B&Z booster buzz

I'm using a 5000 with a B&Z booster with twin GME speakers, and the booster produces a slight buzzing sound (as well as the threshold).
This buzzing sound disappears if I touch the speaker plug, the coil cable, or even the detector shaft. Varying the threshold/boost ratio has no positive effect, nor does a change of tone. Plugging the speakers directly into the battery produces no buzz.

Any clues as to how I can get rid of the buzz, short of detecting with one finger on the detector shaft all the time ?

Phil

have a look at the jack and see if you can tighten it by screwing it tight asd it gets loose every now and again, hopefully that's all it is.

Sounds like earth leakage from th earth wire in the speaker plug, open the plug
and have a look.

get the phone number off the booster or phone no for arum australis (jonathan porter) and ring them, jp and his wife are good to deal with,mine played up when i bought it, i sent it back ,had a phone call from them and all was good in 2 weeks..as far as i know he is the australian importer.if you bought it off the net from overseas ummmmm dunno

Thanks for the suggestions ; maybe my soldering the wires of the second speaker on to the original speaker's wires (in the jack) has something to do with it,

Phil

Could be Phil, make sure you put some heat shrink over the solder joints also

Good morning all,

Regarding the B&Z booster, how does one connect this unit to their equipment? Is it velcro attached? Looking at going out to Kookynie this week. Cheers Captain. Great site and thanks for any information.

I recently got my long awaited B&Z booster to help combat hearing impairment on those signals and it hums/buzzes/makes a static type of white noise so annoying I have to switch it off. I'll fiddle around with the connections suggested on this thread & maybe get a second opinion at the forum meetup before sending it back to Prospectors Patch.

Krazycaptain - your booster should have a plastic clip on the back of it which you attach to your harness or belt. You could use velcro as well, but the clip comes with the unit, or should do.

Hi Goldylox,
Thank you for your reply.
I purchased one last week from Reeds Prospecting Perth on their webpage and when it arrive saw that it had a clip. Found 12.5 grams over the 3 days of detecting.
Cheers
Captain

Hello everyone, I personally hand build each and every B&Z booster. The buzzing sound does seem like a bad solder joint or earthing problem. There is some electronic noise in the B&Zs at low volumes so try to get the volume up above 2 and adjust the detector audio volumes to suit, particularly when using headphones.

I use a large zip tie to attached the B&Z unit to the right shoulder strap of my harness, this way it is solidly mounted, I then zip tie the booster cable on its way down to the battery, make sure you allow room for flex especially during digging as the cable can be damaged when a straight linear jerk or pull is applied. The wires in the cable are incredibly fine to maintain the quality of the audio and also maintain flex, a hard straight snap will sever them which is the major cause for repairs. I do not recommend you run the booster cable under your arm, instead run it over your shoulder and down your back to the battery compartment of your harness/backpack.

Regards
Jonathan Porter

Zip Tie Point for Booster


Fine Wires of B&Z Cable


Cable fix point with plenty of slack in cable to allow movement

the way i have my b&z booster set up



cheers
stoppsy

[quote="Jonathan Porter"]Hello everyone, I personally hand build each and every B&Z booster. The buzzing sound does seem like a bad solder joint or earthing problem. There is some electronic noise in the B&Zs at low volumes so try to get the volume up above 2 and adjust the detector audio volumes to suit, particularly when using headphones.

Regards
Jonathan Porter

G'day JP,

the buzzing is an interesting problem, as it will disappear if I lower a spoked coil so that a piece of quartz, for instance, is positioned within one of the "holes" in the coil, but not touching the coil (coil not touching the ground). I have resoldered the joins in the right-angled plug, all cables are unrestricted and loose.
The buzzing disappears if I touch the upper shaft, but not if I touch the lower one. I have tried different volume settings on the booster as well as different target vol settings ; the buzz remains. I'm wondering if it may be due to the rechargeable Nicads I'm using. That's an easy one to check.

At least the "buzz" is not affecting the detector's ability to find gold !

Phil

The buzzing you're hearing is feedback in the circuit due to the volume of the booster not being high enough, try increasing the booster volume to above 2 and see if the buzzing noise disappears?

I assume you are using headphones? If so then back your Volume Limit off to 8 and the Target Volume to below 6, this way the audio can be lifted to the correct levels by the booster for headphone use.

Regards
Jonathan

EDIT: Just read your post above and see you are using Speakers, the above 2 on the volume still stands. If the audio is too loud then you need to reposition the speakers further away to be able to get the volume control higher.

Jonathan Porter wrote:The buzzing you're hearing is feedback in the circuit due to the volume of the booster not being high enough, try increasing the booster volume to above 2 and see if the buzzing noise disappears?

I assume you are using headphones? If so then back your Volume Limit off to 8 and the Target Volume to below 6, this way the audio can be lifted to the correct levels by the booster for headphone use.

Regards
Jonathan

EDIT: Just read your post above and see you are using Speakers, the above 2 on the volume still stands. If the audio is too loud then you need to reposition the speakers further away to be able to get the volume control higher.

JP,

I am running the speakers on the harness straps just below the 'earoles, and am bouncing the sound off a broad-brimmed hat ; I'll have a look at repositioning the speakers (easier than repositioning the 'earoles ...)

Phil

lkyphl wrote:

JP,

I am running the speakers on the harness straps just below the 'earoles, and am bouncing the sound off a broad-brimmed hat ; I'll have a look at repositioning the speakers (easier than repositioning the 'earoles ...)

Phil

Phil, how much volume are you running on your B&Z?

JP

I had a yarn with JP and he suggested moving the speakers from high on the straps, very much as Stoppsy has on his photo above, to a position about half way down the front straps, which made it necessary to run a higher volume on the booster, up from about 2 to between 3 and 4.

Driving the booster a bit harder with the new setting overwhelmed the buzz, which is still audible if I turn the booster back to 2 , but this is not loud enough now the speakers are further from my ears.

Result, thanks to JP,

Phil

Aside from dodgy connectors and cable routing etc --

It seems that the buzz is constant low volume and can be "drowned out" by raising the desired signal from the detector. I think that indicates that the noise is NOT coming in through the booster input lead.

Instead, it may be coming up from the power supply line to the booster. I think it would be worth trying a bigger bypass capacitor on the supply line. A nice "fat" electrolytic or tantulum type would be needed. Or maybe locating any bypass closer to the amp chip on the circuit board etc.

Jus' sayin' - cheers - Phil