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Hey everyone,
First off, I am new here and new to this, I have spent a month reading and going over more in this forum then I have anything else in years. I am what you would consider a kindergardener when it comes to electronics BUT, I do have some basics in it as I have built and use my own basic circuits with Opto's and Picaxe microcontrollers to build my own trail cameras.
About me:
No college, just been a tradesman/craftsman my whole life. Total outdoor nut, love to hunt, fish, camp and metal detect along with dredging and mining on a very small one man scale. At age 40 or so decided I needed to learn some things other than steel and fabrication and started with the trail cams, now at almost 50 I find a new interest .
Well, I ended up here and so far I am completely fascinated with the level of inteligence of some of you guys. I had never thought of building my own metal detector until I found this site and now, it is on and crackin. When I get on a mission, I will not stop until I accomplish what I'm trying to do, the only thing that holds me back at times is the smart end of the stick, I'm terrible with math but love working with my hands, I forget and get frustrated but enjoy the drive it takes to finish what I start even if it takes me years..
So with that being said, here are some bottom barrel questions that I'm sure some of you will snicker at or have answered many times, but will understand because at one time or another, you may have had the same questions you needed answered:
1) With a metal detector, how many basic parts are their to the circuit excluding the coil ?, I'll use the surf pi pro as example, I know there is an audio circuit, voltage circuit and believe there is 2 other main parts but dont know what they are referred to as here. I made a small image map based on my own thinking since my trail cams have only 2 main parts and when put together make the complete circuit.
2) Can a decent MD be made using a picaxe micro controller? I have and use picaxe 08m and 18x for my little cam projects, it was the easiest and quickest programming I could learn straight from their manuals and starter kits (along with plenty of help from friends), I tried pic basic but just wasnt catching on as fast as I would have liked.
3) Does the book that the moderators/owners have/sell cover most of what I am asking? Yes, i will get it when I have the spare cash on hand, for right now I just want to keep moving forward with my learning curve at a nice slow pace.
4) Out of all of the available kits/MD's in here, leaving basic to the wind, which is the BEST period? I know thats a double ended question because you'll want to know what its main purpose will be for and what, how and where it will be used. Answer: for gold nuggets, coins, Nor cals hot ground and hot rocks, some beach detecting, must be sensitive to small stuff but be able to delve to the deep for strong boxes of old from stage coaches long gone. Will be used in the flats, sands and mountains of nevada at times also so it may be hot and sunny in most of my areas most of the time.
I have a surf pi pro (J. Ownes board), it works but has some issues that I believe are fairly basic but I need to understand more of whats going on under the hood so to speak so I can learn to figure it out on my own so I can build some more of these. I got it based on understanding it would be a good basic detector for what I do, but with the many that are here and all of the different uses, one of these must be a good do all unit with excellent ability for most detecting uses.
Well, I hope I didnt bore you and hope also that you understand my questions, everyone started somewhere as I am starting here in 2014, I know some of you have been doing this for most of your lives and it is probably more like second nature to you, so please bare with me, I will progress and learn more by doing and seeing then I will by sitting in the back of class.
Thanks all and have a great day ...
First off, I am new here and new to this, I have spent a month reading and going over more in this forum then I have anything else in years. I am what you would consider a kindergardener when it comes to electronics BUT, I do have some basics in it as I have built and use my own basic circuits with Opto's and Picaxe microcontrollers to build my own trail cameras.
About me:
No college, just been a tradesman/craftsman my whole life. Total outdoor nut, love to hunt, fish, camp and metal detect along with dredging and mining on a very small one man scale. At age 40 or so decided I needed to learn some things other than steel and fabrication and started with the trail cams, now at almost 50 I find a new interest .
Well, I ended up here and so far I am completely fascinated with the level of inteligence of some of you guys. I had never thought of building my own metal detector until I found this site and now, it is on and crackin. When I get on a mission, I will not stop until I accomplish what I'm trying to do, the only thing that holds me back at times is the smart end of the stick, I'm terrible with math but love working with my hands, I forget and get frustrated but enjoy the drive it takes to finish what I start even if it takes me years..
So with that being said, here are some bottom barrel questions that I'm sure some of you will snicker at or have answered many times, but will understand because at one time or another, you may have had the same questions you needed answered:
1) With a metal detector, how many basic parts are their to the circuit excluding the coil ?, I'll use the surf pi pro as example, I know there is an audio circuit, voltage circuit and believe there is 2 other main parts but dont know what they are referred to as here. I made a small image map based on my own thinking since my trail cams have only 2 main parts and when put together make the complete circuit.
2) Can a decent MD be made using a picaxe micro controller? I have and use picaxe 08m and 18x for my little cam projects, it was the easiest and quickest programming I could learn straight from their manuals and starter kits (along with plenty of help from friends), I tried pic basic but just wasnt catching on as fast as I would have liked.
3) Does the book that the moderators/owners have/sell cover most of what I am asking? Yes, i will get it when I have the spare cash on hand, for right now I just want to keep moving forward with my learning curve at a nice slow pace.
4) Out of all of the available kits/MD's in here, leaving basic to the wind, which is the BEST period? I know thats a double ended question because you'll want to know what its main purpose will be for and what, how and where it will be used. Answer: for gold nuggets, coins, Nor cals hot ground and hot rocks, some beach detecting, must be sensitive to small stuff but be able to delve to the deep for strong boxes of old from stage coaches long gone. Will be used in the flats, sands and mountains of nevada at times also so it may be hot and sunny in most of my areas most of the time.
I have a surf pi pro (J. Ownes board), it works but has some issues that I believe are fairly basic but I need to understand more of whats going on under the hood so to speak so I can learn to figure it out on my own so I can build some more of these. I got it based on understanding it would be a good basic detector for what I do, but with the many that are here and all of the different uses, one of these must be a good do all unit with excellent ability for most detecting uses.
Well, I hope I didnt bore you and hope also that you understand my questions, everyone started somewhere as I am starting here in 2014, I know some of you have been doing this for most of your lives and it is probably more like second nature to you, so please bare with me, I will progress and learn more by doing and seeing then I will by sitting in the back of class.
Thanks all and have a great day ...
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