Sinclair

Good question - I think if you take a bright/silver reflective tape, It should work as good as a white one.

On 10/15/2023 at 9:22 AM, CPT_GhostLight said:

I've seen that some water hunters paint their coils a bright color or add bright colored tape to the to better see the coil in water.

Yep - I usually use neon-yellow or white tape. At night, reflective tape (like used for traffic signs or similar) together with a headlamp works even better.

5 hours ago, midalake said:

Love the yellow!! 

Me2 - very bright-isch!

1 hour ago, palzynski said:

Not bad for a clad euro ... 🙂

Yes .. more like ~350 clad euros 😅

Went to the beach thinking, the beach-chairs have been removed - turned out they haven‘t. Rather frustrated, I went for a short hunt on the hunted out beach.. and just as I was about to leave, I had a 85 signal right next to a carrousel on the playground next to the beach exit.. maybe 15cm from big metal. I thought.. „Oh, a clad euro - better than nothing“.. and out came this 18k puppie:

Wow - there you go!

Great writeup and congrats for the gold!

That looks nice - congratulations!

2 hours ago, palzynski said:

even the 11" is a little nose heavy for me

Same for me - I think it would feel much better with a straight shaft and center-mounted coil.

On 9/27/2023 at 4:17 PM, Jeff McClendon said:

I can say that the 13X11"at 668 grams (1.47 lbs) is much heavier than the 9" at 448 grams (0.99 lbs.) and it certainly feels heavier on the stock shaft.

Did you measure the weight with the lower shaft attached to the coil?

According to XP's website, the 9" has 345g, 11" 470g, 13" 570g

I've used the F-Pulse extensively with the Nox for the last 5 years. It *can* cause EMI - but you can completely mitigate it, if you do a noise chancel while the pinpointer is turned on.

I didn't have to ground balance my F-Pulse a single time - I use Eneloop rechargeables (IKEA version made in Japan). What I love about this pointer is, that it uses AA batteries.. and they last forever!

It's very fast and is most senitive on the tip, so it's easy to locate the target. It has a big power button.. you grab it and your thumb intuitively lays on the button.

It doesn't "like" foil / small aluminium bits.

My first impressions on the Mi6: It is slower somehow.. takes me longer to narrow down the target. Perhaps more sensitive on the side of the tip.

Compared to the F-Pulse, the power button is on the opposite side.. ok that's maybe a habit thing I guess, but drove me crazy the first few hours out 😂 The power button is smaller and not so easy to locate. As a surf hunter I'm a bit concerned, that the tether is attached to the screw cap (accidentally twist..) - but no long term experience here..

On the pro-side: You get spare parts for everything, so you can swap the housing, if you wore it through for example. It has 2 Tone-modes: Beep and continuous.

9" coil is on it's way - hopefully the 11" won't collect dust 😬

I only use it, if I didn't recover the target after 3 scoops 😅 - or if the target disappeared as described. On the minelab I sometimes use it to identify big targets - works good, if you swing very slow in pinpoint mode - didn't try that with the Deus, yet.

Can't say anything about the depth, but I *think* it will not stand out as a clean good target tone-wise. I did some tests with a gold and a silver ring next to each other and it sounded like crap 🙄
To be fair, it didn't sound good with the Minelab either.

I've dropped a feature request today and got an answer from the support in less than 1h (impressive!):
"Unfortunately, the WSA2 is a fully passive headphone so it doesn't send any information to the remote when operating. So it's simply not possible"

I've then asked about the WS6 and got an prompt answer:
"Same behavior: when it acts as slave, it doesn't send any information"

The pinpoint button works - but for me it's difficult to reach it.. I really have to bend my thumb down or let the grip loose. It would be much easier, if they placed the RC 1/2-1" higher or more recessed. Having to press a different button to exit the pinpoint mode is odd, too.

I think I'll bite the bullet and get the 9" on the long run. I should have bought the 9" kit straightaway..🙄

Good scoops are hard to find over here.. I'm always a bit jealous when I take a look at the US market.
I've choosen a small one for 10-20% water vs 80-90% dry sand hunting. As far as I remember it's 1.5mm + 2mm or more on the top + angled foot step / panel. The angled panel is really comfortable - haven't seen other scoopes designed like that. On the top of the shaft I use a D grip since the past 2 years. Easy on the fingers while dragging the scoop behind, as I usually do on the dry, to mark where I have already been.

I'll definitely have to get a CF shaft for the winter season 😁

58 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

First remedy was to buy a SteveG carbon fiber shaft for my scoop. 😀 If you're going to do a lot of water hunting I highly recommend this.

Yeah, I have to research what fit's my scoop. It has a slightly odd mounting diameter. I've used a pine stem before, which lasted surprisingly long - 4 years. I made this one out of ash with all the precautions to protect it from moisture.. it only lasted 1/2 year 😤

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Just wanted you to know that you are not alone with this. It's annoying but I don't want to waste a lot of time on one thing when I can be retrieving many. I doubt there will be a fix for it.

It's really strange. I occianly had that problem with the Nox - but maybe 1 out of 500-1000 targets. Im pretty sure I've moved the targets in those cases. I'm almost sure, I didn't move them yesterday. They've sometimes rang so loud, I thought they were laying close to the surface - finally most of them were at least 2-3-4 scoops down. With "the pinpoint didn't even get it", I've meant the D2's pinpoint function. I sometimes had a hard time to locate the targets. While I don't particularly like the D2's pinpoint button arrangement - it didn't help all that much anyways - we had a rough sea yesterday, I could't even see the coil 10cm deep in the water although I've marked it with neon tape (nighthunt).

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Your handle here makes me think of the first computer I ever programmed, the Timex Sinclair.

Bingo - computers beeing the reason for one of my nicks ☺️

Yesterday we had a little storm going on and the waterline was about -60cm - time to go out, since we have no tide over here, you have to take every opportunity 🤠

After fiddling that quirky antenna on, I went wading chest deep. The machine ran super quiet, Beach Sens, 5 tone, Silencer off, magnetic accept, sens 90.
First target bling ring.. ouch! A ring is a ring... found some Clad and a 925 pendant. After about an hour I've been forced to stop: Killed my scoop handle - damn...
Went ahead on the wet/slope, which brought up some clad and a 925 ring - bingo.

Things I observed:
D2 seems to hit deep targets on wet/in the water really good.. super loud. Probably a little bit deeper, than the Nox.
Strange thing was: Super loud target, taking off one shovel of sand: target nearly disappeared. Sometimes the pinpoint didn't even get it. Those targets were very deep. I know this can happen when things move, but I had that problem with ~10 targets. Very strange, don't know, if it's a beach program thing.

Fun fact:
I've found the exact same bling ring on the same beach last winter..

On 7/23/2023 at 2:37 PM, Digalicious said:

Although, I'm still occasionally tempted to buy a D2. Not because I think I'll find more with it, but rather the ergonomics and that "itch" Tim mentioned.

I felt the same, bought one and sometimes regret it 😂

Can't understand all that XP ergonomic buzz .. my Nox with CF shaft feels more controllable, snappier and not even heavier than the Deus with CF lower shaft. The Deus has a lot of "practical" quirks, beginning with the coil cover, antenna, charging system, screen, menu, popping off remote..

I think it really depends on your detecting style / needs - it probably excels on relics, but I haven't been out on the fields, yet - only dry sand beach use so far. We'll see how it does on/in the wet and on the field.

EMI is not EMI - EMI is different

Owning both machines now, I can clearly say, that the deus 2 handles mobile phone EMI better. I have beaches, where my phone constantly reconnects to the network - the Nox always struggles in that situation - the deus has been absolutely silent.

BUT: On one of my main beaches, there's a lot of EMI from the light poles and a ship demagnetization station - while the Nox chatters a bit when you get near them, the deus chatters on the whole beach. Frequency scan doesn't help, mono doesn't help on some corners, either. Sens on 80 - still chatter, salt sens and silencer don't do anything. I always have the feeling I am missing something and I still have to learn, how the machine behaves in such situations. With the Nox I am able to hear the good stuff through the EMI most of the time.

In V1.1 with RC I had some other strange pinpoint experiences, but I don't remember the program I've used - probably beach sens or sensitive. It would only sound off with the target beeing at the coils edge - not center. Very strange.. later on it worked as expected.

How ever, I don't use the pinpoint function very often for two resons:
Even with the 11" coil I can center the target 98% of the time. It definitely seems more difficult with the Nox.
Second - speaking for the RC - the pinpoint button is not placed very ergomically for my hands. It's too far down, so I have to bend my thumb a good bit. It's also awkward, that you have to press a different button to leave pinpoint mode, if you are used to minelab.

Updated to V2 the day before yesterday. On a 2x 2h hunts on the dry sand, I didn't have to use the pinpoint mode a single time. Didn't notice any differences in beach sense. EMI on my main beach is still terrible 😅🙄😬

Owning it for less than a week, I feel like I'm not looking at the screen as often as I do on the Nox. Part of it is due to the little screen and the strange font they use for the numbers, even if in zoom view - where on the Nox a split second is enough, on the D2 it feels like I have to check 2-3 times.. probably / hopefully it betters after a couple of hours getting used to it.

I had some deep bottlecaps, which the D2 IDed as high conductors - once they were out of the hole, they could be clearly identified as bottlecaps.

Numbers are very stable for its big ID range. I've never run a Nox900 oder Manticore, but in the videos I saw, those jumpy IDs shocked me somewhat ..

Some of our european coins lay pretty close together ID-wise, so you can't distinguish them 100%, but I'm ok with that.
Overall I think it's pretty much on par with the nox600/800, but with doubled ID-range.
 

Maybe I've just missed something - isn't it possible to display the headphones battery level on the RC?

I keep my WSA II in a pouch / case all the time, so I can't see the led blink-codes at startup.
You can even see the Mi6 battery level while connected - why not the headphones?

Last time it ran a lot quieter, without changing any settings. To completely get rid of any noise, I'd have to lover the sense to arround 80. Lowering the max frequency makes it worse. I didn't have the time to test a lot, otherwise my colleague would have emptied the beach befor I even got to work 😅

9" .. yeah - I had a really hard time to decide between the 9" and the 11".. maybe I should have started off with the 9".

CF Shaft arrived - It doesn't do wonders, but it definitely betters the wobble with the 11" by a lot. It doesn't bend at all - the rest of the wobble sources from the S-grip and the way the coil is mounted in relation to the grip. It's like the coil wants to do a twist at each end of the swing. The center-mounted coil on a straight shaft shaft does a better job in that regard imho.

Thanks, Chase - I'll try that out when I get in the wet in wintertime.

Went out yesterday again, found ~12€ - not bad. One observation: The Nox does better next to big iron like on playgrounds, beach chairs or iron inforced walls.

I had some problems with EMI on my main beach. To be fair, the Nox has problems there, too - but only next to the street lights. I think since they're LED fitted, they produce a lot of EMI. How ever, the Deus still had slight problems faily far away down the beach. Frequency scan didn't seem to do the trick. In Mono 17kHz the EMI nearly disappeared completely. Any other tips on mitigating EMI in MF other then lowering the sense?

Yes, I think square sounds most "Minelabbisch".
High square adds some weird "honk" / overdriven sound, if the target is very close to the top - similar as with PWM imho.

And then you have the new Audio Filter and the endless combinations with 2-3-4-5 or fulltones / pitch with variable tonebreaks.. let alone the EQ 😄
My Minelab is fairly customized in that regard. On the Deus, I'll leave the tonebreaks etc. stock for the moment I think.

Took the plunge and went Deus 2 - simply because I can use my favourite headphones.. Minelab lost me there. I'll keep the Nox, though - great machine which never let me down the past 5 years.

The Deus certainly is one quirky machine..!
A lot of small details could have been solved better imho.. Charging system, display, menu structure, stem, antenna cabling.. we'll see, how it works out.
CF lower shaft is on its way.

First outing I felt like a beginner.. dude.. have to get used to the tones and still can't decide, if I stick with PWM or sqaure.
Went to the beach ... second target sounded like crap.. 52-53 - I've dug it anyway 🤠
To my surprise a super thin 14k gold ring popped out of the hole - maybe 7-8 inches down. I could't believe it 😅

Additionally I've found 13€ of clad during the 2 hours hunt - not bad, considering a friend of mine found 6€ with his Deus 1 😁