I’ve Been Converted From 3 Tones To Square Pitch

[ColonelDan]

For many years, I detected our Florida beaches with various Minelab detectors set up in a custom 3 tone setting based on low, mid and high conductive targets. This combination served me very well over those years in the Minelab world so when I bought the Deus 2, I programmed Beach and Beach Sensitive the same way--3 tones. However, in my on-going effort of transitioning to the XP world, I quickly learned that the Deus 2, being the sophisticated detector it is, was apt to be more chatty on a saltwater beach if not set up properly beyond just my 3 tone solution.

 

After experimentation with sensitivity, salt sensitivity, reactivity, silencer, bottle cap rejection and discrimination, (more options than I was used to with the Minelabs,) I was able to stabilize it to what I thought was at least a somewhat satisfactory level...again in 3 tones.

 

But thanks to some educational exchanges, I was introduced to the Deus 2 Square Pitch option. Coupled with the right levels of discrimination and silencer settings, this set up is essentially a nuanced 2 tone program. Since I always dug both the mid and high level tones of my 3 tone set up anyway, this wasn’t all that much different in terms of dig/no dig decisions except now there was the same tone frequency for all non-ferrous targets.

 

Although still in the early stages of learning the finer points of this Deus 2, I’m impressed with the square pitch option. These settings hit good targets hard and ID’d bottle caps and ferrous targets much better than my original 3 tone option. Additionally, it proved to be far less chatty on my Florida saltwater beaches than the 3 tone set up.

 

Bottom Line; I’m a square pitch convert.  If you’re a Deus 2 saltwater beach hunter also, I recommend you at least give this set up a try.

 

My preferred baseline settings for saltwater beaches in Beach and Beach Sensitive are now:

 

Discrimination 6.5 and Silencer 0

Square Pitch

 

The remainder is a combination of situational needs determined through on-site experimentation, testing and actual use and finally, personal preference.

 

Adjusted as conditions require:

Sensitivity: 95

Salt Sensitivity: 7

Reactivity 0-1.5

Personal Preference:

Notch: Off (Gold falls anywhere along the mid level spectrum so I never notch out anything.)

Bottle Caps: 3

Iron Volume: 3

Audio Response: 5 or 6

Audio Out: 9

My next step is finding the best combination of settings for detecting 19^th century artifacts in fresh water. I’ll start my search with square pitch in a custom Park program—but only actual use in a fresh water environment will tell the tale.

 

Just the view from my converted beach front foxhole. Your analysis and conclusions may differ.

[Chase Goldman]

I'm PCM pitch myself, but definitely pitch tones on the beach all the way with D2.   Thought I might be switching over to Full Tones occasionally to interrogate for aluminum, but frankly, saw no need to do that.  Just scooped it and moved on.  Pitch gives you a sense of depth and footprint for the target you are about to scoop (or not).   So Beach Sensitive Pitch is my go to on dry, wet salt, and ocean surf.

[F350Platinum]

When I was using the BH-01 headphones the detector put me in square pitch. It was different, going to try this stuff tomorrow at the beach. 👍

[cdv]

I'll try it too however I do have a concern with a single tone in the water IF you can't see the screen due to depth or murky water.... 

Cliff

[Rrnp]

Pitch works well on the west coast beaches also. We have lots of black sand. Haven’t been out to the beach too much but summer and the crowds are coming. 

[Brad Plohman]

I agree pitch mode is a great beach option.

I've been using square pitch in fresh water and I'm really liking it so far. Gold rings are what I'm after at the beach and their target ID's run the gamut so it doesn't bother me if the remote is submerged and I have no indication of conductivity. I dig all clean sounding targets which seem to be obvious in pitch mode. There's lots audio information there, I don't know what it all means yet. Some of my observations; Many junk targets have iron edges to them or maybe an overlaid iron tone, like our plated steel Canadian clad and bottle caps which I've been digging to see, but have now started leaving. The pitch & magnitude of the tone gives a great idea of the depth (and or size?) of target you're on. I think pitch mode combined with a higher audio response does a great job of bringing up and IDing deep targets with the lower pitched response. I find I have to take a couple scoops out on those deeps before I can tell if it's a clean target or iron edges or broken signal start to appear. 

I have been using a notch from the point of discrimination 08 to 25 which I'm not sure is a good idea or not? I'd certainly appreciate any opinions on that.

[ColonelDan]

Brad,  Regarding the notch function, as I stated in the OP, I never notch any range of numbers as the variation of gold metallurgical composition spans a wide range of TID numbers in the mid conductivity scale.  You could easily notch out a nice gold ring when trying to eliminate some forms of junk.  

[Denny]

I’ve been using pitch square tones  in beach program for turf  hunting. Notch and bottle caps at zero, Magnetic ground on accept and salt on 7 or lower. Works well more stable in bad ground.  Better than park program.

[Chase Goldman]

On 6/5/2022 at 5:14 PM, cdv said:

I'll try it too however I do have a concern with a single tone in the water IF you can't see the screen due to depth or murky water.... 

Cliff

It’s actually two tone if you are using disc with iron volume, the iron will register with a lower tone.  Yes you are recovering all non ferrous but you can characterize some attributes of the target (e.g., target footprint) based on the pitch tone width/duration.  It’s pretty effective.  Not dissimilar to the Excal which is a pure tone machine.

[cdv]

8 hours ago, Chase Goldman said:

It’s actually two tone if you are using disc with iron volume, the iron will register with a lower tone.  Yes you are recovering all non ferrous but you can characterize some attributes of the target (e.g., target footprint) based on the pitch tone width/duration.  It’s pretty effective.  Not dissimilar to the Excal which is a pure tone machine.

I'm slow on posting Chase, I dug back into the manual after my post above only to see that you CAN distinguish iron (2 tones). I gave it a go the other day and was pleasantly surprised. No great targets but it was fun in the water after a short trial on the dry sand. Today will be a good test with the bone phones and my snorkel. Overall I'm happy with all this machine can do.

Cliff