My Detailed Review and Useful Tips for XP Deus Beginner-Users, page 1
by Sergei UpstateNY, proficiency level: Expert, last time modified:
NOTE: This XP Deus article/review was initially written in 2013 and has been updated a few times since then (last updated in December 2019).
Advanced Features of XP Deus V2.0
After having used the Minelab FBS metal detectors for 12 years, I was very skeptical about the XP Metal Detectors' latest model of 2009 - the wireless Deus, for its futuristic looks and unusual innovations incorporated into a metal detector of this class.
But when I tried the XP Deus metal detector, version 2.0, at the "searched-out" site for the first time, my impression was "Wow! This is interesting."
In the beginning, I used one of the Deus' factory-preset search programs - "Deus Fast", as a basis for both my learning this machine and creating my own search programs for coin shooting and relic hunting in Eastern Europe.
Right away I began finding tiny hammered coins of the "Wire Money" type, described in Detecting Hammered Coins section, and small bronze artifacts at the metal detecting sites which had been previously "cleaned" of all non-ferrous signals with the multi-frequency metal detectors (operated in 'Auto Ground Balance' and 'Auto Tracking' modes) first, and then with the XP GoldMaxx Power detectors - the predecessors of the Deus, operating on 18 kHz frequency - one of the Deus' 4 selectable frequencies.
at "Hunted-Out" Site
Prior to using the Deus, I was familiar with audio responses to various targets detected by my girlfriend's XP GoldMaxx Power which was a prototype of the Deus. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much the Deus differed from the GMP.
The Deus' telescopic stem had none of the GMP's flaws, and was easy to deal with! Absolutely wireless operation provided limitless maneuverability and, therefore, made target recovery much easier. Absence of wires not only would speed up reception of the Target ID info by a discriminate circuit, but also would allow for increase in detection-depth range by 1.5cm-2cm.
The Deus' ultralight weight (885 g or 1.9 Lbs without a remote controller affixed to a stem) allowed for high maneuverability of a search coil, which was essential for isolating responses to good targets from bad signals.
And, in addition to all GMP's features, the Deus v2.0 had acquired a few advanced settings that made a big difference.
One of them was a truly revolutionary feature - the programmable Tonal Discrimination: one could adjust sizes and tone pitches of up to four Conductivity Ranges (also called "Tonal Zones") of certain conductivities. These Tonal Zones would function as either Rejecting or Accepting ranges, and enabled a user to reject or accept targets by sound without being annoyed with audio responses to undesired targets. It was not an accident that the Deus V2.0's four 'tonal modes' - 2-tone, 3-tone, 4-tone and Pitch, were placed into "Expert" sub-menu of the Discrimination feature described in my article -
XP Deus Tonal Discrimination
Conventional Discrimination and Tonal Discrimination could be used together to a great effect. What made this tandem so advantageous was that, with proper arrangement of tonal zones on the Conductivity/Discrimination scale, one could implement just a minuscule amount of Conventional Discrimination without compromising one's hearing comfort.
Although the Deus' Conventional Discrimination would not affect the Detecting Depth Range (not to be confused with detector's DEPTH POTENTIAL ability - see details in my articles:
Detection Depth and What Affects It
and
Quiet Operation of A Metal Detector vs. Detecting More Deep Targets) as much as the Conventional Discrimination would usually reduce the detecting depth of other VLF detectors, it could negatively affect the target separation and target recognition.
Another important feature of the Deus was 'Reactivity' which allowed me to resize the width of the search coil's electromagnetic-field "blade" according to sizes of targets I sought, and amounts of iron junk and effects of ground mineralization I encountered at any particular hunt site.
High sweep speed (speed of a search coil's motion) usually associated with high settings of Reactivity; however, MUST be avoided if, for example, coins of small sizes are sought. The Deus' key programmable settings and modes are explained in my guide:
How To Fix a Drawback Inherited from Other XP Detectors
The only drawback the Deus inherited from its analog predecessor - the XP GoldMaxx Power, was the same small bolt/nut searchcoil assembly which was hard to tighten without a set of pliers, and easy to break if excessive force was used to tighten it.
TIP: If you snap the bolt and do not have an extra one, and/or you do not want to get irritated with unhandy bolts any more, you could get better plastic bolts with nuts at the Minelab dealer shop if it is available in your area, or get them from the online store that offers all kinds of metal detector's accessories. The bolt and nut assembly for the Minelab X-Terra metal detectors has the same diameter (5 mm) but the bolt's head is larger and easier to tighten than the XP bolt's head. One bolt with a nut costs around $2.00.
Besides the problematic bolt/nut assembly, there were a few other critical drawbacks in design of the Deus and its accessories, which have not been addressed so far (2019). Not to mention lots of issues with the Deus firmware, that arose later starting in 2017 (see next page).
What really seemed to be well thought out was a simple accessory - Emergency Field Battery Charger for XP Deus. This charger/torch is just a state-of-the-art device.
Back in 2012, I hoped that the XP engineers soon would begin expanding the spectrum of the XP products and come up with a leading-edge XP pinpointer (it could be named "XPointer" per se :). I believe they could do that. [A few years later, XP released their pinpointer - XP MI-6 Pinpointer, which unfortunately turned out to be a failure.]
A Great Capability of a Headphone Module
One of the greatest benefits of the Deus' wireless design was the headphone module's capability to function as a second "detector's brain" working independently from the remote controller. This means that one can use the Deus not only with both the remote controller and the wireless headphones, but also with either the remote controller and the wired headphones connected to it, or the wireless headphones alone in case the battery of any of these devices was drained during detecting session. But that was not all to it!
The exciting thing about such a revolutionary electronic design was that one could make TWO Deuses OUT OF ONE using the S-shaped stem of the GoldMaxx Power, or a suitable stem of any other metal detector, and a second search coil for the Deus! While the remote controller was connected to the first coil, the headphones could be switched to the second search coil, and now you have two independently operating metal detectors! More details on how to "double up" the Deus are given in my article: How To Make Two Deuses Out Of One
As soon as I purchased a second 9-inch search coil, I attached it to the GoldMaxx Power's stem and got a second Deus for my girlfriend Irina. Since then, Irina and I (and my mom sometimes) have been successfully using two Deuses simultaneously operating on different search programs, and our former "workhorses" including the XP GoldMaxx Power (GMP) had honorably retired. No doubt, the Deus brought us to the next level of metal detecting excitement; however, I can not say that it was not a "bumpy road".
Learning & Mastering The Deus
Learning the Deus was the most difficult part of the process of mastering it. I took an intensive approach to understanding the Deus' ins and outs by testing different combinations of the search program settings at the previously searched hunt sites with different metal detecting conditions five days a week!
This was the only way for me to attain practical knowledge of the Deus because such knowledge can not be obtained on the Internet or from books on the XP Deus.
After I had developed my own detecting style with the Deus and optimized my custom search programs for coins and relics, I needed to explain the Deus audio to my mom and my girlfriend who wanted be the Deus users too. Since I was in charge of programming the Deus, they did not have to know all the rest.
Both my mom and Irina had already had some metal detecting experience and definitely could not be called "beginner-detectorists"; however, it took me some time and effort to help them understand the Deus' responses to "difficult" targets. But even with my assistance in the fields, both of them sometimes experienced frustration with the Deus at the trashy hunt sites.
Every time this happened, they would use nostalgic tones in their voices to let me know that they would rather use the GoldMaxx Power or Tesoro Cortes detectors for their simplicity and much "friendlier" target audio indication at the "troublesome" sites.
I could set the Deus which they used on the factory preset "GM Power" search program, but I did not do so because I knew that the quieter audio would bring only poor results causing even more frustration. Besides, performance of the real GMP is not the same as the performance of the Deus being set on the "GM Power" search program due to reasons which are described on next page.
Considering how hard it was for me, an experienced detectorist, to "climb" the Deus' steep learning curve, I can not imagine how any beginner-detectorist can quickly understand the Deus without getting necessary knowledge in a form of easy-to-understand, helpful articles from the online informative resources, or real assistance from an experienced Deus user.
Since the Deus' learning curve is very challenging and can be "deceptive" at some point of the learning process, any beginner-Deus-user must first develop a habit of not only paying attention to every sound produced by the Deus during metal detecting, but also examining every "questionable" signal to determine what would have caused it. (CONTINUED on next page...)
