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A detailed description of the manufacture of a pirate metal detector. Pulse metal detector “Pirate. Housing for the MD block - Housing for the MD coil - power supply and - Soldering iron, solder, flux, alcohol - Glue gun; - Epoxy resin - screwdriver, other tools for the housing

You can buy for about 100-300 dollars. The price of metal detectors is strongly interconnected with their detection depth, not every metal detector can "see" coins at a depth of 15 cm. In addition, the presence of a metal type recognizer and interface type also greatly affects the cost of a metal detector, fashionable metal detectors are sometimes equipped with a display for convenient operation .

This article will consider an example of assembling a powerful metal detector called Pirat with your own hands. The device is able to catch coins underground at a depth of 20 cm. As for large objects, it is quite possible to work at a depth of 150 cm.


Video of working with a metal detector:

This metal detector received such a name due to the fact that it is a pulse, this is the designation of its first two letters (PI-impulse). Well, RA-T is consonant with the word radioskot - this is the name of the developers' site, where the homemade product was posted. According to the author, the Pirate is going to be very simple and fast, even basic skills in working with electronics are enough for this.

The disadvantage of such a device is that it does not have a discriminator, that is, it cannot recognize non-ferrous metals. So working with him on areas contaminated with various kinds of metals will not work.

Assembly materials and tools:
- microcircuit KR1006VI1 (or its foreign analogue NE555) - a transmitting node is built on it;
- transistor IRF740;
- K157UD2 microcircuit and VS547 transistor (the receiving unit is assembled on them);
- wire PEV 0.5 (for winding the coil);
- NPN type transistors;
- materials for creating the body and so on;
- electrical tape;
- soldering iron, wires, other tools.

The remaining radio components can be seen in the diagram.





You also need to find a suitable plastic box for mounting the electronic circuit. You will also need a plastic pipe to create a rod on which the coil is attached.

Metal detector assembly process:

Step one. We create a printed circuit board
The most difficult part of the device is, of course, the electronics, so it is advisable to start with it. First of all, you need to make a printed circuit board. In total there are several options for boards, depending on the radio elements used. There is a board for NE555, and there is a transistor board. All the necessary files for creating the board are in the article. You can also find other board options on the Internet.

Step two. We install electronic elements on the board
Now the board needs to be soldered, all electronic elements are installed exactly as in the diagram. In the picture on the left you can see the capacitors. These capacitors are film type and have high thermal stability. Thanks to this, the metal detector will work more stably. This is especially true if you use a metal detector in the fall, when it is already quite cold outside.








Step three. Power supply for metal detector
To power the device, you need a source from 9 to 12 V. It is important to note that the device is rather voracious in terms of energy consumption, and this is logical, because it is powerful. One krone battery is not enough for a long time, it is recommended to use 2-3 batteries at once, which are connected in parallel. You can also use one powerful battery (best rechargeable).



Step four. Assembling a coil for a metal detector
Due to the fact that this is a pulse metal detector, the accuracy of the coil assembly is not so important here. The optimal diameter is a mandrel of 1900-200 mm, in total you need to wind 25 turns. After the coil is wound, it must be carefully wrapped on top with electrical tape for insulation. To increase the detection depth of the coil, you need to wind it on a mandrel with a diameter of about 260-270 mm, and reduce the number of turns to 21-22. The wire is used with a diameter of 0.5 mm.

After the coil is wound, it must be installed on a rigid body, there should be no metal on it. Here you need to think a little and look for any case that is suitable in size. It is needed in order to protect the coil from shock while working with the device.

The leads from the coil are soldered to a stranded wire with a diameter of about 0.5-0.75 mm. It is best if these are two wires twisted together.

Step five. Setting up a metal detector
When assembling exactly according to the scheme, it is not necessary to adjust the metal detector, it already has maximum sensitivity. To fine-tune the metal detector, you need to turn the variable resistor R13, you need to achieve rare clicks in the speaker. If this is achieved only in the extreme positions of the resistor, then it is necessary to change the value of the resistor R12. The variable resistor should adjust the device for normal operation in the middle positions.


Metal detector Pirate- this is a pulse metal detector that does not contain expensive and programmable parts, after assembly in almost all cases it does not need to be adjusted and has a very high repeatability. Because of this, he gained popularity among beginners.


Characteristics of the Pirate metal detector:

  • Supply voltage - 9 to 12 V
  • Current consumption - 30-70 mA;
  • Coin detection depth - up to 25 cm;
  • Large metal - up to 1.5 meters.
  • Audible target indication

To power the device, it is recommended to use a 12V battery or li-ion with a step-up DC-DC converter. When checking at home, you can power it from a 9-12V power supply. The depth of detection depends on the quality of the assembly, the size of the searchcoil and other factors. Here are the characteristics declared by the developer for the device assembled according to his instructions. To assemble the metal detector, we will use kits for self-assembly of the Pirate metal detector from our online store: and .

Assembly materials and tools:

- Case for block MD
- Housing for coil MD
- food and
- Soldering iron, solder, flux, alcohol
- Glue gun;
- Epoxy resin
- screwdriver, other tool for encasing our MD


Appearance of the finished metal detector Pirat




Scheme, metal detector parts list .




Appearance of the assembled boardmetal detector Pirate



You can buy a finished Pirate board in our online store by clicking on


Metal detector board assembly process:

  • install electrical components on the board referring to the wiring diagram
  • soldering components using priming and flux
  • we bite off the conclusions of the soldered electronic components, wash the board with alcohol

Do-it-yourself Pirate metal detector coil:

As an example, we will make a coil with a diameter of 30 cm, as this size is universal, suitable for searching for both small items - coins and larger items - scrap metal and WWII items. Using the table or in the Coil32 program, we determine the number of turns for our coil, the result should be a resistance of 2 ohms, an inductance of 400 μH, we use a stranded copper wire from the coil to the block, with a diameter of at least 2 * 0.75 mm


With the help of a round improvised object (pot, bucket), we wind 20 turns of wire, leaving 2 ends of 5 cm each. so that nothing sticks out we fix it with hot glue.



The last step is to fill the coil with epoxy resin following the manufacturer's instructions. After a day, when the resin has completely cured, you can use our coil for its intended purpose.

The coil can also be made from a twisted pair, as described in the article on


Pirate metal detector setup

After soldering, the pirate metal detector does not need any special settings. After turning on, you need to wait about 10 seconds until the sound appears, after trimming resistors R12, R13 to make clicks appear, then turn R13 a little in the opposite direction - this will be the maximum sensitivity. That's all, as it turned out, making a pirate metal detector with your own hands is not so and difficult, even a person who is far from electronics will cope with this task.

In early childhood, on the basis of watching the movie Indiana Jones, a thirst for discovery and treasure hunting arose, on this wave I had a burning desire to assemble my own metal detector, but since I had only experience in the field of electronics and soldering, I only had the level of dismantling a TV, the dream was remained a dream... up to this day.

In fact, anyone who knows how to hold a soldering iron can assemble the Pirate Metal Detector. You just need to solder all the details and it works.

I stumbled upon this metal detector by accident on the Internet, I was lured by its simplicity and characteristics.

There is simply a lot of data on the Internet with its characteristics and capabilities. Here I want to show my work. For those who are interested, read on.

The parts list is simple, no rare or hard to get.

Having bought, we get a handful of such details

We collect according to this scheme:

The NE555 and K157UD2 microcircuits are used in the circuit; for them, I highly recommend the panels for them, they are not expensive, since the K157UD2 very often defective and soldered microcircuits to the board are problematic to remove.

Capacitors 100nF must be taken film with a voltage of at least 60 volts. They are large red or blue. IT MATTERS. Pirate did not work with small capacitors!

The board was made by LUT. The drilled and tinned board looks like this

After soldering we get this look

The next step will be the manufacture of the search coil. It is recommended to wind the coil with a diameter of 190 mm. I used pollen for embroidery as a frame, their diameter is 180 mm. The wire I used was PETV 0.5. The best result was given by 21 turns.

I used a crown as power, but it is advised to be powered by a 12 volt battery. With a battery, the sensitivity increases.

Metal detector "Pirate" the device does not need adjustment. If everything is soldered correctly and all the details are working, then it will immediately work. A very important detail. Adjustment with resistors must be carried out with the removal of the coil from any metals. At first I thought that the Pirate was out of order and was constantly buzzing, but it turned out that the floor was all with metal - reinforced concrete floors.

The wire from the board to the coil must be used with a cross section of at least 1.5 mm and preferably without plugs, it is better to just solder.

The body was an electrical box. But here you can use anything. I even saw that a soap dish served as the body.

I drilled holes in the case for controls, buttons and headphone jacks.

Now let's start making the bar. I used a plastic pipe with a diameter of 20 mm as a barbell. You need to buy 4 clips for it. Remember! Do not use metal-plastic or any other metal pipe. The coil will react to it.

I glued the floor of a 6 mm PVC circle onto the coil. We attach clips to this part.

We get a search coil with a simple mount.

The bar will be attached to the coil with this.

We connect everything and get a finished Pirate metal detector

This do-it-yourself pulse metal detector showed the following characteristics:

coin 2 rub. - 8 cm

gold ring - 11 cm

scissors - 19 cm

But if you replace the crown with a 12 volt battery, then the sensitivity will increase markedly.

If someone liked this metal detector, then I can make one to order.


That's all! Leave comments, all the best.

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Everyone can assemble such a device, even those who are completely far from electronics, you just need to solder all the details as in the diagram. The metal detector consists of two microcircuits. They do not require any firmware or programming.

Power supply 12 volts, can be from AA batteries but better than a 12v battery (small)

The coil is wound on a 190mm mandrel and contains 25 turns of PEV 0.5 wire

Characteristics:
- Current consumption 30-40 mA
- Reacts to all metals No discrimination
- Sensitivity 25 mm coin - 20 cm
- Large metal objects - 150 cm
- All details are not expensive and easily accessible.

List of required parts:
1) Soldering iron
2) Textolite
3) Wires
4) Drill bit 1mm

Here is a list of required parts


The scheme of the metal detector itself

The circuit uses 2 microcircuits (NE555 and K157UD2). They are quite common. K157UD2 - you can pick it out of the old equipment, which I successfully did







Capacitors 100nF must be taken film, like this, we take the voltage as little as possible


Print out the board sketch on plain paper


Cut out a piece of textolite under its size.


Apply tightly and with a sharp object push through the places of future holes


Here's how it should turn out.


Next, take any drill or drilling machine and drill holes




After drilling, you need to draw tracks. You can do this through, or just paint them with Nitro varnish with a simple brush. The tracks should turn out exactly the same as on the paper template. And we charge a fee.


In the places marked in red, we put jumpers:



Next, just solder all the components in place.

For K157UD2, it is better to put an adapter socket.






To wind the search coil, you need a copper wire with a diameter of 0.5-0.7 mm


If there is none, you can use another. I did not have enough copper varnished wire. I took an old network cable.


Took off the shell. There were enough wires. Two cores were enough for me, they also wound the coil.




According to the scheme, the coil is 19 cm in diameter and contains 25 turns. I note right away that the coil must be made of such a diameter based on what you will be looking for. The larger the coil, the deeper the search, but a large coil does not see small details well. The small coil sees small details well, but the depth is not great. I immediately wound myself three coils 23cm (25 turns), 15cm (17 turns) and 10cm (13-15 turns). If you need to dig up scrap metal, then we put a large one, if you look for small things on the beach, then the coil is smaller, well, you'll figure it out yourself.

We wind the coil on anything of a suitable diameter and wrap it tightly with electrical tape so that the turns are tightly next to each other.




The coil should be as flat as possible. The speaker took the first one that came across.

Now we connect everything and try the circuit for performance.

After applying power, you need to wait 15-20 seconds until the circuit warms up. We put the coil away from any metal, it is best to hang it in the air. After we start twisting the 100K variable resistor until clicks appear. As soon as the clicks appear, twist in the opposite direction, as soon as the clicks disappear, that's enough. After that, we also adjust the 10K resistor.

At the expense of the K157UD2 chip. In addition to the one I dug out, I asked a neighbor for 1 more and bought two at the radio market. I inserted the purchased microcircuits, turned on the device, but it refused to work. I racked my brains for a long time, until I just put another microcircuit (the one that I soldered). And everything immediately worked. So that's what a transitional socket is for, in order to pick up a live microcircuit and do not suffer with soldering and soldering.

Purchased chips

The Pirate Metal Detector is the most popular pulse-type metal detector, as it consists of a small number of available parts, and countless assembly and setup instructions are written for it. But at the same time, the Pirat metal detector has good sensitivity, picking up signals deep underground.

Unfortunately, the Pirate metal detector does not distinguish between metals, but the ease of manufacture and high sensitivity smooth out this drawback. The detection depth of 28 cm with a coil is about 20 cm, and large metal objects are visible to him even at 1.5 meters.

List of necessary parts and tools for making a Pirate:

  • Chip NE555 (for not having it, you can use the Soviet analogue KR1006VI1;
  • Transistors IRF740, BC547, BC557, all in 1 piece;
  • Diode 1N4148 - 2pcs;
  • PEV wire with a diameter of 0.5 mm (for winding the coil);
  • Soldering iron, solder, flux for soldering;
  • Enclosure for PCB and batteries and plastic tube.

The entire list of parts with their characteristics in this plate:

Designation | Detail (type/power) | Rating/Name/Voltage

  1. R1 resistor 1 kΩ
  2. R2 resistor 1.6 kΩ
  3. R3 resistor 100 kΩ
  4. R4 470 ohm resistor
  5. R5 100 ohm resistor
  6. R6 150 ohm resistor
  7. R7 resistor (1W) 220 ohm
  8. R8 resistor (0.5 W) 390 ohm
  9. R9 resistor 47 kΩ
  10. R10 resistor 62 kΩ
  11. R11 resistor 2 MΩ
  12. R12 variable resistor 100 kOhm
  13. R13 variable resistor 10 kOhm
  14. R14 resistor 62 kΩ
  15. R15 resistor 120 kΩ
  16. R16 470 kΩ resistor
  17. R17 10 ohm resistor
  18. R18 resistor 10 kΩ
  19. DA1 chip NE555
  20. DA2 chip K157UD2
  21. C1 capacitor (film) 100 nF
  22. C2 capacitor (film) 100 nF
  23. C3 capacitor (electrolyte) 1uF/16V
  24. C4 capacitor (electrolyte) 10uF/16V
  25. C5 capacitor (ceramic) 1 nF
  26. C6 capacitor (electrolyte) 10uF/16V
  27. C7 capacitor (electrolyte) 1uF/16V
  28. C8 capacitor (electrolyte) 2200uF/16V
  29. T1 transistor (bipolar P-N-P) BC557
  30. T2 transistor (bipolar N-P-N) BC547
  31. T3 transistor (MOSFET N-channel) IRF740
  32. D1 diode (Schottky) 1N4148
  33. D2 diode (Schottky) 1N4148
  34. BA1 speaker 8 ohm
  35. L1 search coil 2 ohm
  36. PW1 power supply 9-12 Volts

Step-by-step instructions for creating a Pirate metal detector with your own hands:

It is necessary to etch the printed circuit board, there are many variations of such boards, we will give the most popular ones that you can download in the archive at the end of the article.

Now you need to solder all the details to our board, all elements are installed as indicated in the diagram. As for the details, for stable operation at different times of the year, you need to select thermostable capacitors, such are film capacitors, in the photographs of the assembled boards you can see how they look.

Choosing a power source for the Pirate metal detector. This device can be powered by a voltage of 9-12 volts, preferably closer to 12, while it behaves more stably and is more sensitive. For this, you can use several 3-4 krone batteries connected in parallel, or a 12 V battery. Even in China, there are now many DC-DC boost modules (for example, the XL6009 or Mt3608 module), thanks to which you can power the device from the 1st battery 18650 at 3.7 V or one krone battery by setting a trimmer at the output of the 12 volt step-up module.

Making a coil for a Pirate metal detector. This metal detector and other pulsers are not demanding on the accuracy of manufacturing the coil, on its size and number of turns, although there are some requirements for the winding wire itself, it must be from 0.5 to 0.6 mm in diameter (winding wire in varnish insulation) , you can and 0.4 but the sensitivity drops a little. The coil is wound on a plastic mandrel (it can be a hoop or a plastic cover with a recess) with a diameter of 19-20 cm - 25 turns, after which the turns of the coil must be wrapped with insulating tape or tape. To increase the depth of detection of metal objects, you can make a coil with a large diameter. To do this, we take a mandrel with a diameter of 26-27 cm and wind 21-22 turns on it.

To calculate the winding of other coil diameters for the Pirate metal detector, here is a table:

After we have soldered everything and checked the functionality, we need to move on to creating a case, select a suitable case for the metal detector board with batteries, put a switch and 2 knobs of variable tuning resistors on the front panel.

We mount the coil on a rod of their hard plastic (or wood) so that it does not dangle and does not bend under its own weight, since when searching, you will need to drive it over the ground to the right and left, scanning the search site. The conclusions from the coil must be soldered to a stranded wire, with a cross-sectional diameter of 0.5 - 0.75 mm. Ideally, these are two separate wires twisted together. The coil must be attached to the rod with non-metallic elements, otherwise the metal detector will constantly work.

The case can be completely different, for example, small pinpointers and compact underwater metal detectors are now made from Pirat from plastic pipes with a diameter of 32 mm. And the coil is filled with epoxy.

Working with a metal detector Pirate. A properly assembled metal detector with serviceable radio components practically does not need to be adjusted. After turning on the Pirate, it needs to stabilize for 10-15 seconds, and then by turning the sensitivity adjustment knob of the variable resistor R13 we achieve rare clicks in the speaker, this will be the maximum sensitivity. If such a state appears only in the extreme positions of the resistor R13, then it will be necessary to more accurately select the value of the resistor R12, so that rare clicks appear somewhere in the middle position of the resistor R13. If you have an oscilloscope, you can check the correctness of the pulse at the gate of the transistor T2, the normal pulse indicators are: duration 130-150 μs and frequency 120-150 Hz.