Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!



Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

I wonder if it will be possible to use the USB port for an add-on pinpointer...

jbow

Active member
I'd like that a lot. Maybe a wireless bluetooth sort of setup utilizing the usb port.

J
 
but dont think they will :) looks like its only set to transfer patterns at least this version.. I wish they would have made it so you could build patterns on it as well... but think you can changes settings and save/upload a pattern only.. but I guess where the good stuff comes in and your using a patern for it, then there really is only one pattern needed, unless you were only looking for a specific item, like gold or a lost ring etc... otherwise you run a pattern it just needs to be a _____||| starting on the 11 line :)

I am just making fun guys.. Hey I was a dummy and bought one at least so I can see for myself :)
 
jbow said:
I'd like that a lot. Maybe a wireless bluetooth sort of setup utilizing the usb port.

J

bluetooth for the SE is no good as it's response is slow coupled with the bluetooth's slight lag. With the E-TRAC though it might work well.
 
At the moment, they can't be built on our homes PC first and then uploaded back to the E-trac as a usable .ptrn.

So what we would really need is a .prtn software ON our pc's that then transfers a edited *.ptrn file back to E-trac.

This is the VERY quick response I received from that great bloke, Nenad from Minelab, South Australia just, yesterday;

Hi David,

Unfortunately the patterns can only be edited in the E-Trac itself.

There is a way to view larger patterns on your PC but it isn't easy.

1. Go to http://www.minelabetrac.com/
This is a E-Trac blog where users can post any interesting story links from anywhere on the web, i.e. findmall.com, minelab owners,
mlotv, or even Minelabs website. Basically anything on the E-Trac can go here.

2. Register as a user.

3. You will then need to post your pattern somewhere on the web and then put a link to it in www.minelabetrac.com

4. The pattern is then displayed as a .png file. You can right click the image and save it as a .bmp file. This allows you to
zoom in without any pixelation.

To try it out go to the the site, click on Discrimination Patterns, and then click Ireland Beach Pattern, and then click
the .ptrn file. You will now see the pattern displayed on the screen.
Right click the pattern image and then 'save as' a Bitmap (.bmp) file. When you open the saved file you can do what you want with it.

Have a go, and if you think this is useful, feel free to share it with other users.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Regards,

Nenad Lonic
CUSTOMER & TECHNICAL
SUPPORT OFFICER

Minelab Electronics Pty Ltd
118 Hayward Avenue
Torrensville, SA 5031

Ph: +61 8 8238 0888
Fax: +61 8 8238 0890

Email: nenadl@minelab.com.au
Web: www.minelab.com



As for accessing the USB for anything else other than upload and downloading through E-trac's X-change for generated info like the "manipulable .glb (Which CAN be edited and upload on a pc to the E-trac and vice -versa)..............it will be interesting to see if anyone actually achieves this.
.

David E Di
 
You might want to give ImageDiff a shot. I know with X-Ray option turned on with overlay turned off it will show you exactly what changed when you compare two pictures. It might be of some use here. It's freeware.
 
It just requires someone to reverse engineer and work out how .ptrn files are defined. (It is a binary file). I've already worked out the header bytes and deduced that in a 274 byte .ptrn file each bit of a byte must enable/disable one square of the discrim. display and some bytes will also be used to hold user mode preferences (once again where a single bit of a byte will toggle a setting off/on etc.). (and I don't even have an Etrac!). I will probably need to get one to discover how the bytes change exactly as I change settings on the detector.

If I get time I'll carry on with this and write my own standalone program to display large discrim patterns, and which I hope will be able to import/export .ptrn files. Probably a couple of months away at the earliest as I don't get much time to code these days.

Who will be first to crack this gem I wonder...

cheers,
rob
:)
 
Top