Vallon VMH3CS Mine Detector

[Chet]

Hi Eric


I totally agree that the shape and thickness affects the detection ability. The 0.65 gram nugget is a chunky D shape. Its greatest dimensions are 7.06 mm x 5.33 mm x 2.28 mm. I will test some more nuggets of different sizes later.

I am interested in your new 15” coil results. I have the following old coins for possible comparison. Please let me know if you have any of these since they are probably not in circulation. I just ordered a 1990 set of UK coins on eBay which should arrive within a week.


1920 Half Penny
1943 Half Penny
1967 Half Penny
1965 One Penny
1942 Farthing
1955 One Shilling
1959 One Shilling
1963 Two Shillings
1957 One Pence
1956 Six Pence


Have a good day,
Chet

[Rivers rat]

Good grace Eric a 15" can wait for the test!!!!!!!


RR

[Ferric Toes]

4.5" on a 0.65g nugget!! I am impressed with that!
I think that if I happen to swing the Vallon over some gold, there is a fair chance that I will find it

As I think we all know, nuggets vary greatly in shape and conductivity of the gold. I have a probe that I made with a 0.75in ferrite core that gives a more concentrated field than the standard Vallon coil. With this I can detect a 0.2gm solid spherical nugget at 1in but a 0.2gm flat nugget, I cannot detect at all. Going to larger nuggets, I have a 0.5gm nugget which gives a very good signal at a couple of inches and another of similar weight - nothing.

Another test with the probe on the Vallon was with a Titanium screw 2.5in long as used in surgery for screwing plates to fractured bones. I can just detect this at approx 1.0in from the probe. Now, I know that the total decay of this object is within 10uS as tested on my ultra fast PI, yet the Vallon can detect it, even with the standard coil.

On the other extreme, I am making a 15in coil for the Vallon to see what improvement over the standard coil this gives with coins and rings.

Eric.

[si-dog]

Wow what a difference the Vallon VMH 3CS being 1888 pps against the Garrett ATX 730 pps

[si-dog]

Be interesting to compare the Vallon VMH 3CS with the Garrett ATX on the of depth of gold rings and large and small nuggets

[Ferric Toes]

Hi thanks, so you do not get the 3 little beeps, maybe this is some sort of error message will be trying again thanks.

In the manual that Vallon sent me it states that if the button C is released too early, you get three low pitch error tones, so perhaps this is what is happening.

Eric.

[kingswood]

Hi thanks, so you do not get the 3 little beeps, maybe this is some sort of error message will be trying again thanks.

I am pretty sure that I dont get 3 beeps. Rather, I get a continuous beeeeep tone that lets me know it is GB'ed, then when I release "C" I get a single beep.
Looking at the VMC1 manual (I have one of these machines too ), I note that it says that 3 beeps following ground balancing means it hasnt balanced properly and "C" as been released to early....I dont know if this applies to the VMH3CS also.

[kingswood]

Hi thanks, so you do not get the 3 little beeps, maybe this is some sort of error message will be trying again thanks.

Do you get the LED's 6-9 lighting up with "C" pressed and the coil on the ground?

[6666]

Hi Kingswood, 6666


The gold coins below are from the US mint if you want the dimensions they are on their website. Depth is in inches. The measurements are air test inside with a high EMI environment. Sensitivity was set at 12. Detection was determined by seeing the first or second LED lite up.


Size”-------------------- Depth”
0.3 gram nugget-------1.0”
0.65 gram nugget-----4.5”
0.10 oz gold coin------10.6”
0.25 oz gold coin------12”
0.50 oz gold coin------13”
1.00 oz gold coin------14”


1962 Australian 1 cent-------9.5”
1971 Australian 5 cents------10.5”
1968 Australian 2 cents------11”
1984 US Nickel-----------------12”
2002 Australian 10 cents-----13”


These are all good numbers except for the very small nuggets that it will miss.


Have a good one,
Chet

Hi Chet, these are great results on our coins, that 10 cents is awesome .

[6666]

I put the head so its touching the ground. Then press and hold "C"....after a little bit, there is a tone and LED's 6-9 light up. Once I hear that tone and see the LED's, I bounce the coil up and down while continuing to press and hold "C" in. The sound kinda makes a screech that gets less and less...I keep doing that until I get a long "Beeeeeep" tone. This happens after between 30 to 60 odd seconds of going up and down. When I hear that, I stop pressing "C and it makes a short "beep".
I have noticed that you can be doing the up and down thing for a while until the screech actually disappears, but it does go down in intensity while doing the bounces.
There was a lot of ironstone today and the Vallon GB'ed beautifully.
I have noticed that if I turn the sensitivity up to max, I get false signals from long grass hitting the coil...stops when I go back to sensitivity 12.

Hi thanks, so you do not get the 3 little beeps, maybe this is some sort of error message will be trying again thanks.

[kingswood]

Hi Kingswood
Looks ready to go...Good luck on finding a few,
Chet

Thanks Chet. To be honest, half the fun is in trying to find it Quite relaxing.

[Chet]

Hi Kingswood
Looks ready to go...Good luck on finding a few,
Chet

[kingswood]

Hi Kingswood looks nice just need a couple of roos in the back ground
only 32' here today.
re ground balance
would you mind describing your method of ground balancing on your WA soil
when I try it I get 3 beeps at the end, not sure whats going on, thanks.

I put the head so its touching the ground. Then press and hold "C"....after a little bit, there is a tone and LED's 6-9 light up. Once I hear that tone and see the LED's, I bounce the coil up and down while continuing to press and hold "C" in. The sound kinda makes a screech that gets less and less...I keep doing that until I get a long "Beeeeeep" tone. This happens after between 30 to 60 odd seconds of going up and down. When I hear that, I stop pressing "C and it makes a short "beep".
I have noticed that you can be doing the up and down thing for a while until the screech actually disappears, but it does go down in intensity while doing the bounces.
There was a lot of ironstone today and the Vallon GB'ed beautifully.
I have noticed that if I turn the sensitivity up to max, I get false signals from long grass hitting the coil...stops when I go back to sensitivity 12.

[6666]

Hi Kingswood looks nice just need a couple of roos in the back ground
only 32' here today.
re ground balance
would you mind describing your method of ground balancing on your WA soil
when I try it I get 3 beeps at the end, not sure whats going on, thanks.

[kingswood]

I had to share this pic This is the Vallon laying on out gold lease while I went back to get the car....The Vallon looks the part, just hope it acts the part