Upgrade Older Kits
The kit has been evolving over the years. New hardware features have been added, and in some cases, the software was enhanced to support them. All these new features have been "optional", in that they are not required for the basic functionality of the kit. However, we all want the latest and greatest, so this page shows you how to to upgrade prior versions of the kit in order to have the features on kits currently shipping. Up till now, these upgrades have been scattered all over this site. Now they are all here, and are listed in order with the newest upgrades at the top.
In general, these upgrades are pretty easy to do. However, some will require new parts. I've listed sources when possible, but if you get stuck finding them, let me know and I can probably help. Also note, I have done my best to keep these mods in sync with changes in software and hardware, but I can not guarantee all mods will work in all circumstances.
Setup Menu and Tone Mode:
(introduced in kit v.5.1 and v10 software)
These upgrades will be described together.
Components required:
For the Setup Menu an IR receiver is required. One was included in most v5.1 kits, but for prior versions, one like this will will work. In all cases the TV remote is not supplied. A "universal" remote like the RM-EZ4 is suggested and widely available.
For Tone Mode, only some switches are required, however your kit must have a speaker rather than a piezo (see below).
Connection Diagrams:
There are several ways to do this depending on if you are going to case the kit or not. The following diagrams should give you the idea.
The diagram below shows the connection of the components associated with menu, tone, and alarm features.
Note that the diagram above assumes that the IR sensor is mounted in a case, and also presents a crude way of switching between click and tone mode. When it comes time to put it in a case you can use a on-off-on SP3P (or DP3T) switch to select click-off-tone. The diagram below shows that connection.
If you like, you can mount the IR sensor, and a 3 way jumper for the piezo, in the 'user breadboard' area. The pictures below illustrate this type of mount. (click on them for a larger image)
Notice that the IR sensor is mounted in a 4 pin female header and positioned directly in front of the power header. The pins of the 4 pin header are bent over and soldered to the pads of the power header. The resistor and cap shown are not really necessary. If the resistor is not used, the 4th pin of the header can connect to the 3rd pin which provides a socket for a jumper going to I/O pin D17. (See image on right) That image also shows a 3 way jumper wired into the PIEZO_JMP which is used to switch the speaker between click and tine modes (yellow blue and violet). Of course you can use a SPDT (center position OFF) switch in place of the 3 way jumper. (The right-hand picture also shows the orange wire for the Speaker Mute - see below).
NEC remote for v11 software :
You can get the prefered NEC TV remote here.
Speaker Mute:
introduced in kit v.5.1 and v10 software
This mod allows the software to turn the speaker on and off by pressing the MUTE button on the TV Remote. This works on either the Geiger Kit alone or the Geiger Kit with the Logging Shield. Note that this mod has a drawback. If you want to power off the microprocessor with the UC-PWR jumper, the sound from the speaker is diminished. As this is seldom used, it is not seen as a problem.
Components required: - none
Connection Diagram:
Simply run a wire from pin 3 of IC2 to I/O pin A2.
Upgrading the Piezo to a Speaker:
introduced in kit v.5.0 - hardware change only
This provides a more classic Geiger 'click' sound. Very few PCB changes were necessary in order to support the speaker.
Components required:
A speaker with more than 40 ohms impedance.This speaker can be mounted on the PCB in place of the piezo and fits nicely. 27k and 100k 1/8W resistors are also needed.
Connection Diagram:
Note that for best results the values of R14 and R11 should be changed as noted in the diagram above.
Increasing the Max HV: introduced in kit v.4.0.2 - hardware change only
Prior to PCB v4.0.2, Q2 was a MPSA44 and in even older kits D2 was a MUR160. The max HV was about 600V. While this is plenty for most GM tubes, changing Q2 to a STX13005 provided a max HV of around 950V. This allows you to drive some higher voltage GM tubes, such as the LND 7616 or Victoreen / Anton 6107 as well as experiment with scintillation probes. Note that the STX13005 requires a change to it's base resistor (R2) from 3.9k to 1k.
Components required:
An STX13005 transistor - from DigiKey (about the only source). A 1k 1/8W resistor.
Connection Diagrams:
The modification to an existing Geiger kit is pretty straightforward - simply replace Q2, R2, and D2 (only if your kit had the MUR160) with the parts listed above. The only hitch is that the pinouts are different between the two transistors. The MPSA44 is EBC (emitter, base, collector) and the STX13005 is ECB (emitter, collector, base). This is solved by crossing the base leg of the STX13005 behind the collector and insulating the collector leg with a piece of the supplied heat shrink. This is shown at left. The pic was taken from "behind" Q2. Note the yellow heat shrink.
[Aug 2013] The STX13005 HV transistor is hard to find. I've experimented with a substitute - the STN0214.
It's a SOT-223 SMT package, so it takes some creative soldering. However it has better specs and will increase the max HV to > 1200V. I found that reducing the bias resistor (R2) to 330Ω helps achieve this maximum. This image at left shows how it is mounted.
Alarm and Second Screen:
works with all hardware versions - introduced in v8 software
These features work with any PCB version. To connect the alarm, see the connection diagram above.
Wiring Diagram for old v3 Kits:
