Advice

Whatsdown

Newbie
Jun 6, 2023
4
3
I don't know what to do.
I'm not a treasure hunter or archaeologist but I have a resource some of you might be interested in. I'm not after money, but wouldn't refuse it either. I do have an agenda but it would be transparent to any interested parties. My situation is like the guy who places the ad "FREE PET TO A LOVING FAMILY". You know; emotional attachment but it doesn't serve me, or anyone else to hold on to this.

Do you use or want to use GPR? (ground penetrating radar) GPR is really cool but it has a couple limitations. There is another way.

I invented it.
Years ago I was part of a team to prototype an acoustic device which could identify rock types. I designed the (more or less) second variant. But more importantly I learned some cool things. A couple yrs later I saw a request for proposals which sought a subsurface void detection system. From what I had learned, I already knew the physics would work for void detection. I received funding and the program manager said if I was successful I'd be famous. Well the prototype worked better than I thought. But I'm not famous. The program manager had gotten ill....time passed.... Anyway I suppose I missed the window of opportunity.

In the following years I tried to find interest in government sectors but again fate was against me. Little things like corruption, cronyism, shootings etc. stopped all progress. Consequently I shall skip over a few years of history and jump to the point.

I designed and built another prototype with funding from a treasure hunter. I bought it back and it's sitting on a shelf not getting used/tested. I want someone to take over.

How can I make that happen?

For now Let's keep this within this forum. Let me make other/outside connections.
 

I have thought about video but never found a forum. Until now. I'm working a plan. My batteries were dead and some cells toast so it's not straight forward.:BangHead: Also I'm improving the assembly for easier operation.
With all the work to get to a share point I'm getting emotionally reattached to the project. :wink:
 

Status: I did find someone who wants to play with the device. But I thought I'd update you on today's test.
The good new is I got everything working and now have my laptop mounted on the device so it's easier for solo testing. (I used to have to set down the pc run the instrument and then set it down...) I can now cycle a scan in 1 minute. The PC is for recording and data display.

I scanned over culverts. My results were not promising. And worse I don't have a theory why. A couple good returns but many false negatives. The target is 32 in dia or so and perhaps I have to be right on it...and I wasn't many times. Bigger or flat topped would be easier. Furthermore, it's all a fill area may be 10yrs old.
NTL I plan on working on it for a while. Perhaps I give it another go in a month or two.
Below is a plot of 3 scans. This plot is 100% "4" and "5" were 10-20' away from the culvert and "6" was pretty close.
got lucky? don't know.
Sorry if it's a let down.
 

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I don't know what to do.
I'm not a treasure hunter or archaeologist but I have a resource some of you might be interested in. I'm not after money, but wouldn't refuse it either. I do have an agenda but it would be transparent to any interested parties. My situation is like the guy who places the ad "FREE PET TO A LOVING FAMILY". You know; emotional attachment but it doesn't serve me, or anyone else to hold on to this.

Do you use or want to use GPR? (ground penetrating radar) GPR is really cool but it has a couple limitations. There is another way.

I invented it.
Years ago I was part of a team to prototype an acoustic device which could identify rock types. I designed the (more or less) second variant. But more importantly I learned some cool things. A couple yrs later I saw a request for proposals which sought a subsurface void detection system. From what I had learned, I already knew the physics would work for void detection. I received funding and the program manager said if I was successful I'd be famous. Well the prototype worked better than I thought. But I'm not famous. The program manager had gotten ill....time passed.... Anyway I suppose I missed the window of opportunity.

In the following years I tried to find interest in government sectors but again fate was against me. Little things like corruption, cronyism, shootings etc. stopped all progress. Consequently I shall skip over a few years of history and jump to the point.

I designed and built another prototype with funding from a treasure hunter. I bought it back and it's sitting on a shelf not getting used/tested. I want someone to take over.

How can I make that happen?

For now Let's keep this within this forum. Let me make other/outside connections.
Welcome techno person.

Where is your treasure hunter's involvement ; and what is your agreement on his /her share of proprietary or monetary assets resulting from thier input?

Your posts suggest you are working prototypes still.
Passing the torch of one should cover all who have a prior interests interests first.
If you want to share it with more than an interested stranger after you've settled with anyone with a prior interest/agreement first ..... Freesource your work.

If you want to offer to sell here , get a charter membership here first.
 

FYI, please be aware per our rules members can not use TreasureNet for any kind of source funding, if a member becomes a charter member they can sell their used treasure equipment only.
 

Status: I did find someone who wants to play with the device. But I thought I'd update you on today's test.
The good new is I got everything working and now have my laptop mounted on the device so it's easier for solo testing. (I used to have to set down the pc run the instrument and then set it down...) I can now cycle a scan in 1 minute. The PC is for recording and data display.

I scanned over culverts. My results were not promising. And worse I don't have a theory why. A couple good returns but many false negatives. The target is 32 in dia or so and perhaps I have to be right on it...and I wasn't many times. Bigger or flat topped would be easier. Furthermore, it's all a fill area may be 10yrs old.
NTL I plan on working on it for a while. Perhaps I give it another go in a month or two.
Below is a plot of 3 scans. This plot is 100% "4" and "5" were 10-20' away from the culvert and "6" was pretty close.
got lucky? don't know.
Sorry if it's a let down.
So now can you give us a short video? Unfortunately due to the nature of this business seeing is believing. Sounds very interesting. I hunt full time and am obsessed with new technology. Right now focused on drone/metal detector combos. So much stuff so close to being reality. Sounds like you have something in that arena.
 

bluetooth transmitters are quite cheap and the current iteration (version 6) allows 100Mbit transfer up to 200 meters.
 

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I scanned over culverts. My results were not promising. And worse I don't have a theory why. A couple good returns but many false negatives.
My advice would be to avoid testing your device on random, existing targets for the time being. If you are using it to look for voids, bury various boxes--metal, plastic, etc at various depths and in different soil compositions. That way you can get a spread of readings over numerous conditions and targets. Once you have some data, expand out to targets that you didn't plant, but could mimic the positive readings you got from your control targets. The testing you describe sounds akin to hearing about a field where a treasure is supposedly buried and trying to test your device by finding it. It might work, or it might not. Either way it doesn't mean that the treasure isn't there, or you device does or doesn't work. Set up controlled experiments and work out from there. At some point, if you really want to get crazy see if a cemetery will let you test it on the grounds under their supervision. Plenty of voids there between the decaying caskets and concrete vaults. Tick off a ghost, though and you are on your own...
 

I feel your comments are right on. Exactly my thoughts. Grave yard an interesting thought: good depth, could be well settled. Hummmm
Nevertheless, I am curtailing my efforts at this time. I did more "random tests" today. Complete failure. There is a chance that the incredibly dry soil here is an issue. GPR would be the choice. My method is better suited for moist soil where GPR has problems (so I have been told).
A quick summary of the concept if you all are interested:
Using a electro/mechanical vibrator placed on the ground. (Like a small thumper truck) I send a periodic pressure wave into the soil. The device's contact pad is instrumented for displacement. I run a frequency sweep. (~70hz to 200hz) There's a ton of info right there, but not for finding a void. If a void is present however, (step downward impedance change) it reflects the acoustic energy (negatively). The reflected pressure wave goes back to the source. Following the laws of interference it will constructively/destructively interfere with the out going wave. This interference is enough change the displacement measurement. So with a peak (or trough) in displacement measurement a void is likely and the frequency where the interference adds/reduces can indicate the depth.
The vibrator uses an Arduino for OS and data management. "Processing" is used on a laptop for data recording and display.
I am sorry I failed to contribute anything. I hope it was interesting tho.
Good hunting.
 

I feel your comments are right on. Exactly my thoughts. Grave yard an interesting thought: good depth, could be well settled. Hummmm
Nevertheless, I am curtailing my efforts at this time. I did more "random tests" today. Complete failure. There is a chance that the incredibly dry soil here is an issue. GPR would be the choice. My method is better suited for moist soil where GPR has problems (so I have been told).
A quick summary of the concept if you all are interested:
Using a electro/mechanical vibrator placed on the ground. (Like a small thumper truck) I send a periodic pressure wave into the soil. The device's contact pad is instrumented for displacement. I run a frequency sweep. (~70hz to 200hz) There's a ton of info right there, but not for finding a void. If a void is present however, (step downward impedance change) it reflects the acoustic energy (negatively). The reflected pressure wave goes back to the source. Following the laws of interference it will constructively/destructively interfere with the out going wave. This interference is enough change the displacement measurement. So with a peak (or trough) in displacement measurement a void is likely and the frequency where the interference adds/reduces can indicate the depth.
The vibrator uses an Arduino for OS and data management. "Processing" is used on a laptop for data recording and display.
I am sorry I failed to contribute anything. I hope it was interesting tho.
Good hunting.
Sounds interesting for sure. Hopefully you keep going! Do you enjoy the trial and error aspect to doing this type of work? If so don’t give up.
 

I don't know what to do.
I'm not a treasure hunter or archaeologist but I have a resource some of you might be interested in. I'm not after money, but wouldn't refuse it either. I do have an agenda but it would be transparent to any interested parties. My situation is like the guy who places the ad "FREE PET TO A LOVING FAMILY". You know; emotional attachment but it doesn't serve me, or anyone else to hold on to this.

Do you use or want to use GPR? (ground penetrating radar) GPR is really cool but it has a couple limitations. There is another way.

I invented it.
Years ago I was part of a team to prototype an acoustic device which could identify rock types. I designed the (more or less) second variant. But more importantly I learned some cool things. A couple yrs later I saw a request for proposals which sought a subsurface void detection system. From what I had learned, I already knew the physics would work for void detection. I received funding and the program manager said if I was successful I'd be famous. Well the prototype worked better than I thought. But I'm not famous. The program manager had gotten ill....time passed.... Anyway I suppose I missed the window of opportunity.

In the following years I tried to find interest in government sectors but again fate was against me. Little things like corruption, cronyism, shootings etc. stopped all progress. Consequently I shall skip over a few years of history and jump to the point.

I designed and built another prototype with funding from a treasure hunter. I bought it back and it's sitting on a shelf not getting used/tested. I want someone to take over.

How can I make that happen?

For now Let's keep this within this forum. Let me make other/outside connections.
Can this unit be used for treasure hunting purposes?
 

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