Vallon VMH3CS Mine Detector

[KingJL]

I am trying to figure out: what is the Vallon's pulse rate (pulses per second) and what is the sample delay time?....
This may have been stated earlier, but my lack of technical knowledge is letting me down!!....

In post #7, Eric stated that the time between positive and negative pulses was 530us. That would be 1886.7 PPS. The sample delay is unknown as it is sampled via ADC sampling, which leaves no telltale.

[kingswood]

Awesome thanks ...I think I am starting to understand a bit more!

[kingswood]

Number one Vallon has arrived
First feel is that its not as heavy as I expected....Lighter than my old Garrett Deepseeker VLF/TR
Looks very well made. The coil mechanism is a bit tight so will WD-40 that to see if it loosens up a tad.
Hoping to get it out this weekend to run it over some highly mineralized soil and rocks to see how it handles....
I will report back.
PS: Couldnt resist the current ebay price, so have another one coming

[kingswood]

Righto...I have read the thread...again....all 21 pages. You guys are way to smart for me !!
I am trying to figure out: what is the Vallon's pulse rate (pulses per second), what is the sample delay time and what is the pulse width?....(someone has been googling how PI detectors work !)
This may have been stated earlier, but my lack of technical knowledge is letting me down!!....

More reading of the thread....Pulse width seems to be 50us (if I have read the technical stuff correctly!)

[KingJL]

More reading of the thread....Pulse width seems to be 50us (if I have read the technical stuff correctly!)

You have been reading correctly.

[kingswood]

You have been reading correctly.

Ha ha...Thank you ...Third time reading is lucky I guess!
I must admit, I knew next to nothing about how PI detectors actually work....This thread and associated googling has been quite educational!
From what I can gather, pulse width may influence the depth detection to an extent, but is affected by the sampling delay (??) and the noise reduction....
I like this comment "Pulse lengths of 50 usec or less will still produce a very decent signal from most of the gold nuggets that are found with a detector."

[kingswood]

First test report of the Vallon!....Location: Murchison Gold-fields, West Australia.
Spent only 2 hours out this morning as it was 35 degrees by 9 am
First location was a mix of quartz and black rocks (I think these are basalt). The Vallon had no issues ground balancing. A couple of bigger hot rocks gave a hum, but they were either kicked out of the way or the hum stopped if the coil was lifted up a couple of inches. Found a bullet casing down at about 6 inches....it made the Vallon screech like a banshee!
The second spot was a creek bed, a mix of sandy soil, quartz and black rock. The Vallon again ground balanced beautifully Found a small 1cm very thin piece of old tin at 8 inches that again set the Vallon off. The pin point function worked in helping to find it.
I have no doubt that if either target found had of been gold, the Vallon would have found it Did discover that all parts of the coil are quite sensitive...if I moved the coil to far back, it was detecting my steel capped boots from about a foot
Next test will be to bury some small nuggets at various depths and see how she goes....Just have to buy a couple off ebay!!
Images in next post!

[kingswood]

[Rivers rat]

Kingwood thanks for the report very useful!!!My question is why wearing steel cap toe boots with a PI even with a VLF thats not really good....But once again well detailed report i really appreciate!


RR

[kingswood]

Kingwood thanks for the report very useful!!!My question is why wearing steel cap toe boots with a PI even with a VLF thats not really good....But once again well detailed report i really appreciate!


RR

To be honest, I had never really given it a thought...until now
Another note...I quite like the vibration feature.
The speaker is loud enough when the detector goes off, but a couple of times I struggled to the "working blip" tone every few seconds. Will try the Vallon headphone thing next time.

[Qiaozhi]

Did discover that all parts of the coil are quite sensitive...if I moved the coil to far back, it was detecting my steel capped boots from about a foot.

That reminds me of Eric's username ... "Ferric Toes".

[kingswood]

That reminds me of Eric's username ... "Ferric Toes".

Ha ha yeah good one !! Will leave the steel caps behind next time!

[Teleno]

[ATTACH]38671[/ATTACH][ATTACH]38669[/ATTACH][ATTACH]38668[/ATTACH][ATTACH]38670[/ATTACH]

So far the findings match those I have experienced using the MiniPulsePlus with my modifications: MPP with DD coil 580 uH and short delay

[Ferric Toes]

To be honest, I had never really given it a thought...until now
Another note...I quite like the vibration feature.
The speaker is loud enough when the detector goes off, but a couple of times I struggled to the "working blip" tone every few seconds. Will try the Vallon headphone thing next time.

Great report on your first field test. Hope the success continues in your mineralised ground and you soon find your first nugget with the Vallon.

As far as headphones go, I don't like the Vallon device with the harness around your head. I am trying to find suitable conventional phones that are not too expensive, but I suspect that only high impedance piezo ones will work. One thing I have tried with the Vallon phone, is to remove it from its harness mounting and wear it under a head sweatband just above the ear. It then acts as a bone conductor phone and you can adjust the position to get a suitable volume. On the ear, I found it too loud.

Eric.

[kingswood]

Great report on your first field test. Hope the success continues in your mineralised ground and you soon find your first nugget with the Vallon.

As far as headphones go, I don't like the Vallon device with the harness around your head. I am trying to find suitable conventional phones that are not too expensive, but I suspect that only high impedance piezo ones will work. One thing I have tried with the Vallon phone, is to remove it from its harness mounting and wear it under a head sweatband just above the ear. It then acts as a bone conductor phone and you can adjust the position to get a suitable volume. On the ear, I found it too loud.

Eric.

Thanks Eric. The ground balancing seems very good. I will keep trying it over different areas and see how it goes. There is a big old dry lake not far from me that is quite salty (and has a lot of gold left still apparently!) so that will be a very good test area.
I did notice that the Vallon is basically always working with a silent threshold....I wonder if increasing the sensitivity increases the threshold??...Will have to try that! From what I understand, silent is not always the best for gold detecting...