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Built a probe for my Manticore

Charles (Upstate NY)

Well-known member
Here's my new Explorer SE Pro powered X1 probe for the new Manticore.

I was unimpressed with these current buzz probes. The Explorer powered X1 remains KING so I put together a hip mounted X1 probe to pair with the new Manticore.

Attached it to my new PANKY detecting pouch which I mounted on a Minelab shoulder harness belt. Made a new extra long cable for the probe, the old one was bad anyway and too short for a hip mounted unit.

probe03.jpg


To keep the probe from slipping through the pouch loop I 3D printed a rubber probe stop.

probe01.jpg


Powered by a small lightweight Lithium battery.

probe02.jpg
 
Awesome invention!!
 
Here's my new Explorer SE Pro powered X1 probe for the new Manticore.

I was unimpressed with these current buzz probes. The Explorer powered X1 remains KING so I put together a hip mounted X1 probe to pair with the new Manticore.

Attached it to my new PANKY detecting pouch which I mounted on a Minelab shoulder harness belt. Made a new extra long cable for the probe, the old one was bad anyway and too short for a hip mounted unit.

View attachment 53094

To keep the probe from slipping through the pouch loop I 3D printed a rubber probe stop.

View attachment 53095

Powered by a small lightweight Lithium battery.

View attachment 53096
It’s not April Fools day so I have to ask, are you looking for a second job?
 
Nice work, and a great idea.. Excellent for land hunting.. looks fairly easy to make too .. does either machine interfere with the other?

Years ago I think you made a water proof Explorer? That was a piece of art!
 
Nice work, and a great idea.. Excellent for land hunting.. looks fairly easy to make too .. does either machine interfere with the other?

Years ago I think you made a water proof Explorer? That was a piece of art!
I did some testing, you do need to noise cancel the Manticore obviously because they can't be on the same channel same as any two detectors. After that just keep the probe 18 inches away from the Manticore coil and all is quiet. That's with the probe on 28 sensitivity.
 
That's one expensive pinpointer but that is sweeeeet , that will be a time saver I want to be first on the list when will mine be done . (y) sube
The poor Explorer wasn't getting any love since the Manticore arrived. I have 2 SE Pro's. I'm modding one for pure beach hunting, harness mount, it's lighter than the Manticore. The second I turned into this probe. I think I have 4 of the simple buzz probes laying around, I HATE them compared to the mighty X1.
 
The poor Explorer wasn't getting any love since the Manticore arrived. I have 2 SE Pro's. I'm modding one for pure beach hunting, harness mount, it's lighter than the Manticore. The second I turned into this probe. I think I have 4 of the simple buzz probes laying around, I HATE them compared to the mighty X1.
I have used explore 2 and ctx for 20 years . I bought the deus 2 and manticore last year sold the manticore kept the deus 2 . This is just my opinion what either one you use seems that the biggest advantage is the separation of soil from the target . Meaning ground noise giving a more dig me signal it's not that the older detectors didn't see said target but would give you a not dig signal .
Why do you like the manticore and what's it doing different that previous detectors . sube
 
I have used explore 2 and ctx for 20 years . I bought the deus 2 and manticore last year sold the manticore kept the deus 2 . This is just my opinion what either one you use seems that the biggest advantage is the separation of soil from the target . Meaning ground noise giving a more dig me signal it's not that the older detectors didn't see said target but would give you a not dig signal .
Why do you like the manticore and what's it doing different that previous detectors . sube
On the west coast we have nasty volcanic black sand in large volumes from all the volcanoes. It's a detector torture test on how well they deal with it. The Explorer struggled to get depth. I owned a Deus for a while, it was better than the Explorer. The Manticore then beat the Deus. All on the same site with these three machines. Doesn't surprise me the Minelab came out on top as the soil in Australia is also quite nasty. I was also impressed with the Manticore's other capabilities. Depth on targets standing straight up on edge, those are invisible to an Explorer. Depth on my samples of small to tiny bits of gold, Manticore won that also.

The Manticore's shortcomings are all software. It's ability to get strong signals, precision is utterly wasted on the lame software interface. I have no need for a target ID# at all, certainly not one that's 2 inches tall wasting a huge area of the screen. The Manticore's blob/smear target trace is also about useless. Its better than nothing but is a simpleton blurry blob compared to the Explorer's crosshair. They also screwed up the axis way back on the eTrac and it's still screweed up. The Explorer's Smartfind screen was absolutely brilliant. 2 axis, ferrous/conductivity with a crosshair and large screen area. The targets are all spread out from each other. Zinc cent, Indian cent, copper Cent all have unique locations on the screen separate from one another, you can call your shot before you dig. Ditto for clad dimes vs silver dimes. Bottle caps, nickels, tabs all have their locations. Rusty iron has it's virtually infallible bounce pattern. All the odd size silver coins, also ID in different locations from the other coins. Gold is interesting, while some will ID exactly like a nickel or a zinc cent the vast majority ID in oddball locations difference from other coins or trash which is the HINT that you might be over gold. Sometimes it's targets coming up in these odd locations nothing ever ID's at that can be the best targets to dig.

All of that is even before we get to the Explorers awesome tone ID, there's tons of target info in that more musical tone ID. I could call my shot on Merc silver dimes vs other silver dimes just because they sounded a bit odd due to the heavy strike on Merc dimes. Sadly this level of tone ID has also been lost, mostly I think due to the superior Manticore target separation. There are a number of setting adjustments you can make to the Manticore to produce more Explorer like tones. You can't get all the way there but this can be improved, but with some trade offs.

Summary: If they redid the software on the Manticore to give us back the Explorer Smartfind screen and Explorer quality tones, the Manticore would be absolutely deadly!
 
I just love how the deus 2 is for weight , I mainly hunt old coins my ground is mild to medium not very harsh the deus 2 checks the boxes for me lots of buttons lol . Adjustability for most situations as far as the manti just cost more and as engineer Mark said there would never be another manticore .
It was a one and done is it the end of muti-iq ? maybe minelab is coming out with new tec when they release there flagship detector ?
Sitting on the side lines and waiting in the mean time will enjoy the deus 2 .

As far as going from the explorer 2 to the CTX I never really had a issue always ran ferrous coin separation . What I liked about it is it would throw it on the 12 line . It was easy to check going to hightrash because that acted as the explorer 2 instead of right to left and left to right it was bottom to top and top to bottom . Iron was a no brainer it would keep the co # steady and the ferrous # would change up and down .
I could always run it with no disc Fe line set at 35 anybody running the Fe line lower would miss targets with iron . A person could run it here accepting all signals by assigning iron tone to every thing you did not want and a high tone to what you wanted .
As long as you did not notch you did not miss targets recovery was not a issue sweep speed was but compared to the explorer 2 it was fast .
Glad they make detectors that let you accept all but don't have to listen to the iron bashing .

For more audio imfo I would run in long help on the deep stuff short iron .
Have you tried running the manti in a slower recovery speed to get more audio nuances don't remember if it had long as a audio option as the CTX .
I notice the faster you run the new machines the less nuances you get but then again you have to deal with harsh soil which would be worst with a slower recovery speed .
I hope minelab improves on the ID screen when they come out with the flagship you know it's coming just waiting . sube
 
Hi Charles,

What a great idea.

Did the same starting with CTX-3030, used it with other detectors including the XP Deus 1 and the Equinox 800 with an external mounted speaker with my old chestmounted Explorer 2.

I to wanted to put Explorer to some use. It was okay for a while but in the end I wanted some simplicity and less clutter (wanted to work with less attached to me in the field) so I got a XP MI-4 and it serves the purpose very well despite the lack of tone differences that of course would be overcome if it was inline to the Manticore or others and would have got me the XP MI-6 IF it was able to integrate with Manticore wirelessly but that is of course not possible, so not necessary.

Wrote to Minelab countless times since CTX3030 to bring out their version of a wirelessly connected probe for us all but of course nothing has happened....yet.
Yes, I to agree with your summery about the software for Manticore with Explorer Smartfind and it's tones.
Also an an inline version of the smart digger tool pictured here for the Manticore would for me, be the "cherry on top' of the icing.....dream on David.
 

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Hi Charles,

What a great idea.

Did the same starting with CTX-3030, used it with other detectors including the XP Deus 1 and the Equinox 800 with an external mounted speaker with my old chestmounted Explorer 2.

I to wanted to put Explorer to some use. It was okay for a while but in the end I wanted some simplicity and less clutter (wanted to work with less attached to me in the field) so I got a XP MI-4 and it serves the purpose very well despite the lack of tone differences that of course would be overcome if it was inline to the Manticore or others and would have got me the XP MI-6 IF it was able to integrate with Manticore wirelessly but that is of course not possible, so not necessary.

Wrote to Minelab countless times since CTX3030 to bring out their version of a wirelessly connected probe for us all but of course nothing has happened....yet.
Yes, I to agree with your summery about the software for Manticore with Explorer Smartfind and it's tones.
Also an an inline version of the smart digger tool pictured here for the Manticore would for me, be the "cherry on top' of the icing.....dream on David.
I would also like to say that maybe that one day soon we might get an inline probe like the Equinox NX-1 made by Sunray or another clever company for the Manticore.
 
I would also like to say that maybe that one day soon we might get an inline probe like the Equinox NX-1 made by Sunray or another clever company for the Manticore.
I came across some posts that suggested an X1 like probe is possible on the Manictore because so long as the wires in the cable connected to the chip in the coil remain connected to the Manticore, only switching the 4 coil wires for the Transmit/Receive windings to the probe, the Manticore thinks the factory coil is still attached. Quite interesting, not sure if that's factual or not though.
 
Hi Charles,

What a great idea.

Did the same starting with CTX-3030, used it with other detectors including the XP Deus 1 and the Equinox 800 with an external mounted speaker with my old chestmounted Explorer 2.

I to wanted to put Explorer to some use. It was okay for a while but in the end I wanted some simplicity and less clutter (wanted to work with less attached to me in the field) so I got a XP MI-4 and it serves the purpose very well despite the lack of tone differences that of course would be overcome if it was inline to the Manticore or others and would have got me the XP MI-6 IF it was able to integrate with Manticore wirelessly but that is of course not possible, so not necessary.

Wrote to Minelab countless times since CTX3030 to bring out their version of a wirelessly connected probe for us all but of course nothing has happened....yet.
Yes, I to agree with your summery about the software for Manticore with Explorer Smartfind and it's tones.
Also an an inline version of the smart digger tool pictured here for the Manticore would for me, be the "cherry on top' of the icing.....dream on David.
100% approve of your mods David. Great to see someone else modding.

For me, having transitioned to mostly beach hunting I never used a probe, didn't need one. Until I started hunting shipwreck beaches. Having dug 40+ shipwreck coins from a single hole, trying to pinpoint with the 11 inch coil was not easy. A probe would have cut that 4 hour hole dig in half minimum. There was a bunch of iron in the hole also, hence the X1 with the Explorers tone ID would have been key vs the buzz pin-pointers. I'm one of those guys who HATES going backwards so the X1 has spoiled me.
 
I mainly hunt old coins my ground is mild to medium not very harsh
You know...there is a very old park in a major city Ed and I hunted once. The soil there is incredible, you could run the Explorer at max sensitivity and it was stable. I like the idea of taking the Manticore beast back there and see what it can do, I'm adding that to my upcoming detecting trip!
 
You know...there is a very old park in a major city Ed and I hunted once. The soil there is incredible, you could run the Explorer at max sensitivity and it was stable. I like the idea of taking the Manticore beast back there and see what it can do, I'm adding that to my upcoming detecting trip!
I would think your going to find out just how good that explorer was . I have went to places I have killed it with the CTX now using the deus2 the results were 1 wheat penny in 3 hours . Then another place I detected which was pretty good had more rusted bottle caps which are nothing but rust flakes now and the soil is red with rust from them . Also emi was higher here compared to the other place the deus 2 did find 2 barbers and a merc that I should of not missed also 2 v nickels and 3 buffs along with 2 indians and 2 wheats .

As I said before it's not that the deus or manticore is any better at separation than the CTX none of them separate targets when 2 or more are under the coil at the same time all you have to look at is the ID if it separated you would get a proper ID . The ID always favors the bigger return but still not right .
Where the advantage of the deus2 or manticore is separating the ground from the coin .

Remember the whites 6000 and others the faster you swung them the deeper they went so basically they were not seeing the ground noise to the degree as a normal sweep . But when you hit a target there was a abrupt change in what the machine was seeing the ground then the target compared to a slower sweep the target was not as abrupt of a change compared to the ground .
Anyhow getting back to the deus 2 and manticore . The faster recovery may be doing the same thing as the older whites and bounty hunters were doing (BUT AT A SLOWER SWEEP SPEED) ?
You know that a faster recovery speed works better in high mineral compared to a slower speed .
To prove a point you can always get more depth in a air test compared to a in ground test with all the same settings .
On the CTX with it's two cursors in a air test you would only see one cursor which would show the target you were showing it . But now when same test was done in ground both cursors would display one for the target and one in the bottom corner showing iron . Then if you did a shallow test say dime at 3 inches you would have only one cursor same as a air test .
As you added depth the cursor in the iron bin would get more pronounced till you lost the dime and only the iron cursor would display.

This is the biggest difference I see in the newer detectors not separation of targets but separation of ground to coin or target . sube
 
I would think your going to find out just how good that explorer was . I have went to places I have killed it with the CTX now using the deus2 the results were 1 wheat penny in 3 hours . Then another place I detected which was pretty good had more rusted bottle caps which are nothing but rust flakes now and the soil is red with rust from them . Also emi was higher here compared to the other place the deus 2 did find 2 barbers and a merc that I should of not missed also 2 v nickels and 3 buffs along with 2 indians and 2 wheats .

As I said before it's not that the deus or manticore is any better at separation than the CTX none of them separate targets when 2 or more are under the coil at the same time all you have to look at is the ID if it separated you would get a proper ID . The ID always favors the bigger return but still not right .
Where the advantage of the deus2 or manticore is separating the ground from the coin .

Remember the whites 6000 and others the faster you swung them the deeper they went so basically they were not seeing the ground noise to the degree as a normal sweep . But when you hit a target there was a abrupt change in what the machine was seeing the ground then the target compared to a slower sweep the target was not as abrupt of a change compared to the ground .
Anyhow getting back to the deus 2 and manticore . The faster recovery may be doing the same thing as the older whites and bounty hunters were doing (BUT AT A SLOWER SWEEP SPEED) ?
You know that a faster recovery speed works better in high mineral compared to a slower speed .
To prove a point you can always get more depth in a air test compared to a in ground test with all the same settings .
On the CTX with it's two cursors in a air test you would only see one cursor which would show the target you were showing it . But now when same test was done in ground both cursors would display one for the target and one in the bottom corner showing iron . Then if you did a shallow test say dime at 3 inches you would have only one cursor same as a air test .
As you added depth the cursor in the iron bin would get more pronounced till you lost the dime and only the iron cursor would display.

This is the biggest difference I see in the newer detectors not separation of targets but separation of ground to coin or target . sube
Coins on edge hunting.
 
100% approve of your mods David. Great to see someone else modding.

For me, having transitioned to mostly beach hunting I never used a probe, didn't need one. Until I started hunting shipwreck beaches. Having dug 40+ shipwreck coins from a single hole, trying to pinpoint with the 11 inch coil was not easy. A probe would have cut that 4 hour hole dig in half minimum. There was a bunch of iron in the hole also, hence the X1 with the Explorers tone ID would have been key vs the buzz pin-pointers. I'm one of those guys who HATES going backwards so the X1 has spoiled me.

I came across some posts that suggested an X1 like probe is possible on the Manictore because so long as the wires in the cable connected to the chip in the coil remain connected to the Manticore, only switching the 4 coil wires for the Transmit/Receive windings to the probe, the Manticore thinks the factory coil is still attached. Quite interesting, not sure if that's factual or not though.
Brave one who tries. Very chancy. Worst case is the detector will die though all the times I've crossed Explorer coil wires for only a momment had never affected it's dteceting abilites and performance when I wired correctly but that was only for the momment when I realsied I connected the coil wires wrong.
 
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