BARACUDA-Legend-1

[Finderskeepers]

My finished baracuda

Hello all,

My finished baracuda with Minelab commander mono coil. Baracuda is a great diy p.i. project and it is a very stable, light and simple detector to use. It works lovely on the beach, football fields, playgrounds, etc - on any ground where it is not minerialised as the machine can get quite chatty. I have found that adjusting the external 10k pulse delay pot will reduce ground noise, but you lose sensativity. The only trouble I had from the beginning was the tip127 power transistor, as it could not handle the 9.6 volt battery pack - the machine would not work properly and the tip127 got very hot. I replaced it with a irf9640 which fixed the problem. I also have a gary p.i. pulse 2 which also is a nice project, but the bara punches deeper and rarely do I have to adjust the threshold. I have built two of these circuits - my first bara I etched my own board and purchased parts from element 14/jaycar and the second was silverdogs kit.

[Eddy71]

Wow!
It looks very cool!

[Alexismex]

Finderskeepers, very nice ...the Baracuda deserve that work because of this cool design

[DOOLEY]

now that is one tidy board , and a pleasure to look at ,

makes me want to stop using vero board and go all professional !

[adam(Va)]

My findings on SW1

Hi Silverdog,
Got both of my Barracudas PCB's up and running thanks for the great kits. Don't know if this is correct but I have been using SW1 to set up the coarse Time Delay potentiometer. Turning the external (fine adjust ) potentiometer till it is zero ohms, and closing SW1 a constant noise is produced. You then adjust the coarse (internal pot) till the sound just goes away. You should then have max resolution on the external (fine tune) pot. You can also tweek the coarse time delay to setup when the "null" or void tone that occurs when you go over hi conductors like large iron or large coins (US quarter). If you read the test reviews of the original Barracuda on the Lost Treasure Magazine it talks about the unique tone ID function that the Barracuda had. It also functions as a quick test to make sure the audio circuit is working correctly. I did not externally mount this switch, it was all internal and used for setup/test only.

Hope this helps some,
Adam

Just to let everyone know, Baracuda pcbs and kits are back in stock

It has been advised that as the SW1 function is unknown it is best to leave out Q5

Could someone confirm is the associated resistors should be left out as well or should the paths to ground around C14 remain by shorting Q5 source and drain ?

Silverdog

[dfbowers]

Adam, that's a good observation that you made. Can you clarify your findings?

Hi Silverdog,
Got both of my Barracudas PCB's up and running thanks for the great kits. Don't know if this is correct but I have been using SW1 to set up the coarse Time Delay potentiometer. Turning the external (fine adjust ) potentiometer till it is zero ohms, and closing SW1 a constant noise is produced. You then adjust the coarse (internal pot) till the sound just goes away. Are you you using an external delay pot as well?
The silverdog kit has 3 pots - Two mounted on the PCB - Delay and offset, plus an external pot for threshold. So no real "course" and "fine" adjustment for anything. They all have different functions.


You should then have max resolution on the external (fine tune) pot. You can also tweek the coarse time delay to setup when the "null" or void tone that occurs when you go over hi conductors like large iron or large coins (US quarter). If you read the test reviews of the original Barracuda on the Lost Treasure Magazine it talks about the unique tone ID function that the Barracuda had. It also functions as a quick test to make sure the audio circuit is working correctly. I did not externally mount this switch, it was all internal and used for setup/test only. <- Do you have a link to the review or only a hard copy?

Hope this helps some,
Adam

Thanks!!

Don

[Qiaozhi]

Do you have a link to the review or only a hard copy?

I think it might be here ->
http://www.losttreasure.com/content/...nics-barracuda

[porkluvr]

I keep seeing "Barracuda" everywhere this machine is talked about. Yet, Alexismex's photographs clearly show a "Baracuda" (one "r").

How does this happen?


edit: Maybe whoever painted the logo on Alexismex's unit had a (really) bad hangover that day?

[dfbowers]

I think it might be here ->
http://www.losttreasure.com/content/...nics-barracuda

I was attempting to find where the audio response to iron was described as quoted in Adams post. I did read this beforehand and it does not appear that the audio responds any differently to iron than any other PI:

"Recognizing these problems, Anchor Electronics developed a circuit that would let users reject iron objects based on the type of audio response they produced, with no loss of detection depth on targets of lower conductivity, such as gold rings and charms. In the field, iron objects produce a wide, washed-out signal when compared to the sharp, crisp signal from a non-ferrous object, such as a coin or ring."

[dfbowers]

I keep seeing "Barracuda" everywhere this machine is talked about. Yet, Alexismex's photographs clearly show a "Baracuda" (one "r").

How does this happen?


edit: Maybe whoever painted the logo on Alexismex's unit had a (really) bad hangover that day?

You are right! Even the "Lost Treasure" publication spelled it wrong!

[Alexismex]

This happen!!! with the TIP 127 not with a replacement FET ...

[6666]

Its because my spell checker does not like only one 'R'

it likes "Barracuda"

[porkluvr]

Its because my spell checker does not like only one 'R'

it likes "Barracuda"

Around here it's pronounced Bar'cuda. I suppose either one r or two won't make much difference.

[adam(Va)]

Hi Don,
I guess I should have explained my post better. On my Barracuda I have externally mounted a Time delay Pot. in series with the onboard Time Delay pot (fine and coarse). I also made both the threshold and Sensitivity pots external/remote. Having the Sensitivity pot external allows you to optimize the detector based on the ground you are hunting (this adjustment had a noticeable effect between air testing and real life hunting situations when I was adjusting/setting mine up). The sensitivity acts similar to a Ground balance on my detectors.

The "Tone ID" I was referring to was brought to my attention by a friend of mine. Based on where you have the Pulse Delay set, large targets/ Large emf fields (quarters, cans, large iron, big brass items) respond as you approach the target, go silent when directly over the target, then sound off again as you leave the target (similar sound as going over a "cold rock" with a vlf in All Metal). Smaller items (pulltabs, nickles, rings, small brass, nuts, foil) give a quick solid sound all the way through the coil swing.

Quote from the review "In the field, iron objects produce a wide, washed-out signal when compared to the sharp, crisp signal from a non-ferrous object, such as a coin or ring".

I have never used the Whites Surfmaster and not sure if it responds similar to this. the only other PI's I have used is an Infinium and GPX 5000. Hope this cleared things up a bit.

Adam

Adam, that's a good observation that you made. Can you clarify your findings?

Hi Silverdog,
Got both of my Barracudas PCB's up and running thanks for the great kits. Don't know if this is correct but I have been using SW1 to set up the coarse Time Delay potentiometer. Turning the external (fine adjust ) potentiometer till it is zero ohms, and closing SW1 a constant noise is produced. You then adjust the coarse (internal pot) till the sound just goes away. Are you you using an external delay pot as well?
The silverdog kit has 3 pots - Two mounted on the PCB - Delay and offset, plus an external pot for threshold. So no real "course" and "fine" adjustment for anything. They all have different functions.


You should then have max resolution on the external (fine tune) pot. You can also tweek the coarse time delay to setup when the "null" or void tone that occurs when you go over hi conductors like large iron or large coins (US quarter). If you read the test reviews of the original Barracuda on the Lost Treasure Magazine it talks about the unique tone ID function that the Barracuda had. It also functions as a quick test to make sure the audio circuit is working correctly. I did not externally mount this switch, it was all internal and used for setup/test only. <- Do you have a link to the review or only a hard copy?

Hope this helps some,
Adam

Thanks!!

Don

[maikl]

Adam, that's a good observation that you made. Can you clarify your findings?

Hi Silverdog,
Got both of my Barracudas PCB's up and running thanks for the great kits. Don't know if this is correct but I have been using SW1 to set up the coarse Time Delay potentiometer. Turning the external (fine adjust ) potentiometer till it is zero ohms, and closing SW1 a constant noise is produced. You then adjust the coarse (internal pot) till the sound just goes away. Are you you using an external delay pot as well?
The silverdog kit has 3 pots - Two mounted on the PCB - Delay and offset, plus an external pot for threshold. So no real "course" and "fine" adjustment for anything. They all have different functions.


You should then have max resolution on the external (fine tune) pot. You can also tweek the coarse time delay to setup when the "null" or void tone that occurs when you go over hi conductors like large iron or large coins (US quarter). If you read the test reviews of the original Barracuda on the Lost Treasure Magazine it talks about the unique tone ID function that the Barracuda had. It also functions as a quick test to make sure the audio circuit is working correctly. I did not externally mount this switch, it was all internal and used for setup/test only. <- Do you have a link to the review or only a hard copy?

Hope this helps some,
Adam

Thanks!!

Don

Hi dfbowers. The silverdog kit no potentiometer DELAY = 10K ( external - fine adjust), instead it is a "bridge".