Tell me about the XP Deus

[gunsil]

Hi, I am pondering whether or not to get a Deus. Some people seem to say they are superb about finding good stuff among iron junk and others seem to say they are great at finding iron. I don't get it. My Safari will get fooled a lot by rusty nails giving a silver tone and VID, and I don't find it needs to be swung slow at all and is a heavy beast to use for long hunts. My ATP is fast and light and a great trashy area coin shooter. I realize the Deus is nice and light and wireless is nice (I have Auvio phones too), but what are some really good reasons to go for a Deus? I have been detecting since 1970 and am a gear head for sure (also have an Infinium and Excal, and three different brands of pin pointers), but I need really great rationale to spend the bucks for a Deus. Come on you Deus guys, lemme hear something that makes me NEED rather than just WANT one!!!

 

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[vferrari]

Not sure I can convince you that the Deus is a must have, but I would say some of the things that sets the Deus apart from the detectors you mentioned (beside the obvious features you already mentioned - light weight and wireless) are:

The Deus can be programmed to operate at 4 discrete frequencies, 4, 8, 12, and 18 khz. Not just frequency shifted. Of course it is not a multifrequency detector like the higher end Minelabs (E-Trac/CTX 3030 or some of the Whites), but switching frequency on the fly is an effective secondary "discrimination" method to ID rusted bottlecaps and other Iron junk that might ring up high. That is, the Target ID (TID) number will change with a bottlecap opposite of a keeper target if you switch frequency. The multiple frequency options also help increase the chances of cutting out EMI that may be prevalent on one or more of the base frequencies. Plus there is a visual TDI mode (X-Y graph) that can be used to visually identify probable junk targets.

You can almost infinitely program the parameters to custom hunting profiles and you can hunt in Disc mode or All Metal VCO mode (Gold Field) and the full tones discrimination mode (Disc can also be set to 0 if desired and multiple notches can be set if desired) really paints an audible picture of the target vs. set ring tones, because distortions in the e field around the target such as what might occur with an irregularly shaped junk target vs. a coin can be heard on the trailing edges of the tone as the coil is passed over the target. You could even program the tones to sound almost exactly like an AT Pro if that's what you want. Multiple ground balance modes including fixed, tracking, pumped, and wet (salt) sand bias can be used.

The responsiveness (recovery or reactivity in XP vernacular) of the detector can be adjusted across a range well beyond any detector out there today, which really helps in trashy areas.

i think these features are great and balance out the most significant "weakness" of the XP design (and in a true double-edged sword analogy, may also be its greatest strength), namely, that since the coil contains most of the brains of the detector and is actively powered by its own battery, switching coils is not an inexpensive proposition. You are basically buying a new detector when you get a new coil. Here's the upside to that downside, if you have both the wireless headset and the wireless control box (the typical setup) you can pair each coil to both or one coil can be paired to the headset and one coil can be paired to the control box (which has a jack for a traditional wired headset) and voila, you have two detectors (the controller on the wireless backphones can also be detached from the backphones and either paired with a third party over the ear set of phones, used standalone on your wrist or mounted to the coil stem handle, or connected to an inexpensive headphone adapter to provide a wired headphone setup if desired. Finally, if your head is not already spinning with the wizardry of all those wireless options and the multiple configuration permutations they enable, XP is planning on releasing a wireless waterproof pinpointer that can be paired and used in conjunction with the Deus integrated with the coil to allow automatic switching between the coil and pinpointer when the is switched on. I don't find the lack of specialty coil options to be a drawback because, for me, the 9" coil can be electronically programmed to work like a sniper coil in high trash or a deep search coil in relic hunting situations.

All software upgrades are free downloads and can be uploaded to the control box using a usb cable.

Finally, it is very easy and cheap to weatherproof and shallow water hunt by simply purchasing a waterproof phone case for the cell phone sized control box for less than 10 bucks. And there are ways to make it a surf machine with a little more investment in $$. Though personally, I would use a dedicated surf machine if I was doing extensive surf hunting/diving.

I am sure I missed something since this was sort of a stream of consciousness write-up but hope this helps.

 

[Calabash Digger]

heres one reason!

 

[Calabash Digger]

Nice write up vferari heres another reason ,

 

[vferrari]

Amen, a calabash digger video is worth 10000 vferrari words!

 

[bzepol8]

Your safari and your ATP will be made obsolete when XP introduces their next upgrade. For that reason alone, you should buy one. BL

 

[vferrari]

Your safari and your ATP will be made obsolete when XP introduces their next upgrade. For that reason alone, you should buy one. BL

Well that might be overselling it a bit, because I am not sure the software alone will change how today's Deus base hardware works that much (or put another way, with that logic you could make an argument that the existing XP software may already render those detectors obsolete - though I personally would not go that far in singing the virtues of the Deus). But it certainly can be a new machine with the upcoming hardware (pinpointer and new higher frequency coils) to go along with that upgraded software (if it ever gets released, lol). I can understand your enthusiasm, though, because you have been having great success with your Deus with some sweet finds in your "hunted out" gold rush sites. Forgive me if you were referring to both the hardware and software by the term "upgrade", I took it to mean just the software because that is a free upgrade.

 

[gunsil]

Thank you guys! Another question, when looking at the XP site they seem to say one needs a computer working on Windows for updates. I only have Apple computers, will they work for this?? Personally I don't believe the machine can be any good in a salt sand situation just because it has a mode for that. It is still a single freq. machine and cannot be efficient in highly mineralized or salt situations. How about things people dislike about the Deus??

 

[Carolina Tom]

What do people NOT like about it... they don't like how light it is, because I can swing it all day... AT Pro tired me out after 3 hours. People dislike the processor speed... because I find items in the iron that nulls their machine out.

Ultra-light and wireless sold me about 2.5 years ago... and I haven't looked back. The machine works really well, and can easily be configured for varied hunting conditions.

 

[Calabash Digger]

Im being honest here most the negative comments ive ever seen from people are people who have never had one or bought one and didnt learn it. Its different than say a pro in this way you cut the pro on pretty much go pro zero,gb, and set discrim. the deus has settings that can be adjusted which affects performance and you need to take the time to learn them THEN you program it to suit your needs and its basically a turn on and go after that with a tweak here and there for different site conditions. Its not that hard to learn really its not.

 

[BobTheDigger]

What I really like about the Deus is that I can set it up to my personal preference and then you can easily adjust it to the conditions you are hunting in the field. You don't need to change the coil to go deep or to hunt in trash, a few quick adjustments and you're on your way. Its also light, deep, fast, and all components have built in rechargeable batteries. I've had the Deus for a year and haven't used any of my other machines since, for me its that good.

 

[Geochem]

Not sure I can convince you that the Deus is a must have, but I would say some of the things that sets the Deus apart from the detectors you mentioned (beside the obvious features you already mentioned - light weight and wireless) are:

The Deus can be programmed to operate at 4 discrete frequencies, 4, 8, 12, and 18 khz. Not just frequency shifted. Of course it is not a multifrequency detector like the higher end Minelabs (E-Trac/CTX 3030 or some of the Whites), but switching frequency on the fly is an effective secondary "discrimination" method to ID rusted bottlecaps and other Iron junk that might ring up high. That is, the Target ID (TID) number will change with a bottlecap opposite of a keeper target if you switch frequency. The multiple frequency options also help increase the chances of cutting out EMI that may be prevalent on one or more of the base frequencies. Plus there is a visual TDI mode (X-Y graph) that can be used to visually identify probable junk targets.

You can almost infinitely program the parameters to custom hunting profiles and you can hunt in Disc mode or All Metal VCO mode (Gold Field) and the full tones discrimination mode (Disc can also be set to 0 if desired and multiple notches can be set if desired) really paints an audible picture of the target vs. set ring tones, because distortions in the e field around the target such as what might occur with an irregularly shaped junk target vs. a coin can be heard on the trailing edges of the tone as the coil is passed over the target. You could even program the tones to sound almost exactly like an AT Pro if that's what you want. Multiple ground balance modes including fixed, tracking, pumped, and wet (salt) sand bias can be used.

The responsiveness (recovery or reactivity in XP vernacular) of the detector can be adjusted across a range well beyond any detector out there today, which really helps in trashy areas.

i think these features are great and balance out the most significant "weakness" of the XP design (and in a true double-edged sword analogy, may also be its greatest strength), namely, that since the coil contains most of the brains of the detector and is actively powered by its own battery, switching coils is not an inexpensive proposition. You are basically buying a new detector when you get a new coil. Here's the upside to that downside, if you have both the wireless headset and the wireless control box (the typical setup) you can pair each coil to both or one coil can be paired to the headset and one coil can be paired to the control box (which has a jack for a traditional wired headset) and voila, you have two detectors (the controller on the wireless backphones can also be detached from the backphones and either paired with a third party over the ear set of phones, used standalone on your wrist or mounted to the coil stem handle, or connected to an inexpensive headphone adapter to provide a wired headphone setup if desired. Finally, if your head is not already spinning with the wizardry of all those wireless options and the multiple configuration permutations they enable, XP is planning on releasing a wireless waterproof pinpointer that can be paired and used in conjunction with the Deus integrated with the coil to allow automatic switching between the coil and pinpointer when the is switched on. I don't find the lack of specialty coil options to be a drawback because, for me, the 9" coil can be electronically programmed to work like a sniper coil in high trash or a deep search coil in relic hunting situations.

All software upgrades are free downloads and can be uploaded to the control box using a usb cable.

Finally, it is very easy and cheap to weatherproof and shallow water hunt by simply purchasing a waterproof phone case for the cell phone sized control box for less than 10 bucks. And there are ways to make it a surf machine with a little more investment in $$. Though personally, I would use a dedicated surf machine if I was doing extensive surf hunting/diving.

I am sure I missed something since this was sort of a stream of consciousness write-up but hope this helps.

I was wondering the same, what makes the Deus different. And thank you for such a detailed summary!

 

[Geochem]

heres one reason!

Your videos are super! Like we are there with you learning!

 

[vferrari]

Thank you guys! Another question, when looking at the XP site they seem to say one needs a computer working on Windows for updates. I only have Apple computers, will they work for this?? Personally I don't believe the machine can be any good in a salt sand situation just because it has a mode for that. It is still a single freq. machine and cannot be efficient in highly mineralized or salt situations. How about things people dislike about the Deus??

I have not found a satisfactory answer for the mac question. Looks like XP only releases the firmwre updates as windows compatible files. Suppose you can run WINE or another windows emulator on your macs or simply have someone you know with a pc upload the firmware using their PC or laptop.

Regarding, salt beach hunting, as I said, a dedicated surf machine such as an excal or pi machine such as your infinium would outperform the Deus, but if you could only use one machine, the Deus can be used. Regarding highly mineralized conditions, I have successfully used the Deus for relic hunting in highly mineralized red clay in central VA. Sure a $2.5K pi machine like an ATX or Minelab GPX will go deeper, but the XP can be set up to be usable under those conditions when some other, even high end, vlf machines are rendered practically blind. I think the DEUS cannot outperform certain "tuned" machines that are designed for specific tasks such as gold nugget hunting, relic hunting, surf hunting, and even certain types of coin and jewelry hunting. But it will certainly perform well at all those tasks under a variety of environmental conditions.

Wish list items/things that can be done better:

There are some quirky aspects to the programming and user interface that could be improved (silencer setting has a mind of its own for instance, it will revert to a default setting whenever you adjust the reactivity and the default it reverts to is dependent on the reactivity setting you use. Don't like this behavior especially since a poor silencer setting can really adversely affect depth if you forget about the gotcha and change reactivity on the fly. Wish you could adjust the pre-set programs and save them in their slots rather than having to save the tweaked preset into one of the few custom program slots, that would enable a greater variety of custom programs to be saved. Programming the custom programs is little clunky and wish you could program custom programs using a graphical user interface via a computer.

 

[Cletus]

Thank you guys! Another question, when looking at the XP site they seem to say one needs a computer working on Windows for updates. I only have Apple computers, will they work for this?? Personally I don't believe the machine can be any good in a salt sand situation just because it has a mode for that. It is still a single freq. machine and cannot be efficient in highly mineralized or salt situations. How about things people dislike about the Deus??

I don't like that it has a clock in the corner of the display. or should I say that I don't like that my wife knows it has a clock lol.
I have only had my new Deus out twice. but i'm very impressed with it. very nice machine

 

[Mifarmer]

I didn't know they have a clock on them, I actually like that. I have been holding out on finding a used deus but so far no luck, the more I read about them the more I want one. I have a lot of trashy/ iron filled sights and it may do better than my atp in that stuff. Thanks for all the info guys!
Kyle-

 

[Calabash Digger]

not may it WILL do better in that stuff.

 

[Calabash Digger]

reminds me of that old steve miller song time keeps on slipping slipping into the future.lol

 

[dandut46]

the deus is like five detectors in one and is better than the five it's like.I never had a detector hit so good on them week faint signals it analyzes what's in the ground very well.the swing speed and response is second to none.it's easy to disable and to resample.you don't have to worry about getting wires tangled in thick it's or branches .it has a lot of features, but I only care about ones I use and that goes for any detector I used .the t2se in to tone plus. I use the etrac in to tone ferrous and at pro in pro zero also used the racer in three tone but to me the racer swings like the at pro , but resembles the t2se ,so with these detectors all came features that I will never use as far as the deus all the setting are more usable .so that's what I like and I don't have anything bad to say ,we'll if I had to say one thing is at first putting in the connections to charge it was a bear , but now I just take my time and they go right in.

 

[dandut46]

the deus is like five detectors in one and is better than the five it's like.I never had a detector hit so good on them week faint signals it analyzes what's in the ground very well.the swing speed and response is second to none.it's easy to disable and to resample.you don't have to worry about getting wires tangled in thick it's or branches .it has a lot of features, but I only care about ones I use and that goes for any detector I used .the t2se in to tone plus. I use the etrac in to tone ferrous and at pro in pro zero also used the racer in three tone but to me the racer swings like the at pro , but resembles the t2se ,so with these detectors all came features that I will never use as far as the deus all the setting are more usable .so that's what I like and I don't have anything bad to say ,we'll if I had to say one thing is at first putting in the connections to charge it was a bear , but now I just take my time and they go right in.



in 2plus tone the etrac I use in two tone ferrous