42
points
Hi HN,
I want to show you my project: RadiaCode, a Python library to interface with RadiaCode-10x radiation detectors and spectrometers. With RadiaCode, you can:
- Collect real-time radiation measurements - Analyze spectra for insightful data interpretation - Control device settings via USB or Bluetooth - Explore a web interface example for remote monitoring
It's available on PyPI, open-sourced under the MIT License, and you can find the code with examples on GitHub.
I can't see much in the way of code to do that.
How can I calibrate for and lock onto the K-U-Th peaks.
Where do the stripping ratios go?
Can I generate a NASVD kernel over time and landscape an enhanced sharpened spectrum run over time to clearly see changes from radon gases rolling in, new decay products from (say) a waste catchment breaching and leeching closer to my location.
We had that in gamma spectral analysis libraries in the 1980s and 1990s.
eg: Grasty & Minty (1995) https://www.ga.gov.au/bigobj/GA7667.pdf covers a lot of the basics for setup, calibration and aquisition. (There are other tomes for analysis).
Any higher-level processing, such as peak identification, stripping ratio adjustments, or NASVD-based spectrum enhancement over time, would need to be implemented on top of this library or using its output in external analysis tools. The data it provides can be integrated into custom pipelines for spectral analysis, environmental monitoring, or historical trend detection, much like the analytical techniques used in past gamma spectral analysis libraries.
2. Detectors are judged based on the mass and resolution. The resolutions for each vendor specific variant are at least 50-200% higher than what is possible with 'passable' material. Additionally the spectra shown indicate a very small detector mass, meaning these would not be much more sensitive than GM counters, and possibly less reliable in other metrics.
a. Why are the resolutions for CsI(Tl) 9.5% and not closer to 5%? (in this case, lower is better)
b. Are the sensors calibrated for temperature and other systematics? how long do the calibrations last and to what % of energy resolution?
c. Are the sensor responses linear? The documentation [1] shows that these can be very high error rates (up to 40% for "some isotopes"). Such high error rates makes this hard to see how dependable or useful the device would be.
[1] https://coda.io/d/radiacode-cyberspace_dTtFtorf-v-/Quick-Gui...
I've tested it out on a smoke detectors. Successfully identified AM-231 and its decay chains from like a foot away. Tested it out on my dad's basement, and it was able to pick up the whole radon decay chain (Thorium, Polonium, Lead, etc.)
It's not a laboratory grade tool. You can point it at radioactive stuff and the spectra lines up perfectly if you Google the charts. There is a community of folks who walk around with them to identify radioactive deposits. I own a GM counter and it's not even in the same league in sensitivity or capability, it would be like comparing a flip phone to a smartphone.
You can have all the things I mention above at a slightly higher price point.
It is not hard to make these and the really hard part is guaranteeing the quality so they aren’t treated as novelty toys.
No. Not even professional geophysical survey spectrometer sensors + interpretation software have a linear response to increased sources.
Two main reasons:
* The electronics to count scintillations (energy bursts at some X keV or MeV energy level) get flooded and overwhelmed; there's a "dead zone" following each detection count, as events increase in number, the percentage of dropped | undetected events increases.
See: Grasty & Minty (1995) page 32 Sec. 4. DATA PROCESSING SubSec. 4.1 Dead−Time Corrections
~ https://www.ga.gov.au/bigobj/GA7667.pdf* Stacking signatures from sources creates complex full spectrums; teasing full spectrums apart to extract component source decay signatures is messy and involves a degree of probablistic guesswork .. not very linear in a real world enviirnoment.
eg: The Cobalt 60 Gamma Spectrum has multiple peaks
The 1332 keV Co-60 peak bleeds into the "fat" K40 Potassium 1461 keV peak, throw in varying amounts of naturaly abundant Uranium and Thorium
https://www.gammaspectacular.com/blue/gamma-spectra/Co-60-ga...
https://www.gammaspectacular.com/blue/gamma-spectra/k-40-gam...
https://www.gammaspectacular.com/blue/gamma-spectra/norm-spe...
and it becomes clear that correctly identifying which elements are responsible for an observed full spectrum is a challenge with often multiple solutions.
The great challenge is correctly "guessing" the original proportions of commonly abundant radiation sources that share common daughter decay products. These are the sources that are listed as having a greater degree of error.