Anyone here know Russian? (Translation needed)

Awhile back I acquired a couple of pocket size geiger counters at a mineral show. Both units are labelled in what appears to be Russian, so I have no idea what any of the switches do!

If I posted a couple of photos of them, would anyone be able to tell me what the labels mean?
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

I could give it a try. Its been a long time though. PM me for my email if you want to email me.

Same here - been about 15 years since I last used my Russian - but I still can decipher some cyrillic.

Thank you, X33 and Geologist. As soon as I can locate a camera that'll do a decent macro focus I'll post some photos of the labels so you can take a stab at it.

Thanks again
pw

i'm russian, post away.

thats why i got my canon s410 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

One of the units is called a "Biri." Here's a photo of it from another rockhound. There are reproductions of the manual here .

The other unit appears to be a DKS-04 or a variant of it. Mine has the same buttons and display but a different case color and legend. I'll have my own pics up soon...

the manual explains how to operate in one of the sections, but i would need good shots of the labels to let you know which is which as there is no diagram and simply translating it for you wont give you any indication of what each switch actually is.

the thing basically says that in normal operation mode, after installing the batteries behind the front cover, turn it on by sliding the power switch. on initialization there should be a breif sound and the light will flash once. during normal operation, there will be periodic clicks. if a strong enough radiation source is detected there is an audible and visual signal that increases in frequency with the strength of the detected radiation.

the beta-gamma radiation in mkP/hr is roughly equivalent to the number of signals given off by the device in a period of 5 minutes.

the absence of an audible or visible signal immediatly after power is turned on is evidence of dead cells or oxidized contacts. clean contacts and replace with fresh cells.

thats all it says. nothing about more switches.

i guess my question is....5 minutes? would you really want to count for that long, especially if the radiation is sufficient? hmmm.

Leon

Finally took some photos of these geiger counters.

Both units -


The small pocket-sized BIRI unit -


Back of the small unit -

The battery compartment of the small unit -


The large unit -


Closeup of the label on the large unit -


The side, showing the power and mode switches -

The back of the large unit. The red arrow on the label points out what appears to be a reset button that's on top of the unit, next to a red LED -


I've figured out that the lower slide switch on the larger unit is the power switch, but I'm not sure what the upper switch does. I think it's either a sensitivity switch or a real-time/cumulative switch?

Actually, I just wondered today what became of this. Maybe this is more for our native speakers /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif . Oterwise I have to dig out the dictionary...
Well, the big one seems to be a dosimeter made by a company called Elektron. Not sure what the switches do. The small one seems to measure something per Minute and /or per Hour. Your best best will be Leeoniya I guess. As without dictionary I can't translate those words. Good luck.
edit: Its 4am here and I didnt even see that Leo has already been at it above. Sorry. Time for bed I guess.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

the button on the back that you think is a reset button is a button that manually refreshes the display. otherwise the display auto-refreshes every 40 secs.

it specifically says under the section labeled as the button itself to "take the reading only after 3 of the 4 dots on the LCD have disappeared" whether that means that the reading is not accurate till then or whether it is bad for the device to press the button before the disappearence of 3 of the 4 dots, i'm not sure. but thats exactly what it reads. i doubt it is bad for the device tho.

actually what i think it will do is "home in" so after you press that button it will refresh and start with 4 dots and they will slowly disappear as it gets a more accurate reading since it needs time to accumulate accuracy.

the label on the front...top one says "search" or "search mode" or "locating mode" or "sense mode" bottom one just says "power supply" or "power"

not quite sure why you would want the power on, but the device "sense mode" disabled. doesnt make too much sense. unless that smaller one relies only on power to the bigger one. i dont get it.

the label on tha bottom of the small unit near the battery compartment is just to help you associate the number of signals you see with the radiation level detected.

the sign that looks like a division symbol means the same thing as a dash...it just indicates a range. not sure why they put that there. as i am sure anyone capable of using the device can easily multiply any number by 5.

>300 says it's continuous (or noninturrupted), and <12 says it's background radiation/noise.

hope that helps. the important thing is that there is no indication that any button will cause the unit to self destruct or cause it to kill the user or cause the user to go into uncontrollable convulsions. so i'm pretty sure you can test it and see what happens.

Leon.

Excellent. Thank you very much, Leon; this explains it's behavior. I was particularly confused about the disappearing dots on the display. At first I thought it was a defective display or an otherwise damaged device.

After playing with it some more, it looks like the "sense" button is an audible/silent button. With the switch in the up position it beeps when it detects, and in the down position it's silent (sort of - it occasionally goes into oscillation by itself without detecting anything). Otherwise it seems to behave as you've described it.

Thanks again! This will enable me to make up some new labels for it. Just as soon as the uncontrollable convulsions stop. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif