Modify PI

[lytle78]

Is the Surf Master PI a suitable platform to use to "play with" in terms of modifications like SAT, using a DD coil, etc. - maybey even variable pulse delay? I read all the Hammerhead forum stuff and frankly building a whole machine is probably more than I would succeed with. I thought maybe a Surfmaster bought cheap would make a good start, or perhaps one of the PI pinpointers. Is this a dumb idea?

Rick K.

[Carl-NC]

Yes, it would be a good circuit to play with. There is a schematic for it in the Schematics forum, and it is annotated with several mods.

- Carl

[Max]

Is the Surf Master PI a suitable platform to use to "play with" in terms of modifications like SAT, using a DD coil, etc. - maybey even variable pulse delay? I read all the Hammerhead forum stuff and frankly building a whole machine is probably more than I would succeed with. I thought maybe a Surfmaster bought cheap would make a good start, or perhaps one of the PI pinpointers. Is this a dumb idea?

Rick K.

Hi Rick,
I think you could play with SurfMasterPI... of course, easy schematic, easy components etc but I think you'll find very nice Hammerhead for experiments, much more than SM PI. It have a lot of possible variations and most important have really good documentation on everything.

For me, at now, Hammerhead is the best training PI out there.

Of course, you could also tune for real serch, use large coils etc and even make a pinpointer with smd version, that are all other good things.

If you never built a PI detector and haven't SurfMaster PCB layout ready, I suggest you try the Hammerhead first.
You'll get it work easy.

Best regards,
Max

[J_Player]

Hi all,

I own a Surfmaster PI Pro. This is a good detector to hunt at beaches where there is not too much trash. There is a lot of success in waist-deep ocean beaches in Florida for finding lost jewelry. But this is not a good detector for experimenting. It is set for optimum jewelry detection without sacrifice too much depth to salt water compensation. If you try to modify the PI Pro for experimenting, you might find it is easier to build a new circuit board instead.

You can buy a hammerhead PI circuit board and parts online including a surplus coil on ebay that will work. I like the hammerhead PI design except for one problem: There is no ground balance. If someone were to build a ground balancing coil for the HH PI and circuitry to make it work, I would start to build one tomorrow. But the existing design will not work well where I hunt because of pockets of black sand that change the ground balance.

There are probably other Pi detectors that are suitable for experimenting with, but I don't think the Surf PI Pro is one of the best.

Best wishes,
J_P