Graphing to a PC

This page provides several options to interface the Geiger Kit to 3rd party applications that provide graphing of the radiation levels detected by the kit. For the most part they rely on the serial output of the FTDI connector. (Sorry if you find this "PC centric", it's what I have.).

The application expects only CPM from the serial port in either 5 or 10 second intervals and combines it with the local time. Setup the parameters on the logging application by selecting the comm port and the baud - 9600.

It does a great job logging and graphing. Logs can be saved and graphed at a later time. It may be the best logging and graphing application I've run into. All that is needed to use it with the kit is v10.1+ software and a USB to serial dongle.

A local copy of this application can be downloaded here, and the manual here but it may not be current.

It is very easy to get this working with the kit . . .

• Register and download the application from radmon.org.

• Set the menu options on the kit to: USE RADLOGGER? = "Yes" and set LOG PERIOD to at least 30 seconds.

• (Unlike the Radiation Logger above, you can set longer periods if you wish.)

• Run the application you downloaded, set the comm port to your FTDI cable, the baud to 9600, and enter the username and password you registered with.

You will also see the kits output on your PC and also on the radmon.org website.

Pretty cool! Note that this program has just started up however it already has a nice selection of graphs and trend lines available on the site. It's improving quickly!

You can now also connect directly to radmon.org without the need for a PC. For information on that, see the Kit to Internet - GKnet page.

Two other Graphing Applications:

The first (DataPlot3) works with the virtual comm port created by Bluetooth, and the second one only works with a wired connection to the serial port. Since each has pluses and minuses they are both described here.

Here is the recipe for this project . . .

• Download and install DataPlot3 on your PC. (Just put the files in a folder and make a shortcut to the exe.)

  • The C++ source package is also available here.

• Start your Geiger kit. Any version of the SW is OK.

• For Bluetooth, pair your PC with the BT module connected to the Geiger Kit. (methods vary) Once paired, a virtual com port will be assigned - mine was COM42 .

• A direct serial connection can also be used instead of BT.

• Start the DataPlot3 program. Set the No of Data Sets to 1 (for now), and set the Sample size to the amount of one minute samples you want to graph. When the amount of samples is exceeded, the oldest sample will roll off the screen.

• Leave the BAUD at 9600. The drop down for the com port will probably not show the high port number created by Bluetooth. However, you can just enter it in the field above the drop down - i.e. COM42.

• Now click Connect and it will begin to graph. You may have lost your pairing, so if the LED on the BT module is flashing, pair it to your PC again.

• Note that each time you press Disconnect, you must re-pair the Bluetooth.

• Right clicking in the graph area allows you save the graph as an image - along with some other options.

• Right clicking in the data area at the bottom allows you select all of the input so you can paste them into a file.

Here is the recipe for this project . . .

• Download and install SerialChart on your PC. (Just put the files in a folder and make a shortcut to the exe.)

• Download this configuration file and unzip it to the same folder SerialChart is installed in.

• Start SerialChart, go to File, Open Configuration, and select the GeigerKit.scc file.

• In the right hand pane, change the PORT= param to the serial port you are using. (You can save your changes with the File menu.)

• Connect the Geiger Kit with an FTDI serial cable, and start it. Any version of the Geiger Kit SW is OK.

• Switch to full screen, and click the green Run arrow.

• You should start to see output from the kit every minute and a graph forming.

• You can adjust other parameters in the configuration file - info here.

• The program may crash when you restart it after saving changes to the configuration file.

• You can also copy the readings in the top left panel and past them in a text file. Rename it to .csv and open with Excel and graph that way.

For graphing with Excel, here is the technique I use:

• Your file should contain several comma separated values. Rename it to .CSV.

• Open the file in Excel.

• Figure out what columns you want to graph. Ctrl + Right Click the top of each column (A, B, C, etc.) that you want to graph.

• Once the columns you want are highlighted, click Insert and pick Chart.

• Pick Line and the first chart sub-type for now.

• You can just hit Finish.

• Right clicking on various parts of the chart will let you change the style of each component of the chart.

Theremino Geiger graphing software:

So far I haven't tried this but their MCA software is great. It appears to interface with the Geiger through the soundcard. I will have more details on it when I test it. You can download a free copy from Theremino.

Other Graphing SW:

There are various software packages specifically created for radiation monitoring. Typically, they do their own counting based on capturing the individual events from the Geiger, rather than graphing processed information like those described above. The "Geiger Bot" is one example but there are PC based "commercial" software packages as well. Personally, I have not tried these.