Geiger Counter Experiments
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ย. 2024
- Geiger Counter Experiments
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Don't forget alpha particles only travel about .5 - 1 inch away in free air from the source. They cannot penetrate thicker glass or even tissue paper for the most part (the glass bottle for your ore sample is pretty thick). Geiger-Muller tubes usually have to be made of very thin glass and have to be tuned. Too low voltage and they don't detect. Too high and they run continuously and eventually burn out.
Very useful that you showed the pulse time!
Try to use old gas lanthern mantle, the radiatio from It is very stronger than this ore.
I was waiting for you to get ZAPPPED poking the Mueller Tube with a aluminum tweezers. There is 400VDC on those things.
Great experiments sir, very interesting.
Toothpaste was the one I remember from high school. Or physics teacher would handle a radioactive source by hand, saying it had decayed a lot over the years, got a noticeable increase over background radiation. Then pointed the counter at toothpaste, and got a much more immediate reaction. Not sure if it was rigged somehow, but might be a cheap and easy way to test
Have you downloaded the spec for the tube?
Might be worth checking the voltage across the GM tube to see if it is at the plateau voltage.
A glass envelope tube is not going to see alpha particles, only higher energy beta and gamma rays.
When I was playing with home made GM counters, I found a reference to a count rate correction.
This count correction factor that should be applied to raw count rate of the GM tube.
The correction becomes more important at higher count rates. The correction takes account of the time it takes the GM tube to recover once triggered by and incoming particle, known as the dead time.
If AC = actual count in counts per seconds.
And
OC = observed count rate in counts per second
DT = dead time in seconds.
Then AC=OC/(1-(OC*DT))
What the calculation does is correct for the period when the GM tube is insensitive to incoming radiation particles.
I did a Google search and quickly found the spec for the GM tube. Well worth a read.
The recommended tube input resistance is 10M. It should be possible to locate the voltage source on the pcb that feeds this resistance, making possible to measure the tube working voltage.
Hi Paul.....just get yourself some Thoriated and Zirconiated tungsten TIG welding electrodes from your local welding supplier or online. That's the cheapest way to get guaranteed radioactive components (though not dangerously so!). Thanks for your all your work and have a Happy Christmas!
I have a cheap japanese counter which seems to work OK, I get about 20 counts per minute background radiation which is expected for my area. There's a calibration or adjustment for the tube voltage but it's hard to know if the voltage is OK or not since the current source is extremely weak and any attempts to measure the voltage would just drain the circuit any leakage at the board which drains the voltage out of the tube very easily.
I still don't have any good radiation sources to test. Old glow in the dark watches should produce a nice slew of ticks for example and any old items with thorium should work nicely too.
You should've able to measure the tube voltage at the source before the high value series load resistor of the tube. In some cases the load resistor is divided into two. A very high value resistor in the high voltage side and a lower value on the ground side, used as the source of the output signal.
@@nigeljohnson9820 Thanks for the tip, didn't know that. I gotta check the circuit now.
Man that thing would be fun to play with. I would be trying antique shops look for radioactive glass. Very cool idea for a video Paul. It does seem to be picking up background radiation which is very low.
Sorry Paul i can't help you with this one but it was fun following along. Hope you can get it working!
Hey Paul, in your isr code. You are turning on the led and then off without any delay between High and low.
Ditto -- The led will turn off faster than it can turn on.
Indeed. A delay in the ISR is not ideal though. Best to set a flag in the ISR. Then turn it on in loop(), where you can check for the flag, and then store "millis() + how long you want it lit" into another variable, and constantly check, in loop() if the millis is larger than that, so you can turn it off.
what dose ISR stand for??
@@keithking1985 Interrupt service routine. The code that gets called when an interrupt triggers.
thank you Hugo.. so you could any number of things happen when its triggered depending on what code you have written. do you think that's what is wrong with Paul's kit?? what those guys were are saying!! they seemed to pick up on it very quick.. I hope he gets it fixed and dose another video on it. was looking forward to this review. anyway nice one!!
A quick search seems to indicate a camping lantern mantle might work (thorium). When I was young I had one of those bright yellow Civil Defense detectors with a detachable probe. It had a little sticker on the side that you could test it with. Too bad you can't find one of those.
Look for Coleman lantern replacement mantles, they emit some beta rads. Probably alpha and gamma, too. The Americium element used in smoke alarms emits primarily alpha, but also some beta rads.
Looks like everyone like to play with dangerous toys. That's a lot of comments. Hope they put you on the right track. Best of luck
i love this channel 💓 and i love elctronics projects
I think some smoke detectors have some kind of radioactive parts in them but it’s a very small trace of what ever it is that they use, but they have a radioactive sticker on the inside of them, so maybe it might be enough to set your little detector off, maybe.
Pretty interesting, dude!!! 😮
I think the one piece could be uranium ore. The one that is slightly green might contain some uranium minerals. It should fluoresce under UV light if it is uranium. Also if you want to get a more serious Geiger counter which works really well, search up MyGeiger by RH electronics. It has a nice lcd and a couple of other cool features.
try attachInterrupt(digitialPinToInterrupt(3), , CHANGE); And connect your trigger to pin 3. Only pins 2 and 3 allow interrupts on the Uno. However the way your program is written, I wouldn't use an interrupt at all. Oh, also, if your interrupt routine is modifying a global variable you need to declare it as volatile. More here: www.arduino.cc/reference/en/language/functions/external-interrupts/attachinterrupt/
Paul, some smoke detectors have small “sources” in them. Check for a radiation sticker. Also, try putting a small delay in the schetch between turning the led on and off. Say “delay(50). That’s 50 milliseconds. Sorry I don’t know anything about the board.
Pay no attention to that van at the corner.
Take it to a sushi restaurant or fish counter at the market. It'd be interesting to see what readings you get.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who randomly buys random/dangerous junk on ebay. Gotta say, it seems sketchy that nuclear material would be packaged in recycled Testors model paint bottles :)
Interesting project!
An old watch with luminous paint on the dial might help as a very small source of radiation, hard to find nowadays tho...
See if you can extract the radiation source from some fire alarms?
I hope for you that it's not real radio-active substance.
Outside you should have natural radiotion around the 100nSv/h, some materials are more radioactive than others. Next time you go to the dentist take it with you, they have some x-ray systems.
Cool. I ordered that exact same version from BangGood a few months ago. Later ordered a .96 OLED display planing on coming up with a actual counter display. There are a number of ideas on TH-cam using a Arduino NANO. That would be a good project for you to present ? I have a 1960ish compass from a USAF flight suit survival kit. Must have Item as a venturous pre teen don't ya know! LOL Use to carry it around all the time as a kid. One of the few things I still have from those years. DAMN that thing SINGS from about 6 inches away ! LOL Uranium Dial it would seem. So old it no longer Luminus in the dark but boy it sure is Radio Active as hell. In my USAF times we used the Round Film Badges as well. I've managed to collect quite a bit of useful info on this model and basic Arduino program. Those Americium Ion chambers from smoke detectors can be had for under $3.00. They make a good known source for calibration. I can send you what I have if you like. Looks like you found the best of what I have. Sure would like a copy of your Arduino Display program. At least I could put mine in a enclosure and get some reading. I need to use that Americium Ion chamber and known Activity levels to come up with a calibrated level to work with.
I'll email you code.
@@learnelectronics Cool Beans Sir. Thank You.
where did you get the little breadboard/arduino holder from it looks quite neat, not I am from the UK?
HI! Cool video!
Sorry Paul, I don't know what uranium ore looks like. The first thing that came to my simple mind is that looks like kitty litter. You gave me a good LOL.
Did that come in a special marked package?
Love your videos.
Nope, came in a yellow padded envelope.
Coleman lantern mantles (easy to find at the local store) I seem to recall have thorium in them and should get that sucker to click.
Your experiences later in the video seem to map with my experiences. Depending on the amount of uranium present you should hear clicks similar to that later bit in the video. In my experience the amount of clicks can be highly dependent on the orientation of the detector. Another good source of uranium is old fiestaware dishes. Check out your local antique shop. As I recall a good thorium mantle will get that sucker singing though.
Fiestaware you say? No need to check antique shops, I can see the factory from my house. Homer Laughlin China in newell West Virginia, right across the river.
Do you have a old smoke detector? They have radio active elements inside the detector,
If you have grantite or marble anywhere (counter tops etc, they are also a source).
Unfortunately smoke detectors produce alpha particles. While assembled they are safe, but removal of the source is an extreme health risk due to the risk of ingestion.
Go get an old alarm clock with the glow-in-the-dark numbers on it. The paint is supposed to be radioactive.
Like me you were a cold war child and you never had a Geiger counter? i have a 1960's vintage civil defense counter that is fully working still. I got it in the 80's from a swap meet.
use an older smoke detector as those have Americium in them and is more potent than the ore. It is still emitting Alpha but more of them.
Also you can try uranium glass, colman lantern mantels, or the material from glowing clock hand or gun sights.
For the LOLZ a banana is radioactive also..
if you want REAL uranium ore I have a friend in South Dakota that has property that has uranium ore on it. I can ask him to send you a piece once the snow goes away...
I've got some actual thorium on the way...
@@learnelectronics Friend of mine found a piece of the Chernobyl reactor some years ago, she has a youtube channel and had a video of it up.. "Hot Particle" was the name of it I believe.. So sad what happened there in the 80's though..
Give some depleted uranium metal shavings a try. I've seen them on the usual auction site. Should have no trouble setting it off.
What about a radium watch?
That looks like sand stone or something, build a cloud chamber for that uranium ore, see if the counts add up!
You can buy real uranium metal on Ebay. I can speak for its quality
Uranium ore is more radioactive than elemental uranium however due to the radium impurity
I have a question for you, I love your videos, but would love to know what camera that you use, I love the zoom on it, thanks from Marc at BluestreekCustoms
Samsung Galaxy S4
Some smoke detectors have radioactive parts to work properly. You can check it out
If you have an old smoke detector take it apart in the large shielded can is a very small amount of a radioactive material use that to test it
Did the seller of the "uranium ore" specify what type of ore it was?
or how dangerous it is?
I think some smoke detectors have a radioactive element in them. Or at least they used to have. Maybe you can use that to test?
Find a cheap smoke detector, (make sure it says americium-241 inside) remove the smoke sensor and aim the chamber at the tube. You may get a few more clicks.
To learn more about radiation, search for the TH-cam site Bionerd23.
I have a question,, how dose it charge up to 500ish V?? I didn't see a coil(inductor) on the board anywhere!! except one resistor type looking one(next the chip on the bottom right) or maybe I missed it.. or is there one inside the bulb!! Paul/anyone???
Boost converter? They can be made very small now.
Look at the close up photo, that black round cylinder up and to the right of the piezo speaker is a coil, that's probably part of the boost circuit.
thank you JOE now that you pointed it out its obvious, I didn't even notice the coil I thought it was a cap, nice one!!!
Ok, the solution I see clearly is to send your ore to Cody for enrichment 🥳
Yeah if I were to program, they would have to call it something else, I'm definitely NOT a pro!!
That so called Uranium Ore does fit the bill for Uranium Ore that I've seen . Granite and Salt substitute are also Radio active.
Those Americium Ion Chambers are good calibration sources to work with. Most are listed with the actual Sieverts and or counts information to work with. At least you could have a KNOWN base line to have a better idea of what something is acually putting out in radiance.
Potassium Chloride
Radioactive Salt Substitute:
Salt substitutes contain Potassium Chloride, rather than Sodium Chloride (common table salt). As it turns out, approximately 0.01% of the Potassium found in nature is Potassium-40, a radioactive isotope with a half life of 1.28 billion years.
Radioactive Products and Other Sources Of Radiation
www.blackcatsystems.com › science › radprod
Smoke detectors have americium which is also radioactive and old watches with the glow in the dark faces have radium both of these should have the geiger counter clicking.
Noo, that's youranium! Not mine!!
Disconnect the J4 jumper
i too are not a programmer i even skipped the code bit cause i am too dumb too know what is goin on there , thanks anyway !
Here is where I obtained most the useful information on that unit. drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9itH-BnWE5sY2JGRkM4MWhSYkE
why do not use a banana? they are so radioactive by potassium inside .
I was waiting for you to get ZAPPPED poking the Mueller Tube with a aluminum tweezers. There is 400VDC on those things.