‘Matchless’

Metal
Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

by Thomas Scarborough
An induction balance (IB) metal loca-
tor has a good depth of penetration and
Locator
Want to find a fortune? Buried treasure, perhaps? Lost
distinguishes well between ferrous and coins on the beach? Or perhaps you fancy earning some
non-ferrous metals. It is also capable, to
a large extent, of rejecting iron and also pocket money finding other people’s valuables. Either way,
tin foil This is a boon for anyone who is this project should really interest you. It’s an el-cheapo
searching for coins or noble metals. induction balance (IB) metal locator that delivers surpris-
My aim with this design was to cre- ingly good performance.
ate a ‘minimalist’ device — one that
would work well but without all the
bells and whistles of the expensive, Simple, but it works only digital signals of a certain ampli-
commercial designs. I found that it was An IB metal locator is usually far tude break through to a peak detector
possible, with just a handful of compo- more complex than the design shown (IC1b). Since these are in the audio
nents, to design a high-quality metal here — the EE-Magenta Buccaneer, for range, they are immediately transferred
locator. example, uses more than 70 compo- to the piezo sounder or headphones.
For instance, on comparison with the nents. This one uses less than 20. On testing the sensitivity of this
first-class EE-Magenta Buccaneer, this The reason for the simplicity is that I design in air, with optimal tuning and
 design delivers 95% of the perfor- have dispensed with analog circuitry, using a 25mm-diameter brass coin, it
gave a clear signal at 150mm, and a
mance in the category where it really
Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

and instead used a digital transmitter

matters — a clear indication of the pres- and receiver. ‘screaming’ signal at 110mm. It was
ence of metal. As the search coils pass over metal, also able to detect a pin at 30mm.

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Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

air. This
Note that these figures In contrast, the locator is far more rejection of tin foil is due in
may not apply in tbe ground, where reluctant to pick up tin foil. A tin foil part to the metal locator’s low fre-
depth of penetration will depend largely disk of the same size as the brass coin quency, which avoids what is called
on the mineralisation present. was only detected at half the distance in skin effect.
Besides this, if the two coils are posi-
tioned as described, ferrous metals
(iron) are, to a very large extent,
rejected — to such an extent, in fact,
that a 25mm diameter brass coin weigh-
 ing seven grams looks the same to the
metal locator as a lump of iron weigh-
Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

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Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

ing 20 times as much. Large nonferrous

ohjects are detected at half a metre dis-
tance and more.
The locator’s power consumption is
conveniently low. It draws around
10mA, which means that it may be
powered off a small 9V battery. If an
alkaline battery is used, this will pro-
vide about 48 hours’ continuous use. In
my experience, the number of coins that
are found on a beach in an hour or two
should easily make up for the cost of
batteries!
Finally, while the stability of the loca-
tor is not the best, it’s by no means the
worst either. Re-tuning is necessary
from time to time, especially in the first
few minutes of use. One soon becomes
accustomed to giving the Fine Tune
knob an occasional tweak — perhaps
with every 40 or 50 sweeps of the
search head.
 Circuit description
Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

The search head of a typical IB metal

locator contains two coils: a transmitter
(Tx) coil and receiver (Rx) coil.
In this case, the Tx coil is driven by a
square wave oscillator, which sets up an
alternating magnetic field in the coil.
The Rx coil is then positioned in such a
way that it partly overlaps the Tx coil.
By adjusting the amount of overlap, a
point can be found where the voltages
in the Rx coil ‘null’ or cancel out, so
that little or no electrical output is pro-
duced. A metal object which enters the
field then causes an imbalance, result-
ing in a signal.
The transmitter (IC1a) is a standard
555 oscillator configuration, using one
half of the ICM7556IPD dual low
power CMOS version of this IC.
Do NOT use the veteran NE556N IC,
by the way.
IC1a oscillates at about 700Hz, deter-
mined by R/C components around pins
1, 2 and 6. The 680Ω resistor limits the
current passing through the Tx coil.

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Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

The receiver section (IC1b) is pre- at pins 8 and 12 is biased by the divider breaking through in the form of a crack-
ceded by a simple yet sensitive formed by the 10kΩ resistor and pots ling sound. When the locator’s output is
preamplifier stage, based on Q1, which VR1-VR3, so that only pulses of a cer- adjusted to a fast crackle, the presence
amplifies the signal received from the tain amplitude break through to output of metal turns this into a ‘scream’. This
Rx coil. This is fed directly to IC1b, pin 9. is heard from the piezo sounder or
which is used here as a high-perfor- There is a point at which, with care- through standard headphones. The 7556
mance sine-square convertor. Its input ful adjustment, the signal is just IC allows up to 100mA of output cur-
rent, therefore no further amplification
is required.

Winding the coils

The one drawback to any IB metal
locator design is its need for two coils,
which must be very carefully and rig-
idly positioned in relation to one
another. Sometimes there’s no room
even for a fraction-of-a-millimetre error
in positioning these coils. While this
 particular design makes things easier
Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

than usual, the placement of the coils

will still require some patience. On the
other hand, the winding of the coils is
relatively easy. Each coil also includes a
electrostatic (Faraday) shield, which
helps to minimise ground effect.
The winding of the (identical) coils is
not critical and a little give and take is
permissible.
I used 30SWG (0.315mm) enamelled
copper wire, winding 70 turns on a cir-
cular former, 120mm in diameter.
I created the former with a sheet of
stiff cardboard with 12 pins stuck
through it at a suitable angle (the heads
facing slightly outwards). The coil was
wound clockwise around the pins, then
temporarily held together with stubs of
insulating tape passed under the coil
and pressed together over the top. The
coil may be jumble-wound (that is, you
don’t have to wind the turns on side-by-
side in neat layers).
Once this has been done, the pins are
removed, and a second coil is wound in

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 the same way. In each case, mark the
beginning and end wires. Each coil is
then tightly bound by winding insulat-
ing tape around its entire circumference.
Now we add a Faraday shield to each
coil. This is accomplished with some
long, thin strips of aluminium foil. First
scrape the enamel off each coil’s end
wire. Solder a 100mm length of bare
wire to the winding wire, and twist this
around the coil, over the insulating tape.
This provides electrical contact for the
Faraday shield.
Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

Beginning at the base of this lead, the

foil is wound around the circumference
of the coil, so that no insulating tape is
still visible under the foil but the foil
should not complete a full 360°. Leave
a small gap (say 10mm) so that the end
of the foil does not meet the start after
having gone most of the way around.
Do this with both coils. Each coil is
now again tightly bound with insulat-
ing tape around its entire circumference.
Attach each of the coils to its own
length of quality single-core screened
audio cable, with the Faraday shield in
each case being soldered to the screen.
Do not use stereo or twin-core micro-
phone wire to run both leads together;
this may cause interference between the
coils.
Gently bend the completed coils until
each one is reasonably flat and circular,
with each end wire facing away from
you, and to the right of the beginning
wire. Now bend them further until they
 form lopsided ovals like capital Ds (see
Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

Fig.2). The backs of the Ds overlap

each other slightly in the centre of the
search head. This is the critical part of
the operation, which we shall complete
after having constructed the circuit.
Last of all, wind strips of absorbent
cloth around each coil (I used strips of
thin dishwashing cloth such as Chux),
using a little all-purpose glue to keep
them in place. Later, when epoxy resin
is poured over the coils, this cloth

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 meshes the coils into the resin.

Construction
The PC board of the Matchless Metal
Locator measures 48mm x 42mm, and
is coded 04106021. There are not many
components, so it should be easy to
assemble the board using the PC board
overlay diagram in Fig.3.
With the exception of the CMOS IC,
component values and types are not
critical. The one critical component is
the ICM7556IPD CMOS IC. I also tried
Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

the TS556CN IC in this position — it

worked, but not as well.
Town) but found that
Begin board assembly by soldering construc-
the nine terminal pins, the 14-pin dual- good quality metal sweet tins
tion, using PVC piping and joints. Bend were readily available, so I used one of
in-line socket for IC1 and the resistors. the base of the metal locator’s shaft
Continue with the capacitors, diodes these. They are also considerably
under very hot water to obtain the angle cheaper than similarly sized electronics
and Q1. shown. Alternatively, a swivel joint enclosures and of course you get the
Once soldering is complete, carefully may be made. sweets as well!
check the board for any solder bridges, The entire electronics (apart from the
then use some short lengths of quality search coils) is mounted in a metal case, Setting the coils
screened microphone wire to attach the ensuring that no part of the underside of
piezo sounder, VR2 and VR3, with the A completed PC board is needed
the PC board is touching the case. The before we can ’pot’ the coils. These are
screen (or braid) always being wired to adjustment slot for VR1 should be
0V. If you wish, add a socket for head- potted with epoxy resin in a hard plas-
accessible via a small hole in the case. tic dinner plate, the sort you’d find in a
phones in parallel with or in place of the Mount VR2 and VR3 where quick and
piezo sounder. Use insulated hookup picnic set. Any plastic plate of suitable
easy adjustment is possible. size will do, on condition that it is rigid.
wire to attach the battery and switch S1, A metal case is essential, otherwise
keeping the leads short. Finally, attach (A tip: don’t pinch them from the
the circuit is affected by electrostatic family picnic set ....)
the screened cables from the coils, with coupling (or capacitive effects). The
the screen again going to 0V, and insert First place the coils on top of one
metal case is connected to 0V, through another — ensuring that they are cor-
IC1 in the DIL socket. Note that IC1 is the tab on the copper side of the PC
static sensitive, and requires careful rectly orientated, with each end wire
board. facing away from you, and to the right
handling (discharge your body to earth I was unable to obtain a purpose- of the beginning wire. Adjust both VR2
 before handling).
Fig.5 shows the suggested hardware
made metal case in my city (Cape and VR3 to their midpoint. Adjust VR1
Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

to about 90kΩ. Then attach a 9V

battery and switch on. The circuit
will most likely be screaming; that
is, beeping loudly and continuously.
Now slowly move the coils apart.
When they are somewhere past the
halfway point, the headphones will
fall silent. This is where the volt-
ages in the Rx coil ‘null’. Continue
to move the coils apart. At a precise
point just before the coils no longer
overlap at all — the headphones will
begin to scream again (there may or
may not be a low-level beep just
before this).
It is at this precise point, and not a
fraction of a millimetre either way,
that the coils need to be set.
Take an indelible marker pen and
mark out holes in the lower plate
around both coils. These holes are
used to pass cable ties through, to
hold the coils tightly to the plate.
Also use a cable tie to hold the audio
cables to the plate. Use some Blu-tak

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 (or Presstik) to tightly seal the holes hardened, so make no more adjust- (Fine Tune) to their mid-points. Then
underneath the plate before pouring in ments at this stage, but switch the adjust VR1 with a screwdriver or plas-
the resin — epoxy resin can be very circuit off and leave it for 24 hours or tic alignment tool until the metal locator
‘runny’ and sticks faster than many so. is just at the point where a crackle is
glues. I potted two sets of coils (that is, two heard, between silence and a scream (or
Also at this point carefully bend the complete search heads). The first between a low-level hum and a scream).
coils at the centre of the plate until you worked perfectly, precisely as I had set Use the tune and fine-tune knobs for
reach the exact balance at which there is it in the plate. The second contracted any further tuning.
neither silence nor screaming in the slightly as the resin set, so that no set- A fast crackling sound produces the
piezo sounder/headphones, but just a tings of VR2 or VR3 would produce a best results. Move a coin over the
crackle. A little drift should not matter tone in the headphones. However, this search head and the piezo sounder
at this point. is where the design of the Matchless should scream.
Now you are ready to mix and pour Metal Locator shows its flexibility. By In actual use, the adjustment of the
Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd, reproduce for personal use only

the resin. Use a modest amount of cata- turning VR1 clockwise, the circuit was metal locator will be affected by the
lyst, so that there will be not too much again functioning normally when VR2 mineralisation of the ground you are
heat and shrinkage in the resin. Pour the and VR3 were set to their midpoint. searching, as well as temperature and
resin over the cloth which surrounds the voltage variations. So as mentioned ear-
coils, so as to soak it, and keep on pour- How to use it lier, readjustments to VR3 and VR2 are
ing at least until the entire bottom of the Keep the search head away from all inevitable from time to time.
plate is covered with resin. metal — and “noisy” computer equip- That’s really all there is to it. In case
The circuit may no longer function ment — and switch on. Adjust of any problems, though, the author
correctly at this point until the resin has potentiometers VR2 (Tune) and VR3 may be contacted at scarboro@iafrica.
com.


Silicon Chip, June 2002 — Copyright

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