GQ GMC-500 to InfluxDB

Allows for importing data from a GQ GMC-500 Geiger counter to InfluxDB v2.

Requirements

• A GQ GMC-500 Geiger counter. May work on other models, but that's the one tested.
• A device that can run Linux and be linked to the Geiger counter with a USB cable. Tested with a Raspberry pi 2.
• Either Docker or Python 3.7 or later installed on this device.
• InfluxDB v2 installed on this or another device, and a bucket created in influxDB.

Setup

With Docker

Dependency: Docker installed.

1. Identify the USB port the Geiger counter is attached to. Running dmesg | grep ttyUSB after plugging-in the USB cable may help to identify (in my case: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB1)
2. Download and run the Docker image (in this example, /dev/ttyUSB1 is the identified USB port): sudo docker run --name gq-gmc -v config.yaml:/app/config.yaml --device=/dev/ttyUSB1 vdbg/gq-gmc-influx:latest
3. Copy template config file from image: sudo docker cp gq-gmc:/app/template.config.yaml config.yaml
4. Edit config.yaml by following the instructions in the file
5. Start the container again to verify the settings are correct: sudo docker start gq-gmc -i
6. Once the settings are finalized, Ctrl-C to stop the container, sudo docker container rm gq-gmc to delete it
7. Start the container with final settings:

sudo docker run \
  -d \
  --name gq-gmc \
  -v /path_to_your/config.yaml:/app/config.yaml \
  --memory=100m \
  --pull=always \
  --restart=always \
  --device=/dev/ttyUSB1 \
  vdbg/gq-gmc-influx:latest

Without Docker

Dependency: Python3 and pip3 installed. sudo apt-get install python3-pip if missing on raspbian.

1. Git clone this repository and cd into directory
2. cp template.config.yaml config.yaml
3. Edit file config.yaml by following the instructions in the file
4. pip3 install -r requirements.txt
5. python3 main.py or ./main.py

Troubleshooting

Power supply

If using a Raspberry pi, make sure it is properly powered for both itself and the Geiger counter. dmesg to see if it's the case

Stops working on reboots

If more than one USB device is attached, the magic number x in ttyUSBx may not be preserved on reboots. To handle this case:

• Determine idVendor, idProduct and serial from dmesg output. Taking the below example, the values are respectively: 1a86, 7523 and 0

[  541.891928] usb 1-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 5 using dwc_otg
[  542.024969] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523, bcdDevice= 2.64
[  542.024991] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0

• Verify that there's only one device with this combination: dmesg | grep idVendor
• Add one of the following lines to the file under /etc/udev/rules.d (replace idVendor, idProduct and serial accordingly):

# If serial number is different than 0:
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1a86", ATTRS{idProduct}=="7523", ATTRS{serial}=="123456", SYMLINK+="ttyGMC"
# If serial number is 0:
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1a86", ATTRS{idProduct}=="7523", SYMLINK+="ttyGMC"

• Reload udev: sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger
• Verify that it worked: ls -l /dev/ttyGMC should return something simular to /dev/ttyGMC -> ttyUSB1
• Change both the port parameter in config.yaml and the --device parameter for the docker run incantation accordingly

Alternatives

The geigerlog_simple_500plus-v0.2.2.zip located here can query other fields, and handles different firmware & Python versions. It does not however import to influx.