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new detector
- Thread starter jessemxt
- Start date
Well any new detector looksinteresting to be sure. I think this will be one of those wait and see situations.
One thing I noticed is that coarse and fine tuning ground balance which means this is not an auto - ground balance machine.
Now the SD2100 is not auto-ground balance either, but it only has one balance control and is very easy to balance.
I will be interested in hearing what folks have to report on this new detector.
BCOT!
DOC
One thing I noticed is that coarse and fine tuning ground balance which means this is not an auto - ground balance machine.
Now the SD2100 is not auto-ground balance either, but it only has one balance control and is very easy to balance.
I will be interested in hearing what folks have to report on this new detector.
BCOT!
DOC
Dont discount manual ground balance machines.
The SD2000 and SD2100 machine are both manual balance are are still favoured by many professional detector operators because of their ease of use and performance.
If this new machine offers better depth and/or performance then it will be a winner irrespective of manual or auto balance. The manual/auto option is well down the list of "must haves" on a machine I am looking at using.
The SD2000 and SD2100 machine are both manual balance are are still favoured by many professional detector operators because of their ease of use and performance.
If this new machine offers better depth and/or performance then it will be a winner irrespective of manual or auto balance. The manual/auto option is well down the list of "must haves" on a machine I am looking at using.
It's a convenience, but many pros still like the manual ground balance because they have control over the balance of the machine. In mild ground, I like to balance the SD2100 a bit on the positive side, because it makes it very sensitive.
However, the thing about the AUQUEST that has me wondering is the COARSE and Fine ground balance. Because the only machine I have used that has COARSE and FINE is the Gold Bug II, and you swing that machine three times and it is out of balance, but it does find the dinks.
DOC
However, the thing about the AUQUEST that has me wondering is the COARSE and Fine ground balance. Because the only machine I have used that has COARSE and FINE is the Gold Bug II, and you swing that machine three times and it is out of balance, but it does find the dinks.
DOC
Ok that is a good definition just thought i would get some opinions. And from the looks of things yours is highly respected and I still want a 3500
thanks doc. By the way If you could have the perfect gold detector what would you have manual gb auto gb or both something to think about?
thanks doc. By the way If you could have the perfect gold detector what would you have manual gb auto gb or both something to think about?Jesse,
The SD3500 is the best machine on the market.
It is a very fine detector. However, it is bloody expensive.
The decision on what detector to buy depends on a lot of factors.
Do you have an unlimited budget? How often are you going to use the detector? etc etc.
I am a miner and use a detector as a work tool. I choose the SD2000M because it is simple to use, cheaper to buy and, for my purposes as good as anything else on the market.
Ground balance is not a problem for me where I work and the less "bells and whistles" on a machine the better for me.
In fact the auto balance is really only an advantage in the hottest and most variable of ground. But, as Doc says it is a convenience.
With a 3500 if you dont want variable balance, then leave it on fixed mode. Easy.
Same thing with the discrimination mode.
It only works with DD coils and I never use them as they are not as sensitive as a mono.
Discrimination is fine in trashy ground and is another nice convenience, but more relevant and important than manual/fixed balance in my view.
Good luck with whatever you decide upon.
The SD3500 is the best machine on the market.
It is a very fine detector. However, it is bloody expensive.
The decision on what detector to buy depends on a lot of factors.
Do you have an unlimited budget? How often are you going to use the detector? etc etc.
I am a miner and use a detector as a work tool. I choose the SD2000M because it is simple to use, cheaper to buy and, for my purposes as good as anything else on the market.
Ground balance is not a problem for me where I work and the less "bells and whistles" on a machine the better for me.
In fact the auto balance is really only an advantage in the hottest and most variable of ground. But, as Doc says it is a convenience.
With a 3500 if you dont want variable balance, then leave it on fixed mode. Easy.
Same thing with the discrimination mode.
It only works with DD coils and I never use them as they are not as sensitive as a mono.
Discrimination is fine in trashy ground and is another nice convenience, but more relevant and important than manual/fixed balance in my view.
Good luck with whatever you decide upon.
Ideally I would like a detector that has either auto ground balance, or, I could switch out of auto ground balance and into manual balance and tune it myself. The reason I would like the manual ground balance option is for things like looking for meteorites.
Making your machine slightly positive really kicks up the signal response on meteorites, because as I said before it makes the machine more sensitive.
As Dave said, you can take the 3500 out of auto ground balance and into FIXED GROUND BALANCE. But it is just what the name implies. It is FIXED, at whatever ground balance the auto-ground last fed into the processor. When you are in FIXED, you have no ability to change the balance at all, with a machine that had manual mode, you would be able to adjust the ground balance.
I find it interesting that Minelab took this approach to one of their other functions, that being, the AUTO - TUNE function. On the new GP3500 you can auto-tune, to try to find the best fequency by pushing a button. This is a feature found on the SD2200, and all the GP series. The GP2100 is a manual tune. HOWEVER, with the new GP3500 they included the auto-tune feature, however, they also included the manual tune like on the SD2100, so now you have the best of both worlds.
I would like to see them do the same thing with the AUTO-Ground balance feature. Give us the ability to also manually tune, if we want to.
As far as the GP3500 being too pricey, if you are paying too much, then you are not buying your machine from ol' DOC.
What's that old saying? "I lose money on every deal, but I make it up in volume!"
Doesn't make a lick of sense does it! However, thanks to all of you, I have been able to keep my prices more than competitive and because of the volume I do, I still can support my own detecting expenses.
If I told you how much my gross sales were last year you wouldn't beleive me, but let's just say that the amount of coils that I imported from COILTEK last year was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars ! What in God's name do you guys do with all of these coils?
The way I figure it, given the number of coils that I sell, every detectorist must have at least 23 coils in their garage.
I guess one of the things that makes me very happy is that you rarely see COILTEK coils on Ebay. People don't get rid of them. When you do occasionally see a COILTEK coil on Ebay, people fight over them and almost end up spending as much for a used one as they would have a new one.
The things seem to last forever. I have had a 14 inch mono that I have been using for 6 years. It was even in my truck when I rolled it, and it has a big dent in it, but it keeps finding gold!
Take care!
DOC
Making your machine slightly positive really kicks up the signal response on meteorites, because as I said before it makes the machine more sensitive.
As Dave said, you can take the 3500 out of auto ground balance and into FIXED GROUND BALANCE. But it is just what the name implies. It is FIXED, at whatever ground balance the auto-ground last fed into the processor. When you are in FIXED, you have no ability to change the balance at all, with a machine that had manual mode, you would be able to adjust the ground balance.
I find it interesting that Minelab took this approach to one of their other functions, that being, the AUTO - TUNE function. On the new GP3500 you can auto-tune, to try to find the best fequency by pushing a button. This is a feature found on the SD2200, and all the GP series. The GP2100 is a manual tune. HOWEVER, with the new GP3500 they included the auto-tune feature, however, they also included the manual tune like on the SD2100, so now you have the best of both worlds.
I would like to see them do the same thing with the AUTO-Ground balance feature. Give us the ability to also manually tune, if we want to.
As far as the GP3500 being too pricey, if you are paying too much, then you are not buying your machine from ol' DOC.
What's that old saying? "I lose money on every deal, but I make it up in volume!"
Doesn't make a lick of sense does it! However, thanks to all of you, I have been able to keep my prices more than competitive and because of the volume I do, I still can support my own detecting expenses.
If I told you how much my gross sales were last year you wouldn't beleive me, but let's just say that the amount of coils that I imported from COILTEK last year was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars ! What in God's name do you guys do with all of these coils?
The way I figure it, given the number of coils that I sell, every detectorist must have at least 23 coils in their garage.
I guess one of the things that makes me very happy is that you rarely see COILTEK coils on Ebay. People don't get rid of them. When you do occasionally see a COILTEK coil on Ebay, people fight over them and almost end up spending as much for a used one as they would have a new one.
The things seem to last forever. I have had a 14 inch mono that I have been using for 6 years. It was even in my truck when I rolled it, and it has a big dent in it, but it keeps finding gold!
Take care!
DOC
Hi Guys,
I don't post here often but I do look in fairly regularly. I have a GP3500 after selling my GP3000. In regards to the tracking/fixed positions the 3500 has 3 tracking speeds to chose from, slow - medium and fast. I find medium to be the best compromise overall if searching in tracking mode, but have still tracked deep targets out in a little as 2 passes, so care needs to be taken. The last doubtful target was tracked out in 2 passes and ended up a 67.2 gram (2 oz) solid nugget. Fixed mode fixes the ground balance at whatever the balance was set to last. To rebalance in fixed mode, you simply push the green button on the handle and pump the coil until balance is achieved. Manual balancing.
I have used fast tracking speed on 2 occasions, which is needed if the detector has trouble keeping up with the changing ground, and is indicated by the ground seeming always to be hot if you like. My preference would be for a detector with both fixed and tracking modes just like the 3500 has.
I must be different coming from Australia because the last thing on my wish list would be a discriminator. There are trashy areas here too but I can honestly say that the discriminator knob has never been turned on, as I learned long ago that the best discriminator available is your ability to decide to dig or not. To me this is far more reliable than a discriminator and puts the power back into your hands.
Here is a link to an Aussie site with a comment on the GD1000. More work needed to be done maybe.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProspectinginOz/message/724
Regards to you all,
QldSandy.
I don't post here often but I do look in fairly regularly. I have a GP3500 after selling my GP3000. In regards to the tracking/fixed positions the 3500 has 3 tracking speeds to chose from, slow - medium and fast. I find medium to be the best compromise overall if searching in tracking mode, but have still tracked deep targets out in a little as 2 passes, so care needs to be taken. The last doubtful target was tracked out in 2 passes and ended up a 67.2 gram (2 oz) solid nugget. Fixed mode fixes the ground balance at whatever the balance was set to last. To rebalance in fixed mode, you simply push the green button on the handle and pump the coil until balance is achieved. Manual balancing.
I have used fast tracking speed on 2 occasions, which is needed if the detector has trouble keeping up with the changing ground, and is indicated by the ground seeming always to be hot if you like. My preference would be for a detector with both fixed and tracking modes just like the 3500 has.
I must be different coming from Australia because the last thing on my wish list would be a discriminator. There are trashy areas here too but I can honestly say that the discriminator knob has never been turned on, as I learned long ago that the best discriminator available is your ability to decide to dig or not. To me this is far more reliable than a discriminator and puts the power back into your hands.
Here is a link to an Aussie site with a comment on the GD1000. More work needed to be done maybe.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProspectinginOz/message/724
Regards to you all,
QldSandy.