Some hobbies, such as collecting age detectorist need to know how a class. stamps or coins, are educational, while detector works? While some detector As long as the DC current1 is con- other hobbies, like building models, models have few user controls and are stant, the magnetic field will be con- tend to exercise creativity. Metal detect- practically turn-on-and-go, many of the stant. If the current is varied, then the ing is clearly on the side of educational, higher-end models have a number of magnetic field will follow. An alternat- providing you take the time to learn controls for optimizing performance. ing current (AC) in a wire produces an about the items you find, and the context So, the best reason to learn how detec- alternating magnetic field around the in which they are found. tors work is to better understand what wire. That is, as the current continuously Metal detecting can also have a cre- the external controls are really doing reverses direction, the polarity of the ative side to it. Some folks enjoy build- and what their limitations are. Besides magnetic field does as well. Clamp-on ing their own accessories, such as that, knowing how they work will help ammeters2 use this principle to deter- digging tools. A few even modify their you wade through advertising claims. mine the current in household wiring, detectors, most often for ergonomics. And, finally, it’s just plain interesting. without having to cut the wire. But only a small handful get down and The strength of the magnetic field dirty into the electronics of the metal Magnetic fields depends on the current through the coil detector. Mostly because metal detector Metal detectors operate via the prin- (I), the dimensions of the coil (length L technology is not well-understood by ciple of induction. Induction is the and radius R), the number of turns of the majority of users, and there is darn method of coupling two circuits though wire (N), and the material used as the little information available on the tech- an alternating magnetic field. To clarify, core of the coil. Just so we can have an nical operation of detectors. Add to this let’s take a look at magnetic fields first. equation in this article, the maximum a reluctance by manufacturers to share When you pass a direct current technical information—even a tendency field strength of a short coil3 is: (DC) through a wire a static magnetic to provide misleading information, par- field develops around the wire, as shown µNI ticularly in advertising—and you wind in Fig.1. You can check this out at home B = ---------- up with a majority of detector users hav- 2R with a battery, wire, and compass. Place ing a wrong impression of how it all the compass near the wire, briefly touch where µ is the “permeability” of the core works. the ends of the wire to the battery termi- material4. This is the field strength exactly Compare this to another electron- nals, and watch the compass needle at the center of the coil, and reduces as you ics-based hobby, amateur radio, in jump. Briefly is the operative word, move away from the coil. which many enthusiasts not only have a because shorting out a battery in this good working knowledge of the elec- manner can create a large current, and tronics, but often build and modify their Induction quickly heat the wire and the battery. own equipment, and with amateur radio If a current through a wire can cre- If you wrap the wire in a long tight magazines routinely covering technical ate a magnetic field, an obvious ques- coil (Fig. 2) you can enhance the mag- issues. netic field, because the coil “focuses” Why in the world would the aver- the magnetic field though its center, 1. “DC” means “direct current”, so “DC current” means “direct current current”, with each turn of wire adding more which clearly is redundantly repetitive. “flux” to the field. An iron core will fur- But in electronics, we also use the term ther enhance the field, and produce a “DC voltage”, so DC has become synon- simple electromagnet often demon- ymous with “constant”. strated in elementary school science 2. An ammeter measures amperes, which is the unit of current. 3. Such as the “skinny donut” used in metal detectors (length L falls out of the equa- tion). 4. Metal detector coils have air as the core material, for which µ = 4πx10-7 Henries/ meter (H/m). Figure 1: Static magnetic field Figure 2: Multi-turn coil Geotech Page 1 EM field, and you will see others call it voltage), as described by Faraday’s Law. this as well. In actuality, the magnetic So the eddy currents in the target pro- field portion is what detectors make use duce a reverse EM field, i.e. 180 degrees of, and the electric field part does noth- out-of-phase with coil field, because ing for us. So when I use the term “EM there are two 90 degree shifts between field”, I’m still really talking about the the transmitted (coil) EM field and the alternating magnetic field8. target-induced EM field. See Fig. 4. OK, if we wind the wire up into a This reverse target field then inductively coil we can intensify the effect on both couples with the receive coil and gener- ends. Pass an AC current through the ates the signal that says you’ve found coil and we get a stronger EM field; put something. You can either think of this the coil in an EM field and we get a reverse target field as separate from the Figure 3: Inductive coupling stronger AC current. If we take two transmit field, or as a distortion of the coils and place them close to each other, transmit field—I’ve seen it described tion to ask is, can a magnetic field create then driving one coil with AC will cre- both ways and either is correct. a current in a wire? The answer is yes, ate the EM field, which will induce an As I said, eddy currents tend to be but only in the case of a changing mag- AC current in the other coil. And here circular. Which is why they’re called netic field. In other words, you can place you have a transformer (Fig. 3). All this eddy currents, just like what you find in a wire5 in an alternating magnetic field streams. A whole bunch of tiny circular stuff was figured out 170-odd years ago and generate an AC current6 in the wire. by Michael Faraday. It’s called induc- eddy currents will add and subtract It might seem that placing a wire in a tion, because things are getting induced. across the surface of the target to deter- static magnetic field would generate a What magic is doing the inducing? mine the nature of the overall eddy cur- DC current, but not so. To generate a With wires it’s electron motion, where a rent, which in turn determines the current with a static field, you have to magnetic field cutting across a conduc- nature—and strength—of the reverse move the wire through the field, for tor causes electrons to move, and where EM field. The circular nature of eddy which you get a transient7 current. If electron motion produces a magnetic currents means that circular targets will you move the wire through the field in a field. Same as what I described with better support them because of the way periodic manner, then you will get a moving charges three paragraphs ago. they add up. In fact, given a round target periodic (AC) current. This is how a When you have a disconnected and a square target of identical surface generator (alternator) works. But sitting piece of metal in an EM field the elec- area, thickness, and metal type, the still in a static magnetic field will get trons have no where to go. So they do round target will give a slightly stronger you zilch. Again, all this assumes a few something really odd: they just go response. things, like the wire is actually hooked around in circles, something called eddy Would there be a difference up to something. between a solid round target like a coin currents9 (Fig. 4). If you have a really Curiously, an alternating magnetic and an open round target like a ring? It strong EM field, you can get really high field gives rise to an alternating electric turns out there is. A ring will give a eddy currents, enough to make the metal field (and vice-versa). Although it’s stronger response, even though it has heat up. Maybe you’ve seen an induc- really not important to this discussion tion cooktop where eddy currents are and involves some heavy-duty math, the generated in the metal pot to heat the basic idea is that a changing magnetic food. Foundries also use induction cru- field will move electric charge, and elec- cibles to melt steel. tric charge in motion creates a changing So with a metal detector, we shove magnetic field. So they sort of support an AC current through a coil, which pro- one another, and the combination of the duces an EM field around the coil. two is known as an electromagnetic When a metal target is near the coil, the (EM) field. The EM field is how radio EM field induces eddy currents in the signals travel through space. target. One thing to note: there is a 90 I brought this up because I will refer degree phase shift in the EM field (actu- to the alternating magnetic field as an ally, between the EM field and the AC
5. Generally, the wire must be part of a
closed-loop circuit. 8. A static magnetic field is not consid- 6. Likewise, “AC current” is redundant, so ered an electromagnetic field, even just pretend AC means “alternating”. when it is produced by an “electro- Usually, AC refers to a periodic (repeat- magnet”. ing) signal, often a simple sinusoid. 9. So I lied, the wire does not have to be part 7. A transient signal (voltage or current) is of a closed-loop circuit, which is why I not constant, nor is it periodic, so it gen- qualified footnote #3 with the word “gen- erally is not considered DC or AC. erally”. Figure 4: Eddy currents & field
Geotech Page 2 less surface area. That’s because it is is how we discriminate, by looking at more like a shorted loop of wire, in the received signal’s phase shift. Higher which the induced current flows around conductive targets, like silver, are closer the loop, instead of moving in smaller to 180°. Interestingly the drilled-out surface circles as it does with a solid coins have a (very) slightly higher resis- disc. So the extra metal in the middle of tance than the solid coins and this shows the coin actually hurts the response. It’s up in the target phase number. Also, Figure 5: Ring vs. Coin a fairly subtle effect, but it’s there. while a ring response is a tad stronger You can demonstrate this for your- than a coin, a broken ring is really lousy. with silver Washington quarters with the self, by comparing a ring and a coin to Now the induced currents can’t travel same result. So, with the conductivity see which gives the greater response. around the ring so they’re back to mov- variable removed we see that the ring This does not account for possible con- ing in tiny surface circles, but in a target shape will slightly edge out the solid ductivity differences, so a better test is that has very little surface area. coin, even when the metal and diameter to compare two coins, one with most of are identical. the center drilled out. I used two pre- Two final notes. The induced eddy Resources zinc Lincoln cents, with a 5/8” hole 1. Eddy Currents, ETI, April 1981 current in a metal target is not always drilled through one. Both a VLF (all- 90° out-of-phase. The phase shift actu- 2. Electromagnetics, John Kraus metal mode) and PI detector indicated ally depends on the conductivity of the the drilled-out cent 3/4”-1” deeper than 3. Fundamentals of Electricity & Mag- metal, and only a perfect conductor the solid cent. I repeated the experiment netism, Leonard Loeb gives a 180° (total) phase shift. And this
