Aquasound

[dbanner]

I'll have a look at at the supreme V circuit as well.

[dbanner]

Great historical record. Thanks for putting those here.There is no mystery here, only a great coil system.I did notice that the threshold pot is mentioned as 10turns.

[kt315]

FoilFinder:

Here is the Aquasound's controls: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zMVXfYyNgQ

Aquasound is a TR detector and nothing will come close in white sand to it's performance for depth and discrimination. Never have dug a bottle cap with mine will hit a dime at 16" in good white sand leaves the excal guys scratching there head as you dig up the goodies around them.

Here is the guy that makes them: [email protected]
He goes by MR. GOLD on the forums.


FoilFinder

[kt315]

FoilFinder:

This post was updated on Oct 23, 2010; 11:16pm.

"Where's the Beef?!?!" ...you asked? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug75diEyiA0
O.K> I found that custom modded killer TR beach machine I've mentioned earlier. It was called an Aquasound. they could only be used in low mineralized beaches and the really did not have a problem with salt discriminating out small gold. They sure got some amazing depth for a TR machine and any other machine for that matter. This is the epitome of the TR All-Metal metal detectors.

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It's a custom detector made by Mr gold. I saw it in Miami this year when I ran across Mr gold & the Bulgarian hunting there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk03Z...layer_embedded

Some info on it

Quote:
"Aquasound detector, which is a very high powered TR unit (52V to the coil in high powered mode). These have custom built waterproof cases as the word "Aquasound" is embossed on the underside of the case. These are very strong, thick walled, clear polycarbonate (Lexan) cases.

Firstly, the Aquasound must be used away from any black sands. The cleaner/whiter the sand then the deeper it goes. Tuning the machine is also critical (this is usually maximised after about 10 minutes of use). The coil loves to be submerged in water where the electronics can be really wound up.

I'd be confident to say that with "good" tuning then 18" is about right but with "great" tuning then 20" plus. The tuning then incorporates getting both "Null" controls really tight and then the 10turn volume/threshold down really low"

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FoilFinder

[kt315]

Mekbeta:



When George Payne came out with the first Whites Coinmaster V Supreme, it was an all metal machine, no discrimination. It went deep. In fact, too deep. Customers complained about the depth of the finds. That was in 1975.

So the next year, in 1976, Whites came out with the model with all metal and also TR discrimination, and it was scaled back from the first 1975 model. In other words did not go as deep.

That began the movement that ended many BFO models and many TR models. It was the AGE of the VLF detectors. If you read that test article of LeGaye's pretty close, you will see that the PRG was almost useless in mineralized ground.

Now there is a detector being made today, in Florida, that goes deep, really deep, but has no discrimination in it, and no VLF in it, it is pure TR, with high voltage/current power, and is touted as superior to any machine down in the Gulf area on white sand beeches. If you want one, you have to stand in line for one. I have read that it detects silver dimes (older models) from 12" deep, and on the newer model around 18" to 20" deep.

It is called the AquaSound TR, and the guy who makes them is called by some guys Mr. Gold, and he sells through Florida CraigsList I have also heard he is from Margate FL. I understand he also sells them by word of mouth. Be prepared to pay some serious money for it. Not many hit the used market.
Melbeta

[dbanner]

Meantime, I revised dbanner pcb making some embellishment, adding references, and correct components values according with photos we have. Schematic is revised too and now is aligned to the pcb.

I will check it out, good work. Today I begin testing coil.First I will try your winding plan, then I will try my winding plan (wires can easily be changed for both)I will measure the peak to peak voltage and scope the waveforms.Whichever one have highest voltage will be the winner.
I use common 2N2222 and 2N2907 for the tx circuit. I will put pics of results later today.

[Altair]

Meantime, I revised dbanner pcb making some embellishment, adding references, and correct components values according with photos we have. Schematic is revised too and now is aligned to the pcb.

[Altair]

I finished making the coil. Now it's time to breadboard the TX oscillator circuit and do some testing. I'm curious to see what the p-p voltage will be.

I did 40-10-10-40 coil /10 inches diameter.. Bifilar windings. I think this will be ok for testing.

Great work dbanner!
You beat me in time!

[dbanner]

I finished making the coil. Now it's time to breadboard the TX oscillator circuit and do some testing. I'm curious to see what the p-p voltage will be.

I did 40-10-10-40 coil /10 inches diameter.. Bifilar windings. I think this will be ok for testing.

[kt315]

Thank you KT315 to help in reconstruction of Aquasound story!
Know those back stage it's very important to resurrent that project!

thank you Altair. i did a pause but will bring comments on Orca from compass forum.

[Altair]

For sure coil construction rapresent the more difficult job to deal with. A great help would be to have some internal high quality photos of Aquasound coil, but I don't how where find it.

[dbanner]

The coil is proving to be difficult job. Winding with two spools, it is necessary for the windings to be side by side to get the benefit of bifilar big voltage step up. I am going to have to make a jig, hands cannot do such a good job, it takes a lot of effort.

[Altair]

Thank you KT315 to help in reconstruction of Aquasound story!
Know those back stage it's very important to resurrent that project!

[kt315]

RF :

The late Herb Mcdonald was the original inventor of the Aquasound metal detector.
He was assisted by Jerry Tyndall of Nautilus fame.
You won't see the real similarity unless you have schematics of the DMC2B or 2Ba.
Don't think there any diagrams for these 2 in the hands of the public.
The power pot and null pots of the Aquasound correspond with the transmit power and R and C on the DMC2B.

Its very easy using 2 transistors to build a high power oscillator.
With 12 volts dc in you can get a 44V or 52V peak to peak ac sine wave out of the coil.

I just built an oscillator for a variant type of bfo detector, with 10 volts dc in I get about 35 to 40 volts peak to peak
ac out.
With an oscillator we input dc and get ac wave out. I still think its magic!

[kt315]

In a message dated 3/1/2015 3:04:04 PM Mountain Standard Time, [email protected] writes:



The Tx oscillator is the power boost circuit, There should be a 25k pot that turns the power up to 52v. Its an amplifier oscillator circuit.


You are correct there, and that power boost circuit is outside of the coil. But also inside the coil is a Rx amplifier circuit, fed by the same amount of voltage current. As I look at it, I recall the words that Keith Wills told me, when I asked him how to amplify the detector, "to make sure you do it in both Tx and Rx to maintain signal stability"! The fellow who built the AquaSound certainly maintained signal stability.

How do you compute the 52V from the 12V current and the 25K pot? I see 12V but I do not see how it goes up to 52V of power.

I know that others say the AquaSound came from the Nautilus, but looking at a couple of Nautilus schematics, even though there are similiar components, and similiar methods, the schematics differ quit a bit. I assume that Rich worked at one time for Nautilus?

When I went to college, I studied Law and Geology, which worked out well for me, but now I wished I had also continued on and studied electronics. But back in the 1950s electronics was not that great. It is now, but was not then.
Melbeta