Learning...

[robertk]

I have had my Deus II for a couple of weeks, and have been hunting parks and old houses to learn it. I'm coming from a Whites Spectra V3i, so I'm not a total newbie, though I'm new to the Deus, obviously. I'm having trouble learning to spot "iron falsing" and was hoping others might have some insights. On the V3i, I was used to old iron giving "iffy" signals that made me wonder if there might be something good next to iron, particularly on the "edges" of the iron thing. But they tended to be pretty "iffy" and I knew it was a gamble to dig them. But I've had a few on the Deus II that seemed really good signals, that turned out to be iron.

A prime example is last night I got a fairly quiet signal with a TID of 99 at an old house site. I had the XY display on and it showed a perfect diagonal straight line (no hooks or tails) in the non-ferrous quadrants. It seemed a perfect signal for something good. So I dug. I dug to the point that my knife-type digger was entirely in the ground, and I still wasn't finding it. The signal remained good over the hole, though, so I got a bigger shovel and went deeper. About a foot and a half down I found the remains of an old bucket. There was nothing in it, and the walls were rusty and crumbling, so I assume it was at least partly iron. I ran a piece of it under the coil and sure enough, got that nice high TID signal. I've seen people saying to learn how the sounds to know the good targets from the bad, but this was a perfect little high pitched sound to my ears -- smooth, not jumpy or erratic, and repeatable from multiple directions over the target. It sounded great, and showed as non-ferrous, but it was just old iron trash.

I know detecting isn't a perfect science, but is there a trick to shorten the learning curve a little? The low pitched iron grunts are easy to ignore, but when you have a high tone and it says it's non-ferrous, how do you know when it's being fooled by old iron? Is it even possible to know, short of digging?

 

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[Blackfoot58]

I have had my Deus II for a couple of weeks, and have been hunting parks and old houses to learn it. I'm coming from a Whites Spectra V3i, so I'm not a total newbie, though I'm new to the Deus, obviously. I'm having trouble learning to spot "iron falsing" and was hoping others might have some insights. On the V3i, I was used to old iron giving "iffy" signals that made me wonder if there might be something good next to iron, particularly on the "edges" of the iron thing. But they tended to be pretty "iffy" and I knew it was a gamble to dig them. But I've had a few on the Deus II that seemed really good signals, that turned out to be iron.

A prime example is last night I got a fairly quiet signal with a TID of 99 at an old house site. I had the XY display on and it showed a perfect diagonal straight line (no hooks or tails) in the non-ferrous quadrants. It seemed a perfect signal for something good. So I dug. I dug to the point that my knife-type digger was entirely in the ground, and I still wasn't finding it. The signal remained good over the hole, though, so I got a bigger shovel and went deeper. About a foot and a half down I found the remains of an old bucket. There was nothing in it, and the walls were rusty and crumbling, so I assume it was at least partly iron. I ran a piece of it under the coil and sure enough, got that nice high TID signal. I've seen people saying to learn how the sounds to know the good targets from the bad, but this was a perfect little high pitched sound to my ears -- smooth, not jumpy or erratic, and repeatable from multiple directions over the target. It sounded great, and showed as non-ferrous, but it was just old iron trash.

I know detecting isn't a perfect science, but is there a trick to shorten the learning curve a little? The low pitched iron grunts are easy to ignore, but when you have a high tone and it says it's non-ferrous, how do you know when it's being fooled by old iron? Is it even possible to know, short of digging?

I have a different detector, but was having the exact same issues: ring up a solid 85 ID for non-ferrous and dig up a couple of rusty iron pieces.
I searched youTube for tips on my brand of machine. Some were very helpful. I’d bet there are similar available for Deus II. Good luck

 

[pepperj]

I have had my Deus II for a couple of weeks, and have been hunting parks and old houses to learn it. I'm coming from a Whites Spectra V3i, so I'm not a total newbie, though I'm new to the Deus, obviously. I'm having trouble learning to spot "iron falsing" and was hoping others might have some insights. On the V3i, I was used to old iron giving "iffy" signals that made me wonder if there might be something good next to iron, particularly on the "edges" of the iron thing. But they tended to be pretty "iffy" and I knew it was a gamble to dig them. But I've had a few on the Deus II that seemed really good signals, that turned out to be iron.

A prime example is last night I got a fairly quiet signal with a TID of 99 at an old house site. I had the XY display on and it showed a perfect diagonal straight line (no hooks or tails) in the non-ferrous quadrants. It seemed a perfect signal for something good. So I dug. I dug to the point that my knife-type digger was entirely in the ground, and I still wasn't finding it. The signal remained good over the hole, though, so I got a bigger shovel and went deeper. About a foot and a half down I found the remains of an old bucket. There was nothing in it, and the walls were rusty and crumbling, so I assume it was at least partly iron. I ran a piece of it under the coil and sure enough, got that nice high TID signal. I've seen people saying to learn how the sounds to know the good targets from the bad, but this was a perfect little high pitched sound to my ears -- smooth, not jumpy or erratic, and repeatable from multiple directions over the target. It sounded great, and showed as non-ferrous, but it was just old iron trash.

I know detecting isn't a perfect science, but is there a trick to shorten the learning curve a little? The low pitched iron grunts are easy to ignore, but when you have a high tone and it says it's non-ferrous, how do you know when it's being fooled by old iron? Is it even possible to know, short of digging?

Have you downloaded the latest version 1.0?

I have the Deus 1 & ll machines and though they are similar in a lot of ways-different in many as well.
I used only the X/Y screen on the D1, and only switched over to it on the D2.

On deep iron as a thin tin bucket the truth be known we get fooled also. The X/Y gets fooled, the #99 is a rarity for me, and I have yet to dig anything good. (Oh we hear the large silvers are a #99)

The sound that gives off depends on what program, audio setting, and a few other things.

On just using the #'s and not the X/Y if I sweep over the target again and again and if the #'s fall then I'm going with iron. But then using only sound has gotten me to dig and sure enough it's a rusted variation of something.

There are certain #'s in my sites that are a given, 84=sq. nail, 77/79s are iron also.

If the sound gets dragged down a bit it's iron usually. ( There are some learning videos that show this quite well-thinking the Deus detecting school )

Going from the Whites to the Deus is a leap, and it will get better. Meaning put the time in and dig, dig, and dig some more. I find by looking at videos help a bit, reading a tad more, experience in your world is the only way-kind of sucks when we wish for the short cut.

 

[robertk]

Have you downloaded the latest version 1.0?

Yes. That was a noticeable improvement -- it was pretty chattery on 0.7, but 1.0 is much quieter.

On deep iron as a thin tin bucket the truth be known we get fooled also.

Then I don't feel so bad. .

The X/Y gets fooled

Have you ever seen anything go the other way -- a high TID with a "bad" X/Y that turned out to be a good target? I'm still pretty much digging everything to learn, but I'm generally ignoring things that X/Y as ferrous, or that have the graph jumping all over the place with every swing.

Going from the Whites to the Deus is a leap, and it will get better. Meaning put the time in and dig, dig, and dig some more. I find by looking at videos help a bit, reading a tad more, experience in your world is the only way-kind of sucks when we wish for the short cut.

For sure. I'm glad to have at least a little experience, so the machine isn't quite as imposing as I imagine it would be for a beginner. Definitely a lot to learn. The good thing is that I enjoy it -- even digging "bad" targets is interesting. For example, I've dug a few old railroad spikes that I will probably make knives out of one of these days, and I found a rusty old horseshoe that I'll probably hang over the door. (The horseshoe, other than being rusty, seems unused but still has the nails in it. Maybe it was originally a wall hanger in the old house too?)

 

[DigDog201]

Yes. That was a noticeable improvement -- it was pretty chattery on 0.7, but 1.0 is much quieter.


Then I don't feel so bad. .


Have you ever seen anything go the other way -- a high TID with a "bad" X/Y that turned out to be a good target? I'm still pretty much digging everything to learn, but I'm generally ignoring things that X/Y as ferrous, or that have the graph jumping all over the place with every swing.


For sure. I'm glad to have at least a little experience, so the machine isn't quite as imposing as I imagine it would be for a beginner. Definitely a lot to learn. The good thing is that I enjoy it -- even digging "bad" targets is interesting. For example, I've dug a few old railroad spikes that I will probably make knives out of one of these days, and I found a rusty old horseshoe that I'll probably hang over the door. (The horseshoe, other than being rusty, seems unused but still has the nails in it. Maybe it was originally a wall hanger in the old house too?)

Numbers on the scale are never 100% accurate and I don’t suppose the x/y is anymore accurate.
Personally i think it just makes it more interesting for some as opposed to just hunting by sound.
As for the horseshoe they say for good luck it is supposed to be a used one. A blacksmith will have plenty of old used ones to give away

 

[robertk]

Numbers on the scale are never 100% accurate and I don’t suppose the x/y is anymore accurate.
Personally i think it just makes it more interesting for some as opposed to just hunting by sound.
As for the horseshoe they say for good luck it is supposed to be a used one. A blacksmith will have plenty of old used ones to give away

Hmmm. I hadn’t really thought about it that way but that makes sense. If the numbers are wrong there’s really no reason to think the X/Y is any better. Good advice.

As for the horseshoe, I’ve found three so far. One is huge and definitely seems used. Kinda thin.

 

[Emil W]

I find the X/Y much more accurate than the numbers. Every time I thought the X/Y was iffy, it turned out to be a target I probably shouldn't have dug. Every time the X/Y was nice and straight, the target was definitely worth digging. After a while I knew when to dig and when it probably wasn't worth the effort. I only use the X/Y on both the Deus 1 and 2.

 

[robertk]

Every time the X/Y was nice and straight, the target was definitely worth digging.

Well most of my hunting so far has been an old house site and one outing at the local park so I don’t have a lot of good targets to go by yet. But I can say that all the (clad) coins I’ve found so far have been solid TID with a nice straight XY line. But I need a lot more time swinging the coil to say for anything for sure.

 

[pepperj]

Well most of my hunting so far has been an old house site and one outing at the local park so I don’t have a lot of good targets to go by yet. But I can say that all the (clad) coins I’ve found so far have been solid TID with a nice straight XY line. But I need a lot more time swinging the coil to say for anything for sure.

I haven't used the X/Y as much on the Deus ll as I did on the one.
Yesterday I was at a site. Rock was 4 or less under the sod. That made everything close. The tin hadn't rusted away so hunting was a challenge. I completely forgot about the X/Y screen, as it would have been very useful.
The R/R spikes sound up nice regardless.

 

[robertk]

Just a follow up on this... I've dug a 7-gallon bucket full of things out of the ground now, the vast majority of them iron. I've been using the factory "fast" program with x/y turned on. But I actually have started to hear the difference in the sound for iron falsing vs a good target. It's actually pretty hard to describe, but the iron has a "hard" sound to it, like it has very sharp and abrupt start and stop. The other things I'm digging (lead and brass, mostly) have a "soft" sound, where the edges of the sound are softer, not so sharp, like they sort of fade in and fade out as you cross the target. I can't say that every "hard" sound I dig is bad, but I can say that so far, the "soft" sounds have always been something other than iron. I don't know if that's useful to anyone, but there it is.

 

[Ism]

Just a follow up on this... I've dug a 7-gallon bucket full of things out of the ground now, the vast majority of them iron. I've been using the factory "fast" program with x/y turned on. But I actually have started to hear the difference in the sound for iron falsing vs a good target. It's actually pretty hard to describe, but the iron has a "hard" sound to it, like it has very sharp and abrupt start and stop. The other things I'm digging (lead and brass, mostly) have a "soft" sound, where the edges of the sound are softer, not so sharp, like they sort of fade in and fade out as you cross the target. I can't say that every "hard" sound I dig is bad, but I can say that so far, the "soft" sounds have always been something other than iron. I don't know if that's useful to anyone, but there it is.

You described it just fine.