Geiger-Müller counter Kit

[@weirdboyjim]

This is the kit I bought, but there are many that look the same as well as pre-assembled versions. amzn.to/3tjsCZQ

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

The interesting thing with these cheap Chinese Geigers is they use the same tubes as the Chinese military models (Which are based on Soviet SBM 20 tubes) and these tubes are actually good at reading up to several MilliSieverts or a few hundred Milli-Roentgen

[@weirdboyjim]

Interesting, I bought an old Russian pancake tube years ago but I could never get it to work right. My original plan back then was to build a random number generator, I should pick that plan back up with this one.

[@JanJeronimus]

Great to see this video. I received a similar kit a few weeks ago, however not yet found time to build it.

[@weirdboyjim]

Hope you enjoy it! The soldering was just over an hour and a half, could probably have done it quicker but without the camera running I might have spent longer decoding bits of the circuit.

[@lerchl1]

Very nice video, many thanks. The trick with the soldering sequence is that you have to start from *right top* to left bottom of the box (opposite what is written on the box...). Took me some to to understand :). Otherwise the kit works very well, no need for calibrating.

[@weirdboyjim]

Yeah, someone else pointed that out already. Kicked myself after checking the video to confirm.

[@Scrogan]

Oh a glass tube? Here I figured it would use a common SBM-20. Bet it’s better at beta. Also why does it have so many passives and three ICs? From what I can see, it’s just got a boost converter to 400VDC or thereabouts, plus a little bit of signal conditioning on the output, but that’s at most 2 ICs. I suspect there’s an alarm too, and the trimpot sets the alarm threshold. Still a fair few passives though. I’d love to see a short run through of the schematic.

[@weirdboyjim]

This is one of those circuits where I think a large chunk of it could be replaced with a single micro controller, might make for a more accessible kit as well.

[@johnnycernato4068]

Nice one, I also hesitate to buy one of these, nice to see it assembled and in action! I would like to see though how the cookie-box performs as gamma-shielding :)

[@weirdboyjim]

I won't know for sure until I have a counter attached to it. But from the click rate I'd guess about 75% reduction at point blank range.

[@jerril42]

Nice kit, good job on the build. When you said that you had a plan for this I thought a random number generator was a possibility; perhaps you had brought it up before. Connecting it to a UC is a great idea. Thanks James, Take Care.

[@weirdboyjim]

Thanks Jerril! Good quality randomness is one of those fascinating subjects with far more subtlety than most people realize at first glance.

[@vincei4252]

It's funny, I've always wanted a Geiger counter too but never felt the need to buy one. It's strange that we had the same thought and bought one around the same time - within a week or two of each other. Either it's ESP or a Scooby Doo mystery as to why that is. I also bought some old Radium watch hands in a vial to test with.

[@weirdboyjim]

Indeed. I actually bought a Tube several years ago, it;s a different design than this one but I want to track it down so I can test it against this driver circuit.

[@edgeeffect]

Hmmmm.... I think Radium paint is a bit more "beefy" than the good old gas lamp mantle.

[@cedAuz]

Cool to see you back with all these cool ideas and projects.

[@weirdboyjim]

Thanks Ced, Should be a more regular stream of videos again for a while.

[@hujkin1684]

That looks really fun! Maybe I should start getting some kits.

[@weirdboyjim]

For some reason it's easier to justify to myself buying a kit than a finished module.

[@TheBoatPirate]

I noticed the issue you had opening the components. the paper isnt supposed to be removed from the plastic. use a knife to cut the plastic from the back. the numbers and the components line up perfectly, no guesswork. yes the small components arent first but you can keep track of everything a lot better.

[@weirdboyjim]

Interesting, I looked back at some of my raw footage and that does seem to line up. Cutting the plastic seems like such an odd way of handling it though.

[@peter.stimpel]

I used quite a similar kit from alixepress, created a 3d printed case for it, added an ESP32 and an 0.96 OLED. There is this LED on the geiger board, which I was using to count the ticks. Now, the ESP displays the tick per minute on the OLED, and pushes the information to my home assistant and grafana. I like it. I found the output not reliable enough, or mine was broken, maybe. My "calibration" was done using the quite well known background decay of nature. I do not care if it is on point, but it will show a raise of radiation

[@weirdboyjim]

I have some spare arduous I could use for that purpose, I know I have an oled somewhere that I bought and didn't use or I could possibly use one of the character lcd's. I'll definitely do a short video on using it for random number generation though which in many ways is more likely to be of interest to my main audience.

[@peter.stimpel]

@@weirdboyjim Yup, quite a "strange" topic for you, but I liked the video very much.

[@edgeeffect]

Heisenberg Improbability Genetator! NICE! I've had a Geiger tube and a Tilly Lamp mantle kicking round for years.... but never actually got around to actually doing anything with them. :/

[@weirdboyjim]

I have an old tube somewhere that I bought years ago for this purpose, if I find it I'll have to see if I can get it to work in this circuit.

[@awesomecronk7183]

New lights are awesome! I must say, though, that dark spot in the middle is a little off-setting.

[@weirdboyjim]

I think what you are referring to is the shadow of the camera, I'll see what I can do but it's going to be tough. If I get more light in from the sides it may help. Next video is already recorded though so don't expect immediate changes.

[@FrankGevaerts]

@@weirdboyjim Maybe one of those ring lights around the camera lens could help?

[@weirdboyjim]

Maybe, but I'm going to try moving the light panel closer to the desk. It will take the dark spot more out of focus. That's the easiest thing for me to try first.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

You could also invest in a completely transparent camera. They don't cast shadows.

[@weirdboyjim]

I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those pesky laws of physics!

[@OscarSommerbo]

Fun video. But I wonder how random it will be and how fast it will generate true randomness.

[@weirdboyjim]

It will be truly random if I do it correctly. The trick is to make the randomness totally balanced so all outcomes have equal probability (It can be truly random but imbalanced). How fast is split into 2 parts, how many ionization events there are and how efficiently we turn them into a random bit stream. I'll try to be as efficient as possible but I'm not sure how wise it would be to "optimize the ionization events" beyond my little light mantle.

[@daviddenotter7193]

I THINK the component layout in the tray was a zig-zag. Left to right, down a row, right to left, down a row, left to right, etc.

[@weirdboyjim]

Nice guess but I don't think that's right, once I got into it I realized that the top left wasn't the first one in the list.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

Should there not be IN4007 diodes for use in the voltage tripler that drives the Muller tube.

[@weirdboyjim]

You may well be right, I am not an expert in these kinds of circuits.

[@olavl8827]

Nice relaxing video. Perhaps see if your device is sensitive enough to get a reading from bananas, they are full of potassium. That always works to slightly unsettle people ;-) Of course it also helps you explain to them that radiation in small amounts is everywhere around us naturally and not something worth panicking about. Something different: what is that little desktop microscope you are using? I suppose it's simply USB. I've seen others like it, but not exactly the same. Would you recommend it?

[@weirdboyjim]

I'll give it a try on bananas when I next have some in the house! The microscope is a pretty cheap one from ebay, I really like the way it is slim and so doesn't interfere too much with the main camera feed. Haven't seen that particular model around for a while though so I can't give a link.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

very good kit for checking your lead lined underpants are up to scratch. :-) You could also try it close to an old smoke detector, they used a radioactive source to ionize the air to detect the smoke particals.

[@weirdboyjim]

My smoke detectors were the first thing I checked, no signal there but I did find one thing that was a few times background. Wonder if you can guess what it was.

[@TheEmbeddedHobbyist]

@@weirdboyjim old luminous clock face, Some telephones had beta lights behind the dial, You have one of thunderfoot100's plates. but maybe one of them chinese butt plugs, sorry medical devices. :-)

[@edgeeffect]

It's got to be quite an old smoke detector I think.... if it is "a good one" the inside is plastered with warning signs.... oh there's a fun game.... somewhere in my office is Tilly Lamp mantle and 2 pellets of Americium.... could play radioactive hunt-the-thimble if I got around to building one of these kits. :)

[@Peter_S_]

@@weirdboyjim The Am241 source in a typical smoke detector is a strong alpha emitter and a weak low energy gamma emitter so you won't see much if anything at all with the shield in place with such a low sensitivity beta/gamma tube. Also remember that tube is completely blind to levels of radiation that can be downright dangerous. It's a decent enough sensor for classroom demos or post special weapons use, but in peacetime I would highly recommend swapping the tube out with a good unit from LND; the gold standard being the LND-7317 pancake tube if you can turn the working voltage up to 500V. That upgrade delivers decent sensitivity to gamma, beta, and alpha. All you need to do is match the driving voltage and you can use a wide variety of tubes. I would not recommend it, but if you were to remove the alpha source from your detector (still mounted to it's carrier of course) and hold it next to the tube, you should see some decent activity from the low energy gammas or Bremsstrahlung x-rays.

[@edgeeffect]

@@Peter_S_ no good for geiger muller testing.... but alright for a cloud chamber then. :)

[@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 ?

[@weirdboyjim]

That sounds like your power led has burnt out. It should be fairly easy to replace but you might want to check the current limiting resistor (Immediately beside it on my kit). If that was the wrong value it would explain why it burnt out but it might mean that you have swapped the resistor with another one which may cause a problem elsewhere in the circuit.

[@twobob]

great stuff

[@weirdboyjim]

Thanks Twobob, I must dig this out for some further play at some point.

[@wexx1k]

Do you need Arduino for setup? Or you can must give power and work?

[@weirdboyjim]

This doesn't need one, but I might interface one later on.

[@markmiranda3364]

what kind of microscope do u have for viewing the solders?

[@weirdboyjim]

About My Microscope... kzbin.info/www/bejne/bH-lgnameK2ngbM

[@bornstellar9429]

What kind of camera are you using for that zoom in?

[@weirdboyjim]

That was a cheap usb microscope I bought on ebay. I like the way it doesn't' intrude onto the main view too much. Unfortunately I've not seen that particular one for sale anywhere recently.

[@weirdboyjim]

A short video on it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bH-lgnameK2ngbM

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

Now you can recreate the opening act of Asimov's "The Stars Like Dust" in the comfort of your own home!

[@weirdboyjim]

I've been a big fan of Asimov since I was a kid, but I think that one maybe my least liked story of his as I was not a fan of the ending.

[@AJB2K3]

Are you going to connect it to the cpu?

[@weirdboyjim]

I suppose I could, but an Arduino or something like that would be a bit more portable.

[@andymouse]

Nice...cheers.

[@weirdboyjim]

Thanks andymouse!

[@CezarySiw]

Try measuring your smoke detector...

[@weirdboyjim]

I did! Mine doesn't appear to be that kind (or it it has good shielding).

[@darufara3716]

باسلام برای خرید ماژول تشخیص رادیواکتیو گاما از همین مدل خیلی جستجو کردم اما متاسفانه در ایران پیدا نکردم و شرکت آلتینا ادعا کرد که می تواند این کیت را از آمازون برایم تهیه کند اما الان نزدیک به دو ماه است که خبری نشد

[@weirdboyjim]

Sorry but I only speak English. Google translate tells me you are struggling to get hold of a similar kit, good luck!

[@MahBor]

Okay? So?

[@Drenov]

The tube is running at 380v, please stop touching it

[@weirdboyjim]

Are you subscribed to electroboom? 😅

[@Drenov]

​@@weirdboyjimno, I don't like seeing people being idiots, accidentally or deliberately staged.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

will it detect a banana or a handful of brazil nuts?

[@weirdboyjim]

I had a signal of a banana, not tried nuts. The interesting signal around the house though ws the ash in the fireplace, presumably some kind of concentration effect.

[@rimmersbryggeri]

@@weirdboyjim Probably the same potassium isotope as in bananas since potassium is abundant in wood ash.