Undetectable GOLD!

Prospecting Australia

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This seems to be woody's new home.

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Mods and Price list

Price list for upgrades. The upgrades start at $250 and go up to $2200, all upgrades carry a 5 year warranty. If there is any problem with your Minelab in the future we can repair it, we work on Minelab detectors all day long. Experience is 30 years electronic engineering, 18 years repairing and upgrading Minelab detectors. We can upgrade the following detectors, SD2000, SD2100, SD2200 GP Extreme, GP3000, GP3500, GPX4000, GPX4500, GPX4800, GPX5000. We have done some work on the SDC2300 and the GPZ7000 but have found the design platform is too difficult and too time consuming to work with, when we upgrade the GP and GPX series detectors we have found superior depth and small gold performance than the SDC and GPZ. As an example, an upgraded and fully modified GPX4500 will detect deeper than the GPZ7000 and will also detect smaller gold deeper than a SDC2300. We have carried out testing and found that we can beat these newer detectors in most types of ground. The SDC will detect the most tiny gold, I refer to this as time wasting Gold, spending 10 minutes looking for a fly speck of gold is not prospecting, you are far better off getting half gram or larger bits. Trying to sift out fly specks robs you of productive swinging time and will reduce your chances of shining the coil over a larger piece of gold. All detectors can have increased performance by replacing the input Field Effect transistors with lower loss types that have recently become available. The SD2100 to the GPX5000 can have variable frequency added, this makes a very big difference in regards to the size of the gold, the depth and type of coil that you are using. All detectors can have a variable gain board added that greatly increases the sensitivity and also allows for correct ground mineral reduction so that gold targets can be distinguished in noise ground or in noisy electrical environments. The minelab gain on the GPX does not work the same way as our gain, matching the input stage to the ground is critical to hearing the targets that standard detectors miss. The upgrades that we carry out allow for optimisation of coil size, ground type and depth. Our modifications and upgrades allow the operator to be able to control the detector to best suit the multitude of variables so that more gold is won in the field. The full upgrades on a SD detector $1500 , on a GP is $1800 and GPX is $2200 and all come with a 5 year warranty that is fully transferable. Newest upgrades (mods) include the deep gold low frequency mode that makes a huge difference to being able to find big deep gold in the most noisy ground. We can just do smaller upgrades starting at $650 but we find that most prospectors want the best and go for the full upgrades. When these upgrades are carried out it is like using a newer more modern detector, in just about every case our customers have gone over old ground and pulled out more gold after the upgrades. Yes, I have also pulled out more gold from areas that have been detected over by lesser technology.
 
Having used the TDI's all that adjustment always left me wondering if I was using the right settings, IE the conductivity switch and the pulse delay and then having to go over the same ground again because of the conductivity switch having Hi and Low settings because in the ALL setting you have to reduce the gain due to EMI,, so searching was a thing that could not be rushed,
 
interesting,never had a play with a TDI yet,actually not had much chance to use many,but have done a lot of research on the various models and capabilities.
 
Remember though, finding small gold is an art, and not a waste of time either.
We all like to find the BIG ONE, but in reality, the bigger nuggets are farther and fewer in between.
Finding the small stuff can also lead to a trail of finding the larger ones.

One thing I have learnt really quick is that not ONE detector can find it all. What one will find the other may not, settings, upgrades, variations etc etc all make a difference.

That being said, I think that a detector becomes like an extended limb after a while. Each one seems to be personal, and you learn how it talks to you more and more.
So it is more about spending TIME with our detectors rather than spending MONEY.

Most large nuggets are found relatively shallow and considering their size the would be noticed by a large range of detectors out there. The main key is as always has been since the dawn of detecting, SWINGING OVER THAT BIG ONE (and digging EVERY target)

Too many stories being told of the 'JUNK' signal that no one dug that became the 'BIG ONE'

Lets not get caught up in the idea that we can turn our detectors into some AMAZING FIND IT ALL or THE ONE machine by spending more money on it.
But I have nothing against those that do. Why not I guess. But it should not be a priority.... maybe if it was out of warranty and broken, then go ahead and get it upgraded.

Time, research, more time, and a sprinkle of good luck is what will find you the gold.
 
yeah i'm all keen to punch some small gold too,thats why the .55g nugget not sounding off surprised me as i've dinged .22's on the sd2000. :|

I also stand by having both a vlf and PI to cover frequency ranges,the more coverage the better IMO(though the BH is shit for khz range,its due for a gb2 replacement).
 
malri_au said:
yeah i'm all keen to punch some small gold too,thats why the .55g nugget not sounding off surprised me as i've dinged .22's on the sd2000. :|

I also stand by having both a vlf and PI to cover frequency ranges,the more coverage the better IMO(though the BH is shite for khz range,its due for a gb2 replacement).

A good VLF should pick up that .55 nugget about 8 to 12" off the ground maybe more ?, and a 0.15 at a good 6 to 8 inches when maxed out and more depending on the shape of it, and an 0.03 bit between 3 to 4 inches, VLF's are very hot at seeing the ones that PI's won't see,

J.
 
just got a reply back regarding my nugget.

G'day Steve,
Firstly, Thanks for buying this nugget. This particular nugget was found by us around the Meekatharra region of WA using a Minelab 5000.
Interesting that you can't pick it up with your Minelab. Maybe your machine needs checking out.
Best wishes.
Regards,
Frank

fair enough,ye olde SD2000 is pretty dated,having pinged smaller stuff before though,smallest being 0.22g just makes me think the mix of gold is bit different.

will definately be looking at coils and possibly a minelab check-in.
 
If it's been modded at all then Minelab won't look at it at all. In any case it's been taken off their list of repairable/serviceable detectors awhile ago.
I would assume that it is picked up by the 5000 possibly due to using Fine Gold timing.
 
Not modded that I can tell from the outside,would need to crack it open which i'm hesitant to do yet,i'll wait and try this coil when it rocks up.
 
As suspected. The SD2000 is showing you what the later technology can pick up. At that size, I would suspect as said a High Freq VLF, 4500, 5000, 7000, SDC2300 should all pick that up.

SHOULD being the optimum word. Stranger things have happened.

But yeah, I have a friend who has a SD2000 and he never finds any gold. Because the areas he goes to are heavily hit with later model machines.
And these areas were most probably hit with SD2000's and tons of VLF's when they first came out too.

So maybe your SD2000 isn't broken, maybe its just beyond its limits.
 
hAyyoUinAU said:
As suspected. The SD2000 is showing you what the later technology can pick up. At that size, I would suspect as said a High Freq VLF, 4500, 5000, 7000, SDC2300 should all pick that up.

SHOULD being the optimum word. Stranger things have happened.

But yeah, I have a friend who has a SD2000 and he never finds any gold. Because the areas he goes to are heavily hit with later model machines.
And these areas were most probably hit with SD2000's and tons of VLF's when they first came out too.

So maybe your SD2000 isn't broken, maybe its just beyond its limits.

I think any of the mid frequency VLFs should be able to see them, as long as they are high gain models, The Whites and Nokta/Makro and the Tesoro Lobo and the Tejon should see em and the LF vlfs will all see em with ease.

A good VLF will see your bare hand out to a max of 8" even with a big coil so these Ghost nuggets should not be a problem.
 
we'll see what happens with the 8" mono before calling it broke.

have read others having issues with the dd coils on smaller gold,the only mono I have is the old dustbin lid and that has issues too(for small gold).

i accept that it's older tech,but you would expect something similar weight/size to register,regardless of if its gold or iron.no discrim here.

it's pretty much the go to method of testing in the field,piece of lead shot or whatever you can find small enough to tune in.

it's also stock from what I can see,so there's plenty to improve on.
 
Yeah I only said that because you said your SD2000 can find much smaller. So I figured its not a coil size issue or detector fault issue, but more frequency timing.

They spent a lot of R&D on the new machines, and I would say they are always refining and trying to make it better. So maybe size is not the problem, nor even composition, but maybe the structural makeup of that nugget.

Just guessing, would be good to spend some time with all the machines and all these nuggets. Very interesting.

So I don't think your machine is broken, and I do believe it is good at finding gold. Just not ALL gold...obviously.
 
I'm willing to gamble on the 8" mono and giving it a go,worst to worst it's at least compatible with a later model when i get one.

buying the nugget was a bit of R&D to see if it's missing anything.
 
verdict is,sd2000 broke,well least that's my opinion,when it can see .10g of pc screw,but not .59g of nugget,i'm calling it broke.

VLF as suspected picked up ok,still had to be just about on the coil.

my question is,would you not expect a similar sized/weight piece of steel/iron vs gold to show up? .10g is pretty fine imo?
 
malri_au said:
verdict is,sd2000 broke,well least that's my opinion,when it can see .10g of pc screw,but not .59g of nugget,i'm calling it broke.

VLF as suspected picked up ok,still had to be just about on the coil.

my question is,would you not expect a similar sized/weight piece of steel/iron vs gold to show up? .10g is pretty fine imo?

0.10 is a doorstop compared to what VLF's will see IE 0.006 at about 1 to 2 inches and they will see about as small as 0.003 to 0.002 if it is within an inch or on the coil with the gain maxed out, I am talking about a normal high gain VLF not a GB2 or a GMT etc, modern VLF machines that have a prospecting mode would really hit that 0.10g nugget hard,

You don't always need a high frequency VLF to see such nuggets, It is the internal Gain setting and the ground balancing system that plays a major roll in how or if it can see nuggets of this size and smaller.

J.
 
to clarify,the .10g is not a nugget,its a pc screw and steel i assume.

the .59g is the gold nugget. I was just using something small as a comparison.

i had the feeling i could be missing this sub gram stuff with it.

watched wal n liz video again,still scratching my head like wal.
 
malri_au said:
verdict is,sd2000 broke,well least that's my opinion,when it can see .10g of pc screw,but not .59g of nugget,i'm calling it broke.

VLF as suspected picked up ok,still had to be just about on the coil.

my question is,would you not expect a similar sized/weight piece of steel/iron vs gold to show up? .10g is pretty fine imo?

I suspect your SD 2000 is borked.

The SD 2000 was released over 20 years ago, I'm pretty sure there's no parts available for them anymore.

Any decent prospecting VLF will scream at a .59 nugget. I get pieces less than 1/10th of that size with the Gold Racer without any problems.

Is the VLF you're using the QD2?
 

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