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K90_TEKOplus_CI8B Geiger Counter by Atomic.dave
[email protected] 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 three years having built and soldaround 90
of them. Much of the information for this kit is available at the
developers website. This is more of a kit for some-one who knows a
little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience
to build it, or would rather someone else doall the dirty work.
Having been built by me, of course there may be some imperfections,
although as minimal as possible. ThisRussian tube/probe is one of
the most sensitive that I have ever used before. I have preset the
high voltage to about 380v.Dont be afraid by the amount of
background radiation this will pick up, just consider the size of
the the mica window and howmuch it will pick up. As all mica
windows, please be careful when handling it, and realize that it
can pop easily if poked with ahard object. It is however much less
delicate than a LND7317 as it will not require a air pressurized
container for shipping.
OPERATIONFive Triple Pole switches- ALL OFF IN CENTER POSITION.
(FOLLOW PHOTO BELOW FOR BUTTON LOCATON)
A. MODE momentary switch does 2 things. When you first power on
the unit, you will see:Atomic.Dave K90 TEKO CI-8B V10.3
This customized first welcome window can easily be changed if
you want, by doinga little programming in Arduino. Refer to the DIY
site for directions at the SOFTWAREsection. But the default is now
set to my name, Kit 90, and the second line is the GeigerCounter
Name and Tube, and the version of software that the AT328 chip is
runningV10.3.
Then a second window will come up with the first line showing
the current set uSvto CPM conversion rate.
440 CPM=1 uSv/h 100 CPM=1 uSv/hRunning at 5.24V Running at
5.24V
The second line refers to the current voltage that your system
is running at. This isa 5 volt system. The 3200mAh 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
alwaysknow your current voltage.
The third window will show this:Alarm Set ?Now at 500 CPM
At this point, you can push the MODE button to incrementally
change the Alarmthreshold number. Once you stop holding down the
button and wait, it will be set to thecurrent number shown on the
screen and will stay there until you change it either
againrestarting and waiting for this part, or by using the included
remote control to change it. You can also choose from units
ofmeasurement such as CPM or uSv/h for the Alarm with the
remote.
It also acts like a stopwatch starter for the scaler mode. It
has two preset times of 1 minute and 10 minute averaging. Youcan
change this with the remote, or the sketch when connected to pc.
Although it is much easier with the remote obviously.B. LIGHT this
controls the LCD backlight and the blinking Green LED. Left for
only the LED on, middle for both off, and rightfor both LED and
Backlight on.C. POWER switch controls the power and charging of the
unit. Right powers the unit with the internal battery, Middle turns
itoff, and Left is for charging the unit. (in addition to this, you
will need to switch the USB power switch on the lower right sideto
the down CHRG position) When the unit is charging, the RED LED just
above the mini USB port at the bottom of the unitwill remain
constant RED while charging, and when charging is complete, it will
turn BLUE. If you wish to power the unitwith the USB in, and bypass
the batteries for extended periods. Keep Power switch in OFF
position, and flip the USB powerswitch on the lower right side to
the PWR position. (when not using USB power or charging, keep this
USB switch in themiddle position)D. SOUND switch controls the Event
speaker. Right for tone mode, Middle for mute, Left for Standard
Click Mode. More onTone Mode later.E. GREEN NULL momentary this
works only when in Tone mode for the event speaker. When you are
scanning in Tonemode, you can push this to reset the sensing to
zero. More on this later.F. USB switch is used to control the power
coming into the mini usb port. UP to bypass the battery and use
only USBpower. Middle to turn it off, and down to charge the unit.
Remeber to switch the POWER switch to CHG when charging,and OFF
when using USB power.G. ALM switch controls the Alarm LED and
Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and Down for LED only
on. Thismakes for a silent visual alarm.LEDSAfter turning on the
unit, right away, you will hear the clicking of the speaker as your
GM tube picks up radiation events.There are two LEDs below the GM
tube. The Left one is GREEN which is for radiation events and
coincides with the click-ing speaker which can be muted with the
mute switch. The Right one is RED for the Alarm which will only
light up when aset alarm threshold is reached. It can be turned on
or off. The speaker for the alarm and events is located above and
leftand right of the GM tube at the top of the unit.
OTHER SWITCHES, PORTS or DIALSA. To the left of the LCD 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 itappears to have the best contrast.
B. To the right of the LCD is the output MULTI-PORT used for
Geiger Bot (with the included G-Bot cable), Just plug inthe Geiger
Bot cable into this with the 3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor
into your iphone or ipad. It also serves as anmono 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.
A E
B
F G
C D
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D. At the very bottom of the unit is the Mini USB FTDI
output/input for programming in Arduino. This also is used tocharge
the internal Lithium Ion battery (with the power switch in the
bottome position.) Or it can be used to power the GCfor extended
periods, however when you power it this way, I would advise to turn
off the LCD backlight. But its ok to turn iton once in a while, but
I wouldnt leave it on for extended periods. When uploading any new
changes to the programsketch, you will need to have this switch in
the up position white it is plugged into your pc with the USB
cable. This sameUSB is also used as an output for usb based FREE
Radiation Logging software. To use this software, you mustdownload
from this site, and install on your laptop or PC. It is not
available for Mac.
http://radiohobbystore.com/radiation-logger/
REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM: 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 powerbutton to
start. As soon as you do that these options will pop up. Use the
channel button to move thru each option, anduse the volume buttons
to move up or down within those options. You can also use the
number pad to input numbersrather 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 optionCH Up
moves to the previous menu optionVOL Up increments the value
already set for the current option or toggles an optionVOL Down
decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles
an optionENT finalizes the entry in the current menu option if
changes were madeWhen 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 ineffect 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 dis-played
- 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 modeTONE
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 BTGraphing 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 mini-mum 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 sec-ond. 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 boththe
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 inthose 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 theEEPROM 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 itcan 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 DOSEUNIT selected.
For example, 175.43 is the default set for the SBM-20 with uSv as
the dose unit. Suppose you pick "mR"
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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 definedas .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 as175.43 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 mRwould 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/ARDUINO
Software and Serial-USB connection information:ON the cd you will
find the FTDI driver and Arduino program version 1. Install both
and restart your mac. Copy the Geiger Sketch folder to the same
folder as yourArduino program is and remember where that is as that
will be where you go to save your sketch everytime you make a
change to it. There will also be a Libraryfolder that will also
need to be in the same folder. Just remember that the folder has to
be the same exact name as the sketch name is. And also within
Arduino, youwill have to go to preferences and show Arduino where
your default sketch folder is.
ARDUINO SETTINGS: Brohogan Software system version 10.11. Open
Arduino2. Open the saved sketch .ino file, connect your Geiger
counter to the USB with power switch off.3. Verify the file by
clicking the little check mark icon.4. Click TOOLS, and Select
Board type as Arduino UNO, and select serial port as the top tty
choice.5. Click Serial Monitor (top right looking glass icon). Set
Baud rate to 9600 and you should see the CPM, uSv and geiger
counter voltage data coming up once per minute.
For more info go to website under Software section on the DIY
geiger counter website. Or go to Arduino.cc
GEIGER BOT SUGGESTED SETTINGS: (You may have to play with it to
get it just right) GO TO:
https://sites.google.com/site/geigerbot/
OTHER SOFTWARE
LINKS:http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/download.html
HARDWARE1. DIY Geiger counter kit V5.3 by Brohogan, Running
operating system 10.32. New Russian CI-8B Geiger Muller Tube3.
Power System by Seeeduino, Sparkfun and Pololu (please charge the
unit until the RED light turns BLUE)A. You can power the Geiger in
a couple different ways 1. With internal Lipo battery (Power switch
in UP position)2. With PWR switch OFF (middle), USB cable plugged
into USB port on RIGHT side of geiger, USB PWR switch on right side
of unit switched UP, then plugUSB cable into:a. Computer or laptop
USBb. Wall charger block (included)c. Standard 5v USB Cigarette
adapter (included) d. To power and operate the unit this way for
long periods, TURN OFF BACKLIGHT To save LCD Life.
POWER and OTHER SYSTEM ITEMS: This system is capable of
producing 900+ volts, so be careful or you may get zapped when
handling the systemwhile 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. Sparkfun USB Lithium Polymer battery charger
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10401
D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716
E. Pololu 5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S7V7F5
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2119
Select options Select Geiger Counter Select LND712 CS137 Adjust
Conversion factor to your tube:
123 for LND712175 for SBM-20
360 for LND7317Select I/O Settings
Auto Adjust OFF(you may need to play
with this setting) RMS Window 1
Delay Window 30Volume Thresh 20000
Ultrafast Rates ON
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ENCLOSUREDimensions: 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
with Russian CI-8B Pancake Tube with Factory Cover, (3) Cables:
Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor,Mini USB to
standard USB2 with car and wall charger. CD with software and
documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels. Sony
RM-EZ4 Remote.
80mm
30mm
65mm
mica window
10mm16.5mm
70mm
PANCAKE 7317 (@1/8 distance)
C
PANCAKE 7317 (@1/8 distance)
C
RUSSIAN GEIGER TUBE COUNTER CI-8BThe slope of the plateau of the
counting characteristics,%, not exceeding: 0,3Sensitivity of the
counting rate, imp.s-1.A-1.kg: 1.3 * 10E12 ... 1.9 *
10E12Sensitivity of the counting rate (imp / uR): (350 500)The
slope of the voltage-current characteristics,%, not more:
1,25Amplitude voltage pulse, V, no less than: 20Own background, imp
/ s, max: 2Effectiveness of registration of beta radiation,%: 50
85Current sensitivity, uA: 8 15 (at P = 12.9 * 10E-10 A / kg (5 uR
/ s))Operating range voltage, V: 360 440Maximum operating speed
counting, pulses / s: 3400Maximum operating current, mA: 18.2The
maximum permissible exposure dose of gamma radiation, A / kg: 21.5
* 10E-6 (for 1 min)The maximum permissible exposure dose of gamma
radiation (R / h): (300) (for 1 min)
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