How To Add “Wireless” Headphones To Any Metal Detector
(Note March 15, 2010 – Thanks to everyone from Metal Detector Per Tutti and Metal Detector World for visiting. Caccia felice! )
Ever get tied up in your headphone?
When you kneel down to dig a target does your headpone cord tip your detector over?
Does your headphone cord get in the way of your digging?
I’m going to show you how to add “wireless” or “cordless” headphones to any metal detector.
What you’ll need: An FM transmitter, a small radio, and headphones.
An FM transmitter is a little gadget that accepts a sound signal and sends it a short distance by FM waves. They are generally sold as automotive accesories for playing an MP3 player through your car stereo. Some of these plug into your car cigarette outlet, while others are battery powered. To use with your metal detector you’ll want one that runs on batteries. Well, unless you plan on detecting in your car. You’ll also want a transmitter that has a standard heaphone connection (usually 3.5mm) rather than an iPod or specialized connection. I’ve had good luck with the Belkin Tunecast models. The more available channels that the transmitter can send on, the better. This way you can find an “unused” channel for clear reception. Here’s a Belkin Tunecast below:
The next item you’ll need is a small FM radio. A digital unit will work best as you can get a good solid lock on the channel. The Sony FM Walkman radios work well, but I’m sure good results can be obtained with any small digital FM stereo. Small is good.
Finally, you need headphones. This is your call, as any headphones will work. You’ll want good quality sound, so don’t go cheap. There are great HIGH quality phones from earbuds to full ear covering units. The good thing about this setup is that during the winter you can go with larger “cans” to keep your ears warm, and in the summer you can switch to lighter earbuds.
Now to put it together. Plug the FM transmitter into the headphone jack of your metal detector (you’ll probably need a 3.5mm to 1/4 inch headphone jack adaptor). You might stick the transmitter to the body of your detector with velcro to keep it out of the way. Whatever works for your detector. With your headphones plugged into the radio (not your detector!), turn your FM radio on and find an unused frequency. Then turn on the FM transmitter and your detector. Set the FM transmitter to the same frequency as the radio. Thats it! You might have to adjust the volume of the radio to a comfortable level but you’re ready to go. Clip the radio to your belt, in your pocket, or wherever appropriate and enjoy tether-free detecting.
Simplified:
FM transmitter plugged into detector.
NOTHING connects you to detector.
Headphones connected to FM radio.
Radio on your belt loop or in your pocket.
Enjoy.
Hi Wayne
Interesting post. Any idea on what the signal response time would be?
LS…I’m not sure about specifics, but there is some slight decrease in response time. This might vary with what type of transmitter you use and maybe with what type of radio.
In really trashy setting where you need a FAST response you might need to stick with old fashioned phones if you notice your detector is responding slower.
Wayne, I actually bought some Logitech Freepulse wireless headphones, as I do feel ‘tied’ to my detector at times, and wanted to ‘cut the cord’, so to speak! I like the fact that they are an ‘open’ design, and I can hear what’s going on around me as well as listen to the sound being transmitted to the headphones. They are lightweight, and comfortable to wear. Unfortunately, I quit using them for a few reasons. First of all, as was mentioned, the response time is slightly off, which can be aggrevating when trying to pinpoint the location of a target. Secondly, the sounds are very different with the cordless headphones, and some of the rich tones are missing. When pinpointing, the headphones SCREAM very loudly, and the sound gets distorted. If I turn down the volume, it helps with the pinpointing, but when I go back to hunting, I have to turn the volume back up again. Because of these issues, I no longer use the Logitech wireless headphones, but no biggie; I use them all the time with my laptop and ipod!
Thanks for the great comment Angela. I’ve never tried the Logitech cordless phones – didn’t even know about them, so I wouldn’t know how they compare to the setup I described. I do like the idea of being able to use any kind of headphones rather than being confined to a particular kind.
Anyone have experience with a cordless/wireless setup?
White’s Spectra V3 has wireless headphones!
Yes, it does – for $1699.95 with phones!
The method I described will cost about $30.
Ingenious idea, very creative.
I can’t wait to give this one a try.
Dave´s last blog ..Fisher to release new Gold Bug metal detector!
Let us know how it works!
Cool article. I’l have to give it a try.
Keep us posted Mark!
I have actually tried this setup with a Minelab E-Trac and a Belkin tunecast II but the audio was clipped and incomplete so unusable, whether this was due to the fm headphones I was using I am not sure as the setup worked ok on a radio tuner I initially tested it on.
Quite a mystery really.
Thanks for the post Den. I was thinking that maybe the noise cancelling of the Etrac had something to do with it, but really that should make the audio BETTER? Another possibility…maybe you needed to try a different FM channel from the one you used with the radio tuner and fm headphones?
[...] folks…In a previous article I described a way to set up any metal detector with wireless headphones using an FM transmitter and [...]