K78 Windscale2P 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 John
Giametti (username: Brohogan) I have been building his DIY Geiger counters for over two years having built and sold
around 80 of them. All information for this kit is available at the developers website. As I have said before, this is more of a
kit for someone who knows a little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience to build it, or would rather
someone else do all the dirty work. Having been built by me, of course there will be some imperfections, although as minimal as possible. This particular one is a culmination of all of its predecessors. It is certainly one of my more advanced kits
having more options then most of the others, and I will do my best to explain how to use it. Once you have used it a couple
times, it will be a piece of cake.
OPERATION
On the face of the unit, Right side- Four Triple Pole switches- ALL OFF IN CENTER POSITION
A. POWER switch controls the power and charging of the unit. Up turns on the unit, Middle turns if off, and Down is for
when you charge the unit. When the unit is charging, the RED LED on the middle right side will remain constant RED
while charging, and when charging is complete, it will turn off. If you wish to power the unit with the USB in, and bypass
the batteries for extended periods, Power switch in middle position, and flip up USB power switch on right side of unit just
to the right of the power switch.
B. SOUND switch controls the Event speaker. Up for tone mode, Middle for mute, and Down for Standard Click Mode.
More on Tone Mode later.
B2. NULL The Green momentary switch just to the right of the sound switch, and works only when in Tone mode for the
event speaker. When you are scanning in Tone mode, you can push this to reset the sensing to zero.
C. LIGHT switch controls the Event LED GREEN and the LCD Backlight. Up turns on both, Middle turns both off, and
Down turns the LED on, and the Backlight off.
D. ALARM switch controls the Alarm LED and Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and Down for LED only on. This
makes for a silent visual alarm.
GREEN SELECT momentary switch to the right of the LCD display- does 2 things. When you first power on the unit,
you will see this first screen:

Atomic.Dave K78
Windscale2P 10.2
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 78, and the second line is the Geiger Counter name, and the version of software that the AT328 chip is running V10.2.
The second window will show this:

300 CPM=1 uSv/h

Running at 5.24V
The first line refers to the conversion rate of CPM to uSv/hr for the LND7317 tube (334) this can be changed either in
the program sketch, with Arduino, or with the Sony wireless remote control which I will explain later. The second line refers
to the current voltage that your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The 3000mAh 3.7v lipo battery is boosted to
5v with a pololu booster. 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 something like 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 hitting
the button and wait, it will be set to the current number shown on the screen and will stay there until you change it either
again restarting and waiting for this part, or by using the included remote control to change it. You can also chose from
units of measurement such as CPM or uSv/h for the Alarm.
REMOTE CONTROL IR POWER SWITCH- Just to the left side of the display is the Remote control IR power switch. I
added this cause sometimes the IR will pick up random remote controls in the area and cause the display or kit ti respond
strangely. So be sure and turn off the IR when not using it.
LEDS
Right away, you will hear the beeping of the piezo as your Probe with CI-180G GM tube picks up gamma and beta radiation
events. There are now only LEDs. To the right of the Light switch is the GREEN LED which is for radiation events and coincides
with the beeping piezo which can be muted with the mute switch. Below this is the RED LED which will only light up when a set
alarm threshold is reached. The piezo for the alarm and events are located below the grilled vent above the display.
OTHER SWITCHES, BUTTONS, PORTS, DIALS
The upper left side switch is used to turn on and off the IR for the remote control. LEAVE THIS OFF WHEN NOT
USING THE REMOTE TO PROGRAM THE UNIT. If you leave it on, the IR has a tendancy to pick up signals from
other remote controls and will cause the unit to not function properly. The upper right side switch is used to
power the unit with the USB cable plugged in. Flip this up to turn it on. Down when not powering the unit with the
USB. When running the unit this way, please flip the POWER switch to the middle position.
A. Underneath and in the upper middle of the back of the GC is the LCD contrast dial. As the LCD is used, it might
get to a point for you to readjust the contrast for it. Not a big deal, while the backlight is on, gently take a small screwdriver
and turn it to the left or right until it appears to have the best contrast.
B. Below the IR swtich on the left side is the output multi-port used for Geiger Bot (with the included G-Bot cable),
and for Geiger Graph and RAD OSX (with the optional USB/FTDI cable) Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into this with the
3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your iphone or ipad. Or plug the optional 3.5mm to USB cable into the port, and
into a USB on your mac or PC, then follow instructions to run those programs. It also serves as an mono audio output for
silent listening with headphones, or with the included 3 conductor to 3 conductor M-M audio cable, you can run sound
based data logging software. Now this is also compatible with Geiger Graph, and with the optional serial cable (3.5mm to
USB) you can now hook up the unit to the network version of this popular software for live online uploading of data.

C. On the left side of the GC below the output plug is the Mini USB FTDI output/input for programming in Arduino. This
also is used to charge the internal Lithium Ion battery (with the power switch in the bottome position.) Or it can be used to
power the GC for extended periods, however when you power it this way, I would advise to turn off the LCD backlight. But its
ok to turn it on once in a while, but I wouldnt leave it on for extended periods. When uploading any new changes to the program sketch, 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 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 to do is turn on the IR sensor then point the remote towards the IR
window (above the display inside and hidden), and push the power button on the remote to start. As soon as you do that
these options will pop up. Use the channel button to move thru each option, and use the volume buttons to move up or
down within those options. You can also use the number pad to input numbers rather than using the up down of the volume. After you reach the desired amount you push ENT to enter it into the system.
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.
Channel Down or Down Arrow moves to the next menu option
Channel Up or Up Arrow moves to the previous menu option
Volume Up or Right Arrow increments the value already set for the current option or toggles an option
Volume Down or Left Arrow decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles an option
Enter finalizes the entry in the current menu option if changes were made. When 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.
Decimal Point - enters a decimal point - used when setting the ratio.
Mute used when out of the menu mutes the speaker when in "tone mode" (see below) or the piezo if that mod has
been made to the Geiger board.
Menu Options:
Initially, menu options are set to defaults. Settings made will be stored in EEPROM on the ATmega328, so they will be in
effect 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 displayed
ALARM THRESHOLD - When the CPM or DOSE units is greater than this value the alarm is triggered. (See Alarm and
Second Screen below) 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 mode
(see below)
TONE SENSITIVITY - Determines how sensitive the tone is to changing activity. Low numbers are more sensitive.
USE RADLOGGER? (v10.1) - When "Yes" serial output is compatible with Radiation Logger application - see Android /
PC BT Graphing 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 minimum 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 second. 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 both
the 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 in
those 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 the
EEPROM 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 it
can 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 no
built in conversion between them. Instead the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO is adjusted depending on the name of the DOSE
UNIT 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 to
save 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 you
wanted 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. So
the 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 your Arduino 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 Library folder
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, you will
have to go to preferences and show Arduino where your default sketch folder is.
ARDUINO SETTINGS: Brohogan Software system version 10.1
1. Open Arduino
2. 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:

Select options

Select Geiger Counter

Select LND712 CS137

Adjust Conversion
factor to your tube:
123 for LND712
175 for SBM-20
360 for LND7317
Select I/O Settings

Auto Adjust OFF

(you may need to play
with this setting)
RMS Window 1
Delay Window 30
Volume Thresh 20000

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/download.html
http://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.

HARDWARE

Ultrafast Rates ON

1. DIY Geiger counter kit V5.3 by Brohogan, Running operating system 10.2
2. Russian CI-180G Geiger Muller Tube Inside probe Baton
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
2. With PWR switch OFF (middle), USB cable plugged into USB port on RIGHT side of geiger then plugged into:
a. Computer or laptop USB
b. Wall charger block
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 system
while 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 2120
http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/2120
D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716
Russian CI-180G GEIGER MULLER TUBE
Installed connected to the probe housing and connected by BNC is an Russian CI-180G GM Tube which senses , Beta, Gamma. It is quite sensitive and dont be
surprised if your background count is double that what you are used to with a SBM-20 as the diameter and size is two to three times larger and will pick up more.
Always average out your background readings and use it as a base to take readings from.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Russian made (CI-180G) glass geiger mueller tube is designed to detect gamma rays ( military version)
Recommended Working Voltage
360 - 420V
Initial Voltage
290 - 330V
Plateau Length
100V
Plateau Slope
0.1% / 1V
Interelectrode Capacitance
10pF
Load Resistance
5 - 10 MOhms
Working Temperature Range
-500 +700
Length
100mm
Diameter
18mm
ENCLOSURE: Hammond 1599EGYBAT
Dimensions: 6.70 x 3.3 x 1.33
http://www.hammondmfg.com/dwg6.htm
REPAIRS:
If the unit fails for some reason with a year 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, Probe with Handle, Lead Pig w/ Sample, Sony RM-EZ4 Remote Control, (4) Cables: BNC cable, Geiger bot 3 to 4
conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor, Mini USB to standard USB2. CD with software and documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels.

Wi d
Windscale2P
Windsca
CI-180G
CI
180G

OUTPUT
T

INPUT

LIPO
LIP
CH
CHARGER

O
ut
Out

In

5V Up/D
own
Up/Down
BOOST

LIPO

EEVENT
VENT
LED

LCD Diode
Voltage L
Voltage
Limiter
d to left
Band

270 OHM
RESISTOR
RESISTOR

LE
ED/BKLT
LED/BKLT
ON/ON
ON
N/ON
OFF
OF
FF
ON/OFF
ON
N/OFF

SPEAKER
TONE
OFF
CLICK

PWR/CHG
ON/PC
OFF
CHARGE

C
LLIGHT

SOUND

A
A
LARM
ALARM
LED
OHM
300 OHM
RESISTOR
O
RESISTOR

LED/SND
ON/ON
OFF
ON/OFF

ALARM

3.5mm
Socket
Socket

1K OHM
RESISTOR
RESISTOR

.1 uF C
ap
Cap

56K OHM
56K
RESISTOR
RESISTOR

MU
LTI-SOF
T
TWA
ARE
MULTI-SOFTWARE
PORT
OUTPUT POR
RT

ALARM
PIEZO
PIEZO

E
REMOTE PWR

ALARM
Thresholdd
Timer
Timer

TONE
Reset

NULL

F H
SELECTT

POWER

7
6
5
4
3
2
8
9
10
11
12
13

FTDI

FG

14
15
16
17
18
19

L R

Wi d
Windsca
W
Windscale2P

IR SENSOR

INPUT

OUTPUT
UT

CI-180G
CI
180G

OFFF
OFF

USB
Power
Power

G
N
ON