How am I limited with using WS5 phones sans control box?

[CZconnoisseur]

Hello all - I have finally taken the plunge and purchased pieces of an XP deus, to make one machine before I go full-bore and buy a new unit with control box and 11" coil. The reason behind this was primarily financial, since I don't have the money to plunk down on a new out-of-the-box setup. I would also like to thank Don in Mass and Jeremy for their expertise and honesty with this experience, and as you can tell from my user name I was for years using a Fisher Cz-5 and Cz-6 with outstanding results, but I still had the feeling that many items were left undetected due to trashy areas and depth (or a combination of the two)

So, long story short I will be using the 11" x 13" larger coil with WS5 phones, no control box for now. I realize that this will limit me option-wise with the Deus in that some of the finer components of the programming will not be able to be accessed; as I understand it I won't be able to go into the Expert menu, for instance. What I'm interested in is WHAT I CAN'T DO with while using only the phones and no controller. I realize that many people poo-poo on the WS5 phones and would rather have the backphones, and many others hate the 11 X 13 coil because of the limited depth vs the 9" coil and especially the 11" round coil. Personally, I don't care about that at this point because I am looking to upgrade from a CZ-6 that I know inside and out, and I'm absolutely positive that using the 11 X 13 coiled Deus will outperform the venerable CZ-6. I have a fantastic test garden that's pretty new, and the CZ-6 starts to peter out between 10-12" on CLEAN US nickel-to-quarter-sized targets, but if you start adding nails and screws at various depths, that detection depth on high-conducting targets rapidly goes to 2-4" MAX, depending on orientation of the iron as well as concentration. I've waited this long to upgrade from the CZ line, and almost bought an Etrac when it debuted, but the separation wasn't quite up to par for me. Glad I waited on the Deus, and what tipped the scales for me was the release of the 11" round coil which seems to be as rare as hen's teeth at the moment due to its superb performance.

I've watched almost all youtube XP Deus videos, from test garden vids to field performance to deep targets, and I think (maybe erroneously) that I have a basic idea of how to operate a Deus. Still have to order Andy's guide for the Deus, as I'm sure it will answer many of my questions; but I wanted to get some word-of-mouth input from users who dig by audio, not VDI. I will be using a 4-tone setup - again, no control box yet - and dig by audio tone since that's what I'm used to from the CZ-6 (that's how I use it). So please, tell me how I'm limited by using the phones only vs phones + controller...I look forward to your input!!!

 

[msviking]

As others have said the Deus is primarily a sound / tone machine which in your situation bodes well. I purchased my Deus after quite a lot of time on both a Whites V3i and CTX 3030 which have excellent visual VDI/discrimination data as well as tones. I am having to learn to pull the tonal nuances out of the Deus to be able to gain its full potential. I do all of my programing with the remote, I assume all the programing features (tone breaks etc...) are available via the headphones? How easy or not is it to jump from one program to another via the headphones? I know I frequently jump from from one program to another to gain additional in making my dig or not to dig decision. Regardless, you will be happy with your purchase.

HH
Robert

 

[msviking]

I took a few moments and flipped thru my manual, from what I read I am not sure you can set the tone break points via the headsets? I would assume you can, but the manual does not show it being done? I would definetly check this out before deciding whether to purchase the control unit first or not.

 

[CZconnoisseur]

Setting the tone breaks would definitely be useful for me. I plan to hunt primarily in 8kHz for better audio target ID, I really think there are deeper coins at many of my old sites around here. There's not hardly any natural stone here, so digging is pretty easy unless there's a bunch of roots which I would readily go through to get a nice 8-12" high tone target!!!

Recently made a test garden that pushed and exceeds the limits of the CZ-6 with the 8"coil. The deepest coin is a 13" clad quarter, and I have another clad quarter at 13" with several pieces of can slaw at 3-4" around the coin. The CZ-6 can't see either one, and out of 16 targets the CZ only reads 3 targets consistently - one of which is a 5" copper penny with a couple nails at various depths. It seems to separate better if ferrous targets are competing with the coin, but add some can slaw, lead, or other small bits of nonferrous items to the "hole" and the unit gets blinded. So in trashy areas with the CZ, I can only reliably hunt 4-5" of the surface, and I'm hoping the Deus can at least double that!!! I'm also hoping that the Deus can see all 16 targets in the garden, and it will be a good experiment when comparing reactivity and other settings. It will take a little while before this garden has broken in, but this is the closest real-world scenarios as I could think of for this area.

If the tone breaks aren't adjustable, then swapping freqs over a target for better ID may work to an extent, it seems like I would want 4 tones - roughly one tone for copper penny thru big silver, one tone for zinc penny through copper penny, a tone for low gold, and one for high gold/nickel. Bottlecaps and can slaw from what I understand are better mitigated with 4 and 8 kHz without having to switch programs to compare IDs. I don't mind digging a few caps but like I said earlier it's the AUDIO I'm most interested in, not VDI; and where I will be hunting surely has some deep 12"+ coins!!!

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Using audio only is a GREAT way to learn it. Audio is king on the XP.