Ace 250 Schematic, Tech Photos, Coil Circuit

Billvert

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
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732
Location
Spokane, WA
Here are a few photos for those of you who may be thinking about repairing, modifying or are just generally curious about what is inside the flashy yellow box.

1.) View of main board with front panel removed.

2.) LCD and Front panel Switch pads.

3.) Top of PC board with component placement. You may enlarge and compare to schematic to obtain component values.

4.) Coil impedance matching network.

5.) Transmit (larger) and receive coils.

6.) Schematic.

7.) Coil Jack pin-out and matching network.

These photos should all have sufficient resolution to enlarge and be easily read.

Disclaimer: The information contained within this post is for recreational purposes only. Opening and/or modifying your detector will void the warranty. All information contained in my post is readily available on the internet and assumed to be public and non propriety. Use at you own risk.
 

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I've seen that schematic before. Unfortunately, its unreadable and incomplete. :( BTW, the PCB was very obviously designed for several models so its entirely possible it could be easily converted to another, or at minimum features from higher models could be easily added, coil frequency changed, discrimination fine-tuned, much more.
 
I've seen that schematic before. Unfortunately, its unreadable and incomplete. :( BTW, the PCB was very obviously designed for several models so its entirely possible it could be easily converted to another, or at minimum features from higher models could be easily added, coil frequency changed, discrimination fine-tuned, much more.

It would be interesting to see if our models have different revision notations and what the revisions might be. I suspect one tweak may be in the pinpointing circuitry. I am seeing far fewer complaints about pinpointing lately as opposed to when the unit was first released.

As far as the board changes, I would not be at all surprised if the Ace 150 and 250 use the same main logic board.

My other hobby is using and repairing Ham radio and CB gear. Many different radio models use identical main boards the only difference being the configuration of solder or diode jumpers on the main board. This is obviously saves a lot of time and cost in their manufacturing process. One other thought, about every 2-3 years Surface mount components (SMT's) decrease in size by about 50% the physical look of the IC's and passive devices may just be a result of advancing technology. As far as I am concerned this is a win win for the consumer the newer smaller packages tend to consume less power. The only downside of this is SMT technology has rendered component level repair a a thing of the past unless you have access to specialized and expensive SMT soldering/de-soldering equipment.

These new detectors are like the giant big screen TV boxes of a decade ago when they shut off you either replace the whole bad circuit board or roll it out to the curb and hope the garbage man will take it (barring any heavy metal or hasmat content of course). :-)
 
What would also be interesting is the same circuit board picture of the AT Pro and ACE 350 models. I hear you on CB and ham radios, I'm very familiar with (radically) modifying both of these, have articles published etc. ;)
 
pc board

does the ground contact on the board have a coating on it. i think mine is rybed off? could that be why it doesnt fire up now?
 
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