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by Atomic.dave Atomic.Dave@yahoo.com
This is a one of a kind custom hand-made Geiger Counter built by Atomic.Dave. It is based on a kit designed by John Giametti (username: Brohogan) I have been building his DIY Geiger counters for over two years having built and sold around 80 of them. All information for this kit is available at the developers website. As I have said before, this is more of a kit for someone who knows a little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience to build it, or would rather someone else do all the dirty work. Having been built by me, of course there will be some imperfections, although as minimal as possible. This particular one is a culmination of all of its predecessors. It is certainly one of my more advanced kits having more options then all accept the Cadillac, and I will do my best to explain how to use it. Once you have used it a couple times, it will be a piece of cake. OPERATION On the face of the unit, Right side- Four Triple Pole switches- ALL OFF IN CENTER POSITION A. POWER switch controls the power and charging of the unit. Up turns on the unit, Middle turns if off, and Down is for when you charge the unit. When the unit is charging, the RED LED on the middle right side will remain constant RED while charging, and when charging is complete, it will turn off. If you wish to power the unit with the USB in, and bypass the batteries for extended periods, Power switch in middle position, and flip up USB power switch on right side of unit just to the right of the power switch. B. SOUND switch controls the Event speaker. Up for tone mode, Middle for mute, and Down for Standard Click Mode. More on Tone Mode later. B2. NULL momentary switch just to the right of the sound switch, and works only when in Tone mode for the event speaker. When you are scanning in Tone mode, you can push this to reset the sensing to zero. C. LIGHT switch controls the Event LED GREEN and the LCD Backlight. Up turns on both, Middle turns both off, and Down turns the LED on, and the Backlight off. D. ALARM switch controls the Alarm LED and Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and Down for LED only on. This makes for a silent visual alarm. GREEN SELECT momentary switch to the right of the LCD display- does 2 things. When you first power on the unit, you will see this first screen:
USB) you can now hook up the unit to the network version of this popular software for live online uploading of data. C. On the left side of the GC below the output plug is the Mini USB FTDI output/input for programming in Arduino. This also is used to charge the internal Lithium Ion battery (with the power switch in the bottome position.) Or it can be used to power the GC for extended periods, however when you power it this way, I would advise to turn off the LCD backlight. But its ok to turn it on once in a while, but I wouldnt leave it on for extended periods. When uploading any new changes to the program sketch, you will need to have this switch in the up position white it is plugged into your pc with the USB cable. REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM: ONLY TURN ON IR WHEN PROGRAMMING SYSTEM. TURN OFF AFTER. This adds some conveniences such as the ability to adjust certain things on the GC without the need to plug into your PC or mac. It is already setup to work. All you have to do is turn on the IR sensor then point the remote towards the IR window (above the display inside and hidden), and push the power button on the remote to start. As soon as you do that these options will pop up. Use the channel button to move thru each option, and use the volume buttons to move up or down within those options. You can also use the number pad to input numbers rather than using the up down of the volume. After you reach the desired amount you push ENT to enter it into the system. The keys on the Remote Control perform these functions: On/Off enter or exit the menu system. "DISP PERIOD (MS) is the first prompt you will see. Channel Down or Down Arrow moves to the next menu option Channel Up or Up Arrow moves to the previous menu option Volume Up or Right Arrow increments the value already set for the current option or toggles an option Volume Down or Left Arrow decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles an option Enter finalizes the entry in the current menu option if changes were made. When used out of the menu, it acts like the "null" button to reset the tome. Digits 0-9 for direct entry of values (instead of Volume or Arrows) must use Enter after using digits. Decimal Point - enters a decimal point - used when setting the ratio. Mute used when out of the menu mutes the speaker when in "tone mode" (see below) or the piezo if that mod has been made to the Geiger board. Menu Options: Initially, menu options are set to defaults. Settings made will be stored in EEPROM on the ATmega328, so they will be in effect when you power back on. Here is a brief description of each menu option: DISP PERIOD (MS) - The number of milliseconds before the display refreshes. 5000 (5 sec.) is a good setting. (Display counts are based on a "running average" I do not recommend settings of less than 5 seconds.) LOG PERIOD - When to write the CPM, 'dose', and MCU voltage to the serial output. Zero means logging is turned off. CPM->[DOSE] RATIO - Sets that ratio for the type of GM tube used. Note this ratio will depend on the dose unit being displayed ALARM THRESHOLD - When the CPM or DOSE units is greater than this value the alarm is triggered. (See Alarm and Second Screen below) Unlike the button, any value may be entered. DOSE UNIT - Use the arrow keys to select the name of the unit for the dose value - "uSv/h", "uR/h" or "mR/h". ALARM UNIT - Sets whether the alarm is based off of CPM or the DOSE unit. Use the arrow keys to select. SCALER PER (MIN) - Sets the period for the second scaler. BARGRAPH MAX CPM - Sets the CPM that will give a full scale reading on the bar graph. This also affects tone mode (see below) TONE SENSITIVITY - Determines how sensitive the tone is to changing activity. Low numbers are more sensitive. USE RADLOGGER? (v10.1) - When "Yes" serial output is compatible with Radiation Logger application - see Android / PC BT Graphing page. REG. VOLTAGE - Displays the voltage powering the MCU (Vcc). To a large degree, this represents the state of the battery. Note that each menu setting has a minimum and a maximum setting. Entries that are out of bounds will revert to the minimum or maximum. DISPLAY BAR GRAPH: The display has a new bar graph style with placeholders and is much more responsive. It now updates 20 times per second. The tone is also updated at this rate when used. Auto-precision - decimals are dropped from the displayed dose rate as it gets larger. Beginning with v10.1 the LOG PERIOD can now be set to intervals of less than 1 minute. Valid settings are OFF, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, and 1 minute intervals up to 720 minutes. "Tube Select" is still supported where grounding I/O pin 9 will use an alternate ratio for CPM to Dose unit. The CPM>DOSE RATIO in the menu will set and save which ever ratio is selected at the time it's used. This allows setting of both the primary and alternate ratios. The current state of the the mute button and the scaler mode are saved in EEPROM and the Geiger kit will come up in those states the next time it's powered on. A "reset all" #define can be set. When uploaded the EEPROM is reset to all the default values. This may be useful if the EEPROM contains invalid data from a previous release. Another #define can put the counter in a test mode. 360 CPM is simulated. Interrupts are not producing the count so it can be affected if tone mode is on. Major restructuring of the code base including use of tabs and memory saving techniques. ABOUT DOSE UNITS: The menu allows you select the name of the dose unit that appears on the display. However, to be clear, there is no built in conversion between them. Instead the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO is adjusted depending on the name of the DOSE UNIT selected. For example, 175.43 is the default set for the SBM-20 with uSv as the dose unit. Suppose you pick "mR" as the dose unit name, and want to measure in milirems. ("mR" more correctly abbreviates as milliroentgens but is used to save display space.) The rem is defined as .01 seivert. Therefore, to use the same ratio that was designed for the tube, you would multiply that ratio by 10. You would enter a CPM->[DOSE] RATIO as 175.43 x 10 or 1754.3. Likewise if you wanted microrems ("uR") you would divide the ratio by 10 and enter 17.54. If you do want to use roentgens (used in older instruments) this source states that they are .96 rem in soft tissue. So the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO for actual mR would be 175.43 x 10 x .96 or 1684.1. (for uR it would be 16.84)
PLEASE REFER TO THE DIY GEIGER COUNTER DEVELOPERS WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Select options
Adjust Conversion factor to your tube: 123 for LND712 175 for SBM-20 360 for LND7317 Select I/O Settings
Auto Adjust OFF (you may need to play with this setting) RMS Window 1 Delay Window 30 Volume Thresh 20000
Ultrafast Rates ON
HARDWARE 1. DIY Geiger counter kit V5.3 by Brohogan, Running operating system 10.2 2. LND 712 Geiger Muller Tube Inside Aluminum probe housing 3. Power System by SEEEDUINO, Sparkfun and Pololu (please charge the unit until the RED light goes out) A. You can power the Geiger in a couple different ways 1. With internal Lipo battery 2. With PWR switch OFF (middle), USB cable plugged into USB port on RIGHT side of geiger then plugged into: a. Computer or laptop USB b. Wall charger block c. Standard 5v USB Cigarette adapter d. To power and operate the unit this way for long periods, TURN OFF BACKLIGHT
POWER and OTHER SYSTEM ITEMS: This system is capable of producing 900+ volts, so be careful or you may get zapped when handling the system while it is powered on. A. Seeeduino Lithium Ion battery - 3.7v 3000mAh http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/lithium-ion-polymer-battery-pack-3a-p-588.html?cPath=178_183 Full recharge in 3 hours, provides approximately 40 hour constant use of geiger counter with backlight off. Charge with PC/USB will take about 5 hours or more. B. USB Lithium Polymer battery charger https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10401 C. Pololu 5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator 2120 http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2120 D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716 LND-712 GEIGER MULLER TUBE Installed inside the aluminum probe housing and connected by BNC is an LND 712 GM Tube which senses Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Xray. http://www.lndinc.com/products/711/ ENCLOSURE: Hammond 1599EGYBAT Dimensions: 6.70 x 3.3 x 1.33 http://www.hammondmfg.com/dwg6.htm REPAIRS: If the unit fails for some reason with a year from purchase, I will be more than happy to do any maintenance you need at no charge except shipping. PACKAGE CONTENTS: In your package you will find: Geiger Counter, Lead Pig w/ Sample, Sony RM-EZ4 Remote Control, (3) Cables: Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor, Mini USB to standard USB2. CD with software and documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels.
OUTPUT T
INPUT
A F H
SELECT T NULL
Wi d Windsca Windscale2 i
LND712
B
LIGHT L ALARM
C
REMOTE PWR
ALARM Threshold d Timer Timer
OUTPUT O T
D
AL ARM ALARM LED
OHM 300 OHM RESISTOR O RESISTOR
1 3 5 1 6 4 ALARM PIEZO PIEZO 2
E
TONE Reset
POWER
E VENT EVENT LED
270 OHM RESISTOR RESISTOR
1 3 5 6 4 2
SOUND
LE ED/BKL LT LED/BKLT ON/ON ON N/ON OFF OF FF ON/OFF ON N/OFF LED/SND ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
_
2
1
2
IN NPUT INPUT
J
FTDI
G
N ON
LIPO
In IR SENSOR
O ut Out
L R
8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19
FG