Hello from Sweden!
4 years 7 months ago #4684
by larkar
Hello from Sweden! was created by larkar
In 2007 I bought a cheap Kvarts DRSB-01 Geiger with a SBM-20U tube, http://www.gstube.com/data/3003/
The 2xAA batteries was replaced with a wall wart, and a transistor connected to the green LED sended the counts to a DS2423 1 wire counter.
Back then a perl script generated a graph, but that has not been working for a few years.
Don't know how, but I came across radmon the other day and made a bash script by copying from the forum to upload today.
It seems to work!
Calibration factor for this tube?
Some kind of sanity check for the values to post?
Script
The 2xAA batteries was replaced with a wall wart, and a transistor connected to the green LED sended the counts to a DS2423 1 wire counter.
Back then a perl script generated a graph, but that has not been working for a few years.
Don't know how, but I came across radmon the other day and made a bash script by copying from the forum to upload today.
It seems to work!
Calibration factor for this tube?
Some kind of sanity check for the values to post?
Script
#!/bin/bash
file="/mnt/1wire/uncached/1D.6BE907000000/counter.B"
old=$(cat "$file")
#echo $old #test
while true; do
sleep 60s
new=$(cat "$file")
#echo $new
line=$(expr $new - $old)
user="UUU"
password="PPPP"
echo $line
exec=`wget -O /dev/null "http://radmon.org/radmon.php?function=submit&user=$user&password=$password&value=$line&unit=CPM"`
old=$new
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4 years 7 months ago #4685
by FSM19
Replied by FSM19 on topic Hello from Sweden!
Your results look very good, counts are what I would expect with the SBM-20. I used the same tube, but I have much higher counts in this location due to the geology.
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4 years 7 months ago #4688
by Simomax
Replied by Simomax on topic Hello from Sweden!
I second what FSM19 said; your readings look good. Very much as I would expect for a SBM-20 tube. With regards to calibration you don't need to do much at all for the SBM-20. Just make sure your power supply is set to the correct voltage, around 400v for the SBM-20 and if you are converting into uSv/hr or mR/hr then use the appropriate conversion factor for calculating those from cpm. Whilst not calibration you can use a function generator to inject a 1KHz signal in place of the tube. This will tell you if the logic side of of the counter is working properly. 1KHz = 1000 cps which should equate to 60,000 cpm. But looking at your results on the face of it, it all appears quite normal except for a spike yesterday? Was this deliberate or not?
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4 years 7 months ago #4699
by mw0uzo
Replied by mw0uzo on topic Hello from Sweden!
Welcome to radmon.org! 
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4 years 7 months ago #4715
by larkar
Replied by larkar on topic Hello from Sweden!
Thank you.
I'm just getting back into Geiger counters after some 12 years after I touched the tings last time, the Kvarts DRSB-01 has been up and running 24/7 since 2007 but no logging for a long time.
All measurements are real, no test with radioactive materials for the last week.
There seems to be a few online logging options today,
- radmon.org, for more or less stationary logging if I understand?
- GMCMAP.com, more or less the same thing but run by GQ-elec.
- Safecast.org, for portable logging, with a map that I can not understand.
- NETC.com, mostly US, not interesting.
So I stumbled on the GMC-520 plus., https://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5676
Really interesting meter a measurement nerd like myself, but a little pricey.
Very limited information online and a little high tolerance for the CO2 with +/- 75 ppm but other than that it looks like a nice meter.
Pros:
+Geiger
+CO2
+GPS
+Logging
+Nice screen
+18650 battery
Cons:
-CO2 tolerance
-No need for a SIM, rather have Bluetooth for phone connection.
-No information in manual about internal logging other than "1 M bytes of memory", nothing about what parameters to select for logging and intervals.
-Not logging to SD.
-Special software for log retrieval.
-Not available in Europe.
Am I missing something?
I'm just getting back into Geiger counters after some 12 years after I touched the tings last time, the Kvarts DRSB-01 has been up and running 24/7 since 2007 but no logging for a long time.
All measurements are real, no test with radioactive materials for the last week.
There seems to be a few online logging options today,
- radmon.org, for more or less stationary logging if I understand?
- GMCMAP.com, more or less the same thing but run by GQ-elec.
- Safecast.org, for portable logging, with a map that I can not understand.
- NETC.com, mostly US, not interesting.
So I stumbled on the GMC-520 plus., https://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=5676
Really interesting meter a measurement nerd like myself, but a little pricey.
Very limited information online and a little high tolerance for the CO2 with +/- 75 ppm but other than that it looks like a nice meter.
Pros:
+Geiger
+CO2
+GPS
+Logging
+Nice screen
+18650 battery
Cons:
-CO2 tolerance
-No need for a SIM, rather have Bluetooth for phone connection.
-No information in manual about internal logging other than "1 M bytes of memory", nothing about what parameters to select for logging and intervals.
-Not logging to SD.
-Special software for log retrieval.
-Not available in Europe.
Am I missing something?
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4 years 7 months ago - 4 years 7 months ago #4720
by Simomax
Replied by Simomax on topic Hello from Sweden!
I think you pretty much summed it up right there larkar. mw0uzo has mentioned in the past about making Radmon compatible with some form of mobile upload. I think that might take a bit of back end programming with Radmon to make it so. I think it would be a neat feature to have but only probably something I would use once in a blue moon.
I looked into Safecast some time back before I found Radmon. From what I understand you can only upload to Safecast using one of their bGeigie Nano which is quite costly (500-600$ if i remember correctly) so that kind of ruled that out for me. GMCMAP.com you can only use with the GC geiger counter range (as far as I know). NETC.com seems kind of limited with information and appears you need a login to view the station data there. It also mentions it being an early warning system? It seems a little convoluted to me. That just leaves Radmon which I think is probably the best all round radiation logging platform.
The GC range of Geiger counters seem to be fairly decent units. I've never heard of anyone complaining about them. As far as I know the GC300/320 is compatible with Radmon but I'm not sure about the 520. It looks like a nice unit though but I'm not too thrilled about the CO2 and HCHO sensors. Those sensors are kind of limited by themselves and should really be backed up with H2S and combustible gas sensors for it to give a better picture of the air quality. Radmon doesn't support that kind of sensor data upload anyway.
After seeing the Safecast bGeigie Nano (that looks to be a very nice device on spec, just too expensive although it does have a nice GM tube) I wanted something I could take out and about with me so I built one. It doesn't upload to Radmon though per se, but could be made to by swapping the arduino with a ESP8266 and using a mobile wifi hot-spot on a phone and using that to upload live. I just have it log to an SD card though. If interested the thread for that is here: https://radmon.org/index.php/forum/homebrew-counters-electronic-design-and-building/336-mobile-gps-logging-geiger-counter-project
I looked into Safecast some time back before I found Radmon. From what I understand you can only upload to Safecast using one of their bGeigie Nano which is quite costly (500-600$ if i remember correctly) so that kind of ruled that out for me. GMCMAP.com you can only use with the GC geiger counter range (as far as I know). NETC.com seems kind of limited with information and appears you need a login to view the station data there. It also mentions it being an early warning system? It seems a little convoluted to me. That just leaves Radmon which I think is probably the best all round radiation logging platform.
The GC range of Geiger counters seem to be fairly decent units. I've never heard of anyone complaining about them. As far as I know the GC300/320 is compatible with Radmon but I'm not sure about the 520. It looks like a nice unit though but I'm not too thrilled about the CO2 and HCHO sensors. Those sensors are kind of limited by themselves and should really be backed up with H2S and combustible gas sensors for it to give a better picture of the air quality. Radmon doesn't support that kind of sensor data upload anyway.
After seeing the Safecast bGeigie Nano (that looks to be a very nice device on spec, just too expensive although it does have a nice GM tube) I wanted something I could take out and about with me so I built one. It doesn't upload to Radmon though per se, but could be made to by swapping the arduino with a ESP8266 and using a mobile wifi hot-spot on a phone and using that to upload live. I just have it log to an SD card though. If interested the thread for that is here: https://radmon.org/index.php/forum/homebrew-counters-electronic-design-and-building/336-mobile-gps-logging-geiger-counter-project
Last edit: 4 years 7 months ago by Simomax.
The following user(s) said Thank You: mw0uzo
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