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Vallon vmh 3cs
Posted by pinpointa
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Re: Vallon vmh 3cs January 09, 2019 03:52PM |
The Vallon is a German made PI mine detector. It’s a modern very sophisticated design and he is one of the leading brands of mine hunting detectors in the military marketplace. Large numbers of them were surplus to buy British forces after service in Afghanistan. These were sold on eBay by surplus dealers in the UK and also by a dealer in Portland.
The discussion on Geotech was started in 2016 by Eric foster - the guy who really started the use of PI detectors for beach hunting in the 80s with his early designs and who designed the GS series that whites adapted to base the TDI on. The discussion on Geotech now is up to 67 pages – a lot of it highly technical about exactly how the Vallon operates.
I got two of them from the dealer in Poland a few weeks ago – I bought because the shipping cost was quite high and if I got one and it didn’t work out pretty well be stuck so I figured as inexpensive as they basically were I should just go ahead and get two. Happily for me they both work fine – identically – and one of them looks to be pretty much a new - the other one has been in the field and has a liberal coating of red Afghani dust.
I have had a variety PI detectors including several from minelab SD2100 and 2300, two Whites TDI’s and Garrett ATX. The Valon is about as powerful as any of the detectors I have had – usually hitting a nickel buried to 14 inches or so in the red dirt him in Arizona wash. It operates without a threshold soundig a so-called “confidence check” beep every two seconds so the operator knows it’s working - otherwise if it quit in the operator would be blind and not know it. This beep is not ideal for a hobbyist - fortunately Valon has updated civilian software for it which eliminates this and adds some very useful features including automatic frequency change to avoid EMI. This software is available free from the manufacturer but I’m still a little unclear on how you actually get it in the detector as there is a connector cable and serial to USB adapter available from Vallon but – very expensive. I believe it’s possible to fabricate the cable - in fact quite easily - but I need to verify this with the US agent for Vallon.
It has no discrimination – but I think it would make an excellent beach detector being waterproof, relatively lightweight and very rugged. It is designed to produce a different length of signature for large or elongated objects, so nails, bolts, etc. would sound different than coins or rings.
As far as gold nugget hunting I think it would be about as useful as in ATX or any of the minelab PI‘s prior to the GPX series which I believe are probably a bit more powerful and have many settings which can be varied for different circumstances. There is very little evidence on the Geotech forum thread that anyone has extensively use these in the field. It has GB and operates with it either ground balanced or with GB off.
It is lighter and handier than the Garrett, waterproof unlike the TDI and more powerful than the PI beach machines. My pal LE.JAG has tested it against the Manta prototypes and says it is not nearly as deep as the Manta. Of course, the Vallon is here and the Manta isn’t yet. It runs on 3 D batteries and is very power efficient. Users report it running well on AA batteries in AA to D shell adapters - saving a lot of weight. It comes in a very robust and attractive canvas carrier/case with shoulder straps - would make a very nice beach detecting set up.
Once I satisfy my curiosity and hopefully upgrade the software, I will sell one or both of them.
\\\\
Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold
The discussion on Geotech was started in 2016 by Eric foster - the guy who really started the use of PI detectors for beach hunting in the 80s with his early designs and who designed the GS series that whites adapted to base the TDI on. The discussion on Geotech now is up to 67 pages – a lot of it highly technical about exactly how the Vallon operates.
I got two of them from the dealer in Poland a few weeks ago – I bought because the shipping cost was quite high and if I got one and it didn’t work out pretty well be stuck so I figured as inexpensive as they basically were I should just go ahead and get two. Happily for me they both work fine – identically – and one of them looks to be pretty much a new - the other one has been in the field and has a liberal coating of red Afghani dust.
I have had a variety PI detectors including several from minelab SD2100 and 2300, two Whites TDI’s and Garrett ATX. The Valon is about as powerful as any of the detectors I have had – usually hitting a nickel buried to 14 inches or so in the red dirt him in Arizona wash. It operates without a threshold soundig a so-called “confidence check” beep every two seconds so the operator knows it’s working - otherwise if it quit in the operator would be blind and not know it. This beep is not ideal for a hobbyist - fortunately Valon has updated civilian software for it which eliminates this and adds some very useful features including automatic frequency change to avoid EMI. This software is available free from the manufacturer but I’m still a little unclear on how you actually get it in the detector as there is a connector cable and serial to USB adapter available from Vallon but – very expensive. I believe it’s possible to fabricate the cable - in fact quite easily - but I need to verify this with the US agent for Vallon.
It has no discrimination – but I think it would make an excellent beach detector being waterproof, relatively lightweight and very rugged. It is designed to produce a different length of signature for large or elongated objects, so nails, bolts, etc. would sound different than coins or rings.
As far as gold nugget hunting I think it would be about as useful as in ATX or any of the minelab PI‘s prior to the GPX series which I believe are probably a bit more powerful and have many settings which can be varied for different circumstances. There is very little evidence on the Geotech forum thread that anyone has extensively use these in the field. It has GB and operates with it either ground balanced or with GB off.
It is lighter and handier than the Garrett, waterproof unlike the TDI and more powerful than the PI beach machines. My pal LE.JAG has tested it against the Manta prototypes and says it is not nearly as deep as the Manta. Of course, the Vallon is here and the Manta isn’t yet. It runs on 3 D batteries and is very power efficient. Users report it running well on AA batteries in AA to D shell adapters - saving a lot of weight. It comes in a very robust and attractive canvas carrier/case with shoulder straps - would make a very nice beach detecting set up.
Once I satisfy my curiosity and hopefully upgrade the software, I will sell one or both of them.
\\\\
Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold