K59-LND7317 BORG+plus Geiger Counter

by Atomic.dave Atomic.Dave@yahoo.com
This is a one of a kind custom hand-made Geiger Counter built by Atomic.Dave. It is based on a kit designed by John Giametti (username: Brohogan) I have been building his DIY Geiger counters for over two years having built and sold around 57 of them. All information for this kit is available at the developers website. As I have said before, this is more of a kit for someone who knows a little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience to build it, or would rather someone else do all the dirty work. Having been built by me, of course there will be some imperfections, although as minimal as possible. This particular one is a culmination of all of its predecessors. It is certainly one of my more advanced kits having more options then all accept the Cadillac, and I will do my best to explain how to use it. Once you have used it a couple times, it will be a piece of cake. OPERATION Four Triple Pole switches- ALL OFF IN CENTER POSITION. POWER PWR/CHRG ON OFF CHARGE LIGHT LED/BKLT ON/ON OFF ON/OFF SOUND SPEAKER TONE OFF CLICK ALARM LED/SND ON/ON OFF ON/OFF SELECT ALARM THRESHOLD TIMER NULL TONE RESET

UP MIDDLE DOWN

A. POWER switch controls the power and charging of the unit. Up turns on the unit, Middle turns if off, and Down is for when you charge the unit. When the unit is charging, the RED LED on the lower left side will remain constant RED while charging, and when charging is complete, it will turn off. If you wish to power the unit with the USB in, and bypass the batteries for extended periods. Switch in middle position, and flip up switch on top right of unit next to the piezo alarm speaker. The left top switch is to turn on and off the IR used for the remote control. B. LIGHT switch controls the Event LED (BLUE) and the LCD Backlight. Up turns on both, Middle turns both off, and Down turns the LED on, and the Backlight off. C. SOUND switch controls the Event speaker. Up for tone mode, Middle for mute, and Down for Standard Click Mode. More on Tone Mode later. D. ALARM switch controls the Alarm LED and Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and Down for LED only on. This makes for a silent visual alarm. E. SELECT switch does 2 thing. When you first power on the unit, you will see firt

Atomic.Dave K58 BORG+plus V10.1

This customized first welcome window can easily be changed if you want, by doing a little programming in Arduino. Refer to the DIY site for directions at the SOFTWARE section. But the default is now set to my name, Kit 58, and the second line is the Geiger Counter name, and the version of software that the AT328 chip is running V10.1. The second window will show this:

360 CPM=1 uSv/h Running at 5.24V

The first line refers to the conversion rate of CPM to uSv/hr for your LND7317 tube (360) this can be changed either in the program sketch, with Arduino, or with the Sony wireless remote control which I will explain later. The second line refers to the current voltage that your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The 3000mAh 3.7v lipo battery is boosted to 5v with a pololu booster. Everytime you start up your GC (geiger counter) it will show you this so you will always know your current voltage. The third window will show this:

Alarm Set ? Now at 200 CPM

At this point, you can hit the Select button to incrementally change the Alarm threshold number. Once you stop hitting the button and wait, it will be set to the current number shown on the screen and will stay there until you change it either again restarting and waiting for this part, or by using the included remote control to change it. You can also chose from units of measurement such as CPM or uSv/h for the Alarm. LEDS Right away, you will hear the beeping of the piezo as your LND7317 GM tube picks up radiation events. There are three LEDs below the LCD. The Left one is GREEN and is a system status light which comes on when starting up, and when sending data back and forth to your PC. If the green light ever freezes up, just restart the GC, and it will reset itself. The middle is BLUE which is for radiation events and coincides with the beeping piezo which can be muted with the mute switch. The Right one is RED for the Alarm which will only light up when a set alarm threshold is reached. The piezo for the alarm is located on top of the unit on the right side. OTHER SWITCHES, BUTTONS, PORTS, DIALS NEW- Added 2 new switches to the top panel of the unit. The left top one is used to turn on and off the IR for the remote control. LEAVE THIS OFF WHEN NOT USING THE REMOTE TO PROGRAM THE UNIT. If you leave it on, the IR has a tendancy to pick up signals from other remote controls and will cause the unit to not function properly. The right top switch is used to power the unit with the USB cable plugged in. Flip this up to turn it on. Down when not powering the unit with the USB. When running the unit this way, please flip the POWER switch to the middle position to save battery life . A. Starting on the left side top of the GC is the LCD contrast dial. As the LCD is used, it might get to a point for you to readjust the contrast for it. Not a big deal, while the backlight is on, gently take a small screwdriver and turn it to the left or right until it appears to have the best contrast. B. Below the contrast pot on the same side is the output multi-port used for Geiger Bot (with the included G-Bot cable), and for Geiger Graph and RAD OSX (with the optional USB/FTDI cable) Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into this with the 3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your iphone or ipad. Or plug the optional 3.5mm to USB cable into the

NEW NEW

USB power

IR on/off

BEST TO KEEP BOTH THESE SWITCHES DOWN (OFF) THE MAJORITY OF THE TIME. ONLY TURN ON WHEN USING IR OR USB

port, and into a USB on your mac or PC, then follow instructions to run those programs. It also serves as an mono audio output for silent listening with headphones, or with the included 3 conductor to 3 conductor M-M audio cable, you can run sound based data logging software. C. On the right side of the GC is the Mini USB FTDI output/input for programming in Arduino. This also is used to charge the internal Lithium Ion battery (with the power switch in the bottome position.) Or it can be used to power the GC for extended periods, however when you power it this way, I would advise to turn off the LCD backlight. But its ok to turn it on once in a while, but I wouldnt leave it on for extended periods. When uploading any new changes to the program sketch, you will need to have this switch in the up position white it is plugged into your pc with the USB cable. REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM: ONLY TURN ON IR WHEN PROGRAMMING SYSTEM. TURN OFF AFTER. This is the second system I have built with a wireless remote control. It adds some conveniences such as the ability to adjust certain things on the GC without the need to plug into your PC or mac. It is already setup to work. All you have to do is point the remote towards the IR window, and push the power button to start. As soon as you do that these options will pop up. Use the channel button to move thru each option, and use the volume buttons to move up or down within those options. You can also use the number pad to input numbers rather than using the up down of the volume. After you reach the desired amount you push ENT to enter it into the system. The keys on the Remote Control perform these functions: On/Off enter or exit the menu system. "DISP PERIOD (MS) is the first prompt you will see. CH Down moves to the next menu option CH Up moves to the previous menu option VOL Up increments the value already set for the current option or toggles an option VOL Down decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles an option ENT finalizes the entry in the current menu option if changes were made When used out of the menu, it acts like the "null" button to reset the tome. Digits 0-9 for direct entry of values (instead of Volume or Arrows) must use Enter after using digits. PERIOD enters a decimal point - used when setting the ratio. MUTING used when out of the menu mutes the speaker when in "tone mode" RECALL used when out of the menu - switches between the main screen and the scaler screen Menu Options: Initially, menu options are set to defaults. Settings made will be stored in EEPROM on the ATmega328, so they will be in effect when you power back on. Here is a brief description of each menu option: DISP PERIOD (MS) The number of milliseconds before the display refreshes. 5000 (5 sec.) is a good setting. (Display counts are based on a "running average" I do not recommend settings of less than 5 seconds.) LOG PERIOD When to write the CPM, 'dose', and MCU voltage to the serial output. Zero means logging is turned off. CPM->[DOSE] RATIO Sets that ratio for the type of GM tube used. Note this ratio will depend on the dose unit being displayed - see DISPLAY UNIT. Use the DEC PNT or AV/TV key to set a decimal point. ALARM THRESHOLD When the CPM or DOSE units is greater than this value the alarm is triggered. Unlike the button, any value may be entered. DOSE UNIT Use the arrow keys to select the name of the unit for the dose value - "uSv/h", "uR/h" or "mR/h". ALARM UNIT Sets whether the alarm is based off of CPM or the DOSE unit. Use the arrow keys to select. SCALER PER (MIN) Sets the period for the second scaler. BARGRAPH MAX CPM Sets the CPM that will give a full scale reading on the bar graph. This also affects tone mode TONE SENSITIVITY Determines how sensitive the tone is to changing activity. Low numbers are more sensitive. USE RADLOGGER? When "Yes" serial output is compatible with Radiation Logger application - see Android / PC BT Graphing page. REG. VOLTAGE Displays the voltage powering the MCU (Vcc). To a large degree, this represents the state of the battery. Note that each menu setting has a minimum and a maximum setting. Entries that are out of bounds will revert to the minimum or maximum. DISPLAY BAR GRAPH: The display has a new bar graph style with placeholders and is much more responsive. It now updates 20 times per second. The tone is also updated at this rate when used. Auto-precision - decimals are dropped from the displayed dose rate as it gets larger. Beginning with v10.1 the LOG PERIOD can now be set to intervals of less than 1 minute. Valid settings are OFF, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, and 1 minute intervals up to 720 minutes. "Tube Select" is still supported where grounding I/O pin 9 will use an alternate ratio for CPM to Dose unit. The CPM>DOSE RATIO in the menu will set and save which ever ratio is selected at the time it's used. This allows setting of both the primary and alternate ratios. The current state of the the mute button and the scaler mode are saved in EEPROM and the Geiger kit will come up in those states the next time it's powered on. A "reset all" #define can be set. When uploaded the EEPROM is reset to all the default values. This may be useful if the EEPROM contains invalid data from a previous release. Another #define can put the counter in a test mode. 360 CPM is simulated. Interrupts are not producing the count so it can be affected if tone mode is on. Major restructuring of the code base including use of tabs and memory saving techniques. ABOUT DOSE UNITS: The menu allows you select the name of the dose unit that appears on the display. However, to be clear, there is no built in conversion between them. Instead the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO is adjusted depending on the name of the DOSE UNIT selected. For example, 175.43 is the default set for the SBM-20 with uSv as the dose unit. Suppose you pick "mR" as the dose unit name, and want to measure in milirems. ("mR" more correctly abbreviates as milliroentgens but is used to save display space.) The rem is defined as .01 seivert. Therefore, to use the same ratio that was designed for the tube, you would multiply that ratio by 10. You would enter a CPM->[DOSE] RATIO as 175.43 x 10 or 1754.3. Likewise if you wanted microrems ("uR") you would divide the ratio by 10 and enter 17.54. If you do want to use roentgens (used in older instruments) this source states that they are .96 rem in soft tissue. So the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO for actual mR would be 175.43 x 10 x .96 or 1684.1. (for uR it would be 16.84) PLEASE REFER TO THE DIY GEIGER COUNTER DEVELOPERS WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/

ARDUINO Software and Serial-USB connection information:

ON the cd you will find the FTDI driver and Arduino program version 1. Install both and restart your mac. Copy the Geiger Sketch folder to the same folder as your Arduino program is and remember where that is as that will be where you go to save your sketch everytime you make a change to it. There will also be a Library folder that will also need to be in the same folder. Just remember that the folder has to be the same exact name as the sketch name is. And also within Arduino, you will have to go to preferences and show Arduino where your default sketch folder is. ARDUINO SETTINGS: Brohogan Software system version 10.1 1. Open Arduino 2. Open the saved sketch .ino file, connect your Geiger counter to the USB with power switch off. 3. Verify the file by clicking the little check mark icon. 4. Click TOOLS, and Select Board type as Arduino UNO, and select serial port as the top tty choice. 5. Click Serial Monitor (top right looking glass icon). Set Baud rate to 9600 and you should see the CPM, uSv and geiger counter voltage data coming up once per minute. For more info go to website under Software section on the DIY geiger counter website. Or go to Arduino.cc GEIGER BOT SUGGESTED SETTINGS: (You may have to play with it to get it just right) GO TO: https://sites.google.com/site/geigerbot/

Select options

Select Geiger Counter

Select LND712 CS137

Adjust Conversion factor to your tube: 123 for LND712 175 for SBM-20 360 for LND7317 Select I/O Settings

Auto Adjust OFF (you may need to play with this setting) RMS Window 1 Delay Window 30 Volume Thresh 20000

Ultrafast Rates ON

OTHER SOFTWARE LINKS: http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/download.html http://www.imagesco.com/geiger/geiger-graph.html

GEIGER GRAPH FOR PC NETWORKS: (cost is around $60. Use the OPTIONAL FTDI 3.5mm to USB cable) This is a PC only software.

HARDWARE 1. DIY Geiger counter kit V5.0 by Brohogan, Running operating system 10.1 2. LND 7317 Geiger Muller Tube 3. Power System by TENERGY, Sparkfun and Pololu (please charge the unit until the RED light goes out) A. You can power the Geiger in a couple different ways 1. With internal Lipo battery 2. With PWR switch OFF (middle), USB cable plugged into USB port on RIGHT side of geiger then plugged into: a. Computer or laptop USB b. Wall charger block c. Standard 5v USB Cigarette adapter d. To power and operate the unit this way for long periods, TURN OFF BACKLIGHT 4. Pelican 1060 Atmostpherically sealed case. This case will protect your delicate geiger muller pancake tube while traveling in high altitude, or shipping the unit somewhere on an airplane. Always seal the unit inside the case.
POWER and OTHER SYSTEM ITEMS: This system is capable of producing 900+ volts, so be careful or you may get zapped when handling the system while it is powered on. A. Tenergy Lithium Ion battery - 3.7v 2600mAh http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/lithium-ion-polymer-battery-pack-3a-p-588.html?cPath=178_183 Full recharge in 3 hours, provides approximately 40 hour constant use of geiger counter with backlight off. Charge with PC/USB will take about 5 hours or more. B. USB Lithium Polymer battery charger https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10401 C. Pololu 5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S7V7F5 http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2119 D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716 LND-7317 GEIGER MULLER TUBE Installed inside this nicely planned out kit is a PANCAKE LND 7317 which senses Alpha, Beta and Gamma. The pancake tube is mounted to the case by a solid copper bracket, with a galvanized 1/8" mesh for protection and silicon feet. It has a handle that was placed in a well balanced position. I will be Including and shipping the Geiger Counter inside a Pelican 1150 atmospheric controlled case to protect the pancake from high altitude and pressure implosion during shipping. http://www.lndinc.com/products/17/ ENCLOSURE Dimensions: Serpac - H75 7.2 x 3.65 x 1.2 http://www.serpac.com/h75.aspx http://www.serpac.com/userprints/H75.pdf PELICAN 1060 ATMOSPHERIC CARRYING CASE http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1060 REPAIRS: If the unit fails for some reason with a year from purchase, I will be more than happy to do any maintenance you need at no charge except shipping. PACKAGE CONTENTS: In your package you will find: Geiger Counter, Pelican 1060 Case, Lead Pig w/ Samples, Sony RM-EZ4 Remote Control, (3) Cables: Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor, Mini USB to standard USB2. CD with software and documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels.

Red LED POS BRD Pin Pi 15 Red LED POS

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Alarm Piezo POS BRD Pin Pi 15 OPEN

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Board Pin 12 Piezo Jump Pi J A Piezo Jump B

Blue LED L POS

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LCD Jump mp R LCD Jump J mp L OPEN

BRD FTDI 5V FTDI 5V LIPO Chrg USB POS

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LED BRD POS

Blue LED POS

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TONE Reset

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LED/SND ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
1 3 5 2 4 6 ALARM PIEZO PIEZ O

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SPEAKER SP PEAKER TONE TO ONE OFF OF FF CLICK CL LICK
EVENT E VENT LED

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LED/BKLT LED/BKL LT ON/ON OFF ON/OFF
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PWR/CHG R/CHG ON/PC PC OFF CHARGE RGE
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SELECT
ALARM Threshold ALARM AL A ARM Timer T imer LED
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LCD Diode Vo V oltage Limiter Voltage Band to left

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ALARM
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BORG+plus

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LND 7317

RADIATION DETECTOR

atomic.dave

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