Rutus metal detectors are only known by a select few in
the UK...although it is a completely different story in Poland where they
are manufactured.
The Rutus Proxima is household name overseas with a well earned
reputation. The Proxima also known as "The workhorse" is a fully digital machine
with an easy to use menu capable of finding targets at very impressive depths,
originally designed to find deep WWII relics operating at a reasonably low
frequency.
The Rutus early days
Having tested the Rutus Proxima in early 2010 I felt it needed some extra tweaks
to make the machine more adaptable to specific UK detecting scenarios. I
contacted the manufacturer and asked if they would make a prototype for us to
test.
For novices and beginners who are reading this review let me explain a common
problem with different types of metal detectors :
Most machines are capable of finding average to large targets at reasonable
depths...however only a specific type can find small targets amongst iron or
maintain acceptable performance when confronted with badly contaminated soil...which we all
know is where the goodies lurk. Contaminated soil quite often means ancient
habitation !
If you are new to the hobby you may quite possibly be thinking that owning a
machine for such site conditions will only be applicable to the elite few. I
guarantee when you become more involved with the hobby you will realise this
type of machine is the only really efficient way to search our UK inland sites.
18 months later here we have it The Rutus Jupiter... designed for UK conditions
boasting excellent build quality, great value, and at the time of this review
very nearly ready to roll off the production line.
A word from the manufacturer
Our detectors are not copies of what the world was using twenty years ago, electronics
has changed radically due to modern concepts such as computer design, faster
microprocessors, high levels of engineering combined this with excellent feedback
from our field
testers gives us what we have today and the Rutus Jupiter.
The Rutus Jupiter
is a well thought out machine the simplicity will appeal to
novices...performance will appeal to professionals
Over the past couple of years metal detectors have become over complicated and
far to daunting for the average user, the Rutus Jupiter has some very important
features...let me say that again... "important" features without
dressing it up with gimmicks.
Rutus Jupiter tough build quality
Rutus Jupiter search coils 2 coils are available both are 9.5"x 8" concentric "CC" and widescan "DD" I
prefer to use the DD coil for my searching
The Rutus Jupiter basic layout
Within 30 minutes I became comfortable with all the menu settings without even
requiring a manual, which was just as well because there wasn't one available at
the time of writing this review.
After air testing some popular targets it soon became apparent that this machine
has a very wide discrimination range between iron and foil which is exactly what
I had asked the designers to create in my original wish list. I could comfortably run the discrimination at 35 and still get all the
desired targets at the same depth as using no discrimination, here are my air
test
results
Target
VDI Number
Small Roman Hobnail
3
Medium Nail
11
Large Nail
17
Coke
35
Foil
37
Cut quarter
43
Cut Half, small Hammered, small Roman Bronze
55-58
Liberty Quarter
77
Shilling 1839
76
What does the Rutus Jupiter sound like ? If you click on the screen picture below you can hear my custom 3 tone program
The software platform is very simlar to many other digital machines on the
market with a scroll through menu.
The discreet finger trigger for pin pointing and menu return. The Jupiter feels very solid and chunky with a perfect balance.
The 6AA batteries fit nicely into the under arm control box where the On / Off
switch, speakers, and headphone jack are located, battery power approx 20 hours.
Menu features Program's... pictures say a thousand words, so switch on and follow the
on screen instructions
Once the detector has run through the auto ground balance "with the search coil
just above the ground" you then have the option to manual ground balance using
the left and right arrow keys if you wish...if not just simply pull the trigger
to access the main menu or start detecting using your previous settings.
Rutus Jupiter manual ground balance use arrow keys to fine tune
Rutus Jupiter basic settings
Pressing the Enter button toggles between the sensitivity and discrimination
settings...again use arrow keys to adjust.
Rutus Jupiter main menu
To access the main menu select the Menu button...then using the arrow keys
select motion mode and press enter
Motion mode settings are as follows Audio threshold : Adjusts the level of background hum (if required) and
threshold tone. Number of tones : Choice of 4 audio settings, factory pre-set..1 tone...3 tones or 2
"custom save" sections where the user can save their own custom made audio
settings for specific targets called Program1 and Program 2. Audio Gain : Adjusts the intensity of targets e.g. deep targets can be
made to sound softer than shallow targets. Notch accept or reject : By pressing and holding ENTER then pulling the
trigger opens the "Disc Edit Screen" this allows
the operator to accept or reject unwanted target ranges such as foil or coke or
to select single targets such as large Silver, pound coins etc. Masking: Great new feature, allows you to manually adjust the signal
quality to be accepted by the machine, low numbers for suspicious signals on
iron contaminated sites...high numbers for good quality targets.
I have called this an adjustable recovery speed because I am just a man in the
field, but to an engineer it is far from it, let me explain :
Masking is not exactly a recovery speed it is a unique set of signal filters that have a
0-5 scale.
A setting of 5 will be ideal for high conductive targets such as large silver as the processor eliminates short chopped signals and only allows good
quality smooth signals to pass through the discrimination circuit.... Ideal for
those who prefer a quiet life.
Using a lower setting will allow the more suspicious "shorter" signals to pass
through the filter, thus making the machine more reactive to all types of non
ferrous targets, the
advantage is you will have the ability to find small targets between iron.
Levels 2-3 are ideal for junky sites, levels 4-5 are ideal for general searching
/ coin shooting.
To return to the previous feature or to access "detect" mode simply pull the
trigger this jumps back one screen at a time.
Combined mode
This allows the user to operate in "all metal non motion" and "discriminate
motion" at the same time skilled relic hunters can gain maximum performance
using this method providing the sites are relatively free from iron contamination.
General settings include
Frequency adjust: To eliminate interference from other detectors around
16.00-16.5Khz
Backlight : On or Off Volume : Signal volume control Hot rock correction : Fine adjustment to eliminate hot rocks, this is not
a coke rejection feature. Note : When you turn off the Rutus it will save
your previous settings to the internal memory, so when you turn on your settings
will be as you left them.
Available Now !
The Rutus Jupiter advanced users guide a 16 page booklet to help you get the
most out of your new Rutus Jupiter
£6.00 + £1.50 p&p UK ONLY
Rutus Jupiter Video
Rutus Jupiter instructional video, here you can see how set up the Rutus Jupiter
and hear how it reacts
amongst bad iron, we have adapted some Sprite headphones with a microphone so
you can hear how it sounds. As you can see in the video I like to run the discrimination open and
hear the iron, new user's who do not wish to hear the iron can simply run a
higher discrimination.
OK that's the basic features, why not visit page 2 to find out how the Rutus
Jupiter performs on a field test. Field test page 2
Latest info 18/7/2011
RUTUS-JUPITER
Well here we are standing in a field in Oxfordshire the weather conditions
are very wet and about to pour down, in my hand I have the new Rutus, this is
detector that my friend Gary has had for a few months and is of Polish origin he
has been working with the maker to create a machine that is suited to the
English market, and I have it on loan today to give it a bit of a test.
Gary had previously
run through the machine and gave me a copy
of the advanced user guide, he
wanted an honest opinion from someone who had literally just picked up the
machine for the first time and to get some feedback.
So lets get on with it I switched the machine on and ground balanced it as per the book, I then went into the menu
which I found to be very easy to understand and altered the
threshold to a slight hum to suit my hearing I had selected the motion mode and
the program 1 which was a 2 tone set up by Gary. The discrimination worked
well at about 3
segments and the sensitivity at 15the feedback from the
machine was good and stable the low tones were unmistakably
Iron and the higher tone indicated a good signal.
I detected for about 1hr in this mode finding a variety of interesting items some very deep so I knew I was not missing
anything, so I then thought lets start to take it up a notch I increased the
sensitivity to 25 the machine did seem to become a little unstable lots of
signals so I lowered it back to around 18 it responded a lot better I took the
Discrim up to 17 and found that I started to get a single tone as I was knocking
out the Iron low tone. I did not race around the field it was not set up for this type of
detecting even though you can alter the masking
speeds in the menu , I dug up 2 iron targets just to
check the iffy signals but found them to be
round iron which I would expect, the Georgian that came up was
a clean sound, it was always better to pinpoint the object as this gave you a
better idea as to what it might be,the louder the signal the
larger the object. But the Quieter the
signal the better the find, I found this to be an advantage.
Today I only got a feel for the machine as
the weather changed for the worse and 3-4hrs was not a fair test. I would
really like a bit more time with this machine and try
exploring some of the other adjustments to personalise it, it
would be interesting to see if my finds rate would increase above
that of my previous machines.
This machine is well built well balanced the on off
switch could be changed to a switch you could turn on and off rather than
a toggle,I had a great short session even though
I did not find anything of real interest you still have to
walk over it to find it. I believe this machine is going to go from strength to strength and at the price of under £500 it will appeal to everyone.
