[aprssig] APRS Radiation sensor

[Julian, G4ILO]

The hand held consumer devices with LCD emit a click or beep whenever
a particle is counted (according to the reviews). So presumably you
could tap into the signal from the speaker then count the clicks using
a PIC circuit similar to yours? The LCD reading would be useful to
validate that your averaging calculation is working correctly.

Julian, G4ILO
G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com








On 23 March 2011 17:55, Bernard Van Haecke <bernard.vanhaecke at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> All Geiger counters work on the same principle.  When a particle enters the
> tube it
> ionises the gas and generates a spike.  Counting spikes per minute
> determines the radioactivity rate in CPM and that's what you want to report.
> The APRS telemetry code I posted on my QRZ page for the Arduino and
> RadioShield
> can count the spikes per minute via a digital pin (just make sure you don't
> put 1,000
> volts into your Arduino) as well as readings from the serial port.
> Theoretically, any Geiger counter can be used/modified to get the pulse
> signal and shape
> it as a TTL 5v pulse.  In normal circumstances, you should get between 10
> and 40 CPM.
> There is nothing available out of the box so in any case some
> hacking/testing/experimenting
> is required.  Using a counter with serial port is easier though.  Note that
> even those don't
> report average counts per minute over their serial ports.  They report
> instant counts.
> I doubt any existing weather station is capable of doing simple maths like
> rolling window
> averages etc... so there again some hacking is required.  The Arduino seems
> to be
> the easiest way to go (in my opinion).
> As time goes by I expect hams to come up with simple designs/schematics
> showing
> how to hook up a Geiger tube or hack existing counters to connect to
> Arduinos and
> the like.  Some over here are actually looking into this already.
> Bernard KI6TSF
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 9:07 AM, Julian, G4ILO <julian.g4ilo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> A lot of domestic hand-held radiation monitors such as are
>> manufactured in Ukraine have only an LCD readout. They are much
>> cheaper than the ones with computer interface. Is there any way that
>> they could be used? Could the system accommodate manually entered
>> readings?
>>
>> Julian, G4ILO
>> G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
>>
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>