Metal Detectors

Handheld metal detectors are light-weight and are made up of a few electronic components:

  1. A Control box - Used as the master of the other components and includes the processor, the batteries and speaker, possibly headphone socket etc.
  2. Search coil - Also known as the 'search head', 'antenna' or 'loop', it is the component that actually detects the metal.
  3. Shaft - Used to join the control box and search coil together.

Technology used in metal detectors

There are three types of technology used in metal detectors; very low frequency (VLF), Beat frequency oscillation (BFO) and pulse induction (PI).