how to build a geiger counter / radiation detector from household materials

[ne033x]

I LOVE YOU!!! ;-) LOL great information - well done!!! ;-)

[vishva8kumara]

If you got a multimeter, you don't need the extra battery, because the multimeter already has a battery in it. Turn the multimeter in to ohms range about 500k (set it to measure resistance instead).

[Trodan101]

Well, I know what I am doing tomorrow!!

[gangster010101]

7:14  HOLY SHIT! XDXDXDXDXD

[rachm06]

I'm asking a stupid question: if it's said that beta particles are shielded by a simple aluminum plate, how it's possible that you can reveal them through the aluminum foil? Is the foil so thin that some particles pass anyway and hit the wire?

[bionerd23]

@rachm06

depending on the energy of the beta particles, they can get through more or less thin aluminum. i dont know the exact values, but e.g. for X keV betas, you'll need 4mm aluminum, for X keV betas, you need 2mm Al to shield, etc.

[AceVenturie]

yeah, because everyone has this stuff at home.

[disabledamerican53]

the resistor connects to WHAT?

[MucusFelidae]

Horrible soldering :-)

[Trodan101]

@MucusFelidae Ever tried to solder soft solder with a cold iron to a large heat sink before??? Me thinks not!

[dogbone222]

how do i know if the can is not coated on the inside with out one of those thingies...

[emanacio]

... The oldest of the radiometer that used a simple Curie electroscope. Van der Graaf generator loaded. This can be used to measure the discharge rate of which depends on the radioactivity. With this measure the thermal radiation of water, which today can not be measured yellow counters.

[emanacio]

Hi! I am glad that you are still alive. Missing from your collection of tungsten welding rods. I found the spring 500MBq radium that came from the USA. Since my skin is burned. The police confiscated. It is here in Hungary is considered a misuse of nuclear material. Therefore, 2-8 years served in prison. Old military radios also have a source. Only figyelmessen ...

[HomebrewGuru]

sh*t mine didnt work before i read the comments

[death0intj]

i saw some geiger counter tubes on a flea market, can those be used for this project od does it need completely different setup?

[UnoRaza]

Those old POCKET watches could alter your DNA a bit!

YIKES!

[dasraiser]

would using a conical spring make it more sensitive?

[DuncanDonuts3]

you forgot to put ' uber sexy' in the videos tags.

[xXxmidgexXx]

what if i use a gigantic aluminum can like an oil can? xD

[0xffox]

It's really cool;) but if I want to calibrate counter, where can I buy such radioactive samples?

[modgemtb]

@0xffox i found some on ebay, uranium and radium

[phillipdogyface]

i wanted to make a mini geiger counter that can fit in an altoids container for a school project it would look weird if it was a paint can with wires hanging out everywhere D:

[will12715]

7:14 my fav part of the whole video i laughed so hard

[antiprotons]

Awesome! Your the coolest BioNerd around! 

[MrYama9262]

also if you want to get more voltage through your ion chambr just find a ice transformer and switch the poles yoll get lots of extra power

[MrYama9262]

wait where do you put the positive wire

[LordPlextor]

DU kommst immer auf Ideen.... dafür liebe ich deinen Channel :)

[smartazuis]

@bionerd You have a big beautiful brain~ wow ! Would you like to come to the pacific northwest and try out all your toys ? I cure cancers with herbs, and now it seems everything is tainted.so I'm kind of lost !

[NoWattz]

I wonder if increasing the surface area of the base probe would increase sensitivity?

[bionerd23]

@NoWattz

hmmm. not sure about that. well, then again, if that brings it closer to the other electrode, then yes, maybe. changing the gas might also increase sensitivity, but especially increasing the VOLTAGE would increase sensitivity.

[glaxko2]

@NoWattz it shouldn't. maybe putting a resistor would change up the sensitivity, or using gold or silver wires, but them it'll get kinda expensive.

[sparkie21]

This is great. I will definitely try this and post a video response if I get it working. I have the same altimeter and some other radioactive items to test it with. Did you try americium on the inside of the can?

[bionerd23]

@sparkie21

nope, not yet. ill try and do it soon, which means in a few weeks due to lack of time.

[staberas]

Do you randomly have radioactive materials in your room? ;p

Great project i'll try to make a smaller more portable version.

I expect your next project will be a nuclear reactor ?v=7RVlg8M8XRs :p

[bionerd23]

@staberas

randomly? nope, i keep those sources in a steel safe when i am not using them. :P

[bionerd23]

@staberas

...and yeah, a fusion reactor would be awesome to have =)

just, expensive... all the vaccum equipment and stuff... =/

[silveristhenew]

do you have a circuit diagram for this?

[bionerd23]

@silveristhenew

just google for "simple ion chamber", and you'll find one. :)

[aten747]

WOW! i am building one right now!

[bionerd23]

@TeenageIronman

sorry about that. :(

whereever you said something (mail? comment?), i'll reply to it at some point. as i noted in my channel info, i'm currently very busy and try to squeeze in a few answers whenever i can (as right now), but even replying to comments may take weeks, and replying to emails may take months. sorry about that. but hey, you dont look a gift horse in the mouth, eh? i'm still giving away all this information for free, and always will.

[UniverseIndistries]

@bionerd23 @bionerd23 @bionerd23 You sure take being called a ***** quite well. But all teachers should be that way, nice loving and caring and should be stern when talked back to. I am actually surprised you even took the time to answer him. Oh well I love this new channel, and the other one to. Keep up the good work.

[pcbheaven]

That is so fantastic! I will definitely feature it in my site! Good work!

[AScannerClearly]

Way cool, suppose putting an alpha emitter inside would give strong reading too?

[bionerd23]

@AScannerClearly

gotta try that, will keep it in the back of my head for to-do, maybe the weekend after the next one.

[th3dig1tal0n3]

You are using milli-voltmeter as an micro-ampermeter. Genius! BTW every flash circuit form the camera has 200V source, that can be ramped up to 300-350 simply by replacing the electrolytic capacitor with low leakage foil capacitor rated for higher voltage. I think 300V should be sufficient for flat pancake style detector. I will try it out.

[mdofxds]

you have been mistaken naming transistor legs: emitter goes to the negative pole of battery and collector goes to the multimeter. though the actual connection is right. also the transistor model is simply BC517. 826 is just a production date code (year 2008, 26th week). thanks for cool video! maybe i will try this )

[bionerd23]

@mdofxds

thanks for the heads up - no time to look into that at the moment, but i'll just reply to it as the last reply for today... so people will hopefully see your comment on top of the list and read it, make up their minds, or at least *know* about this comment. =)

[mdofxds]

@bionerd23 10x =)

[resistance0311]

nice . I would suggest to make it from pringles (potato chips) or similar small diameter shape can and try to insulate outer surface , maybe just like coaxial cables .

[panzuman]

great video would be very usefull to use in fallout ;)

[quaxk]

look up 'Kearny Fallout Meter' for a much simpler design

[RFjunk]

very cool

[subach]

So the radiation ionizes the gate which gives the gate a voltage thus allowing current to pass through the transistor. I wonder if you can do some sort of computation by using a number of these setups... the each radio decay itself may be random, but you could use sources of different decay rates as input for and interference patterns on the wire as the output. Make the sources(+the whole setup) small enough, and cool to a few degrees above absolute zero and you can make a quantum computer.

[lamboroghini]

you are truly amazing!



[chrisgj198]

See youtube v=fKNNXvzo8UU for the alpha particle sensor made from a power transistor

[bionerd23]

@chrisgj198

thanks, just checked it out - cool stuff. i guess i'll have to look into this more some time, hehe. seems like you can do some pretty cool stuff with rather simple electronics.

[chrisgj198]

With low current circuits like these, it is best to avoid touching the insulators (in this case the plastic part of the transistor around the wires) as sweat and finger grease is sometimes a lot more conductive than the plastic, and can affect the results.

[chrisgj198]

You might also like to check out the blog of VK2ZAY (should be the first hit when you google his amateur radio callsign) He has been making a few ion chambers as well as using metal can power transistors as semiconductor detectors. He's on twitter too.

[bionerd23]

@chrisgj198

thanks for the tip! =)

[GiggiDigital]

<3



[chrisgj198]

There is a lot of information on these circuits on Charles Wenzel's website. Damn youtube not letting me put a link, but if you google "Polonium Pen" it should be the first hit.

[tnwnl]

Nice tutorial! I also have a setup like this but never got it working, probably because I didn't leave the alu foil on. Maybe I'll rebuild it later and try again...

Btw, a BC517 should be sufficient for the transistor type number, if it starts with BC it will have 3 digits after that at most.

[httpkiller]

This ion chamber radiation detectors are very cool. Maybe i build one someday (when i have the time ;-)).

[Phacias]

/entering the shop/ 'Good evening, wait a minute, I'll check my list... yes... a can, transistor, aluminium foil. solder and.... hmm... a voltmeter and some radioactive source please.'

[bionerd23]

@Phacias

lol, oh come on, be a bit more creative than that. =)

[Phacias]

@bionerd23 Sorry mum ;(

[mike240se]

Very cool. Any way to quantify the reading?

[bionerd23]

@mike240se

in theory, yeah. would have to make a more advanced version that prevents leakage currents to enter, shield from electromagnetic fields, seal the chamber up with dry air, and then could - in theory - calibrate it. but i dont think i'll have time to do that, as i'd also need to look up all the electronics stuff associated with it - which i'm not very fond of. :P

[yellowmetalcyborg]

I've tried this already and it didn't work : \. Did this one work right away or did you have to tweak it to make it work? Does the ammeter have to be very sensitive for this to work? I don't have a very sensitive ammeter at home, mine can only go down to 50 milliamps. Are there any circuits I could use to amplify the signal coming from the can?

Thanks in advance.

[bionerd23]

@yellowmetalcyborg

amperemeter? you have to set it to measure volts, direct current...

[yellowmetalcyborg]

@bionerd23 I might be mistaken, but when an ionizing particle enters into an ionization chamber, it ionizes air molecules into + &- ions that consequently migrate to opposite leads, this causes a current flow, measured with an ammeter.

[sleat]

@yellowmetalcyborg You're right, you are effectively measuring CURRENT flowing between the can and the base leg via ion migration. But the current is very minute. You have to amplify it somehow. The darlington, in a circuit where it's effectively in series with the DMM and with the battery in parallel with them, will show current flow through the base-emitter junction, as a voltage change across the meter leads, if the meter is in voltage mode and the meter's internal resistance is fairly high.

[pookeeboo]

@yellowmetalcyborg if you put clear ammonia from any cleaning type ammonia in a clear container like a petri dish or jar and then place it in a freezer so the ammonia turns into a gas and then place a piece of concrete in it which is slightly radio active you will see the contrails of the radio active particle flying of the concrete if you were near a radioactively contaminated place or item you will see many contrails

[yellowmetalcyborg]

@pookeeboo Interesting, I've never heard of using ammonia before. I know that you can make a cloud chamber with dry ice and isopropyl alchohol, but I've never heard of ammonia. I might give it a try.

Just one question, do you need to cover the jar with a cap or something? Because otherwise the ammonia would escape... And ammonia has increased solubility at lower temperatures, so do you think it would come out of solution if you put it in the freezer?

[bionerd23]

@pookeeboo

well now i havent heard of that before, either. thanks for the tip, i'll put it on my infinite to-do list... lol. no really, this indeed sounds quite interesting.

[bionerd23]

@yellowmetalcyborg

well, if i set mine to amps, i cannot measure anything at all with it (and i can set mine to MICROamps). have to set it to volts, direct current.

also, you gotta make sure NOTHING touches the transistor's legs... not even insulating tape! i learned that during my first attempt. they need to be absolutely free of any contact to anything.

[EA78751]

excellent demonstration. thanks for publishing this video.  I had assumed that a vacuum was required inside the detector, but it appears you have shown that is not the case.

[bionerd23]

@EA78751

a vacuum would not even work - nothing to ionize in a vacuum... you need to fill the chamber with some sort of atoms. a gas. air. methane. propane. noble gas. depends on the type of detector and purpose...

[sleat]

I'm guessing you might get a stronger, maybe lower noise meter reading with a circuit like this below but just guessing, or is this what you have and I'm just being silly and unobservant?

Negative 9v => Darlington Emitter (and maybe a water pipe??)

Pos 9v=> via 1K ohm (maybe try bigger, or none) to can

Pos DVM meter => battery side of resistor/battery plus

Neg DVM meter => Darlington Collector

Sneaky little ionization trails let current from that resistor leak into the base, we hope.

[piranha031091]

What if you place a headphone instead of the multimeter? Can you get an audio signal?

[bionerd23]

@piranha031091

i dont think just connecting headphones will work. :P

but, in theory, you could attach a circuit that produces audible output relative to voltage flow, e.g. low pitch mumble for 10-15mV, and then increase the pitch to a scream if above 1V or so, hehe.

[piranha031091]

@bionerd23 @sciencoking il But what about getting the cracking noises of a geiger counter? (so you get one "click" per detection). Would sciencoking's solution bring me to that?

[clony101]

@bionerd23 i would advise to look at "the geek group" channle i think they have a thing that may work with this...

[sciencoking]

@piranha031091 with an OP-AMP (delivering an amplification stronger than that of a darlington pair by orders of magnitude) you could probably amplify it enough, yes. I could try to make that!

[DidntKnowWhatToPut1]

\o/ Science

[viciokas1993]

I guess it would be easier to just buy a cheap Geiger counter, the multimeter probably costs just as much, and most people don't have one just lying around their house :D

[bionerd23]

@viciokas1993

well, really crap multimeters (will be sufficient) are just $5, too. but still, i agree, it's not very cost-effective nor efficient... it's just a funny thing to build imo. may be suitable for physics class in school, though, hehe. or for nerds like me. :P

[skonkfactory]

@viciokas1993 You can get a multimeter from Amazon for less than $20.

[bionerd23]

@paddytheduck

time? yeah, well. requires 15 minutes if you've got good fine motor skills... money? except for the multimeter, that stuff costs less than $5.

[orbnaes]

I'm gonna have to try this! :D