Voodoo Main Discussion

[SilverSurfer17]

Wow thats a cool idea thanks

[dfbowers]

I thought about that are you stripping just the ends to make contact or the whole wire i wrapped mine in brown paper bag then painted it with the paint i have to connect the rx loop shield to the tx shield and was just going to strip the ends enough for a few wraps around the loops then paint it then do the same to run it to the head unit and figure out why pin 1 and 5 have to be connected and if shield ground is the same as both those grounds going to pin 3

A paper bag works.. If you can make a good mechanical connection that is. My first shell I made was shielded that way. You can make a little electroscope to test your work. http://amasci.com/emotor/chargdet.html. If you cover the electroscope with your shield you can test the effectiveness easily. The electroscope can sense the electrostatic charges several feet away. If the meter is covered with your grounded shield of he effectiveness will become apparent.

[SilverSurfer17]

I thought about that are you stripping just the ends to make contact or the whole wire i wrapped mine in brown paper bag then painted it with the paint i have to connect the rx loop shield to the tx shield and was just going to strip the ends enough for a few wraps around the loops then paint it then do the same to run it to the head unit and figure out why pin 1 and 5 have to be connected and if shield ground is the same as both those grounds going to pin 3

[dfbowers]

Im using that guitar shielding paint it came with a metal grounding lug and wire i don't want to use it have you found a better way to attach a wire to that paint ?

I?m trying something new, to me at least. I have painted the inside of the shell with an embedded drain wire, then added coils, then an epoxy fill and another layer of paint, then a final fill. If you look really close you can see the drain wire. It?s embedded in the paint. The paint is really thick. Not sure if it will work until I get to the wet grass.

[SilverSurfer17]

Im using that guitar shielding paint it came with a metal grounding lug and wire i don't want to use it have you found a better way to attach a wire to that paint ?

[SilverSurfer17]

Am i reading this correct pin 1 and 5 are shorted together for 0 volt even though it gets 0 volt already and it runs to pin 3 which i assume is used for shield ground also and i used 2 rg58A/U wire so i only have 4 wires so what run a extra wire for ground and does it have to be shielded also but then wouldn't that be running through the resistor that is inline with 3 and 5

[dfbowers]

Am I wrong or the Rx coil should be winded in counter clockwise direction? [ATTACH]54326[/ATTACH]

I don?t think it matters which direction the RX coil is wound. It will make a difference as to which end is grounded though.

[SilverSurfer17]

The rx coil is wound counter clockwise but the bucking coil that sits on top of it is wound clockwise

[Qiaozhi]

Hi George
Thanks for coming back to me.
Unfortunately, I can't remember what the other settings were.
As I have said previously, I am not familiar with PIC's or PICkit so I will do my best to extract the information you have requested. Hopefully it should be self explanatory

Hi Martin,

I will be able to determine the settings from the EEPROM contents.

The parameters are held in EEPROM bytes 1 to 18. Byte 0 will contain $AA, which tells Voodoo to read the EEPROM contents at startup. When the PIC is first programmed all the bytes are set to $FF. If Voodoo finds $FF in byte 0 at startup, it loads the EEPROM with default values and sets byte 0 to $AA.

You will be able to see the EEPROM contents using the PICkit. If you don't know how to read the EEPROM contents out of the PIC, then simply note them down and post the numbers here.

[MartinB]

From your description it appears that the PIC has either died or locked up.

What were the other settings when you had the TX pulse width set to 180us?
I suppose there's a possibility there's a conflict between a particular set of parameters. Once these get written into the EEPROM the PIC will crash, even when rebooted. The fact that the LCD displays "PULSE" before stopping, implies that this may be so. If that's the case, then reprogramming the PIC will reset everything back to normal. Before you do that, can you use the PICkit to extract the EEPROM contents? If you post them here it will give me a clue as to the problem.

I've not experienced any software issues myself, even when I just tried setting the width to 180us.

You could also try setting the first location in the EEPROM to $FF, without reflashing the PIC. This will tell Voodoo to write default settings into the EEPROM. If the detector then starts working again this is a clear indication that there's a parameter conflict somewhere. If that's the case I can fix that, but I will need to identify the problem first.

Hi George
Thanks for coming back to me.
Unfortunately, I can't remember what the other settings were.
As I have said previously, I am not familiar with PIC's or PICkit so I will do my best to extract the information you have requested. Hopefully it should be self explanatory

[Qiaozhi]

Looks like the PIC on my Voodoo as stopped working. This afternoon I was playing with a new coil and scrolling through the Pulse settings when the display locked and push buttons had no effect. All I get on rebooting the board is the initialisation screen and then PULSE on the screen. There is no sync pulse on TP9 and no de-bug pulse. Has anyone else experienced this. If so, what was the cause. Thanks

From your description it appears that the PIC has either died or locked up.

What were the other settings when you had the TX pulse width set to 180us?
I suppose there's a possibility there's a conflict between a particular set of parameters. Once these get written into the EEPROM the PIC will crash, even when rebooted. The fact that the LCD displays "PULSE" before stopping, implies that this may be so. If that's the case, then reprogramming the PIC will reset everything back to normal. Before you do that, can you use the PICkit to extract the EEPROM contents? If you post them here it will give me a clue as to the problem.

I've not experienced any software issues myself, even when I just tried setting the width to 180us.

You could also try setting the first location in the EEPROM to $FF, without reflashing the PIC. This will tell Voodoo to write default settings into the EEPROM. If the detector then starts working again this is a clear indication that there's a parameter conflict somewhere. If that's the case I can fix that, but I will need to identify the problem first.

[ionut_mtb]

Am I wrong or the Rx coil should be winded in counter clockwise direction?

[6666]

Hi 6666
Yes, this happened when I made changes. I was experimenting with pulse width - took PI pulse width up to 180us and the display locked. I have checked the buttons and all are OK. Maybe it is a software issue. I have ordered some replacement PIC's and a PICKIT 3 tonight with a view to interrogating the software and if necessary, programming a new PIC. This part is new ground for me so I hope it goes well

Please keep us informed as to what you find, good luck.

[SilverSurfer17]

Surf has a video that makes it pretty easy to understand but i have noticed in your past posts about voltages being lower than what some others have said theres where id look around that board top and bottom and make sure something isn't shorting or putting strain on the eprom

[MartinB]

Is that all that is on the screen ?
so this happened after you made changes in the settings ? are any of your buttons stuck down ? maybe you have hit a dead end in the code ?, but this is Georges baby,
as you have declared the chip dead even thou it is displaying some characters from within the software, I wonder if the chip would re program.

Hi 6666
Yes, this happened when I made changes. I was experimenting with pulse width - took PI pulse width up to 180us and the display locked. I have checked the buttons and all are OK. Maybe it is a software issue. I have ordered some replacement PIC's and a PICKIT 3 tonight with a view to interrogating the software and if necessary, programming a new PIC. This part is new ground for me so I hope it goes well