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Who Invented The Pinpointer?


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Found some clubmates discussing who (and when) invented the first pinpointer. Google just found some hints. Feel free to discuss...

 

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  • 1 year later...

My first was by a guy that made about 8 of them before he passed away. It was 1990 and he made them for the White's Eagle SL 90. Sold through Pedersen detectors in Orange County, CA. He was a buddy of my hunting partner. Between my partner and I we had, I think 5 of them. There was a small switch box that mounted on the front of the Eagle's control box. It had about 4' of cable. To use it you just switched between the coil and the pin pointer. Short Cable went to the control box, detector coil went to the center cable connector.  

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Allen Hametta of the "A.H. Pro" detector made a probe in the late 1970s. It's the earliest pinpointer-type device I know of. Compass made a more classic style pinpointer I believe in the 80's and White's followed with a boxy unit.

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It used a technique called "off-resonance" which is in the BFO family but could distinguish ferrous/non-ferrous and even discriminate. Some 10-15 yrs ago Allen re-introduced it as the Intex "Cache Probe" via Kellyco. I bought one just to try it out. It has a skinny stainless probe that you push into the ground, it pretty much has to touch the target to respond.

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I used a Little Wizard II woodworking probe as my electronic pinpointer for a few years when I first got started.   I don't know how long the reclaimed lumber industry has been using/offering electronic nail detection........

HH

Mike

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  • 6 months later...
On 7/11/2020 at 1:32 PM, Geotech said:

It used a technique called "off-resonance" which is in the BFO family but could distinguish ferrous/non-ferrous and even discriminate. Some 10-15 yrs ago Allen re-introduced it as the Intex "Cache Probe" via Kellyco. I bought one just to try it out. It has a skinny stainless probe that you push into the ground, it pretty much has to touch the target to respond.

Deja Vu... I picked this one up new on Ebay last Fall. 

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J. Finnis Pin invented the first Pin pointer while training his dog to hunt birds in the heavy brush. The dog was trained to "point" whenever it detected a bird in the bush. Thus the "Pin Pointer"  description was coined. The dog was at a later date trained to detect buried metals in holes at shallow depths and some could discriminate between ferrous and non ferrous metals for a chip of dried liver treat. Mainly used as a mine detector for the military. After Finnis passed away several companies developed sophisticated electronics to duplicate what the dog could do cheaper, smaller and with greater accuracy. After the war this device caught on with hobby metal detectorists and continues to be used and refined for more depth and accuracy at a lower price point. Note tail direction tells the operator the direction of target. This example indicated straight down in hole.

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