IDX-PRO+VDI

[fabio-evo]

Hello guys, I wanted to build me the pcb for the 2-tone, that's the model I'm Following?, What And another, in what points I connect to the pcb IDX pro?
[attach] 29128 [/ attach]

[hoadlies]

POCKET -AMP -SPEAKER -FOR-MY -IDX- ETC..

HI TO ALL ,, I have been away [Not M/Detecting]-''BUGGA'' ..

BUT I have tested it & its Very good IMOP. on the Ground I find the DD-Coil best ..

Yesterday I built -up a Pocket amp -Speaker to use inplace of H/phones [at Times] ..

IT is based around the LM386 Chip ,Runs on 9v -15v [this one has a 9v batt inside & a Socket for exturnal PWR if needed..
I added a treble Tone lift pot & a Boost-switch ..Phones socket -LED to remember to turn-off-HA.Haaar..

Easy to build just the LM386 which I had here a few resistors & caps ,See the speaker I used 1 of 2 from a wrecked little TELE..8 ohms..

CHEERS fOR NOW ,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[golfnut]

looks good Barry.

Lm386 is a useful little fella, it forms the heart of the Garrett Ace 250 Tx circuit --- ie they will drive a Tx coil too.


I need to get into some design/mod/building soon now it is warm enough to stand in the garage for hours.. Now were in summer in UK. Been choking on on red sahara desert dust blown from africa, on top of tree pollen - - feels like Ive dropped my eyes into sawdust/salt mix, ho hum.

was out kayaking yesterday 50miles inland and was met by a seal sitting on the river bank. I sat in the kayak 3 feet from it and it just nodded off. Im sure if I was on foot it would have scarpered.

[hoadlies]

looks good Barry.

Lm386 is a useful little fella, it forms the heart of the Garrett Ace 250 Tx circuit --- ie they will drive a Tx coil too.


I need to get into some design/mod/building soon now it is warm enough to stand in the garage for hours.. Now were in summer in UK. Been choking on on red sahara desert dust blown from africa, on top of tree pollen - - feels like Ive dropped my eyes into sawdust/salt mix, ho hum.

was out kayaking yesterday 50miles inland and was met by a seal sitting on the river bank. I sat in the kayak 3 feet from it and it just nodded off. Im sure if I was on foot it would have scarpered.

HI,,,,,,,,STEVE,,You must be pretty fit to go out in the Kayak Goodonyou.. at 74 my old bones won't take to that ..The seal sighting was a bonus!!..

YES I was looking to try-out this project to repace the h/phones .. I must say it works very well I did not know of the LM386 [Although I actully had one in my chip collection ..
I looked up head-phone amps for a start & branched into this above build..
I see many aussies using similar units [Commercial one's costing plenty on there m/Labs ..

I have just sold some of my unused guitar hobby gear amps 1x guitar [i still have 3] my multi-tap h/built Echo unit [Shadows sound] & a few collected effects units ..
This has allowed me to Buy a Whites GMT so as I will have a better chance to Gold prospect in the coming weeks time [a Trip to victoria to have a play for a couple weeks ..
This whites GMT-3... [48Khz] is supposed to be good for small targets & after a few tests on lead small balls YES I think it will be good ,The IDX will not see those small targets ..
BUT the sounds from it are very low pitched [dark]-hence the pocket amp really helps that ..brightens the sound easilly as I have an adjustable treble pot [100k with a .0022,cap that blocks the bass but turn it back & have normal tones & no loss of level from treble to normal !!,the best thing is no mods to the actual m/D it will work on any,,,, great also on the IDX..

I would still like to build a PI unit but it must discriminate!!!! in OZ they are selling M/lab EX-Army F1a4 mine4 detectors that are pretty good but still too costly!!

Lets Know what you decide to build next!!

CHEERS MATE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[golfnut]

Good stuff mate,

I want to nudge the freq on a VLF to about 16kHz which will find small celtic statrs/1/4 staters / hammered silver coins better. For me there is no advantage going above 18k.
12k has done well for me. But I observe in tests 16k really sucks in small thin section silver coins hence the interest.

I have partially modified one of two ACE 250s that I was given. I ran one with a NEL Hunter coil at about 16kHz and the range improvement on small silver (air test ) over the NEL at 12k on IDX was impressive.

It needs phase tweaks to allow the iron and the 2 non ferrous tones to ring out appropriately and to light up the display bars accordingly.
Also the geb CH phasing needs a tweak to null out ferrite/ ground properly. I will add a GEB pot to the outside to allow the sens to be increased a little in use over my local soils.

I recently landed a permanent electronics job (supplying specialist hardware the the military) so hopefully get stuck into that. The last place I worked for made antennas, but went under in June. I also will be stewarding in my local museum thru the summer, as we have some roman stuff and detector finds. Steve

[hoadlies]

HI STEVE ,, Congrats on the new Job-mate sounds good,,,IT seems you have your area's sorted out with needed frequency's ,,Something I need to know more about ,but this is all new territory to me.But learning ,,..

STEVE your 12v mod works very well on the IDX actully i USE 14V , BUT WHAT DID GAIN A LOT IS THE ''PP''- MODE on my unit it increase'd at least 50%!!!I was testing in my back yard & was very surprised to see that increase ,in normal mode not much difference but a stronger beep-sound on targets [not depth]..
The IDX will be better on coins I think than the New GMT ,but yet to get out on the field etc..
ONE other reason to buy the GMT was About 1 hour away from Boob my home town [only 130 people live here its a rural farming district ] there has been found small gold, alluvial ,in the dry creek beds etc so it will be somewhere close to have a go ..
BOOBOROWIE is 200ks north of adelaide SA [look on google world]..
We know a property owner there & we go camping in Non-fire season stay a couple days have a nice fire & cook on the fire etc
A great spot in a dry creek bed & plenty fire wood etc.. I will email some pics to your email soon..

I was a Motor mechanic-welder All my life untill I suffered spinal probs at 65 ,i still do some small jobs for locals to get a few extra bob..
but basically a pensioner only now ..

ONE interesting point when my gear sold [HOBBY money Ha.Haar]& was looking for a detector [EBAY-Gumtree] I noticed the good detectors selling quickly ,The reason I think was there is a GOLD-RUSH-ON in upper West Australia & Thousands of propectors[M/ders] have flocked up there ..But thats a long-long way from here !!


Thanks Mate for your generous Help on my first M/D Build ..CHEERS ,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[golfnut]

ive watched some utube vids of aus prospectors - lots have pi type (with ground balance) and a small ellipse coil head. some have a big coil, some have a 1m square coil stitched into a mat - towed behind quad bike.


]In the usa there is a place they call the potato patch and they get some real nice nuggets there - small potatoe sized. S

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Nah36EJh4

[hoadlies]

ive watched some utube vids of aus prospectors - lots have pi type (with ground balance) and a small ellipse coil head. some have a big coil, some have a 1m square coil stitched into a mat - towed behind quad bike.


]In the usa there is a place they call the potato patch and they get some real nice nuggets there - small potatoe sized. S

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Nah36EJh4

HI STEVE & ALL,,,,,,,,,,,WOW -those are huge nuggets [Only in the ''US-of-A''..

YES all of the M/labs had great G/B[auto] ,not that I have seen one in the flesh ,only videos etc..
Whites & other's are catching-up but in OZ goldfields the Mine-Labs rate supreme ..But I hear they are not good on really small stuff ???

I guess China will bring-out a good PI sooner or later..with ground balance??????????..

PUT my EL-cheapo China unit together today just awaiting for Coil silicon to set sealing bottom cover.TheDD Coil has improved it,,, But I feel if I knew more about the circuit theres more to be had from it ..
I will; let you know how it compares with the IDX !!..

ALL THE BEST from OZ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[sinclairuser]

there are schematics out there in the wild barry , but they are in chinese, and most western search engines wont go there anyway, there is a site in shenzen in china i can get it up on work machines, but not at home, at home i get denial of service warnings, and work would flag my terminal if i downloaded anything.
most here think these machines are all the same circuit but thats not the case, they dont match any of the western machines schematics either.
but there is a big disparity in the quality of the chinese stuff anyway, the gold century machine i have, is excellent from an electrical engineering point of view but the rest of the detector including the coil is garbage.
the only way to get a schematic, would be to reverse engineer it ourselves, but the version i have is smt, i have acquired a similar machine to look at that is through hole, but its a lot older and is just a microntia clone, anyone with basic skills can see its not the same circuit, at some point about 2 years ago the boards changed, in this one i have that is surface mount, they obviously made an effort.
i wonder if the board is designed by them, the reason i say that is some of the stuff that they actually design from scratch themselves, that is really expensive does not leave china and is the best in its field.
people judge chinese electricals on the mass produced high volume crap, and that is not fair as some of the better factories dont just copy, they design and build stuff from scratch but the average punter never sees it as it either never leaves china, or if it does its very expensive.

[hoadlies]

there are schematics out there in the wild barry , but they are in chinese, and most western search engines wont go there anyway, there is a site in shenzen in china i can get it up on work machines, but not at home, at home i get denial of service warnings, and work would flag my terminal if i downloaded anything.
most here think these machines are all the same circuit but thats not the case, they dont match any of the western machines schematics either.
but there is a big disparity in the quality of the chinese stuff anyway, the gold century machine i have, is excellent from an electrical engineering point of view but the rest of the detector including the coil is garbage.
the only way to get a schematic, would be to reverse engineer it ourselves, but the version i have is smt, i have acquired a similar machine to look at that is through hole, but its a lot older and is just a microntia clone, anyone with basic skills can see its not the same circuit, at some point about 2 years ago the boards changed, in this one i have that is surface mount, they obviously made an effort.
i wonder if the board is designed by them, the reason i say that is some of the stuff that they actually design from scratch themselves, that is really expensive does not leave china and is the best in its field.
people judge chinese electricals on the mass produced high volume crap, and that is not fair as some of the better factories dont just copy, they design and build stuff from scratch but the average punter never sees it as it either never leaves china, or if it does its very expensive.

HI S/USER.. Yes Money ''IS'' the root of all EVIL,,,, That why I am not Evil as I have None-HA.haaar..

I Agree with you view above ,,..
My board is single sided though-hole NO SMD.. easy to work on..

IT had LM324 x2 chips ,I removed them & added sockets & fitted TLO74's /LF347.. But not sure it helped much -But maybe..
I should have posted a close-up of board ??? Maybe when it in bits again I will someone may recognize the board ..

All the transistors about 7-8 are all 331..

Will try it out tomorrow against the IDX ..

YES I already have made an extention wand a while ago as it was far too short ..[as you have said..

ALL good FUN ..

CHEERS for now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,BARRY..

[compadre]

Hello,
Today i connect the lcd to IDX but i only see this !
whats the problem ?

[Schatztaucher]

@ compadre

perhaps problems with the PIC !?

[Silver Dollar]

You have power and contrast but no comm from pic to lcd.
Check pins 4,5,6 and 11,12,13,14 especially make sure 5 is grounded.

[Schatztaucher]

@ fabio-evo




you can do this......

[fabio-evo]

@ fabio-evo

[ATTACH]29219[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]29220[/ATTACH] you can do this......

thank you very much for the information, I have just finished two days from now I will have to 'desolder the whole,