Stacking Custom Programs

Fizzle

Greenie
Jan 7, 2019
19
46
New England
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Tesoro Silver Umax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hello All,

I am a new Deus user. I own the 11 inch coil. The software is robust and I am admittedly very green in terms of my knowledge of detectors and the science behind them.

I am mainly coinshooting in New England. I find my sites are generally contaminated with iron scraps and/or beer cap/cans/tabs.

I am seeking to do two things:

1. Identify a few programs as a starting point which will help me on these sites based on the aforementioned contaminants; and
2. Stack the programs in a logical order on the Deus such that I can toggle between them easily to test targets before I choose to dig.

I am interested to understand the thought process behind how to use different programs to narrow down what a target might be or not be before deciding to dig.

I have found some helpful techniques from Gary with regard to pulling the coil back off questionable targets to identify caps and so forth.

The primary programs I see discussed are the “Hot” program and the “Sifter”. I do own the newest A.S. book and I am slowly working my way through it. I have limited knowledge in terms of detecting so I am facing a steep curve.

Thanks for help getting off to a good start with the Deus. As luck would have it the ground is frozen solid so I am working exclusively in theory at this point.

-Fizzle
 

secondstar

Hero Member
Mar 11, 2017
790
2,940
North Central Connecticut
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, Minelab Equinox, Garrett Ace Apex
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Welcome to TreasureNet! Which 11 inch coil do you own, the LF, HF, or the X35? I am a newer XP Deus owner and have learned a lot from both vferrari and calabash digger so you will want to pay extra attention to what they have to say. The trick with the Deus is to fully understand what each setting does in order to be able to optimize programs for your soil conditions and type of hunting that you do. I like to run my Deus (I have the 11 inch LF coil) with ID Norm turned off. I will then create both a 12K and an 8K version of a program and save them right next to each other. I do this in order to help me identify iron wrap around. If I get a "too good to be true" TID I simply switch from my 12K program to my 8K program. If the TID remains the same, it's iron. If the TID drops, it could be a goody! I am going to paste a link to a thread where I talk about almost learning a lesson the hard way.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/deus/593323-iron-wrap-around-settings-careful.html

The link includes my base coin program, I don't own the X35 or HF coils so I can only speak to how well the program has worked for me on my LF coil. Since posting I now run silencer at -1, nonetheless I've found many, many coins using this program. Be sure to let us know what coil you are using, and again, concentrate on understanding the individual settings!

Mike
 

OP
OP
F

Fizzle

Greenie
Jan 7, 2019
19
46
New England
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Tesoro Silver Umax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks for sharing.

I am running the 11 inch x35 coil.

Fizzle
 

Relicgrubber

Silver Member
Nov 3, 2018
2,664
5,668
Deep East Texas
Detector(s) used
O.G. XP DEUS
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I also recommend purchasing the latest DEUS HANDBOOK by Andy Sabisch. Read it cover to cover. If your still confused afterward read it again. It helps to have the controller in hand when reading the sections on the programs so you can mimic the instructions and fully understand their use and applications.
 

Silvermonkey

Silver Member
Apr 24, 2013
4,546
10,007
Eastern Massachusetts
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
AT Pro, XP Deus
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I would also suggest attending one of Andy's " Deus Boot camps" . I attended one last May, just North of Albany. As a new Deus convert, I found this training class incredibly valuable. Very informative. Very " hands on".
Welcome to T-Net!
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,376
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Don't worry too much about settings just yet, especially if you are coin shooting. I would just suggest going with Deus Fast stock 3 tones and just get used to what Deus is telling you. For coin shooting, use 8 or 12 khz and turn ID Norm OFF in the main profile menu and just go detecting. Deus Fast is the program I use as the base for all my custom programs. If you want, you can save different versions of Deus Fast in the custom program slots and you can then shift between them using the +/- keys. I like to set up the base programs at different frequencies and tone options so I can "instantly" interrogate the target with different frequenies. The response of the target to different frequency along with the tone ID can give you higher confidence as to whether the target is ferrous junk falsing high or a true mid or high conductive keeper. You can't see the different response if all the target ID's are normalized (which on the Deus, they are normalized to 18 khz). Here is a rundown on the settings:

DISCrimimantion: Use the default or dial it up to a max of about 10. I like to keep it around 7. Since the Deus has iron volume, you can still hear the iron even if it is discriminated out so you won't miss anything. So why dial in DISC and still hear the iron, the disc filter also mitigates up and down averaging of a non-ferrous target ID (TID) due to nearby iron.

Expert setting: Tones - Leave it on 3 tones for now. If you get more adventurous, up it to 4 or 5 tones. Note that since on non-ferrous targets, target ID and tone ID increases with operating frequency, ideally you should set up different tone breaks depending on the frequency of the detector. Don't worry about that too much for now. You can also give pitch tone a try for a different take. You don't get a tone ID but it alerts you better to small or faint targets or partially masked targets, IMO. Full tones is also an option, but can be overwhelming to the new Deus user and is best used at minimal discrimination so you can hear iron (iron volume does not work with full tones). I used to use full tones/0 or negative Disc a lot. Not so much now. It still has some niche uses for me though.

Sensitivity: start at 90 and adjust higher or lower as necessary to keep the detector stable or less chatty. No need to go much above 93 as the increase in detection depth plateaus off. If you find yourself having to lower to 85 or less, try a different frequency. Higher frequencies are less sensitive to nearby EMI. Once caveat on this is that if you ARE in thick iron, lowering sensitivity to the 80's will keep ferrous from overloading the coil and may help uncover partially masked non-ferrous targets. This is the basis for Gary's sifting program. It will work even with discrimination set at 7 or higher. You don't need to do it at 0 or 1 disc to sift. Using pitch tone seems to work best for me for sifting.

Expert setting: TX Power. This is the strength of the transmit signal that is used to excite the target. Just leave this at the default 2 for now. If you soil is highly mineralized you should lower it to 1. If your soil is mild - you can up it to 3 for a bit of extra depth. 4 khz on the X35 coil just has two TX Power power settings - Normal and Boost. 4 KHZ is the deepest frequency you can use on high conductors, if the EMI and soil conditions permit, 4 KHZ + BOOST TX power is perhaps the deepest penetrating combo you can use, the window of favorable conditions, primarily EMI level, is small. 4 KHZ tends to be really chatty if there are wifi sources or power lines within line of site of the Deus.

Frequency - I have pretty much covered this above but lower frequencies favor high conductors like copper and silver and higher frequencies favor mid and low conductios like brass, lead, aluminum, and of course gold and small targets like jewelry. I like 8 and 12 khz for coin shooting and 25 khz for relic hunting (primarily mid conductors). I don't do much with 18 khz. 4 khz for deep seeking coins when conditions permit. Even though higher frequencies tend to excite small and mid-conductive targets better than low frequencies, high frequencies tend to have limited penetration into the ground regardless of target composition/conductivity.

Iron Level/Volume - sets the volume of any target that is detected in the discriminated range (below the breakpoint setting of the discriminator).

Reactivity Setting - This is a key parameter that determines the recovery speed of the Deus and is its main performance benefit. The ability to run fast, hot, and to separate between targets. A good middle of the road setting is about 2. 1 is still pretty fast. 2.5 is my compromise setting. 3 is really fast and I rarely if ever set my Deus above this setting. The trade off is that with faster reactivity/recovery speed settings, deeper/fainter signals will sound clipped which can result in signals not being heard at depth. If you want to not miss deeper targets trade off recovery speed for depth. So set it to 1 or 2 if you are going for depth.

Expert Setting: Silencer - In Deus Fast, the silencer is defaulted to off (-1). I prefer to have it off because it is a filter than can silence partially masked non-ferrous targets. Silencer can change automatically with a change in reactivity setting. It is a tricky thing. Just be aware of it and to check to make it is off (-1) and not 0 though 3 which can help with iron falsing especially from crown caps but cause you to miss targets. I don't like to miss targets, so will put up with the iron noise, plus you can use tricks or train your ear to recognize the falsing junk with experience.

Audio level - Lower settings cause deep targets to be barely audible so you have a sense of depth based on the audio intensity. I don't like to miss targets so keep this at 4 or 5 which lessens the depth modulation audio of targets so you can hear deep targets almost as loud as shallow targets.

Notch - I don't use it.

Ground Balance - if you ground reading on the right hand side of the screen does not vary much, just manually adjust the ground reading to match within a few points of the ground reading. Otherwise, I use tracking ground balance which works quite will with the Deus. Don't confuse ground balance with minieralization (the bargraph on the far right). Mineralization can affect ground reading but but is not the only thing that affects ground balance. High mineralziation will naturally limit detectable depth (lower TX power, remember) and can cause ground phase to be highly variable at a site. So with high mineralization, I use GB tracking.

Use a test garden or test targets to get used to the Deus language before hitting the site.

When learning the Deus - dig everything even if you think its junk or nails so you can understand how the Deus DOES respond to junk. Since no detector is foolproof in IDing targets, you will find some keepers you thought were definitely going to be junk.

That should be enough to get you started coin shooting and thinking about things to ask. Have fun.
 

Last edited:
OP
OP
F

Fizzle

Greenie
Jan 7, 2019
19
46
New England
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Tesoro Silver Umax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Vferrari-

Really helpful response. Thanks for breaking that down in a manageable way.
 

Iffy Signals

Sr. Member
Sep 17, 2018
484
730
Rhode Island
Detector(s) used
Current-Deus & Equinox 800. Past - CTX, F75, AT Pro/Max, F44, Patriot.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Another New Englander!! RI here.
 

OP
OP
F

Fizzle

Greenie
Jan 7, 2019
19
46
New England
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Tesoro Silver Umax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I would also be interested to learn some of the ways Deus users toggle programs to be able to quickly interrogate targets.

Frequency, etc.

For example, how many variations of the same base program do you save and how are you using the settings discussed above to dial in the target. In my mind’s eye, I am envisioning the saved programs as an aggregate processing plant. Each saved program in essence further refining the ID of the target.
 

OP
OP
F

Fizzle

Greenie
Jan 7, 2019
19
46
New England
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Tesoro Silver Umax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks for that suggestion. I didn't realize a seminar was available.
 

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,682
40,650
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Yes, do what Vferrari says. He is good, we dig together frequently. Here's my tip. Take a deep breath, read the books, then use Deus Fast FACTORY SETTINGS. DO NOT TWEAK. I like tracking ground balance and use 3 tones. I keep it simple. And I find a ton of stuff. I will post this tomorrow or the next day (still shaking) or so but I was digging a tiny spot where I found a complete ca 1690 colonial hoe 2 weeks ago or so. Went back to the exact spot the hoe came out of to see if I missed anything. I found oyster shells had been under the hoe, many bigger than your outstretched hand. Under the oyster shells today were FIVE HAMMERED COLONIAL COINS - a small cache. For the first few months, dig it all, let God sort it out. If I hadn't dug that huge iron hoe, no coins, let alone the buckles, buttons, glassware, ceramics, pipe stems and buckshot and other assorted items from the spot. I am still shaking. FACTORY SETTINGS nailed them. What I have found with "tweaking" and custom settings is you can accidentally cancel out some very fine relics and coins. Or maybe I'm just dumb. Vferrari knows the math on these machines, I just play with them!
 

secondstar

Hero Member
Mar 11, 2017
790
2,940
North Central Connecticut
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, Minelab Equinox, Garrett Ace Apex
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I’ll second what smokeythecat said, tweaking programs in the beginning without fully understanding the machine can (will) cause you to miss good targets. My coin program is very safe, the most “adventurous” tweak that I made is that I added a 4th tone that breaks at where a US silver dime should hit. Clearly, I will dig any repeatable tone / TID, I just love hearing that clear, bright tone that the machine makes when the coil passes over a higher conductor. As previously stated, I am a huge fan of setting ID Norm to off and creating both 12K and 8K versions of programs and saving them next to each other so that I can quickly toggle back and forth to scrutinize a target. But, as you’ve heard from the pros, Deus Fast is a great program to start with. Take your time and enjoy the learning process. I’ve had a blast and have really enjoyed using the machine as well as getting the opportunity to interact with the folks in the forum.
 

Possum

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2017
1,912
2,477
Southeast Louisiana
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 and Equinox 800, XP Deus, Shadow X5, Shadow X2, Fisher F44, Whites Coinmaster, and Tesoro Compadre'
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Don't worry too much about settings just yet, especially if you are coin shooting. I would just suggest going with Deus Fast stock 3 tones and just get used to what Deus is telling you. For coin shooting, use 8 or 12 khz and turn ID Norm OFF in the main profile menu and just go detecting. Deus Fast is the program I use as the base for all my custom programs. If you want, you can save different versions of Deus Fast in the custom program slots and you can then shift between them using the +/- keys. I like to set up the base programs at different frequencies and tone options so I can "instantly" interrogate the target with different frequenies. The response of the target to different frequency along with the tone ID can give you higher confidence as to whether the target is ferrous junk falsing high or a true mid or high conductive keeper. You can't see the different response if all the target ID's are normalized (which on the Deus, they are normalized to 18 khz). Here is a rundown on the settings:

DISCrimimantion: Use the default or dial it up to a max of about 10. I like to keep it around 7. Since the Deus has iron volume, you can still hear the iron even if it is discriminated out so you won't miss anything. So why dial in DISC and still hear the iron, the disc filter also mitigates up and down averaging of a non-ferrous target ID (TID) due to nearby iron.

Expert setting: Tones - Leave it on 3 tones for now. If you get more adventurous, up it to 4 or 5 tones. Note that since on non-ferrous targets, target ID and tone ID increases with operating frequency, ideally you should set up different tone breaks depending on the frequency of the detector. Don't worry about that too much for now. You can also give pitch tone a try for a different take. You don't get a tone ID but it alerts you better to small or faint targets or partially masked targets, IMO. Full tones is also an option, but can be overwhelming to the new Deus user and is best used at minimal discrimination so you can hear iron (iron volume does not work with full tones). I used to use full tones/0 or negative Disc a lot. Not so much now. It still has some niche uses for me though.

Sensitivity: start at 90 and adjust higher or lower as necessary to keep the detector stable or less chatty. No need to go much above 93 as the increase in detection depth plateaus off. If you find yourself having to lower to 85 or less, try a different frequency. Higher frequencies are less sensitive to nearby EMI. Once caveat on this is that if you ARE in thick iron, lowering sensitivity to the 80's will keep ferrous from overloading the coil and may help uncover partially masked non-ferrous targets. This is the basis for Gary's sifting program. It will work even with discrimination set at 7 or higher. You don't need to do it at 0 or 1 disc to sift. Using pitch tone seems to work best for me for sifting.

Expert setting: TX Power. This is the strength of the transmit signal that is used to excite the target. Just leave this at the default 2 for now. If you soil is highly mineralized you should lower it to 1. If your soil is mild - you can up it to 3 for a bit of extra depth. 4 khz on the X35 coil just has two TX Power power settings - Normal and Boost. 4 KHZ is the deepest frequency you can use on high conductors, if the EMI and soil conditions permit, 4 KHZ + BOOST TX power is perhaps the deepest penetrating combo you can use, the window of favorable conditions, primarily EMI level, is small. 4 KHZ tends to be really chatty if there are wifi sources or power lines within line of site of the Deus.

Frequency - I have pretty much covered this above but lower frequencies favor high conductors like copper and silver and higher frequencies favor mid and low conductios like brass, lead, aluminum, and of course gold and small targets like jewelry. I like 8 and 12 khz for coin shooting and 25 khz for relic hunting (primarily mid conductors). I don't do much with 18 khz. 4 khz for deep seeking coins when conditions permit. Even though higher frequencies tend to excite small and mid-conductive targets better than low frequencies, high frequencies tend to have limited penetration into the ground regardless of target composition/conductivity.

Iron Level/Volume - sets the volume of any target that is detected in the discriminated range (below the breakpoint setting of the discriminator).

Reactivity Setting - This is a key parameter that determines the recovery speed of the Deus and is its main performance benefit. The ability to run fast, hot, and to separate between targets. A good middle of the road setting is about 2. 1 is still pretty fast. 2.5 is my compromise setting. 3 is really fast and I rarely if ever set my Deus above this setting. The trade off is that with faster reactivity/recovery speed settings, deeper/fainter signals will sound clipped which can result in signals not being heard at depth. If you want to not miss deeper targets trade off recovery speed for depth. So set it to 1 or 2 if you are going for depth.

Expert Setting: Silencer - In Deus Fast, the silencer is defaulted to off (-1). I prefer to have it off because it is a filter than can silence partially masked non-ferrous targets. Silencer can change automatically with a change in reactivity setting. It is a tricky thing. Just be aware of it and to check to make it is off (-1) and not 0 though 3 which can help with iron falsing especially from crown caps but cause you to miss targets. I don't like to miss targets, so will put up with the iron noise, plus you can use tricks or train your ear to recognize the falsing junk with experience.

Audio level - Lower settings cause deep targets to be barely audible so you have a sense of depth based on the audio intensity. I don't like to miss targets so keep this at 4 or 5 which lessens the depth modulation audio of targets so you can hear deep targets almost as loud as shallow targets.

Notch - I don't use it.

Ground Balance - if you ground reading on the right hand side of the screen does not vary much, just manually adjust the ground reading to match within a few points of the ground reading. Otherwise, I use tracking ground balance which works quite will with the Deus. Don't confuse ground balance with minieralization (the bargraph on the far right). Mineralization can affect ground reading but but is not the only thing that affects ground balance. High mineralziation will naturally limit detectable depth (lower TX power, remember) and can cause ground phase to be highly variable at a site. So with high mineralization, I use GB tracking.

Use a test garden or test targets to get used to the Deus language before hitting the site.

When learning the Deus - dig everything even if you think its junk or nails so you can understand how the Deus DOES respond to junk. Since no detector is foolproof in IDing targets, you will find some keepers you thought were definitely going to be junk.

That should be enough to get you started coin shooting and thinking about things to ask. Have fun.

awesomepossum.jpg
Write up and great info Hugh, Thanks for sharing!!! "D"
 

Possum

Bronze Member
Nov 22, 2017
1,912
2,477
Southeast Louisiana
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 and Equinox 800, XP Deus, Shadow X5, Shadow X2, Fisher F44, Whites Coinmaster, and Tesoro Compadre'
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Welcome Banner.gif

​T-net from Southeast Louisiana!!!
 

sleepyjim

Sr. Member
Jun 8, 2013
319
152
Reno Ish Nevada
Detector(s) used
SDC2300, GM1000, XP Deus, GB Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
What I was told when I started and I live by now is simple, Deus is a tone machine, forget the TID. Use Fast (or another proven program for you hunting and area) and dig EVERYTHING, this will seem stupid and all but then one day (Different amount of time for all of us) you will mentally be calling what your about to dig, your brain is aligned with the tones, it will just happen. And then my man you will be killin it....

I would avoid changing settings much or at all, I would NOT swap around programs, the idea is Deus is a tone machine as I said, swapping programs and tons of settings makes your brain to start over.....

Not sure I am explaining it correctly but hope it makes sense, trust the process, you will be way ahead by slowing down now.

GL HH and post those finds

Jim
 

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,682
40,650
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
As you progress, if you wind up in a spot that still has iron but the big non ferrous objects are gone, go slowly and listen for mid tones that are weak, most of the time with nothing on the VDI or "horseshoe". As long as it's not going onk onk onk like on iron, it is probably a goodie very deep. BTW after the 2nd day of digging our hole out, we came out with 7 colonial coins, not 5.
 

secondstar

Hero Member
Mar 11, 2017
790
2,940
North Central Connecticut
Detector(s) used
XP Deus, Minelab Equinox, Garrett Ace Apex
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
As a newer user I am going to “wade in” to my response to sleepyjim, I welcome the input of more experienced users as always, but here I go... I think that the Deus is in fact a tone machine. But, the user has all of the control over the tones. For example, I created a base program that I use for coin shooting. I set the tone breaks to match my personal preference, and did the same with audio response which I set at 4. Personally, I like where my tones break, and I love the associated pitches. I like audio response 4, to me, it gives a nice perception of target depth and target size, I’ve even found those squeakers that some of the boys talk about, even using an audio response of 4. I don’t like going above 4, I understand the potential consequences of setting AR to a level that is too low, but I like 4.

Here’s what messes me up... I like using reactivity 2, silencer -1. I like the way that the tones sound when the coil passes over a coin, I’m happy. I’ve tried reactivity 3, silencer -1, and it throws me for a loop. To me, a coin tone sounds “too short”, or perhaps clipped, and I don’t like that. If I am overly concerned with target separation then I will break out my Equinox 600 with the 6 inch coil.

The ability to customize the Deus is its best feature. I don’t have as many hours on the machine as others, but I’ve done well nonetheless. I think that there are settings on the Deus that are potentially dangerous, as in you will miss a valuable target if you make a mistake. There are other settings that are personal preference and are therefore subject to interpretation.

Mike
 

sleepyjim

Sr. Member
Jun 8, 2013
319
152
Reno Ish Nevada
Detector(s) used
SDC2300, GM1000, XP Deus, GB Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Mike I agree with you, but your not brand new, the OP is, unless I miss read it...... And I also said to get a program you like, (as you are talking what you like) stick with it and so one.

We are saying about the same thing but your more experienced than he is and Just because I say it or you or whoever (other than CBash and Vferrari) one is to take it all as suggestions, I posted what I was taught to learn the Deus and what it is telling me, before this friendly advice I was all over with this program or that one, changing this and such.......Sure it was fun finger F'in it but not to fun when I realized (after advice) how much loot I surely missed before.

Now Calabash and Vferrari are not human and their planet is way more advanced that ours, they have Deus brains! We mortals, just sit in awe of them and try our best to understand what they are telling us...Seriously, those two are the best and they are so willing to help us when we ask or not. Pure class.

OP understand there is a learning curve, I posted about a good way to learn the Dues once your brain clicks, you will have an easier time when you do start making programs IMO.

All good, thank you Mike,

HH

Jim
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Top