Turning a Phone into a Geiger Counter

We’re no stranger to radiation detector builds, but [Dmytry]‘s MicroGeiger prototype is one of the smallest and most useful we’ve seen.The idea behind the MicroGeiger comes from the observation that just about every modern smartphone can provide a small bit of power through the microphone jack. Usually this is used for a microphone, but with the right circuit it can be stepped up enough to power a Geiger tube.
Turning a Phone into a Geiger Counter
[Dmytry]‘s circuit uses a hand-wound transformer but keeps the part count low; there’s only a few dozen caps, resistors, and diodes in this build, making the circuit much smaller than the Geiger tube itself.
Since [Dmytry] is powering a Geiger tube with a phone, it only makes sense that he should also record clicks from the tube with an Android app. Right now, the entire project is still in the prototype stage, but everything works and his app can detect radiation from one of [Dmytry]‘s sources.



The code and schematics for the MicroGeiger are available on GitHub, with a video of the project in action below.

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