Admin nuggethunting Posted January 25, 2013 Admin Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 Hello All, Over the last year, there is no doubt the Goldscreamer Power Pack is the hottest, lightest battery system for the SD, GP and GPX series. I absolutely love mine, couldn't part with it if I had to. That being said, I had a guy show me a test, trying to prove to me that you are loosing performance with the Goldscreamer vs. the stock GPX 5000. Now we didn't go through all his settings vs. mine, but there was no doubt on depth, there seemed to be a difference. I'm not a solid believer, but was wondering if anyone has heard, seen or tested this? Would be interested in hearing more.Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Border Boy Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 I absolutely love my Goldscreamer. I have had mine since it first came out, talk about durability. On that note I'm not you're everyday hobbiest either Im out in the field a lot. The only problem I have had is with the first gen charger, I destroyed mine long ago but had a pocket rocket charger to get me by. I have never compared for depth, shoot I don't even own a stock battery any more ....I guess that says something lol.. I would love to see a comparison with the detector truly set up for depth. All I can say is I find deep stuff all da time with mine.Thanks, Justin.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DolanDave Posted January 25, 2013 Report Share Posted January 25, 2013 I dont own a goldscreamer, but a custom slimline Li-Po 10,000mA battery for my 5000. I have compared it to the 5000 stock battery in the field. To me there is really no difference, just the amount of time before charges.Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldies1955 Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Dont tell me this!!! I have to go and rehit all the washes ive been up with the stock battery????? AHHHHHH Tom H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank c Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Should be easy enough for you to do, take yer 5000 and test some buried samples leaving all setting the same for each battery when ya swap em out for the testing. ?????? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gravelwasher Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Before any of you throw em out , you could always send em to me..lol just kidding, I will test em for ya, I mean dispose of em properly..lol Never heard anything but good comments about the Goldscreamers, hit em hard and post some pics always love seeing what ya find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 I know there is no one that wants to tear their batteries apart. But I have. The batteries inside the "L" series Lithium Ion Gold Screamer System are a series of batteries that look like large AA batteries. If you tear the Minelab battery apart you will find the exact same batteries except they are in a big aluminum box. One of the reasons for the big aluminum box is because the CHARGING brain for the Minelab battery is inside the battery. So basically you are carrying around the charger inside the battery, when you don't need it while detecting. This is why the Minelab battery's charging cables are just a simple cable. All the monitoring electronics are inside the battery. I find this claim that you get better performance with the Minelab battery suspicious at best. Same type Lithium batteries, just packaged differently. I will say that I am not a fan of the Polymer Lithium Batteries. Some guys have been buying "L" series Polymer Lithium batteries off of Ebay. There batteries look exactly the same but they are very lite. I have found these batteries to be inferior in terms of performance and ability to hold a charge. Basically if you are going to buy a "L" series (Gold Screamer compatible) battery, the weight of the battery tells you a lot about how well it is manufactured. Be careful of the mAh ratings. All of these batteries come from China. The Chinese are rather liberal with their labels regarding the mAh rating. For example the batteries we currently use, which we have had very good success with, are 7000 mAh batteries, and they last longer than the older batteries we used to supply which were supposed to be more powerful batteries at 7800 mAh. The 7800 mAh are not as good as the 7000 mAh ones, and the 7000 mAh batteries cost me more than the 7800 mAh batteries and they are more beefy.Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Dear Rob,Next time you want to do a test like this it is important that you use the same machine. Use his machine, test his machine with the Minelab stock battery, and then test it with the Gold Screamer. In any scientific research you have to hold all variables constant with the exception of the one variable you are trying to test.DocHello All, Over the last year, there is no doubt the Goldscreamer Power Pack is the hottest, lightest battery system for the SD, GP and GPX series. I absolutely love mine, couldn't part with it if I had to.That being said, I had a guy show me a test, trying to prove to me that you are loosing performance with the Goldscreamer vs. the stock GPX 5000. Now we didn't go through all his settings vs. mine, but there was no doubt on depth, there seemed to be a difference.I'm not a solid believer, but was wondering if anyone has heard, seen or tested this?Would be interested in hearing more.Rob Allison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin nuggethunting Posted January 26, 2013 Author Admin Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Hey Doc, I agree 100%. I told the guys during the "quick" test that we were not using the same unit. Even though the settings as far as I seen were the same, each detector could be a bit different. I wasn't a big believer before or after, but the guy wanted to prove that the stock battery was better. I didn't see any real big evidence, especially since the detectors were different to convince me to go back to the stock 5000 battery. I'm going to continue to use the Goldscreamer Power Pack as it has been a proven performer for me and many others that I know. The stock battery is nice, but you have to carry around a battery on your lower back, the harness that don't fit well and the power cord that snags on everything. Just my thoughts, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Porter Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 So long as the power supplied to the GPX 5000 meets its requirements then the performance will be exactly the same regardless of the battery used. The GPX series detectors have DVT (Dual Voltage Technology) which means the detector has a voltage regulator built into it to accurately drive the required voltages to effectively run the DVT, therefore the power supplied by the battery will have zero impact on the transmit voltages when in the field.From memory however the audio is not coupled up with the transmitter (at least I think that was the case with the GP series, not so sure with the digital GPX detectors), so a higher voltage might cause the audio to sound slightly brighter, but this then comes down to the supplied voltage of the battery which in the case of the GPX 5000 should be around the 8.3 Volts mark (Lithium Ion batteries provide near the same voltage constantly during their discharge cycle). There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest running the backlight off helps brighten the signal response but this could well be purely based on suggestive impressions.DOCs system is very handy for freeing up the operator in difficult places to detect, no curly cord to snag the operator is a very handy thing to have especially in places where you guys have that disgusting 'Cat Claw' stuff that rips you to bits just looking at it!!! :-( Having a spare battery pack that is light to carry as a back up more than justifies having one, getting more spare batteries for extended trips is a no brainer in my book unless you can afford the much more expensive Minelab ones.JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alchemist Posted January 26, 2013 Report Share Posted January 26, 2013 Doc's dead right, you need to use both batteries on the same machine running the same coil etc.,Another factor is the capacity of each battery. To compare them correctly you will need to go into the menu and check the Battery Voltage and ensure that both batteries are the same. This will be best done with two fully charged batteries straight off the charger. The reason being batteries of different capacities discharge at different rates so the voltage level of a half discharged standard 10 Amp hour battery will be different to a 7 Amp hour one.It's not so much the Voltage that counts as JP has confirmed the GPX has on-board switching regulators that generate the needed rails, but the battery Voltage level will indicate the amount of current available to the switching regulators, which could alter some performance parameters.I changed my coil and power sockets on my 4500 control box, and renewed my curly cord awhile back because the gold plating was beginning to wear off. I'd noticed that sometimes after setting up my machine it seemed a bit deaf and wouldn't detect the smaller bits I was regularly finding. After connector replacement the unit was like new again, and I started finding bits less than a grain once more. This just goes to show that you need to compare coils and accessories on the same machine, and in a case like this making sure that all connections are spotlessly clean.I use this stuff on all my connections now. http://store.caig.com/s.nl/sc.2/category.292/.fThis ensures power is not wasted in the connections as heat and the receive signal is in no way attenuated before reaching the input transistors.The image shows some of the bits picked up after connector replacement. Two of which are around 0.05 grams or 0.75 grains. 7 grams total.Cheers all Kev. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOC Posted January 27, 2013 Report Share Posted January 27, 2013 I don't care how much or little that gold weighs it sure is pretty. That piece at about 2 o'clock has a lot of character.Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alchemist Posted January 27, 2013 Report Share Posted January 27, 2013 Gid'day Doc, yea it's a little bit crystalline. They always look bigger until you give em a wash.That was a good tip you gave about battery weight as respects capacity. I'm still using a couple of original 7.8 AH packs I got with my Coiltek pocket Rocket system and they have been fantastic, still runs the PI for over 5 hours and they are going on 5 years old. I've also got a couple of 6.6 AH which have also been good. I recently bought a couple of 8 AH packs and they seem to be good as well, the common denominator of all these packs is the fact that they state they are constructed using Japanese cells. Still I wouldn't put it past some unscrupulous lot to say that when they're not.As you say buyer beware and buy only from a reputable source.Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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