnnyThe Greek wrote:iron reject: off (fp off. another, "why has minelab included a feature that doesnt work or is useless?")

Also used for a Double D coil and not a Mono Coil.

You have to remember that the GPX4500 came supplied with a Double D coil only so the Minelab user manual reflects this.

cheers dave

lenoil wrote:

JohnnyTheGreek wrote:
soil/timings: enhance (good luck using "normal" (suggested setting by minelab) in victoria)

As an aside, I'm pretty sure that when Minelab recommended using "Normal" in the manual, they were assuming that the supplied DD Coil was being used.

i stand corrected and humbled lenoil, as a result, i'll test the 11" dd with minelabs fp's.

davsgold wrote:

JohnnyThe Greek wrote:iron reject: off (fp off. another, "why has minelab included a feature that doesnt work or is useless?")

Also used for a Double D coil and not a Mono Coil.

You have to remember that the GPX4500 came supplied with a Double D coil only so the Minelab user manual reflects this.

cheers dave

im fully aware of the "iron reject" function only being available using a dd coil davsgold, thats not my point.  my point is, its useless, as anyone who owns a 4500 or 5000 can and will attest.

prior to purchasing my 4500, i was amazed at the number of owners who recommended turning off the iron reject function (when using a dd coil).  surely, minelab, the worlds leader in metal detecting technology wouldnt incorporate a feature that simple didnt work, surely.  its as useful as having the "special" menu option visible AND modifiable when not selected.

being a skeptical fellow, especially after reading the manual over and over and over and over again (some may argue otherwise), i believed minelab that, by using the supplied dd, i could in fact, reject iron.  using the 4500 on the beach proved otherwise.

JohnnyTheGreek wrote: [quote="
being a skeptical fellow, especially after reading the manual over and over and over and over again (some may argue otherwise), i believed minelab that, by using the supplied dd, i could in fact, reject iron.  using the 4500 on the beach proved otherwise.

Johnny,
Mineralised or salt ground agreed.
Have never bothered to look at Minelab sales but at a guess their volume of sales come from countries with benign soil.
Another classic example is the city dweller 4WD owners who purchase for added seating/comfort and never ever engage 4WD.

Nightjar wrote:

JohnnyTheGreek wrote: [quote="
being a skeptical fellow, especially after reading the manual over and over and over and over again (some may argue otherwise), i believed minelab that, by using the supplied dd, i could in fact, reject iron.  using the 4500 on the beach proved otherwise.

Johnny,
Mineralised or salt ground agreed.
Have never bothered to look at Minelab sales but at a guess their volume of sales come from countries with benign soil.
Another classic example is the city dweller 4WD owners who purchase for added seating/comfort and never ever engage 4WD.

i think soil type is irrelevant, it simply doesnt work or works very very poorly at best (im being generous here, i couldve easily added another two or three "very"s). a simple air test will demonstrate this.

anyway, whats your recommendation regarding settings?

JohnnyTheGreek, life is short, were here for a good time not a long time, lets try and keep it that way.

cheers dave

davsgold wrote:JohnnyTheGreek, life is short, were here for a good time not a long time, lets try and keep it that way.

cheers dave

lol im not sure what you mean by that, but i made me laugh nonetheless.

soooooo, back to the topic.  do you still stand by factory presets using the 11" mono in victoria (since he didnt state location, we'll assume vic)?

I haven't used FP on my 4500 for a long while, it gets cranked up, way up, that's what it has got all them choices for