scoopjohnb

FBS2 is VLF with a bit of PI for ferrous discrimination thrown in. Multi IQ+ with 2D screen is VLF multi frequency. On a single frequency VLF iron ID’s at the bottom or the top of your conductive scale “Iron Wrap around”. They somehow managed to indicate that wrap-around effect in the +Ferrous and -Ferrous Y axis. That is how I think of it, without on hands experience and going on the bits of info gathered from the few videos I’ve seen.

On FBS2 the rusted iron give away is bottom left corner for small rusted nails, ramping up to full screen splatter for larger rusted iron. Nice round targets would give concentrated target id. Odd shaped targets would give more splatter around the mean target id. Edge of detection for buried good targets would give near 1/2 screen splatter around the mean target id. Once out of the ground mean target id could be verified. Here is where the ground balance came in. Hit a deep non id target, ground balance in the local vicinity, watch the splatter, dig-no/dig decission. FBS2 advantage over FBS, BBS tech!! Shame on you Minelab for not having a dedicated All-metal channel with Self Adjusting Threshold. Frequent retuning needed for searching larger expanses. All this goes out the window for co-located targets. Multi IQ has the dedicated All-metal channel with SAT under the GB button. Priceless!! Switch over to disc channel and ID is simplified numbers for grown up kids. Useless!! Multi IQ is focused on speed, depth goes out the window. So does the Nox 800 for the deep ring hunter in saturated wet sand. BBS/FBS2 remains King for the wet sand ring hunter. Multi IQ is a Great inland hunter. Enter Multi IQ+ and with much speculation from my part. Multi frequency range should be expanded, better on the small stuff, better on the big deep stuff. GB channel should have the dedicated all-metal with SAT. XY screen is a (-Ferrous,Conductive,+Ferrous) plot around the GB point. Tones are squarish BEEP to facilitate easy recognition in windy, watery environments. VCO tones for the relic/nugget hunters. Different programs indicate different blends of SMF for different circumstances. For the price point, we should be getting a taste off a CTX+. Doesn’t mean it ain’t good eatn’ It’s just not haute cuisine. Here’s me still chomping at the bit for a manual to read!! PS: I didn’t mention Deus Deux because this is Minelab thread.

XP has this Solar panel thingy you could use to charge your Deus. I tried one and it wasn’t up to the job. As for charging times. That is the unhappy situation of USB powered everything. It can only give so much power output. Stick it into any USB outlet and wait for it to happen. Dedicated chargers are out the window. I’m still debating if it will be my next tector. It needs to have the sweet continous tones of a CTX or an Excal. Nox 800 was a lovely machine, but it was lacking in the tonal department. It just got on my nerves after a while detecting and lost interest in the machine. Till I found out where the All Metal was. But by then I just switched on the Excal and was more than happy. Probably a little bit crazy, I’m actually chomping at the bit for the manual to come out. Come on Minelab, give us a Youtube video of it singing on a deep coin. You guys know we can’t keep our money locked up when that happens!!

That was exactly what I was thinking when he mentioned it. The video showed the Equinox tones, but without the clipping of the tone and more depth modulation. A nice and very welcome surprise. Target trace is an excellent feature even when detecting full screen open. Helps to single out the targets that are out of the ordinary. These are the ones I'm interested in as a jewelry hunter.

An early bird hinted to me that it sounded like an F75 on steriods. Even with 2-D disc which is a huge improvement over the single digit conductive scale. I’d still like it to murmer the ground and whisp on a deep short target in stead of an anoying BEEP. Noise cancelling headphones are a given these days,... gone are the days of having drums on the side of your head. BEEPS are for autopilot detectors,... which can be fun. WHISPS at the beach is were the fun begins,... especially with FE-CO discrimination ability. Now lets have both available and maybe it could be a Beast,.. if not well at least we got to watch the cartoon.

Deus 1 and probably Deus 2 has some sort of automatic EMI mitigation. I stumbled upon this when comparing depth in a parc vs a Fisher F75. The Fisher was EMI falsing like mad, needed to be turned down in sensitivity to be able to hunt. The Deus 1 continued to function fairly quietly at the preset sensitivity. So from that point forward, I was fully aware that on a Deus platform. Full throttle ahead isn’t absolute, but rather full throttle as per the situation at hand. Not to worry though,... my first test-drive with the Deus 2 was in a very low EMI area. A detector I know very well was able to run at max sensitivity previously. And I had to drop sensitivity otherwise I was digging finger nail clippings on the Deus 2. In my basement the Deus 2 is as quiet as a mouse. Wifi routers, electricals, wireless everything and then some. It still is able to provide a repeatable signal on a test target. Therefor I presume that sensitivity on the Deus 2 isn’t absolute, but relative. And results are awesome, but relative as well. An easy going design which will astonish and confuse at the same time. But the name says it all, it’s a Deus and has devine powers we mere mortals can only presume to understand 🙂

Put them up for sale. Get al least a bit of your hard earned back before public opinion says they are extinct. Still have the blunt instrument on a stick “Excal”,... not a single bid in my area. CTX and the Nox are gone. Collected the Deus Deux 9” from the dealer yesterday. He wouldn’t even smirk at my Excal. Put in a FIRM order for that to be released 13x11” coil. Anyway,... enough with the reading and watching Deus 2 posts and videos. I’m hitting dirt and sand first chance I get. Let’s put some wear and tear on this thing.

Those beach balloon wheels are useless. Because they are round profile you end up with a round profile in the sand. It only really rolls great on hard surfaces. Same with the doubled or tripled standard wheels. The nice round profile is absolute useless on soft terrain. What you really need to take a look at are the smaller wheels, front or rear on a Ride-On Mower. A Flat profile that has a tendency not to push things away, but grab loose dirt and hold it whilst rolling over it. Designed to be aired at .6 bar and carry about 175 kg of weight per axle without leaving tracks on fresh mowed grass. And if your friendly to the salesman/technician at the local Stihl/John Deere dealership. He will even provide the greasable kind. A little grease makes everything runs a lot smoother. Beach balloon wheels, absolute junk!!

Handbags at High Noon! 🤠

That is a lot of discrimination going on. They are attempting to filter out most of the iron and are missing stainless screws and coated steel stuff like clasps, pins, etc. Ok on an older site. But fairly modern you should dig a little iron now an then to get an idea where the pockets of activity are.

I met Gary on a Sunday dig over here in Belgium a few years ago. Equinoxes flying around, CTX’s with 17” coils shooting the seeded coins like fish in a barrel. Fair share of Deus 1 users. The Garrett crowd all full of boyscout metal detecting patches. And me with my MXT All pro digging up mouse-farts. Calm, collected, polite Englishman with more than a bit of in depth knowledge about XP in particular and metal detectors in general. Deus may not be the deepest, most ID-iest but it’s by far the easiest to swingiest. And on the immense as far as the eye can see iron fields that’s what counts. According to Gary that is,.... and then I bought another Deus 🤐

Yep,... you’ve got a problem!! The list of detectors I’ve owned is ridiculous. I like to find things out for myself, so you end up buying and trying a lot. But as life often gets in the way of really getting to know a unit,... I’ve narrowed my selection down to those I enjoy using. And I’m really being selfish on that part. If I don’t like it or it gets on my nerves. It gets sold or culled. Peace of mind is a wonderfull thing.

Well as we're getting flooded by video's of Deus Deux VS "All contenders" and to chase away the overindulgence of Christmas. I sold the Equinox and the CTX. What have I done??? Anyways, a few batteries less to keep charged and the much needed space in my brain feels liberating. When Two-sy arrives I get to put all my efforts in understanding this new kid. And it keeps me from thinking "The XXXX could have found this also,... The XXXX would have sounded different,... etc etc. Tommorow I get to break out the old X-terra 705 with the elliptical for a relic hunt. Single frequency rules guys !!!!

A 100% accurate TID with al the variables like mineralisation, depth, distorted shape, etc etc is the holy grail of detectors. I’m happy when it has repeatable performance in the same spot, enough stability and enough range to accomodate my needs in fine tuning my detector. I remember a very trashy spot where a slight shift in discriminator and sensitivity setting meant the difference between old and new pulltabs. I prefer digging the old style. That meant more coins per less trash ratio. And then I ran out of old tabs and that’s when the work started 🙂

I’ve been wachting a few videos here and there. What has jumped out at me is that this machine appears to have a Very Solid TID. Once it has made up its mind. Doesn’t second guess much, if at all. That being said combined with the mineral and salt handling capabilities,... could just be wurth the price tag.

I use the Navionics app. Weather, Tides, Waypoints. Photos isn’t it biggest forte, but I’m not exactly a picture taker. Very curious about the XP App. Hit the button and mark the spot. Touchscreens and outdoor activities aren’t the best of friends. For the serious stuff I still use a Garmin.

The advantage of Multi Frequency is that you are listening to several frequencies at the same time. A great tool for reconnaisance. The disadvantage of Multi Frequency is that you are listening to several frequencies at the same time. Pick the one that suits your intended finds the most and forget about the rest. Hence Deus mono aka Deus 1 is still available in Deus Deux.

Just try this. Turn on your detector. Turn sensitivity all the way down. Go to the GB mode, switch on tracking. Listen to the minerals and how they are reporting. This is the background noise your detector is listening to. Anything substantial above that triggers the disc channel and provides an ID. Turn the sens up to what you are use to hunting and listen to the GB channel again. Only computer brains devoted to 1 single task can make sense of it 🙂

As a beach hunter, tracking is always ON on the Equinox 800. Except when a deep target is aquired that gives audio, but doesn’t ID. Stay off the target, let the machine get a good and stable reading from the ground. Turn tracking off and swipe the signal again. My beaches have tidal reaches of about 300-400 meters between Low and High tide. Hunting these beaches is more about scoops than detectors. Due to the slow inclination, sand is always very saturated. Don’t see a lot of beach hunters because most try to cover an entire beach. They swipe the coil like lighting, run around like madmen, never to return again. Dig a hole, learn where the layers are that can support the heavy targets. Then detect. Not the other way around. An Excalibur BBS machine running on edge let’s you hear the ground. The CTX running on edge will start Donk, Donk ing. The Equinox is the first beach machine where you can adjust SAT speed with the recovery speed setting. It will hunt in GB mode. The SDC 2300 has a great circuit because it let’s you hear the ground. Slow SAT speed but the 8” closed coil, simply sucks itself to the ground when hunting saturated ground. This detector needs to be developed into a beach PI. As for the flavour of the month or year. The D2 fastest multi in the West. I’ve seen people waving handfulls of sand at it, inland detecting style. On edge for depth it’s like an old worn out record player. And it clearly identifies bottlecaps under a cardboard sheet with 4” air gap. The russians even had it shoveling snow and squeeking the shaft. Youtube,... why even bother??

Looks like something from Ebinger.

A really good read. More than ample settings to mess about with. With regards to detecting performance between Deus 2 and Equinox 800 11" to 11" I guess it will depend on the day and the driver. Ergonomics and the 9" coil is what Deus is all about. A very fun detector to have sitting in the car or backpack.

Pushing the Iron Bias on the Nox indeed gives it attributes kind of like a BBS machine. Dropping the recovery speed lower again makes it a sort of BBS detector. However a BBS machine: farts, burps, hickups, murmers and sings at you. Whereas the Nox just kind of BEEPS with alternate tones. Easier to relate to if you’re a Beep and dig kind of guy. But if you like have a good conversation with your detector it gets pretty boring pretty quick. The performance is there in the Nox, the audio is lacking. As for a beach PI, give a shout out to Vallon. Built like a tank and will have you digging up the beach like it’s been bombarded. My multi frequency machines have been designated recon. 1 deep old find does the trick, out comes the Vallon.

I like my Minelabs. Had a bit of everything and currently enjoy using the Excalibur, Equinox and CTX. Is the CTX an upgrade from a Nox. Not if you’re after gold nuggets! However if relics is your thing, then I would beg to differ. FBS2 has awesome ground handling, ground balance and a 15 step ferrous discrimination feature. Add to that it has the ability to disc out iron wrap around. Add target trace and it can show you signal spikes you simply can’t hear without hundreds of hours on a Nox. However the CTX is a bit too complex, just like the V3i. A bit too much options, so when Minelab launched the Equinox that has some of that Minelab Secret Sauce in it with an easier and less complex user interface. It was an instant hit,... it hit the ground running. If you’ve got a NOX and try a CTX, you’ll love it. Other way around, just the same own a CTX, try a NOX, great detector. Me I’m perfectly content using what I have at the moment. Untll Minelab release a new CTX that is. Same thing with my fishing rods. Just love my 20 year old rods but those new iterations really take it to the next level 🙂

The Vallon VMH4 PI has an optional 60cm coil. Haven’t been able to adjust the sensitivity above 70% and it hits pretty small and pretty deep with the 30cm coil. Not a gold nugget machine, but behaves pretty identical. It just loves to ride on the edge of ground signal.

Of late I'm starting to measure my smallest find at the beach. Not only in weight, the easiest way. But also in diameter. Targets can weigh next to nothing and still be very visible to a metal detector due to a large diameter.