NewbieNeedsHelpGp3500

Hello Everyone,

This is my first post and have been reading this forum for weeks non stop now - girlfriend is starting to question my loyalties!! It is a great source of knowlegde and I value everyone's opinions and exprience.

I am a newbie and I have recently purchased a gp3500 with three coils: 11" DD Standard, 14" & 18" DD coiltek coils, and was wanting to ask of your wisdom about the 11" standard coil.

I have read alot about this coil in this forum and that it is recommended that I get to know my machine with this coil as it is a good all rounder before moving onto other coils, however I need your help in diagnosing that I may have a faulty coil?

Using a .4gm bit I have tested the 11" through all different settings and arrangments and the signal at best can be hardly picked up, where as I get a stronger signal using the 14"?

The 14" seems to run so much smoother over the ground were I am (central vic) but am afraid that I am walking over the sub grammers using this coil and the 11" can't pick them up either.

Does this sound normal? Or should I try and get another more sensitive coil to find the smaller stuff? Maybe a 'Joey' coil?

Am yet to get on the board but am doing my bit in removing trash from the bush.....would be nice to finally see some colour thou...

Cheers in advance and thanks
Peter

Peter check it in Mono,I always used mine in mono and found small gold at good depth its much more sensitive.In this setting the DD will work as a mono coil.If there is a problem this should let you know.
Steve

Thanks Steve,
Sounds like i have a problem. Have tried running coil in mono and although signal slightly better it's not great. I wouldn't be able to pick the signal above ground noise. Have got booster and speaker combo and have tried tweaking in all sorts of arrangements to try and enhance signal but to no avail. Looks like i'm in the market for a replacement coil....any ideas folks?

the best thing i can say is if you havn't got JP's dvd on the 3500 that's the best start. you can buy them from any detector shop or even off JP.
cheers
stoppsy

Thanks Stoppsy,

Great advice, have watched dvd and it's now got the missus hooked on detecting (she liked the idea of the boulders he was ripping up!!!). It is a very good watch and it and this forum have made me question the stock 11" DD.

G'day Peter23 & welcome to the forum

The standard 11"DD coils can go bung, and not hardly work at all, I know as I had this happen to me, I sent it back to Minelab and it came back fixed.

The only way to be sure before you send it away is to try the coil on another machine GP3500, depending where your at, take it to say Coiltek if your near Maryborough in VIC and get them to check it, while your there get a loan of a 11"DD and try on your machine to see if there is any difference.

Of course you could try this with anybodys machine that you know instead of going to a shop.

cheers dave

Hi Peter23,

A very warm welcome to this great site, i run a 3500 and started off with my DD 11" in mono which halves the coil but is very sensitive to small gold and is a fantastic way to learn the sounds can i say of gold. Ok so you do loose some depth but as a learner thats what we have to put up with to go onto bigger, better and deeper nuggets. Yes there is a problem with the coil it should be barking at that piece if its not too deep. You could send it in for repairs and use your other coils in the meantime...its up to you, anyway good luck to you in the gold fields...

HueyDuck....

Hi Peter
If you can pick up a secondhand Coiltek pro 11 dd there deadly in the triangle with Gp machines
Cheers Dig

Hi Pete sensitive, deep ,mono 8'commander or similar coiltech coil should put you in the zone , i had some success with set up good luck hope this helps Regards Glenn

Thanks everyone for their input, what a great forum!
Looks like I have some thinking to do about a solution. At this stage I am swinging towards a replacement coil. Glen was the 8" mono running noisy on the gp? Thanks again everyone for your help.

Cheers,
Pete

Peter23 wrote:Hello Everyone,

This is my first post and have been reading this forum for weeks non stop now - girlfriend is starting to question my loyalties!! It is a great source of knowlegde and I value everyone's opinions and exprience.

I am a newbie and I have recently purchased a gp3500 with three coils: 11" DD Standard, 14" & 18" DD coiltek coils, and was wanting to ask of your wisdom about the 11" standard coil.

I have read alot about this coil in this forum and that it is recommended that I get to know my machine with this coil as it is a good all rounder before moving onto other coils, however I need your help in diagnosing that I may have a faulty coil?

Using a .4gm bit I have tested the 11" through all different settings and arrangments and the signal at best can be hardly picked up, where as I get a stronger signal using the 14"?

The 14" seems to run so much smoother over the ground were I am (central vic) but am afraid that I am walking over the sub grammers using this coil and the 11" can't pick them up either.

Does this sound normal? Or should I try and get another more sensitive coil to find the smaller stuff? Maybe a 'Joey' coil?

Am yet to get on the board but am doing my bit in removing trash from the bush.....would be nice to finally see some colour thou...

Cheers in advance and thanks
Peter

Gday Peter

Welcome to the forum, I was wondering what is the 11" minelab coil that you have?, the original coils I think by memory had "gp series" written on them, if not you can have an earlier model coil which would not be as good and possibly faulty by the sounds of it.

Using the standard minelab 11" dd coil such as the one I used on my old 3500, in mono mode was excellent on small shallow gold, and was a good coil for general use in dd as well depending on the ground conditions, they are very capable depth wise as well so dont be put off by the size.

Another good coil you will find is the 8" minelab mono, if theres small stuff about you wont miss much with that, once you get the idea of the sounds and have dug a few things then start to use the larger coils and see how you go with them.

Like most minelabs the 3500 does not have the best volume range so something I would recommend is to get a good quality signal booster, that could also be partially why the signal responses are not jumping out at you as well, your hearing level is very important so even have a look at your headphones too, if its got an external speaker then you definately need a booster to make that work properly.

cheers

stayyerAU

Hey stayyerAu,

Thanks for the reply. It is the 'gp series' coil and unfortunantly i am already running the DETacc boaster speaker combo, so I think the gist is that the coil is buggered!
Have been reading that small monos are the noisiest and the fact that i'll be on pretty warm to hot ground, how did you/others find running the smaller monos on the gp3500?

Cheers,
Pete

Pete I beleive it goes something like this,small mono the noisiest up to the large mono then across to the large DD then down to the quietest the small DD.Don't quote me on this though,I have a brand new 11"DD still in the box from the 5000 if needed I notice your close by.If you want me to test the DD just pm me I can compare the 2 for you.I also have two small mono's you can try an 8"commander and an 10"x5"coiltek.
Steve

Hi peter23 When I used my 3500 I found it ran better with DD coils the coil I used most was the NF XP 14" Eliptical it had the switch on the coil, I found a nice 6 gram nugget about 10" deep in pretty mineralized ground it was only a very faint change in the threshold I was rapped when I saw it was gold. Did use mono coils as well but only in the quieter ground as they were very noisy anyway I hope this helps. I use to use coiltek mini booster on mine.

Cheers

Mike.

Thanks Mike, nice find! I bet you were chuffed. Thanks for the info. Helps heaps to hear what other's are/have done.
Cheers,
Pete

Hi Pete the guys have posted great info ,8' will be noisy on hot ground ,dd will be quieter as for the signal booster a good advantage, try the 8' if you have access to one if its to noisy try 11"dd as was already said good luck keep at it Regards Goinbush

Yes Goinbush everyone has been great! Thanks everyone for all your help and input. Especially Deutran who's offer of testing my coil and allowing me to try some of his smaller coils is awesome.
It's not offten that someone will go out of their way to help a complete stranger!! It's an incredable community that you all have together. I look forward to learning from you all and hope to be able to give back when I have something to contribute.
Keep up the good work everybody and happy hunting.
Cheers,
Pete

Peter23 wrote:Hey stayyerAu,

Thanks for the reply. It is the 'gp series' coil and unfortunantly i am already running the DETacc boaster speaker combo, so I think the gist is that the coil is buggered!
Have been reading that small monos are the noisiest and the fact that i'll be on pretty warm to hot ground, how did you/others find running the smaller monos on the gp3500?

Cheers,
Pete

Gday Pete

Yes by the sounds of it your coil is knackered,

My 3500 seemed a lot happier running mono's than dd's, my two favorite small mono's were the minelab 8" and the coiltek 11" round, the 11" giving a little more ground coverage but it didnt miss much at all, also I used a 16" round nuggetfinder SL spoked mono coil, which I always felt was a bit dull or lazy as far as the target response goes, but used slow and low over ground where I was getting sub grammers with the 11" coiltek round mono, it would certainly pick up small pieces that were deep but I had to really concentrate on listening for the response, larger deep pieces were pretty obvious.

I did buy and try out a nuggetfinder 10" round mono, when they first hit the market but found it a bit noisy for my liking so I went back to the coiltek 11" round mono.

As far as dd coils go, I used the 14" coiltek round dd pro ,and a nuggetfinder 16" dd xp coil, the nuggetfinder xp was an excellent coil but a tad heavy compared to the others mentioned, the later nuggetfinder advantage coils and the coiltek goldstalker coils were not available when I had my 3500, and I would definately have a try with the nuggetfinder 14" round advantage mono as I think that it would suit the 3500.

Someone who has used one on the 3500 may be able to give you a better idea of how the advantage mono's will go on it.

cheers

stayyerAU