Photoes of QuarkNet Detector

This picture shows the laptop which runs Labview to control the QuarkNet board.

The Labview program was developed by Mathes Kanishka Dayananda. He also worked on a Labview program to control the ESP detector through serial ports.

This picture shows the QuarkNet DAQ board. We mounted the board inside a small note card box which was bought from Office Depot. Out shop staff, Pete Walker, cut the box on the sides so that cables can be run through.

Here is a view of the downtown area in Atlanta. The picture was taken on the roof top of the Natual Science Center at Georgia State University. The dome in distance is the state capital of Georgia.

Here is a picture taken on the 5th floor in our Natual Science Center. The detector on right has been running for more than a month, which is a senior research project.

Kanishka was working on setting up his Labview program for taking cosmic ray rate measurement.

QuarkNet detector works with Labview

After a quick exercise, Kanishka Dayananda (my Ph.D. student) was able to operate the QuarkNet detector with Labview running on a laptop.

We took the detector to the roof of the Natural Science Center this afternoon and ran the DAQ for 10 minutes. We then took the detector down to the 5th floor and made a quick counting rate measurement at a location next to the two-paddle detector which has been taking data for over one month.

Eberline Smart Portable radiation detector, hexc

We recently borrowed a Eberline Smart Portable (ESP) detector from Peter Farina, who is the senior radiation safety officer.  Thank you Peter.  This unit has a serial interface and can have multiple switchable detector modules.  

One exciting thing about this unit is that it has a neutron ball module.  We could certainly use this unit to get an initial study of cosmic ray neutron flux distribution. 

I will try to get an undergraduate to test this system out.  It should not be that hard to get it working with LabView. 

First entry, hexc

This blog is to document cosmic ray related activities at Georgia State University.