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Raspberry Pi Geiger Counter

Geiger Counter Setup
Geiger Counter Setup

Here’s my latest project with the Pi: interfacing it with the Sparkfun Geiger counter & outputting the resulting data to a character LCD.

The geiger counter is interfaced with it’s USB port, with the random number generator firmware. A Python script reads from the serial port & every minute outputs CPM & µSv/h data to the display.

The Python code is a mash of a few different projects I found online, for different geiger counters & some of my own customisations & code to write the info to the display & convert CPM into µSv/h.

This also writes all the data into a file at /var/log/radlog.txt

The code for this is below:

[snippet id=”1149″]

Info Display
Info Display
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New Feature – Geiger Counter

Here’s something new, an internet connected Geiger counter! The graph in the sidebar is updated once every 60 seconds, and can be clicked on for a larger version. Measurements are in Counts Per Minute, the graph logs 1 hour of data.

 

The counter itself is a Sparkfun Geiger counter, with the end cap removed from the tube so it can also detect alpha radiation.

Connected through USB, a Perl script queries the emulated serial port for the random 1 or 0 outputted by the counter when it detects a particle. The graph is pretty basic, but it gets the point across. Anybody who wishes to contribute to improve the graphing is welcome to comment!

Geiger Counter
Geiger Counter