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Metal Detector
By Dilip Raja

27 Comments

Simple Metal Detector using 555 Timer IC

You can nd a metal detector at airports, theaters and various other public places. They are used for the safety of people to detect
anyone carrying a metal (Arms etc). In this project we are going to design a simple metal detector circuit. There are so many metal
detector designs but most of them are complex in design so here we are going to design a simple metal detector circuit using 555 Timer
IC.
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Circuit Diagram
Metal Detector for Gold
Simple Circuit Projects
Before going further we need to understand concept of inductor and RLC circuits. Let us rst talk about inductors. Inductors are nothing
but coils of enameled copper wire comes in different shapes and sizes. Based on various parameters the inductance of an inductor is
calculated. In all of those parameters we are basically interested in core on the inductor as depending on the core, inductance value
changes drastically.
In the gure below you can see the air cored inductors, In these inductors there will be no solid core. They are basically coils left in air.
The medium of flow of magnetic field generated by inductor is nothing or air. These inductors have inductances of very less value.

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These inductors are used when the need for values of few micro Henry. For values greater than few milli these are not a suitable one. In
below figure you can see a inductors of ferrite core ,

When inductor coil is wound on a core may be ferrite or an iron core, the inductance of the coil increases enormously. This value is much
more than the air cored one of the same size and shape.
Now for a RLC circuit as shown in gure, the reactance or impedance between terminals a and c depends on the values of L and C if
the applied signal frequency is constant.

So if the inductance value changes the value of reactance or impedance changes. How these two concepts are used together for a
metal detector circuit, is explained in working section of this project.

Circuit Components
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+9 supply voltage
555 IC
47K resistor
2.2F capacitor (2 pieces)
Speaker (8)
170Turns of 10cm diameter coil (any gauge would work)

Circuit Diagram and Working

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Garrett at Metal Detector

Circuit Design
Circuit Schematic

The gure 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, 2.2F 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 rst 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.

Common Tips:
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Enamel should be removed at the tips of coil for soldering connections.

With different gauge we will have different RLC impedance, so one should experiment with resistance in RLC circuit for sensitive metal
detection.
The speaker can be of any type. But with resistance less than 8, the timer might get heated.
Use supply voltage higher than 5V.
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Comments (27)

sunilkumar

reply

can weuse 10 mf capacitor instead of 2.2 mf capacitor

Jan 08, 2016

Abhishek

reply

Its not 2.2mf, its 2.2uF. Its micro (u) not milli (m). And yes the value shouldn't be changed.
Jan 14, 2016

md sajjad

reply

Nice
Feb 08, 2016

arun

reply

i need this circuit

Feb 20, 2016

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M DILIP RAJA

reply

The circuit is present in the description.

Feb 21, 2016

Sumon Mondal

reply

It really works because i have made this circui & it works perfectly.
What to do to increase it's sencitivity so that it can be used in various industries?
Feb 22, 2016

zohaib

reply

Would you plz help me to make it..

Urgent
May 04, 2016

jenny

reply

Can I change the speaker to motor or solenoid?

Mar 06, 2016

Hasan

reply

It's nice but the speaker turns always on.

It will be fine if the speaker turns off when there are no metal near inductor (coil)
and the speaker Turns on when a metal brought near inductor .
how can I do that?
Mar 12, 2016

Ahmed

reply

can you tell me the reason and explain the jop of every component of the circuit please ??
Apr 02, 2016

santosh

reply

How to increase its range ?

Apr 04, 2016

Saisuma

reply

Can u help me out with design Steps? How to choose the values of R, L, C and inductance?
Apr 15, 2016

wynncoruna

reply

I now understand the concept behind metal detectors.

Thank you.
Apr 25, 2016

satish

reply

i want to make door frame metal detector. Can anyone help me?
Apr 28, 2016

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reply

limo
its works better on alominom
its awsooome to make

May 07, 2016

umesh

reply

i need help to design turn off speaker when they is no metal found.. please help me to design..
May 10, 2016

kinley namgay

reply

plz lets us know about theoritical design about this project

May 21, 2016

harish

reply

29 gauge wire is work or not

May 28, 2016

Hussein

reply

I didn't connect this circuit, although I have question: does the voltage across the buzzer changes if a metal is brought near
the coil?
Jun 15, 2016

Abhishek

reply

Output Frequency of 555 changes, when we bring Metal near to the coil, so sound of Speaker changes according to the
frequency.
Jul 09, 2016

PRINCE ALBERT P...

reply

i have 2 cd player and 1 9volt battery and headphone...can you help me make a metal detector
Jun 17, 2016

Shoaib Amin

reply

What transformer should be used so that it connects directly in the power source?
Jul 15, 2016

Abhishek

reply

You can try having 9v or 5v of regulated DC power supply form the 9-0-9 1A transformer
Aug 22, 2016

souvenir boris

reply

nice mister anyway can u give us the video of how it works

thanks
Aug 02, 2016

Abhishek

reply

Video is already given, please check at the end of the Article.

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Aug 22, 2016

reply

jenita
can i use the coil of 5 cm diameter

Aug 14, 2016

reply

Abhishek
No of Turns and diameter are important in the coil, so use it as suggested in the article.

Aug 22, 2016

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