Thank you Esteban, Anker, Franco and Ivconic for your information about using the negative ion detector.
Esteban has provided a very detailed method to use the ion detector. His method is to walk with the machine in hand, swinging the machine right and left as you walk. The machine should be held at a 90 degree angle away from the body while swinging it right to left and looking for variations in the signal. This method sounds similar to the method of using a conventional coil metal detector, except the ion detector is held at arm's height above the ground while walking perhaps a little faster than a person with a coil type detector would walk. When the target is located by a rapid rise in the signal, then it is pinpointed by walking in the other direction, similar to a method of pinpointing a target with a coil type deteector. Esteban cautions us to use the ion detector inland in locations away from high voltage power lines and other interference.
According to Esteban's explanation, the ion detector can be expected to locate ions or electrostatic field gradients in the vicinity of the buried target, but only if the target had been buried for a number of years. He says the buried metal target will develop an electric field around it or a field like the field surrounding a pole of a battery. This field is responsible for the signal seen on the negative ion detector according to Esteban.
According to Franco's theory, a ground battery can be made by putting 2 dissimilar metal objects in the ground 2 meters apart. And this ground battery can be detected with the ion detector because of the electric field of the ground battery. He apparently is talking about metal objects that have been recently placed in the ground.
Anker has posted the theory of operation of the Mineoro LRLs as told by a Damásio & Alonso from the Mineoro company. Portions of the Mineoro letter agree with statements that Esteban and Franco made about ions and electric fields. Much of this letter is simply theories advanced by Damásio & Alonso from Mineoro to explain their understanding of how the Minero devices work.
Ivconic returned and made comments to indicate he a skeptic who does not know if this machine can find treasure. He considers it only an electronic device that measures changes in the ion density in the air, and more testing is needed to see if it can locate long buried gold. After noting a mumber of apparent errors in Damásio & Alonso's theories, he goes on to say that he would like to see improvements in the signal processing portion of the ion detector.
My commentary is as follows:
1. Now we have a method of using the Ion detector, and an explanation of how it can be used to locate buried treasures from Esteban.
2. Ivconic asks about mods in the signal processing after the differential amp. I suppose any kind of signal processing can be done if we first know what we want to find out about the signal. If you want to find audio signals, then you can add a circuit with an adjustable bandpass filter that feeds to a small audio amp or rectifier to a meter. I would think that until we know what we are looking for the best information about the signal can be seen on an oscillosope. By testing the ion detector with different targets and looking at the signal with an oscilloscope, we can learn what are the important features of the signal to look for when locating treasures. After the testing is done, then we can easily build circuits that measure the treasure information in the signal.
Concerning the field and battery effect of buried objects, and how the ion detector senses the location of the object:
3. Battery effect not so strong as a commercial battery: We all know that if we put dissimilar metals in an electrolyte, we can expect a current to flow in a wire connected between the metals. We know there are ions being created and destroyed at the poles of the battery. These ions are generally confined to the electrolyte and they do not migrate to the atmosmphere in any significant amount for most batteries. Most of the ionic action takes place while a battery is being discharged or charged. A lesser amount of ionic activity occurs in a battery that is not connected to an active circuit. In order for a "ground battery" to work, it seems there must be moisture in the ground where the poles of the battery are. There must also be an electrolyte dissolved in the moisture. In the case of buried gold, which is considered inert, and any ions formed will be very small amount of gold atoms combining with the electrolyte (probably a salt of chlorine or a sulfate in the presence of moisture will form the electrolyte). If a few of the gold atoms combine with the electrolyte, then still the gold will become a cathode, as it is the least reactive of the metals to be found in the ground. The anode will be nearly any other element in the near vicinity of the buried gold which has contact with the same mousture and electrolyte. Nearly all common metals are more reactive than gold, and will become the anode if in close proximity to the gold. The most likely metal would be iron (black sands, magnetite, etc. In the regions where natural gold nuggets are found, we often find silver, copper, lead and traces of other metals. Any of these metals present could also become an anode. The anode would be decomposing as it reacted with the electrolyte, while the gold would remain relatively intact. If this "ground battery" were to be 100% efficient (as good as a gold/iron battery made in a laboratory with a suitable electrolyte), then the battery would develop less than 2 volts. The "ground battery" is not in these ideal conditions, and can be expected to develop a lower voltage and fewer ions. In many cases The ground battery has only damp soil or sands to form the electrolyte from elements in contact with the moisture.
4. Ionic activity from the "ground battery": There may be a mechanism by which airborne ions are sensed in a higher concentration above the buried target. I doubt that the mechanism is from Ions leaving the soil and migrating upwards through the air to the ion detector dish. If for some unexplained reason ions were leaving the buried target soil at a high rate, then it is not likely these ions would hover above the target without blowing away in the wind. I don't know what the actual mechanism is, but I doubt the detector is sensing ions that moved from the electrolyte of the "ground battery" to the air above, where the detector is located at arm'sheight. A simple experiment could be made to test this theory: Place a large plastic bag over the ground were the target is buried. place a similar bag over the ground where no target is buried. After waiting a few hours for the ions to accumulate in the bag, close the bottom of both bags and move them to where the ion detector is. You should now be able to sense a very high concentration of airborne ions from the bag that was over the target, but not from the other bag. My opinion is that if the ion detector finds more ion signal in the air above the area where the gold is buried, then these ions being detected did not originate in the ground electrolyte from the battery. There may be some connection to the underground gold, but it is hard for me to believe that ion migration into the air is the answer.
5. Electric field from ground battery: An electric field will exist in a battery which shows a voltage across the poles. This electric field is no stronger than the voltage over the distance that separates the poles. That is to say it is a very weak electric field, less than 2 volts over the distance between the gold and other metal in the damp soil. There also may be some mechanism that causes increased electric field measured at arm's height in the air above the buried target. I doubt this mechanism is the electric field produced from the ground battery effect. The 9v batteries that power the ion detector have a stronger electric field than the ground battery can create from it's electrolytic voltage generation (if it does in fact create a voltage). Consider: In dry air, it takes about 4000 volts to create a strong enough electric field that the air will ionize enough to throw a spark 1 cm. The static electric field that you can pick up from walking on the gound can easily become higher than this. The electric field caused by atmospheric conditions can be much greater than this. It is hard for me to imagine the ion detector measuring an electrical field from a source less than 2 volts under the ground when there are so many stronger electric fields from stray sources in the air where the detector is. I may be wrong, but It would be interesting to see some tests that tell us the answer.
In conclusion, I dont' say that the ion detector does not respond to a buried target. I say only that if it responds to a buried target, then the reason why it responds does not seem to be exactly the same as theories we have heard so far.
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