Vallon VMH3CS Mine Detector

[ionut_mtb]

Does anyone has a picture of an addon for the soft valloon backpack? (going on the side zippers)

[Carolina]

Congratulations on your successful trip! That end cap and arm cuff are nice. Much nicer than the rabbit ears. Good luck with your VALLON!!!

[Rocketdemon]

Trip to Vallon in Germany

Well I made it there and back, a 1700 mile round trip from Cardiff UK

Made very welcome and given a great tour of the facility, not surprisingly I couldn't take any photos of the main manufacturing facilities.

Given a few gifts and device upgraded successfully, got a nice certificate of conformity as well.

Tick is now every 7 seconds but only if no detection's made, detection's cancel the tick.

Filters, surf mode and new ground balance method included and working.

[phamanphu]

hi. kingjl.I'm from vietnam. I have followed your forum for a long time. I have knowledge of electronics. Can you help me build? I do not for commercial purpose

[KingJL]

Yes, that is exactly what happened with me, except it was more frequent.

I found ( I think ) that if I minimize the probe response (hold it so that the probe end is away from the unit) when switching, I avoid the lockup.

[Ferric Toes]

Locked up one time out of 20. It was switching from probe to search coil. I don't know yet if it means anything but at switch time the probe was providing a "substantial" target signal for the detector. When it switched to search coil, it was still indicating the "substantial" target signal.

Yes, that is exactly what happened with me, except it was more frequent. The on/off/on switch is a idea worth trying.

Eric.

[KingJL]

So far it behaves itself... but I have only switched it a couple of times. If it does start acting up, I may try a On/Off/On switch and let it register "open coil" between the probe and coil switch.

Locked up one time out of 20. It was switching from probe to search coil. I don't know yet if it means anything but at switch time the probe was providing a "substantial" target signal for the detector. When it switched to search coil, it was still indicating the "substantial" target signal.

[KingJL]

Does your detector behave itself when switched from coil to probe? My rebuild sometimes locks up and I have to switch the detector off, switch to probe into circuit, and then power up again.

Eric.

So far it behaves itself... but I have only switched it a couple of times. If it does start acting up, I may try a On/Off/On switch and let it register "open coil" between the probe and coil switch.

[Ferric Toes]

Great job, KIngJL.

Does your detector behave itself when switched from coil to probe? My rebuild sometimes locks up and I have to switch the detector off, switch to probe into circuit, and then power up again.

Eric.

[qute1]

Nice job!

[KingJL]

Predator II

Finished up the re-case of the Vallon electronics that I used as a test envirionment. Power is supplied by a RAVPOWER usb power pack (16000 maH) mounted in a Pelican case that mounts on the rear of the shaft. The total weight of the pelican case and the power pack is about the same as 3 "D" cells and pretty much balances the the weight of the detector fore and aft of the grip. The pelican case also functions as an effective "stand" when laying the detector on the ground. Made a 1500 uH probe with a snap-in clip that is mounted on the underside of the Hammond case. Mounted a switch to switch between the search coil and the probe. Not the ultimate, but a "predator" just the same!

[Andi68]

I understand.
Unfortunately you get here in Germany such a device used almost not at all.
I would just go to Vallon with it, a friend of mine works there, I live a few miles away

[Ferric Toes]

Anyway, I do not understand why the device has to be tinkered with

The VMH3CS is a very good PI mine detector and features such as the confidence tick are almost essential when hunting for mines. At least the British MOD thought so, and most of the ones on the surplus market are ex MOD. For coin, ring, and jewellry hunting, this repeated tick is a bit of an annoyance, so it would be good to remove it. One of the Vallon firmware programs has this tick removed and adds other features which are better suited to the hobby market, so why not incorporate them if it is possible?

The headphone output is high impedance piezo only, so I added a a step down transformer so that I can run ordinary low impedance phones. I have also added Garrett's Z-Link wireless system (won't work on a hiZ output), so now I have no phone cable. Also a ground stand has been added so that the detector stays upright when you put it down. Those are my reasons for tinkering. For non-military use it makes a good innovative PI machine better.

If a modification could give a low threshold tone with a sweeter sound, and hear those faint whisper signals, many would find that an improvement. I expect that is why ionut_mtb made the point.

Eric.

[Andi68]

Anyway, I do not understand why the device has to be tinkered with

[ionut_mtb]

If confidence click can be removed i would like to see audio vco like gpx on it.