| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Quaxo76 |
Posted - 08/07/2022 : 16:20:38
Hello,
I'm about to buy a GMC-500+ counter as an always-on monitoring device (I have other devices for non-continuous readings, mostly I use a SEI Inspector).
I've downloaded and read the manual, and it seems that the on-display CPS graph, only shows the last 60 seconds of readings (page 13 in the manual). This is good when testing radioactive samples, but not good for long-term trend. I know I could use the PC software, but that's not convenient for me, I would rather use the unit's display - and besides, that is Windows software, and I use Linux exclusively.
Could this be added in a future firmware update? Or maybe I misunderstood the manual, and it can already be done?
Thank you,
Cristian |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| ullix |
Posted - 08/10/2022 : 23:30:14
quote:
The counter came today and I'm experimenting with it, but I'm having troubles connecting it to GeigerLog via wifi... Do I understand correctly that I have to have an Apache server running on my machine to be able to connect wirelessly? USB communication is working fine.
The troublemaker is the GMC-500+. You need dirty tricks to make it work. As I said before: follow the instructions in the GeigerLog manual on WiFiClient. |
| Quaxo76 |
Posted - 08/10/2022 : 11:59:45
quote:
Originally posted by ullix
As Raspi is a Linux computer, you can certainly apply all the things I have detailed out in the GeigerLog manual, including the dirty tricks needed to overcome the GMC-500+ firmware problems!
The counter came today and I'm experimenting with it, but I'm having troubles connecting it to GeigerLog via wifi... Do I understand correctly that I have to have an Apache server running on my machine to be able to connect wirelessly? USB communication is working fine.
quote:
If I am not mistaken then you can't sent data to the Home Assistant, but the Home Assistant has to request them? Which is done e.g. by integrating of one or more of the widgets shown above.
I'm not sure about the details of Home Assistant, but I know that it sort of "scans" for available sensors. But with my heat pump, I set up a MQTT broker, the heat pump sends data to the broker and Home Assistant gets the data from there, and updates all the relevant widgets. |
| Damien68 |
Posted - 08/10/2022 : 00:05:25
what would be cool would be to have alarms and especially notifications with a log. also if nobody is present when a threshold is exceeded, there would be a warning by a permanent popup inviting to see what happened. |
| ullix |
Posted - 08/09/2022 : 22:23:09
As Raspi is a Linux computer, you can certainly apply all the things I have detailed out in the GeigerLog manual, including the dirty tricks needed to overcome the GMC-500+ firmware problems!
If I am not mistaken then you can't sent data to the Home Assistant, but the Home Assistant has to request them? Which is done e.g. by integrating of one or more of the widgets shown above.
Here is an example for how a GeigerLog user integrated GeigerLog widgets into his Home Assistant based weather station:
Any of the widgets can be implemented, and more can be designed. All it needs for customization is some HTML and Javascript; take a look at the source code.
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| Quaxo76 |
Posted - 08/09/2022 : 06:06:29
Ullix, you're perfectly right, the moving average is the most meaningful of all. Such a graph, with customizable length, would be perfect for the on-board display.
The software you show is really interesting, I'll have to play with it. I don't keep a local PC always on, but I do have a raspberry always on (actually two). One is configured as a HomeAssistant OS machine, and I can access it remotely. Can the GMC send data to Home Assistant? That would be perfect to integrate the GMC data in my ambient data page.
Still, I would like to see a customizable average CPM graph on the GMC screen 
Cristian |
| ullix |
Posted - 08/09/2022 : 01:52:03
@Cristian: Just to underline what you are saying about monitoring, here are some of the routine graphs from GeigerLog. Both pics show exactly the same data:
The upper pic shows CPS over 24h. Hard to figure out what to do with it.
The bottom part shows CPM (blue) and CPS (violet). CPS is still rather useless, CPM is better, but has perhaps still too much detail. The yellow line is a CPM Moving Average over 10 min. This is more what is needed. It can be configured to your needs.
By the way: the little hump around 0.2 d is significant. It is invisible in CPS, barely visible in CPM, but clearly showing in the Moving Average. Rumors suggest a radioactive-alien-flyby, but in reality it indicates light sensitivity of the GMC-500+ tube in the afternoon sun!
GeigerLog allows being monitored by a Smartphone. You can pick and choose e.g. from this array of widgets:
To get the data into GeigerLog, you have at least two options.
#1: You could take the 500+ "as is" and redirect its WiFi data output to your local computer. Due to some buggy firmware of the 500+, this isn't quite easy; you need to be comfortable configuring Apache and PHP. Follow the steps described in chapter "WiFiClient Devices" in the GeigerLog manual. https://sourceforge.net/projects/geigerlog/files/
#2: You could take a Raspi, install GeigerLog, connect it to a 500+ counter, and connect the Raspi to your WiFi network. Then you can monitor GeigerLog from your Smartphone (if you open the proper port on your router, you can monitor from anywhere in the world):
More to come in the next GeigerLog 1.4 version.
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| Quaxo76 |
Posted - 08/08/2022 : 13:44:52
I add a new message as a reply here because I couldn't find a way to edit my previous message.
Actually instead of CPS, CPM would be better. Otherwise, the values would be too "granular" - meaning that usually there will be zero, one, or two counts per second, in a normal environment. That would make a very little defined graph. CPM instead would have much more "resolution", if you know what I mean. Or you could draw not the actual CPS values but an average of CPS over a minute or so, with decimals. That too would make a good, smooth graph. You could calculate how much time is represented by a single pixel (dividing the total graph time by the number of pixels) and for each pixel draw the value of the average CPS or CPM for that amount of time...
Cristian |
| Quaxo76 |
Posted - 08/08/2022 : 11:58:02
Yes, exactly, adding a 24 hour graph, or better yet make the duration of the graph user-selectable. It would be great I think, to see at a glance any slow variation in the ambient (background) reading...
Thank you,
Cristian |
| EmfDev |
Posted - 08/08/2022 : 10:36:08
Hi Quaxo76, do you mean adding a 24hr CPS graph from the unit? I will let our devs know. |
| Quaxo76 |
Posted - 08/08/2022 : 04:36:36
Thank you, this is interesting.
But the linux thing was more of an aside... The counter will be used 99% of the time as an ambient-monitoring stand-alone unit, without PC connection (nor, for that matter, near a PC at all). And for an ambient monitoring device, 60 seconds of graph are pretty useless, since most ambient contaminations will take much longer to happen, and anyway, 60 seconds is so short that unless you're actively watching the display all the time, you'll miss any transient event that should happen. 24 hours could be a sweet spot, but having it configurable would be perfect. And it shouldn't even be too hard to implement, I suppose, since the data is stored on the unit anyway...
Thanks
Cristian |
| Damien68 |
Posted - 08/07/2022 : 23:18:03
there is free geigerlog written by Ullix which runs on linux. it is referenced at the beginning of this forum. |
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