Hi Alex,
I am sorry your feel the way you do and I guess if you just read a few posts, you might come to the conclusion you did.
However, I have been frequenting this forum for quite a while now, and I can say, from a technical standpoint, it is one of the most informative forums I have frequented.
There are two forums I know of where the design engineer of a product has shared many of his technical secrets and this is one of them. It is the only one I know of specifically aimed at PI's.
There have also been some super posts by many great engineers that can really help a person, especially one with a technical background, better understand just what is going on inside a PI. I can say that because of these posts, I truly have learned a lot about how a PI works as well as how to improve one.
As for improvements to a design of a PI, one can just read past posts as well as wait because new and innovative information will be posted.
In almost every case except Eric Foster, engineers and companies, who design and build new metal detectors, keep almost all the information about their design a secret. To me, this is stupid. Any competitor, or individual for that matter, can reverse engineer a design and see what makes it tick.
In Eric's case, he is upfront with his information. He has provided even the basic information such as his preferred type of coil shielding material and even offered to sell small quantities to those persons interested in trying to build their own coils. It is little things like this information that really helps someone like me who wants to experiment with their machines.
From a more technical standpoint, I was both impressed and thankful that Eric took the time to compare different ICs and then post the results a few days ago. Such information is quite valuable to those thinking about building their own detectors.
Also, is the only forum dedicated to metal detectors I have visited that isn't slamming others detectors one way or another.
Like I said before, if you want to know about PI's and how they work then this is the forum to read. The technical information is there and I am sure more will be posted.
I also want to thank Eric and Mr. Bill for providing this forum and all the information they have posted.
Reg