I don't really have much positive to say about the machine other than its excellent egronomics. My observations about the machine will be negative, but honest. Perhaps others can chime in with workarounds, or perhaps my machine is simply a lemon. It has a very low serial number, so you never know.
* I find, that on program 6, which I almost exclusively use, pull tabs have a higher TID than some wheaties. Pull tabs sound like very good targets, and I dig a ton of them, unlike with my E-Trac, where I can tell the difference between a pulltab and a wheatie.
* I find the battery life of the coil (11 inch) when using program 6 to be about 6 hours or so. The manual says 8. Either way, not enough time if you want to spend the whole day hunting a field, like I do sometimes. My tests were done in cold weather, which will shorten the charge life, but still ...
* I also created custom programs, but then did a software update that deleted them. The software did not warn me that they would be deleted, and even if it did, I find that the prospect of software updates deleting my programs a factor that will make the machine useless for me in the long run, as I am too lazy to key them in from scratch every time.
* I find no depth advantage on silver coins over an FBS machine such as the E-Trac. Alot of hypesters here and elsewhere showing coins being dug in their test gardens and fields at absurd depths. I've never seen these results even close to being repeated or reported in the wild, especially in mineralized dirt like we have around here. The hypesters who have gotten free machines from XP, then posted these unrepeatable results, have taken a huge reputational hit, and it is deserved, IMO. On one forum they are a laughingstock. Watch videos from those who have gotten free machines and point out none of the negatives at your own risk ...
I'm sorry to be so negative, but these are my material results. I hope XP fixes what they can, and I hope you have better luck with your machine.
