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K45-LND7317/GPS Cadillac Geiger Counterby 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 a year and a half having built and

old around 45 of them. All information for this kit is available at the developers website. As I have said before, this is more

f a kit for someone who knows a little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience to build it, or would rather

omeone else do all the dirty work. Having been built by me, of course there will be some imperfections, although as mini-

mal as possible. This particular one has been quite an adventure having taken close to a year to complete. It is the most

dvanced kit of all that I have created, with ALL the features available. Its is quite complicated and I will do my best to ex-

lain how to use it. Once you have used it a couple times, it will be a piece of cake.

OPERATION

. LCD DISPLAY: Flip power, light and sound (mute) switch UP (on). The LCD backlight display light comes on, and youwill see the words:

CADILLAC LND7317Atomic.Dave K45

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.

The second window will show this:

360 CPM to uSvRunning at 5.05V

The first line refers to the conversion rate of CPM to uSv/hr for your LND7317 tube (360) this can be changed either

n the program sketch, with Arduino, or with the Sony wireless remote control which I will explain later. The second line

efers to the current voltage that your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The 3000mAh 3.7v lipo battery is

oosted to 5v with a pololu booster. Everytime you start up your GC (geiger counter) it will show you this so you will al-

ways know your current voltage.The third window will look something like this: Once the satellite syncs:

CPM 24 0.07 CPM 24 0.0701/01/00 00:00 11/21/12 22:36

On the first line is the current CPM and its corresponding uSv/hr to the right of it. The second line is the default date

nd time which will always be this when you start up as the GPS has not synced with a satellite yet. (signified by a solid

ed LED at the very top of the GC) Once the GPS syncs, the LED will blink, and the date and time will update to the cur-

ent one. However, you will have to make sure your time zone is right (which can be adjusted in the sketch, or with the re-

mote) the clock is a 24 hour clock. (use the light switch to save battery life by turning off the LCD backlight)

. LEDS:Right away, you will hear the beeping of the piezo as your LND7317 GM tube picks up radiation events. Therere three LEDs below the LCD. The left one is RED for the Alarm which will only light up when a set alarm threshold is

eached. The piezo for the alarm is located on the upper left side and has a mute switch right above it. The middle is BLUE

which is for radiation events and coincides with the beeping piezo which can be muted with the mute switch. The right one

s GREEN and is a system status light which comes on when starting up, and when sending data back and forth to either

ou PC or to the SD card. If the green light ever freezes up, just restart the GC, and it will reset itself.

. SWITCHES, BUTTONS, PORTS, DIALS:A. Starting on the left side top of the GC is the Alarm mute switch, the Alarm piezo, the SD card/slot, slightly above

hat is the LCD contrast dial, then tiny charging status LED (solid orange while charging, and blinking orange when done)

SB charge port and finally, 9V barrel charging port. You can charge with either of these two whatever is more conven-

ence. The 9V will charge faster obviously. NOTE: for the SD card, please take special care when inserting and removing

he card. It was very difficult to line this slot up right, and there is very little play. Also, when taking the SD card in and out, I

would suggest turning off the GC, then back on after reinserting. I would suggest placing the GC on a table flat, and have

he SD side facing you. Using the handle, angle up the GC so you can get a good view of the SD card slot. There is a very

ny gap right above the slot. Make sure you DO NOT insert the

ard into that gap or you will be in trouble as the card will get

ost inside the unit and you will be forced to open it up which I

would not recommend as its a little tough getting it back to-

ether. Once you have it in the slot, using your thumb, come

own the top edge of the GC, and with the very tip of your

humb, push the SD card into the slot until you feel it click intolace. Use the same positition of the Thumb to release it. Once

ou take out the SD Card, use the included SD card adapter

nd plug it into your mac or PC. There will be a .csv file that is

ompatible with Microsoft excel. Open the file with Excel, and

ou will see all the information listed.

B. On the very top on the face of the GC is the GPS status

ED. Blinking when synced, and solid when not. The Antenna and GPS is just below it inside. It syncs pretty easily indoors.

elow that is the wireless remote IR.When using the remote, point it to that location. LEDs were covered above. Left white

witch, is the send data to the SD card button. Push this and you will send all data to the SD card: current Date, Time, Lati-

ude, Longitude, KMPH, CPM, uSv, and VCC of system. You will see the words LOGGED! to confirm data was received on

he SD card. With the remote, you can adjust the time intervals when it writes to the SD automatically. Following this but-

on, is the event piezo mute, then backlight on/off, and finally POWER.

C. On the lower right side of the GC is the Mini USB FTDI output/input for programming in Arduino. This can also be

sed to power the GC as well, however when you power it this way, make sure the power switch is off (down). When up-

oading any new changes to the program sketch, you will need to turn off the GPS in order to do that as they share the

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ame serial port. I have included a hidden on/off switch for the GPS inside the battery compartment. I figured since it wont

e very often that you change the program so I hid the switch. Once the program is uploaded you can turn the GPS back

n, and the power on the GC.

D. Finally at the bottom right 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 which I have given to you as a bonus) Nothing special

bout this port. Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into this with the 3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your iphone

r ipad. Or plug the FTDI 3.5mm to USB cable into the port, and into a USB on your mac or PC, then follow instructions to

un those programs. It also serves as an mono audio output for silent listening with headphones.

REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM:This is the first system I have ever built with a wireless remote control. It adds some conveniences such as the ability

o 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 too is push the power button to start. As soon as you do that these options will pop up. Use the channel button to move thruach option, and use the volume buttons to move up or down within those options. You can also use the number pad to

nput numbers rather than using the up down of the volume. After you reach the desired amount you push ENT to enter itnto the system.

. SEC DISP PERIOD is the number of seconds before the display refreshes.(5 seconds is a good setting. Display is now based on a "running average" like the Geiger Kit.)

. 1= DOSE MODE ON - Dose Mode shows the running average of CPM & uSv/h on an alternate display that comes upafter 4 display periods have passed. It can also be activated by closing DIP switch #1 on the board. Note that DoseMode will only begin to display once 1 minute has passed.

. MIN LOGGING is when to write the log data to the MicroSD card (in minutes). Zero means no log.(Since the setting is in minutes, logged results will not be subject to rounding errors.)

. CPM->uSv RATIO is ratio for the type of GM tube used. 175 is the default for the SBM-20 and 100 is for the LDN 712.Unlike the "default sketch" only one ratio is supported, but now it can be easily changed.

. ALARM > CPM when the CPM is greater than this value, pin 15 goes high (+5V) what you do with it is up to you.Caution! If you exceed 40mA. You can burn out the pin. You can trigger a transistor if you need more than that. Youcan also get a piezo with a built in oscillator such as this one. (no transistor needed). Pin 15 will go back to low (Gnd)when the CPM drops back under the alarm threshold.

. ZONE (>12= +) you need to set your time zone because the GPS provides time in UTC format. The time zone can beanything between -12 and +12, but avoid the complexities of entering negative numbers, values between 0 and 12are considered negative, and above 12, positive. So if your zone is +5 you would set 17.

for some odd reason the remote does not work, hit the mute button and when the IR OK! shows up on the display, youre synced, hit the power button then start hitting the up down on the channel button. Other options can also be added ifou know how to program in Arduino.

DIY GEIGER COUNTER DEVELOPERS WEBSITE:

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

ketch folder to the same folder as your Arduino program is and remember where that is as that will be where you go toave your sketch everytime you make a change to it. There will also be a Library folder that will also need to be in theame folder. Just remember that the folder has to be the same exact name as the sketch name is. And also within Arduino,

ou will have to go to preferences and showrduino where your default sketch folder is.

RDUINO SETTINGS:. Open Arduino. Open the saved sketch .ino file, connectour Geiger counter to the USB with powerwitch off.. Verify the file by clicking the little check

mark icon.. Click TOOLS, and Select Board type asrduino UNO, and select serial port as the

op tty choice.. Click Serial Monitor (top right lookinglass icon). Set Baud rate to 9600 and youhould see the CPM, uSv and geiger counter

oltage data coming up once per minute.

or more info go to website under Softwareection on the DIY geiger counter website.

Or go to Arduino.cc

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GEIGER BOT SUGGESTED SETTINGS: (You may have to play with it to get it just r ight)

http://sites.google.com/site/geigerbot/S

OTHER SOFTWARE LINKS:

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 bonus FTDI 3.5mm to USB cable) This is a PC only software.

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

Ultrafast Rates O

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HARDWARE. DIY Geiger counter kit V3.0 by Brohogan

. DIY Geiger counter Shield

http://www.sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/

. LND 7317 Geiger Muller Tube

. Power System by Adafruit and Pololu (please charge the unit for minimum 3 hours before use)

A. You can power the Geiger in a couple different ways

1. With internal Lipo battery

2. While charging Lipo battery with USB plugged into LEFT side of geiger with power switch ON,

or with the barrel plug and wall charger plugged into the barrel hole on the left side.

3. With USB cable plugged into data port on RIGHT side of geiger then plugged into:

a. Computer or laptop USB

b. Wall charger block (included)

c. Standard 5v USB Cigarette adapter (not included)d. To power and operate the unit this way make sure POWER SWITCH IS IN OFF POSITION

- Its ok to have switch the on for a little while, but DAMAGE WILL OCCUR if left this way for long

periods- best bet is NOT to do this.

e. For long usage of geiger counter (constant on for long periods) the preferred way to power it would be

with power switch OFF and USB cable powering from left side.

OWER and OTHER SYSTEM ITEMS:

A. Lithium Ion Polymer battery - 3.7v 3000mAh

http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/lithium-ion-polymer-battery-pack-3a-p-588.html?cPath=178_183

Full recharge in 2.5 hours, provides approximately 20 hour constant use of geiger counter

Charge with the wall charger (make sure cable is to the left, and the red light on the adapter comes on)

Charge with USB will take about 5 hours or more.

B. USB/DC Lithium Polymer battery charger - 5-12V - 3.7/4.2v cells

http://www.adafruit.com/products/280

C. Pololu 5V Boost Regulator NCP1402 http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/798

D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9716

E. EM411 GPS Engine Board Module with SiRF Star III Chipset

http://dx.com/p/em-411-gps-engine-board-module-with-sirf-star-iii-chipset-80037

ND-7317 GEIGER MULLER TUBE

nstalled inside this nicely planned out kit is a PANCAKE LND 7317 which senses Alpha, Beta and Gamma. The pancake

ube is mounted to the case by a solid copper bracket, with a galvanized 1/8" mesh for protection and silicon feet. It has a

andle that was placed in a well balanced position. I will be Including and shipping the Geiger Counter inside a Pelican

150 atmospheric controlled case to protect the pancake from high altitude and pressure implosion during shipping.

ttp://www.lndinc.com/products/17/

NCLOSURE

Dimensions: New Age Enclosure - S784114 - 7.8" x 4.1" x 1.4" (not including handle or feet)

ttp://www.newageenclosures.com/files/784114_r5_2.pdf

CARRYING CASE

ttp://www.pelican-case.com/1150-silver.html

REPAIRS:

here is a very exact order to opening and closing the case, that I can explain to you if you need to but I would not suggest

. I will be more than happy to do any maintenance if you need at no charge except shipping.

ACKAGE CONTENTS:

n your package you will find: Geiger Counter, Pelican 1150 Case, Lead Pig w/ Samples, Sony RM-EZ4 Remote Control,

anDisk 16GB Micro SD disk and Adapter, (4) Cables: Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, Audio 3 to 3 conductor, FTDI 3 con-

uctor to USB, Mini USB to standard USB2. Grey Satchel to carry cables. (2) Wall chargers: 9V barrel wall adapter & 5V

white block USB charger. CD with software and documents, Manual, stickers, and extra faceplate labels.

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