Foxy built a Turbo-Encabulator from scratch that is used to measure inverse reactive current in di-pole waveform unilateral phase detractors.
He is using this to measure the current in the dubry of a home made metal detector. The dubry is otherwise known as the sensing coil and attaches to the wossname part of the detector which in turn connects to the phasor.
The phasor in turn detects fluctuations in both static and dynamic variabilities and will cause a big red light to flash and an impressive buzzer to sound when the tracking current exceeds a certain pre-set value in the order of 25 milli-firkins.
The shade of red and tone of the buzzer can be fine tuned to discriminate between numerous types of metals.
The wuzzies pass from the dubry to the phasor along insulated wuzzi-pipes, which is also what the dubry is made from.
The computing power of the control box will need to be in the order of 5 - 6 mega-smarties to be effective, but Iām sure that is well within Foxyās capabilities.
There was a bloke on Antiques Roadshow yesterday, who borrowed his brothers metal detector, and in the first couple of hours found a gold ring with a sapphire centre worth ten thousand poundsā¦:shock:
After my Dad retired he would go fishing when the tide was in, and metal detecting when it was out.
One sunny day when I was a-courting my Lovely Cousin, we went out with my Dad and took turns with his detector on a beach in Devon, although I canāt remember which one.
After a while I uncovered what I first thought was an upturned brass coloured aluminium wine bottle screw cap. When I picked it up I discovered that it was a wedding ring.
It was slightly unusual because it was like a plain gold band in the centre, but had hexagonal flats on either side. Imagine a pipe compression olive with spanner flats at each open end.
After a while a man came over who we had seen beach combing and asked if we had found a gold ring as he had lost one the day before.
My Dad asked what it looked like and the chap beckoned his wife over, saying she had a matching ring.
When she held up her hand, I held up the ring I had found.
They were both so delighted that they insisted on giving me a fiver. This was in the early eighties so was worth a bit then.
What an amazing story Fruitcake, I never get tired with hearing about the many coincidences that happen in our lives. I like to think that I will put this detector to good use (if It works of course) and beaches would be a good place to start. Depending how good it turns out to be will depend on whether it might be worth contacting the local detecting club and getting a few hints and tips from them, or ever accompanying out on a search. Or having succeeded with project, move on to the nextā¦
I donāt know if the old Donny Airfield still exists or whether it has been built on now, but I remember exploring it with my friends when I was in my teens.
There were several old buildings round the perimeter, and an open air shooting range. We used to climb the sand bank of the target end and walk along the wall as a dare.
When I were a 'prentice I liven on Filton Aerodrome, and explored the shooting range there. The butts were littered with old shell casings from things like Webley revolvers and .303 rifles, and in the sandbank target area were hundreds of bullets of all sorts of calibre weapons. They were so plentiful that I didnāt need a detector.
If anything is left of the old airfield, it might be worth asking if you can have a go there, or even Finningly if any parts of the RAF base that are not being put to Civil use have been left untouched.
I watched a programme a little while ago hosted by Suggs McPherson (Madness musician) called WW2 Treasure Hunters who had been doing just that sort of thing with a team of detectorists.
They are especially keen on finding personal items and returning them to family members where possible. They managed to return a dog-tag to the family in the USA of a US aircraft mechanic.
'Tis worth watching.
Today was spent cutting the veroboard to size, and adapting it to fit the retort stand. It makes it easier to gain access to both sides of the board, while fixing and soldering components. I then etched the board to make it easier to identify the positive and negative tracks on the component side of the board.
Iāve soldered two sockets on to the board that will accept the two integrated circuits without the need to solder them. As well as avoiding injecting unnecessary heat into the fragile ICās, they can be changed or tested if they become damaged. Trying to unsolder the eight joints of an IC at the same time usually ends up with a messy or damaged boardā¦
My Dad told me that he used to go and watch air displays at Donny airport when he was young. Unfortunately, both he and the airport are long gone now Fruitcake.
I believe that Doncaster Rovers had their football stadium at Belle Vue where the airport used to be, there is also a golf club. The stadium has since been moved to a new location and houses have been built on the site. The golf club still remains. I think golfers have more money and influence than football supportersā¦
There are still the remains of one airfield though. Lindholm was part of bomber command during the war, and although a prison has been built on part of it, there is still quite a lot used for recreation, Model aircraft and go carting. I remember seeing air displays there in the fifties, it was all Lancasters, Halifaxās, Spitfires and Hurricanes. How times have changedā¦
That is how I remember it. I used to pass the footy club twice a day during the week when I was an inmate of Danum Grammar Hooligan Factory.
The golf course was inside the racecourse circuit, but the clubhouse was on the opposite site of the road. Golfers had to cross the road then the home straight when they wanted to play. Iām not sure if they were allowed to play on race days though.
Our next door neighbour was a Flight Sergeant at Finningly, so air displays were occasionally viewed from the Sergeantās enclosure.
During one display the site was attacked by Daleks, but thankfully The Doctor was there to order in a strike by V Bombers. Happy days.
My Dad often picked up fishing gear such as weights and lengths of line. He always carried a sharp pocket knife to cut bundles of line away from anything he could use when he went fishing.
In those days ring-pulls didnāt stay attached to the can when you opened them. He said they usually gave a double beep when the detector passed over them, so he always knew whatever was buried was of no monetary value.
I managed to understand some of what you were talking about, especially the bit about a mess of solder. One of the most useful bits of kit you can have in your toolkit when doing things like that is a solder-sucker.
When my kids were young I showed them how to āarmā mine then pressed the button to make the plunger shoot up. They had hours of fun playing with it pretending that it was a sonic screwdriver.
The golf club remains the same Fruitcake, with members having to cross the busy Bawtry road to access the rest of the course, except they have had a light controlled crossing installedā¦I said that some of the golfers were very influential and some of them are probably councilors ā¦
I was nought but a kid when the air displays were held at Lindholm, in later years after Finningley was made V bomber command with its long runway and impressive Vulcans (during the cold war, four Vulcans had to be in the air at all times) the air display moved there. We must have rubbed shoulders Fruitcake because I never missed an air display thereā¦
Iāve never had a solder sucker, I must invest in one, they sound handyā¦Iāve always fluxed a piece of copper wire and picked up excess solder that wayā¦
Thereās equal measures of āMagicā and āGood Luckā involvedā¦
