Castle Rock Colorado, Calarada if your from Texas. Carbon monoxide, thats a good one. I am quark, strange quark... very, very strange. off track a bit.... anyone help with a source of small, cheap - new or used - geiger counter tubes - or complete geiger counters. I need 12-16 units. Electronics Goldmine is looking like the best source so far. These are for an active LED display array that will respond to radiation. Photomultiplier tubes would be best but they are big and expensive.
I just found an alternative. Neon glow lamps biased just below conduction threshold will ignite when a radioactive particle ionizes the gas in the lamp. This is for next months project, making PC side panels that flash when ionizing radiation passes through.
All i can say is go forth and push the barriers and learning of computer sience and modding!!! GL m8, i will DEFO be interested in the results as im sure many will.
Parts are still coming in, but the research has been enlightening. Dual balanced ion jets of opposite polarity will elliminate HV and ESD issues. A manganese dioxide screen will (should) catalyze ozone and elliminate related corrosive issues. Looks like a go. High CFM air movement has been reported in several ion wind experiments unrelated to this project. Sharpness of ion emitter as well as copper tube length and diameter also effect the speed of the ion flow. Much to learn about this still, as it has not been done to the best of my knowledge. I just won an A/C balanced ionizer used for ESD control off of Ebay for $10. Will make an interesting addition to my materials for this experiment. Balanced means the positive and negative ion outputs are equal +/- 100mV. DC balaced ionizers use a feedback loop to control positive and negative ion outputs. More complicated than an A/C balance unit. Pictures and a web page will document my progress, coming soon.
as I recall, a mass spec machine has the sample under vacuum. Under these conditions, a heated fialment acts exactly like one in a vacuum tube, they 'boil' off the surface. At atmospheric pressure, they cannot be emitted. I imagine charges would be a problem, but a charged grid at the other end of the case might help the problem. With randomness of molecules in atmosphere and the charges on the computer parts, I wouldn't be willing to bet on it though. The dual ionizer approch looks interesting too. as I write this, I see a reply was added, but I'll ask this anyway, I think I remember somthing about UV helping to break down ozone, but I don't remember to what. I also don't know what flavor of UV is needed and if somthing like a UV CCFL will output it. But it would make a good excuse for UV reactive stuf and some CCFLs
my friend made something a bit like this, but he used a 30kV psu from an old 19" crt screen. And in his, the whole thing moved, instead of moving air past it, basically the same principal though. I don't think it would create any "charged gas" or anything like that, especially not at only 7.5kV like that one. Even if it did, i'm sure you could pass the air though a grill connected to ground or something.
If you don't mind a bit of experimentatiion, a 0dB ion fan idea has much promise. I have built four different models and all seem to be very capable rotary fan substitutes in the 80mm range. http://hometown.aol.com/dawze3/myhomepage/ionwind.html None I have built are true 0dB. I can hear the rush of the wind and just a bit of transformer hum, only when you put your ear up close.. ZAP!!!!. Not that close. At best, I estimate 20CFM from a quad balanced jet, but it is very near silent. This week I continue to experiment with ozone removal and improved balanced exit charge ion jets. I like round copper tubing with 2 cm ID, 5 cm length. I soak ~2cm of the tubing in a solution of manganese dioxide (catalyst of ozone) and get good adhession to the copper. Large sewing needles are the best emitters. AOL is really bad! Upload/download to my web pages is horrid. http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cg...=action&key=IG7 Sorry, edits don't get me an avatar. Peace!
ooooo looks like your getting on well i was thinking about this the other day wondering how it was going. I'm happy to help if i can in any way Keep up the good work!
