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METAL
DETECTOR-1
A fun metal detector to find coins at the beach
All the parts for the PC board, PC board, battery and winding wire $10.00
including pack and post. You will also need an AM radio, base-board to
mount the parts and a wooden handle approx 1.5 metres long.

See also Metal Detector MkII

See this site for lots of projects on metal detectors:

Geotech

GOLD DETECTOR!
This project has not been called a GOLD! detector as this name has been left for the more
complex detectors that actually discriminate been gold and other metals. There is an
enormous difference between detecting gold and ordinary metals (called base metals). Apart
from the fact that gold is over 1000 times more expensive, its magnetic differences are such
that we can produce a metal detector that will discriminate between metals, both ferrous and
non ferrous, and GOLD!
Gold detectors have come a long way in the past 15 years, especially during the rapid rise in
gold prices, about 10 years ago.
At that time, "GOLD!" was on everyone's lips and as its price soared, GOLD FEVER took
over and fossickers by the thousands took to the countryside to try their luck.

In areas where gold was found some 100 years ago in Australia, the country was dotted with
prospectors combing the hills and flood-plains with gold detectors.
Encouraged by reports of sizeable nuggets being discovered, buyers flocked to purchase
gold detectors. Prospecting shops sprung up everywhere and offered detectors not much
more complex that this model with an amplifier (the equivalent to the AM radio), for $299!
You may laugh, but when gold fever strikes, people do the craziest of things.

The chance of picking up a nugget of gold is a million to one. This is because the ground
where they are found is quite often filled with iron and other minerals that will affect the
reading of electronic detecting equipment and reduce their sensitivity. To overcome this we
must employ very sophisticated circuitry so that only the "signature" of gold is registered on
the equipment.

As you can imagine, detecting the difference between an aluminium ring-pull from a small
nugget is an almost impossible task as ring-pulls are generally closer to the surface and
swamp the minûte signature of any lumps of gold that may be buried deeper in the ground.

Also the background effect of the minerals in the soil has to be cancelled and when you do
this, you lose some of the sensitivity of the detector. The answer is to tune the equipment for
the terrain you are covering so that it is at peak performance. This requires a fair degree of
skill and that's why more advanced detectors are available on the market.

To start you in this interesting field we have designed a very simple detector. It only requires
a handful of components and an evening's work.
This way you will learn electronics while being able to go out and find something valuable.
It's not only gold that's worth finding but a whole range of items including money, jewellery,
metal objects and things that have been lost for 100 years or more.

One of the best places to search is the beach. Lots of things are lost in the sand every year
and it's very easy to scan the surface with a detector and dig them up.
Because this project is very simple we have not called it a gold detector as it cannot
discriminate between any of the base metals and gold. Instead, the word "gold detector" can
only be introduced with a more elaborate model where some form of discrimination is
available.

We have called this design a "metal detector" as it lets you know when anything of a ferrous
or non-ferrous nature is placed in the field of the coil.

HOW THE CIRCUIT WORKS

We will start the discussion when the conditions have settled down after a few cycles and the
voltage on the base of the transistor is stable (fixed by the "holding" or "resisting" action of
the 10n capacitor).

The circuit is an oscillator and the way it keeps oscillating is due to positive feedback. This is
the case with all oscillators and the component that provides the feedback is the 1n capacitor
between
the collector and emitter of the transistor. It may seem unusual that the transistor can be
turned on via the emitter to keep it oscillating, but in fact it does not matter if the emitter or
base receives a signal as the important factor is THE VOLTAGE DIFFERENCE between
these two terminals.
If the base is kept fixed and the emitter voltage is reduced, the transistor sees a higher
voltage between the base and emitter and it is turned ON harder. If the voltage on the emitter
increases, the transistor turns OFF as the difference between the two is reduced.
This is exactly what happens in this circuit. The 1n capacitor between the collector and
emitter influences the voltage on the emitter to turn the transistor on and off. It does this by
constantly monitoring the voltage on the tuned circuit and passing the change to the emitter.

In this project, the TUNED CIRCUIT is the parallel components consisting of the inductor (the
search coil) and the 1n capacitor across it. This is called an LC circuit in which the L is the
inductance of the inductor in Henries (or mH or uH) and C is the capacitance of the capacitor
in Farads (or uF or nF or pF).

We start when the transistor turns ON and allows a pulse of energy to enter the tuned circuit
(later you will see how the transistor turns on).

The pulse of energy (current) starts by trying to entering both the coil and capacitor. You
would think the coil has the smallest resistance but the capacitor is uncharged and presents
a theoretical zero resistance and begins to charge. When a small voltage appears across it,
you would think the coil would become the least resistance as it consists of only a few turns
of copper wire.

But the wire is wound in a coil and forms an inductor (it has inductance). When a voltage is
applied to it, the low resistance of the inductor allows a current to flow but this current
produces magnetic flux that cuts the turns of the coil and produces a back-voltage that
opposes the incoming current. It works like this: Suppose you supply 200mV to the coil. The
back voltage it produces may be as high as 199mV and thus you only have 1mV with which
to push current into the coil.
If the resistance of the coil is 100milli-ohms, the current will be about 10mA. The capacitor
will accept more than this and so it gets charged first.

As the voltage on the capacitor increases, it presents its voltage to the inductor and allows a
current to flow (at a rate which the coil will accept) to produce magnetic flux. This flux is
called electromagnetic lines of force and creates an expanding field. The capacitor cannot
provide energy for very long and after a short time the current reduces and this causes the
magnetic field to begin to collapse.

The collapsing magnetic field produces a voltage that is opposite to that originally supplied to
it and the bottom of the coil becomes positive with respect to the top.
If we think of the coil as being a tiny battery we see it adds its voltage to the 9v of the supply
and the collector end of the coil becomes higher than 9v.

This voltage is detected by the 1n feedback capacitor (between the collector and emitter) and
it passes the voltage to the emitter where it increases the emitter voltage. The base of the
transistor is kept stable and fixed by the holding action of the 10n capacitor and the transistor
turns off slightly. This action continues and eventually the collector can be considered to be
removed from the circuit so that it puts no load on the tuned circuit. When an inductor is not
loaded like this, the collapsing magnetic field will produce maximum voltage.

This is the case in the circuit above and as the magnetic field collapses, it produces a voltage
(about 25v) that is considerably higher than that applied to it. This voltage is passed to the
"C" component of the tuned circuit (the 1n capacitor connected across the coil) and the
capacitor charges up.

When all the magnetic flux has been converted to voltage the capacitor is charged and it
begins to deliver this charge back to the coil. In the process, the voltage across the capacitor
is reduced and this voltage is detected by the 1n capacitor across the collector emitter
terminals of the transistor. The result is the voltage on the emitter is reduced and the
transistor is turned on slightly to deliver a pulse of energy to the tuned circuit.
This is when another pulse of energy is injected into the system and the cycle repeats.
The frequency of the circuit is about 140kHz and is set by the inductance of the coil and the
capacitor across it.
When we place a piece of metal in the magnetic field of the coil, some of the lines of flux
pass through the metal and are converted to an electric current called an EDDY CURRENT
in the metal.

This means we lose some of the magnetic flux and so there is less available to return to the
coil when it begins to collapse. This means the reverse-voltage produced by the coil will be
lower and so the capacitor will take less time to charge to its maximum value. Thus the
transistor will be turned on sooner and so the frequency of the circuit increases.

The flux produced by the coil is electromagnetic radiation identical to radio waves of the
same frequency. If we place a radio near the coil and tune it to a harmonic, the two
frequencies will "beat" together and produce a "quiet spot" on the radio.
When a piece of metal enters the field of the coil, the frequency changes slightly and a low-
frequency tone is emitted from the speaker.
A shift in frequency of as little as a few hertz will be clearly heard and this is why the circuit is
so effective.
The sensitivity of the coil depends on making the circuit change frequency at the slightest
insertion of a metal object. This requires operating the transistor at an amplitude that is not
overdriving it, so that the slightest injection of a piece of metal into the field will alter the
frequency.

It is important to note that the AMPLITUDE of the waveform is also reduced when a piece of
metal is introduced but the radio is not set up to detect this. Other metal detectors detect the
drop in amplitude and later you will see how the two circuits compare.

1. Glide your "mouseover" the boxes above and study each frame. 2. Hold mouse on box
for "description." 3.Mouseover: for animation.

There are many ways to explain how the circuit works and all of them are technically correct.
Here's an animated way to describe the cycle. The transistor is only turned on when the
voltage across the capacitor is negative on the bottom plate. This is when the voltage on the
capacitor is added to the voltage of the supply and passed through the 1n capacitor across
the transistor to reduce the voltage on the emitter. The transistor turns ON and delivers a
short burst of energy to the TUNED CIRCUIT.
The 4n7 on the emitter charges slightly during this action and the voltage on the emitter rises
to turn the transistor OFF.
The charge on the capacitor is passed to the coil and it produces expanding magnetic flux.
The capacitor runs out of charge and the coil collapses. The collapsing magnetic flux
produces a voltage in the opposite direction and this is passed to the capacitor.
During this part of the cycle the voltage on the capacitor is not of the correct polarity to turn
the transistor on and it remains OFF.
This is the part of the cycle when very little load is placed on the tuned circuit and the voltage
produced by the coil can be higher than the applied voltage. The capacitor then delivers its
charge to the coil and the cycle repeats.

CONSTRUCTION
All the parts fit on a small PC board with two wires from the coil and two from the
battery.

PARTS LIST
1 - 220R (red-red-brown-gold)
1 - 47k (yellow-purple-orange-gold)
2 - 1n greencaps (102)
1 - 4n7 greencap (472)
1 - 10n greencap (103)
1 - 47u electrolytic 25 volt
1 - BC 547 transistor
1 - slide switch
1 - 9v battery snap
1 - 9v battery
6.5m winding wire (gauge not critical)
METAL DETECTOR-1 PC
board

The search coil is made by winding 16 turns around a circular object 12cm diameter. This
can be a juice bottle or even a square object as the coil can be made circular afterwards.
Use 4 pieces of sticky tape or electricians tape around the turns to keep them in place and
glue the coil to the base board with silicon sealant.

The base-board has a wooden handle screwed to it at an angle of 60°. You will also need a
small transistor radio taped to the handle near the base so that it can pick up the field from
the coil and detect when the frequency of the oscillator changes. The diagram below shows
the best layout.
TRYING IT OUT
Connect the battery and turn the transistor radio on. Tune across the dial and you get a
number of spots where the radio will produce a whistle as a result of its local oscillator
beating with the output of the coil of the detector.

We got the best result at about 1400kHz and this is where the tone could be adjusted to a
very low frequency.
When the detector was swept over a 20¢ coin at about 10cm, the change in the tone could
easily be detected.
The frequency of the oscillator of the metal detector will change slightly as the battery voltage
falls and as the temperature of the circuit increases on a hot day.
This can be compensated by adjusting the frequency of the radio so that the tone is kept as
low as possible.
You are now ready to go out and try your luck.
IF IT DOESN'T WORK
If you don't get a squeal from your radio after tuning the entire band, the fault will lie in the
oscillator.
This could be due to the transistor not having sufficient gain to produce oscillation or some of
the parts not soldered correctly.
Try switching the circuit on and off quickly to spark it into action. If this doesn't work, check
the wiring and make sure there are no shorts between the tracks.

If you have taken too long to solder the transistor or used a very hot iron, it may be
overheated and its gain will be reduced. This will prevent the oscillator starting up. Replace
the transistor and take more care with soldering.

The winding wire for the search coil is insulated with enamel to prevent the turns shorting
against each other. But if you damage this coating by scraping or kinking the wire you may
get two turns where the copper is touching each other. This will create a shorted turn and
prevent the oscillator working. You must prevent any damaged sections touching each other.

Do not wind tinned copper wire around the coil to hold the turns in place as this will create a
shorted-turn and prevent the circuit from oscillating.
It's best not to have any metal items near the coil as they will reduce its effectiveness. This
includes nails and screws in the base-board. Metal objects that are away from the centre of
the field are ok as they will have no effect.

CONCLUSION
We have found the circuit to be extremely reliable and self-starting. If you are experiencing
any difficulties, it's best to put another kit together kit as you may have damaged a capacitor
or the transistor and these are extremely difficult to diagnose.

We haven't found any valuable items with our detector but I hope you do.
 Metal Detector
MkII
updated 22-8-2006 . . . still needs finalising

See this site for lots of projects on metal detectors:

Geotech

This project is an extension of Metal Detector MkI, and shows how metal objects are detected. It is
the second in a series of circuits and allows a great deal of experimentation, especially if you have
a CRO (Cathode Ray Oscilloscope) and a few items to detect. You can view the waveforms and
see exactly how they alter as an object is brought into the field of the coil.

There are a number of ways to detect a metal object and alter the operation of a circuit so that an
output is produced.
Metal detectors will detect ferrous (iron, steel, stainless steel) as well as non-ferrous (copper, tin,
gold, lead, silver, aluminium) as well as alloys (brass, cupro-nickel, pewter etc).
Depending on the complexity of the circuit, a metal detector will be able to discriminate between a
lump of gold and an aluminium ring-pull from a drink-can.
The circuit we have presented in this project is very simple and works on the principle of detecting
the amplitude of a waveform. This is called AMPLITUDE MODULATION.
When a metal object is placed inside the detecting coil, some of the magnetic flux passes into the
object and creates a current called an eddy-current. This "uses-up" some of the magnetic flux and
thus less flux is available for the receiving coil.
This produces a lower output from the coil and causes the second transistor in the circuit to be
turned OFF slightly and the voltage on the collector rises. This allows the third and fourth
transistors to oscillate and pass a signal to the fifth transistor to drive a mini speaker.

As you can see, the circuit consists of a number of BUILDING BLOCKS. All you have to do is
understand how each block works and you will understand the whole circuit.
The concepts of TALKING ELECTRONICS is to explain how various building blocks operate so
you can design your own projects. You can take any of the blocks and add them to your own
project, but it will be necessary to connect them together correctly. That's why you have to read
our discussion articles, to learn how to interface different blocks.

You can consider this circuit consists of three building blocks:

1. The first block is a FEEDBACK OSCILLATOR that gets its feedback via a transformer (the two
coils act like a transformer). This uses the first two transistors.
The first transistor is turned on via the diode in the emitter of the second transistor. This diode
receives its turn-on bias from the 1k8 resistor.
The resistance of the Rx (receiving coil) is very small and the base of the first transistor sees a
"turn-on" voltage from the voltage across the diode.
The variable resistor in the emitter starts at a low value for our description of the circuit.
The first transistor has a high gain at this point in time and the Tx (transmitting coil) and 47n form
a tuned circuit with a frequency of approx 15kHz.
The power rail is stabilized by the 5v6 zener and a small amount of noise is always present in any
circuit and causes a small waveform to be produced by the inductor and capacitor.
This waveform is passed to the receiving coil (through the air) and a small voltage is produced by
it.
Since the end of the receiving coil connected to the diode is fixed and rigid, the signal produced by
the coil is passed to the base of both transistors. The coil is orientated so that the voltage it
produces turns the first transistor ON harder and thus the waveform produced by the tuned circuit
is increased.
Since the resistance of the pot is a minimum, the amplitude of the waveform will be a maximum
and this will have the effect of turning ON the second transistor so that the voltage on the collector
will be very low. The signal on the collector will be a waveform but this will be smoothed by the
100n capacitor.
As the resistance of the pot is increased, a voltage will appear at the emitter. Thus the base-to-
emitter voltage will be LESS and the transistor will not be turned on as much. The waveform
produced by the tuned circuit will reduce.
This will be reflected in the receiving coil and the second transistor will also get turned off slightly.
The voltage on the collector will rise and this will be passed to the second building block . . .

2. THE VOLTAGE CONTROLLED OSCILLATOR

The voltage controlled oscillator is simply a direct-coupled high-gain amplifier with a 10n feedback
capacitor to provide oscillation.
When a voltage appears on the base of the third transistor, it turns ON and this turns on the PNP
transistor.
The voltage on the collector of the PNP transistor rises and this pulls one end of the 10n capacitor
(via a 1k resistor) towards the positive rail.
The other end of the capacitor is connected to the base of the third transistor.
This turns ON the third transistor.
They keep turning ON until both are fully saturated (turned on). This happens very quickly and
during this time the 10n capacitor starts to charge. The charging current flows through the base-
emitter junction of the third transistor and as the capacitor charges, it develops a voltage across it.
This causes the charging current to reduce. The third transistor gradually turns off and this turns
the fourth transistor off slightly. The voltage on the collector of the fourth transistor drops and the
voltage across the 10n capacitor causes the third transistor to turn off completely. This turns off
the fourth transistor and now both are fully turned off.
The 10n discharges through the 56k and the cycle repeats. The capacitor takes a very short time
to charge and a longer time to discharge. This is why the output consists of very short spikes.
Now we come to the reason why the frequency alters.
As the voltage from the previous building block rises, the charge-time for the first 10n capacitor is
less and thus the first transistor in the oscillator circuit is turned on in a shorter period of time. This
capacitor is discharged when the two transistors are turned off and to lead of the second 10n is
taken to near the 0v rail by the 1k resistor in series with another 1k resistor and the base of the
driver transistor. It's fairly complex and if you have a CRO, you will notice the waveforms on the
10n capacitors go below the 0v rail.
This is how the two-transistor direct-coupled amplifier turns into a variable-frequency oscillator.

3. THE DRIVER TRANSISTOR. The output of the oscillator is connected to a driver transistor via
a 1k resistor. This resistor prevents high currents flowing when both transistors are turned on. The
driver transistor is directly connected to an 8 ohm speaker. The 18R resistor reduces the volume
and prevents large spikes appearing on the power rails. The result is a clicking sound.
For this type of circuit to be successful, the supply voltage must be maintained absolutely rigid for
the detecting section. This is very difficult to do as the battery voltage changes as it gets older and
all the semiconductor devices change according to the temperature. The supply voltage must be
as stable as possible as the circuit is detecting a very small change in amplitude and the supply
voltage has an effect on the size of the signal. The circuit uses a zener diode to create a fixed
supply but as the temperature of the diode heats-up with current-flow, the circuit-settings change
and a tone is gradually produced by the speaker. This has to be stopped by adjusting the pot on
the emitter of the first transistor. This constant resetting of the circuit is called INSTABILITY and is
one of the downfalls of the design.
However, for a simple circuit it offers very good sensitivity and an audio output.
We have more metal detector circuits in the pipeline and will be added as soon as possible.
Metal detector circuits are a very big part of industry, not only to detect metal particles in food but
also hidden objects on persons entering various venues.
They are also used to detect the difference between iron compounds and gold - such as the latest
gold detectors.
They are also used to detect coins for vending machines and in this instance they are generally
called "coin comparators." Metal detection is a very big field, from detecting old nails in second-
hand timber to mine sweeping via helicopters.
This is where you start and if this area fascinates you, search the internet for more-complex
circuits and design a metal detector for night-clubs and airports that will pick up a blade concealed
in a shoe!
You need to do it by narrow-band magnetic radiation, to build up a picture of the metal objects
without any X-ray radiation dangers.
It's a bit like "CAT Scanning" but the machine needs to be much less expensive.

CONSTRUCTION
The diameter of the wire and the size of the coil is not critical however our prototype was
0.5mm enamelled wire wound on an 80mm diameter former.
The two coils must be placed beside each other and changing the number of turns of the
receiving coil does not alter the sensitivity of the circuit.
The transmitting coil is 50 turns and the detecting coil is 70 turns.
The two coils must be placed together and covered with tape to keep them together.
Make sure the 50t coil is connected across the 47n capacitor as the circuit will not work if
the coils are exchanged. Don't worry about the correct connection of the second coil as it
can be reversed if the circuit does not work.
The circuit will detect a small button cell about 5cm above the coil

PARTS LIST
au$xx.50 plus $4.50 post
us$xx.50 plus US$6.50 post
Order kit
all 0.25 watt

1 - 18R
2 - 330R resistors
1 - 1k
1 - 1k8
1 - 10k
1 - 56k
1 - 220k(red-red-brown-gold)
1 - 270k(red-purple-brown-gold)

1 - 1k mini pot
1 - 10n ceramic(103)
1 - 47n ceramic(473)
1 - 100n ceramic (104)

1 - 1000u electrolytic
1 - 30metre 0.5mm enamelled winding wire

1 - 1N 4148 signal diode

1 - 5v6 zener diode
1 - 3mm red LED
3 - BC 547 transistors
1 - BC 557 transistor
1 - BC 338 transistor
1 - 8R mini speaker
1 - 9v battery snap
1 - 9v battery
1 - 1m very fine solder

1 - Metal Detector MkII PCB