ColonelDan

Took the D2 out to the beach at Cape Canaveral this morning. It’s first real run since the freezing incident and it ran perfectly…to include multiple frequency scans. 👍🏻😉

One additional and positive point. By letting the battery run down instead of disconnecting it, I didn’t lose any of my custom programs.  
I did read that those who chose to disconnect their battery lost their custom programs. I can’t personally verify the loss of custom programs after disconnecting the battery but I can verify that I didn’t lose anything. 🙂

It worked!!!  My Deus 2 remote is coming back to life👏🏻

I let the battery run all the way down then hooked the charging cable up to it and she sprung to life after 20 hours of being frozen.   I’m just thankful that I didn’t have to disconnect the battery.

2 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

Did you try connecting the RC to a computer so as to update it? That may also interrupt the loop. It's just a WAG. Worst case you will return it to factory settings.

I don’t run Windows.  For updates, I take it to my hunting buddy’s house.  I’m still waiting for the RC’s battery to run down.

Thank you very much Chase!  
I’ll keep y’all informed as this drama unfolds.

Yes, XP must address/fix this in the next update!!!

I was attempting to diagnose a problem for another Deus 2 user in that his unit would not go into frequency scan mode. As I experimented with mine, I thought he might have taken his remote out of range of the coil. I took mine beyond the coil range and began a frequency scan and this is when my remote screen totally froze up. I couldn't power it down and it wouldn't respond to any button I pushed...and it was not locked in diving mode. I also noted that the headphones were also frozen. I couldn't power those down either. I read on the internet where another Deus 2 user had the same frozen issue during a frequency scan. He finally decided to disconnect and reconnect the battery which solved the problem.

Instead of going immediately to disconnecting the battery, I decided to try running the batteries totally down and see if that would allow the unit to reset.   After a few hours, the headphones and coil shut down.  The remote, with a much longer battery life, is still on and frozen since 8 PM 7 April.  I intend to let this go until it too runs totally out of power.  If that doesn't work, my next decision will have to be to disconnect the battery as the other man did.  I really don't want to do that since it requires removal of the back plate....a potential warranty issue?  I'll contact XP America to ask about that.

I notified XP HQs in France of this in hopes that a future update will address the repeated frequency scan problem.   I'll keep this forum updated as this "crisis" unfolds.

Advice: don't try the frequency scan when the remote is out of range of the coil and or headphones.

Given how rugged and waterproof the control box is, I agree with F350 Platinum,  I don’t use one.  I did however put a piece of non glare screen protector on mine….

1 hour ago, schoolofhardNox said:

Actually it sounds like it will help detectorists. It only goes down about 2", so the aluminum foil, pull tabs and other light junk will be removed. I'm assuming coins and jewelry will sink further than that? Thoughts?

I think you may be right…hope so anyway.  Having said that, I have found some pretty nice recent drops in that 2 inch area.  I’m sure they too will find some keepers as they clean out the trash.  
Given how small of an area the robot can handle and how slow it goes, I don’t think they’ll be able to afford and employ the numbers they would need to cover our large beaches.  Can you say “boondoggle” 😅

Brevard county extends from Canaveral National Sea Shore to Sebastian...which includes Cocoa Beach. On top of the ongoing re-nourishment projects, this is all we beach hunters need to further "help us out." Fortunately, they only have one of these robots...so far...and it can only clean a relatively small area. But more are coming I'm sure.

https://www.wesh.com/article/beach-cleanup-robot/39578241

I have to say that I have not experienced this flex problem with my Deus II.  Now I haven't taken my D2 in the surf yet and I never extend the lower shaft beyond 4 so more of it is into the upper shaft and my cam lock is solid and tight.  I guess I lucked out.

Since the massive re-nourishment projects, I've been down there only a few times and the beaches that I visited are "sanded in" by dozens of dump trucks at each beach.  I'll wait until I see some improvement made by nature before driving that hundred mile round trip again.

16 minutes ago, midalake said:

Does the Deus 2 offer 1 tone? 

If you set both tones of the 2 tone option at the same kHz you essentially have a 1 tone configuration.   

I used a similar configuration on my Equinox which proved somewhat popular so I thought I’d post my Deus version. Keep in mind that everything below is just my personal preference.

Rationale:

Over more than a few years, I tried numerous ways through a combination of Target Identification (TID) and tones to better identify what was under my coil. It didn’t take long to discover that trying to cut the tone and TID distinction too fine in an attempt to accurately identify all targets was unproductive. Thru tedious trial and error, the obvious became clear.

TID is not an exact science by any measure. TID can be affected by numerous variables such as depth, soil composition, the metallurgical make up and orientation of the targets in the soil. Expecting a consistently exact value for each possible target was unrealistic. I finally concluded that what I wanted was only an indication of what might be under my coil rather than expecting or trying for a precise ID. Can TID and tones do that for me? Yes

After realizing what I wanted or needed from of a TID/tone combination, I settled on a 3 tone option. Below is a summary of my rationale for adopting that 3 tone solution.

~ My attempt at using full or 50 tones proved impossible for me...information overload! I then tried 5 tones and although more understandable, I felt that 5 tones was unnecessary and might even be overkill...for me. Why?

~ ALL targets fall within 3 conductive categories/zones--Low, Medium or High. So it made more sense for me to focus on those 3 zones and align the tones accordingly. The tones provided information on what zone I was dealing with while the TID gave me some rough indication as to where the target fell within the range of that zone.

~ I also wanted a system that wasn't apt to cause me to ignore good targets because they were similar in make up to worthless targets. Example; gold and aluminum are both mid level conductors and generate similar TID within that range. Yes, I'll dig aluminum so as not to pass up potential gold and dig other high conductive targets such as copper pennies so as not to pass up silver. Then as I was just learning the Deus II, Calabash Digger cautioned me that a too high discrimination setting could cause a good target to be masked by junk...and ol’ Calabash was right! I didn’t want to risk that either.

~ The question: How to get around junk that ranged from 0 to 20 or 25 on the Deus scale without risk of masking the good ones because of a high discrimination setting. I simply converted the 4 tone option to 3 tones using a combination of selected tones and tone breaks.

Solution: 

I tested quite a number common targets of varying size and metallurgical composition and came up with some common TID ranges that I see on our beaches for each of the conductivity zones. This 3 tone configuration suited me just fine for the beach hunting I do.

For the lowest conductive junk targets ranging from 0 to 7, I set tone level 1 at 100 kHz using a discrimination level of 7. (Disc setting of 7 seemed to prevent the masking of a good target even with reactivity set at 1 or less.)

For other low conductive targets ranging from 8 to 20, I set tone level 2 at 100 kHz also.

(Using 100kHz for both tone levels 1 and 2, I get the iron grunt for those junk targets which range from 0-20)

Mid level conductors ranged from 21 to 85 so I set tone level 3 at 450 kHz..a nice mid tone.

High conductors ranged from 86 to 99 so I set tone level 4 at 993 kHz

I prefer the volume level of each zone to be at maximum--including ferrous items...personal preference.

~ In my work with a local museum however, I could use the 1 or 2 tone option. When digging museum quality artifacts, iron could be a valued artifact so I dig everything. I also dig it all when detecting along Florida's Treasure Coast as remnants of the ships fall within the iron or low conductive range and are periodically found along our beaches.

Just one solution that works for me…your solution could be even better!  😉

4 hours ago, midalake said:

Actually in theory, tracking GB will work better if the mineralization changes rather than stays the same.  

As where I hunt and have 50' X 50' patches of black sand that change the ground Balance often. That is the reason to "track it"  

When I say “uniform”, it does change very slowly and only a little at a time….uniformly throughout the area.  There are no major or erratic deviations in the level of mineralization so tracking works very well…and I like it. 😉

I’ve used tracking twice along Cocoa Beach  Florida and it works fine.  The mineralization there is very uniform so tracking is a good option. 

This is what I learned from Chase Goldman:

Gotcha, Dan.  FWIW - those first two programs are in custom slots - they are completely modifiable and can even be deleted or replaced by the user unlike the stock programs. They are simply variants of their parent stock programs.  I believe they were created during the field test phase and it is unclear whether they will survive beyond the "Beta" update phase (firmware versions prior to ver 1.0; e.g., 0.6, 0.7 etc.).

Beach P is a customized version of Beach (Program 12) but with Pitch tones (vice 3 Tones), Silencer at 2 (vice 0), Salt Sens at 7 (vice 9), and Reactivity at 1.5 (vice 0).

Fast 40 is a customized version of Mono (Program 7) with Disc at 6.6 (vice 6.1), 2 Tones (vice 3), Frequency at 40.4 khz (vice 16.5 khz), and Reactivity at 3 (vice 2).

So you can modify or delete them as you wish.

I am a  full time beach hunter and I had the D1 a few years ago.  It wasn’t nearly up to the challenge of a salt water environment so I sold it.  I now have the D2 and it is far and away much better.  In fact, It’s a great beach machine.  So in my case, the answer to your question is a definite yes…the D2 is a most welcomed replacement for the D1 on the beach.

Just the view from my beachy foxhole.

Great explanation Chase!  I would have expected such detailed information to be included in the manual but so be it.  In any case, it wasn’t clear to me what these programs were.

Thanks again 

Chase, yes, just like that but with all programs including Beach P and Fast 40.

I should have a been mite clearer on that point.  Thanks for posting that.

I made a chart on my own that does show all the information to include the Max frequency for each program...except the Beach P and Fast 40 on which I didn't have any information.

5 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Excellent review, Col! I will say in my 3rd year with the EQ, I never needed any of these add-ons that many people think they need, except the Steve's CF shaft, that just looks cool and does make it lighter (2.8 lbs with the 11" coil). However, I'm also not a beach hunter so I haven't been in the heavy surf with my detector. I will agree that the D2 looks like the beach and water detector champ and and am looking forward to more reviews on inland use in my rusty soils so I can make a final buy/no buy decision. I appreciate all your in depth information.

CPT,  thank you for the kind words.  The add ons I installed weren’t really a function of need other than Steve’s great shaft.  It was a matter of convenience and what I thought was a design improvement on the product.  I never regretted any of the add ons but you’re right, they weren’t “needed”

Thanks again.

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Overall I like your approach (and review) -- no drama!

I see you are in Florida (looked up Cocoa Beach -- halfway up penninsula on the Atlantic coast, to save others like me who want a drone's eye view 😁).  Thus your depth and 'sensitivity at depth' reflect that.

One thing which might be a typo:

Equinox 5 lbs?  How about ~3 lb w/11" coil.  Even with the 12"x15" coil (which at present has no comparison with the Deus 2) it's more like 3 1/3 lb.  (That coil is 170 g heavier than the 11" when both are outfitted with scuff covers.)  But Deus 2 is lighter?  No issue on the qualitative result.

For water detectorists it looked from the start (before the first detectors was in a reviewers hands) that the Deus 2 was going to be the clear choice.  The Minelab Excaibur was possibly the bigger bullseye than the Equinox.  You (and others) are confirming the beach and water features and performance that XP advertised.  For land detectorists who don't have the pristine low ferromagnetic mineralized ground, the jury is still out, IMO.  I look forward to objective reviews such as yours by more landlubbers.

GB,  With the aftermarket equipment i.e.shaft with compensating weight, metal arm cuff and removable control box mount coupled with the 11" coil, mine weighs in at 4.4 lbs. So ..."around 5 lbs" was a pretty accurate guess on my part.  😉

Thanks for the note

I got an email from Philippe of XP yesterday.  He told me that the XP WSA II XL full cover headphones will be available in the May-June timeframe.  I will have a set of those as soon as I can get my hands on them.

I have to agree with NCToad.  Since I bought my first detector in 1970, I can honestly say that I have never run across such a target….or a roll of any type of coin.

I’m sure there is a physical reason for the results as shown in the video but as we all know, detecting is a game of odds and in my mind, the odds of having to detect a roll of quarters are very very small so I’m not concerned about any detector’s inability to efficiently “see” it.

I’m not trying to be a wise guy by saying this, just evaluating the seriousness of this demonstrated shortcoming. As I always say however, that’s just the view from my foxhole.  😉

Don’t be intimidated by the menu.  Play with it and you’ll find that you’re learning your way around the options pretty quickly.
Read the manual and familiarize yourself with what those options do.  The more you do that, the quicker you’ll feel comfortable with it.