Complex Engineering Problem

Problem statement: In our everyday life, we observe there are systems that detects metal weapons on
person’s body on ‘walk through’ of places like prisons, courthouses, airports, hospitals, etc. Our goal is
to build a simple circuit that can detect metals placed nearby it.

Metal Detector: A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal
detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit
itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, which holds a pickup coil, which can vary in shape
and size. If the pickup coil comes near a piece of metal, the control box will register its presence by a
changing tone, a flashing light, and or by a needle moving on an indicator. Usually the device gives some
indication of distance; the closer the metal is, the higher the tone in the earphone or the higher the
needle goes.

History and Background of the metal detection systems:

Heinrich Wilhelm Dove’s Experiment [1841]:

In 1841 Professor Heinrich Wilhelm Dove published an invention he called the "differential inductor". It
was a 4 coil induction balance, with 2 glass tubes each having 2 well insulated copper wire solenoids
wound around them. Charged Leyden jars (high voltage capacitors) were discharged through the 2
primary coils, this current surge induced a voltage in the secondary coils. When the secondary coils were
wired in opposition the induced voltages cancelled as confirmed by the Professor holding the ends of
the secondary coils. When a piece of metal was placed inside one glass tube the Professor received a
shock. This then was the first magnetic induction metal detector, and the first pulse induction metal
detector.

David Edward Hughes’ Experiment [1878]:

In late 1878 and early 1879 Professor (of music) David Edward Hughes published his experiments with the 4
coil induction balance. He used his own recent invention the microphone and a ticking clock to generate
regular pulses and a telephone receiver as detector. To measure the strength of the signals he invented a
coaxial 3 coil induction balance which he called the "electric sonometer". Hughes did much to popularize the
induction balance, quickly leading to practical devices that could identify counterfeit coins.

Alexander Graham Bell’s Experiment [1881]:

In July 1881 Alexander Graham Bell initially used a 4 coil induction balance to attempt to locate a bullet
lodged in the chest of American President James Garfield. After much experimenting the best bullet
detection range he achieved was only 2 inches. He then used his own earlier discovery, the partially
overlapping 2 coil induction balance, and the detection range increased to 5 inches. But the attempt was
still unsuccessful because the metal coil spring bed Garfield was lying on confused the detector. Bell's 2
coil induction balance would go on to evolve into the popular double D coil.

Metal Detector Circuit Components:

 +9 supply voltage
 555 IC
  47KΩ resistor
 2.2µF capacitor (2 pieces)
 Speaker (8Ω)
 170Turns of 10cm diameter coil (any gauge would work)

NE555 Timer IC:

The heart of this powerful metal detector circuit is a NE555 precision timer IC. NE555 is a precision
timing circuit capable of producing accurate time delays or oscillation. A NE555 has three basic modes of
operations. In the time delay or mono-stable mode of operation, the timed interval is controlled by a
single external resistor and capacitor network. In Bi-stable mode, the output can be configured to latch
on a certain voltage level for an indefinite period of time and can be sent back to the zero states by
resetting the IC. For an a-stable mode of operation, the frequency and duty cycle can be controlled
independently with two external resistors and a single external capacitor.

Here the NE555 timer acts as a mono-stable multi-vibrator. A mono-stable multi-vibrator (MMV) often
called a one-shot multi-vibrator, is a pulse generator circuit in which the duration of the pulse is
determined by the R-C network, connected externally to the555 timers. In such a vibrator, one state of
output is stable while the other is quasi-stable (unstable). For auto-triggering of output from a quasi-
stable state to a stable state, energy is stored by an externally connected capacitor to a reference level.
The time taken in storage determines the pulse width.

Circuit Diagram and Working:

The figure shows the circuit diagram of metal detector. The 555 IC timer here acts as a square wave
generator and it generate pulses with frequencies audible to human. The capacitor between pin2 and
pin1 should not be changed as it is need to generate audible frequencies.

In the circuit there is an RLC circuit formed by 47K resistor, 2.2µF capacitor, and 150turn inductor. This
RLC circuit is the metal detection part. Now as mentioned earlier in previous section, a metal core
inductor has a high inductance value over a air cored one.

Remember the coil wound here is a air cored one, so when a metal piece is brought near the coil, the
metal piece acts as a core for the air cored inductor. By this metal acting as a core, the inductance of
the coil changes or increases considerably. With this sudden increase in inductance of coil the overall
reactance or impedance of the RLC circuit changes by a considerable amount when compared without
the metal piece.

At first when there is no metal piece the signal fed to speaker causes some audible sound. Now with the
reactance change around the RLC circuit the signal sent to speaker will no longer be the same as before,
because of this the sound produced by the speaker will be of different to the first one.

So whenever a metal is brought near the coil, the impedance of RLC changes making the signal to
change resulting in variation to sound generated in speaker.

Simulation of the Circuit:

The output must show a signal around 8 volts of a quick square waves when a metal piece is brought
near to it.