Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Solar Powered Wireless Radiation Monitor


Like the Geiger Kit in the previous post, this project is going to get too big to properly handle in a blog format.


So it's introduced here, but the function and build details are posted on this website.


Listening to what people want in the way of radiation detection, it appeared that there are 3 types of needs:
1.       a portable device that gives instant readings - the classic Geiger Counter
2.       a portable device that logs readings, and maybe location
3.       a stationary monitoring device that is always displaying, and logging readings

I think I’ve covered the first two with the GK-B5 and the GK-Plus Geiger kits. So this project is intended to cover the 3rd need - a stationary monitoring device.

[March 2017] Let's stop right here! Since this was written I have created severial new stationary monitoring kits based on the ESP8266. So they are WiFi rather than RF as described below. Radiation data can now be sent to severial IOT sites. One of the kits looks like this ...

 There is more information on these new "RadMon" kits here.
Sorry to interrupt - to continue ...

The idea is simple – a box outside with a Geiger counter and radio transceiver (solar powered as an option) talking wirelessly to a box inside with a display and an SD card.

the outside piece . . .

the outside piece outside . . .


the inside piece . . .


Again, you can find all the details on this website. However, I'd appreciate any comments you'd like to leave here.

15 comments:

  1. John,
    Thanks for the thorough article.
    This framework you create can be used for transmitting all sorts of data. I am sure it will be the base for even greater things. Please keep us posted.

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    1. I agree with John, you did a fantastic work Brohogan, plus it's not powered by electricity and environmental.

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  2. This is really cool. Since many of us have a wireless network at home, it would be even better to transmit the data collected by the display station via the wireless router to a home server that is up 24/7.

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  3. Yup, there are some who are planning on doing just that.

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    1. Using Xbee adapters like this?
      http://www.ladyada.net/make/xbee/arduino.html

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    2. Don't know what they will end up using. Some kind of WiFi. I doubt it will be Xbee though.
      I'm totally happy with my standalone unit, but if I wanted a link to a PC I'd use WiFi or just wired. And since I don't want to have a machine on all day, I'd pull the data off the SD card or EEPROM when I was connected.
      (At least I think I'd do it that way!)

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    3. Perhaps the best way would be a wireless transceiver that looks like a USB dongle, which can be plugged either onto the display station and save the data to the SD card, or plugged into a PC and save the data to the hard drive.

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  4. About the wireless module, does this one work as well? NRF24L01 It's only $2.5 at eBay...

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    Replies
    1. Hmmm, I don't see why not. We'll see, I just ordered a pair.

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  5. Thanks for giving it a try, and please keep us posted.

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    1. OK, I'm keeping you posted . . .
      I bought the cheap eBay ones but I couldn't wait and bought the good ones from Mdfly. They came in last week, and I had them pretty much working.
      You can read about them here . . .
      sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/wireless-monitoring/the-2-4-ghz-version

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  6. Hi Stella,
    I have doubts that that was a "real" post. If it was, sorry, I get a lot of spam posts.
    In any case, this was a personal project and is not something I sell.

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    1. Its ok, I understand, It will be great if I could buy this, but no issues. Thanks for the reply.

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  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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