MikePfeiffer

Steve,

Thanks for telling Tye.

Carl,

Thanks for replying. I was mentally building more into the circuit than you are describing, However, I do not fully understand. Why would you not impedance match and get all the signal strength you can. What about the TX coil. Please don't tell me it is just 50 turns of wire attached to a 3904 transistor.

(Sorry Carl, I think I got it. Your just ringing a coil with a specified frequency.)

I guess I am going to have to go back and reread your book again.

Mike

No, I think Garrett AT Max is running at 13.6 kHz. You change the impedance (resistance) of the amplifier/ receiver to match the 15 or 18 kHz coils. It is kind of like old TV’s. You have 300 ohm impedance on twin lead antenna wire or 75 ohm impedance on coaxial wire. You can substitute one in the other. However, you will loose signal strength and picture quality would be prevalent. Basically you want the antenna tuned (impedance matching) to the TV for best reception. Same applies to the metal detector. I think Garrett may be changing the impedance circuit on the main board for the coils used or they just don’t care about signal loss.

I have not seen a Garrett coil or metal detector. I am just theorizing something I would have tried to incorporated to give more flexibility to the unit. It is really hard to say without real data. Is the RF transmitter is in the control box or is it in the coil. If it is in the coil, things change.

On 5/7/2017 at 2:21 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

Still seems odd to me however that we have the same coils now being said to work fine on machines running from 13.6 kHz to 18 kHz.

Not sure how Garrett has wired their coils or main box, but I am thinking it is possible. Coils have an Impedance. Something like resistance. You want your transmitter and receiver to match the Impedance of the associated coils. With the introduction of micro controller and their low cost, I think it is possible to match the circuits. Here's how it could work. Let's say Garrett has 3 set of coils. (AT Max, AT Pro and AT Gold) The AT Max is tuned for their coils. So you have only 2 sets of coils that would need to be tuned,AT Pro and AT Gold). The micro controller senses a Impedance mismatch from these coils and test for a correct Impedance match by substituting a different capacitor into the tuning circuit and then you have a tuned circuit. I hope this makes sense.

So Steve, thank you for keeping my mind active.

Did they mention a USB port for up grading firmware?

Some one recommended Google Earth Pro to me a few years ago. Used to cost $399/year. It is now free and may have the tools you require. Current version is 7.1. You can tell if you got the pro version as the icon  of the earth is gray.

Just want to say I am enjoying your videos!

I am writing this in hopes that some metal detector manufacturers will read this and see what is wanted by the people in the field.

What manufacturer to you think is on the leading edge? (why)

What manufacture do you think needs a wake up call?

What is your favorite all purpose detector? (coin, jewelry, and relic)

What is your favorite prospecting detector?

What do you wish the manufacturers would incorporate in new machines?

I am not going to answer the question as I do not feel my knowledge base is at the level of the people on this forum. I still use a 30 year old detector. Everything I have read shows that this forum has the highest knowledge base of ones I have seen. Add any additional question that you think may be of interest.

Carl, thank you for replying. I read your book and it was very educational. I had planed on designing my own detector as I did not see much progress from manufactures. However, after reading your book, I quickly learned it would take me years to get up to speed. Thanks again!

Carl, I was wondering why the manufactures have not incorporated a sweep frequency from, let's say  0 to 100 kHz. Then us a version of a spectrum analyzer to read the incoming signal and then discriminate the info as target information. I used to work on equipment in the 70s that would do something similar to what I have described, just not for metal detecting. Back then the equipment was very large and required much power. With ICs getting more transistors in such small packages and the ability to incorporate computers, I would think this is possible today.

Just my two cents from a old retired electronics engineer who got thrown into management.

I got work. My wife purchased hardwood flooring for the entire house and said put it in.

After looking at the video several times, looks like White's mechanical engineer did his home work. Must be lezan on the display.

One more thing. Before you recycle your computer, run Darik's boor and nuke. This will clean your hard drive of all passwords and files. If you choose to run this software, run it at least 4 times. Don't expect it to be fast. It will take a couple of days. However, your drive will be NSA clean.

dban is available on SnapFiles.

I am a retired Electronics Engineer who used to work on computers. I would tell you to bring your computer by and I would try to fix it. However, I don't think were on the same Lilly-pad.

So let me tell you what I would do to try to correct the issue. Not saying it will work, but it's a start.

First is to make sure your anti virus is up to date. Run a full scan and let it clean off any viruses. This will take some time.

Second is malware removal. I use Malwarebytes software. This will also take some time. Just follow the directions.

Third is to make sure drivers are up dated. This is always a problem for most people as they don't know where to get them. I use a piece of software called SnailDriver and it searches for the appropriate driver for your PC.

All of the software is available on a website called SnapFiles. I use this web site for any software needs. You can get there by typing www.snapfiles.com The software is easly installed and fairly simple to use.

This should correct any virus or malware issues. It is possible that you have software conflicts. This is harder to correct. In the old days of XP it was not uncommon to reinstall windows and all the software every year or two. That is no fun

Browsers have always been debatable. It is really a personal preference. I prefer firefox and chrome. Both are good and reliable.

Now let's talk hardware. You have an old machine. In today electronic world, anything older than 4-5 years is old. Vista was a Microsoft flop. I would recommend looking for something new. Web sites demand a lot more of computer today. Makes the old computers much much slower.

Hope this helps.

Mike

Here is a link to the video.

About 3 to 4 months ago I read that it existed. Have not seen any articles lately.

Tom, You told us things were coming and we will be excited. Leave it at that. Loose lips sink ships.

I like the machine if it exist. Large display. Just not sure the image viewer can get accurate images with a VLF machine. I would say fake. Someone was dreaming a good dream.

Tom, I really enjoyed the video. Good to see something so interesting. Love your narration. White's is lucky to have someone like you.

Just found this on the web:

http://md-hunter.com/garrett-at-concept-new-2016-or-a-fake/

Looks interesting.

1 hour ago, Des D said:

Had I still been employed with ML it would never have got out the door like that. But that's what happens when totally inexperienced 'newbie' marketeers are let loose to run a project.

I love the inexperienced newbie marketeers term. I find this true in almost every company in some sort or fashion. One thing I saw in one company is the engineers were never allowed outside of their work environment. That left marketing to determine the public wants. I seen another company where plant engineering was designing, marketing talking to the public, R&D designing. All three were having their own products manufactured at the same plant. What was bad is no one knew what the other was doing. Absolutely no communication. 

Just imagine if a company build the perfect metal detector. It sees all and tells all. You sweep over the target. A holographic image appears and it tells you that there is a coin or a chunk of gold. The detector is so good that it tells you the type of coin and the date on the coin. It shows the depth and the rocks scrap metal around the target. Like I said this detector is perfect in every way. Weight is less than 3 pounds and the battery last 1 year. The problem is the price is $100,000. While Steve H is in line to purchase, most of us would think it's great. Some will lust for the new machine. Most are going to keep swinging the blue box.

Love the video. Had to look at it several times. All I can say is Minelab is very impressive.

What I would like to see this fall from White's is:

New and improved MX Sport 2. No need to send us your machine. You can now update your firmware by downloading the latest version from our website. Plug in USB cable and run the downloaded software. Never question what software you have. The new version of firmware will display the version number, IE: 3.5.4 will be displayed on the screen. A stronger arm cuff has been released. No more wired headphones. The MX Sport 2 has wireless headphone capability. We have wireless headphones that are available or use our wireless head phone adapter that is included. Just plug in your favorite headphones to the module and your ready to go detecting. We have also reduced the weight to 3 pounds (including batteries). Just more innovations from White's Electronics.

I'm just dreaming!

Steve, I could not agree with you more. Firmware update and headphones are two major issues. I hope White's got the message and quickly comes out with a MX Sport 2.

Not interested in buying. I just study everything. I love studying science. In one of my past jobs, I did a lot of black box theory work. I try to approach everything with an open mind. You never know what you will find.

I have already seen 3D detectors that would show coins, pipes and other objects in the ground at a depth of 3 ft. It was very impressive with a 3D view. Just not ready for the real world. Way to expensive.

I will be buying a detector in the future. Currently looking at the White's MX Sport and the Minelab Safari. Just got to determine what is best for me.

If I listened correctly, they said it would read to 35 meters. Well that's 82 feet. I thought GPS was good to about 50 ft. Curious about their transmitter receiver technology.

Carbon fiber is very durable, just expensive.

Here is 3D metal detector for iPhone. The video on the website is interesting.

http://www.igetoutdoor.com/