DIY wireless headphones

[Cadmaster375]

Well since I cannot detect I have been keeping my interest by researching new locations and last years finds and keeping my eyes open for upgrades for my detector. I finally got a cheap DIY setup for wireless headphones. I bought the FM transmitter on sale for 40% off ($8 at Canadian Tire) and the am/fm radio headset at a second hand store for $4 after some indoor testing on other devices it seems to work really well so far and the only negatives are that the fm transmitter uses AAA batteries and the Headset uses AA and that the volume is a little lower than I would like. hopefully they will work well on the detector

[homefire]

I've done that before. Worked ok for me.

[dfbowers]

Any latency in the audio? Sometimes the digital transmitters lag a little..
Don

[Skippy]

Could you not do a little engineering and make the headphones run off AAA as well?
Are the headphones loud when tuned to an FM radio station? If so, the lack of volume may be caused by the transmitter, rather than the capabilities of the headphones.

I have one of those transmitter units sitting amongst my detecting-related junk, I must get round to having a play with it.

[homefire]

The Transmitter needs no Battery. You can power it via the Head Phone Voltage. That's what I did. Google line powered phone bug.

[Cadmaster375]

After some time in the field with the wireless setup. I find it works good with little or no lag. getting the right frequency for the FM transmitter and headphones is the biggest pain that and a little static. the waterproof box i used for the circuit board is just large enough to also house the fm transmitter so the whole thing is waterproof.

[sinclairuser]

i have used a similar setup too, that transmitter is a copy of a cygnett cy3,


like this mine has a built in rechargeable battery, in fact you have to turn down the detector volume as it over saturates.

[Funfinder]

Depending on the MDs circuit you don't need any transmitter at all.
Little AM or FM radio with headphones is everything you need if
the nearby detector creates some interference if it detects anything.
Or you plug in something into the audiojack which creates little sparks or breaks
if the find-signal starts - these you can hear over the whole frequency range.

The professional solution of course is to get some detector which has
the wireless built in already like the Nokta Impact so you have no stress
or additional weight with these plug-in transmitters.

[Skippy]

That's correct, the professional solution is to attach a VanDerGraaf generator to your machine, and have it throw out 30cm sparks whenever a target is detected. It works well in the dark, and needs no power-consuming backlight.

Seriously - any suitable transmitter should add no more than 20 grams to the machine. Power it from the main detector battery. That would be the most 'professional' set-up.

[Funfinder]

Nice answer - add some little tesla coils from plasma globes!
Joke - the spark of a piezo-lighter works already good enough.

No, a better solution is to use some audio-splitter-joiner so you can listen to music plus search-signals all together wireless!
(incl. vibration or for adjusting separate the volume of both signal sources)
Otherwise you limit yourself to those over longer time pretty boring becoming find signals and can't listen to entertaining stuff.

btw. with vibration you're working already wireless - the problem is just that all the vibration feels the same
and doesn't tells you so far anything about the metal you've found.
This should be changed in further versions of the Impact or other detectors.

And most of the wireless headphones don't have the same good audio quality than in-ear or half-in ear plugs and weight much more.

Solution is simple:
The vibration motor needs at least 2 different modulation patterns for iron versus noble metal (adjustable by disc. level).
Noble metal does rrrr-rrrr-rrrr-rrrr-rrrr-... while allmetal or iron makes just rrrrr without any breaks from very slow and soft to full power!

[Skippy]

You're probably the only one on here who wants to hear music while detecting, the rest of us are concentrating on the noises made by those elusive historic items buried in the ground.....
However...as just about all detectors are mono sound, and aftermarket cordless 'phones are all stereo, your desire for "music+beeps" should be easy to arrange. Maybe mix the stereo from the MP3-player into mono and feed to the right ear, and send the detector audio to the left ear?

This summer I'm going to spend some time hacking my TurtleBeach X32's, I have the bits for an earbud set-up as well as the full headphones. One stereo experiment I want to try is linking in the pinpointer to the headphones, though that will have to wait until winter-time.