Best DIY device for detecting lost phones/cameras

[nonkapo]

Hello,

After living and working 15 years in desert environment i have countless cases where my customers (or me) have lost their mobiles, cameras gps etc in the sand. In very few cases i manage to discover them by digging, kicking in the sand or calling and folowing the ring tone. However the success factor is really low. The idea of buyng metal detector have being long in my mind, but the shops here sell only for export. As the size and composition of the mobiles is different than most of the items discussed here i'm curious which one is most suitable for the job. So can you please advise which of the DIY models might do the job for me. I'm talking about principles(PI or BFO or else) and if you can reffer to particular projects. As i know the size of the coil also matters what you can recommend in this regard?
Thanks

[waltr]

All mobile phones, cameras, etc have more than enough metal to easily detect with any modern metal detector.

Most items detectorist are interested in are small, coins, jewelry, nuggets, which is what makes them hard to detect. Phones cameras, etc are large thus easy to detect.
For larger items a larger search coil should work fine and will cover a larger area for fast searching.

For a DIY project one of the simple PI detectors, Beach detector, should work very well. Check the Barracuda, Hammerhead, Surf PI, MMP, etc.
Kits for some of these are available from the Silverdog shop -> www.silverdog.co.uk

what country are you in (this will help forum members to make recommendations).

[kt315]

take a look on DELTA PULSE. it is able do the job in in desert environment on big depth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjfLCXJ5oLM

[nonkapo]

Thanks to all who respond. I'm in UAE,where i'm not even sure whether it is alowed to use such stuff. However there are few shops as i say but they do not sell on internal market. I've just got few offers second hand,one of which is Bounty treasure (looks like pioneer), the entry level Garret ace150/250 but on terrible price. I'm not very sure they will do the job, as well as they are not priced reasonable. Same apply for the toy one which are avaiable at 27 pounds on e-bay. So will try and let you know.
Thanks

[nonkapo]

As the surf PI looks the easiest to start with i check on silverdog, but the board/kits are out of stock. I've got another from e-bay and i hope thats accurate. Will go to the more advanced projects later. Mean time i get the Bounty Hunter Pioneer EX which i'm planing to do some reverse engineering on and share the discovered with you. I manage to find my phone with it but still challenged to try some DIY.

[Koala]

Interesting one. So many variables. With a lot of electronics now housed in plastic the largest part to detect is the battery. I have tried a USB key. It was only detected in all metal mode. As you can't use discrimination a PI would give the most consistent results in my opinion.

[nonkapo]

Interesting one. So many variables. With a lot of electronics now housed in plastic the largest part to detect is the battery. I have tried a USB key. It was only detected in all metal mode. As you can't use discrimination a PI would give the most consistent results in my opinion.

Yes you are probably right as this one is a piece of junk if you are searching deeper than 20 cm. Not only that but it gives a lot of false beeps, however before i find my phone i got few pieces of wire, few buble gum foils, few can covers and two smashed coke cans. As per the Murphy the phone was founded when i was about to give up after nearly three hours systematic search. Before i throw everything in the car a decide to cros randomly already searched area and... voila.
Anyway once my Surf PI arrive and assembled i'll share my results. Now it is time to post already apart Bounty Hunter and see what the specialist will say for the schematics. On first attempt i can see some pic controllerbut the rest is mistery .

[Tibuck19]

Yes you are probably right as this one is a piece of junk if you are searching deeper than 20 cm. Not only that but it gives a lot of false beeps, however before i find my phone i got few pieces of wire, few buble gum foils, few can covers and two smashed coke cans. As per the Murphy the phone was founded when i was about to give up after nearly three hours systematic search. Before i throw everything in the car a decide to cros randomly already searched area and... voila.
Anyway once my Surf PI arrive and assembled i'll share my results. Now it is time to post already apart Bounty Hunter and see what the specialist will say for the schematics. On first attempt i can see some pic controllerbut the rest is mistery .

With my Surf pi and Minipulse plus I can detect my cell phone from 2 to 3 feet away no problems, I also metal detect in snow dumps and found 3 dead iphones in 2 feet deep snow.

[nonkapo]

Wow, that sounds promising. The issue here is as the area where i'm usually working is only around 40 km from the sea and with dominant south or north winds. Unlike the snow, sand changes the shape really often and the stuff may get burried deep. So it is challenging condition. However for the purpose i need it(to check the same day when lost or maximum few days after) there is a chance to keep my guest happy. In the case with my phone(blackberry) there is a service to track it untill the battery is live. That helps me to reduce the search area. But... the blackberry protect uses a Bing map which was verry old compared to the current situation and that was challenging as well. Plus the accuracy of the GPS they give is +_ 6 to 9metres. have a look at the printscreens of the same map by google earth and bing. Find the differencies:-))) I hope this all explanation is usefull for someone who get in the same situation like me.
See thils below:

[nonkapo]

So as you suggest, due to the mixed metals used in the phone device the best setting was all metal. The phone was just around 15cm in the sand and the bounty hunter get it on both medium setting and most sensitive one. It was detected also as alluminium but later when i change the setting. Generally the device i use is not very good at discriminating.
When i mention the difference in the maps of Bing and Google earth i face one more issue. The coordinate system is different, so you cannot get the one from Bing and put them straith to Google earth. If you do so you will land at totally different place. I did not find fix for this issue despite trying to google import/export Bing to Google earth coordinates so finally i have to rely on my personal judgement. Luckily i drive in the same area on daily basis for the last 5 years or so and was more or less aware of the changes.