Inside Electronics

Raspberry Pi Geiger Counter

Geiger Counter Setup

Here’s my latest project with the Pi: interfacing it with the Sparkfun Geiger counter & outputting the resulting data to a character LCD.

The geiger counter is interfaced with it’s USB port, with the random number generator firmware. A Python script reads from the serial port & every minute outputs CPM & µSv/h data to the display.

The Python code is a mash of a few different projects I found online, for different geiger counters & some of my own customisations & code to write the info to the display & convert CPM into µSv/h.

This also writes all the data into a file at /var/log/radlog.txt

The code for this is below:

import time
import sys
import serial
import os
import RPIO
from RPLCD import CharLCD
from subprocess import * 
from datetime import datetime

# configuration settings

logfile = "/var/log/radlog" # location to save log data
serial_port = "/dev/ttyUSB0"
lcd = CharLCD(pin_rs=15, pin_rw=18, pin_e=16, pins_data=[21, 22, 23, 24], numbering_mode=RPIO.BOARD, cols=16, rows=4, dotsize=10) #Init LCD with physical parameters

f = open(logfile,"a")

ser = serial.Serial(serial_port,9600,timeout=1)

one = 0

#Init LCD with initial values.
lcd.cursor_pos = (0, 1)
lcd.write_string("Geiger Counter")
lcd.cursor_pos = (1, 2)
lcd.write_string("Initializing")
lcd.cursor_pos = (2,-3)
lcd.write_string("Please Wait...")
lcd.cursor_pos = (3, 0)
lcd.write_string(str(0) +" uSv/h")
f.write("Geiger Counter Initialized\n")
f.flush()
while 1==1:
  stamp = int(time.time())
  stamp == round(stamp,0)
  stamp = stamp + 60
  count = 0  
  while 1==1:
      ct = int(time.time())
      ct == round(ct,0)
      if ct > stamp:  break
      #Read from serial port
      bit = ser.read(1)
      if bit != "":
          count = count + 1
          #Conversion of counts per minute to uSv/hr
          usvh = count * 0.01
  at = str(time.asctime())
  t = str(time.time())
  #Write line to log file & print info to console
  f.write("["+at+"."+t+"] "+str(count) + " CPM " +str(usvh) + " uSv/h\n")
  f.flush()
  print "["+at+"."+t+"] Count "+str(count) + " " + str(usvh) +" uSv/hr"
  #Send measurement info to LCD
  lcd.clear()
  lcd.cursor_pos = (0, 0)
  lcd.write_string(datetime.now().strftime('%b %d  %H:%M:%S\n'))
  lcd.cursor_pos = (1, 0)
  lcd.write_string("Radiation Level:")
  lcd.cursor_pos = (2, 1)
  lcd.write_string(str(count) +" CPM")
  lcd.cursor_pos = (3, -1)
  lcd.write_string(str(usvh) +" uSv/h")

Info Display

Tags: Character LCD, FTDI, Geiger tube, LND-712, Rapsberry Pi Geiger Counter, Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi GPIO, RPLCD, Sievert, Sparkfun Geiger Counter, USB-Serial