Detecting near machinery

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Hi, just wondering if anyone has had experience detecting near operating machinery eg small excavator and whether there is any electrical interference issues to deal with when the machine is running. We have a 4500 and a 7000 and were wondering if they have problems in that regard and if so what breed is least susceptible. We've been thinking about getting a 2300 but not sure yet. Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers
Stingray
 
1521577451_screenshot_2018-03-21-06-23-17.jpg

so.... it gets down to being in too much of a rush and trying to get to the goodies too fast. Patience is your virtue here... just way too enthusiastic.... enough to pull your hair out (but miss the gold as well).
But.... I'm only a treasure hunter, I'm sure someone doin that kinda thing will offer sound advice soon enough ! :D
 
Detecting around operating excavators dozers etc is just begging for a death on the work site.

You state you have a 4500 and a GPZ.
Surely you could just try it and answer your own question.?
 
Hi Silver, that is why we have bought our own excavator, the intent is to milk it - not just cream it!

Hi LC76 - it is not going to be a big worksite, 2 guys and one machine and we are safety conscious. We are not on site yet.

FYI the lease is in the Pilbara. It is hard enough trying to get a 4wd in there - and it is going to be a mission and a half trying to get 3.5 tonne of machine and trailer into where we are going. I didn't want to get there and find avoidable problems - applying the 6 p's principle - hence my post. I've had interference on the 4500 working near (within a few metres) my 70 series even when it is parked up and switched off - so I suspect an operating machine will be a problem - just not too sure of the likely radius of effect and which detectors are more/less affected.

Thanks Rockhunter, might contact Pilko if I don't get anywhere here, didn't want to bother him unnecessarily.

Cheers
Stingray
 
I guess it may depend on whether the excavator is powered by a diesel or petrol engine. A petrol donk will probably generate some emi from its high voltage ignition system, which the oil burner doesnt have. They probably both will run an alternator for keeping the battery topped up, but could be unplugged if this interferes with detecting. Youll need a good set of jumper leads though.
 
I am sure I saw it being done more than once on aussie gold hunters. I saw no problem on that show. However I have know strobe light beacons to interfere with electronics
 
Probably have more chance of interference from professional filming gear than from a diesel excavator. The only problem that we ever had with detecting near machinery in my bomb hunting days was keeping the big lump of steel away from our coils and deep search heads.

Cheers

Doug
 
Thanks for the responses fellas. FYI she's diesel - a U25-3 Kubota. It's no big deal really. At the end of the day if it's a problem then we will only work with the detectors when she's shut her down or far enough away - just wondering how far that might be. I guess we'll find out soon.

Cheers
Stingray
 
Stingray said:
Thanks for the responses fellas. FYI she's diesel - a U25-3 Kubota. It's no big deal really. At the end of the day if it's a problem then we will only work with the detectors when she's shut her down or far enough away - just wondering how far that might be. I guess we'll find out soon.

Cheers
Stingray
Test now at home out in a paddock before you'se even leave.... that'll settle your mind before you even drive down the road. ;) ;)
 
I have a local small park i detect now and then, a large plywood lumber mill is directly across the way from the park perhaps 1/4 mile away, when its in full operation with some large electric motors going my MXT suffers badly at the park, its near impossible to detect. There is a steady loud emi noise coming thru the detector at that time. All you can do is turn sensitivity down some so you can detect, or go home.
 
Just finished for the season and I thought you might like some feedback. It turns out that the 7000 is far more sensitive to interference from the excavator than the 4500, and big coils more so than small ones. The 7000 was picking up an annoying level of interference 20-30 m away, even with the small coli. My partner also reckoned it was worse when I was idling than when working it. I use a 4500 and rarely detected when the machine was running but I could get to within 10 or so m without any problem. My advice would be to avoid trying to detect within cooee of a machine. You can detect - but it is more taxing on the brain than it need be and you will miss faint signals.

By the way, I used a new 17 x 13 nugget finder evo with my 4500 on the push and was very impressed. We did some comparisons with the 7000 and this is what we found:

The 4500 with the 17x13 coil had better depth than the 7000 with the 13 coil on a specie with about 10g in it (probably about 16-18 inches down). Tested all modes on the 7000 and sensitivity cranked to 20 and couldn't get a murmur out of it. The 4500 was in enhance mode and gain at 13 and it gave a soft but very clear inverted dig-me-up signal through a speaker when detecting slow and low.

On a bit bigger and slightly deeper bit, the 4500 gave a clear inverted signal but the 7000 with the 19 inch only just picked it up when sensitivity set around 13 or so. The signal only got 'reasonable' and comparable to the 4500 when the sensitivity was cranked to 20.

The 7000 was better on small ~0.5g bits at depth - quite amazing really.

The 7000 with the 19 inch coil and the 4500 gave comparable performance on 1/2 oz and larger bits. The 7000 was running sensitivity at 20 but not sure of the other settings.

Note This was in hard packed old wash in a creek bed under a couple of feet of silty loam that was sometimes removed and sometimes not. Also and importantly I have a fair bit of experience under my belt and a pretty good technique and you have to go low, slow and steady otherwise all bets are off. Different conditions might change the results but I wanted to be sure that the 7000 wasn't way better than the 4500 and that I wasn't wasting my time with the 4500. If so I would have to have bought a 7000 as we are trying to make a living out this. But after 5 months or so I am convinced that I wasn't leaving much (if any) behind that a 7000 could have picked up and I am happy to keep using the 4500 set up - particularly when looking for medium size bits and up. The 17x13 will pick up small bits (0.2) but it is difficult to pinpoint and they are not particularly sharp. When chasing small bits, and for general prospecting through spinifex etc I prefer to use the NF EVO 14 x 9.

Stingray
 
Stingray, OzzieAu was spot on about using diesel equipment while detecting. A diesel machine will still play up due to the alternator, but by putting a switch in the system you can turn the alternator off while detecting, and just turn it back on to keep the battery topped up occasionally.
Your experience in this field matches mine in regard to the 7000, and that's why I sold it.
 
Great report Stingray, its always great to get an honest review especially from someone who has been able to do such a thorough comparison in real conditions over an extended period.
Thank you.
Jim
 
Stingray said:
Just finished for the season and I thought you might like some feedback. It turns out that the 7000 is far more sensitive to interference from the excavator than the 4500, and big coils more so than small ones. The 7000 was picking up an annoying level of interference 20-30 m away, even with the small coli. My partner also reckoned it was worse when I was idling than when working it. I use a 4500 and rarely detected when the machine was running but I could get to within 10 or so m without any problem. My advice would be to avoid trying to detect within cooee of a machine. You can detect - but it is more taxing on the brain than it need be and you will miss faint signals.

By the way, I used a new 17 x 13 nugget finder evo with my 4500 on the push and was very impressed. We did some comparisons with the 7000 and this is what we found:

The 4500 with the 17x13 coil had better depth than the 7000 with the 13 coil on a specie with about 10g in it (probably about 16-18 inches down). Tested all modes on the 7000 and sensitivity cranked to 20 and couldn't get a murmur out of it. The 4500 was in enhance mode and gain at 13 and it gave a soft but very clear inverted dig-me-up signal through a speaker when detecting slow and low.

On a bit bigger and slightly deeper bit, the 4500 gave a clear inverted signal but the 7000 with the 19 inch only just picked it up when sensitivity set around 13 or so. The signal only got 'reasonable' and comparable to the 4500 when the sensitivity was cranked to 20.

The 7000 was better on small ~0.5g bits at depth - quite amazing really.

The 7000 with the 19 inch coil and the 4500 gave comparable performance on 1/2 oz and larger bits. The 7000 was running sensitivity at 20 but not sure of the other settings.

Note This was in hard packed old wash in a creek bed under a couple of feet of silty loam that was sometimes removed and sometimes not. Also and importantly I have a fair bit of experience under my belt and a pretty good technique and you have to go low, slow and steady otherwise all bets are off. Different conditions might change the results but I wanted to be sure that the 7000 wasn't way better than the 4500 and that I wasn't wasting my time with the 4500. If so I would have to have bought a 7000 as we are trying to make a living out this. But after 5 months or so I am convinced that I wasn't leaving much (if any) behind that a 7000 could have picked up and I am happy to keep using the 4500 set up - particularly when looking for medium size bits and up. The 17x13 will pick up small bits (0.2) but it is difficult to pinpoint and they are not particularly sharp. When chasing small bits, and for general prospecting through spinifex etc I prefer to use the NF EVO 14 x 9.

Stingray

Are you serious, Im just to buy 2 GPZ 7000 and you are saying not good wtf, what should I be looking at
 
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