Has anyone ever built the 'PI Italiano'?

[MartyJ1963]

Hi all. I'm just wondering if anyone has ever built the 'PI Italiano' metal detector? I came across the schematic on the web and thought I'd have a go at building it. It seems to use a lot of same parts that are in the 'Surf PI' build and the coil for it is around 250uh. It was supposed to have been originally featured in and Italian electronics magazine as a project and then somehow it ended up in a Polish electronics magazine. I have the PDF of the build if anyone would like to try it. I finished building it tonight and though it does work the depth and sensitivity isn't great at the moment. I'm yet to tune it and see how good it is but I'm still only a beginner when it comes to electronics so I'll have a go at this and maybe learn a little more along the way. In the PDF it says it can detect a 1kg object between 1-1.5 metres and a wedding ring of 3grms to 10cm. I had a right job of trying to translate the document from Polish. A lot of it came out as broken english but understandable.
Anyway, if anyone's built it could you let me know your progress on it, I'd appreciate any input on this detector so I can maybe get this one working a little better. Thanks. Marty

[6666]

To better answer your question is there any chance you could post the schematic and PDF so we can check it out thanks

Is it this one ?

[MartyJ1963]

Hi 6666,,,,Yes, I believe it's the same one. The PDF I have for it is in Polish. I retraced the PCB from the document into Sprint layout 6 and etched myself a pcb to build. It works,,,but the depth and sensitivity isn't very deep. I found a few things in the article a little hard to understand with me being a 'Newbie' to the electronic side of Metal detectors. I tested about a dozen coils with it and found the best one to be around 280uh,,,the coils I tried were homemade 3dss coils that are 11" x 7" elliptical with stranded wire. The depth on a british pound coin was between 5"-6". I'd love to know what to do to it to improve it's performance and I love the geiger counter sound it makes. I can post the Polish PDF if you like and the parts list that I used. It would be great if someone could help me figure out how to improve it now I have it working,,,,I tried to build the PI Polones but no matter what coil I try it doesn't work,,,the BD911 just gets red hot and a fresh 12v battery pack is depleted within 5 minutes. Thanks for the reply 6666. regards,,Marty

[MartyJ1963]

Hi again,,,,can't figure out how to post attachments? I just noticed you're from Melbourne,,,I'm originally from a place called Dharruk in Mt.Druitt in Sydney,,,My parents brought me to England in 1977 when I was 14 years old,,,I never wanted to leave Australia but at 14 I didn't have a choice,,,,anyway I'll figure out how to post attachments and sort this pdf. Regards. Marty

[MartyJ1963]

Hi 6666,,,,I sussed it out,,,If you want me to take some pics of my pcb and upload them let me know. It would be great to get this running to it's full potential. I have an oscilloscope but haven't got a clue how to use it,,lol. I'd be in my element if I could learn to use it cos' I've got about -6 more builds to debug. Hopefully it could be a nice little detetor. Thanks. Marty

[ZOUjiarui]

Hello, you made it, does it work? On the soil, I've seen this circuit many times.

[MartyJ1963]

Yes, It works. I only managed to achieve about 8 Inches of depth with a 300uh coil but I'm not certain what the actual coil inductance is. As you can see, this thread is 4 years old and that was the last time I experimented with it. It is not something I would use in the field as there a many projects (P.I) on Geotech with less components, better detection and smaller layouts that work a 1,000 times better and more pleasing and reliable. Regards, Marty.

[ZOUjiarui]

Thank you