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I'm glad to hear you finally worked things out with the chinese manufacturers! I wonder how much that will drop the cost for one of these. I've been wanting one for a long time.
I've got an old RS-232 Black Cat Systems GM-45 that I bought for a couple dollars off the GCE list years ago that needed some repairs (internals are now repaired but it is missing a housing and the pancake detector is very fragile). I fixed it up but I don't own any computers with RS232 ports, haha! I had intended to design a DC-DC converter and USB-RS232 interface to power it and hook it up to a modern pc, but it just seemed like too much work for how busy I am these days.
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
Mads Barnkob wrote ...
Good luck with the competition. I signed up and voted, true it is easy with hackadays new project site, almost web 3.0 :)
Thanks Mads, I only wish they had facebook/g+ auth as well.
I got to collect a few skulls, which is good and I'm looking forward to hit the 100 threshold, I think it is then when they give the "skullmaster" label, useful for some extra visibility.
Sigurthr wrote ...
I'm glad to hear you finally worked things out with the chinese manufacturers! I wonder how much that will drop the cost for one of these. I've been wanting one for a long time. I've got an old RS-232 Black Cat Systems GM-45 that I bought for a couple dollars off the GCE list years ago that needed some repairs (internals are now repaired but it is missing a housing and the pancake detector is very fragile). I fixed it up but I don't own any computers with RS232 ports, haha! I had intended to design a DC-DC converter and USB-RS232 interface to power it and hook it up to a modern pc, but it just seemed like too much work for how busy I am these days.
Hi Sigurthr, hopefully the PCBs they'll make will work good. I've designed the 6th revision of the Model A PCB. It certainly doesn't make much sense to spend time in doing complicated adapters. Not when there are so nice alternatives
From my last post here, a new unit went online in Prague, and 4 more are on their way to various locations on the globe. As usual, the data is available on: http://www.uradmonitor.com For the Prague unit, here's a comparison with the data recorded at my location, before sending the unit over:
The first unit in the United Kingdom went online today. The network is expanding fast, for global coverage! More on:
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
It’s been a long road getting here with this project, a road paved with constant innovation. And it’s a longer road ahead. The first uRADMonitor was a crude prototype, with jumping wires on a test board, it got its own PCB soon. The following models were a new design, more compact using the smaller SBM-20 and SI-29BG tubes, with several improvements. There were many details to change and to improve, and experimenting with compact high voltage inverters, Geiger tubes and discriminating/counting circuits for the last two years, surely brought a lot of progress for the benefit of this ongoing project. Following the last 5 monitors sent to various corners of the world, a new batch has been prepared. And while waiting to finalise the discussions with several Chinese factories, this batch has been manually developed. Here are a few pictures and explanations, showing the tedious process of building a uRADMonitor unit. It all starts with a shiny piece of PCB carefully cleaned and polished to remove any grease and dust: We then print the PCB layout designed using a computer software, and etch the PCB using a corrosive agent. If we are lucky we get clean nice traces: To be able to mount the components, a few carefully aligned holes must be drilled. We use a tiny drill. The Ethernet module is mounted as an addon to our PCB, so we need to make some space for it. Next, we’re ready to start soldering the components. But they are so small, barely visible to the naked eye. Tweezers prove handy. The process is slow and requires a steady hand and attention: After a few hours, the board is ready. The Geiger tube is added last because it is fragile. And we’re still far from being done. The aluminium enclosure requires working with power tools, cutting, drilling and smoothing the edges. Then the software must be written into the microcontroller, and the calibration tests can be performed. This takes close to another full day of tests and tweaking.
But this is all for today. The next batch of devices is almost done, for their approaching departure to distant locations all over the Globe.
Wow, I didn't realize you were still hand fab'ing every board! I assumed the chinese deals were to work out pick-and-place and wave soldering of CNC'd pre-fab'ed PCBs (which I assumed you were already using!). Drilling out every single uRad board... dedication!
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
Yes, I couldn't say it better myself. And multiply that to 10, the number of units in the last batch. But the deal with the Chinese is going OK, I'll be placing the order next week, so things should simplify.
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
uRADMonitor unit 11000007, got to its final destination, after a long journey. The unit is now up and running from New Zealand. Live data on the web portal as usual:
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
One extra unit currently available on ebay for something close to its BOM cost (only the components + shipping). Wasted a day on making it, but I'm trying to expand the network before anything else:
Registered Member #8120
Joined: Thu Nov 15 2012, 06:06PM
Location: Moscow, Russia
Posts: 94
Interesting. Wouldn't mind setting a few around Moscow, and maybe one in Montenegro. However, i'm surprised by the price. What is the most expensive part of the build? I can't quite see anything in it that would add up to about $100.
Anyway, a dump of ideas: -Make it wireless. -Make it self-powered.
Power: Get a box of small, overcast-friendly solar panels, i.e. Put a li-po battery inside.
Wireless: Not sure how much power or complexity a WiFi device would require. If it does not fit the power budget, then there is an alternative - cheap and simple RF modules.
Split the device in two: -One part is the sensor, with solar cell, battery and geiger counter. -The other is the ethernet port.
Then, get a box of RFM12B modules -
Put one into the sensor part, and the other into the ethernet part. This way, the sensor part goes, untethered, anywhere you want (within range of few 100 meters), and the receiver end plugs into regular ethernet. Much cheaper then Wifi.
Power consumption: Active consumption of RFM12B+Atmega328 i got is about 10mA, for a device constantly looking for input. So, a 300mAh lipo can last a day at continuous broadcast. Or many, many days with interrupt-driven design of some sort - i.e. wire the geiger counter into an interrupt on atmega, store data locally and only transmit occasionally (RFM12B have a shutdown pin). In later case you will only need to care about standby currents and the inverter. Probably sub-mA range. Easily solar powered, anywhere.
On solar+battery power system: I've used these panels and one li-po cell before, described here (solar panel->step-up->charger->3.3V regulator) - This book saw daily use, and never ran out of power, despite a lack of any sort of power plug.
Data storage: FRAM chip, same as in the above book. Non-volatile, does not consume much power. Store a few hours worth of data, then fire up the radio module and download.
All in all, i think this would be much, much more user and install-friendly when split into two parts as described. Also, go for micro/minuUSB socket for power - these are standard, and anyone can/will have a compatible phone charger for nothing, while a special plug adapter is less common.
Registered Member #1938
Joined: Sun Jan 25 2009, 12:44PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 701
Hi Artlav, thanks for your feedback.
If you need to get a unit, you can read more here: To make it wireless, I already have in plan a future revision, that I call "Model C". Besides wifi , it will feature an LCD, buttons for user input, flash memory, gps for linking measurements to exact position, a rechargeable lipo battery and a software mechanism to synchronise offline data automatically when the unit gets back to a wlan area and Internet is available. Not easy and the complexity will be reflected in its price.
The Model A (current uRADMonitor variant), can be powered by a solar power, or by a solar power with a little buffer (rechargeable battery) . For this model, there are options to make it connect to a wireless network, as presented in this article:
Keep the good ideas coming!
Some news: The first uRADMonitor unit in Japan registers unexpectedly low background radiation levels:
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Global Radiation monitoring system
