Home Built Metal Detector finally finished

Hi All,

I have been building a PI metal detector for some months now and I finally finished it today

Heres the details and the photos:

http://golddetecting.4umer.net/t6394p30-grant-s-diy-pi-detector#72367

Cant wait to for the rain to stop so I can go test it out on the goldfields.

Regards,

Grant

looks like a lot of hard work hope it pays off let us know how ya go.
cheers BC

Double post!

Hi Grant ,,,,

Congrats on the completion ... If it punches down deeper than the current PI`s count me in .
Good luck on the field testing , love to know how it went ...

looks interesting. hopefully it works and gives u a benchmark to work from to improve the design.

let us know how it goes in the field.

jase

awesome mate, let us know how you go with it !


themrburns

Hate to cross post but some people dont want to look at that other forum:

Ok just went into Brisbane Gold at Underwood and picked up a Coiltek DD 10"x5" elliptical coil.

Hooked her up to my home built detector and tweaked the dials a bit and away she went first go!!!

I was worried I would have to rewire the plug for the DD or create some kind of adaptor plug for it.

No other adjustments were needed just adjusted the delay and the tuning and away she went the new DD coil is very sensitive picking up metal at about 40cm.

So so far my home built detector has worked with:

- Elliptical UFO 24"x12" mono;
- Round solid mono 14"; and
- Elliptical 10"x5" DD.

So it looks like I can hook up any commercial coil to this thing and it should work just fine.

I have only tried Coilteks so far but I am assuming their mono's and DD's would be the same as most other commercial coils.

Am I right in that assumption or am I barking up the wrong tree or just barking?

Got myself a shiny new Walco prospecting pick while I was there and a black 14" pan to boot.

All set for my first trip to the Kilkivan Goldfields now.

can't wait to hear how it goes in teh field.

out of curiosity, how does the detector go in an air test with a nugget? i know this isn't an accurate way of determining how well a detector is, but i am curious to know. Have you been able to test this side by side with a gpx5000. Where in the Minelab range would u say your detector fits into?

Have you had a chance to test it on mineralised ground?

keep us updated. :)

Joined the Brisbane Metal Detecting club and went along to their practice day.

They had 26 targets of varying types laid out in envelopes on wooden benches off the ground so that there was no ground interference and you couldnt tell what the target was other than by the sound the detector made.

My detector picked up all the targets but two of them gave unusual sound signals, I was running a 14" round solid mono coil on it at the time. A coil of copper wire gave a chirping sound rather than the solid beep I normally get. The other was a really old pure silver coin. It gave a strange warbling signal.

They also had some kitty litter trays filled with sand and gold nuggets placed in the bottom of them, one was a 1.34 grammer and I picked that up ok, not a strong signal but it was picking it up, another was around 5 grams and the other nearly 12 grams and it picked these up just fine with good strong signals.

I was getting interferrence from the other detectors there on the day and I was getting some false signals so a very experienced prospector recommended I get a DD coil which he said would be more stable and have less false signals particularly on highly mineralised ground. So off I went today and purchased one. Yet to really test it out just did some quick air testing and it seems to be very good and much lighter than the other coils I have.

I am yet to put it up against a minelab detector. It is the equivalent circuitry to a Whites Surfmaster Pro so whereever they would fit into the minelab range is where it will probably sit.

I am confident it will do well. Anyone want to put their minelab head to head with a home built job?

If it works with those coils it should work with any minelab Pi coil gcause .

G'day

The Beast evolves, could be a good tecta for the salt lake gold.
I dont think the Surfmaster is quiet up to a sd2000 even but they are a good beach water hunter.
i wonder how it would go using a concentric coil ??


Thanks for keepin us up to speed.

Pete

Most people seem to be talking about DD or mono's on the forums which is why I was testing with these.

Is there a popular concentric coil people use for gold prospecting?

Generally we always use a Mono Or DD, but i remember the surfmaster comes out with
a concentric coil, so i just wondered how the performance might be on gold ground using one.
Maybe there is some info on here

http://forum.kimbucktwo.com/index.php/board,29.0.html?PHPSESSID=48864ea54b5a1bfe446bb2473a17e69e

Pete

Good onya for having a go at it mate!

Good onya too for testing it in a public gathering (unlike some others we know of)

Robert

That's. Awesome. Mate keep us updated with how it's going


Themrburns