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Dagorath
3 Posts |
 Posted - 10/25/2012 : 20:42:14
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Hi all,
I might have a new way for you to flaunt your geiger counter and make the data it collects available to the rest of the world. Interested?
I invite you to take a look at the Radioactive@home project at h**p://radioactiveathome.org. It is a BOINC project and since BOINC itself is a huge topic I refer you to h**p://boinc.berkeley.edu to learn more about BOINC itself later. For now I just want to let you know that Radioactive@home is a non-profit project owned, operated and funded by a group of volunteers from Poland. The project's objective is to design, build and distribute geiger counters to individuals everywhere, collect the data from their geiger counters on a continuous basis, store all that data in a huge database and give the entire world access to that database for free. Why? Well, governments collect limited amounts of data but we all know they cannot be trusted to share that data with us when they ought to so lets do it ourselves and own the data ourselves to do with as we please.
BOINC is the general platform the project uses to collect the data from their detectors. In addition the project supplies a software application which it downloads to your computer after you install the BOINC software and register with the Radioactive@home project. Once that's done the rest is automatic. You connect your detector (geiger counter) to your Internet connected computer, turn it on and BOINC and the Radioactive@home software does the rest for you.
The finer details...
The Radioactive@home project builds and sells their detector to volunteers at cost in other words the project makes no money on detector sales. I am not asking you folks to buy their detector. What I would like to do is make your GQ Electronics brand devices work with the Radioactive@home project and I want to do it at no additional dollar cost to you. After looking around on the GQ electronics site it appears there are staff/volunteers here writing applications for the GQ devices so I am wondering if anybody would like to write a small application that would make the GQ devices compatible with Radioactive@home. If not then can somebody point me to datasheets, application source code or any info that I might use to write the software myself? If someone wants to collaborate with me or the Radioactive@home project administrators on writing the software that would be even better!
BOINC and BOINC projects are rooted firmly in the open source tradition. The community actively supports Linux, OS X and Windows and does what it can to support other OSs as well, subject to manpower limitations. Radioactive@home currently supports Linux, Windows and 2 ARM platforms.
Radioactive@home project has a discussion forum and you are welcome to post there on this matter. In fact someone who owns a GMC-300 started the ball rolling by posting a question at h**p://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=160. Join the discussion there or carry on here, ask questions, whatever.
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| Reply #1
ZLM
1261 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2012 : 10:28:33
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What kind of data format you needed from GMC-300?
Example? |
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| Reply #2
Dagorath
3 Posts |
Posted - 10/31/2012 : 19:45:24
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quote:
Originally posted by ZLM
What kind of data format you needed from GMC-300?
Example?
The software supplied by the R@H project reads the detector and creates a CSV text file named data.bin which is uploaded to the project server periodically. Here is an excerpt from that file:
22705,9,2012-10-31 16:14:4,513,f,381683167
62341,20,2012-10-31 16:14:44,513,n,381683167
101974,33,2012-10-31 16:15:23,513,n,381683167
141616,48,2012-10-31 16:16:3,513,n,381683167
181254,60,2012-10-31 16:16:43,513,n,381683167
220885,68,2012-10-31 16:17:22,513,n,381683167
col 1: milliseconds accumulator, derived from mcu clock on detector
col 2: pulse accumulator
col 3: date and time
col 4: sensor model identifier
col 5: flag, f = first reading since power on, n = not first reading
col 6: ?, I think this column is ignored by the server.
I think the milliseconds accumulator in col 1 is used only to double-check the date-time value in col 3.
The date-time in col 3 comes from the OS on the host computer not the detector.
The sensor ID in col 4 comes from the application not the detector.
The flag in col 5 also comes from the application.
If you can provide sample code that reads the pulse count I can probably incorporate that into the R@H project's application. Or you are welcome to try too. Their source code is at h**p://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/download/sources/
I will ask one of the R@H project developers to visit this forum and verify the accuracy of the info I have provided and to provide input.
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| Reply #3
ZLM
1261 Posts |
Posted - 11/01/2012 : 21:51:33
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It is not difficult to save this format from GMC-300 software.
The first data column from GMC-300 always be 1000 since it saves data every second.
And the software should allow user to set the sensor ID (sensor model identifier).
The the last colum can keep 381683167.
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| Reply #4
Dagorath
3 Posts |
Posted - 11/03/2012 : 13:24:53
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| Thank you, ZLM. I don't have a GMC-300 to test code on and I can't justify purchasing one because I already have a detector from the R@H project. One of the volunteer members at the R@H project has a GMC-300 so I will collaborate with him/her and see if we can make this idea work. I will report back and let you know how it progresses. |
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| Reply #5
TJM
Poland
2 Posts |
Posted - 11/06/2012 : 03:10:53
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Hello :D
Dagorath is mostly right about the data format.
The first column represents the hardware clock in miliseconds. If the detector has no hardware clock, it has to be simulated with software because the project expects the value to be increasing over time. It helps to detect some of the possible hardware malfunctions (like sudden reset or something). No big deal because it can be replaced with system clock.
Second column is the pulse counter, the server requires that the diff between samples n and n+1 is higher or equal 0, any negative value (or frequent zeros) invalidates the data. If the detector returns number of pulses for each sample, it doesn't matter as the software can just add the values.
The problem is with the 1s sample time. The server does not support values less than 10s, so the app would have to read and merge at least 10 samples, preferably 40-60.
The 4th column is the hardware revision (USB hex encoded decimal, here stored as integer) while the last column is the USB vid:pid stored as integer. It does not matter if these values are read from hardware or set by dedicated app, however both should allow to identify the sensor. |
Radioactive@Home developer |
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| Reply #6
chillomatic
Germany
17 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2013 : 11:23:07
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Hi,
i just ordered a GMC-300 device and i'm curious if there is any progress on integrating the device to the BOINC/Radioactive@home network.
Greetings from Germany |
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| Reply #7
ZLM
1261 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2013 : 11:32:20
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Yes. The new version data viewer Re.1.30 and Data Logger PRO Re5.25 have added Radioactive@Home file format.
You can test it out from:
http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/download/GQGMCDataViewer1.30.exe
Data file example:
15764000,18,2013-02-28 10:01:00,300,f,672303
15765000,27,2013-02-28 10:02:00,300,n,672303
15766000,39,2013-02-28 10:03:00,300,n,672303
15767000,50,2013-02-28 10:04:00,300,n,672303
15768000,64,2013-02-28 10:05:00,300,n,672303
15769000,82,2013-02-28 10:06:00,300,n,672303
15770000,102,2013-02-28 10:07:00,300,n,672303
15771000,119,2013-02-28 10:08:00,300,n,672303
15772000,129,2013-02-28 10:09:00,300,n,672303
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| Reply #8
chillomatic
Germany
17 Posts |
Posted - 02/28/2013 : 16:32:09
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| Thanks a lot! As soon as it arrives i will try it out! |
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| Reply #9
chuck99z28
3 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2013 : 11:04:41
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WIll the Data Logger PRO Re5.25 software work with the GMC-300 USB Port?
Will the PRO software automatically save this file often and upload to the server? |
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| Reply #10
chillomatic
Germany
17 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 12:01:10
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I have the PRO 5.24 Data logger software. Couldn't find 2.25 in the download page. So this version doesn't have the R@home format yet. But my version i can set up to upload data every X mins/hours to a ftp server.
But I have no idea how I would get the data to work with BOINC and use it for the Radioactive@home project.
I posted a message here aswell but no answer yet ( h**p://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=160&sort=6 ) |
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| Reply #11
ZLM
1261 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 12:16:45
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The latest version now is Re 5.28 in download page.
The Data Logger PRO works with GMC-300.
I think you need upload the .R@H file to the server. |
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| Reply #12
chillomatic
Germany
17 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 12:48:12
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Very nice! Works fine but i am wondering why under "Setting"-"Other" I am offered to save in file type R@H but in "Setting"-"FTP" that option is not in the dropdown list.
And i have another question: Do the logging software and the GMC-300 have different CPM-uSv/h conversions? At about 200CPM the GMC-300 shows about 1uSv/h and the software about 0,7uSv/h. Wouldn't make sense to me. The software has 5 calibration points and the device 3 if I am not mistaken.
Best regards |
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| Reply #13
ZLM
1261 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2013 : 21:07:33
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It is a software bug if the R@H not in the "Setting"-"FTP dropdown list.
It should be fixed in next software release.
The Data Logger PRO has 5 points calibration data. Which is better than unit itself. You can always change it to keep it synched with the device.
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| Reply #14
chillomatic
Germany
17 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2013 : 15:20:43
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| Thank you for your input! |
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| Reply #15
TJM
Poland
2 Posts |
Posted - 06/26/2013 : 04:08:35
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A quick update on topic for anyone that's interested:
Yesterday I released work-in-progress radioactive@home app for GMC-300. There are some issues and minor bugs, but it works and returns data to the server in almost-real time (data packets every 15 minutes). The app is designed to work under the control of BOINC manager only (well, it works as a standalone commandline app, but it's just for debugging purposes).
I'd like to learn a bit more about the data returned. For example, how often do I have to grab the CPM data without worrying about loosing some samples ? By looking how the value goes up and decays I'd say the sensor averages a couple of minutes, but would be nice to know exact value.
What conversion value from CPM to nSv/h should I use ? For our sensors with the SBM-20 we are using a fixed divider of 171.212 which seems to be ok.
Also, are other GQ Electronic sensors compatible with GMC-300 ? If any other uses the same serial protocol, I'll put a support for it on my TODO list.
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Radioactive@Home developer |
Edited by - TJM on 06/26/2013 04:12:32 |
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| Reply #16
Deputy
USA
27 Posts |
Posted - 08/14/2013 : 09:38:37
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| I'm a little confused with the details of this project. Are you collecting data from your home or are you travelling about collecting data? And if you are travelling about, how does the detector know exactly where you are when it collects data? I mean just collecting raw data isn't going to be of much use unless you know exactly WHERE the radioactivity is located. Are you measuring radioactivity from ground objects like rocks or just a general reading while you are riding around in a car? I went to the Radioactive@home website and even there it wasn't very clear exactly what they were doing. |
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new use for your GQ brand geiger counter
