Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] GnuRadio in particle accelerators

[Michael Okun]

Hi Mark and Aylons,

I've also wondered whether a cheap RTL-SDR could be used with GnuRadio
as a multichannel analyzer for a homemade Gamma Spectrometer, either
using a Geiger tube or a scintillator.  I think the tuner would need
to be bypassed so that the sampler can get direct samples.  There's
info on a direct sampling mod here:
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-direct-sampling-mode/

I've also been curious about using GnuRadio for analysis of other high
bandwidth signals, for example from magnetic field detectors such as a
GMR sensor.

Definitely let us all know if you try this out or come up with other
interesting non-radio instrumentation applications.   There are so
many interesting possibilities!

Cheers,
Michael


> Hi Aylons,
> I have no answer here. But talking about Gnuradio and nuclear physics I
> want to add my idea to your question:
> Would it be possible to use Gnuradio in a (home made) Gamma Spectrometer
> ? These spectrometers usually work with a multichannel analyzer that
> measures the pulse height coming from the detector and then sorting the
> heights into bins. This is similar to the histogram GUI element found in
> GRC, but the counting is accumulative until a timer or manual
> interaction stops it. The big difference between SDR use and nuclear
> instrumentation is that while SDR mainly works with a constant stream of
> data the latter mainly deals with transient pulses.
>
> Mark
 On 23/10/13 17:14, Aylons Hazzud wrote:
> > Hi, people. Anyone here has experience using Gnuradio or USRP as an
> > instrumentation tool (I mean, not for actual radio transmissions)?
> >
> > After years studying, hobbying and working with SDR, I've just learned
> > that they are very similar to particle acceleator instrumentation, in
> > a very pleasant way: I was just hired to work on one, precisely
> > because of the skills acquired with my SDR projects.
> >
> > Moreover, this particular project (Sirius, in Brasil), has adopted an
> > open hardware and free software attitude, which makes the use of
> > Gnuradio particularly interesting.
> >
> > Has anyone worked with this kind of instruments using Gnuradio? Is
> > USRP a good tool for this kind of job, or you can think about any
> > limitation?
> >
> > ________________________