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XP Deus V5


Steve Herschbach

The XP Metal Detectors company of France has been making waves with its new metal detector, the XP DEUS. So much has already been written about the XP DEUS that this page is going to focus on the Version 4 (or later) software releases starting in 2017. This new versions of the software combined with new hardware has made the DEUS into a totally different detector. For that reason this website will be referring to XP DEUS V4 or V5 specifically as opposed to earlier versions of the detector.

July 2018 - Deus Version 5 Software announced and new X35 search coils announced.

September 2018 - New XP ORX announced.

January 20192019 Deus Model Comparison

I purchased a new XP DEUS in 2014 to evaluate it as a gold prospecting detector. The DEUS was originally designed for coin and relic hunting in Europe but quickly found a following in the United States also. As a prospector I was not much interested in the detector, until the version 3.0 software update added a program specifically for prospecting, the Goldfield program. According to Andy Sabisch at Findmall the program was originally developed as a dedicated prospecting detector for the African market. It worked and was subsequently added to the 3.0 software update for the DEUS.

According to XP "The GOLD FIELD program uses a different detection strategy designed to handle highly mineralized ground containing targets such as gold nuggets. In these ground conditions, small, low-conductive targets are often seen as ground noise or iron, especially when they are deeply buried. To go deeper in these difficult conditions, the GOLD FIELD program uses a true All Metal mode allowing you to accept a whole zone of ground that is usually rejected (Full Range). Rather than rejecting all the ground values below the setting (as on conventional detectors), this new program rejects only the current value of the ground which you have to adjust exactly."

The short story is I found the XP DEUS and its new Goldfield program to be perfectly adequate for gold prospecting, but that was about it. The innovative wireless design notwithstanding, there just seemed to me to be nothing particularly compelling about the DEUS for gold prospecting. It is the kind of machine that if a person owned it anyway, then they would have a capable gold prospecting detector in addition to all its other uses. Given the price however to buy it specifically for gold prospecting just did not make much sense to me when detectors costing half as much did every bit as well or better. Further, a well respected person on my forum reported that he also ran into issues with the DEUS in its current form when it comes to gold prospecting. You can find my detailed review and his report both at Using The XP DEUS For Gold Prospecting at the DetectorProspector Forum. I went ahead and sold my new DEUS at that time.

Fast forward to the fall of 2015. Early information about the upcoming version 4.0 software release immediately caught my interest. New coils were announced that has serious implications for gold prospectors. The new elliptical coils are 12cm x 24cm or approximately 4.7" x 9.5" which is very close to the standard established for VLF gold prospecting detectors. There is also be a new round 9" coil. More importantly, the new coils via the V4 software will enable operation much higher operating frequencies. The 9" round coil will operate at 14 kHz, 30 kHz, or 59 kHz and the elliptical coil at 14 kHz, 30 kHz, and an amazing 81 kHz!. This would put the XP DEUS V4 squarely in the realm of high frequency gold prospecting detectors. Currently the Fisher Gold Bug 2 at 71 kHz has the highest operating frequency of the popular prospecting detectors.

xp-deus-high-frequency-elliptical-coil-v4.jpg
XP DEUS V4 with new 4.7" x 9.5" DD Coil

These extremely sensitive coils operate on a wide range of 21 frequencies, ranging from 13 to 81 kHz depending on coil choice. The search coils three base frequencies are 14 kHz - 30 kHz and 59 kHz for the 22.5cm (9”) Round DD coil. The elliptical DD coil has a slightly different base frequency set of 14 kHz - 30 kHz and 81 kHz. Each coil has a further 7 higher or lower sub frequencies to choose from, allowing a much wider adjustment range (Previous Deus has 3 sub frequencies). The lower frequencies are intended for general use, they provide good sensitivity to a wide range of targets, the higher frequencies will take the Deus to another level. You will instantly notice the enhanced sensitivity and the ability to find small targets that have previously been difficult or impossible to locate when searching mineralized ground with competing devices.

Apart from the ability to detect through mineralized soil, the HF coils will enhance the signature from weak - low conductive targets or even highly conductive targets, that due to their shape or construction (thin or wired) are beyond the reach of conventional detectors, for example: open rings such as earrings or fine bracelets, wire framed artifacts, gold nuggets, intricate fibula’s, small coins, thin coins, etc. The new HF coils only weigh 350g and are equipped with the latest higher capacity lithium battery (850mA). The new battery is situated in the lower stem; this is a bonus especially if you are working in a remote area far from a power source as optional replacement batteries will be available. Battery life: 20 hours at 15 kHz, 27 hours at 30 khz and 28 hours at 59 & 81 kHz.

Deus X35 coils running at 3.7 kHz to 27.7 kHz
New for 2018 - Deus X35 coils running at 3.7 kHz to 27.7 kHz

In my opinion the version 4.0 software upgrade combined with this new coil meant the DEUS was worth another look as a gold prospecting detector. The smaller footprint of the elliptical coil will "see" less ground and better separate small gold nuggets from difficult ground conditions. The boost in frequency will also make the detector hotter on small nuggets. I therefore obtained another new XP DEUS and waited - over a year - for the new V4 update and new coils to appear.

I finally went out and found my first gold nuggets with the new DEUS elliptical high frequency coil in 2017. I want to emphasize that I am a newbie on the XP Deus. Although I purchased an 11" Deus V3.2 model almost two years ago, it was with the express purpose of being able to test the V4 update with the new high frequency coil options for gold prospecting. I decided I was better off just starting fresh with version 4.0 before really digging in and learning the detector. I do get the hang of detectors quickly but this does show what can be done by somebody who went out barely knowing the machine.

The other catch is that I picked a location that favors the Deus with relatively mild soil for a gold location, so mild I could run the machine full out to get the maximum possible sensitivity with the machine. These results are not going to be as easy to obtain in extreme mineral ground. You have to start someplace however and being new to the machine I wanted to give myself someplace easy to start. Finally, the goal here was to find the smallest gold I could so for the purposes of this report - smaller is better.

These nuggets were recovered over the course of a day. Ten nuggets, 4.7 grains total weight. There are 480 grains per Troy ounce and with an average weight of less than half a grain I think you can agree this is some pretty small stuff. The smallest bits are probably near 1/10th grain or 1/4800th of a Troy ounce. Click picture for larger version.

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Gold nuggets found by Steve Herschbach with new XP DEUS HF elliptical coil

The new HF elliptical coil running at 74 kHz is clearly in the same league as the 71 kHz Fisher Gold Bug 2,  45 kHz Minelab Gold Monster, 56 kHz Makro Gold Racer, and 48 kHz White's GMT. However, the devil is in the details and it will be some time before I sort out how the machines compare under more difficult and varied conditions.

Again, I am not an expert with the Deus and so the settings I mention are not to be taken as "the best" or anything like that. I was actually gold prospecting so the primary focus was to find gold, not to test every possible combination of settings on the Deus. With 10 program options and numerous settings that will be a longer term project. I obviously wanted to try the Gold Field program 10. After a little experimenting I settled on the GM Power program 2 as an alternate disc mode to try. Getting from program 10 to program 2 is only a couple button pushes, so I bounced back and forth between the two programs and tweaked settings higher as I found targets and could compare readings.

Gold Field is a threshold based all metal mode with what I find to be a rather pleasant digitized buzz. That's me of course, others may differ on that point. I was able to run sensitivity full out at 99. All my work was done at 74 khz, the default highest frequency setting without trying to push it higher via the offset. I figure the coil is tuned at 74 khz and so stuck with that for now. Manual ground balance about 84.

GM Power I got sensitivity to 94 with only minor falsing. I reduced reactivity (similar to SAT for you nugget hunters) to 0 from the default of 2 and ran the audio response (audio boost) up to 7 (max).

Both modes exhibit just a little touch sensitivity at these high gain levels. This might be tamed with the ground notch but I have not fooled with that yet and it did not bother me at all anyway.

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What I found was Gold Field has a softer response in general but that my boosted version of GM Power banged hard on the little bits. Not unlike going from all metal mode on the Gold Bug 2 to the Iron Disc mode. Instead of faint threshold variations you get a strong "beep". The difference is that the Gold Bug 2 Iron Disc mode has an obvious loss in sensitivity. The Deus by comparison in this particular situation actually seemed to work better in GM Power mode, but that is mainly the boosted audio at work.

I left the disc settings at the defaults for GM Power which worked well - low tone iron, higher tones non-ferrous. I ran the IAR (iron reject) in Gold Field at 2. This was just enough to cause ferrous to break up. Higher settings would blank most ferrous completely but getting to aggressive can also eliminate weak gold signals. The ferrous discrimination worked very well in both programs. GM Power in particular was pretty awesome in the nail pits with iron tones firing off like a machine gun. I bumped reactivity back to 2 in the dense trash.

Anyway, this is a very preliminary report and so no point getting too deep into it as I will probably modify my opinions and settings as I get more time on the machine. Right now this is a high price option if all you need is a prospecting unit, but for a person wanting one machine to do everything XP just kicked it up a notch. If they introduce a dedicated gold unit at a lower price similar to the Depar DPR 600 it would be very competitive. For now this is an option for somebody that wants a detector for more than just gold prospecting since the Deus is a superb coin, relic, and jewelry detector.

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XP DEUS as ultimate "stuff it in a rucksack" metal detector

The elliptical coil and rod assembly is just 1 lb 13 oz (1.8 lbs) and so a true featherweight. At 5' 11" I have to run it fully extended and at that it does flex a bit, but I did not find that bothersome at all. A solid coil cover will be good as there are too many coil edges that want to hang up on rubble and sticks. A minor quibble however as the machine is a joy to handle, especially when reaching uphill waist high and higher. A great unit for poking in and around bushes and other obstructions. The coil is hotter at the tips which also helps in poking into tight locations.

Early days but the final word is that I am happy with how this coil performs on small gold nuggets after all the wait. Time will tell how it handles the really bad ground and how it fares directly against some of the competition as other people report in. As always giving it time and waiting for a consensus opinion from many users to develop is a wise policy with any new detector.

~ Steve Herschbach
Copyright © 2017 Herschbach Enterprises

July 2018 - Deus Version 5 Software announced and new X35 search coils announced.

September 2018 - New XP ORX announced.

Official XP Deus Page (U.S.)

XP DEUS 2019 Versions Guide

XP DEUS V5 Instruction Manual

XP DEUS Versions/Update History

Forum Discussion of V4 Update & Coils

Forum Threads Tagged "xp deus"

XP Metal Detectors Forum

XP DEUS V5 Technical Specifications*
Internet Price $875 - $1565, 9" Coil w/WS4 Phones, Remote $1520
Technology Induction Balance (IB)
Frequency 4, 8, 12, 18 kHz or 14, 30, 55, 80 kHz
Autotune Mode(s) Multiple "Reactivity" Settings
Ground Rejection Grab, Manual, Tracking
Soil Adjust Beach Mode
Discrimination Variable, Visual ID, Tone ID, Notch
Volume Control Yes
Threshold Control Yes
Tone Adjust Yes
Audio Boost Yes
Frequency Offset Yes
Pinpoint Mode Yes
Audio Output 1/8" headphone socket & speaker, wireless headphones
Hip Mount Yes
Standard Coil(s) 9" round DD or 11" round DD
Optional Search Coils 13" x 11" DD,  9.5" x 4.7" HF DD, 9" Round HF DD
Battery Built In Rechargeable
Operating Time 20 hours
Weight 2.0 lbs
Additional Technology Wireless coils, control box, headphones; firmware updates via internet
Notes Perhaps the most popular detector sold in Europe

*Notes on Technical Specifications - Detailed notes about the specifications listed in this chart.

 

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