Hi all Legend fans!
Long story short, I field-tested the Nokta Legend (with all the optional coils) from May 2023 to April 2024. After I gathered a ton of information through my extensive testing and experimentation, I began working on my 20-page eye-opening write-up about the Nokta Legend's advantages (over its more expensive multi-frequency rivals), its amazing capabilities, some of which aren't even mentioned in the user manual, and what it takes to use the Legend to its full potential (e.g. finding more coins/relics at 'searched out' and/or iron-infested hunt sites).
I almost finished my project, but in April a new firmware version v1.15 was released with two new features - "dt" ("Deep Target Identification") and "BEAST" mode. I had to go back to the fields and my 100-target test garden to run various tests of these two novelties and see what improvements they could bring to the Legend's performance.
During my testing and experimentation, I had no problem with the 'dt' feature. It was easy to figure out and yes, it can bring excellent results when correctly fine-tuned to the targets sought under the existing search conditions, and properly implemented in combination with other key settings.
I got a problem with the Beast mode. This is a 'Motion All-Metal' mode and actually has a couple of amazing hidden capabilities when used in the nail-infested areas, but they are not the topic of this post.
The issue I have with this mode is that it provides less depth sensitivity for fringe coins than other search modes! In fact, the Legend, while being correctly ground balanced (in both GB-1 and GB-2), just barely indicates fringe coins even when the 'Recovery Speed' is set to 1, 'IR' to 0, and 'AG' to 4 in the Beast mode.
The Beast mode can't even compete with other search modes set in SINGLE-frequency when detecting in detecting both high and low conductivity fringe coins! These coins read 1 or show no VDIs at all. When operating on a single frequency in the Park, Field, or Goldfield mode, the Legend produces noticeable signals over those fringe targets. In the Beast mode, the coin responses are so weak that I would have missed them if I hadn't known there were coins buried there.
Actually, the Beast mode gives slightly stronger signals for fringe coins with low conductivity (their true VDIs are 14-16). This makes me think that the Beast mode perhaps processes a higher frequency weighted signal, similarly to the Goldfield mode - a hyper-sensitive version of the 'Motion All-Metal' mode in the Legend.
The Legend's poor performance in the Beast mode doesn't improve much even if I set the Sensitivity level to 28 - the maximum possible for relatively stable performance of my Legend in the Beast mode. After I exhausted all my options to increase depth sensitivity of the Beast mode, I reinstalled the v1.15 twice, but to no avail.
I would think that maybe this mode is not designed for the mild soil in my locale, but I get the same poor performance during a simple Air Test! Have you experienced the same thing during air tests? Could it be that the full functionality of the Beast mode is automatically activated only when the Ground Balance setting is above a certain high value in SEVERE ground conditions? Is this how the Beast mode is supposed to work?
There can't be anything wrong with my Legend because I haven't had any problems with this machine during its intensive field testing and use so far! Not to mention, the Legend outperforms its multi-frequency rivals in several challenging search areas such as 'nail blanket' spots, 'deep iron trash' spots, coin-bearing areas with a deep-plow layer, etc.
Without solving this issue with the Beast mode, I can't write and misinform users, especially newbies, about this mode's hidden capabilities, advantages and disadvantages as they may not be available in other Legend machines that have this mode working fine. This has happened once before in my experience with Legend. When I discovered a programming mishap with the Threshold setting in my Legend, I didn't install the 'Threshold Volume' update to fix it because this mishap turned out to be advantageous.
A slightly 'warped' Threshold setting allows me to insanely increase the detection depth up to 2-3 inches (5-7 cm)!!! This is incredibly helpful when checking targets! Yes, I will cover this trick in my write-up since many Legend units may still have this factory programmed error. If your Legend also has it, and you are thinking about installing the 'Threshold Volume' update, don't!
Hopefully there will be some knowledgeable Beast mode users out there who can share their hands-on experience with this mode and perhaps answer the questions I've asked in this post. For other Nokta Legend v1.15 users, I have just these two questions:
1) Have you noticed poor detection depth for fringe targets in the Beast mode compared to other search modes?
2) If you run the Air Test in the Beast mode, do you get less distance between the searchcoil and a coin in this mode than in any other search mode?
Sorry for my lengthy post.
Happy Hunting!
Long story short, I field-tested the Nokta Legend (with all the optional coils) from May 2023 to April 2024. After I gathered a ton of information through my extensive testing and experimentation, I began working on my 20-page eye-opening write-up about the Nokta Legend's advantages (over its more expensive multi-frequency rivals), its amazing capabilities, some of which aren't even mentioned in the user manual, and what it takes to use the Legend to its full potential (e.g. finding more coins/relics at 'searched out' and/or iron-infested hunt sites).
I almost finished my project, but in April a new firmware version v1.15 was released with two new features - "dt" ("Deep Target Identification") and "BEAST" mode. I had to go back to the fields and my 100-target test garden to run various tests of these two novelties and see what improvements they could bring to the Legend's performance.
During my testing and experimentation, I had no problem with the 'dt' feature. It was easy to figure out and yes, it can bring excellent results when correctly fine-tuned to the targets sought under the existing search conditions, and properly implemented in combination with other key settings.
I got a problem with the Beast mode. This is a 'Motion All-Metal' mode and actually has a couple of amazing hidden capabilities when used in the nail-infested areas, but they are not the topic of this post.
The issue I have with this mode is that it provides less depth sensitivity for fringe coins than other search modes! In fact, the Legend, while being correctly ground balanced (in both GB-1 and GB-2), just barely indicates fringe coins even when the 'Recovery Speed' is set to 1, 'IR' to 0, and 'AG' to 4 in the Beast mode.
The Beast mode can't even compete with other search modes set in SINGLE-frequency when detecting in detecting both high and low conductivity fringe coins! These coins read 1 or show no VDIs at all. When operating on a single frequency in the Park, Field, or Goldfield mode, the Legend produces noticeable signals over those fringe targets. In the Beast mode, the coin responses are so weak that I would have missed them if I hadn't known there were coins buried there.
Actually, the Beast mode gives slightly stronger signals for fringe coins with low conductivity (their true VDIs are 14-16). This makes me think that the Beast mode perhaps processes a higher frequency weighted signal, similarly to the Goldfield mode - a hyper-sensitive version of the 'Motion All-Metal' mode in the Legend.
The Legend's poor performance in the Beast mode doesn't improve much even if I set the Sensitivity level to 28 - the maximum possible for relatively stable performance of my Legend in the Beast mode. After I exhausted all my options to increase depth sensitivity of the Beast mode, I reinstalled the v1.15 twice, but to no avail.
I would think that maybe this mode is not designed for the mild soil in my locale, but I get the same poor performance during a simple Air Test! Have you experienced the same thing during air tests? Could it be that the full functionality of the Beast mode is automatically activated only when the Ground Balance setting is above a certain high value in SEVERE ground conditions? Is this how the Beast mode is supposed to work?
There can't be anything wrong with my Legend because I haven't had any problems with this machine during its intensive field testing and use so far! Not to mention, the Legend outperforms its multi-frequency rivals in several challenging search areas such as 'nail blanket' spots, 'deep iron trash' spots, coin-bearing areas with a deep-plow layer, etc.
Without solving this issue with the Beast mode, I can't write and misinform users, especially newbies, about this mode's hidden capabilities, advantages and disadvantages as they may not be available in other Legend machines that have this mode working fine. This has happened once before in my experience with Legend. When I discovered a programming mishap with the Threshold setting in my Legend, I didn't install the 'Threshold Volume' update to fix it because this mishap turned out to be advantageous.
A slightly 'warped' Threshold setting allows me to insanely increase the detection depth up to 2-3 inches (5-7 cm)!!! This is incredibly helpful when checking targets! Yes, I will cover this trick in my write-up since many Legend units may still have this factory programmed error. If your Legend also has it, and you are thinking about installing the 'Threshold Volume' update, don't!
Hopefully there will be some knowledgeable Beast mode users out there who can share their hands-on experience with this mode and perhaps answer the questions I've asked in this post. For other Nokta Legend v1.15 users, I have just these two questions:
1) Have you noticed poor detection depth for fringe targets in the Beast mode compared to other search modes?
2) If you run the Air Test in the Beast mode, do you get less distance between the searchcoil and a coin in this mode than in any other search mode?
Sorry for my lengthy post.
Happy Hunting!
))