Abstract: A damped sine wave detector for detecting the response of a magnetostrictive displacement transducer. A pretrigger comparator compares the signal to a predetermined negative threshold. A signal comparator compares the input signal to a predetermined positive threshold. The pretrigger comparator turns on a pretrigger flip-flop and starts a delay timer when the input signal falls below the predetermined negative threshold. The pretrigger flip-flop supplies the data input of a signal flip-flop. The signal flip-flop is clocked by the signal comparator when the input signal is above the predetermined positive threshold. The signal flip-flop turns on if clocked and the pretrigger flip-flop is on. The detector includes two timers for resetting the flip-flops. An inhibit timer resets both flip-flops upon expiration of an inhibit time longer than the maximum expected duration of the damped sine wave signal.