Radiacode RC110 Mini but Mighty Geiger Counter - F-J's Physics - Video 259

[00:00:00]Hello, and welcome back to the HomeLab, and today I've got a very exciting video for you.

[00:00:05]What I'm going to show you is the very latest small and portable personal radiation detection device from RadiaCode, and it uses a scintillating detector, and it can also produce spectra of the atoms that are decaying that you're analyzing.

[00:00:23]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So, as you know, like all physicists, I'm interested in nuclear physics, and particularly nuclear radiation. And why it's interesting to me is you can do experiments in the HomeLab with it.

[00:00:50]You're not restricted to working in the nuclear industry or in a nuclear reactor or at CERN, etc. You just need your own Geiger counter. The problem is that the Geiger counters as I've always used use GM tubes, Geiger-Müller tubes. And they're very, very inefficient. You can't show whether it's alpha, beta, or gamma, but you've got no way of working out really which atoms in the sample that you have are decaying. And I was doing an experiment the other day, and I thought, well, I know there's a decay happening here, but what atom is actually decaying? I need something that's more sensitive and that can draw spectral graphs so I can work out which atom was actually doing the decay, and which isotope of that atom. And then a friend of mine demonstrated a wonderful little device. He demonstrated the RadiaCode little Geiger counter that's a scintillation detector. Now, that's an absolute game-changer. Apart from its size, scintillation detectors can produce spectra of gamma radiation, and you can then work out which isotope is the one that's decaying. So, I thought, got to have have at one of these. So, I reached out to Radiacode, and they were absolutely fantastic. They got in touch with me straight away and said, "Oh, yeah, we've seen the videos you're making. Why don't we send you one?"

[00:02:06]Well, about a week later, this wonderful package came through the post, and I know what's in here. There's a Radiacode 110 detector and some of the other devices that go with it that they sell.

[00:02:19]So, what I wanted to do with you today was to share with you what's in this package and what devices Radiacode make, cuz I think you'll be incredibly impressed.

[00:02:31]So, as you can see here, there's a fantastic collection of items that they've sent me that are part of the Radiacode ecosystem and really useful accessories, and we'll come to those in a second. I'll show you what accessories you can get for your device. Um you don't need all of them, but uh there are some really useful ones here. And what I want to go straight to is what's in this box. So, I want to look at the Radiacode 110 detector unit.

[00:02:59]So, let's now get the Radiacode 110 out.

[00:03:03]So, this is the actual device that will sense the radiation, and we've got some uh cards in there to remind us about cobalt 60 and strontium 90 and their half-lives. And I remember working a lot with cobalt 60 and a half-life of about 5 years. So, in your career, you had to change it because uh it would almost completely decay away.

[00:03:23]And then, I'll tip out the box that contains the uh Radiacode device.

[00:03:29]Uh lovely package here. It's a real present, isn't it? And we'll come to the QR code in a minute um that allows you to uh get onto the website and product information, and you need an app on your phone or tablet to really make the best of this.

[00:03:46]And there it is.

[00:03:47]Look how small that is. And that's what really impressed me, cuz I thought, "That is incredible. A device that's only that big, and yet it can detect nuclear radiation, and produce graphs to show you the the energy, the spectral energy, so you can work out which isotopes are decaying. So, in the top here, it's got a cesium iodide crystal. I think it's doped with thallium normally, and that's what detects the radiation, and it's particularly good at gamma radiation, which then gives out 550 nm light flashes, which can be detected. And that can be used to produce spectra, so you can work out which atoms are giving out which decay. In other words, more importantly, you're looking at something with atoms in it that you're not sure what they are, and if you look at the spectrum, you can see which atom it is, and which isotope. So, what we'll do is we'll get this powered up, and I'll show you briefly how it works. But I'm obviously going to make lots of other videos to delve into this device a little bit further.

[00:04:54]So, let's turn it on and get it working.

[00:04:56]So, we'll press and hold the button here.

[00:04:59]And on it comes, and you can hear it merrily clicking away there, I hope.

[00:05:04]Let's hold it up against my microphone.

[00:05:06]And giving us a reading of the counts per second. Now, this is way higher, 13.7, the per second, so that's becquerels, that I used to get on my Geiger-Müller tube devices.

[00:05:20]So, it's pretty obvious what we've got to do next. See what time it is.

[00:05:28]And we've got an alarm there. You can set alarms on these to say whether you're in an area that has a dose that's way too high.

[00:05:38]This is a radium-painted clock, of course, and just at this distance we're getting 62 counts per a So, pretty standard sort of home experiment that you can do, and it would be lovely to actually look at this spectrum at some stage and prove that it's radium.

[00:05:56]So, of course, any of us have flown airplanes are familiar with radium dials on the cockpit. And these are really things not to play with at home quite so much because they can be very strong indeed and quite dusty.

[00:06:11]But, this device immediately shows me the risk. So, I know that I shouldn't really be handling this for any great length of time.

[00:06:22]So, the first thing I noticed straight out of the box, just turning it on, it's really easy to use, and it's got a very very clear display. I'm sure you can see that on the camera even at that very grazing angle. Granted, it's only monochrome, but it's very clear and at any angle you can see it well. It also flips over.

[00:06:41]It's got a sensor in it, so if you flip it over or you're left-handed, it can move the screen round a bit like a phone does, which is fantastic. The main button is the one that you get used to using. It automatically locks, but if you press and hold, the lock comes off.

[00:06:58]You can count and actually turn the clicks off and turn them back on. And then, there's a whole series of menus here that you can scroll through. And obviously, it's important that when you finished, you know, at the bottom of the menu is the one to turn it off.

[00:07:20]So, out of the box, I've been really impressed. It's been really easy to just switch on and to get a menu to get it working straight away. It's obviously got way more advanced functions that you can use with it. And one of the things that's really impressive is if you pair it up with an iPad or some kind of a pad or your phone, preferably a device with a enabled, you can actually walk around with this and with Google Maps enabled, it will show you the trail that you've been on and it will color it depending on the count rate from the background that it receives, which I think is really interesting and hopefully it's just background and nothing else. But if you were walking around maybe in Dartmoor or somewhere like that, it might be quite interesting to see how the background count changes due to the rocks in the ground.

[00:08:07]Anyway, you can also use the device that you've got, your tablet or your phone to produce spectra and there isn't enough time in this video to show you that. I just wanted to do a quick look at it, but I've been really impressed by how easy it is to use and just how intuitive the menus are. So, there we go. We can scroll through the menus and the thing I like about them is they roll, so you don't have to get to the top and then go all the way back down again. The menus just roll around and there's the off. So, we'll just turn it off for a moment and maybe now have a look at a few of the accessories that you can get with the device.

[00:08:45]So, now let's very quickly look at some of the accessories that come with the device and I was very kindly sent these.

[00:08:51]If you're going to carry it around, you're obviously going to want a hard case and this is fantastic. Look how tight it is and you can slip the device in there.

[00:08:59]There's plenty of room. Looks like you could put two in there. You know, you can share one with your partner as it were, but that's going to look fantastic as part of your expedition equipment.

[00:09:09]And then if you're into these kind of covers that you can put on it to save it being scratched, these are silicone rubber covers and they come in a range of colors and we've got the the yellow there, so that's caution yellow. I love the names.

[00:09:24]Could you guess the gray one? Yep, plutonium gray. And for those of you who've worked in nuclear reactors, you might guess what that one is.

[00:09:34]That's Cherenkov blue because if you've ever seen that wonderful glow of Cherenkov radiation, then you never forget it. So, those are some of the cases that come with it. The hard case and then some cover cases that you can use and you can carabiner onto your rucksack. Though, in fairness, I wouldn't leave it there. I'd want it in my hand most of the time.

[00:09:59]Now, talking about not losing it off the side of your rucksack. Well, you've seen those people running with a mobile phones on their arms, etc. Well, they seem to have thought about everything.

[00:10:09]So, here is the strap that you can use to actually wear the device.

[00:10:17]So, you can wrap it around your arm or what have you. And let's just remove the protective cover there. Makes it look a bit better.

[00:10:24]Slip the RadiaCode into it and then strap it onto your arm or what have you.

[00:10:30]And as you move around the place, it will record the radiation or the dose that you've been receiving. So, that's really rather clever. And there's one other thing I'd like to show you that came with it as well that's really useful. And it's for prospecting. I've never been a great fan of having selfie sticks poked into my face, but this is a bit different. This is a sort of selfie stick for your RadiaCode. So, just pop it out of the box.

[00:11:00]And the RadiaCode attaches to the top of it.

[00:11:06]And then what you can do is extend this and you don't need to sort of bend over if you're prospecting somewhere where you're looking for minerals or what have you. Or, I don't know, it's not what I do, but if you go to one of these places where there is a much higher risk, you can hold the device at a distance. And so, that's beautifully made, by the way.

[00:11:26]So, another thing that you can add to your wish list for your birthday for accessories that you can get for your Radiacode counter.

[00:11:36]So, finally on the accessories, if you're a home experimenter like me, I can't wait to get going with this.

[00:11:43]Uh might be something that you don't recognize, but this is a Marinelli beaker. Um and it's a sort of modern take on it. So, uh the problem when you measure the radioactivity of samples, particularly food and things like that, is you have to have the counter by it for quite a long period of time. And if the counter's too far away, it's very inefficient. So, what you can do with this type of beaker is you can fill it from underneath with the sample that you want to measure. Uh coffee is the favorite. Or is this um banana-colored um some of you know what I'm up to there. And then when it's actually full, you can then embed the actual detecting crystal into what you're measuring and leave it for some time and get a good idea of not only the dose coming from it, but what isotopes are present in that material.

[00:12:32]And I think we must have a go with bananas and knowing me, definitely coffee.

[00:12:44]So, there we go. A very brief look, I know, at the Radiacode 110. And they do other devices as well.

[00:12:50]So, thank you ever so much, Radiacode, for getting in touch with me and allowing me to have some of these wonderful devices. I am really impressed, I must say. Um this is a total sea change from the old-fashioned devices that I've been using in my home lab. And this is easy to take out on the field with me. So, I can see this popping up in a lot more videos. Some fantastic accessories. Um those of you watching, I strongly suggest you go and have a look at their website and see what devices they offer.

[00:13:21]Um this is a little bit more of an expensive one, uh but there are other ones available that are perhaps not quite as sensitive and um that should be fine for all the sorts of things you might be doing at home and in the environment around you.

[00:13:35]Anyway, that's been an absolutely fantastic item to play with. Um we'll get it working. We'll do some videos and perhaps I'll do a few more shorts, but I can see I'll be using this again very soon. So do please join me then.

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