Small Gold Nugget Testing Deus 1/deus2/equinox/legend

[Jeff McClendon]

I have been hunting with Deus 2 exclusively for about 2 weeks and I must say, I really like it. Of course, I really like Deus 1 except for how it detects (poorly) in high mineralization on deeper than 3" coin sized targets. Deus 2 fixed that for sure.

So, I gathered up a .05 gram flattish nugget and used half of an XP audio module/backphones container which is 1.25" high for a minimum height air test. Did the same with a .15 gram nugget with the other half (1.75") of the XP audio puck container and used a whole XP audio puck container (2.5") with a .25 gram nugget. I also did a surface and 1" deep buried test with the flat .15 gram nugget in a container of highly iron mineralized dirt from a hydraulic mine site in the Colorado mountains. I removed all of the bigger pieces of magnetite which filled a sandwich bag and the dirt still maxes out the mineralization bars on Deus 1 and Deus 2. Even my GPX 6000 hates this dirt.

There is some wind noise and some drag racing noise from Bandimere Speedway. There is also a good deal of video of my butt....sorry. My IPhone also overheated twice so this video has a couple of splices.

The Deus 2 audio sounds a bit weak during the air testing of the .05, .15 and .25 gram flat nuggets. It actually isn't weak. It is PWM VCO audio and the targets are at the edge of detection. The volume is maxed out on Deus 2.

I also totally forgot to do a noise cancel on the Legend. It is a bit noisy and it is my fault.

The video is kind of long.....19 minutes with no talking. Hope you can see the detector displays most of the time.

Making videos is definitely not my thing but some people won't believe it until they see it. One's word used to be enough.....

 

[strick]

Thanks for taking the time to do that..one thing I noticed right off was how much better the Nox ground balances compared to the Deus 2. I'm glad you did this video because I was thinking that maybe my Deus 2 had something wrong with it because I'm used to the Minelab and how it ground balances. Clearly Minelab has superior technology there...the Legend seems to ground balance ok but still not as good as the Nox...I may be off base here but its what it appears like in the Vid. I would think for a gold detector ground balance is critical lol Thanks

strick

[Jeff McClendon]

44 minutes ago, strick said:

Thanks for taking the time to do that..one thing I noticed right off was how much better the Nox ground balances compared to the Deus 2. I'm glad you did this video because I was thinking that maybe my Deus 2 had something wrong with it because I'm used to the Minelab and how it ground balances. Clearly Minelab has superior technology there...the Legend seems to ground balance ok but still not as good as the Nox...I may be off base here but its what it appears like in the Vid. I would think for a gold detector ground balance is critical lol Thanks

strick

I agree strick. 

The ability of the Equinox to ground balance in that dirt is remarkable.

I could have done a lot of settings adjustments (and did off camera) but I decided to at least stay with default sensitivity settings if possible. I kept Deus 1's frequency close to the other detectors 31.3 kHz and Deus 1 and Deus 2 Goldfield sensitivity at default 95.............lowering it and raising the reactivity a bit helped some but depth loss was even bigger. So I just made sure to set up the two Goldfield programs as close to the same as possible by using PWM VCO on both, adjusting audio response the same and maxing the volume.

For me, the Legend did just fine.

I have had my GPX 6000 at the location where that dirt came from and I usually spend hours chasing ghost/hot ground signals. I get frustrated, pull out my Equinox 800 and enjoy the hunt.......go figure.

 

 

 

The work required to make a little video like this with just an iPhone and Youtube's video editor is ridiculous. Anyone who does this regularly should be commended.

Making it also helped me make some decisions. I am just going to have to put up with Deus 2's Goldfield performance and not take it to places with dirt that bad. I have found gold with Deus 1 at that location so I just figured Deus 2 would automatically at least be the equivalent of Deus 1.

[Jeff McClendon]

I just want to add two things. 

I was never a big fan of the X-35 Deus 1 coils for small gold prospecting and for ground balancing in bad mineralization. I found it to be a very noisy coil. The 9" FMF coil sure looks and acts a lot like the X-35.

I could have run Deus 1 using the HF elliptical at 54 kHz or higher and it would have performed much better.

I was just trying to keep the testing as level as possible.

Also, what I am showing here has already been proven by Andy (abenson) in his Deus 2 (11")/ Deus1/Equinox/GPX 5000 nugget testing videos which are posted on this site and on his YouTube channel "Relics and Rings"

[abenson]

Thanks for doing those tests Jeff. Looked like once you buried those nuggets they where virtually invisible to the Deus 2. Maybe with headphones you would dig it but didn't sound like anything I would stop for. Both the Equinox and the Legend were giving ID'S in the ground number ranges, so looks like a dig it all scenario with a VLF. I'm surprised the 6000 doesn't do that well in that dirt. I would think it would. How does your 5000 handle it?

[kac]

How does the Gold Racer compare against those? It is a nugget machine and figured it might edge them out a bit.

[Jeff McClendon]

My

4 hours ago, abenson said:

Thanks for doing those tests Jeff. Looked like once you buried those nuggets they where virtually invisible to the Deus 2. Maybe with headphones you would dig it but didn't sound like anything I would stop for. Both the Equinox and the Legend were giving ID'S in the ground number ranges, so looks like a dig it all scenario with a VLF. I'm surprised the 6000 doesn't do that well in that dirt. I would think it would. How does your 5000 handle it?

Deus 1 actually does fairly well on that dirt too when it is running at 54 kHz or higher. I have found some nice specimen gold mixed with quartz with it at that site.

Some of the dirt has been hydraulicked and rearranged and some is natural. Since this site is on an 11,000 foot mountain side some of the dirt horizon is tilted upward and I can literally swing my coil and pass over several cross-sections of dirt with different ground phases. Mostly with the GPX 6000 I just end up in Auto 1 (11). Also there is the pea sized to ping pong ball sized magnetite that is all over the ground and virtually every metamorphic rock is a hot/cold rock. All of that stuff is easy to recognize with the Equinox 6" coil using a wide open Gold 1 or Gold 2 and then having a modified 2 tone Field 2 in the User Profile.

With the GPX 6000, those subtle differences in the soil horizons sound like good targets. So do many of the smaller pieces of magnetite and hot rocks that are under the surface....... Maybe a smaller coil will help.

[phrunt]

Wow, that ground is insane.  That's the first time I've understood how bad soil can be.  The Nox was the clear winner to me but certainly a dig it all detector with very little depth in that ground. 

If you shut your eyes and listen the Legend sounds exactly like an Equinox that is being troubled by EMI.

I think the GPX 5000 would be the best for that soil.

My takeaway from that is you have a lot more patience than me Jeff, I'd not enjoy gold hunting in your ground at all!

Even with the GPX 6000 and people promoting it showing a little nugget they've just dug and showing the depth they got it at all proud how deep it was and they're saying they're amazed with the extreme depth it's getting them I have a chuckle as I'd get double their depth at least with my 6000 easily and not be all that excited by the result, sometimes the depth they're amazed by with their 6000  I could get the nugget with a few of my VLF's.

It just really demonstrates the differences in soil around the world and how much our results vary and why we are always bickering about this sort of thing as our experiences differ so much it's crazy.

Your video was a really good demonstration of this and it's lucky I don't live where you do or I'd dislike all of those VLF's for prospecting.

[Jeff McClendon]

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

If you shut your eyes and listen the Legend sounds exactly like an Equinox that is being troubled by EMI.

 

Yep, stupid me......I totally forgot to noise cancel the Legend both times when I turned it on.....DUH.

It will quieten down nicely if one follows instructions. There are huge overhead power lines about 1/4 mile to the west of that site where I did the testing.

My big bad.....sorry Nokta Makro!

I really enjoy using the GPX 5000 at that devil dirt site as far as adjustability and coil choices. I don't like swinging it at 11,000 feet however for very long even with a small coil and a well fitted Hip Stick.

[Jeff McClendon]

8 hours ago, abenson said:

Thanks for doing those tests Jeff. Looked like once you buried those nuggets they where virtually invisible to the Deus 2. Maybe with headphones you would dig it but didn't sound like anything I would stop for. Both the Equinox and the Legend were giving ID'S in the ground number ranges, so looks like a dig it all scenario with a VLF. I'm surprised the 6000 doesn't do that well in that dirt. I would think it would. How does your 5000 handle it?

That .15 gram nugget is easy to hit so, yeah, Deus 2 could not see it. If I lowered the threshold to 5 it would barely even detect it in the air test I had setup...........

I think it is the coils and XP wanting Deus 2 FMF tech to ignore tiny trash targets more than anything. I could be wrong. If I setup Deus 2 Mono in PWM Pitch audio and Deus 1 Goldfield with similar settings and frequency, the 9" FMF and the 9" X-35 have almost identical results. They are way better than Deus 2 FMF Goldfield. Both single frequency versions of Deus 2 Mono and Deus 1 Goldfield will easily hit the .15 gram nugget in that dirt sample at 1". Just like Deus 1 with the HF elliptical coil in the video, getting them to ground balance is another story. Being able to remotely ground balance in that dirt is what sets the Equinox way apart from the others. The Legend did pretty well too.