Uranium Yellowcakes

Thanks to weirdmeister inc. for sharing youtube videos about uranium rocks and minerals collection he have!

TI LaunchPad MSP-EXP430G2 development board with RH-K-GK-2 Geiger kit

One of RH Electroics customers shared his Geiger project code. He used MSP430 microprocessor board and RH-K-GK-2 kit

Since MSP430 is very low power chip, the total power consumption of his Geiger project on background is: 0.4mA for 5110 LCD + 0.030mA for RH-K-GK-2 + 0.240mA for MSP4430 = 0.670mA total
You can visit the links above to see the full project code and more photos.

Discount Coupon 10%

Discount Coupon 10% valid until 31 January 2015 - HappyNewYear2015
Apply it in your shopping cart before checkout. Limited up to 3 kits in one purchase on www.rhelectronics.net/store/
 
**Please make sure to apply discount coupon before checkout in your shopping cart, because we cannot apply it manually after checkout is completed.
Thank you for choosing RH Electronics!

Arduino DIY Geiger Counter Kit

In this blog post I would review an Arduino based Geiger Counter Kit. 
Latest edition is here:

https://rhelectronics.net/store/arduino-ide-geiger-counter-dosimeter-diy-kit-with-lcd.html

What is new in this version?

• Well-designed electrical scheme and improved PCB layout
• True voltage feedback in PWM high voltage converter that allows now to drive 20Mega ohm load on 500V
• Optimized software for fast count-rate condition
• Second screen mode with CPS counter
• Fast CPS bargraph with logarithmic scale (great for pancake tube or scint.probe)
• Native support of 500V and 400V tubes, voltage is set with jumper switch
• Two LED's with buzzer clicker and mute button
• Switch between CPM or CPS screen with button

The kit is robust hardware that designed to drive a Geiger Tube while high voltage and pulse counting are controlled by one microcontroller. This is simple and educational project, however load capability and performance of the circuit allows to use this board also in more serious applications, like scientific research or extreme enthusiast tests. Second CPS screen mode with bargraph can be used with sensitive pancake GM tube or with externally connected scintillation probe. 

As before you have:

• Dose-Rate calculation and ability to calibrate through Arduino sketch
• Moving average CPM counter
• UART Logs of CPM value every 10 seconds
• 16x2 LCD Screen
• Friendly Arduino IDE source files, open source with buyer

Arduino Radiation Detector Kit ver.3.00 with Philips 18504 Geiger Tube

http://www.rhelectronics.net/store/radiation-detector-geiger-counter-diy-kit-second-edition.html 

The video shows HV tests with Philips 18504 Geiger tube. It demonstrate HV stability and current consumption under low and high radiation load. As you can see, the HV stays within plateau limits even under very high count load. No drops and no over-voltage on the tube.To perform the same experiment you need to build 10 Giga ohm voltage divider for the multimeter. Such high impedance exclude any effect on HV converter and allows to measure HV correctly.

Technical specifications of Philips 18504:

Initializing Voltage:     275V-325V

Beginning of Plateau:  425V

Ending of Plateau:        650V

The kit was configured for 500V output with jumper. High voltage was measured on the point after 1N4937 diodes multiplier before 4.7M load resistor.

18504 tube has mica window that allows to demonstrate very intensive radiation load count when Am-241 sample placed closely to mica. The distance between mica surface and Am-241 was less than 1.00mm. High speed count under this condition is identical to 1200uSv/h Gamma radiation load, or at least it simulates extremely high load count conditions.

Radiation Logger 1.5.0.0 beta

Radiation Logger 1.5.0.0 beta released. You can download it from RH Electronics website.
It can display dose in uRn/h units, has moving average CPM calculating and auto scroll graph.

Third Edition of Arduino Compatible DIY Geiger Kit released

It's time to introduce new third edition of our Arduino Compatible DIY Geiger Kit. As previous second edition, it still works as radiation detector board, but has several significant improvements and also new functions.
New electrical circuit design allows extremely low power consumption and also improves HV stability under fast count. 
   

Benefits of original third edition:

• Kit consumes less than 0.06mA at background, usually 0.035mA
• Improved HV stability up to 1000uSv/h radiation load
• More supported tubes, 400V and 500V range select
• Tube over voltage protection, limiting HV spikes
• Wide compatibility with different MCU for software developers
• TRRS socket for direct connection to Apple devices for “Geiger Bot”
• Only DIP components to solder, SMD already installed
• Simple assembling, no need to read electrical circuit
  
  

High Voltage Test Results:

Here is the data for HV tests with Philips 18504 Geiger tube. Technical specifications of the tube:

Initializing Voltage: 275V-325V

Beginning of Plateau: 425V

Ending of Plateau: 650V

The kit was set for 500V configuration. High voltage was measured on the point after 1N4937 diodes multiplier before 4.7M load resistor. We used 10Giga Ohm divider to get much more realistic results for high voltage measuring.

18504 tube has mica window that allows to demonstrate very intensive radiation load count when Am-241 sample placed closely to mica. The distance between mica surface and Am-241 was less than 1.00mm. High speed count under this condition is identical to 1200uSv/h Gamma radiation load, or at least it simulates extremely high load count conditions.

Another sample for test was piece of Fiesta Ware that usually on other counters measured as 10000 CPM or 60uSv/h load.

Condition	Current drawn	HV measuring
Background Radiation 0.1uSv/h	0.030mA	510V
Fiesta Ware 60uSv/h	3.0mA	590V
Am-241 simulating 1.2mSv/h	33.80mA	590V

The test results shows very good parameters of HV converter. On background radiation kit can operate during a year period with just one battery set, in case you use 4x Ni-MH 1800mAh or greater. Under heavy load the current drawn is increased, but HV voltage stays in tube plateau limits that helping to keep GM tube parameters in recommended limits. 

You have an option to power the kit with one or two AAA batteries, but you need to add step-up module to the board. Of course when using 5V step-up module, the current consumption will grow. You can find more technical details in user manual PDF. 

Now the board support direct connection to iPhone or iPad if you need to use Geiger Bot application.

And as before for developers, the kit can be used with your favorite microcontroller through 3 wires connecting VDD, GND, INT. Interrupts connection is configurable, you can use resistor or bypass capacitor by activating internal pull-up resistor inside your software.

10% Discount Coupon Code

10% Discount Coupon Code : PROMOJUNE2014
Valid till 30 June 2014
**Please make sure to apply discount coupon before checkout in your shopping cart, because we cannot apply it manually after checkout is completed.
Thank you for choosing RH Electronics!
http://rhelectronics.net 

MyGeiger second edition DIY Geiger Counter Kit released

MyGeiger Dosimeter DIY Kit is officially released on RH Electronics website.
MyGeiger ver. 2.00 has carefully crafted electrical circuit with new and reliable software. As a result, now we have more professional and stable device with all important for portable dosimeter functions.  The project still kept easy for soldering. You need to solder only DIP through hole components when all SMD already pre-soldered.

 

The kit has built-in USB logging support and lithium charger on-board, ready for your 3.7V Li-Ion battery.

MyGeiger ver.2.00 now support 400V and 500V popular Geiger tubes, such as SBM-20, SI-29BG, LND-712, LND-7317 and more.

 

Arduino IDE Geiger Counter DIY Kit with SD Shield Board

New Arduino based DIY Geiger kit released. It comes with 2 models. The simplest and cheaper version support eeprom logging and the second version comes with SD card shield. The main pcb board of both kits are same, SD shield allows to use micro SD card for saving lots of radiation logs with GPS data.
For more technical details please follow product links:

1. Arduino IDE Geiger Kit with eeprom logging
2. Arduino IDE Geiger Kit with SD Shield

New website launched

New website launched:
http://www.rhelectronics.net/store/ 
You should be redirected by auto from old http://radiohobbystore.com  to the new store.