Rattlehead

The Manticore actually performed very well for me, even though ATHC was definitely on the sparky side when hunting in iron. I always switched to ATLC in those areas which seemed to quieten it down considerably. My biggest issue with the Manticore was that even after putting a lot of hours on it, I just didn't jive with the audio. It just didn't speak to me in the same way as the D2. It was like you said... I'd be out hunting with the Manticore thinking that I'd be even more confident if I were using the lighter, more ergonomic D2 that was sitting at home in my bedroom. So, one day my hunting buddy offered to buy the Manticore and I said sure, why not. I've always been a huge fan of Minelab detectors and I still am, but the D2 has been outstanding for the type of hunting I do, so its really hard to pull away from it.

Hello from Rome, GA!

In this order:

1) Coil Balancer. I printed this myself but you can buy them.

2) Stand. Printed this one as well, but these can be bought too.

3) DetectED Carbon Fiber lower shaft.

4) Detecting DooDads charging clip. His shipping times are VERY slow, but the product is worth the wait IMHO.

39 minutes ago, cookie58 said:

Thanks for answering Rattlehead. You cannot beat the SS program for silver. Thank you for giving us that one. I found 4 silvers last week. I wish we had one for gold rings that was that productive. Do you use program 7, I think that's the number, anyway it is the Relic Program for relics? I appreciate you man and always enjoyed your videos.

Thanks brother. I mostly use Fast and Deep HC. Those two cover most of the types of targets I look for. I do have a program based off of General and one on Park, but rarely use them.

A four silver week is always nice!

1 hour ago, cookie58 said:

Hey Rattlehead. I really like your SS program. I have 2 questions------what does a gold ring come up on the SS program and do you like V 7.1 on relics?

Hey cookie58. Glad you like it.

With the exception of the random gold ring that falls into the nickel notch, you’ll miss most gold rings using SS. It’s intended for targeting high conductors like silver coins, silver jewelry and big coppers. You can easily modify the notches to accept a wider range of targets. The TID range for gold rings is going to be pretty wide. They can come in all over the place, depending on size and kt. I usually accept from 40 on up when looking for gold jewelry, but it can read below that range too. It’s a trade off. Just depends on how much foil and aluminum junk you’re willing to dig.

I do like .71 for both coins and relics. 

5 hours ago, Sinclair said:

..and a carbon fiber lower rod. Imho that thing wobbles like hell with the 28 coil.

Yes, absolutely. I replaced mine with the one from Detect ED.  In my opinion, a CF lower rod should be standard equipment on any machine that costs more than $700.

5 hours ago, Sinclair said:

I really don't get, why they didn't go magnetic à la Equinox..

Me either. Some quick connect magnets on both the coil and remote would've been so much better. I love the D2, but IMHO XP missed the boat on a few things like the cumbersome charging set-up and the lack of a functional stand.

.71. I like the way TID is normalized between programs better. I’m very familiar with it, and it’s been working well for me. 

You guys are probably right. With my luck, I'd likely screw something up if I tried to do this. Wouldn't be the first time that one of my shade-tree modifications has completely destroyed a product. 😅 Oh well. I'll just continue using what I have and hope that XP offers a better solution with the next release (D3?). Thanks for the input!

19 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I believe @Carolina came up with the pin assignments while making custom headphone connectors and probably knows where to find the stock connector plugs as well. I think it would be fairly easy to 3D print a magnetic dongle to work with that magnetic USB cord. If it slows down here enough, I may explore that more. 

Awesome! Thanks guys.

5 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I imagine this relates somewhat with reluctance to be sued by "the other guys". 

Twisting the DIN connector to find the right spot leads fairly fast to failure of the cable at the plug, and the coil clip could be easily fixed if redesigned with the jack pointing in the other direction. 😀

I also dislike the length of the 3 leads. I don't want to compress the detector every time I put it to charge. Guess I'm just spoiled by "grab and go". If you have a custom shaft that is round, it's not as easy to do that.

However, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. I'm still thrilled with the D2 and WS6. You can use the old cord on the WS6 Master, which is easier to connect and has longer leads.

 

My thoughts exactly. I agree, the 3 lead cable needs to be longer as well. I love the Deus 2. It's my favorite machine out of the current crop of detectors. I just tend to nit-pick about the little annoyances with anything I get. If I can figure out a way to solve a few of them, great. Otherwise I'll just deal with them.

1 hour ago, midalake said:

Gosh, and here I direct all my cuss words at charging the coil. 

Oh, I'd like to see a better option for the coil too. I'm not a fan of that OEM clip at all. I replaced mine with the one from Detecting Doo-Dads, which was a big improvement.. BUT, a quick connect magnetic option for the coil would be even better.

The whole OEM charging method is pretty cumbersome IMHO.

Thanks guys. It seems like the only thing that would have to be custom manufactured is the little cap with the pins that screws onto the remote. The part that plugs into the USB port is already being made for other devices. I may contact a couple of these manufacturers to see what would be involved in getting a sample and trial run made.

The one thing that really irritates me about my Deus 2 is how fiddly it is to connect the charging cable to the remote. I know I don't necessarily have to tighten it down to get a connection, but just having to fiddle with lining up the pins is annoying to me. Surely there's a better way. I'm assuming only a couple of those pins are for charging. So, my question for anyone with knowledge of electronics is, would something like this be possible? .. and if so, do you think this is something other users would be interested in? 

The cap would remain on the remote at all times so that when a charge is needed, it would be as simple as connecting the magnets.

I don't know much about this sort of thing, so this may be just another one of my goofy ideas that's either too much trouble or not even possible. It just came to mind after I saw something similar for USB-C connections like this one:

 Thoughts?

Welcome from Rome Ga!

Welcome from NW GA. 🙂

Looks like very fun hunt!

That’s an impressive haul Jeff! I agree, D2 is an outstanding coin shooter. Congrats on the finds!

I know this is an old thread, but since it's been bumped recently, I'm going to throw my .02 in for whatever comes next. 😁

"What Features And Performance Improvements Would You Like To See In The Next High End Minelab Coin Detector?"

1) As lightweight or even lighter than the current Deus 2. Use carbon fiber wherever possible. Even on the coil casing, arm cuff and grip.

2) Lower shaft should be mounted in the CENTER of the coil. Not offset.

3) Entire shaft should be very rigid. Again, using carbon fiber. This is a high end machine, so why not?

4) Shaft should be keyed like the current Deus 2 and Legend, so that it doesn't rotate. 

5) Shaft should be clearly marked with adjustment lines so that we can quickly extend it to our desired length.

6) Coil cable should be concealed inside the shaft, similar to the CTX, or make it completely wireless like the Deus.

7) A comfortable ergonomic grip, yet still easy to clean. 

8 ) A functional stand. This really shouldn't have to be mentioned, but.... (ahem, XP).

9) The display should be in color and easy to read without glare.

10) The pinpoint button should be trigger style. Activated with the index finger. Similar to the CTX and the older White's units like the V3i, XLT and DFX.

11) All other buttons should be within thumbs reach. No more buttons mounted on the SIDE of the detector.

12) The menu should be well thought out and easy to navigate.

13) Give it descriptive audio like the Deus 2, good visual aids like the Manticore. Audio should be highly configurable to the user's preference.

14) Depth, separation and EMI handling should be as good or better than the current crop of high end detectors.

15) Lots of coil options upon release.

16) Charging connections should be as quick and easy as possible. Magnetic works well enough.

17) Bonus points for a wireless pinpointer running same disc as the detector. Similar to the old Sunray probes, but smaller and wireless.

I read up on the specs & features. If it appears to offer at least a few new things that sound promising, I usually just can't resist the urge to buy it and try it. I'm a sucker for shiny new gear. Anyway, once I get it, I put a whole bunch of hours on it to see if I like it as much or more than the detector I was previously using. If it doesn't offer something that I can't get from my other detectors, I just sell it and cut my loses. I then put that money back in savings and wait for the next latest greatest thing to be released. Yeah, I'm out a few hundred bucks, but at least I've scratched the itch. 

Nice finds! That signet ring is awesome! 

Looks like running General on 1.1 is working well for you! Nice bunch of finds!

18 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

There's now a learning curve on dialing in Audio Filter and Silencer to attempt to optimize better sounding deep non-ferrous while eliminating iron falsing. (highly soil dependent).  But that time investment has to matter to each individual.  If someone is basically happy with 0.71 (and frankly I was myself), then no need to learn the "new" machine.  Totally get that.  Going to spend my summer refining 1.1 on the (dry) beach and parks so I'm good to go when my true passion, relic detecting, picks up again in the fall.  I like and prefer the spread out TIDs and will also commit that to muscle memory this summer, but basically, when relic hunting, I'm digging everything over 40 (and investigating big iron) regardless of TID.

14 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I get that, and there's a lot to be said for being comfortable with your detector. But for me, the High Sqr audio and Max Frequency settings are a game changer so I'm willing to take a step back and learn all the new ins and outs just to have those two features. IMHO V1.0 had a few too agressive changes to try and satisfy everybody, which can't be done anyway. V1.1 seems to have dialed that back a bit and now, at least with my first four hunts with 1.1, it seems like a much more enhanced version of V0.71.

One thing I'm learning is that this (and V1.0) made the D2 a much hotter running machine, and specially the Audio Response and Silencer and added features like Audio Filter and FT Offset to give even more control and I haven't even started to explore those changes yet. I can say it has helped to go with the stock Audio Response setting of 4 (and even 3 in some cases) and I start hunting with Silencer of 0 and raise it becomes necessary to tame the iron, which is usually not above 2 in my hot iron dirt. Silencer settings 0-2 are more gradual filtering like in V0.71 and 3-7 are more beefed up settings ala V1.0.

Dialing back just Audio Response and Silencer have made my D2 much more responsive in my mineralized soil and iron filled dump sites and, IMHO, separate and unmask better. Running the machine too hot in my conditions just causes too much blow back, so at this point in my new learning curve, less is more.

That makes perfect sense for anyone who does a lot of relic or jewelry hunting. 90% of my time is spent coin shooting with a lot of notch. I can see where the spread ID and additional features could be more beneficial to those who relic hunt. Especially the ability to use offset-FT to separate the pitch of low conductors from iron.

Speaking of relic hunting... I did score a really neat relic over the weekend. A brass boot spur! I had found plenty of pieces in the past, but never a whole one.

13 minutes ago, Cheddar said:

what specifically? i did notice they brought the scale down a little on higher conductors which is a good thing. before the update, quarters and halves were about the same. now halves are 2 or 3 numbers higher.

Depends on the program, but for example, I noticed that in Fast, quarters were reading around 92-94 (usually 94-96), dimes and pennies both reading lower as well. In other programs, nickels are reading a couple of notches lower than before. Same goes for IHPs, minieballs, etc. Doesn't really matter to me if halves read the same as quarters since I'd be digging anything reading that high anyway.

This probably isn't that big a deal to most and maybe I'm just lazy, but I've spent a lot of time getting used to where everything reads, and don't like the idea of having to re-adjust to changes. .71 has been working just fine for me, so the way I see it, if it's not broke, why fix it?

The additional features in 1.0/1.1 are fine, but I'd likely never use them anyway. Audio Filter for example, does make deeper non-ferrous targets sound better. However, from what I saw, it also makes iron sound better.

I went back to .71 and will likely stay there. I'm just not a fan of the new TID scale. Spent a year and a half getting familiar with how the D2 TID was normalized between programs and learning where/how everything reads, so having to start all over again just wasn't appealing to me.