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Using a GM-10 / GM-45 Radiation Detector With Linux

The GM-10 and GM-45 can work with linux. At the present time Black Cat Systems does not provide a linux version of the Rad program, but a third party program, Gm4Lin is available.

While we don't "officially" support linux, we will try to help any users with questions they may have.

There is also an updated forked version here: http://code.google.com/p/gm4lin-ng

You can also write your own software. Visit the Interfacing Details page for information on this.

Using GM-10 and GM-45 USB Detectors With Linux

Using the USB detectors requires the appropriate USB drivers. These are built into linux kernels starting with version 2.4.20, but are usually not installed in the distributed binary kernel, you need to compile your own kernel with USB enabled, as well as the various other drivers.

The ftdi_sio driver that comes with linux communicates with the FTDI-232 USB chip in the detectors. However it assumes a standard PID of 6001, the GM-10 and GM-45 have a custom PID number, so the driver must be re-compiled. ftdi_sio.h must have this line in it:

#define FTDI_8U232AM_PID 0xFDF0

replace the existing 0x6001 value with the 0xFDF0 value. Then re-compile the driver:

make modules

If the drivers are not built into the kernel, they will need to be loaded as modules:

insmod /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/usbcore.o
insmod /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/uhci.o  (you may need a different one for your USB chipset)
insmod /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.o
insmod /usr/src/linux/drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.o

(paths on your system may be different)

Then:

mount -t usbdevfs none /proc/bus/usb

The utility USBView can be useful for testing out USB and the drivers. The detector should show up when plugged in. If it is in red, then the FTDI driver isn't loaded, or has the old PID.

The emulated serial port is assigned as /dev/ttyUSB0 through /dev/ttyUSB15 I added a symbolic link from /dev/ttyUSB0 to /dev/ttyS32 to make the GM-10 USB appear as a standard serial port.

Thinking of buying a surplus CDV-700 or 715 detector? Be sure to read our report first.