The Truth About XP Deus, page 9

9. XP Deus Learning Curve Keeps Growing Higher

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An unavoidable consequence of the Deus' transformation into predominantly a gold prospecting platform loaded with new features was the more difficult learning process for those Deus owners who upgraded to V4.0-V5.X. Because of the lack of a comprehensible instruction manual, it had already been a nightmare for those climbing the steep learning curve of the XP Deus V2.0-V3.2 (all details will be given in one of my upcoming articles).

This issue of difficulties in learning the Deus certainly does not concern those Deus users who utilizes either the factory preset search programs or the customized programs written by other users and posted on the Internet. The usage of such programs without making proper adjustments to them would still yield some results, and many users are happy with that. Those wanting better results have to climb the larger, arduous learning curve.

With appearance of the V4.0, the XP Deus learning curve grew even higher with a new steep slope for all coin/relic hunters, especially those using the standard LF coils. To the advantage of the former V3.2 users, they had already accumulated practical knowledge of the Deus' features and modes and had to deal mostly with unstable behavior of the Ground feature, that caused other changes in the Deus performance.

But it was not a small task to do. To figure it all out, the users still had to learn the new features and experiment with their settings in the field in order to master the optimized-for-gold platform. The HF-coil users had no issues with GB but had to master specific search coil techniques and discipline required for proper usage of the highly sensitive HF coils. This task has been probably the only big challenge for the gold prospectors (and meteorite hunters) because they got "armed" with the "Gold Field" program (#10) which does not require any complex adjustments.

The Deus beginner-users pursuing the coin shooting and relic hunting had to start from scratch. Their first big challenge was to understand the newly expanded user's manual for the V4.0 (and more expanded for the V4.1).

This manual was as uncomprehensible as all XP instruction manuals. And it would likely take a beginner more than two seasons to grasp both the XP Deus' basics and, the most important, how various combinations of settings of 'Basic' key features and their 'Expert' constituents affect the Deus performance.

The users of the factory-preset programs and custom search programs circulating on the Internet were at the biggest disadvantage because they had no practical knowledge of the Deus' ins and outs to make proper adjustments to the presets and "old" customized programs to cope with the Deus' new "behavior". Not being fine-tuned to every detecting situation, their Deus detectors would be prone to massive target missing, and these users would not even know about it.

As for the learning curve, unfortunately not all Deus users can surmount it. Every time a new feature is added to the firmware, the "monster" gets taller! And, at some point, the learning process stops for some users that are either incapable or not willing to continue learning.

I initially enjoyed learning the Deus V2.0-V3.2 and was excited about a possibility of being able to adjust the Deus to almost any metal detecting conditions at my hunt sites. And after I finally surmounted the learning curve, I had been really happy with the Deus performance!

But, with the modified platform V4.0-V4.1, I had to start learning the detector again, and, to be honest with you, I stopped enjoying the learning process. Even for me - a fan of maximum settings-adjustability, it was a little bit too much, especially when not getting the same beneficent results as those with the versions 2.0 and 3.2.

XP has been trying to squeeze as much performance out of the old VLF technology as possible by expanding old features and adding new ones to the Deus to compensate for the newly emerged trade-offs in its performance. But making the Deus users adapt to the never-ending platform modifications is a big mistake because people can only adapt so far. And the end result is user-error because the Deus user is the last person in the chain.

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