learning how to use the deus

[achetadomestica]

I have a few questions and an observation last night. I notice the ground changes very frequently here in Florida. 90 to 60 to 75 back to 90.
I have been putting my ground balance on tracking to keep within one of the actual ground. When I leave it on manual and move it I end up looking down and I am 62 and it is 90. I understand this doesn't allow the machine to have much depth? Well last night I was trying out a deep program
I copied from this forum and for the first time I put in 18 KHZ for the frequency. It was incredible how much this helped out. It was so easy to pinpoint coins. It was so much more clear when I was over an object. I went to an old school yard I have been testing and retesting, it was so easy to
distinguish the pull tabs. I must have found 10 of them in a spot I was having trouble with. I found a buffalo nickel last week that is also 63 like a pull tab so I guess I will be digging more trash. My other question is when I get faint signals I am having trouble pinpointing them? So far I haven't dug any deep old silver maybe the old coins will be easier to pinpoint? I am digging big holes and having to go back allot and redigging close to the original to find the target. I usually find the trash very deep but maybe an actual coin will be easier? I know practice is the key but maybe someone has some experience with the ground balance and the pinpointing deep faint signals? I also haven't tried 4KHZ is this going to be a huge revelation like 18KHZ was?
THANKS
Mike

 

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[vferrari]

Higher frequencies allow you to better resolve and separate/pinpoint smaller targets but depth is limited because higher frequencies tend to get scattered and attenuated more than lower freqencies.

4 khz will give you max depth but limit your ability to pinpoint or even detect smaller targets. 4khz is also locked at transmit (TX) power 3 which will drain the coil battery faster and TX 3 is not suited to highly mineralized soils as the transmit signal gets reflected and overloaded by the entrained soil minerals (high beam headlights in fog analogy). Mineralization level is indicated by the vertical bargraph on the right side of the main (horseshoe) display.

Bottom line is that I split the difference and search at 8 khz or 12 khz if 8 is chatty due to EMI noise from power lines or wifi.

Pinpointing deep targets is always going to be relatively hit or miss as the pinpoint accuracy error will naturally increase with depth for a number of physical reasons. If the site allows for it (i.e., plowed field vs. a manicured lawn) just take a bigger diameter plug (if using a shovel) when you dig deep and hopefully the target will be in the plug instead of still in the ground.

As far as pinpointing using the coil, I avoid the pinpoint mode and can usually get close enough with relatively shallow targets (< 5") just by using the natural signal tone, esp if it is a coin or similar target. Otherwise, I switch to a custom variant of the gold field program which is pitch based like the pinpoint mode but you can vary parameters such as frequency and reactivity independent of your base program. Plus it has the added benefit of displaying a target ID which pinpoint mode doesn't do.

You also didn't mention if you were using full tones. This will help you to keep from digging deep trash targets that are not displaying a target ID since you can differentiate the nature of the target better than 4 or 5 tone modes.

Reactivity setting will also help you to separate targets better with higher settings of 2,2.5 (my default - only avail in V4 software), 3, or even 4 for extreme unmasking cases. I recommend 1 or 2 as a good starting point for newer users. This enables you to use a lower (deeper) frequency and still separate targets that are coin and pull tab sized. For smaller targets such as stud earrings or other small jewelry and objects and even edge-on coins, the higher frequencies excel but you trade off depth. Also, you do also incrementally lose depth with higher reactivity settings and with high settings may miss targets because your swing speed is too slow (need to swing faster at higher reactivity to get a hit) and the hit tone may just be a short duration blip that can easily be missed or dismissed as chatter. When you change reactivity, be sure to set Silencer back to -1 or 0 (expert setting under reactivity) because it will default to higher numbers and kill depth.

You also didn't mention if you were using a handheld pinpointer. I assume you were. If you can afford it, I highly recommend the XP MI6 pinpointer that integrates seamlessly with the Deus. It has made end game pinpointing a lot smoother for me.

Also, besides nickels, gold rings will also ring up just like pull tabs TID wise, though all three will sound slightly different in the headphones using full tones. The tone frequency which IDs conductivity equivalent to the TID number will be approx the same for all 3 but the leading and trailing edges of the tone may sounď different for a nickel, bent tab, or gold ring with stone. Bottom line is that you will tend to dig a lot of pull tabs just to be 100% sure you didn't leave gold in the ground/sand. Lol.

Remenber that the "no free lunch" rule always applies meaning all settings have tradeoffs that you have to weigh and manage - that is typically what separates good from great detectorists. How do you get great at that? 1000's of swing hours on your machine, that's how. Notice that once you actually put the hard work in up front, no one should have to become great again.

Hope you enjoyed the firehose spray of info.

Good lucķ and happy hunting.

 

[Geochem]

vferrari stated a lot of good experience based information. I like his posts, for sure.

I'm still a beginner (since Jan 2017) and the Deus my primary detector.

Many others have stated the Deus is primarily a tone based detector verses tdi number target identification.

I use the tdi in my learning process with full tones, but can tell that with time it will be predominately tones I react to and associate with type of target. I'm not there yet, but can start to understand what vferrari stated above on tone types even though the tdi are very close numbers.

I find the Deus a very versatile detector, and am enjoying how much can be learned about what is in the ground by its range of parameters like amount of tones, which frequency, reactivity and silencer setting, and the like.