Rattlehead

13 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

We're in our monsoon season now so I moved all the furniture around in the family room and made an indoor test garden. That is not winning me any points with the wife! 🙄

You'd think these women could learn to deal with a few loud beeps mixed in with their TV show audio for the sake of important scientific metal detector testing purposes.  😅

12 minutes ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

I also didn't notice a big change with Square audio in Full Tones, but try the High Square in Full tones. I really like High Sqr in Pitch and Full tones. It makes them sound very snappy and similar except Full Tones allows you to hear conductivity & size. I have'nt noticed a big difference in depth between Pitch and Full Tones yet but I haven't made it out to a relic site yet. I've got a lot more experimenting to do, but I think High Sqr is going to be my new goto audio.

I don't use the Audio Filter. It rounds off the spikes too much for my taste. I think it was made to take some of the bitey edge off of PWM, but I like the snappy sounds of Pitch & Full tones with High Sqr, and also PWM, so I don't need it rounded off.

I'm using the default 5 setting on the Offset in Full Tones and it seems to be just right, so I haven't experimented  with that yet.

That's my limited view so far. 😉

I will put some more hours on it this weekend and give Full Tones another look with High Square. I've been using Pitch for so long that anything else just sounds foreign to me. Could take some time for me to warm up to it again. Back when I had a Deus 1, I used Full Tones almost exclusively. Go figure. 

I got out for about an hour to try the update yesterday. I had it set up in General capped at 14kHz, Full Tones, default disc with no notch. Volume turned down on unwanted target ranges. Regular Square audio with the new Audio Filter set at 2.

First impressions: I still don't like Full Tones. To me, running FT in any program other than Sensitive FT or Fast just sounds muddy to my ears. Especially on the lower weighted programs. For me and the type of hunting I do, Pitch is where it's at. It's just a lot cleaner IMHO.

Another thing I noticed is that no matter where I set the Audio Filter, I can't seem to get the same zippy sound on deep targets and snappy sound on shallow ones. Maybe this is all in my head but it seems like it's all or nothing now. With a setting of 0-2, the audio tone just seems more clipped than what it was on 0.71. On a higher setting, it sounds zippy even on shallow targets. Again, maybe this is all in my head. I've only spent an hour using it, so I need to put more time on it.

I like having the ability to cap the max frequency on programs. I can see where this will be useful in certain situations. The Offset FT feature should also be useful for those who like running full tones wide open. Should help make those low conductors jump out at you more, instead of blending with the iron. 

Spent a few minutes using High Square audio. No opinion on that yet.

31 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

 

Also, the manual input of Custom Programs works but is tedious without a full keyboard for alphanumeric character inputs.

On the long-term wishlist:  Either provide a means to enter custom programs via phone or computer interface.  

That would be a very welcomed addition. Maybe on the D3. Add a computer interface to edit and back up programs, replace the current charging method with something better (magnetic?), move the coil mounting point to the center, and put on a functional stand. I’d be thrilled.

36 minutes ago, Chase Goldman said:

CPT and Rattlehead,

I always liked Silver Slayer based of Deep HC vice Fast so that's basically what is going on by doing that, I think, because they are both 14 khz and frequency addition processes (now with the ability to adjust Max FMF).  I am looking at a hierarchy of base program process settings to see what programs will behave identically if set up identically.  You can then use a combination of a selected base program with the frequency or soil conductivity process you prefer target specific situations such as using a lower frequency with General for Silver Slaying in wet soil (Conductive Soil Subtraction).  See this post which expands further on that train of thought.

 

Nice job on breaking down the list of differences. This Frequency Max addition definitely opens the door for further tailoring each program for our specific needs. 

With v.71 I had identical coin programs based off of Fast and Deep HC set up side by side. I added another based off of General last night. Looking forward to trying out the new features this weekend. I think the wife has had her fill of me driving her nuts by scanning stuff in our bedroom for the past couple of nights.  

5 minutes ago, Dirtshark said:

I have been thinking about getting a D2 for a long time, this new update sounds great. 

9" coil or 11" coil?

Kinda thinking 9" 

For deeper hunts I can use the Legend with stock coil. 

I think you'll be surprised at just how deep that 9" coil will go. 😉

Nice finds! I have mine updated, but haven't had the time to try it out yet, other than just testing some coins in the house. Seeing how well you guys are doing with it has me excited!

Have any of you guys noticed that in some programs nickels seem to read a couple of digits lower than before, and in other programs quarters seem to read a digit or two lower? Seems like they changed something with the way it normalizes TID. Might be worth noting in programs that use a lot of notch. In a couple of mine, I went ahead and dropped the nickel bin from 59-65 to 57-64.

Nice! Hard to beat yellow on the first hunt!

@Jeff McClendon , Have you had a chance to test it on any tiny nuggets? Any improvements?

I'll have to wait until later to update. I'm at work and only had my WS6 puck in my truck. Tried to update it but can't get it to power on for whatever reason. May just be a dead battery. I'll put it on charge tonight and see what happens. 

I’m of a slightly different mindset. I love this hobby and spend waaay too much of my free time detecting (according to my wife), so if a new detector comes out that possibly offers some features I want, or even a very slight edge in performance, I’ll buy it and at least give it a try. If I end up not liking it as much as I’d hoped, I just sell it and cut my loses. I don’t mind paying the higher price as long as it’s within my budget. You only live once.

IMHO, it’s not much different than getting a new phone, computer or car. The ones we already have likely work just fine, but these are things we use all the time, so if you really want a new one and you can afford it, why not?

As for the Deus 2, that was a no-brainer for me. The Deus was already the lightest, most ergonomic (IMHO) detector on the market. Make it SMF with a good ID? Yep, I’m in!

On 5/7/2023 at 6:46 AM, ColonelDan said:

Excellent report in every regard. 

Thanks

23 minutes ago, Cal_Cobra said:

Thanks for your excellent review and videos. 

I'm learning my Manticore and so far no "ah ha" moments, but I have a lot to learn.  I do like the ATLC better than the ATHC so far. 

Thanks guys. I still have a lot to learn as well. Great detector though!

Another great video by Loren. He always does an excellent job of explaining things so that most people can understand. Very well done.

I try to be careful about calling BS on people's finds unless I know for absolute certain its faked. Reason being, I found some pretty unbelievable coins myself back in 2012, and if someone else had posted them I'd probably question it too.

I've also dug some silver coins that came out of the ground looking like they were minted yesterday. Just depends on the soil I guess.

I just take measurements and then draw with my own CAD program. If something doesn't work perfectly, I make some adjustments and then give it another shot. I've only been 3D printing for a few months now. Ferrous Bueller (Chris) got me into it. Its fun to tinker with, and not very difficult to learn.

As someone with a pile of health issues of my own, I’d never judge anyone for doing whatever they can to find some relief. Getting old is hell!

Congrats on finding a few more at a hard hit site!

Hi John. I sent you an email. I'll upload the file to my server and then reply back to you with the link. That way you can just share the PDF wherever you wish. I'd put your info about the old coin inside the PDF itself, along with your contact info so that people will see it no matter where you share the link.

Dewayne

8 hours ago, John Oliver said:

I wish there was a way to drop this 11.6 MB PDF file somewhere that people have instant access to, but I shot you a message to give me your email and I will email you a PDF copy.

 

Nice job John. I can host the file for you if you’d like. If so, shoot me a PM and I’ll send you my email address.

I’ve owned both, and for me it would be the Deus 2 without a doubt. With the Deus 2, you basically get a Deus 1 built in (running mono), plus SMF, more depth, and a much more stable ID. If budget didn’t allow for a D2 with remote, I’d still go for a D2 lite over a D1.

They do the same thing on my motorcycle forum all the time. A new member asks a question: How do I fix this or that… Our veteran members reply with very well though out answers, then we never hear from the OP again. Been that way as far back as I can remember. It doesn’t really bother me much anymore, since we usually get at least two or three new members who stick around and contribute for every “hit n run” poster.

As for this forum, I like it a lot. Really enjoy the technical oriented atmosphere here. This one, and FMDF are the only two I participate on nowadays.

They're generally very durable. Been using mine for years with no issues. This might be too obvious a question, and if so I apologize, but did you ground balance it? Hold it to the ground as you turn it on so that it detunes to ignore mineralization. 

I've only had the pleasure of speaking with him on the forums over the years, but I can attest that he was a very knowledgeable person who was always willing to help his fellow detectorists. RIP Monte.

6 hours ago, phrunt said:

Yep, I've been running 18 and been happy with the results, keeping my sensitivity lower has improved my Target ID's too so I'm happy with that.  I was just so used to cranking my detectors up as high as they would go and stay stable previously so it felt weird to run a lower sensitivity, I can run on 26 and keep it stable in this particular spot I'm doing at the moment but by dropping back to 18 has improved my Target ID stability so I'm sticking with it, I've done plenty of experimenting now on deep targets, by having lower sensitivity I'm not missing anything that I can see.   I've been running as low as 14 and still hitting the deep stuff.

Yep. Same here. I've always been in the habit of cranking up the sensitivity until it becomes erratic, and then backing it off a notch or two. I'm starting to realize that less is more.

On 2/11/2023 at 2:33 PM, Rattlehead said:

Also, on one of the deeper signals (penny at 9”), I lowered the sensitivity down one digit at a time to see how low I could go and still get a good dig-able signal. Started at 27 and took it all the way down to 19. Surprisingly, it still sounded pretty good even at lower levels. Below 19 it started to fade a bit. That was using the Depth theme, so even the deeper targets tend to sound off pretty well. 

Here's a short video demonstrating what I mentioned above. 

35 minutes ago, stateguy said:

A single hunt. How much time do you devote checking a new spot. 
An old spot that hasn’t produced anything in a long time how much time 

My bad. I misunderstood the question. In that case, I usually spend at least a couple of hours at a new site even if it’s not producing. Just to make sure I’m not overlooking a property that has a few hot spots that are spread out. On older spots that dried up for the most part, sometimes I’ll still hunt all day just because it’s familiar and I’m too lazy to drive somewhere else.

Too much. I'm somewhat lazy about asking for new permissions so I tend to pound the crap out of older sites until there's literally not even a single repeating signal. Not very productive I know, but it helps me learn my detectors.