First Impressions Of The Deus II

[Erik Oostra]

The Deus II arrived this morning so I’ll give you a run down of the first testing day.. 

To be honest my first impression when I took the Deus II out of the box wasn’t good.. It looks like a kid’s toy.. I’m glad XP didn’t paint them red or yellow, I’d send it straight back.. Once I got over the shock of how light and toyish it feels I realised what a heavy beast the Equinox is, especially with a 13x15’’ or 15’’ coil.. The pistol grip is a winner, plus the Deus II is nicely balanced but that can’t be too hard if there’s hardly any weight to balance.. 

One initial thing that’s got me a bit spooked is the stand-by light on the coil.. It was already flashing when I opened the box and hasn’t turned off yet! Is this normal? I’d have thought it would turn off after a certain time to save the battery.. If this is not normal, how can I turn the bloody thing off? It keeps on blinking once every 4 seconds even when the control box (or Remote Control in XP speak) is turned off.. I’ve not tried smashing it against the wall yet, but I’m getting close.. 

Anyway, I worked out how to run it on program 11 Beach and headed down to (you guessed it) the beach.. I was keen to see how it compared to the Equinox so I whacked on an 11” coil for the occasion.. Whilst on the job, the first thing that struck me about the Deus II was that the display on the Remote Control is bullshit.. Far too much information for the beach (or anywhere else).. The target ID only flashes up when the detector has spotted something (it doesn't stay on the target display), the rest of the time it shows you a whole load of stuff which is not important.. I know it’s a different story for prospecting but do you really need to know that the coil is still attached? I do like the ferrous/non-ferrous indicators on the sides of the display, they seem to be pretty accurate..     

I tend to listen to what the detector is telling me before checking the screen to confirm what I’m hearing.. With the Equinox the target ID is there for the world to see but with the Deus II the small numbers get lost amongst all the bullshit.. Even then, as soon as you’re not over the target anymore it jumps straight back to telling you what program you’re in (which you already know because you’ve just set it).. I’m also not too sure about the little white numbers on a black background, if XP had filled the whole screen with them it would’ve worked better.. 

I’m sure it’s a matter of getting used to it and blah, blah, blah but this stuff leaves a bad taste in my mouth.. I realise it’s only cosmetic and what really matters is under the hood, but I’d have thought this was pretty basic stuff to get right..

Anyway, back to the beach.. I did the usual scenario of burying different things (coins, gold rings and other small jewellery) at different depths in dry and wet sand.. My first impression is that the Deus II is NOT better than the Equinox on the beach.. it’s not worse but it certainly isn’t any better.. I could find every target no matter how small or deep with both the Equinox and the Deus II.. This was both a relief and disappointment.. Relief that my Foxy Noxy hadn’t been knocked off its perch and disappointment that the huge amount of cash I paid for the Deus II didn’t buy me a whole lot of difference.. I knew this would be likely (and in my defence I did buy it as a scuba detector) but I did live in hope.. 

I know it’s early days yet.. I’m still running the Deus with the speakers on the Remote Control and haven’t tried the headphones yet (they’re still in the box).. Also I’m not used to the tones and am still mucking around trying to get them right.. Are the tone settings universal like the Equinox or do you have to set them each time you turn it on? I’m trying to get out of the 3 tone setting the Deus uses in program 11 to get it to 5 tones.. Does it remember your settings? I’m still figuring stuff out by pushing buttons, guess I’ll have to read the manual..

But even if I get this all sorted, I don’t think that on my beaches the Deus II will outshine the Equinox.. Underwater is a different story.. I’ll be taking it for a dive tomorrow (I was going to take it today but old matey took so long to fill my tank, only just got it back).. So I’ll keep you posted on how my new Nox-Lite performs in the drink..        

[Erik Oostra]

I checked all the target ID numbers of all the coins on this list, they're spot on in General Mode but in program 11 Beach they can vary slightly (especially a three-pence which rings in at 90) but never enough so you can't tell what it is.. The old silvers ring up loud and sharp in their ranges..   

[phrunt]

That's what has worried me, I'm a Target ID kinda guy, and their screen design is terrible.  They're so used to the bad ID's of the Deus 1 they've retained the way of thinking that the target ID's are not important with the Deus 2, I'd rather the other less necessary stuff show on the screen occasionally and the Target ID be there most of the time, you know like virtually every other detector.  I guess a lot of people just hunt by ear, especially Deus 1 users and the way the remotes work on the Deus you don't even need the control pod so hunting by ear is what they expect people to do.  Rightly or wrongly I love Target ID's, so it's a shame even though they've improved them they're still not focused on letting you see them 😉  Target ID's have been very good to me.

Thanks for your honest opinion so far. 

On your coral sand beaches you're going to get good depth with either detector and I suspect both will give similar depth until you put the big coil on the Nox then the Nox will likely take the lead by a little bit.  I think if there are any depth gains with the Deus it would be if it handled a difficult type of ground better than the Equinox does, not in your very nice coral sand.

It's good to see general everyday users starting to voice their opinions in their ground to build a bigger picture of how it performs overall.

Hopefully you're more impressed with it under water to justify the spend and parting with your GPX.

[Erik Oostra]

2 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I suspect both will give similar depth until you put the big coil on the Nox then the Nox will likely take the lead by a little bit.

I did try with some small gold rings and small silver coins.. I had the 15'' Coiltek with me to test how much deeper it could punch.. it took the lead by a lot.. 😁

[Valens Legacy]

Thanks for sharing the update and I will be watching for the underwater testing that you are going to do.

I hope that it works out for you and finds you some good items.

Good hunting and good luck.

[Erik Oostra]

I've just unboxed the Deus II WS6 MASTER.. It works.. It'll be a good back-up when the control box fails.. 😬 

[strick]

6 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

To be honest my first impression when I took the Deus II out of the box wasn’t good.. It looks like a kid’s toy.. 

I'm fairly sure this is an accurate statement regarding all metal detectors just sayin...

strick

[GB_Amateur]

7 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

Does it remember your settings?

You haven't gotten answers from owners (or Chase...) so I'll answer from what I've read.  "No."  The 12 stock modes can be changed during a hunt but once you turn it off, they revert to default.  However, there are 12 user memory slots/modes which you can initialize with a stock program, make your changes (you may have to push a 'save' button -- don't remember) and those will be kept in memory whether or not you turn the detector off.

7 hours ago, Erik Oostra said:

...Guess I’ll have to read the manual.

You have to guess??????? 

Rule #1:  When in doubt, read the manual.

Rule #2:  Even with no doubt, read the manual!

Rule #3:  Skip Rule #1 and proceed to Rule #2.

[Erik Oostra]

Deus II - First test dive on an old shipwreck at around 4 meters.. 

 

[Erik Oostra]

Deus II - Trying to find some deeper water at the end of Alma Bay.. Not one leak! At least it's one up on the Equinox at this stage..