As a project, I decided to make a portable case for my gamma spectrometer.
The system consists of:
-1"x1" Sodium Iodide Scintillation crystal w/ PMT & BNC cable
-Sound card MCA, HV source and preamplifer "Gamma Spectacular"
-Laptop w/ USB and sound card.
-Radioactive Cs-137 calibration source for field energy calibration. I may need to buy a smaller source because the one I currently have is too strong for portable work. Cost is probably $50 sadly, + lead shielding.
-Lead and Aluminum probe and sample assembly to reduce background radiation (ie K40 , Th, U, Radon progeny)
The portable assembly consists of:
-Case - picked the thing up for free, cut the inside out. Going to add vinyls to it so nobody throws the damn thing out, thinking it's an empty tool box.
-Lead Shielding - like above, but smaller and less effective. Should be fine for minor contamination however, and spectroscopic identifications of isotopes within modestly active samples (ie granite counter tops, contaminated mushrooms from germany, or soil from near fukushima)
-Shock protecting foam - stops laptop, MCA and fucking expensive probes from being damaged if somebody drops it.
-Netbook + charger - for analysis and storage/transfer of data.
-Plastic dishes - sample prep for activity estimations
-Mini scale - for weighing samples
Here's what I have so far, I am waiting on my Gamma Spectacular and Cs-137 10 uCi source, then I will assemble the lead shielding for the sample holder. Aluminum inserts will be added to prevent bremsstrahlung x-rays from internal beta emitters.
Probe setup, the plastic on top is actually upside down because the detector falls through the hole that way. But still gives a good idea of what it will look like. The plastic is from an air filter pipe..
[url=http://postimage.org/][img]http://s8.postimage.org/8hbjrrlxh/photo_5.jpg[/img][/url]
Lead - pieces on top left corner fit around the plastic. I'm only looking to reduce some of the background, a proper setup requires hundreds of pounds to produce a fancy spectrum.
[url=http://postimage.org/][img]http://s8.postimage.org/nrg0cp6th/photo_6.jpg[/img][/url]
The empty box so far:
[url=http://postimage.org/][img]http://s8.postimage.org/v4qsxx1hh/photo_4.jpg[/img][/url]
Photos are taken with shitty phone camera, ill use a proper camera in the future.
Hope this counts as DIY. Let me know if you guys have any tips, criticism or ideas, I'd love to hear it.
If I'm picturing this right, the sound card will pick up the analog signals of the Scillination chamber.
However how are you isolating the HV source from the Sound card if I'm picturing this right? (Maybe I'm thinking of a geiger setup)
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