Makro Racer

[6666]

Great finds.

[Funfinder]

Thanx for your interest.

Today finally I've made it:
After 5 exhausting days of running around for miles without finding any cannonballs,
I got the missing one!

Now I've found twice as much cannonballs as I had just 5 months ago!
An even for me awesome success and the year is not over yet!

Thanx to the Racer I found now within just 5 months the same amount
which took me before 5 years !!!



And those cannonballs were really widely spreaded and don't grow new each year:
Imagine squares of ca. 80x80 meters and somewhere there is buried 1 cannonball.
Sometimes a bit more, sometimes less, but always really alot ground to search!
Those from today even was ca. 200 meters away from the next closer one!

Probably meanwhile I'm now the one who found the most cannonballs of all
treasure-hunters from whole Europe - and if not - I'm still in action!


The Racer even with 40cm coil is super lightweight for hunting 10 hours a day
but someone should be able to sweep skillfully with both arms.
So one arm can relax and refresh while the other does the work.
Otherwise someone never will reach what's maximal possible.

And of course the vibration is very useful for listening to music etc.
while very long and perhaps otherwise boring becoming hunting-sessions.


One thing the Racer would need is a special vibration-signal if it
automatically switches off because of low battery.
On the display "LO" blinks then but usually someone only looks at
the LCD if already something was found.

So with vibration on and listening to music its useful looking
each 5 minutes at the display when there was no signal
for checking out if the batteries are still doing their job.
First starting after 25-35 searching-hours, depending how good are those.



Anyway - the Racer does a fantastic job and finding within just 5 months
the same amount of cannonballs as before within 5 years is proof enough
how absolutly useful and successful it is in the right hands, with enough
experience and of course also with alot passion for treasure-hunting!

[Funfinder]

Makro Racer 2

Racer2 is out now!

I checked this out by pure coincidence,
because its available only since a few days!

Again, of course, the Racer is with the 40cm coil compatible (but we still need a 70cm !!!!)
Very important! Small coils are often just ridiculous and absolutly in no relation to the
size of this world! Usually every MD must have a 3m coil which finds every little nail!

More info here:

Overview:
http://www.makrodetector.com/racer-2...-detector.html

Manual:
http://www.makrodetector.com/download/KKR2120216EN.pdf

Brochure:
http://www.makrodetector.com/download/BRR2090216EN.pdf

new Makro Racer 2 air-test video:
http://www.makrodetector.com/racer2-...e-videosu.html
21 inches (over 50cm) on an american Quarter coin !!!

this ist still the old Racer but it's a cool clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV6qd9qurfg

here the new one:
http://www.nuggets.at/Makro-Detector...Metalldetektor

Makro Racer 2 Deep Mode (with slower sweep speed):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ4U3Xrf28c

and attached picture



What are the improvements compared with the original Racer?

- high material and electronic signal stability! (superior quality!)
- further improvements are the find identification
- special beach- and deep-search modus
- standard 30cm coil (nice, because it is still ultra-sensitive for super small stuff)
- still vibration (perfect !!!)
- improved notch filter
- selfadjusting threshold (auto-silencing)
- save your settings
- improved coil overload problem (caused by the Racers ultra-high sensitivity)
- advanced discrimination
- improved detection on high mineralized ground
- extra long shaft (improved stem lenght for big search width)


So far I don't have this detector but when I have it I will give you the
exact details about it and how it compares with the first Racer!


Anyway - the Racer is fantastic - you might double your finds so far
within one or two years with it !!! This is really possible !!!

And it's no mistake if you support
the turkish MD-manufacturers a bit because they have not the
easiest time at the moment in this land full of fanatic terror attacks.
And they really do their best to produce and develope the
greatest MD technology they can. And the Racer is King, for
beginners but also for professionals!

Lightweight, easy to use and uuultra-high-sensitive !!!

Get it as long Turkey still stands! *just joking*
Price: around 700 Euro or Dollars and incl. 40cm coil: ca. 850 to 900 bucks


and last but not least:
Listen to loud music or radio or your favorite audio-books while digging
and running around! The Racer has vibration!
This is a whole new treasure-hunting experience.

Of course the Racer 2 should have already some mp3 player inbuilt
but I hope this will come in Version 3, together with 70cm coil.

[ODM]

All this gives me a strong vibe of looking like marketing...

Can you give us detailed photos of the makro racer PCB? It would be interesting to see how they solved the "problem of ultra high sensitivity".

[Funfinder]

Please don't put this whole topic into a wrong light!
This has nothing to do with marketing at all but instead only with the spirit of improvements and technical developement.
In other words: I wanted to proudly present the new Racer2, because it is the perfect example for this.
And real innovative technical improvements are pretty rare in this forum - those whole DIY projects here show
almost no technical development at all! But we need here some good inspiration or we can close this forum!
Technology always must contain the vector of perfectionism! Take a look at the smartphones:
Do you wanna have one which is 3 years old? Shurely not!


btw. OMD don't think that I am stupid and I would not recognize that all your answers since a longer time now
"against me" containing always the attitude of criticism. Are you from Germany or what? *just joking*
Do this some time longer and I'll ignore you completly because I don't need your problems you have with others
and your "I must make others down or play the smart-*ss teacher for feeling better"-attitude!

I did not attack you but you think you must accuse and attack me?! Did they have treated you bad as you was a child or what?
OK, perhaps you don't meant it this way and you are just a critical person who uses this way of mentality to defend yourself
from false persons ("attack is the best self defense") but don't treat ME this way or you could get into troubles!


And of course I can't show you the new PCB because I don't have the Racer2 so far and for shure you would not
be able to recognize by looking to the PCB anyway how they did managed it, because alot of this is done by the firmware.

Don't make cynical comments about the "ultra high sensitivity" because the original Racer was already super sensitive
and could detect a bike from 2m which no other motion detector was and is able to do!

Meanwhile with the slow sweep deep-search mode the signal-level-processing even was extended
which you can understand almost as some hybrid-function compared with a non-motion circuit where
each actual EM-field level directly goes to the output.

btw. usual motion detector circuits no longer work at all if the sweep speed is too slow
and the problem with fast sweeps often result in a loss in sensitivity because the electronic
is not sensitive or fast enough to catch all the signals from fast sweeps.

Of course you will still need the 40cm coil for the real depth and for a lucrative search-time ratio
because all those smaller coils are rather for smaller and not very deep buried objects and for those
who want it lightweight and comfortable. And for gold-nuggets still a very small coil is a must have.

[ODM]

Oh I have nothing against you really, I just hear nobody making posts about Racer and Jeohunter/Deephunter, than you? I believed you have these detectors in person since you make test comments about them. You also mention their prices and .. I don't know, when other people talk about detectors they usually don't write it like that. But if this is not marketing then I'm satisfied with that

Photographs are useful even if they are just superficial "snapshots" ... A lot can be found out from photograhps particularly if they expose the type of processor, tx-drive parts that are resonant or not, front end amplifiers and ADC system used. If other people on forum don't have these detectors on hand you could help by taking photographs for tech information.

And I'm sorry if the joke on high-sensitivity problem sounded bad, it just sounded like "it's too sensitive and finding me so much gold pockets are breaking!". The problem with high sensitivity is only when a loud signal response masks out other, quiet responses. It is therefore usually a problem of dealing with noise level, overloading, or dynamic range.

[Funfinder]

Fine, then it's OK. The point is that Makro really creates great new inventions for the MD
world which almost no other MDs have to offer like visual imaging, vibration, search LED and
other very useful stuff and this is important inspiration and information for a MD tech forum
which has to be interested in ongoing development and not just talking about homebrew
MDs or open source projects and how to built them.

Where is the challenge with technology for persons who refuse or deny new ideas?
They can start to rebuilt old tower-clock works if they are bound to the past.

Makro is leading in having new innovative ideas and they are of great use for all
treasure-hunters. Per instance the new deep-mode of the Racer2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ4U3Xrf28c

For persons who wanna find real deep stuff and sweep rather slowly anyway (not me )
this is a big improvement. And this clip is really trustworthy. But also for persons who
prefer to search for coins it is great. And I like that he admits in the clip that someone
really should read the manual or being informed well enough about all the special features
of a MD because otherwise it's not the fault of the MD, if it performs less good as described.
And thats also one reason why I describe here MD-stuff rather intensive than too simple & fast.

[Taktyk]

Find to difference...


Connect the lines of the points A to B and C, B and C to D, D to E

A - 4053
B - 2262
C - 2262
D - 4351
E - ADS8320

Carl what do you think?

[Skippy]

I find the use of a 16-bit ADC interesting. The Tektronics T2 / Fisher F75 have a 16-bit converter, but use pseudo-random noise injection and oversampling/averaging to extend this to 19 bits. As a result the Tek can resolve small signals, while still coping with extreme ground signals, and not being over-fussy about coil nulling. If only a 16-bit ADC is used, it seems likely that more system gain would be needed and this puts pressure on overload capability, and needs accurate coil nulling, that hopefully doesn't drift with coil ageing. As the Turkish machine has a history of coils causing overloads, and related 'easily-overloaded' operation, it makes me wonder if the lower bit converter is part of the problem.
Makro could be using oversampling etc, it's not possible to tell from the circuit board.

Obviously there are ways around this, like using compression to squeeze up large signals whilst keeping small-signal sensitivity, as used in lower-end machines.

[Taktyk]

Ok. But why Macro uses the hardware solutions © Whites?

[Funfinder]

Well, the Racer 2 has improved coil-overload-protection but this wasn't
a big problem for the Racer 1, as long as sensitivity was not set too high.

But the vibration-alert should be manually adjustable for more sensitive reaction.

Yesterday I was hunting with the Racer (model 1) while testing my 2in1 audio-signals-device:

Results: If you compare the volume with a Rock-Concert, I could listen by earphones around
3/4 of such a massive noise while still being able to hear the weak audio signals of the Racer.

But: If there is a find-signal, the vibration starts only if the total signal has reached already
some pretty clear level (ca. 25 out of 100%). The weaker signals don't trigger the vibration.


I have the choice now:
Listening to 3/4 loud music while having 100% depth (with the 2in1-audio-amp solution)
or listening to 100% loud music and detecting by vibration only while missing 25% depth.

BTW.: Raising the threshold does not improves the detection-signals volume or clearness.

[Skippy]

"But why does Makro use the hardware solutions © Whites?"
Every manufacturer likes 4053's, they're dirt cheap and are proven to have better characteristics than similar (4016/4066 etc) parts. There's heaps of 'better' analogue switches, with lower on-resistance, faster operation, less charge-injection etc etc, but if top-of-the-line machines don't need them, why use them? I can think of why you might use other switches, such as for low supply voltage operation (3 V, single Lithium cell power) and maybe some of the single-gate SOT23-5 type parts may be handy to keep size down?
The ADC may be chosen because of the combination of power consumption, low cost, with 16 bit conversion. There's probably not a huge shortlist of suitable parts, so it's not unsurprising that Makro agrees with Whites choice.

I'm sure it's a common industry practice to see what other manufacturers are doing, and taking inspiration from non-copyrighted design ideas is fair game.

[Funfinder]

I have found now a method to search with vibration at maximum sensitivity:

Set the Racer to Mode 4 (Beach) and to highest sensitivity or better said:
on the border so the vibration nearly doesn't goes off by "itself" or by ground-balance interference

The vibration seems somehow coupled with ground-balance thats why the beach mode is
the best for using it. Of course the audio output will give some chatter depending on
the electro-smog and ground-mineralization strenght but it can set to quiet if what counts
is the vibration anyway.

Sensitivity setting 89 should work pretty well for the standard coil and 79 for the 40cm,
because it is more sensitive concerning ground-mineralization.

by the way:

Because the Racer's vibration mechanism is somehow connected with the ground balance,
it even reacts on finds if the signals are weaker than the usual EM-field-background chatter.
But it also reacts sometimes if the ground-mineralization-level changes or when sweeping fast.

The vibration even can set to over-high or over-low while manual pinpointing mode.
Per instance to find out the center of a very large find.
And holding all the time the pinpoint-trigger can make the Racer so ultra-sensitive
that just a few centimeters nearer or closer to the ground decide if the signal starts or not.
But this is for experts, extremely weak and small finds or for highly electro-smog infested areas.

[Funfinder]

Audio jack dongle


So far I've used a 3,5 to 6,3 mm adapter when working with
vibration for turning off the audio-signals completely because the
Racer is not totally silent, if the on-off poti is turned to lowest volume.
And with some "luck", that knob turns to louder by itself while searching !

Now this crappy adapter plastic thing did break and it's tip was unremovable.

Here's the solution:
Opening the housing and cutting off the edge of the audio-jack!

And from now on I'm using some wooden dongle with water isolation.
It's more lightweight and will not break.

btw. I found out that the vibration even works directly under a 380kV pylon with 30cm coil
but only if set to beach mode and with ID-filter 20. Highest gain (= sensitivity) 99: no prob.

Because the vibration is coupled with ground-balance somehow and
low metal-targets (rusty or small iron) are close to the GEB-values.
So sometimes for vibration its required to search with iron discrimination.

It would have been better if they would have built in some manual
ground-balancing possibility instead of this curious auto-GEB-stuff.