BARACUDA-Legend-1

[bion]

Problem fixed.

[satdaveuk]

Problem fixed.

Hi
What was the Fault/Remedy?
Feed back is often useful to others to help them not make the same mistake

[bion]

There was a short circuit between the pins of the 7660. A defect of PCB manufacturing. It was so fine that it had not seen without a strong light behind the plate.

[mohandes]

any one tell me about data for this coil .
i want make 45*45cm coil with 0.5m wire copper .
regards

[geoscash1]

Hey all,



Received my baracuda kit from Andy (silverdog) on friday and saturday morning spent 2 hours checking all the parts and layout then to assembly.


Nice little package and was a breeze to build.


Prelim tests in my garage gave what I thought are some very good results considering I am using a 10" .5 enamelled copper wound coil with 21 turns
with no shield for my surf pi.


I will assume once I order some more wire and build a coil to baracuda spec it should be just as good if not better. This little guy smokes my sm pro pi
and it isnt even tuned up or using the right coil yet..


I had some of the other mod parts on hand so gave the TIP127 a try, it did get very hot quickly so I put the IRF9640 back in, also switched the LF412
for a TL082 but it seemed a little chatty so swapped them back for now. Have a 6800uf cap on its way for C1 but for now it has what came in the kit
which is a 3300uf. Will be adding an external delay along with the LED.


Not sure what box I'll use yet, I have a pelican 1030 case and it fits nicely so it may end up in there, dont know yet.


All in all, great little project and kit. Very happy with the result so far. Attached a couple images of board and with my test objects and gave air
test depths. These are "pre-tuned in" results and using an open surf test coil.


Thanks silverdog for a great little kit and to all the members that have contributed to this thread.
(EDIT: moderator, I thought I was in barcuda pi thread, this post should probably be moved over there. that's what happens when I'm jumpin thread to thread, sorry.)

[sinclairuser]

Hey all,



Received my baracuda kit from Andy (silverdog) on friday and saturday morning spent 2 hours checking all the parts and layout then to assembly.


Nice little package and was a breeze to build.


Prelim tests in my garage gave what I thought are some very good results considering I am using a 10" .5 enamelled copper wound coil with 21 turns
with no shield for my surf pi.


I will assume once I order some more wire and build a coil to baracuda spec it should be just as good if not better. This little guy smokes my sm pro pi
and it isnt even tuned up or using the right coil yet..


I had some of the other mod parts on hand so gave the TIP127 a try, it did get very hot quickly so I put the IRF9640 back in, also switched the LF412
for a TL082 but it seemed a little chatty so swapped them back for now. Have a 6800uf cap on its way for C1 but for now it has what came in the kit
which is a 3300uf. Will be adding an external delay along with the LED.


Not sure what box I'll use yet, I have a pelican 1030 case and it fits nicely so it may end up in there, dont know yet.


All in all, great little project and kit. Very happy with the result so far. Attached a couple images of board and with my test objects and gave air
test depths. These are "pre-tuned in" results and using an open surf test coil.


Thanks silverdog for a great little kit and to all the members that have contributed to this thread.
(EDIT: moderator, I thought I was in barcuda pi thread, this post should probably be moved over there. that's what happens when I'm jumpin thread to thread, sorry.)

the surf coil is what heated the tip127, the irf fet is more tolerant, while the fet is fine i like the tip127, aim your coil at 400+uh and 1.5r and you will get no warming of the tip127, i would add a heatsink to the tip anyway, if you want to run surf coils you need to retune the damping resistor with a scope.
but if you wind your own coil to specs this is not really needed, i have built two of these one on the fly to recommended specs, and the other fine tuned with scope both work as well, since you have the surf it may help you to run on surf coils.
but i dont and very quickly retuned it to the same barracuda specs, for interchangeability between the barracuda coils, dropping the voltage below 12v helped mine too, mine run perfect at 10.5 volts(alkaline batts).

[satdaveuk]

Hi
Nice Job, Sinclair is correct the original using TIP127 Darlington transistor was designed around 10.8v max supply, How ever the transistor is quite robust whilst using a heat sink will tolerate 12V supply OK for hours of use.
Maybe of interest to some here, I managed to get hold of the original Surf PI which interestingly enough used a TIP32c 100v 3amp Bipolar transistor, so may put one of those together and see what if any difference it makes.
All the best

[geoscash1]

Thanks sinclairuser and satdaveuk,

I'll be making coils specific to this build, just was using a surf test coil..

I know I read somewhere that you can add an external delay pot to this build, I have searched high and low but I am sure I am just missing it since I thought it was in this thread..


where exactly will it wire to the board? I have to assume I need to remove the small jumper next to the trim pot and use those 2 holes for the wires for the ext pot? but not sure and I dont want to burn anything. Also I will assume a 10 to 20k pot will be sufficient for external.


Still waiting on my bigger cap (6800) for C1, its taking forever to get here...Just added a nice little 32ohm speaker and the audio is just about perfect now for when using without headphones..


Anxious to get this off the bench and up to the canyons and creek beds..

[satdaveuk]

Hi
Its a 10k lin pot, as you correctly stated its the link that grounds the 25k multiturn, just open circuit the link and solder pot in between .
If you feel the external is a bit to course when out using it in the real world then a good recommend inhancement is to place a second 500ohms lin pot in series with the delay pot calling it delay fine adjust , you will be well impressed.
I call it inhancment rather than modification because it dosent spoil or alter the Barracuda specification it just makes it easer to use on the field.
I love these machines there right little belters, I have twice now used my first build for work one example was replacing some underground cables about 35 meters across posh lawns and needed to trace other exsisting cables that had been laid in the past so not to damage them, they were all over the place but with the aid of the barracuda and the 1.5" coil on a lenth of plastic pipe detected the lots and laid new cables in conduite right between them.
will post pictures when time permits.
Regards

[satdaveuk]

Some pictures of both builds

Hi
The second build was mounted in a purchased cheap housing built for extensive tests which are still on going hence why all the plugs and sockets.
First build is all hand picked components tested to original Barracuda specification, housing made out of scrap styrene painted with my synthetic graphite potion , Front fascia is tatty because since fitted a fine delay pot and had to move things around but will be sorted at some point in time. If you notice it has belt clip which will also clip directly onto the stem together with battery pack which can clip under arm cup to balance things up
Universal battery housing made out of scrap styrene, The stem made out of alloy which I normally use for mounting aerials, plastic lower stem wood dowel inside that, The arm cup from old cable drums inners, didn't chose the paint colour as such just bought from garages when they have end of line flog off's £1.00 a can, lovely blue lol, mind you I did pay retail price for the black spray on battery housing.

Larger coil wound with my electric coil winder project, The three forms I used are cut bespoke for the very original Barracuda specification 7.5" inner , 2 outers 8", The actual configuration of the spools were taken off Garry s winder its just a scaled down version made out of some type plastic or man made fibres that came from one of my old business boards.
Regards

[satdaveuk]

Detector stem

[geoscash1]

Thanks for the info satdaveuk,



I figured it out yesterday while messing with it and added the ext 10k pot, I think since I have a couple 500k pots sitting on my bench I'll do what you mention and add one in series as the fine adjust just to see how that works out.


We do have some mineralised ground and plenty of hot rock here in nor cal so having a bit more adjustment or tuning capability will probably help out with that, I hope anyway..


Nice work on the detectors there, I'm thinking about forming my own handles but still really like the straight stick myself, they just seem to be more balanced to me but then I have long arms so that may be why. I'll add some pics too when I get this thing mounted up and in an enclosure.


Thanks for the advice and tips. I'm liking the performance/test results so far with this barracuda as compared to the surf pro I have, seems to have better sensitivity and depth even using my surf test coils. As soon as my wire and other odd parts I'm waitning for get here I'll get some coils wound up for it, add the bigger cap and get it finished up..


p.s. I may try messing around with your suggestion on the surf pi as well, and find that tip32c and see what happens..

[sinclairuser]

hi geocash, the extra finetune delay pot is 500 ohms, not 500kohms.
if you like non motion detectors the extra transistor and two resistors, will achieve that, but while its still simple to do its not as easy with the newer boards.
and to be honest ive tested it both ways and if you like motion detectors i would not bother, the tip 127 instead of the irf fet is worth it, i think it has a better "attitude" with the tip127, the best tested components make a noticeable difference too.
the second one i built has only hi grade and millitary spec components, totally over the top, but i'm proud of it, i'm looking for a quality clear enclosure to finish it.
it is an excellent project, i recommend it at any level.

[mohandes]

hi geocash, the extra finetune delay pot is 500 ohms, not 500kohms.
if you like non motion detectors the extra transistor and two resistors, will achieve that, but while its still simple to do its not as easy with the newer boards.
and to be honest ive tested it both ways and if you like motion detectors i would not bother, the tip 127 instead of the irf fet is worth it, i think it has a better "attitude" with the tip127, the best tested components make a noticeable difference too.
the second one i built has only hi grade and millitary spec components, totally over the top, but i'm proud of it, i'm looking for a quality clear enclosure to finish it.
it is an excellent project, i recommend it at any level.

hi my friend
can you tell me about coil ( data of turn and ohm and radius) and depth detection for 10*10cm metal of this machine ?
regards.

[morganton]

disregard post