Need A VLF ? Deus 2 Orx Legend Equinox Nugget Air Tests

[Jeff McClendon]

12 hours ago, GotAU? said:

Hey Jeff- Hope you’re doing well, but if you’re laid up and have more time to kill,  I have a suggestion - How about putting the data in the chart on something like Excel or Google sheets? It would be pretty cool to see a graph of that data!  
 

…If you can’t do it I have some students who are just learning about how to graph information that may be able to help out!

I am definitely not an Excel or Google sheet guy.  I can draw a chart by hand......it ain't happening on a computer.

[Lynk]

Jeff - Thank you for all this work and sharing your results.  Also, I hope you heal fast and are back in the field as soon as possible.

GotAU - Great idea. I had a minute, so I took a crack at it. It would be great to see what your students produce, too. 

If there are any errors here let me know and I will fix them.

[Cal_Cobra]

2 hours ago, Lynk said:

Jeff - Thank you for all this work and sharing your results.  Also, I hope you heal fast and are back in the field as soon as possible.

GotAU - Great idea. I had a minute, so I took a crack at it. It would be great to see what your students produce, too. 

If there are any errors here let me know and I will fix them.

Nice job!  Reminds me of the days when @Mike Hillisdid all the great C$ charts and graphs 👍

@Lynk could you make this downloadable? 

[Steve Herschbach]

And sad true story is the Deus 2 was promoted early on as being a Equinox killer on small gold. It took me less than 15 minutes with both to see that was not the case, so no surprises here for me. That’s not to say the D2 won’t find gold nuggets. It will, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. But it’s not setting any new standards in that regard, plain and simple as that, despite what the boosters said.

[geof_junk]

Lynk well done thanks for the effort. It would be great if you can post a copy of your work in an excel file. I am sure there is other data that can be extracted from yours's and Jeff McClendon detail project. Got Au suggestion was a great idea.

[Cal_Cobra]

11 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

And sad true story is the Deus 2 was promoted early on as being a Equinox killer on small gold. It took me less than 15 minutes with both to see that was not the case, so no surprises here for me. That’s not to say the D2 won’t find gold nuggets. It will, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. But it’s not setting any new standards in that regard, plain and simple as that, despite what the boosters said.

To say that the EQX800 raised the bar would be to state the obvious. 

It's interesting that everyone else is in catch up mode, some successful and some not.  With the Manticore around the corner, things could get really interesting.

[Chase Goldman]

Yes, D2's lagging micro gold performance vs. D1 and of course Nox 800 was really never up for debate at this point as far as I have been concerned but if there was any doubt, Jeff has hammered it home now.  Jeff and abenson convinced me of that with even fewer data points, months ago.  However, other than XP's implied marketing that the D2 SMF "tech" should envelop or exceed D1 performance across the board, I don't really have the same recollection as others that a big campaign to push this specific performance aspect as a superior trait of D2, though that is not to say it was not subject to the requisite over the top hype that seems to be a common fixture of all recent detector launches and releases.  It appears that there is a legitimate business case driver for this as XP apparently wants to keep the D1/Orx product lines alive and is now touting bringing new firmware updates to those products.  And this is probably why requests by users to provide a "mono frequency" gold field mode, small elliptical coil, and/or an expanded high end mono frequency range for D2 are being met with silence from XP.  Jeff also makes an excellent point that ML and to a lesser extent, Nokta, have excellent SMF micro gold performance along with the advantage that SMF brings to the table with respect to mineralized ground handling.  So it seems XP should be able to do the same with D2's SMF gold field program...wonder what's holding them back: business strategy concerns or a technical road block? 🤔 

Anyway, the fact that D2 can't do it all, is one of the many reasons why my trusty Nox is going nowhere despite the great success I am having with the D2 on relic targets and coin and jewelry hunting at parks and on the beach (bottlecaps just litterally disappear at the beach and at parks with the D2 bcap filter).  Just like American football teams have a "change of pace" running back that can spell the bell cow back and who can come in for pass protection/receiving on passing downs, the 800 with its 10x5 magic coil comes in to relieve the D2 for some small silver or micro work (I don't really have a lot of gold field ready access in my neck of the woods).  Really waiting for Nokta to release the equivalent coil form factor for the Legend, but Legend has not really clicked for me otherwise (hard for me to put the D2 down as it is killing it out there for me).  If M-core eventually envelops Equinox performance across the board then I will gladly replace the 800 as my change of pace running back in the relic fields, even though I am personally a little disappointed ML went slightly smaller than what I prefer for swing coverage on its small elliptical coil. 

I think target trace, the improved audio options, and more dynamic TID range appropriately address minor Nox flaws or shortcomings - especially in regard to performance in iron.  I'm willing to pay a premium for these improvements just as I was willing to pay a modest premium for the upgrades from D1 to D2 while maintaining all Deus ergonomic advantages (at 62, being able to literally swing for back-to-back 4-5 hour sessions, 2 per day for a week straight is huge).

Though I like the notion of necking down to a single do it all machine, I feel the sweet spot is to have two vlfs with complimentary or diverse performance "curves".  Sometimes,  it's just a psychological boost when you can be skunked all morning and then pull out the other machine and voila, your mojo is back with a smashing keeper find, even though there is no real technical reason for why the first machine could not have pulled that silver or whatever you scored(my main detecting bud, Bob, can attest to that phenomenon, as it has happened to both of us).

If you made it this far, congrats and thanks for enduring my ramblings...

[Steve Herschbach]

I never thought from day one that XP had an inherent interest in undermining the ORX or even the Deus 1 by removing the one clear area where they are superior. That was confirmed to me almost immediately when Gary said HF coils for D2 are unlikely. It’s not because they can’t, it’s because they won’t. People in general simply don’t understand the industry. There is no business reason for any company to build “one detector to rule them all” and become single detector companies. 

[Chase Goldman]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I never thought from day one that XP had an inherent interest in undermining the ORX or even the Deus 1 by removing the one clear area where they are superior. That was confirmed to me almost immediately when Gary said HF coils for D2 are unlikely. It’s not because they can’t, it’s because they won’t. People in general simply don’t understand the industry. There is no business reason for any company to build “one detector to rule them all” and become single detector companies. 

I guess we're just going have to agree to agree on that point. 👍 

Though regarding the small HF coil form factor, there may indeed be technical roadblocks involved - I don't think they can make the coils meet the D2 20-meter dive spec with internal batteries as the D1/Orx HF coils utilize external batteries.  But there really is no absolute need to make the small elliptical dive rated IMO, so I conclude it likely IS a conscious business decision at the end of the day.

[Calmark]

Thank you for all the time and effort spent to test and report to us on the results of your testing of the various new SMF machines.  

Your results reflect what I quickly noticed between my own Equinox 800 and XP Deus 2 with regards to sensitivity to tiny gold nuggets.  I'm quite happy with the D2 for coin and jewelry searching, so I don't mind it can't easily see sub .25gr nuggets. 

Anybody serious about nugget hunting should definitely go for either a Nox or Legend.  I figured that out after 1 day of nugget hunting with my D2.  It just didn't quite perform as well as I would have liked out in the field on my nugget patch.