Comments on: Hackable Geiger Counter

By: Fritz

Fritz — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:59:16 +0000

Did anybody check how to upgrade the firmware via USB connector ? It’s not a good idea to send 0′s and 1′s per event. It should sent cps or cpm (counts per second or minute). Has anybody a idea of an ATMEL programming device to connect to it ?

By: DavideV

DavideV — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:19:24 +0000

@Someguynamedjoe

There would be inherent biases in that arrangement. By nature, the individual counters (even the individual tubes) would be more or less sensitive, so in your arrangement some digits would be more or less common.

By: yq

yq — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 02:59:19 +0000

good design!

By: dogy

dogy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:46:25 +0000

Memory chips make great radiation detectors, lower the refresh rate and hammer them with read write cycles, the error rate is directly proportional to radiation level. This technique was used in the 1960′s and was used aboard skylab as a cosmic ray detector. ..

By: pookey

pookey — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:13:40 +0000

@sharky:

How about a 1N4148 ?

By: Sharky

Sharky — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:56:04 +0000

It’s just too bad there isn’t a good alternative to the gas-filled tube.

By: Someguynamedjoe

Someguynamedjoe — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:53:13 +0000

I’ve always thought that if you had ten geiger counter elements you could create a truly random number generator. (Granted, I’m not the most skilled mathematician, so bear with me.)

Seems to me that all you would need is ten elements and some supporting circuitry.

On power up, the machine would initialize such that the first sensor to catch a particle would represent zero, the seconds would be one and so on.

As soon as all of the sensors had been initialized, the machine would start spitting out digits with each sensor spitting out its own value whenever it got hit.

Am I missing something? Would this still be pseudo-random?

By: larrysanchez

larrysanchez — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:30:09 +0000

Radioactive cigarettes?? Now I have heard everything!

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:11:11 +0000

Use it as a stop-smoking aid for your loved one: it will set off an alarm whenever the radiation from a pack of cigarettes is detected.

By: Tachikoma

Tachikoma — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:45:44 +0000

Pretend I’m a S.T.A.L.K.E.R and search for artefacts.

By: calvinn1

calvinn1 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:34:40 +0000

Nice stuff. Anyone used?

By: hans

hans — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:29:15 +0000

that’s a Shrödinger’s cat box, not Heisenberg.

By: Chaz

Chaz — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:26:05 +0000

Use it to trigger the drop of a cyanide tablet into acid, and make a Heisenberg Cat box. :D

By: asdf

asdf — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:51:47 +0000

Make a hand held one that is sensitive enough, add a GPS locator with GSM automatic alert signaling, then give one to every boy scout group, sell or rent it to excursionists, etc. Voila: you get instant radioactive-mapping which will help a lot to bust illegal nuclear waste disposal.

By: hans

hans — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:26:38 +0000

datalogger in combination with GPS. Then put it in your car, bicycle, backpack, weather balloon, …