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Project Showcase
06/21/2023 at 13:08 • 0 commentsAnother very intriguing build, this time by user dc1rdb, who described some of the build detail on GitHub: Rock hunting · OpenGammaProject/Mini-SiD · Discussion #9 · GitHub
It's a mini SiD connected to a microcontroller that works like a voltage controlled oscillator with a buzzer! It'll change it's output tone frequency with the measured activity. There is a really cool video on GitHub (link above), that I can't really show you here, where he demonstrates the device packaged in a tube with a 3D printed handle. The samples he has collected here are pretty impressive, especially since he's got no problem detecting the rocks already from a couple of meters away.
Let me know what you think about this one :)
Cheers!
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New MicroFC Carrier Board
06/12/2023 at 20:03 • 0 commentsJust released a new, extra small carrier board for the 6mm MicroFC SiPMs. It's only 10x10mm in size with the SiPM on the front side and all the solder pads + an optional RC low-pass filter on the back. Usability-wise it's exactly the same, but it's smaller! That makes it A LOT easier to use on small scintillator crystals.
---------- more ----------
Link to the new GitHub repo:https://github.com/OpenGammaProject/Tiny-MicroFC-Carrier-Board
Kitspace should be up soon, too!
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Tindie Discounts and Youtube
06/04/2023 at 09:30 • 0 commentsBeginning from tomorrow, 05/06/2023 there will be a week-long discount of -33% of the price on Tindie, so it's very affordable currently (there is still volume discounts too). If you want to support this project, or you just don't want to deal with (soldering) SMD parts, please consider supporting this with a purchase. The discount will be applied automatically, there is nothing you need to do.
I'm also trying to do more showcasing and some tutorial videos on Youtube at the moment, so stay tuned. I'm pretty new to all of this video stuff as you can probably see, but it's pretty exciting to learn :)
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Making a portable scintillation detector
06/01/2023 at 18:25 • 0 commentsI've never shared this video before on here and I don't really know why, so here it is:
This is something like a guide into how to build yourself a simple (portable!) scintillation counter using the Mini SiD, a Raspberry Pi Pico, OLED and charger. You could go much lower-power now, since the (older) Mini SiD in the video required beefier hardware. As I've shown in previous posts, you can easily utilize an Arduino UNO, especially for low count rates. That means that other extremely low-power AVR chips like an ATTiny aren't that far away anymore :)
Special thanks to the user RD-Gammaspectra, who made this video!
Let me know if you're interested in more builds!
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2x2 SiPM Array Board
04/27/2023 at 13:10 • 0 commentsIf you're using large-diameter scintillators or you want to do coincidence measurements, this 2x2 array board will be very helpful to you. It packs 4 SiPMs total in a 2x2 matrix, resulting in 4 times the active area, but is only marginally larger in size when compared to the standard carrier board.
You can even build yourself a (very) simple gamma camera. Well, considering it's only 4 pixels, it won't be too helpful, but it surely can be an interesting experiment. I'll probably do some testing in this regard and keep you updated.
The Mini SiD is ideal for this kind of use case since you need four different signal channels -- one for each SiPM. You can cut off the excess space on the PCB and make everything pretty compact. If all the digital outputs of the Mini SiDs go into different microcontroller interrupts, you can count pulses on each individual SiPM and do coincidence measurements. That'll greatly reduce total system noise for a single scintillator crystal!
All the hardware files can be found on GitHub: https://github.com/OpenGammaProject/MicroFC-SiPM-Array-Board
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Kitspace Updated
04/15/2023 at 18:00 • 0 commentsJust a really quick update that the kitspace files are now all updated to the 3.0 revision and ready for production. Have fun!
https://kitspace.org/boards/github.com/opengammaproject/mini-sid/
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Boards available
04/13/2023 at 15:11 • 0 commentsI just got the confirmation from Tindie. The new Mini SiD boards can be purchased from the store now and you get volume discounts for 5+ and 10+ boards. All the links should now work so you'll find it, if you want to :)
Kitspace seems to be pretty stuck and hasn't refreshed any of the new PCBs, I really hope they'll do so in the upcoming days.
I also just uploaded the last missing image about the potentiometer settings to the GitHub repo. I'm sure this will be helpful when prototyping with the board.
Cheers!
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New hardware revision
04/12/2023 at 21:39 • 0 commentsFinally, after releasing the new Open Gamma Detector hardware I have time to work on this project some more. In the past months I've already worked on the newest board improvements and here is a complete update to reflect all the changes.
The overall footprint hasn't changed, but the electronics area is now a bit smaller meaning you have more space for the scintillator. This is due to the change from 0805 passives to mostly 0603-size components. Here is a photo of the a new board:
---------- more ----------Fully soldered board with mounted scintillator/SiPM combination and some pin headers for easy prototyping:
Now, what you're probably interested in the most is what has changed? Why a new revision, right?
So here is a list of most of the changes between revisions 2 and 3:
- Switch to 0603 components for smaller size and better layout.
- Optimized component values for lower power consumption.
- Removed unnecessary amplifier (preamp) at the SiPM output.
- As a result of that, the board is a bit cheaper now and consumes less than half the power it did before: ~4.5 mA @ 5 V vs. ~12 mA @ 5 V in normal operation with the SiPM @ 30 V. Most of the remaining power goes to the low-noise SiPM power supply.
- Slightly larger SiPM output voltage range.
- Added the ability to extend the pulse duration with the gain pot so that it's easier to work with slower microcontrollers.
- Some more power filtering.
- Improved silk screen for better readability (the old one was a mess).
- Removed the AC coupling for the threshold comparator. This didn't really work as planned anyways and introduces some more problems (activity dependent thresholds and stuff).
- Removed the weird notch on the PCB cutting edge.
Basically, it all comes down to the power usage, size and also general usability. That are the most important changes to the new Mini SiPM Driver board.
Here is my simple scintillation counter demo with the Mini SiD, a cheap $5 OLED and a $5 Raspberry Pi Pico. You don't need to use a Pico if you want to save power -- you can always increase the gain to also extend the pulse duration at the same time. Digital pulses can be easily as long as 10 µs which can be fairly easily picked up by microcontrollers. The example sketch can be downloaded on GitHub!
Fully assembled boards will very soon be available on Tindie and the makerfabs store too. Once it's up all the links on here will start to work. As always, feel free to build it yourself and use Kitspace to support them too! Speaking of Kitspace, it seems like they're taking a while to refresh all the new hardware, so please be patient with them ;)I'm excited to see what you're using your Mini SiD for! Feel free to send me images of your projects, feedback on the hardware or anything else related to the project really. Have a nice day!
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Revision 3 Work
03/08/2023 at 21:31 • 0 commentsJust a quick update, because there hasn't been one in a long time and I want to give you a brief overview over what I am doing. (the project is definitely not dead lol)
At the same time as working on my new Open Gamma Detector revision, I am also working on a new hardware revision for the Mini SiD to reflect all the changes I did to that. This includes many nice little improvements like lower parts cost, much more optimized power consumption and a wider SiPM PSU output range. Of course the footprint will be the same, but you will have a little bit more space for your scintillator. Also you will be able to set the pulse decay times so that it's going to be much easier to use with a slower microcontroller.
The new hardware will probably be ready and available on GitHub in the next couple of weeks, pretty soon after the new Open Gamma Detector dropped. Stay tuned for a more in-depth review once everything's ready ;)
EDIT: I totally forgot to mention that the documentation will also be updated and I am planning on making sure that the Hackaday project page isn't neglected.
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Simple Scintillation Counter Example
11/18/2022 at 18:48 • 0 commentsHi, today I built a simple scintillation counter using an 128 x 32 px OLED and a Raspberry Pi Pico with the Mini SiD board. It's very temporary just as a showcase, but you could obviously build everything much tighter without all these jumper cables. Also the scintillator was too large to put onto the PCB as you can see.
It's just a simple "device", but what more do you need for the beginning, right? The display updates every 2 seconds and displays the average number of cps that accumulated over this timespan.
Everything was, once again, programmed using the Arduino IDE. You can have a look at the sketch here on GitHub: https://github.com/Open-Gamma-Project/Mini-SiD
Cheers!