Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspberry Pi, brass and wood

Re:Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspber... by ISL on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @09:32AM (#23759035)

I assumed that someone had made a sensitive bolometer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolometer

Wood is a thermal insulator, so with care, one might be able to build a thermistor bridge capable of detecting the differential temperature rise between pieces of brass when a source was placed near one brass-piece.

I, too, found that the expectations framed by the title were not met by the article. It's a pretty box, though.

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Re:Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspber... by Blahah on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @02:47PM (#23762651)

Yeah, I feel like listing out the "raspberry pi, brass and wood" created the expectation that those were the crucial elements. Really the crucial element is a pre-made geiger counter and what they built is a beautiful enclosure and display. It's a cool project and they didn't lie, but it was misleading, and it seems it was the author of the piece who posted it so the confusion is reasonable to call out.

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Re:Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspber... by acidburnNSA on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @03:55PM (#23763312)

I thought it would be a gold leaf electroscope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroscope#Gold-leaf_electro...

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Re:Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspber... by trhway on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @04:57PM (#23763983)

>By 1880, Langley's bolometer was refined enough to detect thermal radiation from a cow a quarter of a mile away.

Sidenote: that sounds like even F-22/35 should be visible half a globe away in IR

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Re:Show HN: I built a desktop radiation monitor with Raspber... by schoen on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @07:08PM (#23765265)

Be careful of that inverse square law—it's a doozy!

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