Everyday Electronics is now known as 

Everyday Practical Electronics, a popular electronics magazine that

is owned by UK publisher Wimbourne Publishing, Ltd.
If the VCO output of a phase-locked loop is phase shifted and taken back to the input, the loop locks to itself
and runs at whichever frequency causes 90 degree phase shift in the network. This principle is used to
make a metal detector here, but has many applications in measurement systems.

When the search coil is within 75cm of a metal object, the VCO increases its frequency for a nonferrous
metal and decreases it for ferrous objects. Loop output on pin 7 of the 565 is compared with the pin 6
reference voltage, the long-tailed pair Tr1,2 amplifying the difference.

My search coil is 50 turns on 50mm diameter to give an inductance of 0.5mH. The VCO frequency is around
1kHz.

Kamil Kraus

Rokycany, Czechoslovakia