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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 60 of them. Much of the information for this kit is available at the developers website. 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 may be some imperfections, although as minimal as possible. This particular one is a culmination 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 Four Triple Pole switches- ALL OFF IN CENTER POSITION. SELECT ALARM SCALER POWER ON/PC OFF CHARGE LIGHT ON/ON OFF ON/OFF ALARM ON/ON OFF ON/OFF SOUND TONE OFF CLICK NULL TONE RESET
UP MIDDLE DOWN
A. SELECT switch does 2 thing. When you first power on the unit, you will see:
I have preset this for your two probes, but later if you wanted to add another probe, you could change this rate with Arduino, or with the Sony wireless remote control which I will explain later. The second line refers to the current voltage that your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The 3000mAh 3.7v lipo battery is boosted to 5v with a pololu booster. Everytime you start up your GC (geiger counter) it will show you this so you will always know your current voltage. The third window will show this:
A. Starting on the left side top of the GC is the LCD contrast dial. As the LCD is used, it might get to a point for you to readjust the contrast for it. Not a big deal, while the backlight is on, gently take a small screwdriver and turn it to the left or right until it appears to have the best contrast. B. Below the contrast pot on the same side is the output multi-port used for Geiger Bot (with the included G-Bot cable), and for Geiger Graph and RAD OSX (with the optional USB/FTDI cable) Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into this with the 3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your iphone or ipad. Or plug the optional 3.5mm to USB cable into the port, and into a USB on your mac or PC, then follow instructions to run those programs. It also serves as an mono audio output for silent listening with headphones, or with the included 3 conductor to 3 conductor M-M audio cable, you can run sound based data logging software. C. On the right side of the GC 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 is the second system I have built with a wireless remote control. It 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 point the remote towards the IR window, and push the power button 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. After you are done, hit power again to get out of this mode. 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. CH Down moves to the next menu option CH Up moves to the previous menu option VOL Up increments the value already set for the current option or toggles an option VOL Down decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles an option ENT 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. PERIOD enters a decimal point - used when setting the ratio. MUTING used when out of the menu mutes the speaker when in "tone mode" RECALL used when out of the menu - switches between the main screen and the scaler screen 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 - see DISPLAY UNIT. Use the DEC PNT or AV/TV key to set a decimal point. ALARM THRESHOLD When the CPM or DOSE units is greater than this value the alarm is triggered. 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 TONE SENSITIVITY Determines how sensitive the tone is to changing activity. Low numbers are more sensitive. USE RADLOGGER? 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:
http://www.sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/
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
HIGH VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT AND MEASUREMENT When you remove the battery hatch on the lower part of the bottom of the unit, you will see three small holes on the top lip of the compartment. These are the HV checkpoints, Negative and Positive, and a adjustable resistor POT that is used to decrease and increase the amount of HV this unit is sending to the GM tubes. You will need a Multimeter with aligator clip ends, that is capable of handling this. Please go the the HV Test & adjust section of the DIY Geiger Counter website. In this section it will explain in more detail. I am providing you with a free 1Gig ohm resistor probe that plugs into the test point holes as shown below. Then use the aligator clips on your multimeter to clip to the Red and Black leads on the probe. I have set it to about 450V since that is about midway between the two tubes. This is also used for calibrating the unit. Depending on which probe you typically use, you may want to adjust this. LND recommends 500, and the Russian tube about 390. ENCLOSURE Dimensions: New Age Enclosure - S784114 - 7.8" x 4.1" x 1.4" (not including handle or feet) http://www.newageenclosures.com/files/784114_r5_2.pdf REPAIRS: If the unit fails for some reason with six months 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, CI-180G Probe, LND712 Probe, (4) Cables: Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor, BNC Cable, & a couple optional connectors, Mini USB to standard USB2 with FREE wall charger. CD with software and documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels. Rad samples upon request provided in micro lead pig. BONUS- 1G ohm resistor probe for HV measuring. If you ever need to replace the faceplate label, you will need to open up the unit, remove the bnc, toggle, and handle. Remove the old label, then place the new label on, then punch holes thru for these parts that you removed.
SELECT
ALARM SCALER
POWER
ON/PC OFF CHARGE
LIGHT
ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
ALARM
ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
SOUND
TONE OFF CLICK
NULL
TONE RESET
HIRO+plus
PROBE
RADIATION DETECTOR
atomic.dave
BRD FTDI 5V
1 3 5 6 4 2 1 3 5
5V Boost IN
2 4 6
1 3 5 6 4 2
Blue LED POS LED BRD POS Blue LED POS OPEN S Red LED POS OPEN OPEN Piezo Jum mp B Jump LCD Jump L BRD Pin 15 5 BRD Pin 15 OPEN Piezo Jum mp A Jump
LCD Jump R
Board Pin n 12
FTDI 5V
OPEN
A
LIGHT NULL
TONE Reset
SEL LECT SELECT
ALARM SCALER ON/PC OFF CHARGE
B F
POWER LIGHT
ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
C
ALARM
AL ARM ALARM LED
300 OHM RESISTOR RESISTOR
1 3 5 6 5 6 4 ALARM PIEZO PIEZO 2
D
SOUND
SPEAKER TONE OFF CLICK
ALARM
ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
E
SOUND
TONE OFF CLICK
SELECT
E VEN NT EVENT LED LE ED
270 OHM RESISTOR RESISTOR
1 3 5 6 4 2
POWER P
LED/BKL LT LED/BKLT ON/ON OFF ON/OFF LED/SND ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
NULL
TONE RESET
+
1 2 4 1 2
_
3
HIR HIRO+plus
RADIATION DETECTOR
LIPO
FTDI
O ON
L R
8 9 10 11 12 13
EX T EXT
O ut Out
INT
1 3
2 4
GM T& GMT C onversion Conversion R ate SELEC T Rate SELECT T oggle o S witch Toggle Switch
14 15 16 17 18 19
INT
EXT EXT