New Metal Detector Book!

[Qiaozhi]

Hi Qiaozhi

Many thanks for the ordering instructions.
I'll order the book quickly.

Best regards

Thanks. Order received.

My stock of books is running out fast! Only a hand-full left.

The books will be supplied on a first-come first-served basis. When my current stock is exhausted, there will possibly be a week or two delay before I receive the next shipment.
Everyone who has placed an order so far is guaranteed a book from the current stock. I will make another post when the ones I have are sold. You will still be able to order, but please be aware that there will an additional delay.

[J_Player]

Hi Qiaozhi and Carl,
Congratulations on your first book!
It's good to see you two actually did it.
From what I see in the table of contents, this is bound to be the definitive source of reliable information about how metal detectors work, written by the foremost engineers in the world of metal detecting.

Considering that this book draws on all the brilliant contributions that we see in the Geotech forum, as well as the years of experience you and Carl have in designing and building metal detectors, there probably is no other book about metal detecting to compare. Who else could write such a book, other than electronic engineers who are surrounded by metal detector forum topics, questions, circuits, and all that goes with it?

With any luck, the proceeds from selling this book will pay for the geotech forum and the LRL annex for years to come, and then some. The best news is this is the first thing I have seen advertised in the LRL forum that I am certain is not a fraud! The price is no where near 1000 euros, and what we get for our money is pure quality, nothing else. I will be sending my order to the USA outlet as soon as I get a chance to set up paypal. Hopefully we can get an autographed edition, considering we are online forum contributors...


Congratulations again!
J_P

[WM6]

I can only sign J_P words - in happy expectation this book coming in my library.

[Geo]

I'm afraid we will have many discussions in lrlforum about Chapter 14. I'd like to see something MORE than those written in the RS forum. I await eagerly the arrival of the book ..

[Qiaozhi]

I'm afraid we will have many discussions in lrlforum about Chapter 14. I'd like to see something MORE than those written in the RS forum. I await eagerly the arrival of the book ..

Oh yes ... there's definitely something new.

[Geo]

Maybe our answers to be the begining for the second edition of the book!!!!

[Geo]

I took the book before 3 days.
Very good with a new PD inside designed by Carl or Qiaozhi or both.
But i am sure that this PD don't work.....
If Alonso will see it .... he will

Regards

[Qiaozhi]

I took the book before 3 days.
Very good with a new PD inside designed by Carl or Qiaozhi or both.
But i am sure that this PD don't work.....
If Alonso will see it .... he will

Regards

It depends what you mean by "work".

Obviously it does actually function as an electronic detector, but whether it's detecting some emanation from longtime buried gold may be open to debate. Also, it does work as a short range metal detector.

Have you built it?

[Qiaozhi]

The next shipment of books has arrived!

I will posting out all pending orders today.

[nelson]

Hi Qiaozhi

First of all i congratulate you and Carl for the book you are realising.

Now i just want to have one book, so please give full buying details to place an order, plus shipping cost to Santiago Chile SA.
I will pay by paypal

Regards

Nelson

The next shipment of books has arrived!

I will posting out all pending orders today.

[Geo]

It depends what you mean by "work".

Obviously it does actually function as an electronic detector, but whether it's detecting some emanation from longtime buried gold may be open to debate. Also, it does work as a short range metal detector.

Have you built it?

I did not build it, but if you read carefully you will understand that don't work as LRL.

[Dave J.]

book review

BOOK REVIEW (after a fairly quick read)

For anyone thinking that with no knowledge of electronics they're going to be building a working metal detector, that would be the wrong thing to think. You need to learn basic electronics elsewhere, there's no need for Carl and George to waste time on that, their expertise is metal detectors. There is however some brief explanation of those electronic fundamentals which are especially important to metal detection which electronic techs and engineers in other disciplines may not be familiar with.

The history section is excellent, a wonderful read. Many flaws of omission and commission but that's as good as it gets in this business. This is metal detectors we're talking about, it's not like world wars where there were thousands of reporters trying to document everything for posterity and a researcher can go back through the newspaper morgues and piece it all back together. And it's not like this book was a work expected to earn the publisher a million dollars and thus could warrant tens of thousands of research hours. The authors have nonetheless gone through a great pile of disconnected source material in an attempt to piece together a grand story of "the evolution of beep". Although that story has many minor errors and many omissions (and a few major), the history of beep that you find in this book is as good as it's ever going to get. Nobody's going to do it better, this is the standard.

The part on metal detection technological theory and practice is good as far as it goes. Anyone who is hoping to glean the latest trade secrets from the book will be disappointed. I found the explanations of technology to be quite sound as far as they went, with virtually no areas of disagreement. No surprises on that score, look who the authors are!

If you're trying to home-brew a metal detector, the "latest trade secrets" aren't necessary anyhow, what you need is the basics and the patience to do them well. There are machines designed 15-30 years ago which can acquit themselves quite well in performance comparisons with machines being produced today-- in fact some of those oldies are still popular despite the lack of newfangled revisions.

The project schematics section, I found that a bit disappointing. It all seemed so 1970's. Reality check: I'm fortunate enough to be in a situation where I can order the latest components online in the afternoon and have them in my hand by noon the next day. There are many places in the world where it's hard to get parts, especially new stuff, and everywhere on the planet it's easier to build one-offs with through-hole components than with surface mount components. In that context, designs that look 20-30 years or more out of date are more relevant to the average experimenter around the planet than a design done a year ago by a major manufacturer would be. Heck, even nowadays if there's something I have to throw together in a hurry, my first concern is "is this a design I can solder onto a perfboard?" There's a lot of stuff that can be done well with parts that were available 20 or more years ago.

Want to build an LRL? One could argue that the subject of LRL's doesn't deserve air time on other forums much less books, but there it is. This is all hand in glove with the changes that are going on with the URL itself.

There's also a patent section. Sorry, haven't had time to plow through that yet.

--Dave J.

[Qiaozhi]

Thanks for the review Dave.

As you rightly pointed out, the designs in the book are not cutting edge, and that was (in fact) the intention.
Here is a short quote from the book:

------------------------------------------
This is one of those books where you could keep on writing and writing, and never get finished. At some point you have to draw a line in the sand and say, "This is where we stop." In doing so, there will be a lot of information that never gets discussed, or topics that only receive elementary coverage.
------------------------------------------

We had to walk a thin line between making a Dummies Guide to Metal Detector Technology and a dry academic text. In the end we went for an easy conversational style of writing to cater for most levels of technical knowledge encountered on the Geotech forums. There is also the problem of language, as we often see in online posts. A decision was also made (in the project-based chapters) to not cater for readers with no, or very little, electronics knowledge. Basically, if you struggle with Ohm's Law then you're in trouble.

Hopefully we got the balance about right.

I did mention the possibility of a second book to Carl, where we can address the obvious holes and discuss more detailed technical information. His first response was, "Are you mad?". I think he's still trying to recover from the problems of actually getting it published.

[Geo]

BOOK REVIEW (after a fairly quick read)

For anyone thinking that with no knowledge of electronics they're going to be building a working metal detector, that would be the wrong thing to think. You need to learn basic electronics elsewhere, there's no need for Carl and George to waste time on that, their expertise is metal detectors. There is however some brief explanation of those electronic fundamentals which are especially important to metal detection which electronic techs and engineers in other disciplines may not be familiar with.

The history section is excellent, a wonderful read. Many flaws of omission and commission but that's as good as it gets in this business. This is metal detectors we're talking about, it's not like world wars where there were thousands of reporters trying to document everything for posterity and a researcher can go back through the newspaper morgues and piece it all back together. And it's not like this book was a work expected to earn the publisher a million dollars and thus could warrant tens of thousands of research hours. The authors have nonetheless gone through a great pile of disconnected source material in an attempt to piece together a grand story of "the evolution of beep". Although that story has many minor errors and many omissions (and a few major), the history of beep that you find in this book is as good as it's ever going to get. Nobody's going to do it better, this is the standard.

The part on metal detection technological theory and practice is good as far as it goes. Anyone who is hoping to glean the latest trade secrets from the book will be disappointed. I found the explanations of technology to be quite sound as far as they went, with virtually no areas of disagreement. No surprises on that score, look who the authors are!

If you're trying to home-brew a metal detector, the "latest trade secrets" aren't necessary anyhow, what you need is the basics and the patience to do them well. There are machines designed 15-30 years ago which can acquit themselves quite well in performance comparisons with machines being produced today-- in fact some of those oldies are still popular despite the lack of newfangled revisions.

The project schematics section, I found that a bit disappointing. It all seemed so 1970's. Reality check: I'm fortunate enough to be in a situation where I can order the latest components online in the afternoon and have them in my hand by noon the next day. There are many places in the world where it's hard to get parts, especially new stuff, and everywhere on the planet it's easier to build one-offs with through-hole components than with surface mount components. In that context, designs that look 20-30 years or more out of date are more relevant to the average experimenter around the planet than a design done a year ago by a major manufacturer would be. Heck, even nowadays if there's something I have to throw together in a hurry, my first concern is "is this a design I can solder onto a perfboard?" There's a lot of stuff that can be done well with parts that were available 20 or more years ago.

Want to build an LRL? One could argue that the subject of LRL's doesn't deserve air time on other forums much less books, but there it is. This is all hand in glove with the changes that are going on with the URL itself.

There's also a patent section. Sorry, haven't had time to plow through that yet.

--Dave J.

I can't understand why you apology for Carl and Qiaozhi????

[Carl-NC]

Thanks for the feedback Dave. I did the history section, based on what bits & pieces I could glean from old magazines and old forum posts. I'll gladly accept any add'l insight you can offer. Second Edition.

You're absolutely right about the "dated" projects, and one of the reasons why. We decided on these projects because (1) they demonstrate basic detector operation and (2) of easy availability of parts. We avoided cutting edge due to time constraints and my own desire to avoid issues with my boss. Boss liked what we did so Second Ed will likely dive a bit deeper.

The LRL section was included because I thought it important to get this information in proper published format once & for all. I have enough mat'l for an independent book and may spin this off and out.

- Carl