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• (edited) Transcript for Environmental Sensor Hack Chat part 2

  Sophi Kravitz • 09/07/2018 at 20:03 • 0 comments

  Radu Motisan3:43 PM

  I'll try not to post many links, not to move you guys out of this window too often

  pop133:44 PM
  Thanks

  Radu Motisan3:44 PM
  so on a CCD you'll see random pictures in total darkness

  Radu Motisan3:44 PM
  pixels*

  Radu Motisan3:45 PM
  again , sorry for the typos, I did about 1000km today, going home from sunny Greece

  Radu Motisan3:45 PM
  love to talk about ionising radiation after all the UV exposure I got (on those nice beaches hehe)

  lol

  Radu Motisan3:45 PM
  so choosing the sensor can be an issue due to costs

  victor.aprea3:46 PM
  jealous, i'm half Greek and have never been to Greece!

  Radu Motisan3:46 PM
  @victor.aprea :)

  Radu Motisan3:46 PM
  with a mobile phone, you'll be able to see high doses

  Radu Motisan3:46 PM
  like in my video

  Radu Motisan3:47 PM
  I used an x-ray source to generate those pixels

  Radu Motisan3:47 PM
  on small distances I think not more than 2 meters

  Radu Motisan3:47 PM
  with a source emitting up to  50keV if I recall

  Radu Motisan3:48 PM
  you would just need some black tape to obscure your camera

  Radu Motisan3:48 PM
  then have an app that opens the camera and counts the non-black pixels

  Dusan Petrovic3:48 PM
  Hello from Belgrade @Radu Motisan !

  Radu Motisan3:49 PM
  @Dusan Petrovic hi there! I just passed through Vrsac , almost home

  Radu Motisan3:50 PM
  Radon is a concern

  Radu Motisan3:50 PM
  sadly no uRADMonitor unit detects this gas

  Radu Motisan3:50 PM
  you get to inhale it , it was a very short half-life, and when it degrades emits alpha radiation

  Radu Motisan3:51 PM
  that is on on skin, dead cells will stop it like paper does

  Radu Motisan3:51 PM
  but inside the lungs it bombards unprotected vulnerable cells, inducing mutations

  Rebecca E. Skinner3:51 PM
  Is radon a practical danger, unless you're in an underground area w exposure to off-gassing from the soil ?

  Radu Motisan3:52 PM
  I don't think so . I can't think of other sources than soil off-gassing, also including underground waters

  Radu Motisan3:52 PM
  but this one scenario is more than enough

  victor.aprea3:53 PM
  people make an issue of it when buying new homes to have the basement checked (but that probably depends on where you are in the world)

  pop133:53 PM
  I know of a place in Hungary where the thermal water contains radon

  Radu Motisan3:54 PM
  @pop13  yes, this is common . People used to drink radon rich waters, but also water with radium minerals dissolved

  Radu Motisan3:54 PM
  until the dangers were understood better

  Radu Motisan3:55 PM
  @victor.aprea yes, this is a good choice, especially in the more affected areas

  Radu Motisan3:55 PM
  in Romania we have several uranium mines

  pop133:55 PM
  An they still drink...

  Radu Motisan3:55 PM
  there are waters in the valleys where the mines are (mostly in the mountains)

  pop133:55 PM
  Its available to the public actually

  Radu Motisan3:56 PM
  people not only use water from wells, but they also build their houses and roads with rocks from local sources

  victor.aprea3:56 PM
  most of the time testing radon involves putting a thing in your basement for a prescribed period of time under prescribed conditions and then sending the unit off to some lab to be evaluated

  Radu Motisan3:56 PM
  so a test there revealed concerning levels

  Radu Motisan3:56 PM
  @victor.aprea yes, and this has to do with the type of detector used for radon

  victor.aprea3:56 PM
  i've often wondered whether there was a market for a continuous radon monitor

  victor.aprea3:57 PM
  or whether that was even practically possible

  Radu Motisan3:57 PM
  it is a ionisation chamber, similar with the geiger tube , but an open enclosure with the electrodes at a lower voltage (about 50V compared to geiger tubes that run at 400-900V)

  Radu Motisan3:57 PM
  there is

  Radu Motisan3:57 PM
  the problem is the sensor

  Radu Motisan3:57 PM
  you want one that is calibrated and will keep its calibration with minimum maintenance

  victor.aprea3:58 PM
  gotcha

  Radu Motisan3:58 PM
  you also want a higher volume chamber for increased sensitivity

  Radu Motisan3:58 PM
  the time you need to keep the "thing"...

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• (edited) Transcript for Environmental Sensor Hack Chat Part 1

  Sophi Kravitz • 09/07/2018 at 19:47 • 0 comments

  Let's get started!

  -= Wolf =-3:06 PM
  pollution is definitely an unresolved issue in the copper industry, the amount of unusable bi products is astounding

  Today in the chat, we have @Radu hosting

  @Radu Motisan

  Radu is from Romania, and was a Hackaday Prize finalist in 2014

  Rebecca E. Skinner3:07 PM
  I just joined (didn't know the meeting would start early). Where is this mine, and what sort of acidic compound (liquid I gather) is being dredged to avoid soaking into ground/ groundwater ?

  welcome, can you introduce yourself, and tell us a little about what you're working on?

  @Rebecca E. Skinner HI, we're just getting started with an intro from Radu

  Radu Motisan3:09 PM
  Sure! I was trained as a software developer, but for a few years now I'm more into hardware

  Radu Motisan3:09 PM
  They are pretty much joined nowadays anyway

  Radu Motisan3:09 PM
  but I always wanted to get out of the virtual screen :)

  Radu Motisan3:10 PM
  So about my work
  Christian Moll joined the room.3:11 PM

  Radu Motisan3:11 PM
  Back in 2012 I built a device with integrated internet connectivity

  Radu Motisan3:12 PM
  It was before IOT became a buzzword
  victor.aprea joined the room.3:12 PM

  Radu Motisan3:13 PM
  It was equipped with ionizating radiation sensors and I was interested in seeing 24/7 readings

  Radu Motisan3:13 PM
  this came after many other projects I posted on my blog

  Radu Motisan3:14 PM
  back then I had a lot of time to play :)

  Radu Motisan3:14 PM
  this one got a lot of attention, also thanks to HaD where it was features

  Radu Motisan3:14 PM
  *featured

  -= Wolf =-3:14 PM
  what was the device used for/purpose?

  Radu Motisan3:14 PM
  (sorry for any typos, I'm currently on road through Serbia, so hello to @Aleksandar Bradic if he's arround)

  certainly @Dusan Petrovic is around in Belgrade

  Radu Motisan3:15 PM
  @Sophi Kravitz awesome . Hi !

  Radu Motisan3:15 PM
  @-= Wolf =- it was a number of sensors

  Radu Motisan3:16 PM
  connected to the internet

  Radu Motisan3:16 PM
  the main one was a sensitive Geiger tube

  Radu Motisan3:16 PM
  to observe background radiation levels and fluctuations related to various phenomenons

  Radu Motisan3:16 PM
  there were other sensors too

  what kind of signal does the Geiger tube put out? Like on/off or proportional

  Radu Motisan3:16 PM
  it's just on / off, like a radiation triggered switch

  Radu Motisan3:17 PM
  so one needs to count the pulses per time period to get an idea on the dose

  Radu Motisan3:17 PM
  there's more to ionising radiation than that

  Jacob Dice3:17 PM
  The data viz for this project is fantastic: https://www.uradmonitor.com/

  Radu Motisan3:17 PM
  like type (alpha, beta, etc) and energy

  Radu Motisan3:18 PM
  @Jacob Dice thanks, there's a lot to do there still

  Radu Motisan3:18 PM
  since there's a lot of data

  Radu Motisan3:18 PM
  the software tools are becoming complicated

  Radu Motisan3:18 PM
  for instance the database contains now hundreds of millions of entries

  Radu Motisan3:19 PM
  but all in one this is how it started

  Jacob Dice3:19 PM
  Who is the primary user/who utilizes the sensors?

  Radu Motisan3:19 PM
  I love the idea that a tiny microcontroller (back then an atmega168) could pack in network protocols

  Rebecca E. Skinner3:19 PM
  So the device is a Geiger counter with greatly improved data and presentation capacity ?

  Radu Motisan3:19 PM
  and do all its work by itself

  victor.aprea3:19 PM
  Radu, i'd like to hear about your experience with the Winsensor gas sensors, how did you come to choose them (as a company, and the ZE03 series in particular), have they performed well for you?

  Radu Motisan3:20 PM
  @Jacob Dice the project raised interest in the tech communities at first

  Radu Motisan3:20 PM
  it was a very niche direction, but managed to work out and support the further development

  victor.aprea3:20 PM
  p.s. this is my first hackchat, is there an audio feed somewhere, or is it all text-based

  Radu Motisan3:20 PM
  @Rebecca E. Skinner initially it was a geiger counter with internet...

  Read more »

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