Technos Phase Readout Gradiometer

[Carl-NC]

Here is some info on the Technos PRG donated by Melbeta. The PRG is one of the only vintage detectors I would still like to have but have yet to find one.

Rocky LeGaye's review: Rocky_LeGaye_Test_1974_Secured.pdf

Images from the article above:








Here is the patent on the PRG which includes a schematic, though without component values: US3826973_Technos.pdf

[Carl-NC]

Here are some old forum discussions on the PRG by various people, including Joe Ranger: JoeRanger on PRG.doc

Finally, here are some forum postings by "Vlad" on the PRG, and also Eric Foster: Vlad on PRG.doc

[Tinkerer]

Here are some old forum discussions on the PRG by various people, including Joe Ranger: [ATTACH]n419364[/ATTACH]

Finally, here are some forum postings by "Vlad" on the PRG, and also Eric Foster: [ATTACH]n419365[/ATTACH]

Very interesting stuff.

[pito]

I am developing it right now to study ground behavior for ground balance purpose.

[Melbeta]

I am developing it right now to study ground behavior for ground balance purpose.

I think others took it in the past as well, studied it, used some of it, in making other machines, slightly newer then the PRG detector. But since I do not have their factory schematics, I can only state "I think" they did what I said. I never had it in my hands either. Not many were sold and I have no idea on what happened to the other units. George Paine back then, came out with the VLF unit in 1974, and thus it hit the market with Whites Electronics as a 1.782 KHz frequency, so that and the U.S. Govt, the PRG then vanished from the scene. George Paine's FIRST VLF was so low in frequency, Whites Electronics in 1976, changed its frequency to 6.59 KHz. I have one of those, but Ken White stuck in the newer version 3 coil, and stuck in a TR Discriminator. Not sure I know how to stick in photos right now into this forum...I only have dial up service, I live inside a tall forest with no internet access other than an old telephone line. So that is why I send the material to Carl and let him stick it inside the forum. Low bandwidth you see......
Melbeta

[pito]

I live inside a tall forest = lucky you
Almost done, one bar for amplitude second one for phase.

[Melbeta]

I live inside a tall forest = lucky you
Almost done, one bar for amplitude second one for phase.

Yes, I am really lucky. that is, until I get my TAXES BILL each year. That land I am on, was cut out of a 1860s ranch next door to my acreage...Your unit, sure looks good to me. I am not an engineer, was a guy who used to buy surplus electronics, and sold them via mail order advs in major magazines.....Why not stick in the Ground Condition Control circuit? It was in the Compass Electronics Yukon 77b unit and the 76b unit, which fastened to the waist with a web belt. It was before the George Payne VLF creation, prior to 1975 release of the Payne unit, what it did was act like an Gain Control, but tuned out the Ground minerals with an left to right control. I worked it for several years, in three Colorado Mining Districts, and I found not only vintage coins,vintage relics, and also vintage meteorites. I prefer it, and like it over VLF ground exclusion balance as it just tunes out the audio buzz and off I go with no more ground mineral noise...

If I can figure out how to stick in a photo in this forum, I will post that YUKON schematic here. Ahhh! Figured it out, and the Brian Hill schematic is right below, while I got some Compass factory schematics, did not have one for the Yukon 77b, but i used it for 5 years, and I got lots of finds... Since you are designing, try it, I liked it better then George Payne's GEB circuit design. Easier to use, and even found 3 meteorites. I think you will really be surprised if you try it, as the Semtech unit, had it marked as a GAIN control, but it worked as a Ground Condition Control tuner. It tuned out audio buzz noise, so you still had mineral noise, but never heard it with your ears. It has no filters to filter out this nor that, so the finds are not limited by circuit designs! I am old, and am old school, and I can say I have done almost everything including making jewelry castings, coin castings, and even done metal refining. Not bragging, just telling the truth... I even made my own rubber molds of rare coins. I made one of the rare Lesher coins. I could kick out, wax replicas, then into the casting unit, and out came a silver replica. Ahh! Those were the days my friend, I thought they would never end, but they ended! I would see an neat thing, such as Buffalo Bison watch band pieces, make a rubber mold of it, then kick out my own Bison Watch Bands. Remember my motto... "Nothing ventured, nothing gained"!!!!!!!! Looks like real GOLD does it not? It was not, I melted verious metals, and got a casting metal which looked like gold. See my own Bison Head watch band???
Melbeta

[Melbeta]

I am not an engineer, although I understand electronics fairly okay, I do not like newer detectors, use vintage metal detectors myself, so I do not like to post my email address as I do not like spam. If someone answers me using notifications option, and puts their email in that notification area, i will answer by email. But I am very careful not to give my email out unless one gives me their email first... I am "old school", in case you understand what "old school" means. It means I have little experience with newer metal detectors. I do not use discrimination, I only dig faint targets AFTER the signal has been amplified to indicate it is a small deep target and not a surface target. So when I dig that faint signal, it can be a good target, a bad target, and some bad ones, I still save them as they are old targets. I like looking at old targets you see. I have been detecting since the 1970 time period, and before that, I was out digging up older bottles and old things in the country. I shoveled it into a screen box I built to use to find old things. I started detecting using older BFO machines you see...
MELBETA

[Melbeta]

I know that it is not "surface blanking" sort of...but back in the day...we ignored the loud signals and just concentrated on the soft and deep signals. Dean

This information brought to you by MELBETA... Now Melbeta, uses a Bounty Hunter Big Bud Pro SE
Plus model, of which ONLY a few were made, before Bounty Hunter back then, along with TEK Ltd,
closed up the business, and shut down. So I bought TWO of the BB Pro SE PLUS, as George Payne,
when I spoke with him back around 1988, told me there were NOT MANY in shipping, so I had George transfer me right then and there to shipping, they only had two of them in stock, so I bought
BOTH of them. They knew the hand wrighting was on the clock thou as Internal Revenue Service at that moment was involved with the procedure of SEIZING TEK and Bounty Hunter! Within a few days, they seized both companies, and they went out of business and closed up....... Then since I had
just bought BOTH of the PRO SE PLUS models, I got a letter from IRS, they invited me to bid on the
auction where IRS sold what units they seized. I was not interested in those units, I got what I wanted
as George told me they were souped up units you see, and they are souped up units..... Do I have a
factory schematic? I do, but it only covers the models before IRS seized them. Can I stick a copy of
what I have in this forum? YES, I will do it, and I enhanced the schematic as well..... It is the S/T model, which was a model after the Big Bud pro SE PLUS, but I enhanced it, and I just stuck it in below, and I think it is the NEAREST BBP SE Plus unit you will find today!!!!!!!!! I hope it opens up for all you guys to download and see. If not, let me know by email to [email protected], and I can email you a copy...I put in some contrast, and enhanced it for better clarity you see............
MELBETA
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/JOHNDO~1/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image002.gif[/IMG]

I got the Big Bud Pro SE PLUS two units, and I found the adv, about the the two units I have, and am sticking it below this posting NOW! I guess I got this special sheet, in 1989, and I tell you that George's company
engineers really HOPPED MY Two units up, and I think this sheet is about the two units I got, as it looks like them, there was several companies, involved with IRS, in sueing TEK LTD, including Whites Electronics was involved in the lawsuit, but I know that Whites Electronics lost their lawsuit. IRS won against all of the lawsuits as it was in federal court you see and TEK LTD was deliquent in paying their INCOME TAXES. In fact, I do not think they did pay IRS........After that, First Texas down in Texas, won the right to come up with the S/T models........That was the Public Notice I personally received FROM FIRST TEXAS company down in Texas you see......They offered me a dealership. Tek LTD went out of business in MAY 1989, and I was happy I owned the two Big Bud PRO SE PLUS, the SE stands for SPECIAL EDITION models of which only a handful were made......I knew guys who bought some of these FIRST units from First Texas, and they were NOT the same as the two I bought back in 1988..........First Texas won the auction with IRS though and owns the name and the right to build and see Tek and Bounty Hunter...........

[Melbeta]

Like I said, I have TWO of the Big Bud Pro SE PLUS metal detectors, one I use, the other one is stored in my basement. Now George Payne, had sent to me the factory sheet, but I misplaced it somewhere in my house, so I can not stick it into this forum, but I did take a photo of BOTH of the PRO SE PLUS models, one shows wear and use the other one is still brand new UN-USED. I will stick the photos of each of the Big Bud PRO SE PLUS models I bought back in 1988, just before I got the IRS welcome color sheet FROM FIRST TEXAS company down in Texas......

[Melbeta]

Now I never had the Phase Read Out Gradiometer in my hands either. I do have the Semtech detector, never turned it on though and ran it, as it takes a special battery, and I have none of those batteries. I do have the Schematic of the PRG unit, an engineer I knew as STAN gave it to me. Stan I believe, worked for Ken Whites SR, In Oregon, before he had his first stroke. He died later on, from a stroke. He stopped emailing me, did not answer my emails, so I did a search, and found he was then deceased. I do miss his emails. Here is the schematic that STAN did before his stroke happened...
MELBETA

I do have the technical information that the PRG brochure gave, and beyond that, I do not know the part values. Unless I have it somewhere in the material
that STAN gave to me. Here is the sales brochure information... Esteban added to STANS schematic and I stuck it above.........

an engineer named Estaban, took STANS schematic, and added his own studies to Stan's schematic, and I have it as well..... Here it is above: Now I have lots of PRG material, but my Computer that had the PRG software crashed, and I have no PRG software in the internet computer, so I cannot look into the PRG files. Does anyone have the PRG software that can email it
to MELBETA, so he can stick it into the remaining internet computer???????????? I would really appreciate it very much. I might have more technical material from Stan or others! I have SCADS of PRG material, and without the PRG software, which was on the Win XP computer, which CRASHED, I cannot go into further PRG material and post it here!!!!!!!!!
I would really appreciate some PRG software, that I could stick into my working WIN 7 Computer, so I could open up and read lots of .PRG material...... ANYONE please send it to [email protected]. Thanks!!!!!!!!! In English words please, I only understand ENGLISH Words....... I will load it into my Windows 7 Computer please...
MELBETA

[Melbeta]

I also have this file, in DOC format, of various guys who were building and testing their own versions of the PRG, and JOE RANGER, actually at one time possessed an actual PRG unit, used it, sold it, regretted selling it, and looked for years to find another one, never found another one though as if he did I would have heard about it.......
MELBETA
JoeRanger.doc
Now I got the photos of Jack Roach's OWN SEMTECH metal detector. Who owns it today? I am MELBETA, and I own it and it is stored in my basement area... Never turned it on and ran it as it takes a unknown battery to run it and I do not have that battery. Next spring, if someone finds that battery, I will take it out on an 1860s Ranch, and test it to see what it finds.......I also own an vintage 1976 Whites Electronics CoinMaster V Supreme metal detector, which has an updated unit with the latest updated coil back then.
I am MELBETA you see!!!!!!!!! There is only ONE MELBETA even though someone else is using my MELBETA name. Don't know who he is, but I am the original MELBETA.............Now some ******* took my user name of MELBETA, but I am the only TRUE MELBETA... That new Balsa wood case, holds JACK ROACH's only SEMTECH unit, and it looks to me like it is still in new like condition.......I do not own the battery that makes it run though........ But I have the detector!!!!!!!!!!! Now the case is light
weight, so I call it Balsa, not sure if it is truely Balsa wood though, but someone took great care and great work to build it as a PRESENTATION SEMTECH Metal Detector to give it to
Jack Roach!!!!! It is obviously a gift box holding a GIFT METAL DETECTOR to give to Jack Roach!!!!!!!!!! I did an search, he worked for NASA, graduated from the Colo Univ at Fort
Collins CO, then went to work as a secretive MISSEL ROCKET ENGINEER for the U.S. Govt, disappeared from sight, and not sure where he is today..... But I got his machine!

I said I needed the PRG software, I meant PRF software, i got many many PDF files on the PRG, and cannot open them to read them........Can anyone send me some PDF software that will run and work on a Windows 7 computer, I had it in my Windows XP computer, but it went belly up a few days ago...... So I cannot open and run any PDF files you see....... Send me a working PDF file to [email protected] and I will be in your thoughts when it is running and working in my Windows 7 Computer.............I am old, and am old school, I do not use todays newer computers. I use the older ones as everything I own is OLD STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MELBETA