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Tarsacci - Preliminary Review


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I am still learning the ropes but my thoughts so far after testing in a few gardens and a full fledged relic hunt in hot ground:

Ergonomics - weight and balance - very good.  It is well balanced and a joy to swing.  Like it better than my Equinox in this regard.

User Interface - OK, but a little quirky.  No intuitive logic to the menu system but everything is at least on one screen, no diving into multiple sub menus like Deus.  There really are not many settings anyway - Frequency, Volume, Threshold  Disc, Tone Mode, Sensitivity, GB, Salt level, Tracking  & Black Sand.  Use of a highlight box to show the active parameter being adjusted works but is sometimes hard to pick up.  Just takes a few outings to develop the requisite muscle memory to do the keypress combos without having to think about it.

Setup - Turn on, pick your frequency, adjust volume, sensitivity to lessen chatter, adjust disc as desired (I reject all ferrous and use mix AM + Tones  > this clearly differentiates ferrous from non-ferrous), set threshold, and the GB (single pump while holding GB button and release at the end of the vertical stroke), finally set Salt and Black Sand Preferences (this is a bit of trial and error on land vs. the structured beach setting methodology).

Performance - In very hot dirt the Tarsacci easily outperformed the Deus.  I was able to hit a minie ball at 8" in maxed out mineralization as measured by the Deus Fe3O4 mineralization bargraph.  Dime at 5" no problem.  Deus barely registered the dime as "a target" in Gold Field but no clue as to ferrous/non-ferrous.  The Tarsacci locked on as clearly non ferrous but up averaged the TIDs and were a little bouncy.  This totally impressed me.  Did not have a chance to bounce it off an Equinox.  I suspect the Tarsacci would win on the ferrous/non- ferrous ID but not sure by how much.  Liked how non-ferrous targets at the edge of detection did not simply default to a ferrous hit.  They appeared to maintain non-ferrous tones at max depth.

My setup:  Disc at 0, Threshold -2, Sense max (+8), Tone Mode - Mix, GB (750 to 850), Freq 12 or 18 khz, Salt in the mid 40's, Black Sand off 

What else I liked - Excellent Pinpoint implementation.  If I got an iffy hit that bounced between ferrous and non-ferrous, I used pinpoint to center the target, went back to detect mode and wiggled over the target, that usually resulted in minimal falsing and a pure ferrous (or non-ferrous) response depending on the nature of the target.  Pinpoint also showed the classic dumbell field effect on long, narrow ferrous targets (making it falsely appear like two closely-spaced, discrete targets, with the actual target residing midway between the dumbell targets).

I like not having to worry about it in the rain.  Wish wireless was integrated, preferably something like BT LL that would enable use of wireless, weather resistant phones.

What bugged me: Coil bump sensitivity, ferrous high tone falsing, bouncy TIDs in general (see below), no logic to setting up Salt level (non-salt beach site) and no easy way to adjust for desired effect.  Wouldn't use it simply to coin or jewelry detect in high aluminum trash conditions because IDs are a little bouncy and the pure disc-only 3-tone implementstion is audibly limited and does not complement the bouncy visual IDs well. 

Conclusion: As a pure ferrous/non-ferrous target discriminator in a low-non-ferrous trash environment and for decent detection of non-ferrous at depth in high mineralization environment, I like it so far (as long as you are not in a bed o' nails situation, despite decent recovery).  Will be trying to get a comparison against Equinox at a mineralized relic site in the near future.

What I'd like to see:  More accessory coils, obviously.  Wireless integration - I used a BT low latency dongle.  Some logical guidance on how to set Salt balance away from the beach.  Lower price point.

More to come in a few weeks when abenson and I meet up at DIV.

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21 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

Performance - In very hot dirt the Tarsacci easily outperformed the Deus.  I was able to hit a minie ball at 8" in maxed out mineralization as measured by the Deus Fe3O4 mineralization bargraph.  Dime at 5" no problem.  Deus barely registered the dime as "a target" in Gold Field but no clue as to ferrous/non-ferrous.  The Tarsacci locked on as clearly non ferrous but up averaged the TIDs and were a little bouncy.  This totally impressed me.

Can’t get any more clear cut than that - thanks for the report!

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Chase try running your disc at -30 it tends to stop some of the wrap around high tones.   Your report is much better than i could give for dirt.   I really dont know how i would run it in those conditions.  Ive not  had any trouble running it in AM even on a trashy beach and i get a lot of upscaling on aluminum and it appears it does take density into consideration.   This upscaling id assume could affect a coin hunter, thou it sounds off well over a target.   My hunting also is more ...... is it a target..... is it iron?   The machines pretty darn good at both on a beach and in the water.   Tom made mention there maybe news of the larger 12" coil soon.   The price tag maybe steep for dirt hunters .... not so much for beach guys when you compare it to anything but the Nox...... and frankly its quieter than a Nox in the salt water.   Im hoping the coil connector gets moved to the center of the coil as well.....ive had mine moved and it really give it even better balance and im not having to adjust the coil or tighten it.   Very good report.......

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Thanks, Dew.

Dew, did you mean disc +30 vice -30? I thought of that but decided against it due to the up averaging I was seeing.  I wanted to make sure I was not knocking out 27’s and 28’s high tones because I was swinging and pausing by ear not TID and some legit, non-ferrous was getting pushed UP into the wraparound region.  It was not something that bugged me all that much but thought I would list it.  Coil bump is the thing that really gets me and there really is no field situation that is as smooth as wet sand.  Every little sprout sticking out of the ground seemed to set it off.

Now that I half-way know what I’m doing, I can better understand what you, Steve H., Dankowski, and Keith Southern are saying about the machine and have gone back and re-read posts better knowing the Tarsacci language.

I don’t see the MDT replacing PI’s at Culpeper, especially not with an 8” coil, but it does seem to be a viable non-PI alternative with decent depth and a lot easier to swing.  I am not quite ready to say it is the best non-PI alternative until I get a lot more Culpeper swing time with mine.  May not have a final verdict until next Spring.  But for now, it seems to hold a lot of promise.

To be clear, I know what drives the price point (small scale garage shop operation), but this is a niche machine with basically two tricks - excellent salt beach performance and apparently great mineralized dirt performance.  That’s basically it.  

There are a lot of cheaper and more versatile machines out there that I would recommend over the MDT for mild dirt relic hunting and coin and jewelry shooting on turf (e.g Equinox). And Deus would be my first choice in Bed o’ nails situations.  But the hot dirt niche the MDT has carved out may probably allow it to ultimately earn a spot in my relic hunting arsenal sitting between Deus and the GPX.  With my Equinox being an agile multipurpose machine on the relic hunting rung just below the specialty Deus/MDT/GPX trio.

 

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i did mean -30.   Thats more for iron recognition tones.   I was getting a lot more wrap around tones from iron hitting in say the 28 range so setting disc at that range or higher still gave me more broken high tones than i wanted.   Ive not found any targets YET that hit in that 28 to +30 range that i remember.   A good hit on a quarter is around 21 even deep for me.  As far as coil bump falsing..... i hunt in AM HOT and get only a quick POP from that .... i do a lot more screen watching.... but when i cant see the screen i  REVERSE DISC and switch to disc tones.   I might walk away from a high tone with mixed iron tone...... just because ive not found any gold thats sounded off as iron YET.  Another advantage for my purpose using AM is all the tones sound the same loud like using an Explore in high gain .... rarely do i get a weak tone signal.  I get short broken ones thou.   Those are normally deep targets. 

What i see is a very good relic machine, but no its not a PI, but with it being adapted for beach hunting you are getting a relic machines depth with SINGLE freqs able to adapt to the salt water.   IMO.... having a salt balance would be a real benefit on any water machine.   Ive used the AquaSound which is the only other machine i know of with a SB.  It was 14Khz designed for treasuring hunting only here in Fl.   Tendall of Nautilus designed it.  It has a real black sand problem.....but in cleaner sand extremely deep.   Single freq machine have always been know as NOT working in or near salt water.   

We will be playing around Sunday with both the AQ and MDT.  Doing some target comparison and checking the depth on some gold.  Im interested to see how it does especially with the AQ in disc modes.   Thinking ahead should we see that 12" coil.  A smaller operation certainly effects the cost of coils and which might be made.   But i can see the need in your case of a small coil as i can for a larger one for us.   Im seeing a few UK guys getting the machine now.  

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I spoke to Demitar a bit today.  He told me to ask you if you tried black sand on.  I’m curious where you are located?   Must be close to culpepper. Best of luck on the machine.  If you have any questions Demitar I can get you in contact.

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Ok.  I see what you are saying but that setup doesn't work for me because I search in mixed mode.  I set disc at 0 so that way I can readily, audibly differentiate the iron from non-ferrous by whether or not I hear the disc tones with the AM tone.  I zero in on the target at that point, interrogate it using pinpoint and make a dig decision.  No "ting" it is probably ferrous.  One-way ting, iff, probable ferrous - interrogation necessary.  Solid two-way ting plus ID let's me know probable non-ferrous and mid or high conductor (doesn't matter much to me though as I am digging all solid non-ferrous hits and iffy one-way hits depending on the TID behavior).  So setting disc at 0 or possibly a high notch in the non-ferrous range are essential to my MO in the fields. I was getting some deep stuff bouncing up in the 25+ range.

I had limited time to experiment with all settings.  Black sand appeared to have little effect but I honestly did not do a deep dive on whether the setting made a difference.

I live in the region so I visit Culpeper 2 to 5 times a year to detect.  When I get back down there in a few weeks, I may have you help me contact Dimitar.  It just makes sense to try things out while I am on site.  Abenson who also uses the Tarsacci will be there too and we plan to meet up and compare notes.

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Keith Southern, who you may know, is a relic hunter.  He may live in the region as well.  I was using the NOTCH for high digits as well but was following some of his posts.  Me and Cliff both switched to the -30 setting because we found hearing the iron less distracting and we did find it moved more targets out of the non-ferr area or made them more distinguishable.  Let me know and I can put you in contact with Demitar.  He really welcomes feed back.

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2 days ago i went straight into  a storm with the MDT,the thin layer of water and tiny waves created by the strong wind really affected the machine,i tried everything it was more than usable but far from quiet.

Yesterday i went to another beach and everything was back to normal ,a PI would have been affected too ,i had similar problem before,it seems under the beach the water returning to the sea is creating another ground effect .............the mystery of geology 😁😁😁 i had rubbish sound very mixed at 40cm and it was trashed drink can ....................large ferrous at 2 feet no problem............our beaches are littered with old anti landing defenses  rusting in peace.

 

 

RR

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5 hours ago, Rivers rat said:

2 days ago i went straight into  a storm with the MDT,the thin layer of water and tiny waves created by the strong wind really affected the machine,i tried everything it was more than usable but far from quiet.

Yesterday i went to another beach and everything was back to normal ,a PI would have been affected too ,i had similar problem before,it seems under the beach the water returning to the sea is creating another ground effect .............the mystery of geology 😁😁😁 i had rubbish sound very mixed at 40cm and it was trashed drink can ....................large ferrous at 2 feet no problem............our beaches are littered with old anti landing defenses  rusting in peace.

 

 

RR

If it is salt or brackish water, you might be seeing changing salinity levels in the water.  In that case, going with tracking could help.

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