☢️ Yarrow is out of beta: it reads more Geiger counters, and we need your help to spread the word ☢️
Yarrow, our radiation-monitor project, has left its test phase: it is now open to every volunteer, no special setting needed. It started with one pocket counter. Since then we have added support for the counters people already have at home, so you do not need to buy anything new to take part. Here is what works today.
🧰 Supported detectors
- FNIRSI GC-03 with the Yarrow firmware. The cheap pocket counter with a J321 tube. The open Yarrow firmware gives it an adaptive dose rate, a calibration wizard, alarms, a log and 16 languages. Plug it in over USB and the monitor finds it.
- Radioactive@Home counters. The USB counters of the old Radioactive@Home project (the V-USB boards, revisions 2.01 to 2.60 and the kit, and the 3.01 board with the Microchip chip). If you still have one in a drawer, it is welcome again. Nothing to flash: plug it in and the monitor reads it directly.
- GQ Electronics GMC counters (the GMC-300, 320, 500 and 600 family). The monitor talks to them over their USB serial port and takes the calibration from the device. If you own one, please tell us how it goes.
Not on the list? Tell us what you have. The monitor has a driver layer, so a new counter is one small driver away.
🖥️ New: Yarrow Hub, the desktop app
Yarrow Hub works without BOINC. It shows the live dose rate, keeps your history, draws statistics and graphs, shows the dose in nSv/h, µSv/h or µrem/h, rings an alarm at levels you choose, and exports CSV. It runs with a GC-03 and now also with a Radioactive@Home counter. Download: the Releases page at https://github.com/alplix/yarrow/releases
📊 New: the data, city by city
Besides the map there is now a table of every city: the median dose rate of the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days and of all time, with the detector types used, and a history page for each city (hourly or daily, with a CSV download). In your project preferences you can name the detector you use, and it is shown next to your city.
🚀 How to join in three steps
- Join bitboinc and attach your computer in the BOINC Manager.
- In the project preferences select the Yarrow monitor, and enter your country, your city and (if you like) your detector.
- Plug in the counter and leave the computer on. The monitor finds it by itself and sends a measurement every ten minutes or more.
Only the city is shared, never a more exact place. Credit is given per checked measurement.
📣 Please spread the word
The map is only as good as the number of cities on it, and one counter per city is where it starts. If you have a team, a forum, a Discord, a Telegram group or a mailing list, please post a few lines there. A text you can copy:
Yarrow is a BOINC project that builds a live map of natural background radiation from volunteers' Geiger counters. It works with the FNIRSI GC-03, with old Radioactive@Home USB counters and with GQ GMC counters, and there is also a free desktop app. Join: https://bitboinc.athena.org.tr Map: https://bitboinc.athena.org.tr/yarrow.php
Know someone with a Geiger counter, a physics teacher, a radio amateur, a school lab? Send them the link. Every new city is one more point on the map. Thank you!
