The Truth About XP Deus, page 7

7. Multi-Frequency (Minelab) vs. Single-Frequency with Multiple-Frequency Application (XP Deus and alike)

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What I really do not understand in the Deus' modified versions 4.0-5.X is an increased number of offsets - 6 (3 negative and 3 positive), for each operating frequency with the HF and X35 LF coils! Can somebody please explain to me what SO MANY offsets are for?

Was it not possible to eliminate any external electromagnetic interference (EMI) coming from power lines or other Deus detectors nearby by using the Frequency Shift feature with just two offsets like in previous versions V2.0-V3.2? Throughout my experience with the Deus, I have never used the Frequency Shift feature even in challenging situations.

Knowing that it is not advisable to use the frequency offsets (they negatively affect the detector's performance), I instead would change the base central frequency when necessary.

Moreover, using the Frequency Shift feature at trashy or highly mineralized sites would be absolutely impractical because the TX Power value would automatically adjust to the maximum level upon shifting any frequency; thus, causing great instability of the Deus.

Then why did the XP engineers increase the number of offsets for operating frequencies now totalling to 21 with the HF coils, and 35 with the X35 LF coils? I would not think that XP wanted to make the Deus an official metal detector for mass competition hunts or rallies.

The only good reason that comes to my mind is that this is just another nice marketing trick, and it looks good on XP's adverts! One can say now that the XP Deus can operate on 35 frequencies, which is true, but NOT simultaneously like the Minelab FBS (Full Band Spectrum) metal detectors - the true multi-frequency machines, operating on 27 frequencies at the same instant! An uninformed person may fall for XP's trick, and erroneously assume that the Deus is a multi-frequency detector. It is not! The XP Deus is a SINGLE-FREQUENCY metal detector of the Very Low Frequency (VLF) technology. And, just like any other single-frequency VLF machine, it is prone to substantial Target Missing if a wrong operating frequency is utilized for a certain size of targets sought.

Since the VLF metal detectors were introduced to the market in the late 1960s - early 1970s, the detector manufacturers have been trying to find ways around the main flaw of any VLF detector operating on a single frequency: it can not simultaneously detect both the tiniest superficial targets and large targets at depths.

In 1991, Minelab presented an effective solution - a revolutionary multi-frequency technology called Broad Band Spectrum (BBS). The BBS technology provided concurrent transmission, reception and processing of multiple VLF frequencies.

The BBS technology first appeared in the Minelab Sovereign detectors and right away proved itself quite efficient for general coin shooting and relic hunting because it allowed for simultaneous detection of a wide range of target types and sizes. The Minelab's BBS technology rightfully set a new standard: with a multi-frequency detector, a user only had to cover any search area relatively ONCE to detect most targets in the ground.

The multi-frequency technology also proved itself capable to cope with saltwater environments where the single-frequency VLF detectors (including the XP Deus) would always fail to perform adequately. However, the multi-frequency technology was not sensitive to tiny, low-conductive targets. This shortcoming started a debate among detectorists about which technology is more productive - the multi-frequency or single-frequency.

Despite its imperfection, the multi-frequency platform gained high popularity among serious coin/relic hunters as they began discovering more treasures at the so-called "searched out" hunt sites. With the BBS technology evolving into Full Band Spectrum (FBS) in 1999, the Minelab detectors continued to dominate the market of the coin/relic detectors until 2009 when XP Metal Detectors released its innovative XP Deus.

By incorporating four selectable frequencies, all in one search coil, the single-frequency Deus platform allowed for Multiple-Frequency Application - another effective solution to the old problem of the VLF single-frequency detectors. Now the Deus user could select one of 4 optional operating frequencies in versions 1.2-3.2 to detect specific targets of corresponding sizes/types.

And detecting the tiniest low-conductors was not a problem at all for the Deus operating at 18 kHz! In fact, the 18 kHz frequency was chosen by the XP engineers as the Deus' principal operating frequency because it had already been used with XP's legendary GoldMaxx Power metal detector, a predecessor of the Deus, to a great success. Indeed the Deus LF coils give the best performance at this frequency.

And this is why the ID Norm feature (another XP's great innovation) is calibrated on 18 kHz (and not on any other frequency), i.e. the displayed targets' VDI values are calculated by the Discriminate circuit accordingly (all details will be given in one of my upcoming articles). Unfortunately the ID Norm feature is not available with the HF white coils - this is a big inconvenience for the HF-coil users.

Because XP's multiple-frequency application enabled the coin/relic hunters to find a slightly wider range of target types and sizes, especially with implementation of the fast Recovery Speed at trashy sites, than that with the Minelab's multi-frequency operation, the XP Deus instantly was considered an effective alternative to the Minelab FBS detectors.

The Deus platform turned out to be the best among other selectable-frequency platforms designed by White's, First Texas and Minelab (mid-range detectors). But, even with its innovative features, the Deus still would remain a single-frequency machine that could provide sensitivity only to target sizes/types corresponding to one frequency at a time; thus, making the user's time-efficiency in the field extremely low.

That is why the main drawback of any selectable-frequency platform has always been a necessity of detecting the same search area more than once to extract most targets out of it; not counting the detecting sessions conducted with two or three grid-search patterns (described on this page) for each size/type of targets sought, and sessions carried out with different search coils if the metal detecting conditions vary! If to count just the detecting sessions required by sizes of targets in focus, the Deus user may end up doing four detecting sessions with the legacy LF coils, and five with the x35 LF coils, if the area contains desirable coins and relics varying in sizes that correspond to all base operating frequencies of the Deus.

Yes, this is an inconvenient side-effect of having "4 metal detectors in one". Regardless of this side-effect, the Deus would still bring impressive results. This was why appearance of the Deus reignited the long-time debate over the multi-frequency vs. single-frequency subject.

Despite some shortcomings of the Deus components, the XP Deus started gaining popularity, and XP Metal Detectors began taking a leading position in the market of the coin/relic detectors around 2012. A big advantage of the Deus over the Minelab FBS detectors was that the Deus had also pioneered a few cutting-edge features which the Minelab detectors did not have at that time, and which had been awaited by detectorists for a long while.

First of all, the Deus' ultralight weight and wireless operation not only set a new standard for the modern metal detector, but also allowed many physically impaired detectorists to resume or continue enjoying the hobby. Secondly, a few advanced features such as Tonal Discrimination, Reactivity, Silencer, Iron Volume and Ground Notch not only brought the Target ID, Target Recognition, Target Separation and Hot-Rock Effect Reduction functions to a new level of efficiency, but also increased the Deus' flexibility and settings-adjustability.

As I mentioned on previous pages, as soon as XP began overcomplicating the Deus starting with the firmware version 4.0, its flexibility and settings-adjustability started having some critical trade-offs. And XP Metal Detectors had no choice but to launch an endless process of updating and patching its selectable-frequency platform.

In the past decade, Minelab and XP Metal Detectors have been only two companies that have offered innovations in the multi-frequency and selectable-frequency branches of the VLF technology. The rest of the VLF-detector manufacturers have just kept rehashing their dated VLF designs over and over again.

However, with XP's firmware updates released in 2017, it became obvious that the single-frequency VLF technology had maxed out. And also it seemed that Minelab had exhausted all options for improvement in its multi-frequency FBS 2 technology (Minelab CTX 3030). Many detectorists began to think that the era of VLF technological advances had finally come to the end. Well... not yet!

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