K84 BORG+plus3 Geiger Counter

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
Username: Brohogan. For over 2 years, I have built and sold about 90 of these kits, with very good results, and fantastic
feedback by ebay customers. All information for this kit is available at the developers website. 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 are 2 LEDS, 2 momentary buttons, and 4 triple pole slide
switches. Follow the label to locate the listed switches below:
LEDS
After powering the GC on, you will hear the beeping of the piezo as your CI-180G GM
tube picks up radiation events. The GREEN LED is for radiation events and coincides
with the beeping piezo which can be muted with the mute 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.
Switches:
1. MOD Mode select momentary switch- does 2 things. When you first power on the unit, you will see this first screen:

Atomic.Dave K84
BORG+plus3 v10.2
This customized first welcome window can be changed if you want, by doing a little programming in Arduino. Refer to
the DIY site for directions at the SOFTWARE section. But the default is now set to my name, Kit 80, and the second line is
the Geiger Counter name, and the version of software that the AT328 chip is running v10.2.
The second window will show this:

300 CPM=1 uSv/h

Running at 5.24V
The first line refers to the conversion rate of CPM to uSv/hr for the CI-180G tube (300) this can be changed either in
the program sketch, with Arduino, or with the Sony wireless remote control which I will explain later. The second line refers
to the current voltage that your system is running at. This is a 5 volt system. The 3400mAh 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 something like this:

Alarm Set ?
Now at 500 CPM
At this point, you can gently hold down the MOD button to incrementally change the Alarm threshold number. Once
you stop holding 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
chose from units of measurement such as CPM or uSv/h for the Alarm.
2. PWR Power switch controls the power and charging of the GC. Up turns it on, Middle turns it off, and Down while charging the GC. To charge the GC, put the USB switch at the bottom panel to the Right, and the RED LED just below the USB
power switch 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 put the USB power switch to the left. Always put the USB power switch in the middle (OFF) when not using.
3. LTS 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.
4. ALM The Alarm switch controls the Alarm LED and Piezo. Up for both on, Middle for both off, and Down for LED only
on. This makes for a silent visual alarm.
5. SND 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.
6. NULL The Null momentary switch works only when in Tone mode for the event speaker. When you are scanning in
Tone mode, you can push this to reset the sensing to zero. As you get closer, you can keep pressing this to reset once
again to zero. Tone mode also has a sensitivity adjustment when using the wireless remote control. Default is set to 4, and
increasing will create more sensitivity.
OTHER SWITCHES, BUTTONS, PORTS, DIALS
A. At the top and to the left of the LCD 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 on the lower right side below the little switch is the OUTPUT multi-port used for Geiger Bot (with the included G-Bot cable), and for Geiger Graph (with the optional USB cable) Just plug in the Geiger Bot cable into this with the
3 conductor plug, and the 4 conductor into your iphone or ipad. Or plug the optional Geiger Graph 3.5mm to USB cable
into the port, and into a USB on your PC, then follow instructions to run Geiger Graph. It also serves as a mono audio output for silent listening with headphones, or with the included 3 conductor to 3 conductor M-M audio cable, you can run
sound based data logging software or amplify the clicking. Above this port is a small switch used for changing the CPMuSv conversion rate. Leave this in the up position to coincide with your probe (CI-180G) If you plan on using a LND712
probe, then switch down to the 100 position. These numbers can also be changed in Arduino.
C. On the lower left side above the USB plug is the USB power and charge control switch. If you want to power the GC
without using the batteries- 1. Turn off the GC (middle position) with the PWR. 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. PWR switch down to CHARGE position. 2. Plug into USB source. 3. Push switch to the down CHARGE
position. When you do this, a RED LED comes on above this switch and will remain RED till it is done charging, then the RED
LED will become BLUE. During normal operation with battery, keep this switch up.

D. On this same 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 this switch in the up position white it is plugged into your pc with the USB cable. This same USB is used for Arduino programming as well as used as an output for usb based FREE Radiation Logging software. To use this software, you must
download from this site, and install on your laptop or PC. It is not available for Mac.
http://radiohobbystore.com/radiation-logger/
REMOTE CONTROL SYSTEM:
This adds some conveniences such as the ability to adjust certain things on the GC without the need to plug into your
PC or mac. It is already setup to work. All you have to do is point the remote towards the IR window (below the display behind the steel speaker grill), and push the power button on the remote to start. As soon as you do that these options will
pop up. Use the channel button to move thru each option, and use the volume buttons to move up or down within those
options. You can also use the number pad to input numbers rather than using the up down of the volume. After you reach
the desired amount you push ENT to enter it into the system.
The keys on the Remote Control perform these functions:
On/Off enter or exit the menu system. "DISP PERIOD (MS) is the first prompt you will see.
Channel Down or Down Arrow moves to the next menu option
Channel Up or Up Arrow moves to the previous menu option
Volume Up or Right Arrow increments the value already set for the current option or toggles an option
Volume Down or Left Arrow decrements the value already set for the current option or toggles an option
Enter finalizes the entry in the current menu option if changes were made. When used out of the menu, it acts like the
"null" button to reset the tome.
Digits 0-9 for direct entry of values (instead of Volume or Arrows) must use Enter after using digits.
Decimal Point - enters a decimal point - used when setting the ratio.
Mute used when out of the menu mutes the speaker when in "tone mode" (see below) or the piezo if that mod has
been made to the Geiger board.
Menu Options:
Initially, menu options are set to defaults. Settings made will be stored in EEPROM on the ATmega328, so they will be in
effect when you power back on. Here is a brief description of each menu option:
DISP PERIOD (MS) - The number of milliseconds before the display refreshes. 5000 (5 sec.) is a good setting.
(Display counts are based on a "running average" I do not recommend settings of less than 5 seconds.)
LOG PERIOD - When to write the CPM, 'dose', and MCU voltage to the serial output. Zero means logging is turned off.
CPM->[DOSE] RATIO - Sets that ratio for the type of GM tube used. Note this ratio will depend on the dose unit being displayed
ALARM THRESHOLD - When the CPM or DOSE units is greater than this value the alarm is triggered. (See Alarm and
Second Screen below) Unlike the button, any value may be entered.
DOSE UNIT - Use the arrow keys to select the name of the unit for the dose value - "uSv/h", "uR/h" or "mR/h".
ALARM UNIT - Sets whether the alarm is based off of CPM or the DOSE unit. Use the arrow keys to select.
SCALER PER (MIN) - Sets the period for the second scaler.
BARGRAPH MAX CPM - Sets the CPM that will give a full scale reading on the bar graph. This also affects tone mode
(see below)
TONE SENSITIVITY - Determines how sensitive the tone is to changing activity. Low numbers are more sensitive.
USE RADLOGGER? (v10.1) - When "Yes" serial output is compatible with Radiation Logger application - see Android /
PC BT Graphing page.
REG. VOLTAGE - Displays the voltage powering the MCU (Vcc). To a large degree, this represents the state of the battery.
Note that each menu setting has a minimum and a maximum setting. Entries that are out of bounds will revert to the minimum or maximum.
DISPLAY BAR GRAPH:
The display has a new bar graph style with placeholders and is much more responsive. It now updates 20 times per second. The tone is also updated at this rate when used.
Auto-precision - decimals are dropped from the displayed dose rate as it gets larger.
Beginning with v10.1 the LOG PERIOD can now be set to intervals of less than 1 minute. Valid settings are OFF, 2s, 3s,
4s, 5s, 6s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, and 1 minute intervals up to 720 minutes.
"Tube Select" is still supported where grounding I/O pin 9 will use an alternate ratio for CPM to Dose unit. The CPM>DOSE RATIO in the menu will set and save which ever ratio is selected at the time it's used. This allows setting of both
the primary and alternate ratios.
The current state of the the mute button and the scaler mode are saved in EEPROM and the Geiger kit will come up in
those states the next time it's powered on.
A "reset all" #define can be set. When uploaded the EEPROM is reset to all the default values. This may be useful if the
EEPROM contains invalid data from a previous release.
Another #define can put the counter in a test mode. 360 CPM is simulated. Interrupts are not producing the count so it
can be affected if tone mode is on.
Major restructuring of the code base including use of tabs and memory saving techniques.
ABOUT DOSE UNITS:
The menu allows you select the name of the dose unit that appears on the display. However, to be clear, there is no
built in conversion between them. Instead the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO is adjusted depending on the name of the DOSE
UNIT selected. For example, 175.43 is the default set for the SBM-20 with uSv as the dose unit. Suppose you pick "mR"
as the dose unit name, and want to measure in milirems. ("mR" more correctly abbreviates as milliroentgens but is used to
save display space.) The rem is defined as .01 seivert. Therefore, to use the same ratio that was designed for the tube,
you would multiply that ratio by 10. You would enter a CPM->[DOSE] RATIO as 175.43 x 10 or 1754.3. Likewise if you
wanted microrems ("uR") you would divide the ratio by 10 and enter 17.54.
If you do want to use roentgens (used in older instruments) this source states that they are .96 rem in soft tissue. So
the CPM->[DOSE] RATIO for actual mR would be 175.43 x 10 x .96 or 1684.1. (for uR it would be 16.84)

PLEASE REFER TO THE DIY GEIGER COUNTER DEVELOPERS WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

http://www.sites.google.com/site/diygeigercounter/
ARDUINO Software and Serial-USB connection information:
ON the cd you will find the FTDI driver and Arduino program version 1. Install both and restart your mac. Copy the Geiger Sketch folder to the same folder as your Arduino program is and remember where that is as that will be where you go to save your sketch everytime you make a change to it. There will also be a Library folder
that will also need to be in the same folder. Just remember that the folder has to be the same exact name as the sketch name is. And also within Arduino, you will
have to go to preferences and show Arduino where your default sketch folder is.
ARDUINO SETTINGS: Brohogan Software system version 10.2
1. Open Arduino
2. Open the saved sketch .ino file, connect your Geiger counter to the USB with power switch off.
3. Verify the file by clicking the little check mark icon.
4. Click TOOLS, and Select Board type as Arduino UNO, and select serial port as the top tty choice.
5. Click Serial Monitor (top right looking glass icon). Set Baud rate to 9600 and you should see the CPM, uSv and geiger counter voltage data coming up once per minute.
For more info go to website under Software section on the DIY geiger counter website. Or go to Arduino.cc
GEIGER BOT SUGGESTED SETTINGS: (You may have to play with it to get it just right) GO TO: https://sites.google.com/site/geigerbot/

Select options

Select Geiger Counter

Select LND712 CS137

Adjust Conversion
factor to your tube:
123 for LND712
175 for SBM-20
360 for LND7317
Select I/O Settings

Auto Adjust OFF

(you may need to play
with this setting)
RMS Window 1
Delay Window 30
Volume Thresh 20000

OTHER SOFTWARE LINKS:

http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/download.html
http://www.imagesco.com/geiger/geiger-graph.html
GEIGER GRAPH FOR PC NETWORKS: (Software cost is around $60. Use the OPTIONAL FTDI 3.5mm to USB
cable available from me for an additional 20$) This is a PC only software.

Ultrafast Rates ON

HARDWARE
1. DIY Geiger counter kit V5.3 by Brohogan, Running operating system 10.2
2. CI-180G Geiger Muller Tube (New Old Stock from Russia)
3. Power System by Panasonic, Sparkfun and Pololu (please charge the unit until the RED light turns BLUE)
A. You can power the Geiger in a couple different ways
1. With internal Lipo battery
2. With PWR switch OFF (middle), USB cable plugged into USB port on bottom panel of GC then plugged into:
a. Computer or laptop USB
b. Wall charger block- This is the fastest way to charge the battery.
c. Standard 5v USB Cigarette adapter
d. To power and operate the unit this way for long periods, I would suggest to TURN OFF BACKLIGHT to conserve the life of the LCD.
POWER and OTHER SYSTEM ITEMS: This system is capable of producing 900+ volts, so be careful or you may get zapped when handling the system
while it is powered on.
A. Panasonic Lithium Ion battery - 3.7v 3400mAh
Full charge provides approximately 34 hours constant use of geiger counter with backlight off.
Charge with PC/USB will take about 5 hours or more.
B. USB Lithium Polymer battery charger
C. Pololu 5V Step-Up Voltage Regulator U1V10F5 http://www.pololu.com/product/2564
D. Sparkfun 5V FTDI Basic Breakout
CI-180G Geiger Muller Russian Tube
Recommended Working Voltage
Initial Voltage
Plateau Length
Plateau Slope
Interelectrode Capacitance
Load Resistance
Working Temperature Range
Length
Diameter

360 - 420V
290 - 330V
100V
0.1% / 1V
10pF
5 - 10 MOhms
-500 +700
100mm
18mm

ENCLOSURE: Serpac H75

Dimensions: 182.9mm X 92.7mm X 30.5mm
http://www.serpac.com/h75.aspx
REPAIRS:
If the unit fails for some reason within 6 months of purchase, I will be more than happy to do any maintenance you need at no charge except for parts and shipping.
PACKAGE CONTENTS:
In your package you will find: Geiger Counter, CI-180G probe, Lead Pig w/ Sample, Sony RM-EZ4 Remote Control, (4) Cables: Geiger bot 3 to 4 conductor, BNC cable
and short connector, Long and Short Mini USB to standard USB2. CD with program sketch, photos, documents, Manual, RAD sticker, and extra faceplate labels.

MOD

PWR

LTS

ALM

SND

NULL

ALARM
SELECT
SCALER

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OFF/USB
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ON
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ON
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BORG+plus3

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atomic.dave
RADIATION DETECTOR
K84

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84

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