Does Pinpoint mode wear down the coil battery faster?

[signal_line]

I use the PP mode quite a bit and my battery doesn't seem to last very long. Well, the battery bar graph drops down to one bar for the coil after about six hours. That's on 12K, TX power "2", and it's supposed to go 19 hours. I was hoping after a few cycles it would reach a higher capacity, but so far not very good. Then the coil only takes an hour of charging.

 

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[vferrari]

Are you talking coil battery or controller battery?

If it is the controller battery, the constant audio of non-motion pinooint mode combined with the fact that you are using wired headphones all the time might be the issue.

Having to use the internal audio circuit of the controller would tend to use more battery power. The wireless radio in the controller is on all the time to communicate with the coil so adding the wireless headphones does not appreciably increase controller power drain because the wireless headphone battery does all the work generating the power hungry audio signal. But if the controller has to send energy to drive it's own speaker or external wired phones, that might be causing it to drain faster. Just a theory. I could be wrong as I have never done a test to see if wired phones would drain the battery faster. You are the only Deus user I know who uses tfe FX2 phones regularly other than as backup to the wireless phones so not a lot of real world data out there on whether FX2 or speaker audio woud cause higher controller battery drain.

One of the reasons I got Deus in the first place four plus years ago is the convenience of wireless audio and now I use it exclusevely on all my detectors. Can't imagine going back to wired at this point, but I digress...

If it is the coil battery you are talking about, I am not sure pinpoint mode would affect coil power drain at all unless you had it on continuously. There is no documentation as to whether it requires higher coil power vs. the normal search modes even at TX power 3. TX power 3 is known to drain the coil faster (as you know), but not the controller. It isn't affected by TX3 or Pinpoint mode (unless possibly if it has to generate the audio as I discussed above). Though, unless you are running pinpoint all the time, I would think the search mode at TX2 you normally use would dominate overall coil battery drain, even if pinpoint mode does draw more coil power.

Then again, it could be a bum controller/coil battery. Possible, but unlikely if you have a new vice used unit.

Interesting observation. - I never thought about whether pinpoint mode draws a lot of coil battery power. I also rarely use pinpoint mode because I use pitch audio almost exclusively, which has the dual benefit of acting like a poor man's pinpoint mode, as I just position the coil to get the strongest pitch signal. Otherwise , if using tone ID, I just wiggle the target off the toe of the coil to pinpoint as it is faster than punching buttons to get in and out of pinpoint mode. I wonder if pitch mode would drain the controller battery faster if I was using the speaker or wired phones. Hmm...

Just some of my crazy thoughts and possibilities.

 

[signal_line]

Thanks for your reply. I am talking about the coil battery. I came to the conclusion that the pinpoint mode probably has some effect but the big one is where I'm working--high trash has to drain the battery more. So many targets, no question that is why.

 

[vferrari]

Sounds plausible but since it is continuously transmitting and receiving whether or not targets are present, I would think the radio transceiver and not the signal processing microprocessor would dominate the coil battery drain which is why XP specifically calls out TX power setting as affecting battery drain. But yeah, in trashy areas the coil microprocessor could be working overtime. Interesting observation and thanks for bringing it up. Keep an eye on that coil battery, though, and make sure it is not getting worse. New batteries can have defects too. Also, you may just be observing a new battery breaking itself in. New LI batteries need a few charge-discharge cycles under their belt to reach optimal performance which then slowly degrades again until the end of their useful service life.

Go find some more ice, sounds like the Deus is working well for you.

 

[signal_line]

Thanks. Careful for what you wish. I looked outside and there is ice everywhere. LOL But yeah, ice does have a way of making the wife more inclined to let me go out detecting. That day some kid asked me what I was looking for. I said maybe a diamond ring. His dad laughed. Gonna get some wireless phones.

 

[vferrari]

Re Deus wireless phones, look to see if there are any used ones on the boards, at Tnet vendor sponsors, or auction sites, might save you a few $ vice buying them new as a stand alone accessory.

Also, I recommend the WS4's as the detachable puck makes them more versatile than the WS5's and the puck itself is submersible. There are actually some third party full-sized headsets (a la the WS5's) you can attach the puck to that have excellent audio (but also some dud designs, too).

 

[signal_line]

Found a pair through a dealer. Saved $20. WS-4 backphones.

 

[vferrari]

Nice.

 

[Hawks88]

V knows his stuff. Good luck and HH.

 

[signal_line]

I ran it a total of 9 hours and still had power. I just realized the cold weather make a big difference with lithium batteries. The voltage is lower and the gauge shows this. Temperatures in the 30's F today. Not going to get 19 hours at these temperatures. Best not to drain it down all the way in this cold weather.

 

[signal_line]

Got up into the 40's today and my coil battery seems to be gaining some capacity. It actually held three bars longer than the RC battery for the first time.

 

[vferrari]

Yeah, low temperature definitely kills battery capacity. Never thought of it because it is spring time down here. That makes a lot more sense. Did not realize you were dealing with such low temps.