Pulse induction metal detector

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jonecm
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Pulse induction metal detector

Post by jonecm »

Update: ment to post this under the "What are you doing with XMOS chips ?" topic but made a new one by accident, if a moderator want's to move it that's great.

Just saw this topic and thought I'd share some of what I've been doing with XMOS.

I am using the XMOS XS1-L1 to power a high performance pulse induction metal detector.

This type of metal detector requires a high performance multicore dsp processor as-well as
a platform that enables rapid and simple development and minimal support circuitry .

The XMOS processors fit this description perfectly!

Although I have working prototypes currently I expect at least another 6 months before I hit the
mainstream market which is high-end electronic gold prospecting.

Here's a pic of what the main board looks like, Sorry I don't have a pic of it fully populated but this will give you an idea of the layout. There is also 2 daughter boards that are not shown.
more info at http://www.miymd.com/index.php/projects/xpi/


Jon - http://www.miymd.com
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Plain unpopulated mother board
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Plain unpopulated mother board
Plain unpopulated mother board
xpibrd.jpeg (55.31 KiB) Viewed 9233 times


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phalt
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Post by phalt »

This looks really awesome!

When you get some prototypes and photos make sure you make a project for it! :D

What inspired you to make a metal detector?
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jonecm
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Post by jonecm »

Well I use metal detectors for gold prospecting personally, and to purchase a high end metal detector with similar sensitivity would be well over $5000 so it's a huge money savings for me even if I never go into production with it.

This isn't the first I've built, I'v built them using ARM, AVR and PIC processors, the list goes on but the real time processing ability wasn't there and I pretty much had 2 options, 1. move to an FPGA platform ( I did some experimentation with them and made a few boards but decided that building around fpga's would take ALLOT of time!)
2. move to a higher end multicore processor. There are lots of such devices but none as easy to develop for as the XMOS, never minding very minimal support circuitry.
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Folknology
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Post by Folknology »

Really nice application for an XS1 made for the job..

regards
Al
Bob
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Post by Bob »

Have you considered the application of this work being used for fatigue-crack detection in structures, piplines etc? That is one very big market.

Agree Xmos makes much sense for this type of application because you have tightly controlled phase measurement because of the synchronicity.
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