DIY Geiger-Müller Counter (regulated high voltage, 1-Wire interface)

Page about this device : http://clx.freeshell.org/geigercounter.html (french but with plenty of pictures)

Previous video when WIP : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9ELzWM3ioA (french voice)

The radioactive source is the needles of a alarm clock in a plastic tube sealed with epoxy resin. I did it on outside of my house, on a surface I washed with a sponge I trashed just after use, for my own security. The radiations from the needles aren't very dangerous (i don't sleep close to it!), but surely I don't want to be contaminated with that radium paint.

The high-voltage (450V) is regulated by the electronics, then monitored and adjusted by my firmware.

The device has a 1-wire counter interface. When you see the "W" behind the bargraph, it mean the firmware is still generating pulses to the 1-wire chip. I can so monitor the background radioactivity with Munin !

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• gm
• geiger
• counter
• radioactivity
• device
• pic
• control
• loop
• sbm-20
• sbm20
• 1-Wire

[tesla242]

Very neat finish for you counter! congrats!!!!

PS: The paint in the watch hands and numbers is a mix of doped zinc sulfide and Radium, not Cesium. They use the Radium alpha particles emission to excite the zinc sulfide. On some watches , in pitch black, and after a few minutes for the eyes to get used to the dark, you can see the blinks of the alpha particles hitting the phosphorus.

[cLxjaggy]

@tesla242

Oops, got confused, you right. => text corrected.

[silfreed0]

Do you know if there are any leads on a pre-built version of one of these?