System, method and apparatus for providing an in-line buried wire guidance amplifier

A system for detecting a location of a buried wire, wherein the system comprises:

• an antenna array, wherein the antenna array is comprised of a first steering antenna, a second steering antenna;
• and a reference antenna;
• wherein the reference antenna is positioned between the first steering antenna and the second steering antenna;
• a guidance receiver, wherein the guidance receiver is configured to receive and process signals from the antenna array to determine the relative position of the antenna array to the buried wire;
• and
• a guidance receiver filter;
• wherein the guidance receiver filter is interposed between the antenna array and the guidance receiver;
• wherein the guidance receiver filter is comprised of a 5th order active high pass filter cascaded with a 5th order active low pass filter to produce a filtered signal;
• wherein the guidance receiver filter is configured to cutoff of frequencies below 700 Hz and above 1500 Hz;
• wherein the guidance receiver filter comprises a voltage amplifying circuit;
• wherein the guidance receiver filter comprises a rail splitting circuit;
• wherein the guidance receiver filter comprises an input signal buffer circuit;
• wherein the 5th order active high pass filter comprises a 5th order high pass filter/amplifier circuit;
• wherein the 5th order active low pass filter comprises a 5th order low pass filter/amplifier circuit;
• wherein the rail splitting circuit comprises a voltage divider and a first non-inverting operational amplifier;
• wherein the voltage divider comprises a first resistor and a second resistor connected in series between a supply voltage and a grounding element;
• wherein the rail splitting circuit further comprises a first capacitor connected in parallel with the first resistor and a second capacitor connected in parallel with the second resistor;
• wherein the 5th order high pass filter/amplifier circuit comprises a 1st order high pass filter/amplifier circuit cascaded with a first 2nd order high pass filter circuit and a second 2nd order high pass filter circuit.