Garrett Euro Ace problem!

[ionut_mtb]

Deus 1 doesn’t have volume too )

[ivconic]

In the case of Deus, and especially in the case of Euro Ace; the acoustics of the box play a significant role in how the sound is heard.
Deus still has a "thinner" sound, with many components. You can adjust the volume how to hear the iron, for example.
While Ace has a thunderous "bell" at good targets and a slightly thinner response for others.
The box itself at the Ace is such that it has "deeper" and stronger acoustics.
With 10 ohms serially, I reduced the current by 30-40mA at such audio shocks, and the subjective feeling of volume remained the same.
This further challenges me to experiment ...

[ivconic]

Purely out of curiosity; does anyone know more about this chip?



GARRETT
8155300 E
0M48Z
CTYHBK15320

[Carl-NC]

It's custom-labeled micro. You would have to decap it to see exactly what it is, although the pin hook-up may get you close.

[ivconic]

It's custom-labeled micro. You would have to decap it to see exactly what it is, although the pin hook-up may get you close.

I suppose so.
Ideally it would be if it is known Atmega or PIC; masked by custom label.
But than... Garrett is wealthy enough to produce own custom chips (to order from third party, more likely).
I am just curious.
The chip from photo is alright, not burned and not faulty. I only need to clean it from flux and tin.
Along with Euro Ace which is serviced I had also broken Ace 250.
So I decided to remove all from pcb, scan pcb and make files and documentation on it.
There is one and the same schematic of Ace 250, circulating over the net and forums.
But it is having lot of mistakes, so as I noticed.
So I wanted to try to make more correct schematic of it. At least of some stages on it, that I find interesting.
Ace pcb is not only 2-layers, seems it is multi layers, can't tell is it 3 or 4-layers board yet.
So now I am in process of analyzing details and trying to put all together in Sprint Layout.
Removing parts from the board was not easy.
Removing parts from the Euro Ace board was much easier.
While removing parts from the Ace 250 board is twice as difficult ??
I especially had big problems with removing parts near the processor as well as removing the processor itself.
At 400 degrees and at 1/3 of the air flow; it is still very difficult and time consuming to remove.
I assume that this is because the middle layer in the pcb is a large mass or ground plane, which covers that area,
probably for better S / N ratio.
And possible due to better heat distribution or cooling of components in that part.
And the collateral of that condition is also the great difficulty of removing the components and analyzing that circuit.
It didn't help them much, the Chinese copied it, produced it in a million copies and those machines are widely sold all over the world.
It is a relatively old machine. The question arises why someone would want to invest so much work ...
My main reasons are because I don't have an accurate schematic, I experienced that painfully when I tried to fix Euro Ace with the help of
the existing schematic.
Another strong reason is that I noticed some very interesting solutions, which I liked and which I will certainly be able to use in
some of my future works.
And the last, least important reason; why not? I have a lot of time and enthusiasm anyway, it is the part of my hobby that I love the most.
Yet with a multi layer board, a processor I don't know which one it is, a lack of code for that processor; this work is at the limit of my amateur abilities.
So because of that I am not carried away by some great ambitions, I will be satisfied only to accurately reverse a couple of solutions from it that interest me.

[Funfinder]

This is the curse of being interested into crap-stuff from the beginning - just troubles your mind.

Thats why I also should not bei interested into this thread here, but I have made already 2 Garrett ACE (Euro & 250) audio mods:

https://www.geotech1.com/forums/show...rett+audio+mod
https://www.geotech1.com/forums/show...rett+audio+mod

and sometimes the easiest solutions are the best. Or quick and dirty.

And are you interested into IC-hacking? Creating buffer overflows and kernel panics?
Writing different codes to chips, RAM or EEproms? Patching the firmware?
Well - patching aka improving the firmware was already in the year 2003 a topic with Audio-CD & DVD-burners.

First, one at least must know Assembler for some of these simple chips so they do what they should do.
Then compile the instructions, upload it, save it and have your own new operating-system or special-functions.

Too bad many new devices have anti-reprogram-mechanisms so the chip must get removed and replaced.

But our modern wizards & sorcerers of electronics, hacking and cracking will always find a way to make the magic happen.

Good luck with this beginners-detector where noone besides children or total newbies should waste their time at all with it.
But of course its better than nothing, very lightweight and not much money lost for "dangerous" treasure-hunting trips.

And seen from the depth its the same good as the Fisher 1266x from 1993, which costed 3 times more at that times.

Personally I find such more clever tinkering topics always interesting and I'm already eager to crack the Playstation 5 hahaha

And maybe I will "patch" my Euro Ace for the 45cm-Detech coil - while I use my Ace 250 further as powerful 10cm-Coil-Pinpointer.
Or Solar-Cell-with-Inbuilt-Rechargeable-Battery-Pinpointer...

Don't forget what I gave you all here over the years for inspirations - especially take a look at the pics:

https://www.geotech1.com/forums/show...250+pinpointer

[Funfinder]

Yesterday I had a little tinkering session where I saw that some solar-mini-powerbank has an inbuilt step-up converter. It's from 4v to 5,5v and this way you can drive with a single (but thicker) LiPo 4,2v cell the Euro-ACE. The USB output is 5.5v and the charging from the solar also needs 4,2v. But the Euro-ACE also runs already totally normal on just 4,8v (4x 1,2v NiMH cells). And it has a slightly larger coil compared with that from the ACE 250. Well, it was a technical-failure from the start that Garrett not built some volume-adjust in. Most simple solution are headphones with volume-tuner but not all have this feature or like to use them.

[Kemper]

.......Good luck with this beginners-detector where noone besides children or total newbies should waste their time at all with it.
But of course its better than nothing, very lightweight and not much money lost for "dangerous" treasure-hunting trips. ........

Hey now. I have an ACE 250 and an Equinox. I mostly hunt property that has not been previously hunted. My first choice to hunt that property is using my ACE 250. It seems that most people that are into the technical aspects of machines are more into playing with machines and less into treasure hunting. I wonder how many of you machinists would be newbies at treasure hunting.