J_Player ion/ES detector
I built a breadboard test circuit of J_Player ion/ES detector. It works fine except for the audio/headphone. I got nothing on the headphones despite seeing a signal on my Oscope and DVM.
My antenna is a simple rod sticking up from the plugin board. So testing for ions is a waste of time. It does detect electrostatic fields quite well. I had on an acrylic sweater and at about 18 inches the detector was picking up my sweater moving back and forth about 1/4 of an inch due to my breathing. The response was about 300 millivolts.
I will have to mount the circuit in a good metal box and make an antenna for the ion detection test. I presume that the ions will give some kind of quick pulse response. If that works and I can characterize the signal then I'll consider outoutting the signal into a microcontroller and doing a little DSP on it. If my hunch is halfway correct I should be able to distinguish between ES fields and ion pops.
Goldfinder
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