There are many different geiger counter boards. The most common blue board is pretty cheap to get but it has a ton of components on it. It is not very compact and without having measured it, I think the current draw makes it not efficient at all to use with batteries.
My goal was to make a more compact one with way less coponents that can be simply put on a 5V USB socket and work.
My board is meant to work with any available 400V/500V geiger-mueller tube. Besides of the USB it can also be powered with a Battery pack of 3V. A header for battery voltage can be found at the side and a MT3608 boost converter can be soldered to the bottom side.
Data/Specs:
– Working Voltage Board: 5V
– Current draw: up to 20mA
– Tube Voltage: 400V/500V (depends on number of Z-Diodes)
– silent mode: no
– Other Features: Digital output for Arduino/Raspberry Pi or LED
– powered by USB 5V or batteries with boost converter
It turns out that the configuration is even more versatile than I initially thought. As i ran out of Inductors for the second build, I just took another value and edited the firmware accordingly.