About
How to make your own Geiger counter:
- Purchase a kit from DIYGeigerCounter
- Purchase a geiger counter tube from Electronic Goldmine
- Assemble the electronics
- Put it in a case, such as mine on Thingiverse or your own
- Test it with a uranium-glazed pottery piece from Ebay
This case stores 6-AA's, the main electronics, the geiger-counter tube (as a snap-on component), and various interactive components, such as the power switch (left side) and brightness control (right side).
Case Design
This was one of the first useful projects I designed and printed with my 3D printer. As such, the design was partly squished because I had to fit the entire case design within the build plate of my 3D printer.
This design is also quite dated, but is still functional.
These models were designed using BRL-CAD, which gave me a scripting interface to create the models along with a graphical output view. With this design:
- The geiger counter base separates the battery storage from the electronics compartment
- The geiger counter lid u-pipe holds the geiger counter tube as a snap-in item
- The geiger counter tube holder has several holes, permitting charged particles to pass through
There are certainly several enhancements I'd make if I were recreating this design (or printing it in bulk), but overall the entire design worked as expected.