Read the manual

[signal_line]

If you are like me, I was anxious to get out detecting and skimmed over the manual and never went back. Wrong!

The first 15 pages are important.

Ground Balance: Most people who buy a Deus are experienced detectorists and know about ground balance. But the Deus is different. mainly the Ground Sensitivity adjustment. The default is "6" and in a lot of places this is too much. "4" or "5" might be a better setting. If you do the pumping with too much Ground Sensitivity lots of times it will set the GB too low and this causes chatter. That will adversely affect your detecting. The manual continually says if the ground is low mineralization (look at the Mineralization graph) leave the GB at "90". I know, I can't stand to do that. the lower you run the GB the more sensitive the coil is and you can get falseing from bumping the coil, so beware.

Reactivity: In mineralized ground you probably want a higher Reactivity setting.

Frequency: In mineralized ground you probably want a higher frequency.

Tx Power: In mineralized ground you probably want a lower Tx Power.

Sensitivity: In mineralized ground you probably want a lower Sensitivity.

Factory Program: If you are using a Factory Program, take a look at the chart to see which one bests suites your area.

More later.

 

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[Relicgrubber]

I cant say this enough here...

Buy a read Andy's books (2) on the Dues and skip the manual imo.

 

[signal_line]

I agree his book is good but for me, my brain needs to see it all in a few pages or even a few sentences or else I can't keep track of everything. I mean I forget what i read the previous page. no joke.

 

[vferrari]

If you are like me, I was anxious to get out detecting and skimmed over the manual and never went back. Wrong!

The first 15 pages are important.

Ground Balance: Most people who buy a Deus are experienced detectorists and know about ground balance. But the Deus is different. mainly the Ground Sensitivity adjustment. The default is "6" and in a lot of places this is too much. "4" or "5" might be a better setting. If you do the pumping with too much Ground Sensitivity lots of times it will set the GB too low and this causes chatter. That will adversely affect your detecting. The manual continually says if the ground is low mineralization (look at the Mineralization graph) leave the GB at "90". I know, I can't stand to do that. the lower you run the GB the more sensitive the coil is and you can get falseing from bumping the coil, so beware.

Reactivity: In mineralized ground you probably want a higher Reactivity setting.

Frequency: In mineralized ground you probably want a higher frequency.

Tx Power: In mineralized ground you probably want a lower Tx Power.

Sensitivity: In mineralized ground you probably want a lower Sensitivity.

Factory Program: If you are using a Factory Program, take a look at the chart to see which one bests suites your area.

More later.

Yes, read your manual and the Andy's book which amplifies a lot of information missing from the manual. Gary's XP skill school videos are good too.

Generally good points above regarding settings for mineralized soil.

Just wanted to clarify something from above...

Note that ground sensitivity only really comes into play when using auto ground tracking, not pumping ground balance. It doesn't affect the ground balance reading, it only affects the ground mineralization change threshold that will precipitate an automatic reading and adjustment (in other words, how much the mineralization bargraph has to change before an automatic ground reading and adjustment is taken during tracking). When you are using pumping ground balance, you are forcing the detector to take a GB reading and adjust GB to the actual measured ground phase, ground sensitivity does not come into play at that point because ground sensitivity only tells the detector WHEN to take the ground reading based on a measured change in MINERALIZATION. It also affects how frequently the measured GB reading updates on display when in manual GB control. But the ground phase reading is the ground phase reading and the reading itself (the number generated) is not affected by the ground sensitivity setting.

So when using tracking in lower mineralized ground, where the mineralization bargraph is height is lower and does not fluctuate much, then you can up the ground sensitivity setting to trigger more frequent ground measurements and adjustments. If you have high mineralization, you want to use a lower setting so that the tracking algorithm is more stable and is not reacting to every mineralization change it senses, causing ground balance instability. I would tend to stay away from trying to use ground tracking in very low mineralized ground. Mineralization changes are what primarily affect changes in ground phase readings, so if there is not a lot of mineralization, there usually is not a lot of fluctuation in GB (there are some exceptions so you have to be vigilant about monitoring your ground phase setting against the continuously displayed ground phase reading).

The fact that the ground sensitivity setting only comes into to play during tracking is not entirely clear in the Deus manual (again the tendency to be brief leaves out some key info or causes ambiguities) but is clearly stated in Andy's handbook on page 38 and is also spelled out by us in his Deus bootcamp classes.

 

[signal_line]

You're right (my bad reading comprehension). It's Ground Notch that works both in Tracking and Pumping mode. I thought i saw it was for Ground Sensitivity, too, but I can't find it now. I don't know why the Pumping mode many times gives a way low Ground Balance setting.

 

[signal_line]

Here's what Gary says in the video talking about Ground Sensitivity: "...this allows the user to adjust how the machine wants to track the ground, how strong does the ground signal have to be before it activates the Tracking OR DELIVERS A RELIABLE GROUND NUMBER." (my caps here) So, not sure who is correct here. I just know too many times i seen it give a way low GB number and I always have mine set at "6". Guess i need to check this one out next time out. And if you watch the video, he has the Ground Balance mode set at MANUAL which doesn't make much sense other than it might work all the time.

 

[vferrari]

Here's what Gary says in the video talking about Ground Sensitivity: "...this allows the user to adjust how the machine wants to track the ground, how strong does the ground signal have to be before it activates the Tracking OR DELIVERS A RELIABLE GROUND NUMBER." (my caps here) So, not sure who is correct here. I just know too many times i seen it give a way low GB number and I always have mine set at "6". Guess i need to check this one out next time out. And if you watch the video, he has the Ground Balance mode set at MANUAL.

Yeah, he is using loose terminology there. It should be "how strong the mineralization signal has to be for tracking to engage a gb measurement and to deliver a gb number." The setting only affects how much of a mineralization change is needed take a gb reading for tracking or display. If the detector does not detect a sufficient mineralization change to provoke a reading over a certain period of time either due to low mineralization or too low a ground sensitivity setting, then it will display a double bar GB reading and default to an 88 gb setting (if tracking GB is being used). I am pretty sure the sensitivity setting does not affect the ability of the detector to actually read the ground if you force it to read the ground during pumping. At least there is no documentation to say that is the case.

 

[Jeff H]

I don't see any conflicting information. I think Gary describes the basics of Ground Sensitivity correctly and V is correct in saying if you have very weak soil, you are likely better off just leaving the Ground Sensitivity at the default value.

Are you dealing with hot soil Signal Line?

 

[signal_line]

Yes, no, sometimes the GB will pump to "60" and i know that isn't right. Much of the grass in the city parks has sand as a base and around here that come right off the mountains (Montana Yellowstone River valley) it is definitely mineralized and can run the Mineralization bar half way up or more. Sometimes only two or three bars which is okay.

I really wonder now about this and will check it out today. i always set my GB and now I think I had it wrong don't know how many times. As for this whole Ground Sensitivity thing, I don't see why they can't in their next update set that as automatic. I don't know who to ask.

 

[signal_line]

i admit this needs further testing, but I did a PUMPING GB with Ground Sensitivity set at "1" and at "10" on ground that had maybe three bars (side to side swinging). The GB was seven points lower at the "10" setting. 80 (at "10") vs 87 (at "1") that's a considerable amount of difference. It sure looks to me like the GS setting is working in the PUMPING mode. I'd like to hear from others' results.

 

[signal_line]

Also the Ground Sensitivity setting has to be set for each program separately or else it runs at the default of "6". I wonder how many deep targets I missed. Ouch! All along I thought it worked only for TRACKING. I bet I'm not the only one who was confused.

 

[vferrari]

If your ground isn't very mineralized which is where the auto ground reading is less "accurate", just leave it at the default of 90. Unless you are in a salt beach environment, the ground phase reading doesn't have that much effect on depth. Lower ground balance settings than "actual" would simply result in more ground noise. If you weren't getting a lot of ground noise, then you are not missing anything. You would only lose depth if you set your GB too high. +/- 7 to 10 points is no big deal, not an unexpected variation in measurement. This is not a precision instrument as far as GB measurement is concerned. Don't overthink it. Don't fret about it.

Before XP provided the ground sensitivity setting in the version 4.2 software, the sensitivity was supposedly fixed at about the 10 level. Highly sensitive. So XP added the adjustment to make tracking more stable and less overly reactive. If you are manually setting GB, or pumping, then the measurement variation/stability is less critical.

 

[Jeff H]

i admit this needs further testing, but I did a PUMPING GB with Ground Sensitivity set at "1" and at "10" on ground that had maybe three bars (side to side swinging). The GB was seven points lower at the "10" setting. 80 (at "10") vs 87 (at "1") that's a considerable amount of difference. It sure looks to me like the GS setting is working in the PUMPING mode. I'd like to hear from others' results.

Interesting observation. The pragmatist in me says set the GB in Manual mode at 86 and forget about the rest . But I hear you. When trying to squeeze every last bit of performance out of your machine, you want to know how and why settings work the way they do.

 

[signal_line]

Quite a variety of mineralization levels around here. Many times I reset the GB every ten feet. Especially on hills can be even worse. I don't really want to say this, but I never found any old coins with the Deus and I just lived with it because I was finding many coins in hunted-out areas. i will definitely be watching this more closely. I've tried to read every word I could find about the Deus and this was never mentioned. I just found the one-line phrase in Gary's video yesterday and even that is hard to decipher. I really just recently stumbled on this by total accident. Well, I don't even know how much this is going to help, but every little bit is good.

 

[Cyberdeus]

I don't really want to say this, but I never found any old coins with the Deus and I just lived with it because I was finding many coins in hunted-out areas.

If you could define what means "old coin" for you? For me finding coins from 1960 is relatively old already. Unless you are speaking about 400 years old coins =D

 

[signal_line]

How about US pre-clad (1963)? Found very few this past year. No doubt in my mind I had the GB set wrong. And i strongly suspect i am not the only one.

 

[vferrari]

Sig Line, why are you opposed to using tracking vs. pumping all the time? I also note that on the ORX you don't even have the option to use tracking or to set ground sensitivity. Didn't prevent me from finding these relics a few weeks ago, including some old 1830 Silver. Like I said previously, the main issue with improper setting of GB low is ground noise, not loss of depth or sensitivity. So if you are not getting a lot of ground noise, then you are probably not missing a thing.



My advice to you is that if you are going to use manual pumping GB, set the ground sensitivity to maximum and get a solid GB. You don,'t have to worry about stability because you don't use tracking. Don't lose sleep over this.

 

[signal_line]

I suspect some people are still confused here. Just to summarize, the Ground Sensitivity setting is not just for the TRACKING mode of GB like I had thought--also runs when you do PUMPING. WHENEVER you see a number in the ground mineralisation index (upper GB window), that number is a direct result of where the Ground Sensitivity is set at. And if you have Ground Sensitivity set too sensitive for your soil conditions, you will get a random, inaccurate number there and IF YOU SET GB TO THAT NUMBER or use TRACKING this will adversely affect your detecting. A wrong Ground Balance will affect depth, target ID, chatter, probably other stuff.

So yeah, when you have more bars showing on the Mineralisation bar graph you can set the Ground Sensitivity higher. If you match the number of bars showing with your GS setting it will be fairly close, but since default is "6" , if you only have two bars showing you will have it set too sensitive. If you are in MANUAL and you don't use that "suggested" index number then it's not an issue. But if you do a PUMPING or TRACKING the GB will be set to that number so make sure the GS is set right. Or if you manually set to the suggested index number, same thing.

 

[vferrari]

Not confused. I recommend if you are just pumping to achieve GB, to set it high (max) so you are assured of getting a strong ground reading independent of the ground mineralization. That worked fine before the 4.2 update for manual ground setting (i.e., when the sensitivity was locked at that level). It was not good for tracking though because it tended to overtrack due to the high sensitivity. So if you are tracking, it is more important to try to match the mineralization level with ground sensitivity to get a stable track.

 

[signal_line]

I guess I did find something in the book about setting the GS but it was still vague and did not explain that the "suggested" mineralisation index window is ALWAYS guided by what the Ground Sensitivity is set to--not just when in the TRACKING mode like i was confused. I was unable to decipher this from all the reading I have done including Andy's book. That's why I am posting this so others do not make the same (costly) false assumption I made. It gives me anxiety right now just thinking about it.