Compass Depth Doubler, finally got one!

[odancoiler]

Back when they first came out, I tried one. The inventor /manufacturer sent one to me to try out, obligation free. Ie.: a trial-free period. That was back in the mid to late 1980s, if I recall.

Here's what I did with it: There was a certain park in a city near me, that had given up lots of early mercs, barbers, IH's, V's, etc... And everything was perfectly stratified: Eg.: 1940s losses at 5", 1920's losses at 6". 1900's losses at 7 to 8", and so forth. And we knew for a fact that the park dated to the 1870s. Yet ... the deepest we could reach with our detectors, at that time, was to get the turn-of-century stuff (barbers, IH's, etc...). So we reasoned that there MUST be seateds there, that are out of our reach. Eh ? And the park was clean enough that I rationalized I should be able to get a direct line of sight on some deeper stuff *IF* I could get the depth.

This was the perfect park to try such a device, eh ? I followed all the instructions. The ground was moist. I chose a section of the park where A) I had pulled numerous 1900s and 1920s type coins years before this, and B) it was clean of surface trash (tabs, clad, etc...) C) I checked it again, before starting this test, to make sure there was nothing there that I would normally have elected to dig.

After letting the machine charge the ground for an hour, I went at it. I found NOTHING else , in the way of older/deeper coins. The ONLY thing I noticed, was that teeensy things gave better signals. For example: Ya know those pencil eraser metal top things ? Well I found one, that I hadn't even heard on my pre-test , prior to the charging. It rang up almost to coin. Eg.: fooled me. Gave a bolder signal (with perhaps better TID). So too did other little things, I could perceive, were trying to bounce up (but their size gave them away as not being coins).

Hence I did not think it would benefit coin hunting. But who knows ? Perhaps there simply wasn't anything deeper at this exact test spot ? I did come away thinking it might benefit nugget hunters. Who want tteennnssyy things to come alive.

But it is a pain the b*tt to handle. You have to lug a car battery around. Play with wires. Wait an hour, etc...

By all means try it out Paul. If you know of a moist turfed park, where you suspect oldies are *just* out of reach (how about your so-called "Barber park" ?), then see if that brings out a few deeper ones you missed.

Good to hear from you !

. Interesting experiment gentlemen. Reading your experience here, it seems the majority of the current flowed thru the upper surface of your ground. Being electricity takes the path of least resistance. I would venture to say the current only passed thru the uppermost inch or two of your spikes into the ground. I’m thinking if you insulated all but the lower two inch of the spikes leaving an attachment point at the top, the current would pass thru the ground at a deeper depth. You can do this with a good quality shrink tubbing purchased at a good electrical supply store . I’m pretty certain if the power is entering the ground at depth you will have much better results. Also I’m curious about the circuit in the box. Can any one check voltage an current flow? Also do any of you have a scope to check the frequency? Be very interesting to hear your results. Thank You for you time.TM

 

[odancoiler]

Recently, On eBay seen a complete clean Compass Depth Doubler for a great price. Buy it now, combined with shipping $70 bucks total. Should be here early next week, maybe sooner.

Believe retail was around $459.99 back then, that was one of two reasons I didn't buy one. The other reason, felt setting up the unit and breaking down after each use was too much work especially if it didn't work. The closest I ever came to purchasing one, was in Reno Nevada late nineties at a detector shop. The owner had reduced the price to around $269.00 if memory serves me right, brand new reduced it sure was temping.

I've read reports from several off the internet having great results, one particular user was a prospector. He claims the charged ground amplified gold nugget signals, this would be great going back to a hunted out nugget patch area. Of course if the contraption works, if it does same may apply to certain patches of park turf giving up old coins.

For the price I paid, it was worth the risk. Will attach the picture from the seller, Has any one ever used one? Old California, Paul. Have you had a chance to test this energizer ??? Have you looked inside the box ? As I’m sure your at least as curious as I am. Sorry, guess I’m a lil anxious to read your results. TM

Paul

o

 

[Carl-NC]

Hi Paul,

I have 2 of these things, one has a bad oscillator, the other has a working circuit. I played around with it many years ago and never got any meaningful improvement with it, but I really didn't do stringent testing on it. So I look forward to your report.

Regards,
Carl

 

[odancoiler]

Hello Carl. It would be interesting to see someone insulate those spikes full length except for the bottom 2 inch’s. I’m pretty certain they will work much better. By the way could you possibly post a pic of the circuit inside the box. I’m curious as to it’s construction. As in LCR,RC or crystal oscillator circuits. I doubt it’s flowing any real amperage given it’s size. And the more current you pump in the better objects will be charged. To bad it’s not running High Voltage, like 1-10 KV or maybe running an ignition coil feeding a small cap bank then dumping the HV caps thru a spark gap. I’m certain that would light things up. Sorry, after working hands on with high voltage most of my life. Well I just think a proper application of HV can fix most problems. TM

 

[coil.soiler.rich]

Thanks for all the details of your efforts. The small metal items becoming charged so creating sharper signals suggests to me the gadget works as advertised. As for not getting more depth at that site, maybe it is just due to the type of ground. Some ground minerals just create a sort of electronic fog effect that detectors cannot detect coins beyond a certain depth not because the detector cannot detect that deep but rather that ground 'fog' obscures small objects beyond a certain depth.

IMO the way to get depth in certain soils is to have a detector that operates on a frequency or frequencies that minimize the fog effect for that particular ground. Optimizing the detector frequency combined with the gadget just may get the extra depth in certain ground types, however not necessarily in other types.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Thanks for all the details of your efforts. The small metal items becoming charged so creating sharper signals suggests to me the gadget works as advertised. As for not getting more depth at that site, maybe it is just due to the type of ground. Some ground minerals just create a sort of electronic fog effect that detectors cannot detect coins beyond a certain depth not because the detector cannot detect that deep but rather that ground 'fog' obscures small objects beyond a certain depth.

IMO the way to get depth in certain soils is to have a detector that operates on a frequency or frequencies that minimize the fog effect for that particular ground. Optimizing the detector frequency combined with the gadget just may get the extra depth in certain ground types, however not necessarily in other types.

Wow. Old post.

Yes, as you gleaned from my report: It *was* doing something. And I grant that it's entirely possible that there simply didn't happen to be any deeper coins, in the exact area I was at. But seeing as how the evolution and experience was, at that park and that spot, it certainly *SEEMED* reasonable to think there was more there. Based on the age of the park's usage/history. And based on the correlation of depth-to-age of our experience md'ing there. And seeing as how we were always thinking : "The seateds must be a tad out of reach".

Still, even with all those precautions: Anything was possible. I just felt I gave it a very fair shake. And based on that, did not think it was worthwhile for coin-hunting. Nuggets ? Yes perhaps.

I might also add that if someone is "hell bent" on getting another inch or two, then they can accomplish that by merely going into all metal with a variety of machines, and ... presto, they can get another inch or two. Granted, it will come at a cost of good TID . Ie.: will get fooled by deep bent nails, will lack ability to tell high vs low, etc... But on the other hand, you'll save a BUNCH of time lugging around a car battery, waiting an hour to charge the ground etc.... In the end, the time you spend, you can just dig a bunch more signals in all-metal.

Just a thought.

 

[coil.soiler.rich]

I found the old thread searching on "Periscope" as I'm considering selling one. The Compass gadget is a super interesting concept. I've noticed that certain hunted out sites seem to suddenly produce more really deep coins under certain conditions, even using the same gear. While it's hard to say for sure what conditions have to align,. it seems like some combination of ground temperature, moisture, biological inactivity, and low EMF interference concur and bingo certain depleted sites start producing 6 inch and deeper coins in quantity. A couple of times this has happened after thunderstorms, suggesting that electrically charging the ground does in fact enhance the deep targets. So I'm intrigued that the Depth Doubler might be useful. Is it basically just a voltage transformer with some electrodes that stick in the ground? That could be duplicated without the device perhaps.

The holy grail of coin hunters in USA is to get down to those Seateds with decent tone ID. There have to be plenty of sites out there that are veritable bonanzas below the hunted out depth which I find is typically about 6 inches give or take depending on conditions. Around here if I could get consistent hits on the 7-8 inch coins I'm sure are there at many sites it would be fantastic.