K68-CI180G_LND712 HIRO+plus Geiger Counter by Atomic.dave Atomic.Dave@yahoo.com

This is a one of a kind custom hand-made Geiger Counter built by Atomic.Dave. It is based on a kit designed by JohnGiametti (username: Brohogan) I have been building his DIY Geiger counters for over two years having built and soldaround 60 of them. Much of the information for this kit is available at the developers website. This is more of a kit for some-one who knows a little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience to build it, or would rather someone elsedo all the dirty work. Having been built by me, of course there may be some imperfections, although as minimal as possi-ble. This particular one is a culmination of its predecessors. It is certainly one of my more advanced kits having more op-tions then all accept the Cadillac, and I will do my best to explain how to use it. Once you have used it a couple times, itwill be a piece of cake.

OPERATIONFour Triple Pole switches- ALL OFF IN CENTER POSITION.

SELECT POWER LIGHT ALARM SOUND NULLUP ALARM ON/PC ON/ON ON/ON TONE TONE

MIDDLE SCALER OFF OFF OFF OFF RESETDOWN CHARGE ON/OFF ON/OFF CLICK

A. SELECT switch does 2 thing. When you first power on the unit, you will see:Atomic.Dave K68 HIRO+plus V10.1

This customized first welcome window can easily be changed if you want, by doing a little programming in Arduino.Refer to the DIY site for directions at the SOFTWARE section. But the default is now set to my name, Kit 65, and the sec-ond line is the Geiger Counter name, and the version of software that the AT328 chip is running V10.1.

The second window will show on first line the current uSv to CPM conversion rate. This is dependent upon the posti-tion of the metal toggle switch just across from the BNC connector. Toggle up for the CI-180G probe (300), and toggledown for the LND 712 probe (100). Always toggle with the unit off, then power back on.

300 CPM=1 uSv/h 100 CPM=1 uSv/hRunning at 5.24V Running at 5.24V

I have preset this for your two probes, but later if you wanted to add another probe, you could change this rate withArduino, or with the Sony wireless remote control which I will explain later. The second line refers to the current voltagethat your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The 3000mAh 3.7v lipo battery is boosted to 5v with a pololubooster. Everytime you start up your GC (geiger counter) it will show you this so you will always know your current voltage.

The third window will show this:Alarm Set ?Now at 200 CPM

At this point, you can hit the Select button to incrementally change the Alarm threshold number. Once you stop hittingthe button and wait, it will be set to the current number shown on the screen and will stay there until you change it eitheragain restarting and waiting for this part, or by using the included remote control to change it. You can also choose fromunits of measurement such as CPM or uSv/h for the Alarm. It also acts like a stopwatch starter for th scaler mode. It hastwo preset times of 1 minute averaging and 10 minute. You can change this with the remote, or the sketch when connectedto pc. Much easier with ther remote obviously.B. POWER switch controls the power and charging of the unit. Up turns on the unit, Middle turns if off, and Down is forwhen you charge the unit. When the unit is charging, the RED LED on the lower left side will remain constant RED whilecharging, and when charging is complete, it will turn off. If you wish to power the unit with the USB in, and bypass the bat-teries for extended periods. Switch in middle position, and flip up switch on top right of unit next to the mini USB port.C. LIGHT switch controls the Event LED (BLUE) and the LCD Backlight. Up turns ON both, Middle turns OFF both, andDown turns the LED on, and the Backlight off. E. ALARM switch controls the Alarm LED and Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and Down for LED only on. Thismakes for a silent visual alarm.D. SOUND switch controls the Event speaker. Up for tone mode, Middle mutes both, Down for Standard Click Mode. Moreon Tone Mode later.F. NULL this is a new switch and works only when in Tone mode for the event speaker. When you are scanning in Tonemode, you can push this to reset the sensing to zero. More on this later.

LEDSRight away, you will hear the clicking of the speaker as your GM tube picks up radiation events. There are three LEDsbelow the LCD. The Left one is GREEN and is a system status light which comes on when starting up, and when sendingdata back and forth to your PC. If the green light ever freezes up, just restart the GC, and it will reset itself.The middle is BLUE which is for radiation events and coincides with the clicking speaker which can be muted with themute switch. The Right one is RED for the Alarm which will only light up when a set alarm threshold is reached. It can beturned on or off. The speaker for the alarm is located below the grilled port just below the LCD display.OTHER SWITCHES, BUTTONS, PORTS, DIALSNEW- Added 2 new switches to the side left and right of the unit. The left side one is used to turn on and off theinternal IR for the remote control (located just above the display inside). LEAVE THIS OFF WHEN NOT USING THEREMOTE TO PROGRAM THE UNIT. If you leave it on, the IR has a tendancy to pick up signals from other remotecontrols and will cause the unit to not function properly. The right side switch is used to power the unit with theUSB cable plugged in. This must be DOWN when charging the unit. Flip this up to turn it on. Down when not pow-ering the unit with the USB. When powering the unit for long periods with the USB, please flip the main POWERswitch to the middle OFF position. There is a toggle switch across from the BNC connector. This is a uSv/hr toCPM conversion ratio. It works in accordance to what probe you are using. Always turn off the unit before switch-ing this or swapping probes. In the UP position, the ratio is 300 (the CI-180G conversion rate) and in the DOWNposition the ration becomes 100 (for the LND 712 probe conversion rate).

A. Starting on the left side top of the GC is the LCD contrast dial. As the LCD is used, it might get to a point for you toreadjust the contrast for it. Not a big deal, while the backlight is on, gently take a small screwdriver and turn it to the left orright until it appears to have the best contrast.

B. Below the contrast pot on the same side is the output multi-port used for Geiger Bot (with the included G-Botcable), and for Geiger Graph and RAD OSX (with the optional USB/FTDI cable) Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into thiswith the 3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your iphone or ipad. Or plug the optional 3.5mm to USB cable into theport, and into a USB on your mac or PC, then follow instructions to run those programs. It also serves as an mono audiooutput for silent listening with headphones, or with the included 3 conductor to 3 conductor M-M audio cable, you can runsound based data logging software.

C. On the right side of the GC is the Mini USB FTDI output/input for programming in Arduino. This also is used tocharge the internal Lithium Ion battery (with the power switch in the bottome position.) Or it can be used to power the GCfor extended periods, however when you power it this way, I would advise to turn off the LCD backlight. But its ok to turn iton once in a while, but I wouldnt leave it on for extended periods. When uploading any new changes to the programsketch, you will need to have this switch in the up position white it is plugged into your pc with the USB cable.

REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM: ONLY TURN ON IR WHEN PROGRAMMING SYSTEM. TURN OFF AFTER.This is the second system I have built with a wireless remote control. It adds some conveniences such as the ability

to adjust certain things on the GC without the need to plug into your PC or mac. It is already setup to work. All you have todo is point the remote towards the IR window, and push the power button to start. As soon as you do that these optionswill pop up. Use the channel button to move thru each option, and use the volume buttons to move up or down within thoseoptions. You can also use the number pad to input numbers rather than using the up down of the volume. After you reachthe desired amount you push ENT to enter it into the system. After you are done, hit power again to get out of this mode.

The keys on the Remote Control perform these functions:On/Off enter or exit the menu system. "DISP PERIOD (MS) is the first prompt you will see.CH Down moves to the next menu optionCH Up moves to the previous menu optionVOL Up increments the value already set for the current option or toggles an optionVOL Down decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles an optionENT finalizes the entry in the current menu option if changes were madeWhen used out of the menu, it acts like the "null" button to reset the tome.Digits 0-9 for direct entry of values (instead of Volume or Arrows) must use Enter after using digits.PERIOD enters a decimal point - used when setting the ratio.MUTING used when out of the menu mutes the speaker when in "tone mode" RECALL used when out of the menu - switches between the main screen and the scaler screen

Menu Options:Initially, menu options are set to defaults. Settings made will be stored in EEPROM on the ATmega328, so they will be ineffect when you power back on. Here is a brief description of each menu option:

DISP PERIOD (MS) The number of milliseconds before the display refreshes. 5000 (5 sec.) is a good setting.(Display counts are based on a "running average" I do not recommend settings of less than 5 seconds.)LOG PERIOD When to write the CPM, 'dose', and MCU voltage to the serial output. Zero means logging is turned off.CPM->[DOSE] RATIO Sets that ratio for the type of GM tube used. Note this ratio will depend on the dose unit being dis-played - see DISPLAY UNIT. Use the DEC PNT or AV/TV key to set a decimal point.ALARM THRESHOLD When the CPM or DOSE units is greater than this value the alarm is triggered. Unlike the button,any value may be entered.DOSE UNIT Use the arrow keys to select the name of the unit for the dose value - "uSv/h", "uR/h" or "mR/h".ALARM UNIT Sets whether the alarm is based off of CPM or the DOSE unit. Use the arrow keys to select.SCALER PER (MIN) Sets the period for the second scaler.BARGRAPH MAX CPM Sets the CPM that will give a full scale reading on the bar graph. This also affects tone modeTONE SENSITIVITY Determines how sensitive the tone is to changing activity. Low numbers are more sensitive. USE RADLOGGER? When "Yes" serial output is compatible with Radiation Logger application - see Android / PC BTGraphing page.REG. VOLTAGE Displays the voltage powering the MCU (Vcc). To a large degree, this represents the state of the battery.Note that each menu setting has a minimum and a maximum setting. Entries that are out of bounds will revert to the mini-mum or maximum.

DISPLAY BAR GRAPH: The display has a new bar graph style with placeholders and is much more responsive. It now updates 20 times per sec-

ond. The tone is also updated at this rate when used. Auto-precision - decimals are dropped from the displayed dose rate as it gets larger. Beginning with v10.1 the LOG PERIOD can now be set to intervals of less than 1 minute. Valid settings are OFF, 2s, 3s,

4s, 5s, 6s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, and 1 minute intervals up to 720 minutes. "Tube Select" is still supported where grounding I/O pin 9 will use an alternate ratio for CPM to Dose unit. The CPM->DOSE RATIO in the menu will set and save which ever ratio is selected at the time it's used. This allows setting of boththe primary and alternate ratios.

The current state of the the mute button and the scaler mode are saved in EEPROM and the Geiger kit will come up inthose states the next time it's powered on.

A "reset all" #define can be set. When uploaded the EEPROM is reset to all the default values. This may be useful if theEEPROM contains invalid data from a previous release.

Another #define can put the counter in a test mode. 360 CPM is simulated. Interrupts are not producing the count so itcan be affected if tone mode is on.

Major restructuring of the code base including use of tabs and memory saving techniques. ABOUT DOSE UNITS:

The menu allows you select the name of the dose unit that appears on the display. However, to be clear, there is nobuilt in conversion between them. Instead the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO is adjusted depending on the name of the DOSEUNIT selected. For example, 175.43 is the default set for the SBM-20 with uSv as the dose unit. Suppose you pick "mR"as the dose unit name, and want to measure in milirems. ("mR" more correctly abbreviates as milliroentgens but is used tosave display space.) The rem is defined as .01 seivert. Therefore, to use the same ratio that was designed for the tube,you would multiply that ratio by 10. You would enter a CPM->[DOSE] RATIO as 175.43 x 10 or 1754.3. Likewise if youwanted microrems ("uR") you would divide the ratio by 10 and enter 17.54.

If you do want to use roentgens (used in older instruments) this source states that they are .96 rem in soft tissue. Sothe CPM->[DOSE] RATIO for actual mR would be 175.43 x 10 x .96 or 1684.1. (for uR it would be 16.84)PLEASE REFER TO THE DIY GEIGER COUNTER DEVELOPERS WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:http://www.sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/

ARDUINO Software and Serial-USB connection information:ON the cd you will find the FTDI driver and Arduino program version 1. Install both and restart your mac. Copy the Geiger Sketch folder to the same folder as yourArduino program is and remember where that is as that will be where you go to save your sketch everytime you make a change to it. There will also be a Libraryfolder that will also need to be in the same folder. Just remember that the folder has to be the same exact name as the sketch name is. And also within Arduino, youwill have to go to preferences and show Arduino where your default sketch folder is.

ARDUINO SETTINGS: Brohogan Software system version 10.11. Open Arduino2. Open the saved sketch .ino file, connect your Geiger counter to the USB with power switch off.3. Verify the file by clicking the little check mark icon.4. Click TOOLS, and Select Board type as Arduino UNO, and select serial port as the top tty choice.5. Click Serial Monitor (top right looking glass icon). Set Baud rate to 9600 and you should see the CPM, uSv and geiger counter voltage data coming up once per minute.

For more info go to website under Software section on the DIY geiger counter website. Or go to Arduino.cc

GEIGER BOT SUGGESTED SETTINGS: (You may have to play with it to get it just right) GO TO: https://sites.google.com/site/geigerbot/

OTHER SOFTWARE LINKS:http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/download.htmlhttp://www.imagesco.com/geiger/geiger-graph.html

GEIGER GRAPH FOR PC NETWORKS: (cost is around $60. Use the OPTIONAL FTDI 3.5mm to USB cable)This is a PC only software.HARDWARE1. DIY Geiger counter kit V5.1 by Brohogan, Running operating system 10.12. Internal CI-180G Geiger Muller Tube, and External RED probe with LND712 GM tube.3. Power System by Seeeduino, Sparkfun and Pololu (please charge the unit until the RED light goes out)

A. You can power the Geiger in a couple different ways 1. With internal Lipo battery (Power switch in UP position)2. With PWR switch OFF (middle), USB cable plugged into USB port on RIGHT side of geiger, USB PWR switch on right side of unit switched UP, then plug

USB cable into:a. Computer or laptop USBb. Wall charger block (included)c. Standard 5v USB Cigarette adapter d. To power and operate the unit this way for long periods, TURN OFF BACKLIGHT

POWER and OTHER SYSTEM ITEMS: This system is capable of producing 900+ volts, so be careful or you may get zapped when handling the systemwhile it is powered on.

A. Seeeduino Lithium Ion battery - 3.7v 3000mAh http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/lithium-ion-polymer-battery-pack-3a-p-588.html?cPath=178_183 Full recharge in 3 hours, provides approximately 40 hour constant use of geiger counter with backlight off. Charge with PC/USB will take about 5 hours or more.

B. USB Lithium Polymer battery charger https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10401

C. Pololu 5V Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S7V7F5 http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2119

D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716

Select options Select Geiger Counter Select LND712 CS137 Adjust Conversion factor to your tube:

123 for LND712175 for SBM-20

360 for LND7317Select I/O Settings

Auto Adjust OFF(you may need to play

with this setting) RMS Window 1

Delay Window 30Volume Thresh 20000

Ultrafast Rates ON

HIGH VOLTAGE ADJUSTMENT AND MEASUREMENTWhen you remove the battery hatch on the lower part of the bottom of the unit, you will see three small holes on the top lip of the compartment. These are the

HV checkpoints, Negative and Positive, and a adjustable resistor POT that is used to decrease and increase the amount of HV this unit is sending to the GM tubes.You will need a Multimeter with aligator clip ends, that is capable of handling this. Please go the the HV Test & adjust section of the DIY Geiger Counter website. Inthis section it will explain in more detail. I am providing you with a free 1Gig ohm resistor probe that plugs into the test point holes as shown below. Then use the ali-gator clips on your multimeter to clip to the Red and Black leads on the probe. I have set it to about 450V since that is about midway between the two tubes. This isalso used for calibrating the unit. Depending on which probe you typically use, you may want to adjust this. LND recommends 500, and the Russian tube about 390.

ENCLOSUREDimensions: New Age Enclosure - S784114 - 7.8" x 4.1" x 1.4" (not including handle or feet)http://www.newageenclosures.com/files/784114_r5_2.pdf

REPAIRS:If the unit fails for some reason with six months from purchase, I will be more than happy to do any maintenance you need at no charge except shipping.

PACKAGE CONTENTS:In your package you will find: Geiger Counter, CI-180G Probe, LND712 Probe, (4) Cables: Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor, BNC Cable, & a cou-ple optional connectors, Mini USB to standard USB2 with FREE wall charger. CD with software and documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels. Radsamples upon request provided in micro lead pig. BONUS- 1G ohm resistor probe for HV measuring. If you ever need to replace the faceplate label, you will need toopen up the unit, remove the bnc, toggle, and handle. Remove the old label, then place the new label on, then punch holes thru for these parts that you removed.

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONSRecommended Working Voltage: 360 - 420VInitial Voltage: 290 - 330VPlateau Length: 100VPlateau Slope: 0.1% / 1VInterelectrode Capacitance: 10pFLoad Resistance: 5 - 10 MOhmsWorking Temperature Range: -500 +700Length: 100mmDiameter: 18mm

External probe Tube SI-180GELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONSRecommended Anode Resistor (Meg Ohm): 10Maximum Starting Voltage (Volts) 325Recommended Operating Voltage (Volts) 500Operating Voltage Range (Volts) 450 - 650Maximum Plateau Slope (%/100 Volts) 6Minimum Dead Time (Micro Sec) 90Gamma Sensitivity Co60 (Cps/Mr/Hr) 18Tube Capacitance (Pf) 3Weight (Grams) 8Maximum Background Shielded 50mm Pb + 3mm Al (Cpm) 10

External probe Tube LND 712

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