Microcontroller PI Treasure Hunter

by Mark Stuart

Here is a pulse induction metal detector that uses a PIC16C54 microcontroller to control the pulse timing and the sample and hold. It was published in the June, 1994 issue if Everday with Practical Electronics, a popular electronics magazine that is owned by UK publisher Wimbourne Publishing, Ltd. I would like to thank Wimbourne Publishing for giving me permission to post this online version.

The entire kit was available (and may still be) for the cost of £63.95 (what's that, about $100 US?) from

    Magenta Electronics
    135 Hunter St.
    Burton-on-Trent
    Staffs, England DE14 2ST
    Tel 01283 565435
When this article was published the only source for the programmed microcontroller was Magenta or the author and it was pre-programmed and not modifiable by the user. Due to the generosity of Mark Pauls, we have available his PIC code so not only can you program you own PIC, you can make timing modifications as you like.

Microcontroller PI Treasure Hunter (PDF-308K)
Microcontroller PI Treasure Hunter (PDF-330K - Acrobat 2.1)
PIC Documentation (PDF-189K)
PIC Assembly Code
PIC Hex File
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