AWARE Electronics RM-60 MICRO-ROENTGEN RADIATION MONITOR COMPUTER INTERFACE USER MANUAL Aware Electronics Corp. P.O Box 4299 Wilmington DE 19807 U.S.A. (302) 655-3800 Visit our Web Site at HTTP://WWW.AW-EL.
LICENSE STATEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 QUICK INSTRUCTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 CONNECTING THE RM-60 TO A PC COMPUTER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
RM-60 MICRO-ROENTGEN RADIATION MONITOR COMPUTER INTERFACE MANUAL only files needed to run the program. Make a backup copy of the floppy. Plug the RM-60 into a COM port or LPT printer port by following the instructions below under "JACK ADAPTER". DO NOT ALLOW ANY OBJECTS TO PROJECT THROUGH THE RM-60’S ALPHA WINDOW (TOP GRID). Never touch the RM-60 to an active radioactive substance; you may contaminate it.
LPT port: Ground (pin 18 to 25) disk by selecting the "Disk Write All Settings" option under the Setup Menu or Misc. menu. This allows the program to remember your settings so that next time you use the program, it will initialize all the variables the way you want them.
Another method of identifying the port includes trial and error as follows: Select a port, then go to the "Capture" option, sub-option "Display Current Input", and wait about 30 seconds or so. If you have selected the correct port, you should hear the computer’s speaker click or beep each time the RM60 detects ionizing radiation. This should occur randomly about 12 times a minute. If you do not hear the beep, try another port selection. radiation data gathered in southeastern Pennsylvania using an RM-60.
when the program is drawing real time data to the screen from the Capture menu). If you are displaying wildly varying radiation levels, so that the screen auto scrolls up and down with every few points, you can use Setup to reduce the vertical resolution so that every row equates to a change of as many microroentgens/hr. as you want, or you can average more minutes of data per point by increasing the time resolution, or if you have an EGA or VGA you can set the program to operate in 43 or 50 line mode.
cludes a selection that will print data from a raw radiation data file to an ascii file. The ascii file created will consist of a column of numbers representing the average radiation level per data point. The ascii file will be much the same as a file created by printing to a file with zero left printer margin and zero print columns. The Time Base Units of data averaged per point is determined by the value entered from the "Strip/Bar Chart Settings" or the "Printer Settings" under Awsrad’s Setup menu.
data averaged for the alarm as well as for the pop-up window’s "Current MicroR Average" display. 7. The TSR code will terminate but stay resident, and MSDOS will display the command line prompt. While the TSR code is running, you can save the TSR buffer to disk and then view the data gathered up to that point with the program Aw-srad. 8.
so that up to eight RM-60s can be plugged into one PC for the simultaneous monitoring of eight locations. rupt to tell any loaded programs that Windows is starting. At this point, if a program does not want Windows to install, it can answer the interrupt telling Windows not to install. This is what Aware’s TSR code does. Windows will not install but will return to the dos prompt. The TSR program will make an error sound.
ments. Due to their large mass and positive charge, alpha particles usually are stopped by a sheet of paper or by about an inch of air. In the process of being stopped, they produce considerable ionization, over a relatively short distance. Therefore, alpha emitters are especially dangerous when ingested or inhaled. 1 roentgen approx. equals 1 rad approx. equals 1 rem.) CURIE: The curie is a unit of radioactivity of a material. Radioactivity is measured in terms of nuclear disintegrations per unit time.
occurs in X-ray tubes and in high voltage tubes in some TV power supplies. They are just like low energy gamma rays, except that gamma rays originate from the nucleus of radioactive atoms, whereas X-rays originate from interactions involving orbital electrons. provides for watching real time radon levels. Experience has indicated one can expect an increase over and above normal background reading of perhaps 3 micro roentgen per hour per pico curie radon per liter air.
Since radon has a halflife of 3.8 days, most radon that forms underground decomposes back into a solid, before it has a chance to seep up out of the ground. about the appropriateness of relocating until the levels are reduced. 20 to 200 Pc/l: Take action to reduce levels to below 4 Pc/l. within several months. Radon can seep into your house through cracks and openings in your basement or foundation, and can collect to dangerous levels. The danger is due to the decomposition products released by radon.
2. Keep the fan running and periodically measure the radiation level with your computer. At the same time, run a charcoal canister test. The increase in radiation from the filter system, above normal background, should correlate with the level of radon per liter reported by the charcoal canister test. A doubling of your reading from the filter would indicate a doubling of the quantity of radon present.
20,000 to 40,000 volts. This voltage has the potential of generating X-Rays and Beta rays with electron volts as high as the power supply voltage. The RM-60 is equipped with a mica window (density 1.5 mg/sq. cm.). It can detect X-rays with energies below 10,000 electron volts. DECAY CURVES For complete and easy evaluation of Radon-Thoron decay curves, purchase MAKDECAY (see price list). It includes many additional features and info.
in microroentgen per hour, standardized to gamma rays from cesium 137 +- 5%. Cesium 137 has an average gamma ray energy level of 661 KEV (661,000 electron volts). Step 2: Next display the file’s summary from the Display menu. Observe summary’s "Average MicroR/hr" value. Step 3: If the average doesn’t precisely match the calibrated source flux level, select "Change settings" from the Display menu, then select "Factor RAD calibration", and adjust the factor accordingly.
water from entering the case, and you also must prevent water from condensing inside the RM-60. You could place it in a sealed container along with a silica dehumidifying packet. You can first dry the silica by placing it in an oven. special, incidental, consequential, or other similar claims. Aware Electronics Corp. specifically disclaims all other warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
The ionized molecules produced by the alpha bombardment, neutralize the static electricity. Polonium’s halflife is 140 days, (half of its atoms decompose in 140 days). It is a daughter product of radium D (halflife, 22 years) both of which belong to the uranium 238 radioactive series. to a quantity of radiation equal to about 10 to 20 chest X-rays a year.
and various changes in tissue structure. RADIOACTIVITY IN FOODS, BEVERAGES AND OTHER ITEMS: NOTE: Additional information is contained in the "readme" file. Read it with your text editor or with DOS by typing "TYPE README.TXT | MORE" or by typing it on your printer ("COPY README.TXT PRN"). Be sure to read it. Levels of contamination generating an increase of perhaps 20 or so µR per hour will be immediately evident by way of higher readings next to food.
tests and calibrations of the Quality Assurance Procedures including DCAS MIL-Q985A, MIL-E-I and appendix B of 10CFR50. Calibration is accomplished in accordance with MIL-STD-45662. Sources for calibration and/or dose rates have calibration traceable to National Bureau of Standards. Tube calibrated to Cesium 137 +/- 5%. ABS case material has flame retardant and threaded brass inserts. Size: 4.4" x 2.44" x 1.
ADDENDUM Below is a wiring diagram showing a remote RM-60 connected to computer’s serial port by way of 5000 feet of cable using only two leads. Since we have plenty of power from external power supply, we added a 1.2K ohm pull-up resistor. The pullup resistor in RM-60 is 4.7K ohm, limited by the small amount of power available from computer’s serial port. The additional pull-up resistor will add to the extreme noise resistance.
