Geiger Counter Continued

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I investigated the large variation observed in the graph of June 6. While babysitting the monitoring software, I noticed that occasionally the software would report bursts of over 200 CPM, even though the Geiger counter itself never measured such a spike. Two "faulty minutes" in one hour could easily explain the 400 clicks variation. Therefore, I first tried different serial/USB converters (settings were always as specified by the GC manufacturer), since low quality converters are notorious for messing up signals. But I noticed faulty burst even for expensive converters. Then I tried my only computer that still has a serial port. Now, no more faulty bursts occurred during several test runs.

After that, I redid the 24 hours experiment. The results are shown below. A much more stable graph, reporting around 700 CPH, or .1 μSv/hour, which translates into about .9 mSv/year.

I am glad I am now able to perform more reliable measurements. If anyone has suggestions on debugging the serial/USB convertors, please let me know.

Comments

Folkert van Heusden said…
Hi,

What brand and type is this geiger teller? Do you know if it'll work with linux? And/or is the protocol specified?
June 9, 2012 at 11:30 AM
Aart Bik said…
I got the digital geiger counter from Images SI, Inc. It comes with some rudimentary software, or you can by more advanced software at a premium. The protocol is given in the manual (a stream of two byte numbers), so you can of course write your own software.
June 9, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Gammageigercounter said…
I truly like to reading your post. Thank you so much for taking the time to share such a nice information.
July 30, 2012 at 12:17 PM
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