MD3030 aka GC1032

[moodz]

Picked up some detectors for $40 AUD new .... ( including a shovel / pinpointer / headphones / bag etc )

The model was MD3030 "Quick Shooter" but the board inside says GC1032.

Are these a knock off ? The PCB looks OK ... can read all the part nums and it has plug for wiring etc.

moodz.

[6666]

Looks like a good buy, do they work ? did you get them local or on the net ?

[dbanner]

MD-3030 and MD-4060 look identical. Both appear to be the same detector. And based on videos, both appear to have same functionality and performance.

[dbanner]

MD3030 and MD4060 appear to be the same, both in functionality and performance. Based on videos, looks to be alright machine for the very low price. No dedicated pinpoint button.

I was impressed by this one. I have confidence in this guy's testing and review.
These detectors seem to be quite good. Pinpoint works nice.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-A2EbagPTEY

[dbanner]

Picked up some detectors for $40 AUD new .... ( including a shovel / pinpointer / headphones / bag etc )

The model was MD3030 "Quick Shooter" but the board inside says GC1032.

Are these a knock off ? The PCB looks OK ... can read all the part nums and it has plug for wiring etc.

moodz.

[ATTACH]55205[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]55206[/ATTACH]

$40 AUD? That's ridiculous cheap!

About the cost of a steak dinner?

[moodz]

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/15395025...UAAOSwPOpgF1wh


... I actually paid $40 and 47 cents each for 4 units. They are new.

[moodz]

close up of the main PCB .... U6 looks like it was hand engraved LOL.

[dbanner]

There is a listing for the microcontroller.

The hand engraved chip might be a quad comparator 339 type. Those have pin 12- ground and pin 3- vcc.

[moodz]

...here is the pinpointer that was included with the detector. Looks like a Garrett from the outside ??

[kt315]

not thinking it has relation to garrett. pics.

[Mdtoday]

I couldn't resist Moodz, ended up buying 4 kits from same seller.
Not that I don't have enough to do already.....

The detector looks like a Bounty Hunter.
Ripped into the box to check out the LCD, see if it would be useful. It's an SPI interface.
Did a little bit of serial decoding using the DSO, seems like a simple 15 or 16 byte packet based control.

I changed the sensitivity up and down and soon found the hex byte within the packet it is associated with, so when I get some more time I'll work through the rest of it. Might be useful for home brew use.

On the 5 pin connector going to display I found the following.

Red wire = Clk
Black wire = Data
White wire = CS/Sync/SS
Yellow wire= common
Blue wire= +5v

The main board was a bit rougher looking than yours, processor and a couple other parts were covered in flux like they had been reworked, not that I am complaining lol.

For $42 AU not a bad little kit...grandkids love them anyways..

The pin pointers work fine.

more later.

Cheers

[Mdtoday]

Did some more poking around the MD3030 SPI serial LCD module.
Attached is still a work in progress but for those who are interested......

QUICKSHOOTER_SERIAL_DISPLAY.pdf

Will follow up with more as I get time.

Could easily be driven from a PIC or similar.....

cheers

[Mdtoday]

For those interested, I have played some more with the MD3030 LCD module with a view to see if it was useful in a home brew detector project. In particular the LCD and housing, possibly other parts like the shaft, arm cuff etc.
At $43 Australian, the kit is really quite well put together and so to gut it for use in your own PI or CW design would save some drama when it comes to the hardware side....more on that later.


Anyways, regards the LCD module, I decided to write a quick and dirty Arduino sketch to find which bits and segments were related.

Well I got my answers, as expected, it is simple to drive via SPI.
I'll write some more code soon to drive the 4 digit segments...just have to work through how the bits were packed.


I will also re-post the hardware pin outs for SPI as per pin numbers not wire colours, I pulled another unit apart and it had different coloured wires, I should have known better than to go by that..

One last important note...the Table I posted earlier, is incorrect, I set up the DSO to display LSB bits first, which was wrong, should have been MSB, so please disregard that data set.

Will re-post with updated version, however, the Arduino sketch below, is tested and correct.

Here is the sketch.

[Qiaozhi]

Nice detective work.

[Mdtoday]

Thanks George.

Here is the pin-out of the SPI connector on the display board.



I will follow up with more info soon.