Posts by miki_e

1) Message boards : News : About our HUGE delay... (Message 2050)
Posted 3822 days ago by miki_e
Well, there is not much info here how are you proceeding with the current batch, what and how is being made and mainly how many detectors are being prepared, so please find here some reflections how to speed up the manufacturing and delivery of the sufficient number detectors for all the people willing to participate in the project....

1) Things that can be be cheaply ordered should not be made manually - R@H team should concentrate on more important and more profitable activities...:

1A) PCB: you would be quite surprised, how cheep can be some PCB shops even here in Europe:
for instance series of 200 pcbs of size 100x20mm (I estimate the size of the PCB in the detector...) double sided, through hole plated with gold surface and solder mask would cost as little as Euro 1,90 per PCB (all costs included, postage excluded...)

If you go for 50 pieces series, price is about Euro 4,- per PCB (all costs included, postage excluded...)

1B) Assembly: price of SMD soldering is not so prohibitive either. If we take a series of 50 PCBs and the number of SMD components is let's say 25 per board, and you SUPPLY the SMD components, price of the soldering will be about Euro 8,- per PCB.... and you can order PCB and assembly together, postage is invoiced only 1x....

... and of course, for bigger series the price goes rapidly down....

2) On the other hand there are things that are (very) expensive to order like: through hole components soldering, cables, mounting in the boxes etc....: this should be done by the R@H team or parts delivered as a kit to the end user for assembly (of course price of the finished product and kit will be different...)

3) LCD display should be optional...

4) Microcontroller should be programmed only with a boot loader and user should be able to update firmware... (is it already a case today ?)

5) Box: (...just a brainstorming...)
- have you considered to use some already made cheap box (for instance Raspberry Pi box, electrical-installation waterproof box or other suitable boxes...) ?
- have you considered 3D printing of the boxes?

Best regards,

miki_e
2) Message boards : Cafe : Anybody interested in a detector kit? (Message 2043)
Posted 3831 days ago by miki_e
Well, it is good suggestion, however, I think that the proposal should be slightly modified:

1) Things that can be be cheaply ordered should not be made manually - R@H team should concentrate on more important and more profitable activities...:

1A) PCB: you would be quite surprised, how cheep can be some PCB shops even here in Europe:
for instance series of 200 pcbs of size 100x20mm (I estimate the size of the PCB in the detector...) double sided, through hole plated with gold surface and solder mask would cost as little as Euro 1,90 per PCB (all costs included, postage excluded...)

If you go for 50 pieces series, price is about Euro 4,- per PCB (all costs included, postage excluded...)

1B) Assembly: price of SMD soldering is not so prohibitive either. If we take a series of 50 PCBs and the number of SMD components is let's say 25 per board, and you SUPPLY the SMD components, price of the soldering will be about Euro 8,- per PCB.... and you can order PCB and assembly together, postage is invoiced only 1x....

... and of course, for bigger series the price goes rapidly down....

2) On the other hand there are things that are (very) expensive to order like: through hole components soldering, cables, mounting in the boxes etc....: this should be done by the R@H team or parts delivered as a kit to the end user for assembly (of course price of the finished product and kit will be different...)

3) LCD display should be optional...

4) Microcontroller should be programmed only with a boot loader and user should be able to update firmware... (is it already a case today ?)

5) Box: (...just a brainstorming...)
- have you considered to use some already made cheap box (for instance Raspberry Pi box or other suitable box...)
- have you considered 3D printing of the boxes?

Best regards,

miki_e
3) Message boards : Number crunching : using a GMC-300 for a project detector? (Message 1902)
Posted 3906 days ago by miki_e
TJM, here are communication logs between GQ's SW (real time monitoring) and GMC-300 as well as log between Boinc and GMC-300. Data is logged in hexa.

If you need some more data, just let me know.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl54ttjlyngx6ss/boinc-capture.LOG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1pevdaa1maqu3y5/gmc-sw-capture.LOG

miki_e
4) Message boards : Number crunching : using a GMC-300 for a project detector? (Message 1897)
Posted 3909 days ago by miki_e
Just a precision concerning the GMC-300 power:

- there is no separate P/S plug
- USB connection is used in quite usual way to:

--- communication AND
--- power supply the unit permanently when connected AND
--- recharge the integrated LiPo battery

It is using a standard USB port, thus the power taken should not exceed 500mA...

I have not tried, but normally RPi should not have any problem to P/S this unit (even directly from the native RPi port... ) ...
5) Message boards : Number crunching : using a GMC-300 for a project detector? (Message 1896)
Posted 3909 days ago by miki_e
There still seems to be some problem to establish communication with GMC-300 after system restart.

1) connection was lost (for unknown reason...PC problem and reboot ???)

<GETCPM>> returned 0 20
CPM value: 20
4098000,1153,2013-7-13 22:55:19,0,n,0
<GETCPM>> returned 0 8
CPM value: 8
4339000,1185,2013-7-13 22:59:20,0,n,0
Debug: trickle sent
Trickle sent
<GETCPM>> returned 0 15
CPM value: 15
4580000,1245,2013-7-13 23:3:21,0,n,0
Debug: Using port number: 5
Radioactive@Home app rev $Rev: 585 $ for GMC-300 starting...
Found previously created output file, workunit almost completed - exiting
23:10:03 (596): called boinc_finish

</stderr_txt>
]]>

..... after this the comm with GMC-300 was not working:

<core_client_version>7.0.28</core_client_version>
<![CDATA[
<stderr_txt>
Debug: Using port number: 5
Radioactive@Home app rev $Rev: 585 $ for GMC-300 starting...
COM5 opened for read/write
Debug: Port timeouts:
ReadTotalTimeoutConstant: 1000
ReadIntervalTimeout: 0
ReadTotalTimeoutMultiplier: 100
WriteTotalTimeoutMultiplier: 100
WriteTotalTimeoutConstant: 1000
gmc_GetVersion(): read failed
Unable to open port COM523:40:24 (180): called boinc_finish

</stderr_txt>
]]>

Please see log of computer 8070.

2) I installed the latest version of the GMC300.exe (as posted), restarted the system hoping that everything would be OK.

3) After some time (needed to check the workunit result on the server) I noticed that communication was not working. I checked the communication with GQ's communication SW and everything was OK.

4) Quit the GQ's SW, restart boinc and everything is OK. Looks like that R@H have still some problem to initialize the communication, while GQ's SW is successful.

This evening I will try to spy and log all communication between the GMC-300 and GQ's SW. It will perhaps help us to understand how to initialize communication in the bullet-proof way....
6) Message boards : News : New detectors release soon! (Message 1873)
Posted 3914 days ago by miki_e
You can buy anytime (and directly in US) a standalone detector GMC-300 directly from the company manufacturing it:

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4542

It is more expensive, but you have at the same time a portable, battery operated standalone detector for general use...

It is now supported in radioactiveathome project (still in beta, but already working...).

See the corresponding thread in news: http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=195

P.S. It is of no use to be upset of not having received personalized ordering info: All the information you request has been already posted here (and several times...), please read the messages.....
7) Message boards : News : Delayed detectors will be sent in a few days! [29.05.2013] (Message 1872)
Posted 3914 days ago by miki_e
You can buy anytime (and directly in US) a standalone detector GMC-300 directly from the company manufacturing it:

http://www.gqelectronicsllc.com/comersus/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=4542

It is more expensive, but you have at the same time a portable, battery operated standalone detector for general use...

It is now supported in radioactiveathome project (still in beta, but already working...).

See the corresponding thread in news: http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=195

P.S. It is of no use to be upset of not having received personalized ordering info: All the information you request has been already posted here (and several times...), please read the messages.....
8) Message boards : Number crunching : using a GMC-300 for a project detector? (Message 1867)
Posted 3915 days ago by miki_e
Hi TJM,

I have moved the GMC sensor to the new location and I had some problems to establish communication between the sensor and your application. Successful communication does not show in boinc log and I had to wait until the task was finished to see the result and the debug report.......>>>....and it was not working...

This morning I aborted the task (which generated a nice crash report in the debug log). I verified that the GMC was turned on, communicating correctly with GQ's SW and requested new work in boinc... It is possible that the sensor has been left in the heartbeat mode when I ended the GQ's SW... (????!!!!)

Now I am checking the report and everything seems to work.

Please see http://radioactiveathome.org/boinc/results.php?hostid=8070

Suggestions:
- maybe you should verify that com is OK (reasonable reply from GMC) and reset com and retry (5x) if not...
- successful com with GMC should be logged in boinc log as well as event of communication lost... (if possible)
- the result should not be marked validated if there was NO sensor connected...

miki_e

P.S

-- if you need I can reconnect the sensor to the test system again for your trials....
-- I can also put you online raspbery PI with GMC sensor (still the same one) if you are interested....
9) Message boards : Number crunching : using a GMC-300 for a project detector? (Message 1840)
Posted 3920 days ago by miki_e
Hi TJM,

I am about to stop the GMC-300 system and move the detector to the new location... Is it OK for you or do you need to make some more tests? Eventually I could leave the system running until Monday....
10) Message boards : Number crunching : using a GMC-300 for a project detector? (Message 1804)
Posted 3927 days ago by miki_e
Hmm, you are right. We may need some more tests, specially with other OS... I can set up a test system with Win7 and eventually with w2k if needed. I do not have (and do not like) Vista and so far I have no experience with Win8...


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