About rebuilding of metaldetector

[Tommy82]

Hello Detector friends

I have been metal detecting for quite some years now and have found a lot of
interesting artefacts through the years. At the moment in relation to my
study I am writing an assignment about consumer driven innovations. In this respect I
have chosen metal detecting as the starting point because this hobby interests
me a lot. Consumer driven innovation is when the consumer of a product changes
or modifies the product to improve its performance e.g. reduce weight, change
adjustments or somehow enhance other parameters.
What im especially interested in for use in my assignment is modifications that reduce the weight
of the metaldetector, solutions that make better weight distribution of the metaldetector
(eg. when you rebuild the detector so its possible to hipmount the detector box on the front body instead
of having it placed under the forearm), and solutions for better balance.
I myself, have a good friend who has a Whites XLT.
He rebuilt his detector so that the controls box is no longer placed under the forearm, but
instead is placed on a belt, so he can wear it on the front with the beltstraps over his
shoulders. He then uses an extension cord to connect the box to the detector.
This has made his detecting a lot more easier and he can stay out for many
more hours without getting tired in his arm. I look very much forward to hear about some
of your ideas and would also be very glad if you could post a picture of your detector before and after.
Lastly i want to point that there are no commercially interests in the information that i get, it is only for use in my assignment.

Thanks on forehand...

Best regards Thomas Stie Strange
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.

[Max]

Hello Detector friends

I have been metal detecting for quite some years now and have found a lot of
interesting artefacts through the years. At the moment in relation to my
study I am writing an assignment about consumer driven innovations. In this respect I
have chosen metal detecting as the starting point because this hobby interests
me a lot. Consumer driven innovation is when the consumer of a product changes
or modifies the product to improve its performance e.g. reduce weight, change
adjustments or somehow enhance other parameters.
What im especially interested in for use in my assignment is modifications that reduce the weight
of the metaldetector, solutions that make better weight distribution of the metaldetector
(eg. when you rebuild the detector so its possible to hipmount the detector box on the front body instead
of having it placed under the forearm), and solutions for better balance.
I myself, have a good friend who has a Whites XLT.
He rebuilt his detector so that the controls box is no longer placed under the forearm, but
instead is placed on a belt, so he can wear it on the front with the beltstraps over his
shoulders. He then uses an extension cord to connect the box to the detector.
This has made his detecting a lot more easier and he can stay out for many
more hours without getting tired in his arm. I look very much forward to hear about some
of your ideas and would also be very glad if you could post a picture of your detector before and after.
Lastly i want to point that there are no commercially interests in the information that i get, it is only for use in my assignment.

Thanks on forehand...

Best regards Thomas Stie Strange
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark.

Hi,
yes, it's interesting topic. I'll tell you what's my preferred way with MDs.

Though I used hip-mount , neck-laced boxes and also knapsack mounted MDs (control units), as well as standard forearm kinds I must say that in many ways the forearm is maybe the best strategy.

That's cause you can put the MD aside and dig , then also use the MD search head to "pinpoint" the target in e.g. clay stuff and other soil.

Now... the big problem is always weight : not cause only static weight is relevant and causes to be tired in few time, but also because e.g. motion md you need to sweep continuosly...and a small more weight in a moving object is much more tiring than keeping/holding device against just gravity.

The inertia related to the mass movement is real pain on arm, shoulder etc after a few time...and taking rest for a while, though help, sure not solve that.

So the best of the best is a standard MD with minimum weight as possible, and that's what e.g. Tesoro and other brands made... light MDs you can play with for hours with not much trouble.

The trick is all at materials.... use smd circuits, use lightweight enclosure and shaft, use reasonable coil weight per size, use hi energy density batteries e.g. lithium kind, use few as possible un-necessary stuff on the MD. Your customer will be happy of lightness and really stressed by any unuseful weight more on arm and shoulder.

That apply most to VLFs... but similar strategy pays also at PIs: just PI need more energy so heavy batteries... that's why I will prefer any PI will mount an external , hip-mounted battery connected by an extensible wire to the control box.

About balancing... that's an issue too, cause any balancing deficit will give other problems to the user , even at low weight scenario... and really worse in hi weight situations.

Some MDs have LCD screen of low visibility in direct sunlight: that's not so good. Better no display at all if light is a problem.

The audio stage must be always by both headphones and speaker... cause some times is better using headphones... and other times an internal speaker: I don't like the headphone ONLY MDs , aren't enough flexible to me.

Just some issues...

Kind regards
Max

[Tommy82]

hallo Max

Hallo Max

Just wanted to say thank you for your long and comprehensive answer to my question. Your ideas have been of good use in my assignment, so thank you. I myself also prefer a metaldetector which is as light weighted as possible (eg. obtained by the use of light weight materials such as carbon fiber) and also without unnecessary extra stuff (eg. low density batteries that will increase the overall weight of the detector as you-self mention). A hip mounted battery kit is as you say also a great solution that will make a better weight distribution of the weight components of the metaldetector, so all weight is not attached to the detector arm which in my opinion is a bad solution because of the damages that this can cause to eg. shoulder or elbow from swinging the detector arm.
I myself think that the best solution if you 100% want to prevent physical damages from using the detector is to hipmount the detector box eg. on the front body (or other place) as the example with the person I now. This reduces the load of swinging the detector arm considerably and makes it more pleasant to use the metaldetector in general.
About the balancing problem I also agree that this is an important issue. Even a low weight detector can be problematic to swing if the detectorarm is bad balanced. I myself very much like the solution on many newer detectors eg Whites and Minelab detectors where there is a strap on the detector arm that you can lock around the elbow to obtain a better balance of the detector arm. Many I know who have an older machine have made self-made solutions to avoid the balance problems that they find very annoying, so this is also as least as important as the weight issue.


Best regards Thomas