Geiger Counter Experiments 2

[@ericsmith7988]

I have a Geiger counter I got from amazon but could not get it working. The instructions are horrible that came with it. After watching this video I got it working. Thank you, Paul for the info.

[@awesomefacepalm]

I designed a board designed to be put on a board like this as a project at University. It's has an oled display, a GPS receiver and a SD card reader. And I can now use it as a portable radiation logger that logs location, time and radiation level. Was a fun project!

[@noelandrew3600]

Be very interested to see your design. working on a touch screen Geiger counter, that uses the esp8266 board. would be great to add gps and sd card capability to it. it currently has data logging but without the gps details they are not very practical. would be great to be able to log field trips so i know where the natural uranium is in my local area. there is high concentrations at a number of spots that are withing two hours drive from my place. be nice to have a map of the radioactive areas.

[@awesomefacepalm]

@@noelandrew3600 I might be able to share the design after the course is finished in January :) it's based on a stm32 mcu, so sadly it's no Arduino compatible code ready. But I can probably publish a schematic,

[@keithking1985]

​@@awesomefacepalm that would be very cool if you did put it out there for every one to use like that guy who designed the transistor tester ya see everywhere and can buy as a kit build!!! i sure would like to have the schematic for when i get better at this stuff because, that particular design sounds very cool with the GPS on on it and data logger, its the icing on the cake!! p.s, i bet you will get an A+ in you exam for that design!! good luck with them!!!

[@alexabadi7458]

Watching the video, I was thinking "when will he turn the power on ?" ;o)

[@stevenspmd]

I picked one of these up a while back and just getting to it now. As a newbie I'm always timid with high voltage. I actually used my HV probe to check the voltage across the tube. Read about 0.4 so about 400v ; even at a max of 5w - 400v @ 12.5 mA seems quite spicy.

[@learnelectronics]

There is some ⚡ for sure. But the current is quite low

[@stevenspmd]

​@@learnelectronics I was surprised at the voltage and the voltage drop (burden voltage) with my regular DMM.

[@tomgeorge3726]

The protoboard LED is really blinking when the interrupt fires, just you are turning it ON then in the next program step turning it OFF in the interrupt routine. The flash would be so brief, you cannot see it. Try only having the count updated in the interrupt routine, move the digitalwrites out as they are holding up your code, in fact don't put it in your code for the moment and see what happens.

[@bigtst36]

when i trimmed POT to 50 ohms, only had 5 volts at tube. whats up with that?

[@scooterdoo1]

Did you ever get it to work? I’m in the same boat and I happened to come across your comment. Tuned to 50ohms and I’m only at .9V sadly

[@GlennHamblin]

LOL I was watching this and saying out loud turn it on! But you couldn't hear me! 😁

[@robertwebb5586]

now you can try the one in the 49 projects book. you have the Geiger tube now....

[@MalagasOnFire]

"Radioactivity... is in the air for you and me" . Tune into the melody . Does the interrupt of arduino MCU is fast enought to get the edge of that pulse ? use a function generator to check that with pulse generation capability or cmos/ ttl waveform. Again thanks for the explanation and example of using scope to capture pulses , to troubleshoot signals.

[@seditiousmonkeyart]

Good progress Paul. Nothing more rewarding than working through a problem and finding a solution. Time to box it up and head to the green grocer. That's right, there are a heap of vegetables that should send your counter nuts, literally. Brazil nuts are at the top of the radioactive vege list; bananas are also up there. ;-P Have fun mate.

[@melplishka5978]

Paul you should make a vacuum chamber and do the fog thing with the uranium sample lol.

[@georgechambers3197]

Fun project. I know you're not a programmer but this is really good experience. 😁 Have a fun New Years' celebration, see you next year my friend!

[@Zalphur]

It actually worked out lol! Thats great! I would have wanted you to have lifted the device around just to get a test to see if it reacted to being lifted as a "control" before lifting it next to the radioactive material but hey, looks like it works to me! Thanks for the vids man keep it up!

[@matteodallery5669]

I dont understand i do everthing like you but i only get up to 27-30V on J2 and even when i keep turning i cant get it to go up, any ideas why ?

[@scooterdoo1]

Did you ever figure it out?

[@matteodallery5669]

@@scooterdoo1 nope 🤣

[@scooterdoo1]

@@matteodallery5669 haha rip, thanks for the response!

[@MrPenguin098]

Doc Brown would be proud. Great learning video. 😀

[@andrejsersen59]

Thank you for your video about GM counter! Funny and usefull, I hope it won't be (seariously) needed... One question - do you know how to disable speaker on board?

[@scooterdoo1]

Hey man, I came across your calibration video because my board wasn’t working out of the box. When I tuned to 50 Ohms and then turned on the board. My measured voltage is only .9V . Do you know why this could be or if there is any way to tell if a component is bad on the board?

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting, dude! Really nice board! 😃

[@GigsTaggart]

I don't know how hot your samples are but that seems like it might be missing some counts. When I've calibrated my counters I run them up to self avalanche then turn them back down. I mean your rate with the samples there sounds barely over background, which for me is around 30cpm. Maybe I'm just used to much larger tubes, but still seems like maybe you are too low.

[@team-steinbaer]

Hi, I am from Germany (bad English) and I bought this counter. I use it without a programme, I almost need the signals from the Board. The problem is, the light near the on/off switch doesn’t work on my counter. It worked only a few minutes. Is this a sign that the Geiger counter will get unfunctional? Actually, the counting light works, but is the not working LED near the switch a problem ?

[@JosephWillis-gj7tt]

That is a power indicator and will not effect functionality.

[@mikeoliver3254]

Very cool, I really need to get me a cheap Geiger counter to play with. Any chance you can post a link to the calibration instructions? Great video Paul, thanks for all you do for our little community.

[@usicchauras]

Please help me out...how do you find the actual HIgh voltage on the tube...what could be the ratio of measured voltage to the actual voltage on the tube...I'm asking because I want to change the voltage to my own Geiger tube ..let's say 500Volts

[@steve1]

not sure if its much help but the arduino code I have used is below, you will probably need to change the oled setup and install any libraries you haven't got but here it is. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// unsigned long counts; //variable for GM Tube events unsigned long previousMillis; //variable for time measurement #include #include #ifdef U8X8_HAVE_HW_SPI #include #endif #ifdef U8X8_HAVE_HW_I2C #include #endif #define LOG_PERIOD 15000 U8G2_SSD1306_128X32_UNIVISION_1_HW_I2C u8g2(U8G2_R0, /* reset=*/ U8X8_PIN_NONE);//oled setup void impulse() { counts++; } void setup() { counts = 0; Serial.begin(9600); pinMode(2, INPUT); attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(2), impulse, FALLING); //define external interrupts Serial.println("Start counter"); u8g2.begin(); } void loop() { unsigned long currentMillis = millis(); if (currentMillis - previousMillis > LOG_PERIOD) { previousMillis = currentMillis; Serial.print(counts*4); Serial.println(""); Serial.print(counts*4*0.008120); Serial.println(""); u8g2.firstPage(); do { u8g2.setFont(u8g2_font_ncenB10_tr); u8g2.setCursor(1, 13); u8g2.print(counts*4); u8g2.setCursor(72, 13); u8g2.print(" CPM"); u8g2.setCursor(1, 30); u8g2.print(counts*4*0.008120); u8g2.setCursor(72, 30); u8g2.print(" usv/h"); ; } while ( u8g2.nextPage() ); counts = 0; } }

[@SolarDrew]

Hey Paul, nothing to do with this video, but I just upgraded to Generals license and haven’t made a contact yet. Are you available sometime to test out my new rig?

[@thebunyip]

Hi Paul. KM4UHG here. Where can I find the pulse jet instruction sheet you refer to in this video? 73

[@whitehoose]

OK now you have the geiger counter (presumably) with the $1.79 zombie addon. While it's as cool as f*@^ .... I have to say I'm hoping you're never going to need it... in more than a local context anyway. I'm amazed you say you've never used one. One of my duties on the 'phones was looking after some of the bombometers. In the event of it actually happening we had a purely mechanical standby - strowager backed by manually switched calls operated by a mix of engineers and telephonists. At the centre of each station was the bombometer. A tube running from the surface - to a rainwater tank. The bomb goes off - the pressure wave goes down the pipe and blows out some of the water. Also in the tank was a ball-cock attached to a lever operated depth guage .... the water left in the first surviving tank nearest ground zero could be used (along with data on how many stations were uncontactable) to calculate the magnitude of the impact. The impact (to life) of the attack was estimated using a slightly less sophisticated counter (fewer parts - all immune to EMP). And tested with a slug of something in a very heavy box. Happy days. I don't know what's used these days the ship's biscuits must be off by now and many of the the crews must be too old to remember where the entrances were.

[@mtkoslowski]

Paul is your 1054Z 100 MHz? Rigol upgrades them for free at the factory along with a host of other functions.

[@learnelectronics]

Yes it is.

[@kissingbanditt]

hi there, heard you call in on 7.255 around 11 am my time and thought i would check out your page on qrz which brought me here...amazing web page, love it....thumbs up and talk to you soon.

[@learnelectronics]

Yes, ECARS. I check in every Saturday. Thanks! 73!

[@alanparadise3139]

Turn the power switch on

[@GlennHamblin]

Do you have a link to the GM board?

[@MrVosh-nj2lc]

Where did you connect the scope to display the pulses?

[@learnelectronics]

To the output of the counter

[@grhinson]

Zip tiies