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Deus 2 Review For Salt Beach Hunters


midalake

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Hope not to wander. Going to break it down to the actual machine, working the machine, and conditions. All to be applied to saltwater use.

The physical machine: This machine is not Salt Water usable and users will find several components unacceptable.
Detector rod, D-  The only reason it did not get an F is because it is usable on the wet and dry sand. The rod flexes too much with ANY kind of water contact. In larger waves it is completely unusable and will vibrate if the wave wash has enough force. It is almost impossible to center targets in wave wash. Surf hunters will need a different rod. 
Detector pod B, seems well built. But could use bigger numbers, which they are working on.
11" coil D, What part do manufactures not understand about rear mounted coils. The rear mounted coil is harder to hunt and is not weighted correctly when the mount is not in the center. The taller you are the worse this condition is. STOP offsetting coil mounts to the rear of the coil. 
Wireless WS6 Headphones F- These headphones are the biggest hunk of junk I have ever seen. Uncomfortable, poor fit, wind and noise walks in right into your ears. not one beach hunter will find these acceptable. 

Antenna connection, coil to pod ???  While the connection seemed to be fine just after a few days of hunting water seeped into the cable at the coil and a discoloration started [rust colored] 

Live environment testing and comparing to the Equinox. 
Over 5 days we spent many hours going after the meat and potatoes. Getting the Deus to identify Nonferrous targets that will not Tid. All of the factory Beach programs WILL NOT go deeper than the Equinox. AGAIN,  ALL of the factory preset Beach modes will not go deeper than the Equinox. It was not until the user who is an experienced Deus 1 user started to customize programs did we see equality in nonferrous targets that will not Tid. All of that can be found here: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/18385-deus-2-beach-testing/

Other operating important issues to detectorists:

EMI: In both of the beach locations we hunted there is EMI from communication's equipment present. At both places the EMI did not seem to have any effect on the Deus 2. However, with how crappy the headphones are I can not be 100% sure. But pretty sure! 

Hunting in active wave wash, air-entrained fast water : Looks like an area where the Deus will excel. I was surprised how the Deus was unaffected by the amount or speed of moving Salt Water. The signal reports were unwavering, and recovery in difficult conditions will be much easier with the Deus. [once a appropriate detector rod is used]  

Wet sand/Black Sand: Found the unit to be stable and huntable in the conditions we had at both beaches. Both the Equinox and Deus could run a similar sensitivity settings. Nothing abnormal to report here. The Deus worked like a multi frequency machine should at the beach. 

TID function: It seems the Equinox and Deus are close in losing a TID on a target at about the same depth. Users should not expect to squeeze much more out of the Tid function. 

Final: It was disappointing that the only time I tested the Deus was in fast water testing.  But the incompetence of the headphones was too much for me to overcome [shaft too]. I would of not really been able to learn anything from a new machine with the headphones supplied.
I have big issues with the cost of this detector being what it is and not have a unit be huntable to my standards. For me, hunting the wave wash is important. But it will be sometime before I purchase one as I do not see that big of a separation in machines for the wet sand. Hopefully aftermarket shaft makers can step up to the plate.  HH from the beach!  Your results may and will vary. 

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First question I have is where is the beach you are hunting and does it have black sand? maybe that was covered in the other post, if so I missed it.

My experience on the beach has been much different that yours and I'm at the Great Salt Lake which is mega salt. First off I agree do not use the stock beach programs they need to modified. I tend to like beach sensitive the best as it's most responsive to gold. I run the salt sensitivity as high as I can but usually that's at 7 or 8, sensitivity as high as I can which is usually 98 EMI permitting, black sand accept, reactivity at 1.5 and silencer at 0. I also prefer PWM over square audio. With those settings I'm seeing a good 2-3 inches over the Equinox. The targets I'm getting with no TID are also very easy for me to tell whether it's ferrous or non-ferrous. On the beach I only care if a target can be identified as non-ferrous, some of those big rings read like zinc pennies.

For me the Deus 2 has become my preferred VLF at the beach and I've used a bunch of them. I do need to get some different headphones though as the WS-6 back phones are hard to hear over wind/waves.

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3 minutes ago, abenson said:

First question I have is where is the beach you are hunting and does it have black sand? maybe that was covered in the other post, if so I missed it.

The beaches I hunt are on the Pacific ocean, large wave action,  and have moderate black sand. 

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1 hour ago, midalake said:

The beaches I hunt are on the Pacific ocean, large wave action,  and have moderate black sand. 

Thanks, Black sand could explain your findings as I have not hunted any black sand beaches yet. I also rarely hunt in the water.

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3 hours ago, midalake said:

Hope not to wander. Going to break it down to the actual machine, working the machine, and conditions. All to be applied to saltwater use.

The physical machine: This machine is not Salt Water usable and users will find several components unacceptable.
Detector rod, D-  The only reason it did not get an F is because it is usable on the wet and dry sand. The rod flexes too much with ANY kind of water contact. In larger waves it is completely unusable and will vibrate if the wave wash has enough force. It is almost impossible to center targets in wave wash. Surf hunters will need a different rod. 
Detector pod B, seems well built. But could use bigger numbers, which they are working on.
10" coil D, What part do manufactures not understand about rear mounted coils. The rear mounted coil is harder to hunt and is not weighted correctly when the mount is not in the center. The taller you are the worse this condition is. STOP offsetting coil mounts to the rear of the coil. 
Wireless WS6 Headphones F- These headphones are the biggest hunk of junk I have ever seen. Uncomfortable, poor fit, wind and noise walks in right into your ears. not one beach hunter will find these acceptable. 

Antenna connection, coil to pod ???  While the connection seemed to be fine just after a few days of hunting water seeped into the cable at the coil and a discoloration started [rust colored] 

Live environment testing and comparing to the Equinox. 
Over 5 days we spent many hours going after the meat and potatoes. Getting the Deus to identify Nonferrous targets that will not Tid. All of the factory Beach programs WILL NOT go deeper than the Equinox. AGAIN,  ALL of the factory preset Beach modes will not go deeper than the Equinox. It was not until the user who is an experienced Deus 1 user started to customize programs did we see equality in nonferrous targets that will not Tid. All of that can be found here: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/18385-deus-2-beach-testing/

Other operating important issues to detectorists:

EMI: In both of the beach locations we hunted there is EMI from communication's equipment present. At both places the EMI did not seem to have any effect on the Deus 2. However, with how crappy the headphones are I can not be 100% sure. But pretty sure! 

Hunting in active wave wash, air-entrained fast water : Looks like an area where the Deus will accel. I was surprised how the Deus was unaffected by the amount or speed of moving Salt Water. The signal reports were unwavering, and recovery in difficult conditions will be much easier with the Deus. [once a appropriate detector rod is used]  

Wet sand/Black Sand: Found the unit to be stable and huntable in the conditions we had at both beaches. Both the Equinox and Deus could run a similar sensitivity settings. Nothing abnormal to report here. The Deus worked like a multi frequency machine should at the beach. 

TID function: It seems the Equinox and Deus are close in losing a TID on a target at about the same depth. Users should not expect to squeeze much more out of the Tid function. 

Final: It was disappointing that the only time I tested the Deus was in fast water testing.  But the incompetence of the headphones was too much for me to overcome [shaft too]. I would of not really been able to learn anything from a new machine with the headphones supplied.
I have big issues with the cost of this detector being what it is and not have a unit be huntable to my standards. For me, hunting the wave wash is important. But it will be sometime before I purchase one as I do not see that big of a separation in machines for the wet sand. Hopefully aftermarket shaft makers can step up to the plate.  HH from the beach!  Your results may and will vary. 

Just to let you know, it is a 12” coil or 9”. Not sure which you had. Your first comment was the machine is not salt water useable yet near the end you were amazed at how well it worked in the salt water wash. I do agree the back phones are a joke. I also would like to see the NOX down around 20 meters. Heck they flooded at 20 inches. To each his own. 

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4 hours ago, midalake said:

....

Final: It was disappointing that the only time I tested the Deus was in fast water testing.  But the incompetence of the headphones was too much for me to overcome [shaft too]. I would of not really been able to learn anything from a new machine with the headphones supplied.
....

Probably the WSA2-XL headphones would be more suitable for beach hunting ( when they are available ) than the opened  WS6 , which are more designed for inland hunting to my opinion.

The Deus2 WSA2-XL headphones :
https://www.xpmetaldetectors.com/en/produit/wsa-ii-xl-headphones.php

Capture.PNG

 

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7 minutes ago, Carolina said:

Just to let you know, it is a 12” coil or 9”. Not sure which you had.

Thank you for pointing out my error. I changed it to the factory Spec 11" coil...not 12" either.......

8 minutes ago, Carolina said:

Your first comment was the machine is not salt water useable yet near the end you were amazed at how well it worked in the salt water wash

Yes it was very difficult in forceful wave wash with my leg against the detector rod trying to keep it steady from vibrating side to side. [very uncomfortable]

I was bound and determined to get this important testing done. 

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6 hours ago, midalake said:

Wireless WS6 Headphones F- These headphones are the biggest hunk of junk I have ever seen. Uncomfortable, poor fit, wind and noise walks in right into your ears. not one beach hunter will find these acceptable. 

This is easily addressed with a $10 plate adapter that will let you plug your SunRays directly into the WS6 or the XP adapter cable that allows you to plug directly into the rear of the RC module.

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2 hours ago, palzynski said:

Probably the WSA2-XL headphones would be more suitable for beach hunting ( when they are available ) than the opened  WS6 , which are more designed for inland hunting to my opinion.

The Deus2 WSA2-XL headphones :
https://www.xpmetaldetectors.com/en/produit/wsa-ii-xl-headphones.php

Capture.PNG

 

They are a $200US add (once available) if you already purchased a full WS6 package.  But if XP offers them as the wireless headphone option vice the WS6 in a package with the detector coil, stem, and remote, you will save $150US vs. the WS6 packages that are available now.  FWIW

So yeah, it might be worth it to wait for these packages to be available if you are a dedicated beach hunter.  They are fully submersible to 1 meter btw.

 

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1 hour ago, Chase Goldman said:

This is easily addressed with a $10 plate adapter that will let you plug your SunRays directly into the WS6 or the XP adapter cable that allows you to plug directly into the rear of the RC module.

Thanks Chase, I am going to plug in directly alright. However it will be with my Black Widows or a pair of Eisenhower's...........  

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