K110 Windscale+plus w/LND712p Geiger Counter: Green
K110 Windscale+plus w/LND712p Geiger Counter: Green
by Atomic.dave Atomic.Dave@yahoo.com
This is a one of a kind custom hand-made Geiger Counter built by Atomic.Dave. It is based on a kit designed by the original creator of the DIY Arduino based Geiger Counter Kit- Brohogan. For over 3 years, I
have built and sold over 100 of these kits, with very good results, and fantastic feedback by ebay customers.
All information for this kit is available at the developers website and its a good idea to visit the site from time
to time as the software and other parts of it may change, upgrade or improve. As I have said before, this is
more of a kit for someone who knows a little bit about electronics but doesnt have the time or patience to
build it, or would rather someone else do all the dirty work. Having been built by me, of course there will be
some imperfections, although as minimal as possible. These instructions will
help you to understand the basic operation of this meter. Once you have
used it a couple times, it should be pretty easy for you to operate.
OPERATION
On the face of the unit starting from the top are 3 vent holes, LCD
backlit display, 2 momentary buttons, and 4 triple pole slide switches.
Follow the label to locate the listed switches below:
VENTS (Three grilled holes just above the display)
Under these grills are the event piezo where the sound comes out for every radiation event. Also located there
is the IR for the wireless remote control, so when operating the remote, try to aim it to this general location.
LEDS
After powering the GC on, you will hear the beeping of the piezo as your LND712 GM tube inside the silver
probe handle while it picks up radiation events. The GREEN LED is for radiation events and coincides with
the beeping piezo which can be muted with the SND switch. The RED LED will only light up when a set
alarm threshold is reached. The piezo for the alarm and events are located beneath the grilled vent below the
display. Both LEDS can be turned off for indiscreet radiation monitoring. The two switches for this operation
are the two in the center of the four. LTS and ALM Middle postion is off.
SWITCHES
A. MODE momentary switch (located to the right of the display on the right side) does 4 things. 1- Alarm control. 2Scaler mode start/stop. 3- Alarm 30 second mute. 4- Menu reset.
1. When you first power on the unit, you will see:
Atomic.Dave K110
LND712 WS_v10.3C
This customized first welcome window can easily be changed if you want, by doing a little programming in Arduino. Refer to the ARDUINO section for more detailed instructions. But the default is now set to my name, Kit
110, and the second line is the Geiger Counter Tube and the version of software that the AT328 chip is running
which is v10.3C.
Then a second window will come up with the first line showing the current set uSv to CPM conversion rate.
100 CPM=1 uSv/h
Running at 5.24V
The second line refers to the current voltage that your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The
3200mAh 3.7v lipo battery is boosted to 5v with a pololu booster. Everytime you start up your GC (geiger
counter) it will show you this so you will always know your current voltage.
The third window will show this:
Alarm Set ?
Now at 500 CPM
At this point, you can push the MODE button to incrementally change the Alarm threshold number. Once
you stop holding down the button and wait, it will be set to the current number shown on the screen and will
stay there until you change it either again restarting and waiting for this part, or by using the included remote
control to change it. You can also choose from units of measurement such as CPM or uSv/h for the Alarm
with the remote.
2. It also acts like a stopwatch starter for the scaler mode. It has two preset times of 1 minute and 10
minute averaging. You can change this with the remote, or the sketch when connected to pc. Although it is
much easier with the remote obviously. Push the button and the timer starts where the first line is counting
down from 60 seconds. The numbers on the left are the current total events during this timed one minute. The
numbers on the right is the seconds counting down from 60 to 0. Same thing goes for the second line, but for
10 minutes.
3. When your alarm goes off you can tap this button to mute the alarm for 30 seconds.
4. After programming your unit with the wireless remote, if you want to reset it to default settings. Hold
down this button while the unit starts up.
AUDIO OUT
LCD ADJUST
BNC
MODE SELECT
NULL
USB PWR
B. POWER Power switch controls the power and charging of the GC. Up turns it on the GC with battery
power, Middle turns it off, and Down position is for charging the unit. To charge the GC, push down the USB
power switch on the left side of the GC, as well as have the PWR switch down. When you do this, a RED
LED to the right of the USB port will remain constant RED while charging, and will turn BLUE when charging
is complete. If you wish to power the unit with the USB in, and bypass the batteries for extended periods, put
the Power switch in the middle position, and push the USB power switch UP. Always keep the USB power
switch in the middle (OFF) when powering the unit with the batteries.
C. SOUND The Sound switch controls the Event speaker. Up for tone mode, Middle for mute, and Down for
Standard Click Mode. More on Tone Mode later.
D. LIGHTS This is the Light switch that controls both the GREEN Event LED and the LCD Backlight. Up
turns on both, Middle turns both off, and Down turns on just the LED, and turns the Backlight off for power
saving.
E. ALARM The Alarm switch controls the Alarm RED LED and Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and
Down for LED only on. This makes for a silent visual alarm.
F. NULL The black tactile button (located on the side to the right of the SOUND switch) is used in "Tone
Mode" where clicks are replaced by a tone which varies in pitch based on the CPM. When pressed, a new
baseline is created for the pitch so if you are moving to an area with a higher background the pitch will still indicate changes at the new level.
DISPLAY IN DEPTH:
SCALER SCREEN
The top line shows the CPM (updated every 5 sec. by default) and a quick response bar graph (updated
20 times / sec.). The bargraph will be replaced with ALARM if the displayed CPM exceeds the alarm threshold. It is also replaced by Vcc when it drops below 4.2V. The second line shows the dose unit and the calculated
dose. The dose unit and the dose ratio (CPM to dose unit) are settable in the menu (controlled by the wireless
remote or via arduino). Pressing the Select button while in this screen will switch to the Scaler screen . . .
Two scalers are provided, each with its own period. The scaler on the top line is fixed at one minute and
the scaler on the bottom line is set to a programmable period from the menu. Each scaler has two modes counting and ongoing. The screen on left shows both scalers counting. A running total of the counts is displayed, along with the amount of time left for the scaler period. The screen on the left shows that the one
minute scaler finished the counting mode and is now showing the average CPM and dose rate for the period.
These values now become a moving average. The bottom scaler can also be set to "Infinity" in the menu by
setting it below 2. This is a special mode that shows the total accumulated dose since the scaler screen was
first started. Pressing the Select button while in the scaler screen will bring you back to the main screen.
However both scalers will still be accumulating counts, so you can go back and forth between the main
screen and the scaler screen and still see meaningful data.
OTHER SWITCHES, BUTTONS, PORTS, DIALS
A. At the very top to the left of the BNC connector is the LCD contrast dial. As the LCD is used, it might
get to a point for you to readjust the contrast for it. Not a big deal, while the backlight is on, gently take a
small screwdriver and turn it to the left or right until it appears to have the best contrast.
B. Located to the right of the BNC is the OUTPUT multi-port used for Geiger Bot (with the included G-Bot
cable) Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into this with the 3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your
iphone or ipad. It also serves as a mono audio output for silent listening with headphones, or with any 3 conductor to 3 conductor M-M audio cable, you can run sound based data logging software or amplify the clicking.
C. Just to the right of the POWER switch is the USB power and charge control switch. If you want to power the
GC without using the batteries- 1. Turn off the GC battery by switching PWR to middle position. 2. plug in the USB
cable, and other end to any 5v source such as a wall charger, cigarette adapter, pc, mac or laptop usb output. 3.
Flip switch to the Up POWER position. To charge the GC- 1. Push PWR switch down to CHARGE position. 2. Plug
into USB source. 3. Push USB switch to the down CHARGE position. When you do this, a RED LED comes on to
the right of the USB port and will remain RED till it is done charging, then the RED LED will become BLUE. During
normal operation with battery, keep this switch in the middle OFF position.
D. On the upper left side is the Mini USB FTDI output/input for programming in Arduino. This also is used to
charge the internal Lithium Ion battery (with the power switch in the bottome position.) Or it can be used to
power the GC for extended periods, however when you power it this way, I would advise to turn off the LCD
backlight. But its ok to turn it on once in a while, but I wouldnt leave it on for extended periods. When uploading
any new changes to the program sketch, you will need to have the USB PWR switch in the up position white it
is plugged into your pc with the USB cable. This same USB is used for an output to two different usb based
FREE Radiation Logging softwares. Both are PC based and not available for mac.
http://radmon.org/
http://radiohobbystore.com/radiation-logger/
Select options
Adjust Conversion
factor to your tube:
123 for LND712
175 for SBM-20
360 for LND7317
Select I/O Settings
Ultrafast Rates ON
Windscale
IR
plus
PR
PROBE
ROBE
Ep
ON
OFF/USB
CHARGE
TTONE
O
OFF
CLIIC
CLICK
ON
O
OFF
O
ON/OFF
ON/
N/
atomic.
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RADIATION DETECTOR
ON
OFF
ON/OFF
ALARM
SET &
SCALER
3v
LIPO
ON
OFF/USB
B
CHARGEE
Pololu 2119
5v Boost REG
Up/Down
10K PPot
ot
2
4
6
1
3
5
5v in
5v in+
Batt
Batt+
TONE
OFF
CLICK
C
EEVENT
VENT
LED
270 OHM
RESIST
OR
RESISTOR
V
oltage Limiter
Limiter
Voltage
DIODE
E
8
1N4148
ON
OFF
ON/OFF
3.5mm
Socket
Socket
1K OHM
RESISTOR
RESISTOR
300 OHM
RESISTOR
RESISTOR
MUL
LTTI-PORT
MULTI-PORT
.1 uF CCap
ap
56K OHM
ap
RESISTOR .1 uF CCap
RESISTOR
AL
ARM
ALARM
LED
ON
OFF
ON/OFF
E
ALARM
PIEZO
PIEZO
+
_
F
1
TONE
MODE
RESET
NULL
SELECT
7
6
5
4
3
2
8
9
10
11
12
13
FTDI
14
15
16
17
18
19
CCHG
HG
PW
WR
PWR
ON
OFF
ON/OFF
USB
C
ON
O
O
OF
OFF
ON//O
/
ON/OFF
B
TONE
TO
O
OFF
O
F
CLICK
CL
LIC
C
ON
OFF/USB
CHARGE
OFF
H ON
IR SENSOR
IR SENSOR
RADIATION DETECTOR
K77
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pll
plus
Ep
PROBE
PROBE
mic ddave
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atomic.
IR
Windscale