Alex
This is a summary of our recent project, featured in our YouTube video. The goal was to build a complete, self-contained desktop device that displays radiation data from 25 selected monitoring points in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, along with local sensor readings.
Radiation values are collected in the Zone every 5 minutes to 6 hours depending on site and purpose—via gamma-tracers, detection blocks, and aspiration stations. These are aggregated on Chornobyl's local ASKRV servers and then shared online to a few services. For this project, we used SaveEcoBot.com, which offers a public API.
The monitor fetches remote readings every 5 minutes over Wi-Fi, and local sensor data every 15 seconds (or more frequently if you adjust the code). Everything is processed by an ESP32 and displayed on a glowing Soviet / Ukrainian Elektronika MS6205 (MC6205) gas discharge display.
Points covered: a few spots across SSE "Chornobyl NPP" site, city of Pripyat, a few spots across Chornobyl city, various radwaste storages, a few villages, and area around former cooling pond of the ChNPP.
What is MS6205 (MC6205)?
MS6205 is a plasma text-only display produced from the mid-1980s until around 2005 by the Gazotron factory in Rivne, Ukraine. It consists of an IMG-1-02 display module based on the GIP-10000 matrix, with added control and power boards (either 1 or 3, depending on the version).
Standard features include:
– 16 characters × 10 lines resolution
– 96 available symbols: Latin and Cyrillic uppercase, numbers, punctuation, some pseudographics
– 7-bit data bus and 8-bit address bus (can be multiplexed)
– 250V ignition voltage
Additional 32 symbols (Greek letters, extra graphics) typically exist in the ROM but require a very simple hardware mod to become accessible. Late versions of MS6205 all have those, while produced in the late 1980s typically not.
To unlock those:
– Cut the PCB trace leading to pin 1 of chip К155АГ3 (a monostable multivibrator)
– Wire that pin directly to connector pin 20A (address line A8)
Symbols beyond the standard table can be rewritten via the character ROM (К573РФ5, equivalent to Intel 2716).
Rob Latour
Discreet Mayor
Albertas Mickėnas
Daphne
This is super cool. What a charismatic display!