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XP Deus 2 Vs Equinox, Summarized


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The most striking difference for me other than weight and interoperability has been how well the Deus 2 handles EMI. I first saw this when Chase brought his spankin' new D2 to one of my most notorious permissions, a place where the Equinox gets hammered by a nearby cell tower. I don't think he had an issue with EMI at all, and I had to switch to 15kHz to have a chance to find anything. This field is where we both found very old relics and a few coins. While I'm sure 15kHz was sufficient to find stuff, it meant switching to it. I've read in the Equinox manual that MF goes much deeper, and covers a much broader group of targets.

I have used both the 600 and the D2 under power lines, and while both will "lock on" to a target despite the noise, the D2 is much easier to listen to in that situation and loses the noise much sooner than the Equinox as I move away from them.

I never had any trouble with the D2 on the beach even when crowded with hundreds of people and cell phones and WiFi. Again when the crowd got larger I had to switch to 10kHz with the Equinox. Near a WiFi loaded pier, I had a lot of difficulty finding a frequency or angle to hunt where I could find anything at all with the Equinox, the D2 was unaffected.

The last thing I will say for the D2 is I don't get "detector arm" with it after a very long hunt, greater than 6 hours. Detector arm is when you are showering/shaving and your swing arm locks up and refuses to cooperate, sometimes painfully. Probably a "geezer" thing and in line with my suggestion that the D2 is "adaptive equipment" 😀 It works for me!

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16 hours ago, Tometusns said:

Deus2 warranty.  Hmmm I hope I don’t get any water ingress…appears it’s not covered under the warranty. Maybe I need that explained better. image.thumb.jpg.76237ba4e1552325db4449030444de4b.jpg

 

15 hours ago, AirmetTango said:

Interesting...hopefully that's just a mistake. It appears possible that XP just cut-and-pasted from the non-waterproof XP Deus I manual to create the warranty section for the Deus II manual. Pretty big oversight not to remove that on a waterproof model...assuming it is an oversight. Here's the relevant page from the Deus I manual:

XPDeusManual.png

 

14 hours ago, Tometusns said:

Yes, hopefully it’s just an oversight. You wouldn’t think a water proof machine would have that written like that in the warranty. 

I plan on posting a comprehensive comparison of Nox and Deus shortly but wanted to address this warranty wording which has been discussed a couple of times previously here on DP.

The wording could have been better, but XP has their reasons for putting this in there to cover all situations and all components.  I have discussed this with XP reps and dealers.   First of all dealers state that XP has provided assurances they will fully stand behind the waterproof/deep submergence claim features the remote and coil provided if used properly - that includes use of the requisite red sealing plug for deep submergence.  So if there is a design or manufacturing flaw that keeps the remote or coil from sealing properly, XP will cover it.  Note that the warranty covers all the components, including the headphone puck - which is not waterproof but is weather resistant.  Submerging the headphone puck could result in uncovered damage.  Furthermore, the remote is designed to be disassembled for battery replacement, if it is not reassembled properly such that the seals are intact or if the deep submergence sealing plug in not installed properly (or not used) and water intrudes into the remote, then XP is likely not going to cover it.  Fortunately, so far, I have not seen reports of water intrusion from those I know who are regularly submerging their remotes, so the design appears to be sound.  But I am certain there will be water intrusion failures either due to design, factory flaws, or misuse and we'll see how XP reacts to those warranty claims to see if XP truly stands behind their industry leading 5-year warranty.

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On 5/27/2022 at 7:22 PM, Tometusns said:

Deus2 warranty.  Hmmm I hope I don’t get any water ingress…appears it’s not covered under the warranty. Maybe I need that explained better. image.thumb.jpg.76237ba4e1552325db4449030444de4b.jpg

It does not mean they will not warranty the machine if it leaks. They are however reserving the right to decide whether to do it or not. Let’s face it, not all leaks are the fault of the detector. At the end of the day, XP will kill their reputation if they deny reasonable warranty claims. Personally I would not worry about it, though I can see why other might be concerned.

Good new is Eric may not exactly love his D2, but probably has given it as rough an underwater workout as might could be expected, with no leakage issues. I’ve not heard of any D2 leakage at all, and that bodes well. We all know the score on Equinox when it comes to that - they have had a lot of leakage issues. All backed without question under warranty I should also note, but leaks all the same.

This subject was covered at length previously on this thread:

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/17805-if-you-are-considering-getting-a-deus-2/?do=findComment&comment=185882

 

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4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Good new is Eric May not exactly love his D2, but probably has given it as rough an underwater workout as might could be expected, with no leakage issues. I’ve not heard of any D2 leakage at all, and that bodes well. We all know the score on Equinox when it comes to that - they have had a lot of leakage issues.

Yes, it's so far so very good.. even though I do treat the Deus II a bit gentler than the Equinox (mainly because the control box keeps falling off).. But as far as leakage is concerned, the Deus II is a winner! Having said that, both my Equinoxes (600 and 800) are also handling the grind (on the beach, in the bush and underwater).. My only leak so far has been my Equinox 600 with a bit of water getting into the battery compartment after I changed the battery.. Although it didn't flood, enough water got in for me not to trust it again as a scuba detector.. I'm weird like that but it's a rule I've stuck to after some past disasters with scuba instruments: If it leaks once, it'll keep leaking! 

I hope I haven't just jinxed the Deus II.. As with everything new, it's early days yet.. but so far it's been much deeper than I'd ever dare take the Equinox (it has also already spend much longer underwater).. My only gripe here is having to activate 'Dive Mode' manually underwater (at about 8 meters), I keep forgetting and have to go back up to set it.. In an utopian world it would activate automatically at a predetermined depth/pressure (like scuba instruments do).. 

But as far as the thing leaking during a dive, a major weight has been lifted from my shoulders.. It really has, the constant background noise of fretting about the detector leaking has completely gone.. Put simply: I trust it! Leaking is the last thing I worry about these days (which gives me more time to ponder what's gonna come at me next from out of the gloom)..          

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1 hour ago, Erik Oostra said:

Leaking is the last thing I worry about these days (which gives me more time to ponder what's gonna come at me next from out of the gloom)..          

I was diving on a site they called “The Wall” which is basically where the Caribbean ends and the Atlantic begins. I was down around 120’ where I found several 6’ barracuda in canyons pointing out towards a steep 4,000 foot drop. It was about then that I realized anything could rise from the depths and lunch me in an instant. I completed the dive without incident, but have never forgotten that feeling of being the prey vs the predator.

 

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I have 2 buddies swinging the Deus II 9" coil. They are both doing very well with it. From what I have seen though so far in the field it's not like the Deus II is doing anything the Equinox 800 can't. Maybe it can. I just have not seen it yet.

Today when one of them tried to pair his headphones he had all kinds of issues. They are supposed to pair automatically right. Well he was thoroughly annoyed for about 30 minutes and finally they started working. Seriously he was cussing and about to stomp them. Both guys hate the back phones in general and one has ordered regular aftermarket phones you can attach the puck to.

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5 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

Yes, it's so far so very good.. even though I do treat the Deus II a bit gentler than the Equinox (mainly because the control box keeps falling off)..

Hey Erik, get one of these locking devices for your D2 and the remote will only come off when you want it to. I got one and it definitely works.

Deus II Remote Lock

 

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44 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Hey Erik, get one of these locking devices for your D2 and the remote will only come off when you want it to.

Thanks Ghostlight, that's a new one for me.. Looks like that'll work, although it says a lot that someone has to come up with a device like this to help XP solve a basic design problem.. 🤨 

The video for this locking device is an all time classic..

 

 

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Is the Deus 2 that much better than the Equinox for $600 more? The Deus 2 is a great machine and for beach hunting I really like it a lot. From what I'm experiencing it's inches deeper than the Equinox and very stable. If I only beach hunted I would probably sell my Equinox.

Gold hunting it seems weak especially on small and porous gold. Being stuck with an 11" coil right now doesn't help. I much prefer the Equinox for golf hunting for multiple reasons.

Relic hunting I still prefer the Equinox. But the Deus 2 is just as or even more capable of the job. My preference for the Equinox is mainly the audio. Most of the sites I hunt have been worked for decades so Most everything left is 6 plus inches deep. The Equinox audio IMO is very strong and easy to hear on the deeper targets. They really stand out. Yes the Deus 2 can hear the same targets but audio IMO is just weaker even when the machine is tweeked. The other thing I've noticed is with the Deus 2 is that targets at a certain depth just drops out and the audio goes to iron grunt. The Equinox starts up averaging those deep targets. But with as many hours as I have on it I'm pretty good at telling good targets from iron.

Both great detectors. If you have both your basis are definitely covered for everything from diving to park hunting.

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This is just some preliminary observations so it could all change with a Deus 2 and/or Equinox online software update.

Here is my take on some striking differences after 4 hours of head to head wild target hunting.

I was using the Equinox in Park 1 Multi, 5 tones with otherwise basic settings, recovery speed 5, iron bias 4, sensitivity 22  and with -4 to 40 accepted...so rejecting -9 to -5.

I was using Deus 2 in General with adjusted for my hearing..5 tones and with default settings.

On paper, Deus 2 General with a max. frequency of 40 kHz should be hotter on smaller targets than Equinox Park 1 which most would agree is weighted towards 15 to 20 kHz. The actual head to head hunting shows just the opposite. Park 1 lights up the ground and gets solid hits on very small targets better than Deus 2 General. That could be a good thing and it could also be why many new Equinox users coming from some other detectors go nuts with all of the target responses even in Park 1.

Someone mentioned how much better Deus 2 handles EMI.....could what I wrote above be related to that.

Whether one is deeper than the other on coin sized targets, I don't know. On smaller than coin sized targets.....there seems to be a steep drop off point size wise with Deus 2 in the .25 to .5 gram size/weight just from early results.  Whether that effects masking and poorly oriented targets.......not from my experience so far. Deus 2 is really hitting hard on coins on edge so far. In thick modern trash that is a good thing and Deus 2 has shown me it will really hit hard on coins and jewelry. It hits bottle caps and pull tabs really hard too, but it will ignore most of the little stuff that the Equinox even in Park 1 will make all kinds of noise on.

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