Radioactivity is invisible and may be harmful to life. The goal of the project is to provide a simple device that prevents radiation poisoning. Professional radiometers may be very accurate, but the price is expensive, complex and fragile (most vacuum discharge tubes made of glass). However, in many cases, we just want to determine if the object is radioactive.
The device uses an open-air ionization chamber with a simple amplifier circuit. Compared with existing instruments, primary innovation is a novel ion chamber design made from PCB technology and standard low cost components.
Disclaimer
This is an experimental design that is now in a critical application. The author of this project does not liability for any damage or responsibility due to use or abuse an open radiation detector. Be
Challenges solved by this project
Establish a real low-cost radiation detector is the challenge of individuals. To this end, we need to solve the following questions:
Determine the detection method in all options.
Design prototype and test them to evaluate performance.
Static electricity will affect the measurement.
Throughout the entire project, optimize the design of the mount manufacturing with least components.
Specification list and how to meet
How to determine if an object is substantially radioactive. Lack of low cost selection for measuring α radiation. We decided to adopt an ionization room design as follows: Contrary to other detectors, the ion chamber is very simple, no high pressure, any vacuum tube can generally be achieved, which is really good to detect α radiation.
Open radiation detectors must have a small size and low cost. We have experienced many prototypes and iterations: spark detectors and ionization chambers of many different shapes.
It must use standard modern components. The existing DIY design that can be found online is great, but they rely on the old transistor model that is difficult to find. For this project, we have studied more of the latest options.
Priority is given to facilitate mount assembly. Existing DIY projects use recycled tin cans and handmade parts. We designed a ion chamber that consists of low cost SMD components, which can be assembled with the pickup unit. These components originally have a completely different use, but we arrange them to act as a valid ion chamber.
It must be open source. We do not believe patents, especially in the security field. The online manufacturer community is a shared site that is shared and ensured that it can reach the best place for places and applications that can benefit from open radiation detectors.
Will the world change?
The project's goal is to promote the identification of radioactive hazards by creating a low cost and mass production detector.
Since finding nuclear energy, the world has become increasingly radioactive. It is a real problem that includes radioactive waste, and some nuclear disasters show us that we are more close to radiation than we imagined.
Open radiation detectors can determine whether an object is hazardous radiation level (these are often difficult to detect - radiation does not illuminate like movies!). Although we don't know how to test this sensitivity, we hope to be sufficiently sensitive to judge whether the food is polluted. The detector can also be placed in a cheap group-in-one robot, which roam in the disaster area and marks the hotspots that humans should avoid.
We share a novel design using standard components, and can be assembled by picking up. There are similar DIY radiation detectors, but they can't produce bulk production in such a low cost.
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