Voodoo Main Discussion

[billr]

As always. Thank You George.
I do have the book, the board and coded PIC awaiting assembly, although have not had a chance to read as yet with more pressing things going on.
Shall endeavor to bite my tongue and continue knitting whilst watching completely bewildered from the cheap seats until a resolution has been found for any concerns / improvements there may be.

[SilverSurfer17]

I got R30 down to 0.152 mv the pod is all the way down I’m at a stand still until I can get my hands on the book to figure out what is the disk channel and know what the rest of the test points are for and see if the wave forms are what they are suppose to be then start on a coil

[ivconic]

This thread is becoming overwhelming to the casual viewer like myself with a vested interest in the project. I hope the admin realize this. If not, then they should. In all honesty I have lost track of what is happening here. After much chat over how to program a PIC. A discussion that should have been allocated to it's own separate thread and now 'something' about making a new pcb or is this an addition to overcome the flaws in the original design? I truly have no idea what is going on.

Would someone kindly highlight to those not fixated on the thread on a regular basis what is actually transpiring?
41 pages to-date seems a little long to cover a build or is that proposed as a separate thread later when all the bugs are resolved?

Excuse my abruptness. But unless you are directly involved with this thread in real time, This will be a mammoth read to someone dropping by 1 year from now interested in building the detector.

Regards
Bill

You shall try to read and follow the "TESORO GOLDEN SABRE" topic...

[billr]

You shall try to read and follow the "TESORO GOLDEN SABRE" topic...

Ha! I did. Took me two weeks and asked more questions than it answered. Fortunately I got lucky with my build and had a good guy to watch my six.

[billr]

I got R30 down to 0.152 mv the pod is all the way down I’m at a stand still until I can get my hands on the book to figure out what is the disk channel and know what the rest of the test points are for and see if the wave forms are what they are suppose to be then start on a coil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVk1rSoymSk
This should answer some of your questions.

[SilverSurfer17]

Ive seen it numerous times all of them plus some of his other ones but they aren't detailed enough for a newb such as myself im at the part where i want to know what all 20 test points are for and the best way to go about making a small elliptical coil for searching woods and streams a big DD for large fields plus tons of other upgrades but i need to learn more on the programming side im hoping i can add a way to change screen color and brightness through the menu vs having a bunch of switches

[MartinB]

Ive seen it numerous times all of them plus some of his other ones but they aren't detailed enough for a newb such as myself im at the part where i want to know what all 20 test points are for and the best way to go about making a small elliptical coil for searching woods and streams a big DD for large fields plus tons of other upgrades but i need to learn more on the programming side im hoping i can add a way to change screen color and brightness through the menu vs having a bunch of switches

Hi SilverSurfer
Wait for the book. It will tell you all about the test points and gives illustrations of expected wave forms. Once you have got your head around these, then watch the videos and everything should fall into place. If it doesn't - repeat the exercise. As for coils, there is an excellent source of information under the coils section of this site. Look on the intro page.

[SilverSurfer17]

Yes i kinda figured that out when i looked at the parts list and saw 20 test points before i even ordered anything and i knew id be buying a oscilloscope and learning how to use it also ill be building a few of these to try out some ideas i got so its worth its weight plus i can learn the programs to mess with the hex code while i wait for the book plus i can clean up some of the board still

[SilverSurfer17]

Mikro 634 pages 27 just of index ��

[dfbowers]

Hi Bill,

I fully understand your comments, and I did initially consider splitting off some of the conversations to separate threads. However, this leads to a lot of maintenance work that I really don't have time for.

The reality is that the book has full details of the project. In fact, more than you may even want to know. Any errors or important points noted by readers have been added to post #1, so there is no danger of missing anything. Of course, if you don't have a copy of the book, then it will no doubt be difficult to follow the discussions. But in that case, why would anyone be interested in this thread in the first place?

There have recently been discussions concerning a variant built by Don Bowers, and that's why you may see some talk about a new PCB. This is not an attempt to overcome any flaws in the original design, but just a slightly different approach. So the important point is that (for someone dropping by 1 year from now) the book and post #1 are really all they will need. If Don finds that his variant is successful in the field, then he may want to start a new thread for that particular design, but at the moment it still has relevance to the Voodoo Project.

I didnt intended to divert attention from the VooDoo project as I am working on the same project as well. While waiting for parts I just built a coil and made a few experiments based on the book material. I was kind of caught off guard when a few members pick up the idea though. Since then, I moved my experiment off of a breadboard onto a messy prototype board and boxed it up. As it turns out, it works fairly well for adding disc to a common PI circuit. It can be adjusted as to either reject iron or ferrous depending on where the sample is taken. If the sample it taken to indicate the presence of non ferrous, iron will sometimes bleed through though with slight choppy meter movements while nonferrous is usually very smooth needle deflections. I would expect that though because iron often gives a double beep on the audio. Still easy to ID iron though. I have not posted any more corrections yet as I am still tinkering a bit. If I had to change anything I may go for a faster coil, maybe try to match the frequency response of the two channels a little closer and work on a more proper way to present the disc indication. The meter works just fine but is kind of crude. Also.. the modified surf PI circuit is just what I had laying around but I think there are many better PI circuits out there..
It handles the ground just fine which was my main concern.

[6666]

Thanks for your update Don, your experiment has been very worth while and a practical application and adaptation of this new technology.

[billr]

I moved my experiment off of a breadboard onto a messy prototype board and boxed it up.

I wish my best builds looked as good as your messy ones.

[dfbowers]

I wish my best builds looked as good as your messy ones.

Haha.. I didn't post a pic of the inside..

[SilverSurfer17]

Props to you programmers im 100 pages in and my brain is fried hence the reason why ive stayed away from it like the plague i do like that they added better search auto correct and auto complete but still all that Aa) and means the same is got my head spinning

[ionut_mtb]

While waiting for parts I just built a coil and made a few experiments based on the book material. As it turns out, it works fairly well for adding disc to a common PI circuit.

Great news! What resistance did you chose for graphite shield and how did you positioned the drain wire in this type of coil?