The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 04, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 01, 2000
Ellen Ott, Akron, OH (US);
James H. Ott, Akron, OH (US);
Other;
Abstract
A hand tool has a ground-piercing probe, which is manually insertable in the soil. The probe has a chamber in which an inductor is positioned and connected to metal detection circuitry. A pulse generator applies current pulses to an inductor for inducing eddy currents in a buried target object. After the pulse terminates, the decaying coil voltage is sampled at different times to detect both the presence and range of the object, as well as the type of metal in the object. The coil voltage samples are applied to signaling circuitry, which provides an audible signal which is a series of bursts of an audio tone. The pitch of the audio tone signals the presence, range and bearing of the buried metal object, while the pulse rate of the bursts signals the metal type. Signal variations resulting from temperature changes when the probe is inserted into soil are compensated for by detecting a signal proportional to the coil current during the pulse and subtracting a scaled portion of that signal from voltage samples.