Another Geiger Counter

Geiger counter under glass dome using electro-mechanical pulse counter.

daw9000

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Description

I have created a Geiger counter based on the https://github.com/SensorsIot/Geiger-Counter-RadiationD-v1.1-CAJOE- schematics.
This counter uses a dob-50 Polish tube which is less sensitive than the common smb20 types. The count is recorded on a pulse driven electromechanical counter (5 digit). The plan is to have a second counter to count the overflows ie 99999 back to 00000 would trigger a count of one.
The electronics are powered by an old disk caddy supply which gives 5v and 12v supplies. 5v for Geiger supply and 12v for relay and pulse counter. I haven’t used any micro controller so far but may add one.

I have housed the unit in an old clock dome on top of a turkish delight box which houses electronics.

I have tagged and linked Sensorslot on github as I have based much on their schematics for the geiger power and registering tube events.

I run the tube slightly low voltage so that the count rate is for higher energy particle’s (my physics may be naive.

Files

Sch__Geiger Counter Kit-v1.1.pdf Cajoe schematic Adobe Portable Document Format - 207.60 kB - 03/04/2022 at 01:13		Preview

Project Logs

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Counts at lower voltage
daw9000 • 03/09/2022 at 15:59 • 0 comments

Running at 350v with the dob-50 tube (normally would run at 390v) I am getting on average 0.7 counts per minute which is fine for me as I did not want the counter clicking away at the normal 6-12 counts /min I get for this tube. I am assuming that with the lower voltage only higher energy particles are triggering.
Chattering relays and counters
daw9000 • 03/04/2022 at 01:29 • 0 comments

I initially had big problems firing the pulse counter. I used a 5v relay to pulse 12v to the counter but kept getting relay chatter even when using driver circuits. Eventually I placed a high speed schottky diode across the counter terminals which solved the issue. Pulse length was another critical part of stopping the chatter and reliability.