A few GPX 5000 questions

As i have just recently acquired a GPX 5000 i have had a few trips out now where i am self teaching myself how to use this detector. So far i'm actually finding it really easy to use considering the amount of settings you can potentially have.

I will probably be answering my own questions here, but if i can get some reassurance or other helpful hints, that would be great.

Ok. so first one is extreme ground noise. Initially i was running with
Specific/Fine/12 Gain, 8 sens, 11" commander round mono, slow

I changed this to sens Smooth. - this helped enormously and i was able to increase the gain to about 13 and remain running quiet over the ground.
??? Comments on this, I know i'll lose targets at depth, but how does this setting compare to fine gold with small shallow targets ???
Secondly is a question of depth.
Specific/Fine/13 Gain, 8 sens, 11" commander round mono, slow
I found what was probably a 0.05 - 0.1g (2mm diameter) lead size shot at about 4 inches. Is this standard for this machine. It came through quite faint, but was easy to pick up as a signal over the threshold.

?? Not knowing gold on this machine, but is this considered standard for these machines to pick up such a small target at this depth ??

Finally for now. As a general guide, when encountering hot ground, if i decrease the gain off to quieten the ground noises, i guess i'll loose my depth advantage, but do shallow targets still come through like they would if i hadn't decreased teh gain.

I'm sure i'll have more questions as i remember them.

Hello Goldbait, not sure what you mean by Sens? Gain is the main control for sensitivity, Timings are the main control for different ground conditions, Signal controls the width and pitch of the response, Audio Filters such as Deep and Quiet condition the sound of the response.

Generally if the ground conditions prove to be a little hot for Fine Gold I recommend people first try the Factory Preset Gain of 11 once they have established what the ground noise is being created by, (salt can have an impact on types of noises created by the detector (moaning sound that is swing dependent) or even bumping the coil when learning good coil control). If the conditions are still problematic (this does not occur often BTW) then I recommend you first go to Enhance via the front Soil/Timings switch and try that before doing anything drastic like reverting to Smooth. Enhance and Fine Gold have similar depth capability just that Fine is better on the smaller targets whilst Enhance runs much quieter due to suffering less from ground effect.

Finally, Gain doesn't impact on outright depth so much unless you drop way down the lists (well below 11), but it does impact on the brightness of the response especially on the smaller gold hence running above FP when using small monos such as the Commander 11". If I use a coil larger than 11" I tend to stick to 11 or 12 on the Gain especially if I'm using more conventional timings such as Normal or Sens eXtra.

My preferred settings when using the 11" Commander in hot ground.

Gain 13
Motion Slow
Audio Deep
Tracking Fixed
Stabilizer 8
Signal 19
Tone 63
Coil Rx Mono
Tracking Speed Medium (even though using Fixed on the front end cap)
Soil/Timings Special or Enhance
Special (Timings) Fine Gold
Volume Limit 10 (for B&Z dual speaker Combo)
Target Volume 8 (For B&Z)
Search Mode General

Hope this helps,

JP

Hi JP,

That has got to be the best descriptions in layman's terms of "what does what" on a 5000.
It should be on the first page of the manual.
Very well done.

Robert

Thanks JP for clearing that up for me. Good explanation.

Goldbait, you specified your using "Specific" which requires a different ground balance, Just checking!
Cheers Chris.

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