[Swlug] DIY Geiger counter

[Rhys Sage]

Brief answers right now. I didn't sleep well last night, did a 12 hour day and I've just come back and will be down for the night in a couple of hours/

I've only tried the BC574 circuit given albeit with tweaks as of Sunday. I probably won't get to my electronics lab until Saturday. I have a somewhat exhausting job driving extra-long special needs bus routes. I'm what they call a floater - I have a route that I normally drive with a partner (whose route it actually is) but being a floater I can be thrown on any route with any group of special needs riders at the drop of a hat. Over the last couple of weeks I've had to learn and drive from memory 3 extra routes in addition to my normal route and deal with some passengers with challenging needs. I used to have my own route but when they closed the base I operated from, I chose to operate from a base local to my house rather than the main base (which is where my old base moved to). It means I am way out in the sticks, away from any shopping centres in a town where the whole town is run by one family. The Mayor, Police Chief, town council members, big town business owners are reportedly related to each other.

Sunday is usually my productive day. Saturday I'm still largely recovering from the week. 

I did look at the Tip120 instead of the BC547 pair but it's a slow-switching thing. I suspect  a pair of 2N2222 might be better than the BC547 pair. The switching is a lot faster. Bonus - I have a massive pile of 2N2222. I have about 30 different kinds of transistor having bought a bulk pack of different types a few years ago.

The ultimate goal - after being able to read (preferably background radiation) will be to slow the output down sufficiently that I can feed it to an ATTiny13 with its 1mhz clock speed. The radiation reading will be displayed on a TM1637 4 digit LED display and might be accompanied by sound from a piezo speaker. I want to be able to have a slow click of background radiation and a high click of high radiation. 

Should I look for smaller non-electrolytic capacitors? My smallest is .1uf metal film. I believe they make lower values. I normally order my electronic components from AliExpress, eBay and Temu since there are no nearby suppliers and those further away cost a lot more and save me only a few days off ordering direct from China. Radio Shack went bust or they'd be perfect.

I'll have to try to unscramble the text diagrams. That will have to wait. Right now I'm feeling very tired.

For those wondering how a video comes out every day - I shoot several at a time then schedule them.

Rhys Sage