Homemade pinpointer

mts

Bronze Member
May 18, 2009
1,285
202
Ohio
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Nokta Simplex+, Nokta Pulsedive, Tesoro Vaquero, Tesoro Silver µMax, BH Tracker IV, Garrett ProPointer
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All Treasure Hunting
twinsrule said:
I read on someone's profile here that they had a homemade pinpointer. How can you make one, and how much do the materials cost? I would really like a pinpointer, but they cost too much for me. :P Anyways, any help?

It would cost you way more to build one than to buy one. The Centech (Harbor Freight) pinpointer retails for about $16 and actually works fairly well for the money. You'd spend way more than that in parts and time trying to build one. Even the Garrett (which is awesome) at around $130 would be a better bet than building your own. Unless you already have an oscilloscope, DMM, soldering iron, solder, breadboard, jumper wires, power supply, copper clad or wire wrap boards, and all the fixin's you'd be much better off buying pre-made. People don't realize how much it costs to get all of the basic supplies you need to build even the simplest of devices. I probably have five thousand dollars worth of electronic supplies/components and I still wouldn't build my own pinpointer. However, I do build my own PI detectors.

And even if you do build your own it will likely be less capable than one you could buy. Companies like Garrett spend millions of dollars on R&D. Even things like case design cost a lot of money to develop. That's my opinion. It's worth exactly what you paid for it! ;D
 

greydigger

Bronze Member
Mar 28, 2008
1,360
33
Aloha, Orygun
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wishing stick
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You can make one with a little AM radio and a calculator.
Not very efficient tho.
 

Frankn

Gold Member
Mar 21, 2010
8,711
2,988
Maryland
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XLT , surfmaster PI , HAYS 2Box , VIBRA-TECTOR
Twinsrule: You can't build it cheaper than $16.99 and that is what the Cen-Tech pinpointer sold by Harbor Freight goes for. Part #97245-1AHH at WWW.Harbor Freight .com.......The air test in the electronic posts shows that it will pick up a dime at the same distance as the $130. Garrett pin pointer.
 

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