Geiger-Counters

Blackpool UK - 19 July 2017 - Started around 17:00 BST / 16:00 UTC During quite a downpour today, 20mm in one hour. At it's peak was 65mm/h. Background radiation increased by approx 50% / 11CPM over a 2.5hour period. Not much by any means but still an indication there was some radioactive substance in the rain. Please note the Radmon graphs are UTC and the rain graphs are BST (UTC + 1) and so there is an hour difference between them. What caused it? I could be anyone's guess. Radon causing decay products to get caught up in the rain? Radioactive cloud blowing over from somewhere? Radioactive

I have finished up building/setting up my home radiation monitoring station and is all up and running. :cheer: https://www.blinkyslab.co.uk/radmon/ and https://www.blinkyslab.co.uk/geiger_details.php?station=35f359 I won't go into too much detail as it is pretty much just a NetIO GC10, in an enclosure with a couple of buttons and switches added. It is mounted outside under a canopy on my workshop so rain is no issue and I have used all sealed switches/buttons etc with rubber gaskets on each to seal it up nicely. The window for the tube at the front is covered with some Kapton tape to seal

After some more testing and investigation I found the issue in sketchy GPS was actually the code. I've fixed it and the results are much, much better. There is just one tiny issue now where the CPM being read from the counter is recorded occasionally with an extra digit or two counts on one record. I reckon once that is sorted I can call it version 1.0 :) I have updated the download link with the latest code. Here are the results so far: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zasLAdbQXqtw.kInoUYbBsJO8&usp=sharing I changed the way the serial CPM is read and that appears to have fixed the

I have sorted the battery issue by adding a couple of 18650 Lipo's and a buck converter to regulate the voltage to 5.0V. That seems to be holding up well. The entire unit (logger and counter) consume about 10ma at 20CPM background radiation so roughly working out if my batteries are 2000mAh (they state 2600mAh but I doubt I will get that) and the unit uses 10mA then it should last for around 200 hours! I just need to sort a charging circuit now to charge the batteries when the unit is powered from 12v from the car, or mains adapter. I went out for a quick test with it and it seems to be OK

I recently bought myself a DP-66M from ebay, then another one, then a NetIO GC-10 and I have another on the way. Maybe a different one soon? It's fair to say I have been bitten by the Geiger counter bug! I am building a static outdoor monitoring station at home, monitoring 24/7, but currently waiting on parts from China. In the meantime I have been playing with the GC-10 and built a prototype mobile GPS logging unit to take on my travels. I live not too far from Heysham power station and the Westinghouse Springfields nuclear fuel manufacturing site, so I will be having a drive around them