Wireless Or Not Wireless, That Is The Question

[Carolina]

2 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

is also not a piece of cake for me when it comes to maintaining Deus 2.

I would say you have a faulty coil if you have had that many bad experiences. Call your dealer and send it back. I also think maybe you should not have sanded down the ridges on the skid plate as they hold the charging connector tight to its charging pins. At any rate I wish you well and no more charging issues. Again for me I don’t even look at the icons. I just always connect the charging cable supplied with the Deus and forget it. Normally a 4 or 5 hr spin on a full charge for the RC, coil & phones requires around 1 hour charge for all to be full. This is the charger I use.

[Jeff McClendon]

 

9 minutes ago, Carolina said:

I would say you have a faulty coil if you have had that many bad experiences. Call your dealer and send it back. I also think maybe you should not have sanded down the ridges on the skid plate as they hold the charging connector tight to its charging pins. At any rate I wish you well and no more charging issues. Again for me I don’t even look at the icons. I just always connect the charging cable supplied with the Deus and forget it. Normally a 4 or 5 hr spin on a full charge for the RC, coil & phones requires around 1 hour charge for all to be full. This is the charger I use.

Some of these "dead coil" episodes have happened with just the WS6 module acting as master. There has been a handshake glitch reported that doesn't always fully shut down the coil. Hopefully the next software update will fix this issue.

[F350Platinum]

4 minutes ago, Carolina said:

Normally a 4 or 5 hr spin on a full charge for the RC, coil & phones requires around 1 hour charge for all to be full. This is the charger I use.

That's exactly the same or similar to the one I have. 👍

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09HYXK38K

$23, Amazon.

 

[Chase Goldman]

4 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I guess the reason the manufacturers have liked to work with me is instead of settling for what we have, I'm always looking for the opening to be better, and to identify and offer alternatives that people want. The world does not advance based on input from those satisfied with the status quo. This group is split between those satisfied with what they have, and those who would prefer another option. That means there is a business opportunity to be exploited by somebody, and trust me, it will be eventually. 

Yes.  It's all a matter of whether someone sees the opportunity and makes the investment to capture those who are not enamored of the baggage that comes along with wireless while still reaping a profit.  Yes, D2 has great performance and XP is in the best position to emulate that with a wired platform.  Not sure they have the motivation to try.  It's been hard enough to get them to field a 10x5 coil for the D2.  They would have to invest in the redesign, but it would not be a technical hurdle, just brute force engineering to repackage the platform.  So it might be someone else.  But who and when?  That is not readily obvious to me.   Maybe the post-Manticore machine will be a combination of the CTX, Manticore, and D2.  As a "Stranger Things" fan they should call it the "Demogorgon"

[Erik Oostra]

Wireless or not wireless? This is what ChatGPT has to say.. 

[Chase Goldman]

Can someone point me to the wired metal detector that does not require batteries.  I would like 3, please.  

I’ve thought of using ChatGPT and have posed a couple basic metal detecting questions.  What’s interesting is that you can pose the same question multiple times and you will get a slightly differently worded answer each time.

[phrunt]

As a self confessed coil lover, a detector like the Deus 2 is severely hindered by it's wireless design by the fact it can't have many coil options, the options that are there are expensive as you're essentially buying a new detector whenever you buy a coil and the possibility of aftermarket coils is ZERO!   A big coil on it would be absolutely weird too, way out of balance so it's not just missing small coils.

Some other brands restrict coils too I believe their detriment and other brands embrace the alternative aftermarket coils freely allowing it to happen.

My Deus 1 is quite good with it's HF coils, the 9.5x5" elliptical high frequency coil is a very decent coil, very expensive in NZ though, I can buy a decent detector from the competition for the price of that coil alone.   I can only imagine how good it would be with a little 6.5x3.5" coil or even a 5" or 6" round coil for prospecting or for the people that hunt in heavy trash.   It has a self imposed restriction by very design although they were able to move the battery to the shaft, why can't they move the electronics into the shaft too? Of course they can....   This could be a way to make smaller coils for the Deus 2, even if they don't hold the higher waterproof rating but I bet they could, anything like this is possible if the engineers put their minds to it. 

To some people that's no issue, but it would sure make a Deus 1 or Deus 2  performance detector with coil cable an attractive option for many if such a detector existed.

It's a market XP are missing out on, and I'd guess XP Deus 2 owners would be excited and jumping up and down if a XP cable version came out offering such advantages over their existing platform too.  The Deus 1 and 2 are famous for their ability in high trash even with big coils, imagine them with little coils! 

 XP are very innovative, they could work a way to have a wired option among their arsenal even somehow incorporating it into their existing lineup by allowing the original Deus 2 coils to connect to it's pod corded option wirelessly also.  It could be a higher price point model if they wanted it to be, incorporating the best of both worlds by having the wireless, and also wired capability.  I'm not sure I understand saying because its wired it would be significantly heavier, the electronics are in the coil, why would they be heavier in the pod? All the extra weight would just be a coil cable, not a big deal.  Maybe they could make that up by having one less battery, the one inside the coil.   They've obviously worked out making very good micro electronics. 

Just throwing ideas out there, it's up to the engineers to design it and make it work and I'm sure they could come up with better options and ways of doing it than I am doing with a few minutes of thinking about it.   Anything is possible, it does show XP have a lot of potential options to make another detector vastly different from their current offerings though.

[cudamark]

22 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I just started doing this too, same type of charger that automatically shuts the port off when a full charge is reached. I am charging both the D2 and the WS6 Master, along with two MI-6 pinpointers and two pairs of WSA II headphones. 😀 I also periodically charge the 11" coil but I don't use it much, I keep it in the backpack as a backup. I'm pretty sure this charger will protect the LiPo batteries.

I've successfully got the WS6 Master working in shallow water with a couple bucks worth of coax and some zip ties.

Honestly I'm poorer having invested almost $3k in all this gear, but couldn't be more pleased with the stone cold accuracy of this machine, its resistance to EMI and water intrusion. Y'all have seen my posts, I don't think I have had more than half a handful of "skunk" days with this machine. With Chase's suggestions I've even been successful in Culpeper dirt. Gold, silver, 300+ year old relics and coins, you name it.

I'm neither jaded by the past nor afraid of the future. I like the modularity, the lightweight but insanely durable accessories, and the overall ability to use this rig non-stop for an entire day with no muscle cramps at all. The heaviest configuration is lighter than the lightest Equinox configuration. The lightest configuration is a dream for long distance scouting.

I only had a coil not charged once, and since then check the detector before going out for the day. Turn it on, wait a few seconds, check the battery levels and turn it off. You turn off the detector and the headphones and pinpointer shut down.

What could be better? Seriously? Do I want to struggle with EMI, water intrusion, broken coil ears, and literally no depth advantage?

Nah. I'm on the dark side now.

 

With me and my hunting sites so far, the Equinox 900 has addressed all those issues to a great degree. EMI rejection is better than the 800 (not totally cured I admit and the D2 is better at it), watertight so far, re-enforced coil ears, and better depth IMO. I have the 9" on the D2 and use the 12 X 15" on the 900, so, that's probably a bit of an unfair comparison, but, maybe if I can actually get my hands on a 13" D2 coil (been waiting forever!), I might have comparable fruit to test. I did do a real life field test on depth, signal strength, and target I.D. and this is what I found. Working a vacant lot with fairly soft and mild dirt. Started with the Equinox 800 with the 12X 15" coil and was finding some early wheat cents at 8-10" depths....along with assorted copper rivets and other scrap metals, including a few deep rusty nails that didn't quite sound bad enough to ignore. After gridding the area to the point of not finding anymore targets, I switched to the D2 and re-gridded the same area. Except for one more 8" copper rivet, no other targets. Then switched to the Equinox 900 with the same 12 X 15" coil I used on the 800, and with the same mode and settings (Park 1, 50 tone, horseshoe on, Iron bias F2@0, Recovery speed 4, 22 sensitivity) I had on the 800, except I was able to run  sensitivity up to 24 instead of the 22 I was using on the 800. I found several more copper rivets and a nice Barber dime all at about a foot down. Solid, (albeit weak) no doubt signals. The 800 and D2 are now dust collectors unless I need them for specific tasks or backup. I didn't mention the D2 settings, but, I tried all sorts of combinations after getting a good signal with the 900 and seeing whether the D2 would hear that same signal.....nada.....even with sensitivity up to 98. The 800 didn't hear them either I might add unless I cranked the sensitivity up to the point of making it unstable and unusable to hunt with.