I recently purchased an unidentified item from eBay, primarily for the useful enclosure. It also came housed in a good technicians briefcase so I think I got a great deal. There are a lot of high quality parts in the unit (I've only peaked in the aluminium box inside the unit but all I can see are 2 pieces of white, paper like, sheets). I'm so curious about what this instrument was designed to analyse but much searching on the internet has failed to provide any answers or leads. Just wondering, with the vast amount of industrial and technical experience on here whether anyone can identify the purpose of the unit from the photos I'm posting (the back of the unit only has a fuse and a 3 pin din charging point for the Nickel Cadmium batteries)? It was manufactured in 1990.

This might be a CSD (Cross Spectral Density) Measurment tool. For comparing two signals.... OR, it might be something related to water level testing- a 'Diviner' in soils.... Is there an MFG sticker on it somewhere?

 

This might be a CSD (Cross Spectral Density) Measurment tool. For comparing two signals.... OR, it might be something related to water level testing- a 'Diviner' in soils.... Is there an MFG sticker on it somewhere?

Nope. Other that 'CSD' there is nothing that remotely refers to a potential manufacturer.

 

This might be a CSD (Cross Spectral Density) Measurment tool. For comparing two signals.... OR, it might be something related to water level testing- a 'Diviner' in soils.... Is there an MFG sticker on it somewhere?

Post #38 !
CSD India.
https://www.indiamart.com/csd-intruments/

 

I find it hard to believe it is something other than a metal detector

From my experience with metal detectors, few are made for a single metal (mostly gold) and usually has the metal as part of the model's name. I.E. "Gold Bug". It is a single frequency device and all of the metal detectors I've used are multifrequency plus usually have the option of filtering out iron and sometimes aluminum. Plus, most metal detectors are designed for handheld field mobility unless it is a specialty device for scanning product on a conveyor belt or such to determine metal contamination and in this case, I don't think so. India has an apparently gullible market for water diviners and this does appear to be an India-made product. FWIW

 

A blurb from their company publication:-

" Located in Jaipur (PINK CITY), the capital city of state of Rajasthan in India, the company CSD INSTRUMENTS was founded in 1989 as a technical joint venture, with a major US company and became independent around 2007-08. Since 1989, we have worked with our customers to understand the needs of the Industry and create reliable products to serve them all. Our goal is to provide complete solutions in the field of electrical measurements, hand held instruments, and test equipment's.
These serve purpose of maintenance of Underground Cables, Transmission Lines, Substations Equipment's, in Power sector across all segments i.e. Generation, Transmission and Distribution companies in India. "

 

So, most likely, from the CSD product line, an underground cable detector. Which also explains the single frequency usage.

 

Don't metal detector coils use much lower frequencies that don't require anything even close to a BNC jack?

 

I don't ever remember seeing a BNC on a metal detector. You don't see BNC connectors even in Ham Radio until you get into VHF or higher.

 

I recently purchased an unidentified item from eBay, primarily for the useful enclosure. It also came housed in a good technicians briefcase so I think I got a great deal. There are a lot of high quality parts in the unit (I've only peaked in the aluminium box inside the unit but all I can see are 2 pieces of white, paper like, sheets). I'm so curious about what this instrument was designed to analyse but much searching on the internet has failed to provide any answers or leads. Just wondering, with the vast amount of industrial and technical experience on here whether anyone can identify the purpose of the unit from the photos I'm posting (the back of the unit only has a fuse and a 3 pin din charging point for the Nickel Cadmium batteries)? It was manufactured in 1990.

I think it might be kind of GPR or any radar based device, isolated part inside the body, active and passive mode. just a thought.

 

It may be a metal detector or some other detector, possibly for water.
The number of really silly responses made is rather ugly.
Additional analysis would include a web search, of which many sales sites will claim to have it available for sale but have no idea what it is.

 

Is there anything beneath that blue plastic on the inside of the cover?If you locate an instruction manual that may answer the questions.
There are a lot of possible other uses, I imagine.
And if it had been built in the distant past then the battery pack would not still function. So it is probably not that very old.
The contents of the shielded portion will reveal a lot.
And BNC connectors are useful whenever good shielding and reliable convenient connections are required. Most better scopes use BNC connectors, and a lot of other test equipment as well. They are so very much better than the cheap phono-jacks used on some hobby stuff.

I may post about a piece of equipment that I acquired for the large number of usefull connectors that were part of it. But I will start a thread for that, not hijack this one.

 

I don't ever remember seeing a BNC on a metal detector. You don't see BNC connectors even in Ham Radio until you get into VHF or higher.

The output of my function generator, max frequency 100KHz is a BNC jack.

 

Is there anything beneath that blue plastic on the inside of the cover?If you locate an instruction manual that may answer the questions.
There are a lot of possible other uses, I imagine.
And if it had been built in the distant past then the battery pack would not still function. So it is probably not that very old.
The contents of the shielded portion will reveal a lot.
And BNC connectors are useful whenever good shielding and reliable convenient connections are required. Most better scopes use BNC connectors, and a lot of other test equipment as well. They are so very much better than the cheap phono-jacks used on some hobby stuff.

I may post about a piece of equipment that I acquired for the large number of usefull connectors that were part of it. But I will start a thread for that, not hijack this one.

I'm not sure which piece of blue plastic you mean. The only blue item is inside the briefcase. That is made of felt covered cardboard and drops down to a compartment which is meant to hold pens, business cards and documents. There is nothing in there at all unfortunately (I had hoped there would be a user manual). The pcb is dated 04/6/90 and components on it seem to have manufacturing dates in the early 90's so I'm convinced the device is from that era. The NiCd batteries do charge but do not hold a charge for long and I appreciate that they would unlikely still be useable (I think 15-20 years is the normal lifespan?). However, it is conceivable that the owner of this device had the batteries replaced at some point? I have written to the company in India suggested by MaxHeadRoom (CSD Instruments (India) Pvt Ltd - Post #43) and have an initial response asking me to post photo's before they comment further. I have sent photos and am feeling slightly hopeful.

 

The number of really silly responses made is rather ugly.

I guess a bit of light levity is frowned on!

 

I guess a bit of light levity is frowned on!

Unless it's one of his absurd answers to a question posted.

 

Ah well, hopes dashed....the company I wrote to in India say it is NOT their device. This is what they said:

"Thank you for sharing the information.

Having gone through the pictures sent by you, this does not seem to be our product for various reasons and to name a few:

- Our PCB series started with number 12-xxxx-xxxx
- Logo

However from my past experience I feel this instruments may be related to fault location / some kind of location device.
I am sorry I cannot be of further help in this matter.

Thank you once again for your email.
Best Regards
Anirudh Singh
CSD INSTRUMENTS (I) P. Ltd., Jaipur"

I guess I'll never know and time to tear down for parts.

Thanks all for your interest.

 

accordingly dowsing is a myth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowsing
but there'd always be people who insists it works.

 

Here I am posting pictures of the internals of the aluminium box @Externet was interested I think but others may also be.

 

I wonder if the "serial number" could actually be a date of manufacture?

 

Here I am posting pictures of the internals of the aluminium box @Externet was interested I think but others may also be.

That device is operating at a very high frequency, something in the microwave range. It is not a simple device, That thing had to have costs thousands of dollars. That machined enclosure and the custom filters, the hardline interconnect, it’s pretty amazing.