Bounty Hunter (PNI) IB series
IB-100, IB-200 & IB-300
This article may be of interest for a those users already (or still) owning one of these mid 1970 detectors and who want to restore it. Or just start an (other) IB project.
Thread making a brief presentation of the detector series, see the following link:
http://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18511
Q/A for restoring a unit, follow the above link.
Having tinkered around on these units for several years, I think it’s time to share some insights.
Basically it is a result of some efforts to restore and repair the units I got.
For someone who already got experience with electronics, it may be easy to reproduce the PCB as it is confirmed to work. However, the one who attacks this as a project may have problems to get a working coil. A sensibility of around 23 to 25 cm on a 10 Cent (Euro) coin with an original coil (air test) will probably not be matched. My efforts to reproduce a working coil resulted in only 3 to 4 cm sensibility for a 50 Cent coin. Coil data will be provided later in this thread.
The PCB works. I got one manufactured based on the Sprint-PCB file pictured below, it is working pretty well with an original coil. You may notice that the PCB done with Sprint is a bit wider (16 x 10cm) than the original PCB, original dimensions are 14,7 x 5,1 cm.
Part list will be published below.
Although the essential has been said, I have one open question to someone more advanced in electronics than I am (Don’t forget, I’m only a tinkerer.):
Can someone identify for me the different blocks (TX, RX, oscillator, comparator (?), pre amp, amp, audio and so on) on the PCB?
picture of top side of the PCB
picture of copper side of the PCB
black/white picture of the copper side (147 mm x 51 mm)
parts side of the PCB (printed file from Sprint-PCB)
parts side of the IB-300 PCB with wiring (printed file from Sprint-PCB)
IB-100, IB-200 & IB-300
This article may be of interest for a those users already (or still) owning one of these mid 1970 detectors and who want to restore it. Or just start an (other) IB project.
Thread making a brief presentation of the detector series, see the following link:
http://www.geotech1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18511
Q/A for restoring a unit, follow the above link.
Having tinkered around on these units for several years, I think it’s time to share some insights.
Basically it is a result of some efforts to restore and repair the units I got.
For someone who already got experience with electronics, it may be easy to reproduce the PCB as it is confirmed to work. However, the one who attacks this as a project may have problems to get a working coil. A sensibility of around 23 to 25 cm on a 10 Cent (Euro) coin with an original coil (air test) will probably not be matched. My efforts to reproduce a working coil resulted in only 3 to 4 cm sensibility for a 50 Cent coin. Coil data will be provided later in this thread.
The PCB works. I got one manufactured based on the Sprint-PCB file pictured below, it is working pretty well with an original coil. You may notice that the PCB done with Sprint is a bit wider (16 x 10cm) than the original PCB, original dimensions are 14,7 x 5,1 cm.
Part list will be published below.
Although the essential has been said, I have one open question to someone more advanced in electronics than I am (Don’t forget, I’m only a tinkerer.):
Can someone identify for me the different blocks (TX, RX, oscillator, comparator (?), pre amp, amp, audio and so on) on the PCB?
picture of top side of the PCB
picture of copper side of the PCB
black/white picture of the copper side (147 mm x 51 mm)
parts side of the PCB (printed file from Sprint-PCB)
parts side of the IB-300 PCB with wiring (printed file from Sprint-PCB)
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