Geiger Counter

R3 R4
10M 10M
+5V

LS1
R6
C2 C3 D7 C11
*

100k
100n 100µ 10V 100n
TR1
C6 C8
1N4148 D8
0W5 A 32 Ω

R2 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 1N
C4 4148
100k

230V
6V

8 4 8 4
R 22n * R
2 C5 C7 C9
TR 6 7
3 THR DIS
OUT R5
P1 R1 IC1 T1 IC2

10M
100k

7
DIS C5...C8 = 22n / 250V
555 555 R7
D1...D6 = 1N4004 2 3
100k 6 TR OUT 1k
THR BC546B
CV CV K1
C1
1 5 D1 * see text R8 1 5
C12 C10 C13

1M
22n 10n 22n 10n
75V

040291 - 11

Malte Fischer ponents to make a low cost and simple to The counter tube anode is connected to
build Geiger counter. The only fly in the 700 V via a 10 MΩ protection resistor.
April this year was the twentieth anniver- ointment is likely to be locating a Geiger- In normal operation with no radiation
sary of the Chernobyl reactor accident. In Mueller (GM) tube; this is not in any way detected there will be no current flowing
the days following the incident winds a standard component. The on-line auc- through the tube and gas filling. When a
deposited much of the reactor contents tion site eBay may provide a source of radiation source is brought close to the
across central Europe, Scandinavia and new or used counter tubes or alternatively tube, ionising radioactive rays pass
the UK. A large area surrounding the reac- Google will be useful in identify stockists. through it and collide with some gas
tor is still off limits but just how much of the A brand new type ZP1300 tube can be atoms knocking a few electrons out of
fallout is still lying around on our gardens purchased from ALRAD [1] at a cost of their shell; this produces a current pulse
and farmlands? At the time of the release £55.00 plus VAT. The GM tubes are listed from the tube terminal which in turn gen-
Iodine 131 was responsible for many under nuclear products and nucleonics. erates a voltage pulse across the 1 MΩ
cases of thyroid cancer but with a half life The counter tube requires a high voltage resistor high enough to trigger IC2. The
of 8.1 days this does not pose much of a in the region of 700 V. IC1 is a NE555 NE555 effectively amplifies the pulse to
threat in the long term. Strontium 90 is timer configured as an astable multivibra- produce the familiar tick-tick sound of a
more of a problem; it has a half life of 28 tor switching the BC547C transistor Geiger counter from the speaker LS1. An
years and more than 50 % of the fallout which in turn drives the secondary wind- external pulse counter can be connected
still remains. Radio caesium affects the ing of a 6 V mains transformer. An alter- to K1. A copy of an original Philips
food chain and can contaminate milk, nating voltage of around 250 V is pro- Geiger tube data sheet is available at
meat and to a lesser extent crops. duced at the primary side which is then http://sbarth.dyndns.org/seiten/geigerza
Radioactivity is invisible so a detector is multiplied by the classic voltage multiplier ehler/18550.pdf. Philips tubes are now
needed before we can start to make any configuration consisting of cascaded made by Centronic [2] and their site con-
measurements; the most common and sim- capacitors and diodes to produce tains a useful Geiger selection guide.
plest detector type is the Geiger counter. around 700 V DC. The voltage is fed
The design described here uses two back to the timer input through resistors [1] www.alrad.co.uk
NE555 type timer ICs, a small mains R3 and R4 to provide some stability of [2] www.centronic.co.uk
transformer and a few other standard com- the output voltage. (040291-1)

2 elektor electronics - 7-8/2006