Maker Pro
Maker Pro

metal detector pinpointer

sleepyjohn

Feb 5, 2014
1
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
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Hi everyone!
First thing to tell you all is that, in the immortal words of Sergeant Schultz, I know NOTHING!
Second, I'm taking up metal detecting in my dotage and I want to convert a cheap a handyman's cable/nail/pipe detector into a detectorist's pinpointer.

I've bought a cheap and cheerful Powerfix Profi detector (£9.99 @ Lidl) and have opened it up. Inside is what I expected - circuitry and a 50 mm ferrite rod with two copper windings, one about 10 mm and the other about 20 mm long. This is located crosswise at the end of the case. The maximum distance that this set up will detect metal at is around 30 mm and is omnidirectional.

My question is: How can I improve the distance to, say, 35 - 40 mm and make it directional? Is this a function of the windings and the orientation of the ferrite rod and can I rewind or extend the windings to extend the range? Also, given that the gadget has a digital display graphic showing an increasing number of lines as the metal object is approached, will changing the windings (if that's what is required) affect this function?

In short, can I make this ||||||||||||||| into this |||||||||||||||=== ?

Am I mad?

Thanks
Sleepy John
 
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