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Thursday, May 17, 2018

GP pointer vs Garrett Pro-pointer AT with Z-Lynk wireless

May 17, 2018
I visited a friends summer house on the coast nearby that dates to the 1930s.  It's in the woods with a nice view of a bay through the ubiquitous Maine trees.  I spent an hour hunting around the building an the path down to the dock.  All I found was nails and some clad coins.  So on the way home I stopped at the flea market and bagged more coins (not shown), pull tabs, a padlock and a lead fishing weight etc.  Nothing exciting.

So I though I'd write about pinpointers and compare the 2 I have.  Physically they are almost identical.

I have been using the inexpensive (US $30-40) GP pointer for about 6 weeks and I'm very pleased with it - despite it's occasional "brain farts" where it will just start beeping randomly or if I hold it pointed up.  When it works correctly which is over 95% of the time it does the job very well.  I use my Garrett ACE 300 pinpointer feature to locate the center of my target area and that gets me within 3" on average.  When I dig a plug the GP will find the item in the plug or deeper in the hole from 2-3" away.  And this is fine and just what I need and need from a pinpointer.  As a beginner level tool it is a bargain price that delivers good performance.

So a few days ago I got the brand new Garrett pro-pointer AT with Z-Lynk wireless capable pro-pointer from Garrett affectionately known as the "Garrett carrot" for obvious reasons.  At around $150, it is much more expensive and has all the advanced features of the base model pro-pointer plus wireless.  And that's the reason I got it, so I could go full wireless.  I don't like bothering people with my bleeps and this will allow me to go "silent running".  So I have also ordered the Z-Lynk wireless kit for my ACE 300 detector and BOTH my detector and the pinpointer will pair with the headphones - cool!

It is taking some getting used to because it has so much more range that even in the lowest sensitivity setting it picks up signals from small items from farther away than the GP.  I'm struggling with this added sensitivity and trying to figure out the optimal setting.  The factory "default" is level 2 of 3.  There are 6 modes in total, 3 with beeps and 3 with just vibrations.  Plus you can re-calibrate as you home in on the item you are detecting by pressing the button briefly to de-sensitize it.  I guess I'll learn to love it in time but will really love it when my wireless headphones arrive!

I'll do another write-up when I have the whole wireless kit going.

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