Steve Herschbach

Merry Christmas to one and all!

You “nailed” it Carl. The test itself just is what it is. But one of the most important factors in real world detecting is coil control and technique, which largely separates the real pros from everyone else, not the particular machine in use. Coil technique varies so wildly on Monte tests as actually performed, so as to render them almost useless for comparative purposes between different operators. I always imagined the perfect detector test is one that takes a person out of the loop. A adjustable mechanical sweep arm arrangement for the mechanics. And a digital meter reading to replace the audio, so that exact numeric audio output levels are compared, rather than poorly recorded audio on videos. These tests measure the people involved every bit as much as the detectors. Thats not to say they are a waste of time, and that one can’t glean good information from them. It just helps a lot if the eyeballs watching the videos have some knowledge of how easily the results can be manipulated just by varying the speed of the swing, or the often impossible to determine coil height as seen from the camera. Personally I like to include hot rocks in my own tests, plus various ferrous items that read non-ferrous, as I usually am more concerned with false positives than anything else. I therefore make my own test setups as required for my purposes alone, and only share the results in a generalized sense via my “opinions.”

What the coil transmits is normally fixed, with transmit boost being a rare exception, where you can boost the voltage applied to the coil. Sensitivity or gain controls are therefore filters applied after the fact, that amplify or filter the signal from the coil in various ways. Most detectors have a single control that you actually don’t know what’s really going on, unless you experiment with it to see what happens. It’s a possible blend of functions in one control. The White’s V3i gives you direct access to several possibilities, the preamp gain (RX Gain), all metal sensitivity, and discrimination sensitivity. Reading the White’s V3i manuals can teach you a lot about detectors, especially the V3i Advanced User Guide. A basic circuit flow chart from page 4-1: The manual has excellent discussion of the sensitivity and threshold audio controls. My point here is the controls do not affect masking effects per se, as the coil properties are fixed. You are not increasing or reducing the field size or strength, but in general simply doing an audio amplification process. Reducing gain or sensitivity will suppress some signals to where they will not be heard, allowing only the strongest signals to break through. If you primary desired target signal is stronger than the undesirable signals, reducing sensitivity can suppress or totally eliminate the undesirable signals. If the primary target becomes fainter, as it often will, increasing volume can offset this. Long answer to say yes, reducing sensitivity and possibly increasing volume can save your mind and sanity, and produce cleaner results. But note that when striving to reach the deepest, faintest signals, this is not a good idea, for what I’d hope are obvious reasons. However, what they can’t do is actually modify what the coil is doing in something like the Monte test, as that part of the equation is fixed. What may work however is actually raising the coil. Being too close can create overload situations from the targets being too close to the the coil, and since the coil field is globular is shape, raising the coil can reduce extraneous edge i.e. masking effects, by working a smaller “tip” of the field.

I put up a huge list of links about making boosted battery packs for TDI. The benefit would be obvious - more depth. This other post best explains the possible downside…

I moved this to its own thread to compile all the past threads on the subject in one location. Pretty much everything you’d ever want to know, if you wade through the pages of posts below. In the future this will provide a master reference in the subject. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/9823-tdi-battery-voltage/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/12385-tdi-sl-factory-battery-pack-vdc-differences/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7677-simple-148v-battery-pack-for-tdi-beach-hunter/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/10658-whites-tdi-sl-4x18650-battery-tray-made-simple/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/14075-tdi-pro-18v-battery-pack-5-x-18650-with-dedicated-charger/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/11051-white’s-tdi-beach-hunter-update-after-15-months/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/15228-tdi-beachhunter-going-back-to-12v-and-why/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/10670-why-is-everyone-wanting-to-jackup-the-voltage-on-some-white’s/ Other TDI Electronic Modifications

More information about where you heard about them, and what they do, might help.

XP Deus 2 User Manual

It’s Deus, not Dues. I fixed the title, but will leave editing your post up to you. Upper right, three little dots, choose “edit” Yes, many people like owning both a Deus and an Equinox. Not uncommon at all. Some however would like the best of both in one detector. It’s all about having different options to suit different people, not force everyone to do the same thing.

The ATX design is decades newer than either the Sea Hunter, which is old school straight PI, or the TDI, which is a direct port of the Eric Foster ground balancing PI, the Goldscan. The Goldscan/TDI is a single channel ground balancing PI, and as such has a huge “hole” in the detection of items around the ground balance point. Some gold rings will experience a 50% or greater loss of depth in this “hole”, and it is a major reason you should run ground balance off in a beach scenario if at all possible with the TDI. The ATX is a modern dual channel design more akin to the Minelab SD series, which uses overlapping but offset dual channels to eliminate the ground balance hole. Details Here and More Details Here The ATX is also very good on smaller items like small gold nuggets, able to hit 1/10th gram gold nuggets with no problem. I’m a huge ATX fan but frustrated by the heavy military housing. If we ever get an ATX in a modern housing, I’ll be first in line to get one.

Yes, dealers have restrictions on territory and where they can sell. Out of country sales are normally prohibited, as each country or region has their own distribution channel. I was a multi line dealer in Alaska, and could sell almost nothing into Canada, for instance. You can find dealers who will violate these policies, but the buyer of the detector can run afoul of issues if warranty work is needed, as these are considered “grey market” merchandise. I also got a sling for a broken arm that worked well holding the ATX body next to the side instead of on back.

Please post it here… thanks.

I’d not argue with that. I expect a new version of the 6x10 from XP myself someday. I hope.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/5715-minelab-e-trac-ctx-3030-excalibur-versus-equinox/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/6935-equinox-or-ctx-3030/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/10145-thoughts-on-ctx-and-equinox-after-long-term-use/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/10804-equinox-800-and-ctx-3030/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/13980-ctx-vs-equinox-800/ For me it’s simple. If I was offered a CTX for same price as an Equinox, I’d grab it. You can debate performance all you want, but that’s half what the machine is worth used. You can’t go wrong, assuming it’s in good condition. Try it, and if you don’t like it, sell it and put extra money in your pocket.

You mean like the huge battery that the Equinox uses? It’s not like NM has not done this spare battery thing before. You can type caps all you want, but the main battery is built into the pod, and the spare battery clips under the arm, both providing additional running time, and charging the detector at the same time. You can do same with a Equinox and Apex. None of this is news.

There is no reason coils that are not multifrequency could not be programmed into the software. XP coils are the metal detector, the controller is just a controller.

Why spend time and money making coils almost nobody would buy? One that might actually lose depth instead of gaining it in bad ground? There is a reason you don’t see oversized coils offered for nearly all VLF detectors, as large coils are more the realm of PI than VLF. Sorry Eric, but it won’t happen from normal sources.

Jeff already answered your question. It does not Chuck, the Deus 2 is not compatible with existing HF coils.

Since the coils ARE the detector, I'm sure they could have included the coils in the Deus II programming. However, I'm not sure how the external battery used with the HF coil plays into the waterproof to 60 feet scenario, but that may be part of the issue. They may not want people putting any coils on the detector that are not as waterproof as it is rated for. No way of knowing, as XP is saying nothing, but it would be surprising if a version of this coil is not made available for the Deus II in the future. The mold exists, and that a large part of new coil cost. The coils are very popular, and it would be strange for XP to ignore the demand.

I've created a new temporary subforum to hold the recent wave of videos comparing the XP Deus II to the Minelab Equinox. The focus on the battle between the $949 detector versus $1599 detector kind of says it all. Once this all dies down I will move the threads back to the Detector Advice & Comparisons Forum, but for now it was overwhelming everything else, so I thought I'd give this a try for now. XP Deus II versus Minelab Equinox Tests & Videos

It’s a fabulous idea for sure. Note though that it says to go to their website for more information, and it’s nowhere to be found. Not a very good sign, so I’m not holding my breath. It’s a perfect example of vaporware.

I think you have a bad unit. Deborah may also. If it’s defective no amount of tuning will work.

The VAST majority of lead found with metal detectors is man made. If it’s soft and malleable, it’s almost certainly man made lead, not native lead. Galena is lead sulphide, and unlike native lead will shatter if struck with a hammer. Galena is highly variable in conductivity, with the classic clean cubic galena that I have tested basically undetectable, but those with silver and other minerals in the mix all over the map. I found some nice high silver galena in Arizona, with a very dark, dusky look a give away to high silver content, that sounded off quite nicely. See page 39 of this publication for some discussion: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1071/PVv2017n188p37

I'm very much interested in the app, but as said above, it's been long on promises, and 100% short on delivery so far. https://www.xpmetaldetectorsamericas.com/xp-orx: GO TERRAIN Smart Phone Application This application for Apple IOS or Android smartphones is designed to optimize your ORX experience. Key features are: Geo-locate, a real time map and the ability to make an inventory of your finds. (Coming soon)

XP has been promising and fumbling this since at least 2018, when it was first mentioned as part of the ORX release: Go terrain mobile app compatible (coming 2019). Hopefully XP does not renege on it with Deus II like they have with ORX owners so far.