The MightyOhm geiger counter kit beeps every time a radioactive decay is detected, but in order to record the decay rate more accurately it can be connected directly to a computer. The software to connect to the geiger counter is called “RealTerm”, and can be found by clicking the start button and typing its name into the search box.

1. Connect the geiger counter to one of the computer’s USB ports. Turn on the geiger counter using the small switch on the side.
2. Start the RealTerm program. Go to the “Port” tab in RealTerm and change the settings to:

   Baud: 9600, Parity: None, Data Bits: 8, Stop Bits: 1 bit.

3. To find the correct port number to connect to the geiger counter, you can begin by entering Port: 4, and clicking the “Open” button to make the connection. If you do not see information appearing on the screen within a few seconds, repeat with different port numbers until you find the right one.
4. Once connected, lines of data should start appearing like the ones shown below. The most useful information will be the counts per minute (CPM), shown in the fourth column.