Worried about radiation levels? I’m not, but I still want to build one of these. Mr. Fission here was built by the same guy that’s behind the OpenTracker project. [Scott] based it on the Bargraph Geiger counter built by [Russel E. Cliff]. Both use a standard Geiger tube like the LND712. The tube works with high voltages – easy enough with older electronics, but it’s a slightly tougher challenge with todays low voltage gear. [Scott] used the high voltage power supply from the original project, and built the rest around a good ol’ Motorola HC86 series processor. [Scott]’s idea of using an inverter supply designed for a cold cathode lamp is definitely an interesting one.
12 thoughts on “Digital Geiger Counter”
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There’s lots of russian geiger counters for sale on Ebay for about $25.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-RADIATION-DOSIMETER-DETECTOR-DRSB-88-Geiger-Counter_W0QQitemZ160180285311QQihZ006QQcategoryZ53154QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I got one of these and they’re awesome! They present an audible click every time a count is detected. It’s like a horror sci-fi movie when one of these is brought near a radiation source.
The AA battery lasts a couple of days of continuous usage when detecting.
I keep one in my truck while driving. So far, it’s only gone off once – it wasn’t the location and it wasn’t a solar flare (I checked that), so I’m assuming that a vehicle in oncoming traffic was carrying radioactive stuff.
Next time it happens I’ll be more alert and try to follow them…
Peter,
Good idea, just keep an eye out for a delorean spewing dry ice and that’s the culprit.
Radioactive = Jiggawatts
#3: agreed. radioactive material is always most easilly spotted post time travel return trips.
If you ever have any doubts however, just ask the libyans in the volkswagon van. don’t the rocket launcher…. thats just the cultural way of saying ‘hello’
Haha. The reference to Back to the Future is cute.
so a picture of a box and 3/4ths of a page of description.
schematics or GTFO
Perhaps following the link would help, ‘Man On Fire’. It provides an email address to get ahold of the schematics.
He made a typo on the link to the original project.
For those looking for schematics – eg man on fire, the correct link is THIS:
http://www.cbtricks.com/~ab7if/bgc/bgc.htm
despite the fact that the schematics are available by request… I do agree with man on fire to some extent. I hate to complain about hacks but the recent posting of hacks without any information on how they work is more suited for some TV special about crazy nerds who are too smart to understand than a hack a day hack…
and before anyone jumps down my throat… yes I do submit hacks.
@chimpoid
The funny thing is my friend who drives a delorean had 50 pounds of dry ice in the passenger seat mixed with water spewing out smoke the other day. We gave him the extra after our highschool play.
finally! now i can detect something else invisible i am afraid of
Some nice low cost diy radiation measuring devices using a ionization chamber instead if geiger tubes:
http://hamchatforum.lefora.com/2009/10/27/ionization-chambers/