GPZ7000 up-date.

Did the update yesterday afternoon, fairly simple process.

Used the ferite ring as described. All I can say is wow! Did not need to ground balance again. The machine has never been more smooth or stable.

Worked a hole that has given up 2 ounces recently and pulled more targets, some of them tiny. Had the 2300 with us pin pointing and had emi spikes that were not even noticeable on the Zed.

Had the gain cranked up 18, threshold needed to be set higher at 25, I usually run at 9 to 15. The machine purred like a kitten!

We were picking up tiny pieces that the 2300 couldn't hear! I mean tiny! Found another 3 bits in the surrounding area that has had the Zed over it already.

Moved on to another area, different soil type, where we have worked hard recently and pulled some nice pieces down deep. Did the ground balance with the ferite again. Zed was quite as a mouse, pulled another 6 bits from amongst our previously flogged holes.

My partner will be updating his Zed today. What else is there to say!

Hope this is useful info for other users.

Reefdog wrote:Did the update yesterday afternoon, fairly simple process.

Used the ferite ring as described. All I can say is wow!  Did not need to ground balance again. The machine has never been more smooth or stable.

Worked a hole that has given up 2 ounces recently and pulled more targets, some of them tiny. Had the 2300 with us pin pointing and had emi spikes that were not even noticeable on the Zed.

Had the gain cranked up 18, threshold needed to be set higher at 25, I usually run at 9 to 15. The machine purred like a kitten!

We were picking up tiny pieces that the 2300 couldn't hear! I mean tiny! Found another 3 bits in the surrounding area that has had the Zed over it already.

Moved on to another area, different soil type, where we have worked hard recently and pulled some nice pieces down deep. Did the ground balance with the ferite again. Zed was quite as a mouse, pulled another 6 bits from amongst our previously flogged holes.

My partner will be updating his Zed today. What else is there to say!

Hope this is useful info for other users.

Well done Reefdog, I did mine yesterday arvo and used it today, it's like a new machine, found a couple of bits of gold and plenty of lead pellets and a couple of rusty bits of old very deep junk.

If my machine was like this from the start it would have been wonderful.

I used it in tracking out near Tarnagulla in VIC today, was in auto tracking and it held very well with out drifting when checking over the ferrite, it was still good no need to redo every half hour like before.  

Very impressed. No heehaws and warwars like before either.

cheers dave

davsgold wrote:

Reefdog wrote:Did the update yesterday afternoon, fairly simple process.

Used the ferite ring as described. All I can say is wow!  Did not need to ground balance again. The machine has never been more smooth or stable.

Worked a hole that has given up 2 ounces recently and pulled more targets, some of them tiny. Had the 2300 with us pin pointing and had emi spikes that were not even noticeable on the Zed.

Had the gain cranked up 18, threshold needed to be set higher at 25, I usually run at 9 to 15. The machine purred like a kitten!

We were picking up tiny pieces that the 2300 couldn't hear! I mean tiny! Found another 3 bits in the surrounding area that has had the Zed over it already.

Moved on to another area, different soil type, where we have worked hard recently and pulled some nice pieces down deep. Did the ground balance with the ferite again. Zed was quite as a mouse, pulled another 6 bits from amongst our previously flogged holes.

My partner will be updating his Zed today. What else is there to say!

Hope this is useful info for other users.

Well done Reefdog, I did mine yesterday arvo and used it today, it's like a new machine, found a couple of bits of gold and plenty of lead pellets and a couple of rusty bits of old very deep junk.

If my machine was like this from the start it would have been wonderful.

I used it in tracking out near Tarnagulla in VIC today, was in auto tracking and it held very well with out drifting when checking over the ferrite, it was still good no need to redo every half hour like before.  

Very impressed.  No heehaws and warwars like before either.

cheers dave

Hi Dave, could you please explain the new ground balancing procedure. Other than those 3 diagrams on the Minelab site there's not much info. Thanks, Harry

slimpickens wrote:

Hi Dave, could you please explain the new ground balancing procedure. Other than those 3 diagrams on the Minelab site there's not much info. Thanks, Harry

G'day Harry

This is what I did, after doing the upgrade, take the detector out to a clear patch of ground, turn on reconnect to the WM12 module and make any preference settings of your choice.

Place ferrite on the ground and do a figure 8 swing over it in auto tracking with the quick track button held in while doing this, until it settles down, it took a good 30 seconds probably 20 swings over the ferrite to get it settled, this was in High Yield & Difficult, then I did the same in General and Extra Deep. By then it was nearly dark so turned it off.

Today turned it on put ferrite down and hardy a signal so just a very quick re GB in auto tracking with the quick track button and never touched the quick track button again all day. I did put the ferrite down and gave a swing over it a few times during the day and it never gave a response so all good, even after turning back on after lunch and smoko, very impressed.

It now runs with a stable threshold at around 27 which is the FP and gain at any where between 11 to 14 and low audio smoothing, it was even very good with audio smoothing off.

Hope this is some help to you.

cheers dave

Thanks for that Dave. Can't wait to try it out.

Should be the same as before.

Gidday Dave, glad to see you happy with your upgrade and thanks for your comments.

Looking forward to heading out again to see how my machine performs. Got a few places I need to go and revisit by the looks of things!

Decided against upgrading the partners Zed until we do some side by side comparisons. We are happy with what we have seen so far, in fact very happy! We just want to have a solid look at what the upgrade has done. Seems like to most logical cut and dry way to go about it to us.

Probably take some video of both machines, same settings ect. and wave them over a few targets. I will have the laptop ready to do the upgrade in the field and then we will do it again. Should be fun!

I also want to see how my machine goes without using the ferrite.

Anyway thanks to all for sharing your info.

cheers

Hey thanks for the reports guys
I`m in Queensland at the moment and looking forward to getting back to Vic and downloading the upgrade

Hi all.

I updated my 7000 yesterday and took it out for a run today. I didn't see much difference between the 2 versions, maybe just a little more stable.

Regards Axtyr.

G'day All,

I was going to wait until I had heard some feed back, but I ended up doing it after hearing how Davsgold's was like a brand new machine after he had done his. Thanks again Dave for doing mine for me, as we didn't have our laptop with us and yes I to believe that it has made some differences, as I seem to be hearing those Bird shot a lot more clearer now.

Cheers.

Mike.

Hi guys, I did mine last night how do you know the upgrade was successful, while doing the download the detector switched itself off when it hit 85% then after a while I turned it back on and had to reset the settings?

Chris68,

The updated software shows the use of the yellow ferrite as part of the animated
guide sequence when you follow the Quick Start/Quick-Trak process. (This is also
a way to determine if a GPZ 7000 detector has the new software installed.)

Thanks BigSlick, when I use the quick track it does show the little yellow ferrite on the ground, and when I go to the info page on the detector it shows 2 versions one for the control panel and one for the control box.

chris68 wrote:Thanks BigSlick, when I use the quick track it does show the little yellow ferrite on the ground, and when I go to the info page on the detector it shows 2 versions one for the control panel and one for the control box.

G'day chris68

I think it's not complete if it shows 2 versions, just do it again, make sure your battery if charged and the backlight is "ON" in the settings, that way you will know where it's up to all the time.

It's ok to do it over again won't hurt anything it will just make sure you got it complete.

cheers dave

Hi everyone.

When I was doing my update on Tuesday evening I was watching the install then turned my back to do something else for a moment and the detector had switched itself off. I turned it back on and it appeared to have been installed and it worked fine all day the next day.
After Chris68's comments I decided to re-do the install and watched it all the way through. At 84% the detector switched off. I immediately range Minelab and have been assured that at around 84% the detector is supposed to shut down and is completed. Must be getting their install instructions from Microsoft.

It will be next week before I get out again to try it but I found very little difference after upgrading on Tuesday other than the volume appeared to be extremely excessive at first in the RPG headphones. I had to lower some of the settings to what I had been using. Other than some annoying wobbling in the threshold and noises from shrubs brushing against the top of the coil my detector has been pretty good, not like some of the other complaints I have heard.

Regards Axtyr.

According to the install instructions, the versions are
Before Update 1.08-57

After Update 1.27-94

My Zed after update reads 1.28.98 ?????

Can anyone verify what their machine is reading pleas.
It is accessible via "version information" in the Reset Page.

Seems to work ok, nice stable threshold after using the ferrite.

Hi Redfin,
I just checked my 7000's Version Information post up-date;Control Panel:1.2.8-98
Control Box: 1.0.1-26
WM12:-----
Coil: GPZ14
Not sure where you found the 1.27-94. Hope the above helps.
Cheers, AUoptimist.

Taken from the upgrade brochure.

Before update:
Control Panel: 1.0.8-57

After update:
Control Panel: 1.2.8-98

Cheers.

thanks men.
Another irritating thing I found was I had the backlight set to turn off at 20 seconds.
So first attempt the screen turned off and I was left in no mans land.
So before you attempt the upgrade make sure it is ticked to stay on.

AUoptimist wrote:Hi Redfin,

Not sure where you found the 1.27-94.
Cheers, AUoptimist.

I printed the brochure and saved it to disc.
Am in the bush atm but will post a screenie when I get back to the big smoke.

edit: just had a gander at the brochure available now and it differs from the one I have.
I presume they have had a few calls.

Thanks Dave will re download it again .

Version Information
control panel : 1.2.8-98
control box : 1.0.1-26
wm 12
coil: GPZ14
This is what my info displays, tried to re download the update but nothing showed up on the xchange 2 file, the first time it showed an update icon ?
and when you press the quick track button it shows the yellow ferrite on the ground, where before it wasn't there, so I think it must have updated.

Redfin wrote:thanks men.
Another irritating thing I found was I had the backlight set to turn off at 20 seconds.
So first attempt the screen turned off and I was left in no mans land.
So before you attempt the upgrade make sure it is ticked to stay on.

just push the down arrow and the light will come on again

chris68 wrote:Version Information
control panel : 1.2.8-98
control box : 1.0.1-26
wm 12
coil: GPZ14
This is what my info displays, tried to re download the update but nothing showed up on the xchange 2 file, the first time it showed an update icon ?
and when you press the quick track button it shows the yellow ferrite on the ground, where before it wasn't there, so I think it must have updated.

It has updated to the latest version.
Cheers.

Thanks QLD Sandy

AUoptimist wrote:
Not sure where you found the 1.27-94.
Cheers, AUoptimist.

Here is the screenie of the Update Brochure that I downloaded as soon as it
was released. It has been changed since.
Very happy with the update, nice and smooth. Picked up a 1.5 gram piece within 5 minutes of turning it on

Hi Again Redfin,
I'm with Qld Sandy et al,my 7000 numbers are the same as his their's, the numbers you are quoting seem to suggest an earlier version number of unknown origin, to me at least.
I will have a scout around and see if I can shed some light on your version numbers; about to install a new Windows 10 custom built computer so I may be off the air for a while till I get the new beast fully up and running.
Cheers, AUoptimist.

Ta mate, just to make sure we are on the same page.
After the update my machine was showing 1.2.8-98, as was everyone else's machine.

I got confused as the update brochure I downloaded from the Minelab downloads page showed the above number,
so I queried it here.

Looking back now, they obviously got it wrong and replaced the brochure with the correct one.

Went for a quick swing this afternoon, here is a quick update how my Zed went.

The ground was hot as hell, as it was over 40 here today. Had lots of trouble keeping the machine quite, settled on these settings, general, difficult, sensitivity 16, threshold 21, smoothing off, ground balance auto. Did the magic yellow ring trick and away I went, working amongst a scattering of old and new detected holes in a well known area that has produced gold for many locals.

The machine was heavily effected by emi and ground noise. The usual Pilbara noise you come to expect in this part of the world. To be honest I couldn't really say the machine was more quieter than usual, if it was I didn't notice it.

However the machine did recover and settle down quickly and was very sensitive. Although it wasn't ideal conditions, the machine was still highly effective. I got 3 bits, the smallest was .15g at a depth of 8". That is crazy I know!

After dark was a complete different story. The machine just got quieter as the sun set. Changed to high yield, sensitivity 20 and upped threshold slightly to 28. Apart from the odd emi spike the machine was very smooth, stable and target response was excellent. I could really notice the difference in more favourable conditions. Picked up 4 more bits, a nice 1.6g at a depth of 10" was the best for the day.

All up I got 7 bits for 3.4g, which was a good result for a tough spot.

IMO the update has made my detector better, although it may be hard to tell in tough conditions. I won't be going back.

Hope this is useful info.

Cheers.

Thanks for the report Reefdog

cheers dave