First time use with GPX 5000 question

Hi all,
Took my new 5000 for a workout today with the 11" mono coil and everything seemed to be going well. About 2 hours into the search the tone of the 5000 went from a audible hum to sparatic squeals, not too sure what happed or if this is normal? It was funny, even though the tone was sparatic, it still seem to be detecting. Was wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them and if they know what it means?
Bare in mind this is the first time I've used it, so it could just be newbie retardness and or wrong settings...but any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Buzz

Try an autotune?

If you have played around with the factory presets then just hold down the on/off button for a few seconds and it will return to factory presets. Great little feature i reckon.

I never experienced my 5000 doing that but I will say the first few days out with it was a nightmare as it was so noisy. Have found out that the more you use it and get used to it the easier it is to quieten it down. Suppose it is a learning curve.

Sweet thanks guys, today was the 2nd time I had turned it on and the first time I was out in the field. I did try the autotune function and it worked a treat at the start of my prospecting today. One thing I noticed is that I experienced the sparatic sounds the first time I turned it out in the backyard...which I later learned wasn't a good idea due to all the electrical interference. However, the place I went to today is an hour and a half north of Katherine, no intereference there? Although, I'm wondering if my boots and my pick may have confussed it if I had accidently passed over them one too many times? Not sure......
On another note, does anyone know what other coils besides minelab ones can the 5000 be used with and what setting do you use ie mono/DD/Cance?

Cheers

Buzz

Hi Buzzdog,

I have a GPX 5000 and find the nugget finder advantage coils excellent especially the 12"round and the 14x9, I have my setting the same as for my minelab mono and just alter the RXgain to suit the ground conditions usually running it from 14-18 range. We have had our machine about 3 months after updating from a 4500 and have found plenty of gold with all the coils we use so dont be in a huge rush to discard the original they are a very good coil.

On your initial noises you posted i had it happen once to us after detecting for a couple of hours the tone changed and was really hard to settle, I re-tuned it and lowered the gain it improved but didnt vanish, Next time we went out all was good i put it down to some emf interference but thats only a guess.

Good luck
Marty :

Fogot to add metal in boots will drive you mad , get a pair of metal free boots they are a must.

cheers
Marty

Thanks for the info Marty,
I've read up on those Nugget finder coils and am interested in getting one in the near future.
Yeah I'm not too sure what the noise was caused by....you could very well be right with regards to emf interference, that said, that was my 2nd crack at it...so I'm not sure if it was just me being a noob with regards to settings and all? The reason I say this is that we were miles away from anything which could be classed as emf...again..I'm no pro.... I've also read that having the battery situated too low may cause interference as well...may have to try and move the battery a little higher on my back next time.
The boots I was using were combat boots I got when I was in Afghan, very little metal apart form the lace buckles, which are only small...may have to take smaller steps? hahah
I really want to understand and use my 5000 to it's full potential so I've just ordered that new instructional DVD 'Unwrapping the GPX 5000', hopefully that'll give us some insight as currently I'm blown away with all the little settings and different options you can set the detector up with.....but I'm determined as I would go out and spend that kind of money if I wasn't going to be serious about it or give it a good go.
I guess only time will tell...
Just curious, are there any guys on this forum who have tried their hand at detecting in the pine creek area?

Cheers

Buzz

Hi Buzzdog,

Good idea to get the new DVD i have ordered it as well, The lace holes on your boots will send your detector spastic, I went out today and wound my 5000 right up gain at 17 and boost on full on lucky lark battery found 21 nuggets at old favourite spots but any signal sends it off.
may have to back off the boost a bitsends ya deaf lol. with the coils i would go the 12 round or the 14x9 eliptical as the 16" round is a bugger to pinpoint.

Cheers
Marty

Evening Marty,
I think I need all the help I can get! Being located in Katherine, I'm not really within arms length of face to face tuition with regards to experienced hands on with the 5000 (however I could be wrong?). Like most things up here, the remoteness certainly puts the emphasis on self teaching/researching and due to not being within cooeee of any major centers, being resourceful is key.
Might have to ditch the boots and try some runners or non-metalic boots as you suggested earlier?
Thanks for the info on the coils. Now everything I've read on these coils suggests that they were designed for the minelab detectors, however, was just wondering what setting you use them in conjunction with? Mono/Double D/Cancel?
I appologise in advance for the inexperienced questions and terminology...god I hate being a noob!

G'day buzzdog

"however, was just wondering what setting you use them in conjunction with? Mono/Double D/Cancel?"

Mono coils will work equally well in either Mono/Double D but never in cancel. A Double D type coil will function in any of these positions.

cheers dave

Hey all,
Went out today to see if I could figure out why my 5000 was making it's erratic noise? Ended up following the advice I was given from members of this forum and removed my boots with it's metal lace buckles, which seem to reduce some of the interferrence/background noise. That said it was still producing noise, which no matter how much I adjusted my threshold nothing changed..not too sure if it was still interferrence or if it's something to do with the settings. I play around with some of the settings, based off what I read from the manual, it seemed to help a little but there was still a little noise..I really do hope it's me not the detector.
Any ideas..can't wait for that dvd!

Oh, I did find some pretty awesome quartz crystals.

Cheers

Buzz

Lve2fsh wrote:Hello new guy to this forum and a new 5000 owner but been detecting for awhile now.
I had mine out last Saturday for the first time and found a .6 gram nugget however towards the end of my day my detector also became noisy. Settings were general, special-fine gold, mono, fixed. After 4 hours it became hard to detect since it would not quite down, it just warbles if that's a word.
Buzzdog did yours every settle down?
Tried mine in the back yard just a hour ago and cannot get it to settle down at all.

Hi Lve2fsh,
How are you going?
I took my 5000 out for a bit of a scratch around the weekend just gone, my weekend got freed up, so it was luckily a last minute decision. Friday afternoon it was still noisy, yet it was still able to detect, just had to concentrate on the tones. Saturday morning was the same, then all of a sudden mid-morning came and the noise dropped away? At first I wasn't too sure what had happened as I hadn't changed the settings (which were very similar to what you mentioned above) I ran a battery test to see what the voltage was and it displayed 7.6v. Initially I thought the noise was EMI from the surrounding areas, but I was pretty remote so this notion baffled me. Then I thought it might somehow be the battery? Maybe being such a new battery it may give off more charge than what the 5000 is usually used to? I'm going out this afternoon to have another crack, so will let you know if it's still there. But yeah it's all very strange and that's all I can put it down to as that duration of time is the longest I've used the 5000 without charging it? I guess to see if yours is the same, just try and run it down and give it a crack again?
All in all it was such a relief to hear the 5000 as it should do, down side is I didn't find any gold...I guess I've got to keep trying and hold my tongue right.

Cheers

Buzz

Its not a threshold problem, sounds like you need to adjust the gain or sensativity levels. The threshold is how loud it will be.