QED Info Thread.

Also I left Boggers post up as it does contain in essence
a warning as well.
No offense meant to any one.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Howard ( the QED inventor ), to pick up my QED that had been prepared for me by Stinky Pete. To say that the package Pete had put together is light, is an understatement ! 2kg all up with Minelab 11 inch mono and batteries fitted:Y: :Y:

We did some comparisons with my ZED in Howard's back yard, and I was impressed with most aspects of the machines performance. I was a bit surprised at how well the ZED ran at a gain of 18 and no audio smoothing, considering the proximity to 240 v.

The QED was able to ground balance easily over a very noisy patch of dirt from Beggary Hill that Howard has put in his backyard, where the ZED was almost unusable !

It became immediately clear that the QED does have at least one detection " hole ", on a 11.5 gram specimen I have, that the QED with a 14" round N/F got from about 8 inches, but the ZED was hearing at 14 inches. The QED with a Sadie 8x6 seemed to be no better than the ZED with the standard 14x13 on a tiny 0.08 gram test target, but let's not forget that the QED is a fifth of the price of the ZED !!

Overall, very impressed with what Howard has achieved without the vast resources that Minelab has. :Y:

I will be putting the QED through it's paces over the next 10 weeks before going to WA, where it will be running a 24x12 N/F as my main raw prospecting tool.

Will give a warts and all appraisal as I go, but I can tell you confidently from what I have already seen, that the QED is currently the best value for money PI on the market. :Y:

Cheers,
Rick

Give the QED a run with a Commander 8" set on Mode 1 for the tiny, tiny bits Rick
Let me know what you think

Cheers,

Mal

egixe4 said:

Give the QED a run with a Commander 8" set on Mode 1 for the tiny, tiny bits Rick
Let me know what you think

Cheers,

Mal

Click to expand...

Gidday Mal,

Not interested in the tiny, tiny bits mate ! The ZED will find 0.1 grammers all day if I want to. :Y:

My QED is mainly for raw prospecting the outer areas of known goldfields in WA with a 24x12, however I will be doing a fair bit with it here in Vic too, but with at least a 14inch round coil ! :Y:

Cheers,
Rick

Rick, to cover as much ground as possible in open country I like the Nuggetfinder 25" three spoke Litz wire coil. Really light, and runs very smooth on the QED. I can swing this combo for many hours without a bungy cord. Hooked up with either Sennheiser cordless phones or for cutting out an amazing amount of wind or other background noise, the Garrett Wi Fi system in conjunction with Bose noise cancelling buds. I like using the buds as a wide brimmed hat is the go in the hot weather.
Hope you have as much success with your new QED as I have had with mine, cheers, Reg.

egixe4 said:

Give the QED a run with a Commander 8" set on Mode 1 for the tiny, tiny bits Rick
Let me know what you think

Cheers,

Mal

Click to expand...

Hi Mal,
I've recently been trying the Minelab Commander 8" coil & even around Hill End + Hargraves have struggled to use mode 1 with it. Have had to use mode 2 or 3 & even then it still frequently picks up patches of hot ground + I've dug numerous hot rocks. The bias seems to need to be set more towards neutral rather than biased lower for the coil/small gold or it is even worse. Yes I've found some flyshit sized gold but it was hard going. SDC & GPZ both run well in these areas.
Still got issues with "buzzing" + false signals when the control box (or metal fasteners & connectors) is inadvertently touched & my AGB button doesn't seem to do much if anything at all. When used it never seems to get real close to a good balance - starting to think my QED has issues when others aren't reporting these issues.
I will say in milder ground it runs very nicely though + seems a lot better over the ground with bigger cools, even with the 11" Detech coil seems better - doesn't solve the touch sensitivity etc. though.

Hi mbasko,

I agree with your Bias setting for the 8" Commander
Very rarely can I set the Bias lower with the 8"

It does sound like you may have an issue with your QED, I don't get any of the buzzing or false signals with mine.
Contact Howard, he will look into it for you very quickly.

If you need his contact details PM me.

Cheers,

Mal

mbasko,

Since my QED's latest update I have been able to operate my commander 8" mono over hot ground in MODE 1, as I was able before the update, however I have been able lift my GAIN higher than before and leave my BIAS in a low setting at 44.

Although the new AGB option does not get real real close to a GB and appears mainly as an aid by watching if the numbers are rising or falling for the direction to adjust for a complete GB.

Cheers.

Just got back from 4 hours of testing the QED on a goldfield near Beaufort, and I can report the following :

Claims that the QED is a " SDC Killer " are probably a little exaggerated. I also don't believe it to be quite as good as a 4500 either. However, it is a damn good machine for the money !
:Y: :Y:
I can confirm that it works fine with an 11" Commander, a 17x13 Evo and a 24x12 N/F Advantage.
Testing over my little 0.25 g sphere of gold ( which is a difficult target for any machine due to the small surface area ) was impressive ( air tests only ).
3" with the 11", 2.5" with the 17x13 Evo, and 1" with the 24x12 ( good result for big coil ! ) :Y:

The machine ran well over the very variable and often noisy ground, with only the occasional tweak to the ground balance. :Y:
I was in mode 9, THS B was 47, THS A was 77, gain at 6 ( out of 10 ), pitch 25, and GB was around 110.

I found that if I swung the coil a bit too quickly, I got some ground groans, but at a nice steady pace ( similar to my ZED ) it was quiet, and seemed to get the best response over the little test target. I air tested all 3 coils with a 5 gram piece of what I believe to be a copper nugget, and all coils gave a strong dipping signal from more than 8 inches, so response on bigger bits was good also ! :Y:

No hint of EMI where I was, had a nice quiet stable threshold, and the targets jumped out over the threshold. :Y:

Where I was today is a place I have flogged for 10 years with a 4000, 4500, 5000, SDC and ZED, with numerous coils on the GPX, and have been unable to find any more bits. The QED also found no bits ! Which leads to my next observation : if you are using a QED after multiple Minelab's have flogged the area, I believe you are wasting your time ! However, if you take the QED to somewhere that hasn't been relentlessly flogged, then you are in with a good chance.

Bang for buck, it can't be beaten ! :Y:

More testing to come in about a week ( I've got some fishing to do ) !

PS : I tried mode 1, 2 and 3 with the 11 commander, and I couldn't see a noticable difference on the little target ??
Maybe an 8 commander would be better for fly sh#t, however Howard had an 8x6 Sadie on his QED in his backyard, but I wasn't all that impressed for a tiny coil !!?? :/

Cheers,
Rick

Araratgold said:

Claims that the QED is a " SDC Killer " are probably a little exaggerated. I also don't believe it to be quite as good as a 4500 either.

Click to expand...

I don't believe the QED is an SDC killer but with the right coil it's close. However, the QED is heads and shoulders above a 4500. Once you get used to the machine I think you will agree. The QED is, to a certain extent, a detector that you need to get to know well before you get the best out of it. It took me several months to come to know the machine well and now I know the machine well I can say that my 4500 hasn't seen the light of day since.

hi guys where do i find make number on qed i got today, also how to tell what updates it has if any, bought used, control box is the first type, cheers in advance.

When you start it up it should briefly display the serial number.
Best way to work out what updates etc. would be to contact Interfacion (the manufacturer).

thanks for all the info in email, ur a true legend cheers buddy

i have number 011 , just sussed out, try get out today for a play

No probs mate - there's a few QED users on here so any questions someone should be able to help or point you in the right direction. Good luck

That's my old machine.

Well this makes for an interesting test doesn't it, the same machine in two different locations, that is if you don't live in the same areas.. dasenator777 what area do you live in? Once u get a feel of the detector and how to set it up, which is the fun part . Not hard, just different then most other detectors..
I'm yet to find gold with my qed or my 4500, not the detectors fault, more the nut behind the wheel for not knowing where to look. I have found enough wire to repair the rabbit fence for the next 10 years :lol: there is plenty of good info spread through 19 pages in this thread, just ignore the rubbish.
:Y:

im in mid north sa, burra area, highly mineralized ares

davent said:

That's my old machine.

Click to expand...

small world, did u get any of updates mate, i payed $630 for whole package, wireless phones (goin on gumtree ) dont like em, plus 4 x coils. a bargain i rekon, could sell 2 coils and phones, and get close to purchase, freebie then :Y:

Cando said:

Well this makes for an interesting test doesn't it, the same machine in two different locations, that is if you don't live in the same areas.. dasenator777 what area do you live in? Once u get a feel of the detector and how to set it up, which is the fun part . Not hard, just different then most other detectors..
I'm yet to find gold with my qed or my 4500, not the detectors fault, more the nut behind the wheel for not knowing where to look. I have found enough wire to repair the rabbit fence for the next 10 years :lol: there is plenty of good info spread through 19 pages in this thread, just ignore the rubbish.
:Y:

Click to expand...

ive found gold with a modded 2000, and also a 4000 many years apart, and every vlf from a2b to xt 18000, last nine yrs off due to multi trauma accident, mx bike v buggy lol