Pomelo Instrumentation
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi
Pomelo is an accessible, embeddable spectroscopic radiation detector platform. Our aim is to make gamma spectroscopy more accessible, as Arduino did for embedded systems engineering.
Out of the box, Pomelo measures counts per minute (CPM), microsieverts per hour (uSv/h), and gamma spectra, where you can identify peaks from different radioisotopes. Pomelo is modular, making it easy to experiment with every aspect of radiation detection, with functionality split between three components: Pomelo Physics houses the detector, Pomelo Core has all supporting electronics for taking measurements and making them available, and Pomelo Zest is an Arduino-compatible board that adds a user interface, battery, and wireless connectivity. Together, these components form a complete hand-held instrument that we call Pomelo One.
Take Pomelo on a hike to identify radioactive minerals while listening to it, clicking away. If you find any, use Pomelo to identify the isotopes that make them radioactive based on the energy peaks in the gamma spectrum.
In your lab, you could integrate Pomelo into your Pip-Boy or Tricorder to add radiation detection capabilities. Pop in an 18650 cell and take it on an away team mission. Or build a network of sensors to track radiation levels inside your vault and outside in the wasteland.
Pair up two units in coincidence mode and stack them on top of each other to detect cosmic muons—they go through pretty much everything and will register hits in both detectors. The same setup can also show exactly what happens in Compton scattering, where a high-energy photon bounces off an electron in one detector and is eventually stopped in the other. You can move the detectors to select different scattering angles and see the differences in the spectra.
Finally, you could use Pomelo to participate in citizen science initiatives like SafeCast and help track and map ambient radiation levels around the globe.
All of the schematics and firmware of the Pomelo project are open. We’d love to hear about your experience making your own Pomelo Physics with different scintillators or SiPMs to improve its radiation detection capabilities. Or modify the Pomelo Core firmware to synchronize data taking with your external hardware and sensors.
But if you’d like to have a bigger LCD, LoRa or cellular connectivity, or tons of RGB on the Pomelo Zest, you are free to modify it. We provide the complete EasyEDA project for Pomelo Zest, so you can use it as a starting point for making Pomelo your own.
All files are available on the Pomelo GitHub where you can stay current as we put the finishing touches on the project.
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"Modular radiation detection system aims to make gamma spectroscopy as accessible as Arduino."
"Pomelo is... [a] spectroscopic radiation detector designed to make gamma spectroscopy more accessible and embeddable in various projects."
Mixing passion for radiation detection and education with solid expertise in embedded engineering, we design and build open tools for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation.