/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Now with 20% more russia!

I was into it until I saw how much a Geiger-Messner tube costs. The electronics are cheap & easy to do, but the tube can't be made at home.

Muller, that is, not Messner. Whatever.

>>640930
They go for 3-20$ on eBay

http://makezine.com/projects/geiger-muller-counter-tube-from-photo-film-case/

>>640930
>>640960
You can also use a PIN diode, which is significantly easier and cheaper than buying a geiger-muller tube and building the high voltage source to run it.

>>640965
That is true. But I don't know about it being cheaper if you compare it in terms of surface.
Although you could make an array larg enough and use it as a crude image sensor...

I used to work in an x-ray lab.

It never occurred to me to build my own source, but it could be a neat project.

>>640930
Forget Geiger-Mueller tubes if hero's goal. How long an area is safe to stay is realm of the ionization chamber. Hipster GM tube voltages are set so high saturation is a reality. Ion chambers are easily constructed without much electronic knowledge or special materials. Hold a low voltage potential across a gas, even air, and allow the radiation field to create the charge pairs for conduction. All electronics are in the micro amperage gauge. Save a life one day.

Be Jack Bauer and find an a-bomb? Actinides in the fissile atomic core will be emitting neutrons at a detectable rate, when slowed. Take a fissionable isotope like 6-lithium or 10-boron and slather it over a GM tube. After thoroughly shielding this combo from a,b,g radition, wrap it with a hydrogen dense moderator (water, polyethylene) to slow incoming neutrons. The nuclear reaction of 6-Li or 10-B with slow neutrons will cause secondary GM counts. You'll have 24 hours

>>640926
X-ray detection can be done with a digital camera. Come up with an opaque scintillating compound (takes radiation and turns it into light) and place over your lens, forbidding all other light. If the scintillator is directly placed on the CCD, and x-rays are focused, you'll have yourself a true camera for bones etc.

>>641107
I don't really get your first 3 sentences...
My Geiger tube operates in the micro amp range, as so do many others.

>>641125
The GM tube avalanches charge pairs to such an extent, a quenching gas is required so the next count can be detected. Yes, both micro amps: GM systems can only pulse, then zero, but less sensitive ion chambers can actually record higher currents as the radiation increases.

>>641136
Maybe, just maybe, OP wants to measure low level radiation, instead of trying to detect nuclear wars.

>>641106
The "source" can be something as simple as an old misused high voltage rectifier tube from an old TV. The drawbacks are that they're generally quite dim and produce only relatively soft x-rays.

>>641136
Ah, OK. I know what you mean now.
For now I just need to know if I am generating X-rays. GM tube life span is limited due to the gas too.
Maybe in the future I will think about making an ion chamber.

>>641170
Yes, I have tried that but I know someone who might be able to get me a small x-ray tube from a hospital.
Plus I'm looking at higher energy x-rays.

>>641198
You should check out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboluminescence

fuq e-

>>641198
What energy range are you hoping for?

>>641106
Old low wattage light bulbs(vacuum+tungsten) will emit xrays if hooked up to high voltage.

Just be careful! If you can see the glass glowing green you are being exposed to deadly x rays!

>>641380
That is something to try when I get a decent vacum pump.

>>641589
20-70kvp would be nice. But the top will depend on the tube. I don't know what kind of tube I might get...
Slowly colecting lead too, need to cast it aswell... lots to do.

>>641592
I tried that, but as I didn't have any way to detect xrays at the time I stopped.
Guess one could make a home made tube if they had acces to a glass shop or something.

Ah... the problems of DIY... so many things that need other things that need more things to get things done... And so little money... Hahaha

>>641624
Glenn F. Knoll, Radiation Detection and Measurement.
Moore Davis & Coplan, Building Scientific Apparatus.
These two books start with actual devices then build back on the theory behind them. Very understandable and loads of manufacturer references.

>>641753
Thanks! Really interesting!
The one for building apparatus is awesome. I really need to convert my mill to cnc this year.
Just need to design the motor controllers.

I have an app for that.

>>640926
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb3d05tduRw

you can use smoke detectors to make a simple gieger counter

>>643532
sorry horrible video didn't describe anything
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtQ746MPrNs

>>643534
Same principle as a geiger tube, ionised gas.
Could make a nice large array of those and go find some radioactive rocks