Meanwhile, in another universe: "Chemistry is amazing! In another universe I'd be making sodium in my basement rather than a nuclear reactor. Unfortunately in this universe you're stuck with me."
You just stated something very poignant that most people don't realize. You're not stuck in a universe with us..... We're stuck in a universe with YOU! Just do us a favor We don't want to hear in the news that your house had to be confiscated because it got turned into a super fund site. 😅
1 thing you missed in the pair production explanation and in your spectrum; You can see a peak at 511kev from the positron annhilating and releasing gamma rays. You can actually see the peak quite clearly surprisingly
Thanks for taking the scintillation sensor apart. That did indeed stop me from destroying my 102. They're great little units. Very versatile, and the software and app seem well implemented.
I don't understand why this destroys the scintillation counter at all?? It's just a crystal of cesium iodide and a SiPM with a little bit of optical coupling gel at the interface. Just reassemble it and it should work normally. The CsI is hygroscopic, but it's encapsulated; the Si crystal is insensitive to ambient light if unpowered. What's the issue??
@@Muonium1 I believe that exposing the multiplier sensor to light saturates it with photons and screws up the calibration and sensitivity. It needs a lab like Radiacode has to restore it to base levels.
@@TerryLawrence001 I can see a hypothetical such concern, but recall that without any bias voltage on the SiPM, ie. when it is off, there can be no avalanche cascade induced by photon absorption and the device is essentially inert. Exposure to light when inactive should theoretically have no effect on later operation in appropriate dark conditions.
I have had the 101 and the 102 for several years and I love them! I remember watching antiprotons' videos of gamma spectroscopy years ago wishing I could afford one. When this one came on the market I was so excited and immediately bought one. I found some super spicy rocks near a transit station in my city (Ottawa) is that get around 300 micro sieverts per hour 😮 I love it, it's been a great new hobby ❤
Wait, how do you randomly find such spicy rocks there? Are you near an uranium mine or something? The spiciest things i've found in public, excluding uranium glass and gas mantles, were street pavers that measured about twice or triple the low background radiation.
@@mfbfreak there used to be a 'slow poke' experimental nuclear reactor nearby and people suggested that I do a survey of the area and I happen to find buried uranium ore very nearby... Coincidence? I don't know.. I haven't been able to figure it out.. search Google for the Slowpoke reactor at tunney's pasture to learn more.
@@piranha031091 looks like that reply got deleted too lol.. The rock is likely pitchblende Uranium/radium. Search: 'partially solved the mystery of the radioactive anomaly at tunney's pasture'
The nonlinearity is due to the Radiacode using a Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SiPM). While a regular PhotoMultiplying Tube (PMT) uses a more "analog" process for its gain and behaves more lienarly, SiPMs consist of an array of discrete SPADs (basically its individual sensor cells) wired in parallel. These SPADs are either activated or not. If it's hit by two photons at (almost) the same time, it still looks like it was hit by a single photon. This means that signal amplitude does not scale linearly with the amount of incident photons and instead flattens out - if an event activates all the SPADs on the SiPM die, that's your maximum signal. Any more photons won't change anything.
The answer is actually more complex. Some of the non-linearity is in the scintillator crystal itself, And even detectors using "traditional" photomultiplier tubes suffer from it to some extent. And it changes with the type of scintillator used. This is based on my own practical experience (I have, and have built myself, gamma spectroscopy detectors for fun :) )
It's not great but not terrible. Hehe i laughed at that comment. Very impressive and very cool of you to have opened one for the most curious of us ! Never heard of the Compton Continuum or the pair production escape effect, very cool indeed !
I was really curious to see the sensor, thank you for the teardown! Maybe you could fix the device by running a calibration, they recently uploaded a tutorial explaining the process, apparently to fix whenever the device is dropped and the crystal moves. Thank you for the thorough review!
Hi Nurd, awesome video. I’m an ecotoxicologist who works at the Savannah River Site in SC, which recently became the second place in the country to produce plutonium cores/pits for weapons. We also produce most of the country’s tritium i believe. I agree that nuclear physics are really interesting, and that if i had gone down a physics path instead of biology i’m sure I would have been drawn to it. One of the most interesting techniques i’ve come across is otolith microchemistry - ototliths are ear “stones” which form in the ear canals of bony fish and some other vertebrates, and who accumulate layers linearly with growth each year when it’s warm, and can thus be used like tree rings to age fish if they are sectioned. However, they can also be ablated/ionized layer by layer to look at what kind of contaminants (metals, organics, etc.) the fish has been exposed to throughout it’s life, and even match that up to specific years. Really incredible. It’s recently been suggested that crocodilians typically have otoliths as well - which is very exciting to me, as we’ve marked some old alligators here on site which have likely been alive since before the plant was constructed in the 50s. Would be very cool to see an accumulation of ceasium etc over time through an old gator!
Man, I don't even have any radioisotope samples or have any reason to have one of these things, but now I want one just to poke around and see what I can find!
i bought one 2 months ago and i couldn't be happier, it's such a user friendly device (compared to all other gamma spectrometers) and with such a small form factor i basically carry it around with me all the time. the battery life is also incredible, i've only had to charge it once a week whilst it kept collecting data
There is another important feature this has over a standard geiger counter. Real dose rates! The dose rates given on geiger counters are very rough estimates. Dose rate is a measure of energy per unit mass per second. As you've stated, geiger counters are unable to discern how much energy the radiation they detect has. To get around this, geiger counters are calibrated against a known source of Cesium-137. They know how much energy the Cesium is emitting, so they set the geiger counter to display that dose rate when the activity matches what it was at during calibration. The issue with this is that it only works for Cesium-137. If you use an isotope with lower energy emissions, the geiger counter will claim a higher dose rate than what is actually there. Likewise, if the isotope you measure has higher energy it will say you are receiving a lower dose that what is really there. Scintillation counters read the energy of each pulse, and thus display the true dose rate.
I don't if this is a coincidence or not, but the same gamma spectrometer (used in the video) was also used during my faculty of science and tech open day in my university. Glad to see a complete review, applications of the whole thing, etc, i had my popcorn ready for a new nurdrage video 😇. Thank you, mr nurdrage 🙏
I bought a 102 model about six months ago. I love it. - battery is sized well so that it can take continuous measurements for about 3 or 4 days between charges - my screen failed, however, I can still use the device through the cell-phone app - I measured the potassium in my Japanese Matcha tea - it required one or two days of measurement to accurately pick up the potassium Great review, NurdRage!
Excellent review that answers some of my questions about the science!❤️ I have both the Radiacode 102 and 103. Excellent product! I’ve published many assays with spectrums in the Radiacode Facebook group.
I just got the 103 a few weeks ago. I just got off a plane from San Diego and took readings the whole time. It’s very cool and discreet. Radiation levels drop then increase at above 10,000feet. I can’t wait to take it with me on the plane ride to Japan in about a month and get a much longer interval to collect a spectrum.
Well well well . . Look who else likes the radiacode! You'll probably be amazed by it's neutron detection abilities as well ! Very good review sir! It is an amazing device and affordable too! Your 12kev is not far off, the max energy of the beta is at 18kev with an average between 4 and 10. All that energy has to go somewhere right!, the Th232 spectrum has more decay daughter than actual Thorium but that's a good preview . Finally any reason why you are using the log scale instead of the linear one? Great vid as always...
Got a 102 several months ago. Very happy with the performances. I just want to notice that I have to recalibrate it, which is quite easy using thoriated rods or gas mantles. Next project would be to build a lead castle to make measurements of weak samples and reduced background...
Useful review indeed! After watching this I am definitely considering a purchase, this would make a very useful tool when I start my radioactive metal salt projects like americium nitrate synthesis. Great to see you post Nurd Rage!
A side note about gamma spectrometers is that they make measuring radiation doses with more accuracy easier as it detects not only radioactive photons/electrons, but their relative strength as well, whereas Geiger-Müller or proportional counters tend to have a margin of error depending on the source of radioactivity.
I have no plans to buy and use such a device, but knowing about it, then, after reading through these wonderful comments, getting an inkling about how these detectors work is such a blast..(pardon the pun).
I bought Radiacode 101 two years ago right after you've presented it, and it's just so freaking awesome thing! And I must say that during these 2 years the devs have seriously improved it from being 256channel spectrometer with dumb flat CPS->energy conversion into a 1024 channel with more or less proper conversion! Awesome work on their side and awesome value for the money. Thank you for sharing it!
Those would be interesting to not only have while driving around like you did, but also to place around one's city/neighborhood in secluded locations (or nearby friends' places) to track radiation. A small rechargeable battery, small solar panel, the radiacode, a waterproof case, a raspberry pi to collect and transmit the data, and a cellular WiFi hotspot to transmit to a home base would be really neat. You could even perhaps track a "cloud" of radiation as it travels across the areas being monitored.
I have the RadiaCode 102, and I can agree with you that those things are totally awesome to have! No need to spend thousands of dollars in order to do gamma spectroscopy!
I've referenced this video in a few of mine about the radiacode - for people that are curious about the internals. I also got sponsored with a free 103.
Just WoW ! Superb device easily in reach of many. Double WoW ! Nurdy isn't just a superb Chemist, Mathematician and Nuclear Physicist, he can also drive ! aga is impressed ;)
This will make a helluva gift for my 12 year old. He is into radiation and smoke detectors. Showed him some of those tig rods and he was impressed. But this is so cool. Thank you. Looks like i am spending some $. Lol
Do it! Just be cautious with kids and contamination. Especially if you might be considering finding some natural samples that may shed dust and radon gas. Check out the safecast radiation map, and see if there are any hot spots in your area. I narrowed an anomaly down to specific yellow pavers used in a specific part of a city. Such quests are great fun.
Glorious! I've got an old Exploranium GR 135 at work, I think I'd prefer the Radiacode 103. I did use the Exploranium to identify C060 contaminated kitchenware that had come through customs from India. There was over 20 mCi of Co60 in the shipment. I'm forever grateful it was picked up in customs and didn't end up in the restaurant.
This may be the wrong place for a topic suggestion but, topic suggestion: With access to sodium, would it be plausible to pursue a sodium aluminum hydride synthesis? I'm aware that this normally requires very high temperatures and pressures, but I've read of some recent work, for hydrogen fuel storage, with Sodium and Lithium aluminum hydride formation being catalyzed by titanium chloride. From my understanding, the alkali reduces the titanium chloride to titanium metal particles, which catalyze the formation at temperatures low enough to occur in ether solvents. I think sodium is cool on it's own, by a hydride reducing agent like SAH would be an invaluable asset to the amateur chem community
Great video! Been watching you for at least a decade now. It’s an awesome little detector. Detectors are like cameras, the best one is the one you have with you. It won’t do everything (a pancake probe has its uses when antique hunting) but it’s ultraportable and easy to throw in your pocket. Be careful though, this is a real rabbit hole. Before you know it you are buying surplus NIM equipment and setting up to use a bigger NaI(Tl) detector. And then if you’re really a proper nurd…HPGe.
Bremsstrahlung: Brems-Strahlung (deceleration-radiation). As are many German words, this one is an amalgamation of 2 words, so it helps to treat it as two separate words. brems: more or less english pronounciation, but with a sharp rolling [r] (optional). Strahl-ung: [S] from "fi[sh]", (again the rolling [r],) and [u] from "big [oo]f". brems-[sh]trahl-[oo]ng
Thanks for the heads up, I have a working new style detector, but it isn't as feature packed as this one, but all I need is something to warn me I have radium material in a watch or clock.
This video has convinced me, after a longtime dithering, that I should buy the Radiocode 103; this was a masterclass in how to sell something without "selling it". Minot quibble: your blueberries were probably not contaminated by Chernobyl; as 90% of US blueberries are now imported from South America, the source is more likely Pacific-related (atomic weapons testing and/or Fukushima). It's true that branded blueberry jams & preserves from Europe do concentrate Chernobyl contamination but we tend not to get the raw fruit on this side of the pond. Oh, and please consider a similar video on the "Rspec Explorer" spectrum analyzer.....I know it's more "physicsy" but it helps identify elements and given your comments about nuclear physics I'm sure you'd think of some good ways to put it through its paces.
Radiacode is amazing! The next day I got my 103 I searched all my rocks in my backyard... and the feeling when first time hearing the alarm when I found a hotspot within granite/feldspar was amazing experiance. Took the rock inside and within a hour of inspection got Thorium and Thorium-Tungsten alloy peaks. I was not able to find any hotspots with my MKS-Terra geiger tube detector, but with 103... just wow! It's much faster and more sensitive! Highly recommend this device! And also will be waiting for 104 or 105 in hope that beta and alpha features comes in...well I hope they go all in and someday produce pocketsize elemental detector if they add a lead tube with radioactive isotope within Radiocode device that could produce X-rays at certain energy... and when pointed on a material those X-rays would bounce back to scintillation crystal at another energies, computer than does the math and elements could than be detected easy.
i thought about this the other day, could you just get an xray source and sandwich the sample between the xray and radiacode? Wouldnt the difference in energy levels basically be same process as xray crystallography?
Neato! I know it's a completely different technology, but I keep wondering whether a FTIR spectrometer that size could exist. It'd be *super* helpful for all kinds of things.
I bought one of these and brought it to Sam's club. I found some smoke detectors and sure enough, it went off. Next, right across the isle. A pallet of potassium chloride water softener salt. The alarm went nuts again. I look forward to taking it on a hike and checking rocks.
I have a 101 (similar to 102). It is a nice proiduct, especially with mobile app that allows you to analyze what the radiating stuff is. In my every day environment it is always uranium chain products that occur in granite and nature along with Cs-137 in the background due to Chernobyl. (I have had the alarm go off also due to cumulated radon in a basement. While Ra is alpha emitter the decay products give out gamma too) I can detect which part of bed I sleep in and say for sure it is because radioactive K-40 cumulation from sweat. Much better than geiger counters if you need fast response or need to know energy either for cumulated dose or to analyuze something at hobby level.
been looking at these for awhile. lots of fakes online now. glad you mentioned the CsI crystal. i remember the cheapest gamma detectors were like 10k$ only a few years ago
Ngl, that's sooo insane! I've seen diy spectrometer for such high energys, but the photomultiplier makes them huge. I wonder how they're able to capture the few photons that come of this rather small crystal.
After owning a 103 for a couple months, I really like mine. It's fast enough to detect radioactivity in small areas from a car, and to point out individual people who are undergoing radiotherapy (in other words, remember to turn off the threshold alarm if you might be near a hospital, it's embarassing and annoying for people who need calm) Also, in a world where we need to charge our phones daily, this thing's battery seems to last forever. It's also a good shape to sit in small pockets. I also got an arm strap and it makes a bulky but useful wristwatch.
I'm an engineer for a company that makes high end scintillation detectors, and this device is extremely interesting. Especially the teardown. Kind of surprised they used a grease interface for the SiPM! I guess it's more or less self healing, which is nice for something that might be jostled a lot
This device is packed with far more scientific intricacies than initially apparent. Take, for instance, its broad-ranging thermal compensation and energy compensation of dose rate, which consider the diverse effects of scintillators like Compton
the other thing this thing is supposed to be good for is the surveying while driving around, because as a simple counter it's way faster than the G-M tube ones: you get actual prompt detail along the line instead of a big blob after you've already passed it.
Pretty cool video !! I have the better gieger s-1 and radiacode 102 ,and raysid 7% resolution. Raysid is my favorite. But radiacode 102 is my second favorite
I highly recommend getting ahold of an FS5000 geiger counter. Would be a cool review. I got mine off Ali express for like $34 and according to other reviews it crushes other counters costing like 10x more.
Since this can discriminate by type of gamma radiation would it be a useful dosimeter (not significantly over or underestimating absorbed dose by virtue of being calibrated for one energy level like some geigers)?
Do you think there would be any difficulty taking it on a plane (security check)? Would be interesting to see the increased cosmic radiation background during a flight.
Excellent review! I use my Kc761B much more than my RC103. I have received a test 1.44 version of the firmware which should have resolved the Bluetooth interference. But it did not... 😭 At least the android app has improved export functions so the spec file can be directly used in InterSpec. Very convenient indeed!
Hey, Nerd. What you're doing is just fascinating. But i have a scientific question that is diturbing my mind for real. Would do you be so kind to answer it: is there any other way of coloring silver serface by any chemical reactions and elecrochemistry (except sulfur/sodium hydroxyde)? I found that potassium dichromate is widely used for identification of silver in jewelry, giving the bloody red color, but it slightly destroys the silver surface so maybe there are much better ways of coloring. eventually there are plenty of tarnish solutions on the marketpalces but they would never tell the exact chemicals they used.
I would want to use this on a portable tablet or portable mini-PC. Do any of the apps (mobile or desktop) require an internet connection to use the spectrometer feature? If so, that's a deal breaker for me.
Hello @NurdRage I wanted to see if you could help me out with a problem we have, I'm trying to find a catalyst that could induce a ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate to polymerize without side reactions to 100% and give me a polycarbonate diol. I have read literature and found the best one gives me 50% only and and half of the reaction endes with side reactions. I have tried many some other catalysts without success and I find myself on a dead end. I wanted to see if you could tackle the problem better then me.
Hmm, xrays, didn't think that my ancient tritium tube (from a GPO Trimphone from I think the 1960s) could be releasing those, right next to my bed, with its' ver very very very dull glow even after all those decades, still, explains why they tended to yellow plastics... :P
Brainiac did a video on this 2 years ago. I was going to buy one, but found it too expensive for my use case, which is testing land property for radiation before buying it. Bought a $50 FNIRSI GC-01 instead. As I don't really care what type of ionizing radiation I am dealing with, Just the presence and intensity is good enough for me.
I hope you can make a video on how to plating lead dioxide from small graphite rods with a 3000 -4000 rpm motor and a 50 to 100 micron meter plating and this will help you make sodium perchlorate from chloride salts and combined perchloric acid. Combine corresponding bases to make colorful fireworks. and it also replaces expensive platinum in water electrolysis .haha
hmmm... i'll think about it, one thing i worry though is that lead is rather toxic, and illegal to dump. My viewers might not be able to handle it properly. But i'll see what i can do.
I've heard raw cocoa nibs might contain elevated levels of gamma radiation depending on where they were grown. I might have to get one of these to test my bag at home 🤔
Why, and why? A gamma spectrometer that fits in your pocket is amazing. And no home has any use for a whole spectrometer. I'm now definitely considering buying one.
Meanwhile, in another universe: "Chemistry is amazing! In another universe I'd be making sodium in my basement rather than a nuclear reactor. Unfortunately in this universe you're stuck with me."
Fook it do both
You just stated something very poignant that most people don't realize.
You're not stuck in a universe with us..... We're stuck in a universe with YOU!
Just do us a favor We don't want to hear in the news that your house had to be confiscated because it got turned into a super fund site. 😅
NurdRage can this show gold isotopes.or Diamond.
Radioactive Boy Scout vibes. That’s a path you do not want to go down.
uh oh watch your tesla! watch out! watch while you dont drive because you cant? 😂
1 thing you missed in the pair production explanation and in your spectrum; You can see a peak at 511kev from the positron annhilating and releasing gamma rays. You can actually see the peak quite clearly surprisingly
God I love these weird crossovers for no reason.
I was just thinking the same thing, but I'm glad I learned about the escape peak because I would've never figured that out on my own
It is gamma ray from 208Tl, not annihilation.
Thanks for taking the scintillation sensor apart. That did indeed stop me from destroying my 102.
They're great little units. Very versatile, and the software and app seem well implemented.
Same here, I was about to get one myself to tear down.
My 103 is too new to take apart. Thankfully, now I don't have to!
I don't understand why this destroys the scintillation counter at all?? It's just a crystal of cesium iodide and a SiPM with a little bit of optical coupling gel at the interface. Just reassemble it and it should work normally. The CsI is hygroscopic, but it's encapsulated; the Si crystal is insensitive to ambient light if unpowered. What's the issue??
@@Muonium1 I believe that exposing the multiplier sensor to light saturates it with photons and screws up the calibration and sensitivity. It needs a lab like Radiacode has to restore it to base levels.
@@TerryLawrence001 I can see a hypothetical such concern, but recall that without any bias voltage on the SiPM, ie. when it is off, there can be no avalanche cascade induced by photon absorption and the device is essentially inert. Exposure to light when inactive should theoretically have no effect on later operation in appropriate dark conditions.
I have had the 101 and the 102 for several years and I love them! I remember watching antiprotons' videos of gamma spectroscopy years ago wishing I could afford one. When this one came on the market I was so excited and immediately bought one.
I found some super spicy rocks near a transit station in my city (Ottawa) is that get around 300 micro sieverts per hour 😮
I love it, it's been a great new hobby ❤
Wait, how do you randomly find such spicy rocks there? Are you near an uranium mine or something?
The spiciest things i've found in public, excluding uranium glass and gas mantles, were street pavers that measured about twice or triple the low background radiation.
@@mfbfreak there used to be a 'slow poke' experimental nuclear reactor nearby and people suggested that I do a survey of the area and I happen to find buried uranium ore very nearby... Coincidence? I don't know.. I haven't been able to figure it out.. search Google for the Slowpoke reactor at tunney's pasture to learn more.
@@mfbfreakmy reply keeps getting deleted for some reason.. I think they're triggering some kind of detection?
So, what made those rocks spicy?
Uranium or thorium?
@@piranha031091 looks like that reply got deleted too lol.. The rock is likely pitchblende
Uranium/radium. Search: 'partially solved the mystery of the radioactive anomaly at tunney's pasture'
The nonlinearity is due to the Radiacode using a Silicon PhotoMultiplier (SiPM). While a regular PhotoMultiplying Tube (PMT) uses a more "analog" process for its gain and behaves more lienarly, SiPMs consist of an array of discrete SPADs (basically its individual sensor cells) wired in parallel. These SPADs are either activated or not. If it's hit by two photons at (almost) the same time, it still looks like it was hit by a single photon. This means that signal amplitude does not scale linearly with the amount of incident photons and instead flattens out - if an event activates all the SPADs on the SiPM die, that's your maximum signal. Any more photons won't change anything.
interesting! So i guess i need to recalibrate when looking at those energies. Good to know :)
The answer is actually more complex. Some of the non-linearity is in the scintillator crystal itself, And even detectors using "traditional" photomultiplier tubes suffer from it to some extent. And it changes with the type of scintillator used. This is based on my own practical experience (I have, and have built myself, gamma spectroscopy detectors for fun :) )
It's not great but not terrible. Hehe i laughed at that comment. Very impressive and very cool of you to have opened one for the most curious of us ! Never heard of the Compton Continuum or the pair production escape effect, very cool indeed !
I was really curious to see the sensor, thank you for the teardown! Maybe you could fix the device by running a calibration, they recently uploaded a tutorial explaining the process, apparently to fix whenever the device is dropped and the crystal moves. Thank you for the thorough review!
The OG chemistry channel. I remember your original glow stick video. you are a hero.
Hi Nurd, awesome video. I’m an ecotoxicologist who works at the Savannah River Site in SC, which recently became the second place in the country to produce plutonium cores/pits for weapons. We also produce most of the country’s tritium i believe.
I agree that nuclear physics are really interesting, and that if i had gone down a physics path instead of biology i’m sure I would have been drawn to it. One of the most interesting techniques i’ve come across is otolith microchemistry - ototliths are ear “stones” which form in the ear canals of bony fish and some other vertebrates, and who accumulate layers linearly with growth each year when it’s warm, and can thus be used like tree rings to age fish if they are sectioned. However, they can also be ablated/ionized layer by layer to look at what kind of contaminants (metals, organics, etc.) the fish has been exposed to throughout it’s life, and even match that up to specific years. Really incredible.
It’s recently been suggested that crocodilians typically have otoliths as well - which is very exciting to me, as we’ve marked some old alligators here on site which have likely been alive since before the plant was constructed in the 50s. Would be very cool to see an accumulation of ceasium etc over time through an old gator!
Man, I don't even have any radioisotope samples or have any reason to have one of these things, but now I want one just to poke around and see what I can find!
i bought one 2 months ago and i couldn't be happier, it's such a user friendly device (compared to all other gamma spectrometers) and with such a small form factor i basically carry it around with me all the time. the battery life is also incredible, i've only had to charge it once a week whilst it kept collecting data
There is another important feature this has over a standard geiger counter. Real dose rates! The dose rates given on geiger counters are very rough estimates. Dose rate is a measure of energy per unit mass per second. As you've stated, geiger counters are unable to discern how much energy the radiation they detect has.
To get around this, geiger counters are calibrated against a known source of Cesium-137. They know how much energy the Cesium is emitting, so they set the geiger counter to display that dose rate when the activity matches what it was at during calibration.
The issue with this is that it only works for Cesium-137. If you use an isotope with lower energy emissions, the geiger counter will claim a higher dose rate than what is actually there. Likewise, if the isotope you measure has higher energy it will say you are receiving a lower dose that what is really there. Scintillation counters read the energy of each pulse, and thus display the true dose rate.
I don't if this is a coincidence or not, but the same gamma spectrometer (used in the video) was also used during my faculty of science and tech open day in my university. Glad to see a complete review, applications of the whole thing, etc, i had my popcorn ready for a new nurdrage video 😇. Thank you, mr nurdrage 🙏
I bought a 102 model about six months ago. I love it.
- battery is sized well so that it can take continuous measurements for about 3 or 4 days between charges
- my screen failed, however, I can still use the device through the cell-phone app
- I measured the potassium in my Japanese Matcha tea - it required one or two days of measurement to accurately pick up the potassium
Great review, NurdRage!
Excellent review that answers some of my questions about the science!❤️ I have both the Radiacode 102 and 103. Excellent product! I’ve published many assays with spectrums in the Radiacode Facebook group.
I just got the 103 a few weeks ago.
I just got off a plane from San Diego and took readings the whole time. It’s very cool and discreet. Radiation levels drop then increase at above 10,000feet.
I can’t wait to take it with me on the plane ride to Japan in about a month and get a much longer interval to collect a spectrum.
Did TSA ask you questions about it going through the x ray machine, or were they chill about it, and what were the measurements
why are you going to japan? are you one of those weeb freaks?
Well well well . . Look who else likes the radiacode! You'll probably be amazed by it's neutron detection abilities as well ! Very good review sir! It is an amazing device and affordable too! Your 12kev is not far off, the max energy of the beta is at 18kev with an average between 4 and 10. All that energy has to go somewhere right!, the Th232 spectrum has more decay daughter than actual Thorium but that's a good preview . Finally any reason why you are using the log scale instead of the linear one? Great vid as always...
Got a 102 several months ago. Very happy with the performances. I just want to notice that I have to recalibrate it, which is quite easy using thoriated rods or gas mantles. Next project would be to build a lead castle to make measurements of weak samples and reduced background...
Useful review indeed! After watching this I am definitely considering a purchase, this would make a very useful tool when I start my radioactive metal salt projects like americium nitrate synthesis. Great to see you post Nurd Rage!
This video is the best explanation of this device that I have ever seen. Thank you NurdRage!
A side note about gamma spectrometers is that they make measuring radiation doses with more accuracy easier as it detects not only radioactive photons/electrons, but their relative strength as well, whereas Geiger-Müller or proportional counters tend to have a margin of error depending on the source of radioactivity.
I have no plans to buy and use such a device, but knowing about it, then, after reading through these wonderful comments, getting an inkling about how these detectors work is such a blast..(pardon the pun).
really appreciate the sensor teardown! always fun to see my old friend cesium iodide
We missed u
imho this is the top comment... its simple. i agree. sometimes a mere review is all i need.
Ordered mine after bigclives stream. Found one outdoor staircase and a tabletop. Both granite and well over background
Right now it’s in our cellar and collecting radon emissions 😊
I love nuclear physics AND chemistry, so I'm happy with BOTH Nurdrages! (I'm also a Patreon supporter)
I bought Radiacode 101 two years ago right after you've presented it, and it's just so freaking awesome thing! And I must say that during these 2 years the devs have seriously improved it from being 256channel spectrometer with dumb flat CPS->energy conversion into a 1024 channel with more or less proper conversion! Awesome work on their side and awesome value for the money. Thank you for sharing it!
Those would be interesting to not only have while driving around like you did, but also to place around one's city/neighborhood in secluded locations (or nearby friends' places) to track radiation. A small rechargeable battery, small solar panel, the radiacode, a waterproof case, a raspberry pi to collect and transmit the data, and a cellular WiFi hotspot to transmit to a home base would be really neat. You could even perhaps track a "cloud" of radiation as it travels across the areas being monitored.
I have the RadiaCode 102, and I can agree with you that those things are totally awesome to have! No need to spend thousands of dollars in order to do gamma spectroscopy!
I've referenced this video in a few of mine about the radiacode - for people that are curious about the internals.
I also got sponsored with a free 103.
This is probably the most informative video and explanation I’ve seen yet
Just WoW ! Superb device easily in reach of many.
Double WoW ! Nurdy isn't just a superb Chemist, Mathematician and Nuclear Physicist, he can also drive !
aga is impressed ;)
someday, i'll combine all of them and have a giant purple mushroom cloud!
This will make a helluva gift for my 12 year old. He is into radiation and smoke detectors. Showed him some of those tig rods and he was impressed. But this is so cool. Thank you. Looks like i am spending some $. Lol
Do it! Just be cautious with kids and contamination. Especially if you might be considering finding some natural samples that may shed dust and radon gas.
Check out the safecast radiation map, and see if there are any hot spots in your area. I narrowed an anomaly down to specific yellow pavers used in a specific part of a city. Such quests are great fun.
These things are incredible. I’ve had the 101 its predecessor for a while now and it is a very impressive device.
Thanks for making the video! I have got few ads from them and thought it was a scam for the price. I guess they are not. Better get one I guess
Glorious! I've got an old Exploranium GR 135 at work, I think I'd prefer the Radiacode 103. I did use the Exploranium to identify C060 contaminated kitchenware that had come through customs from India. There was over 20 mCi of Co60 in the shipment. I'm forever grateful it was picked up in customs and didn't end up in the restaurant.
I am suscribed since 2014, you were one of the first channes I followed, and I'm grateful that you are still here uploading amazing videos
This may be the wrong place for a topic suggestion but, topic suggestion: With access to sodium, would it be plausible to pursue a sodium aluminum hydride synthesis? I'm aware that this normally requires very high temperatures and pressures, but I've read of some recent work, for hydrogen fuel storage, with Sodium and Lithium aluminum hydride formation being catalyzed by titanium chloride. From my understanding, the alkali reduces the titanium chloride to titanium metal particles, which catalyze the formation at temperatures low enough to occur in ether solvents. I think sodium is cool on it's own, by a hydride reducing agent like SAH would be an invaluable asset to the amateur chem community
Those are so cool. You could probably fix the one you disassembled with some new "scintillation grease".
Thanks for the vid too!
Really interesting device. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it.
Wishlisted for my next trip to Pripyat
You have no idea how much I appreciate the teardown!
NGL, when I saw the notification, I didn't look at the channel and just assumed it was Thought Emporium.
Awesome video, dude. I have been thinking about getting one of these!
I already bought one. Fun and useful!
Nicely done as I was so curious about this device. Thanks, Jay
Thanks for reviewing this, I have been curious about these for a while. Have job!
Great video! Been watching you for at least a decade now.
It’s an awesome little detector. Detectors are like cameras, the best one is the one you have with you. It won’t do everything (a pancake probe has its uses when antique hunting) but it’s ultraportable and easy to throw in your pocket.
Be careful though, this is a real rabbit hole. Before you know it you are buying surplus NIM equipment and setting up to use a bigger NaI(Tl) detector. And then if you’re really a proper nurd…HPGe.
Pleasantly surprised to see this thing has USB-C, usually such specialized things gravitate towards micro-USB
Bremsstrahlung: Brems-Strahlung (deceleration-radiation).
As are many German words, this one is an amalgamation of 2 words, so it helps to treat it as two separate words.
brems: more or less english pronounciation, but with a sharp rolling [r] (optional).
Strahl-ung: [S] from "fi[sh]", (again the rolling [r],) and [u] from "big [oo]f".
brems-[sh]trahl-[oo]ng
Thanks for the heads up, I have a working new style detector, but it isn't as feature packed as this one, but all I need is something to warn me I have radium material in a watch or clock.
This video has convinced me, after a longtime dithering, that I should buy the Radiocode 103; this was a masterclass in how to sell something without "selling it". Minot quibble: your blueberries were probably not contaminated by Chernobyl; as 90% of US blueberries are now imported from South America, the source is more likely Pacific-related (atomic weapons testing and/or Fukushima). It's true that branded blueberry jams & preserves from Europe do concentrate Chernobyl contamination but we tend not to get the raw fruit on this side of the pond. Oh, and please consider a similar video on the "Rspec Explorer" spectrum analyzer.....I know it's more "physicsy" but it helps identify elements and given your comments about nuclear physics I'm sure you'd think of some good ways to put it through its paces.
Radiacode is amazing! The next day I got my 103 I searched all my rocks in my backyard... and the feeling when first time hearing the alarm when I found a hotspot within granite/feldspar was amazing experiance. Took the rock inside and within a hour of inspection got Thorium and Thorium-Tungsten alloy peaks. I was not able to find any hotspots with my MKS-Terra geiger tube detector, but with 103... just wow! It's much faster and more sensitive! Highly recommend this device!
And also will be waiting for 104 or 105 in hope that beta and alpha features comes in...well I hope they go all in and someday produce pocketsize elemental detector if they add a lead tube with radioactive isotope within Radiocode device that could produce X-rays at certain energy... and when pointed on a material those X-rays would bounce back to scintillation crystal at another energies, computer than does the math and elements could than be detected easy.
i thought about this the other day, could you just get an xray source and sandwich the sample between the xray and radiacode? Wouldnt the difference in energy levels basically be same process as xray crystallography?
Neato!
I know it's a completely different technology, but I keep wondering whether a FTIR spectrometer that size could exist. It'd be *super* helpful for all kinds of things.
You guys, NurdRage is on board. Let's go!
I bought one of these and brought it to Sam's club. I found some smoke detectors and sure enough, it went off.
Next, right across the isle. A pallet of potassium chloride water softener salt. The alarm went nuts again.
I look forward to taking it on a hike and checking rocks.
I have a 101 (similar to 102). It is a nice proiduct, especially with mobile app that allows you to analyze what the radiating stuff is. In my every day environment it is always uranium chain products that occur in granite and nature along with Cs-137 in the background due to Chernobyl. (I have had the alarm go off also due to cumulated radon in a basement. While Ra is alpha emitter the decay products give out gamma too)
I can detect which part of bed I sleep in and say for sure it is because radioactive K-40 cumulation from sweat.
Much better than geiger counters if you need fast response or need to know energy either for cumulated dose or to analyuze something at hobby level.
been looking at these for awhile. lots of fakes online now. glad you mentioned the CsI crystal. i remember the cheapest gamma detectors were like 10k$ only a few years ago
Great review!
Ngl, that's sooo insane! I've seen diy spectrometer for such high energys, but the photomultiplier makes them huge. I wonder how they're able to capture the few photons that come of this rather small crystal.
After owning a 103 for a couple months, I really like mine. It's fast enough to detect radioactivity in small areas from a car, and to point out individual people who are undergoing radiotherapy (in other words, remember to turn off the threshold alarm if you might be near a hospital, it's embarassing and annoying for people who need calm) Also, in a world where we need to charge our phones daily, this thing's battery seems to last forever. It's also a good shape to sit in small pockets. I also got an arm strap and it makes a bulky but useful wristwatch.
I have recently gotten the 102 which is slightly cheaper. Really love it.
I'm an engineer for a company that makes high end scintillation detectors, and this device is extremely interesting. Especially the teardown. Kind of surprised they used a grease interface for the SiPM! I guess it's more or less self healing, which is nice for something that might be jostled a lot
This device is packed with far more scientific intricacies than initially apparent. Take, for instance, its broad-ranging thermal compensation and energy compensation of dose rate, which consider the diverse effects of scintillators like Compton
Awesome! Where do you get the radioluminescence tritium ligths?
Awesome review, very interesting.
the other thing this thing is supposed to be good for is the surveying while driving around, because as a simple counter it's way faster than the G-M tube ones: you get actual prompt detail along the line instead of a big blob after you've already passed it.
Pretty cool video !! I have the better gieger s-1 and radiacode 102 ,and raysid 7% resolution. Raysid is my favorite. But radiacode 102 is my second favorite
I highly recommend getting ahold of an FS5000 geiger counter. Would be a cool review. I got mine off Ali express for like $34 and according to other reviews it crushes other counters costing like 10x more.
That was really cool! Ty
Very cool. At some point maybe you'll find something that used radium paint. I bet that would make the counter go wild.
Since this can discriminate by type of gamma radiation would it be a useful dosimeter (not significantly over or underestimating absorbed dose by virtue of being calibrated for one energy level like some geigers)?
Might be interesting to see if you can pick up the radon decay chain from fresh dryer lint.
Jepp. Works. Electrostatic precipitation is also a great way to get counts up.
Ok I'm buying one
Do you think there would be any difficulty taking it on a plane (security check)? Would be interesting to see the increased cosmic radiation background during a flight.
Goddamit now I have to buy one
Excellent review! I use my Kc761B much more than my RC103. I have received a test 1.44 version of the firmware which should have resolved the Bluetooth interference. But it did not... 😭 At least the android app has improved export functions so the spec file can be directly used in InterSpec. Very convenient indeed!
Hey, Nerd. What you're doing is just fascinating. But i have a scientific question that is diturbing my mind for real. Would do you be so kind to answer it: is there any other way of coloring silver serface by any chemical reactions and elecrochemistry (except sulfur/sodium hydroxyde)? I found that potassium dichromate is widely used for identification of silver in jewelry, giving the bloody red color, but it slightly destroys the silver surface so maybe there are much better ways of coloring. eventually there are plenty of tarnish solutions on the marketpalces but they would never tell the exact chemicals they used.
I would want to use this on a portable tablet or portable mini-PC. Do any of the apps (mobile or desktop) require an internet connection to use the spectrometer feature? If so, that's a deal breaker for me.
You don't need internet for this, even maps can be used offline
it just needs internet for updates. But it functions without internet.
Destruction in the name of science. I love it
Can't wait to get my hands on one of these boys their toys
Awesome sir ❤
Hello @NurdRage I wanted to see if you could help me out with a problem we have, I'm trying to find a catalyst that could induce a ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate to polymerize without side reactions to 100% and give me a polycarbonate diol. I have read literature and found the best one gives me 50% only and and half of the reaction endes with side reactions. I have tried many some other catalysts without success and I find myself on a dead end. I wanted to see if you could tackle the problem better then me.
Can you use this for X-ray fluorescence to determine non-radioactive element composition?
Hmm, xrays, didn't think that my ancient tritium tube (from a GPO Trimphone from I think the 1960s) could be releasing those, right next to my bed, with its' ver very very very dull glow even after all those decades, still, explains why they tended to yellow plastics... :P
Put some new silicone glue between CsI and photo detector and that thing will likely work as before?
this is useful for counterespionage.... ty
Question... Since PMT's only measure 'amplitude'. How exactly is there an ability to synthize 'spectral lines'? Anyone know?
Thanks, I hope referral code worked.
Brainiac did a video on this 2 years ago.
I was going to buy one, but found it too expensive for my use case, which is testing land property for radiation before buying it. Bought a $50 FNIRSI GC-01 instead.
As I don't really care what type of ionizing radiation I am dealing with, Just the presence and intensity is good enough for me.
it's crazy how much data you can get from a glorified salt cube...
Would there be anything interesting to measure during the total solar eclipse on April 8th, for a demonstration I could do for students?
It would be neat to see what the water of Lake Ontario looks like... especially if you get close to the Genessee River and Kodak
Neptunium did an episode or two about the great lakes, well, at least one, ruclips.net/video/-_6bgYwtDRo/видео.html
I hope you can make a video on how to plating lead dioxide from small graphite rods with a 3000 -4000 rpm motor and a 50 to 100 micron meter plating and this will help you make sodium perchlorate from chloride salts and combined perchloric acid. Combine corresponding bases to make colorful fireworks. and it also replaces expensive platinum in water electrolysis .haha
hmmm... i'll think about it, one thing i worry though is that lead is rather toxic, and illegal to dump. My viewers might not be able to handle it properly. But i'll see what i can do.
I am going to buy one, do you get comission??!!
no, but if you use my link, they'll see i'm popular. And i'll ask them to sponsor me a video :)
I've heard raw cocoa nibs might contain elevated levels of gamma radiation depending on where they were grown. I might have to get one of these to test my bag at home 🤔
$300 is an insane price for this.
Every home should have one of these tucked away in a draw.
Why, and why? A gamma spectrometer that fits in your pocket is amazing. And no home has any use for a whole spectrometer.
I'm now definitely considering buying one.
Is that a real signal "blip" (13:15) around 511 keV from positron annihilation (which produces two gamma photons)?
Is there any way to test it, to see if it's working correctly?
12:58 2103keV peak come from pair production?
1588keV peak is from pair production?
I'm confused.
Tritium bremsstrahlung is pretty cool.