It's a dirt-cheap Spectrometer - But is it any good?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 พ.ค. 2024
- I bought a super cheap optical spectrometer and now I am going to review it.
I have chosen to tell the story of this spetrometer from the perspective of the light sources that I used to test it. Some of these are simply beautiful peices of optical technology.
I used the Theremino (v3.1) software thoughout this video, the link to this is below:
www.theremino.com/wp-content/...
Spectragryph, the more advanced software for spetroscopy, can be found here:
www.effemm2.de/spectragryph/d...
Taobao link to the spectrometer (will only work in Mainland China):
m.tb.cn/h.gcZLkXKe67xbgwB?tk=...
00:00 Introduction
04:23 Compact fluorescent lamp
05:34 Mercury vapor arc lamp
08:46 Incandescent lamp
10:41 LEDs
13:35 Halogen lamp
17:32 Lasers
20:35 High pressure sodium lamp
23:31 Deuterium arc lamp
26:49 A multi-spectral emitter
28:45 Fire
30:25 Sun/Sol
32:27 Teardown
34:56 Summary
37:22 Closeout - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Smashing video about being on the spectrum.
pure spectro porn!
Don't worry. *Toktik Tom got this.*
I see what you did there. 😅
🤔 You think so?
The "unexpected" peaks are second/third order refractions from the grating. So in essence they are a copy of the mean peak , but refracted at a different CCD position by the grating. A good clue is that the unexpected peaks are always similar in shape to the main peak. Higher end spectrometers have filter(s) installed over parts of the CCD to block these higher order refractions and prevent them from causing confusion.
One of the things I most like about making these kinds of videos is that I can pose questions when I find something unexpected and then smart people will help answer them. Now that you and other have pointed out the higher order diffraction images, it seems so obvious now. Thanks for the detailed information.
Could they be reliably filtered out in software?
@@Erhannis the aliasing is appearing before the camera, so 'filtering' might not be the right word, a better would be 'spectrum hacking'.
@@Erhannis I think it will be quite difficult, as it is perfectly possible that higher order refractions of different peaks overlap with the main peak of which for which you want to filter the high order data. So it is probably possible when looking at single peaks like laser and other monochromatic sources, but when looking at complex spectra it would be very hard.
@@wim2874 I mean, I'd expect the effect to be linear - that a given wavelength X comes in, a certain percent Y of it gets diffracted to the wrong place Z, and gets added to the light that's SUPPOSED to be there. So you figure out what X, Y, and Z are (and hopefully find a formula - or run some kind of calibration routine), then given a reading, you e.g. subtract the height at X times Y from the height at Z. It'd probably take more experimentation and data collecting, though, some of it perhaps impractically fiddly.
The video camera is one of the limitations of the unit. I have a spectrometer that came out of a scientific instrument costing over 20 grand. Connecting the output of that spectrometer to the thermino software gives identical results to the cheap one! The expensive spectrometer uses a high resolution line scan sensor that displays on an oscilloscope screen and gives noticeably better resolution.
I agree with you, the display and analysis software has a lot of influence on the quality of the results...
Hard science and a sense of humour. A winning combination, thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
"a gentle tap" *wrench of doom*
Deadpan understatement will never cease to be funny. 😂
thanks!
One of the distinct things I remember as a kid was when we went on holiday to some resort. We played squash in a squash court and one of us managed to hit the flourescent tube with the ball and knocked it out of the sockets. It fell in slow motion, and when it landed, the sound was like a bomb exploding (squash court sound reflections). All that came flashing back to me at that point of the video.
@@leppie My 10 year old daughter was present when I recorded that section of the video, she will never forget that sound, and I will never forget the sound of her mischievous laugh at watching Daddy do something naughty.
@@project326- I recall that same thought as kid when that happened. Today we know it as "shit happens" :D
that was ultraviolent.
Excellent review and also showing many different light sources. I had never heard of a deuterium light, that was really interesting. The creator of this spectrometer is to be commended for the work that must have gone into this device
I never thought I would hear someone talk about tungsten lamps like they are so antiquated in my lifetime. I still like them for some situations though. Your appreciation of UV light sources grants you 1 channel subscription for sure. Hello from another photon enthusiast!
glad you enjoyed it.
When I was young we used massive three phase mercury arc rectifiers for DC on the grid with about three hours of verbal warning what not to do with the bloody things if you wanted to stay alive and keep your sight. Maybe that should be the other way around. Fascinating watching the dancing arcs on start-up safe behind Woods glass. I've talked to welders who've had arc eye, ie temporary UV blindness. Not to be recommended unless you like a sandpit in your eyes.
Sandpit in our eye! XD Never saw someone so accuratly describe an arc eye. If open, it can't be open, because anything more than a dark room feels like staring at the sun, and if closed burns like hell too. Old technik was to put half of potato on it, it really made bearable. Ahh younger me, who thinked buying a new glass for the hood takes too long, and my eyes are faster than light XD
I had Arc-eye once as a young apprentice engineer, wasn't so serious, 2-3 days of sandy eyes. Not sure why, but if felt worse at night when trying to sleep...
🇨🇱 76 now, but as teenager fooling around with stuff, I also run into a sandpit for 3 days, after playing with The remains of a mercury street lamp ☹️.
Saludos de 🇨🇱
HOT Sandpit.
I hope people appreciated the humour embedded in this very informative video. I did .
I hope so too
I remember when I learnt about the sodium vapor lamps. I was taking photos under a street light with some friends and thought to myself "I will fix them later on and colour correct them". How naive of me but it was a nice rabbit hole at that time. I miss them now, it gave another feeling of the night. That spectrometer looks amazing for a learning tool. I am sure some teachers would love to have one.
Excellent video. Would also buy one or more. Your comments on Theramino, Spectragryph, sources, DIY, and commercial spectrometer are spot on. Thank you for making my day!
What a wonderfully intelligent video. Your fascination and depth of knowledge really shines through. Thankyou.
I've got one of those Deuterium lamps (labeled 31878-d). It is an intrinsic part of colorimeters that my father in law made many decades ago.
They are a thing of beauty... Dangerous but beautiful.
Awesome. Thank You for your time!
Gas torch should have an interesting spectra. It could be also interesting to look how different metal ions glow (put small pieces of different types of salt in a flame).
I can't tell you how much I enjoy these videos! Tremendous engineering/science info with the deadpan bot-voice deliver hits my brain and funny bone at the same time. Will be recommending the channel to my son and all the other adults I know.
thank you for the nice feedback. As a hobby channel, getting feedback like yours, is actually the 'payback'.
I have seen LED street lights deliberately colored yellow!
@@AriBenDavid I was convinced of this 'fact' too, ever since I was a child I was taught this. It was only when I was researching sodium lamps for this video that I had my assumption challenged. Perhaps there could be an alternative reason for the orange LED street lamps (I see them on major highways here in China too), like it might reduce eye fatigue? Another reason might be if the lighting is more monochromatic then the brain can't rely on color information and maybe gives more priority to shape, distance and motion (I think this is why yellow glasses are worn by tactical weapons guys).
Mind you, it could all just be idiots at work, When I was in 6th grade, our science teacher told us that if the earth stopped spinning, we would just float away, ie that the rotation was responsible for gravity. We can't always assume that people who are given authority actually know what they are talking about!
@@project326- The sodium lamps were used because they gave the highest lumens per Watt, but the efficacy to humans was not as great due to the color. Most LED street lamps are white today, since they are now more efficient than the HPS bulbs. Then it's curious why someone installed yellow recently.
13:07 It reminds me of some popular short videos of DIY carbon arc lamps, where they went "yay bright white light", but completely forgot the super intense UV radiation.
I absolutely love your channel and I would like to buy this spectrometer if it will be available outside China. With greetings from Iceland.
I'm working on it!
Thank you so much for the effort you put into your videos. The spectrometer is great too, I hope I can get one one day when it's available worldwide or it could help if the 3D files were available with instructions so we could build them ourselves.
Excellent, I was thing to make this. Your demonstration solved all my question. Thanks
Glad it helped!
Very informative and cool. Thank you.
Great video, excellent science... I want to buy one when it becomes available outside of China! I'm waiting and greetings from Poland!
if you are subscribed, then I can let you know once I get more information...
@@project326- yes i am your subscriber and waiting for more information
🇨🇱
This video was a real pleasure, listening to your calm and deeply informative voice.
Thank you so much ‼️
Saludos de 🇨🇱
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@project326- I think this is a robot voice, defo artificial its a bit lifeless but I love the video !!
@@andymouse 🇨🇱
Perhaps !?
Nowadays you never know 🤔
🇨🇱
@@andymouse I use a robo-voice for 2 reasons:
1) A little bit of anonymity (I live in Mainland China).
2) I have a natural voice that is "perfect for print".
@@project326- Awesome thanks for replying ! it's the way these things say stuff like 'LED' ! and your reasoning is sound I get number 1 as for 2) Lmao!! great channel checking out your back catalogue. I never knew about Taobao and Aliexpress being similar. Lastly have you seen a channel called "Les's Lab" as he built a Rass Pie spectrometer and wrote some software for it.....cheers.
thank you for your hard work and descriptive language! I am interested in getting one of these to the far away land of Silicon Valley!
Truly amazing video for me. I have always been interested in light but somehow never quite focused on it like I should have. Now I am 63 and tired of waiting. I just bought my second infrared camera light for photographing nocturnal animals living in my house and trying to explain what IR is and how it works to a novice friend has been exhilarating. I hope soon we can open a dialog with each other on the subject of light. I'm from the U.S. and have subscribed.
Thank you for the interesting comment. Using a simple instrument like this to explore the facilitating subject of light has been really fun for me, it only enhances the experience of vision when you know a little more about it and this device has added an extra dimension of understanding for me.
As I get older, I realize that perhaps my main mission might be to learn and share what I gleam each day, from trying to understand this complex 'stew' of energy and matter that we call the universe.
I'm originally from the UK but I have been living, working and raising a family here in China for the last 2 decades.
Deciding to learn anything new is good at any age, but it is certainly helpful for keeping the mind awake as we get more mileage on the clock.
Take care, have fun!
Awesome, thank you so much!
Fascinating review, thanks for being so thorough! I can’t wait to buy one! Hopefully you and the creator can make some $ too. This is certainly a great sales ad. There are so many things i want to point it at!
Not sure about making money, but being able to help is going to be a good, a lot of people have expressed interest in buying this device...
@@project326- That's up to you :) But you're not a charity. I think it is totally reasonable to mark things up to get compensated for the time you invest.
A lot to Learn from here. Thanks.
Strongly interested in buying!
An amazing video about an amazing device. Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
Excellent! Great information.
Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
I definitely want one of these. A while ago, I was looking for an inexpensive but "good enough" spectrometer. At that time, I was primarily looking for something that could be used with a cell phone or tablet as the display. My results told me that what was available was either ten times cost of this device or basically junk. So, I gave up.
I wanted to look at and characterize the spectrum of fairly common household LED bulbs. I have found that there is lots of hype around the color of these bulbs, particularly in the more expensive brand name bulbs and even those that claim to show the customer the spectrum are often wrong or misleading. I've seen bulbs that claim the same wavelength but have different appearances.
Lastly, most bulbs say they are warm or cool. Why does no one make a bulb that compromises? Or, a bulb with both warm and cool phosphors to have a more blended spectrum. OR (here's an out of the box idea) how about a three-way bulb with a warm emitter, a cool emitter, and the third position could be both?
I prefer a warmer light for general room illumination. But, for reading or detail work these old eyes work better with a cooler or bluer light.
a cheap spectro would be perfect for that kind of testing (and learning). As I am writing this reply, mine is literally on my desk, I was just measuring the reflected spectrum from a green screen. It's like when you get you first 3D printer, you suddenly realize all of the things you can do with it...
Thank you so much! Nice video!
Awesome video !! and looks like an awesome product !.....cheers.
As for your engraver, the IR wavelength was double the nominal one, so I would assume either a frequency doubled main line and the fundamental leaks or that somehow either the spectrometer run into a issue (maybe due to high intensity)or you have a subharmonic due to nonlinear effects.
Cool video, I learned a lot, thanks. I will buy one when available.
When I figure that out, I will post in the community section of this channel.
As usual this is a great channel. Good content, science explained and sense of humour . I learnt a lot watching these videos. Please continue.... Please let me know how to get this kit outside China..
Fascinating video. I need one of these :-)
Excellent video. I want the spectrometer.
A fun experiment i did a while ago was taking a mercury tilt switch and a plasma ball and making the mercury vapor glow (it wasn't big or bright, but I got some nice pictures of it)
Sounds like a lot of fun. If you ever post the pics online, please to let me know where to find those.
@studio326- If you have Discord, I can send you a picture there
Great video and humour!
Just received 2 SBT-11A tubes that I will be doing testing on the fs-5000 Geiger counter. If everything goes good I will design a 3D print that attaches to the front of the sf5000 through that top loop and uses a screw where the belt clip is attached. I will keep you updated
I have been meaning to buy some of those tubes, they look totally awesome. How much did you pay for them? Usually these are only available on ebay and I can't get stuff from there from China...
@@project326- I found 2 on eBay that were in the USA allready for $29 each so I snagged them. I will do a short video on the process and the results and give you a link.
Nice! I just finished the install of an SBT-11a in a donor GMC-300+
12:00 The IR peak seems to be at exact the double wave length of the base peak. Same seems to apply to the other LEDs, too.
The second peak with twice the wavelength is just the second diffraction order (n = 2) and not the wavelength of a pumping diode...
@@stoppi Yes, that makes perfectly sense, as the second order peaks are visible with other light sources as well, for example the white LED at 28:00
@@foo0815 yes, I saw this at 13:00. It’s probably not a mission from the LED at all.
This is awesome! Many years ago I was going to make one with a scanner CCD and prism. Got the parts, but never got around to it because it would take ages. But for $50, that is only a few hours work, I would gladly spend double given your results. So glad I managed to spot this from recommend in sidebar. I lost it, but managed to find again :D Shared, liked and subbed.
Mine is just a small hobby channel, it is comments like yours that give me the energy to continue make each video.
Thanks!
@@project326- To me, the small interesting channels are the best on TH-cam. Personally, 98% of content I view online is TH-cam for the last 5 years, compared to the rest of the major streaming services (which I also pay for, but locally YT family plan is like $6 ;p, totally worth it).
As always, you create really well made, informative and entertaining videos! I learned a lot. I've been thinking to buy a spectrometer so please please let me know how to obtain this one, the other ones I found are either pensive or, well, very DIY...
Brilliant. I want to use this for identifying chemicals.
Fantastic demonstration. This has answered many questions about the spectrum of all the different light emitters.
Now the only question I have is, what is the spectrum of the new HID headlamps on cars.
Oh bugger, now I'm curious too...
Absolutely love it! Definitely will buy if I get the chance!
Amazing vid. I was at about electromagnetic spectrum 101, at this definitely helped further
This is amazing! My only wish would be to extend the far UV detection range. Otherwise superb product! Hope I'll be able to buy one!
I think those unexpected infrared peaks are caused by secondary refractions from the grating. If you look into the surface of a CD you can see it's doing the same thing. There are several sets of refractions: a bright one in the middle and several copies to the left and to the right of it that are more dim.
An old Chinese wisdom says, the lack of evidence, is evidence itself.
Another says, what you find depends on what you are looking for.
I have LED's that output UV A, B, and C.
Really impressive! I recently got an old used Ocean Optics USB2000 for about 10x this price and the basic specs are fairly similar, maybe dynamic range is better but I'm not even sure of that. Even just a fiber optic with SMA-905 connector can cost as much as this whole instrument.
Such a great Video :D
Thank you! 😁
This is an excellent and very informative report. Very nice to see so many different light sources. This must have taken a lot of time to put together, I wish I could give it more than one thumbs up! Wouldn't mind seeing more of the solar spectrum, and also how it differs if you look at the blue sky, a white cloud, or direct at the sun. For example can you see the difference in O2 and H2O absorption lines if you compare looking at noon or near sunrise or sunset, with longer path length? Can you detect NOx or particulate atmospheric pollution also, or does that need sensitivity longer into the IR? But I guess need to wait for another sunny day. :-)
This is really good content. I subscribed and will be looking through your older content.
I see people complaining but the voice is fine. I understand there are reasons to use the AI voice and can judge the content on its own. This video holds its own, keep up the good work.
My human slave says "thank you", but my reply is 101011001010101000111...
Thanks for the great review as ALWAYS ..... would like to purchase one to test my dental light-cure unit........
3:08 436 and 546 nm are actually mercury spectral lines. All mercury vapor discharge lamps will have them regardless of the phosphor type. Even phosphorless clear high pressure mercury vapor lamps or germicidal lamps.
Thank you, that is useful to know! I guess that's is why they use those lines, it removes the dependency on the mix used in the phosphor.
Modern LED lighting is almost completely without infrared. Some research indicates we need this IR, which in the past has been supplied by the sun and incandescent lighting. Efficiency comes with a cost.
Interesting about the IR perhaps being needed, I assume that you mean NIR?
@@project326- Likely 800 to 1100 nm, not the communion wavelengths.
communication
Good enough for like 80% of projects tbh 🙃
the second laser peaks at 820 nm and 856 nm are second order diffractions, not an indication of a pumped, frequency doubled laser. The green peak is most likely some fluorescent material in the light path either inside the laser housing or inside the spectrometer.
Thank you for the feedback. Quite a few people have pointed that out for me. One of my favorite things about making the occasional video is that I can ask questions about things I haven't figured out yet, and smart people will help out with answers!
Hi! Excelent video! Could you please tell us how you powered the deuterium arch lamp? Those psu have 2 power outlets and as far as I know, those lamps require 2 different voltage to correctly work . Also, can you leave them continuously turned on? or should they be blinking?
the lamp PSU has three outputs, the anode, filament and cathode. Looking on-line, it seems that these lamps are only intended for short duration operation and the thermal load is a major issue. The PSU was a dedicated type I bought just for this lamp.
wow, this is a great video. you used very different light sources. uvc can destroy colours. hope your eyes are not injured. would like to buy the low cost spectrometer. best wishes from overseas
Thanks very much for doing this! Very thorough examination. Notice that the anomalous peaks in the infrared when you are looking at LED and laser sources are exactly double the wavelength of the most intense line - these are artifactual lines. They aren't caused by any emission phosphors themselves or by a pump diode in the case of the blue laser, but rather are the second order of diffraction off the grating, the M=2 or M=-2 lines. I am very impressed with the resolution and accuracy of the lines, but disappointed by the lack of UV capability as a consequence of the use of the polycarbonate transmissive element from a DVD, which is what I was hoping to use it for.
For a diffusing element at the aperture that works in the ultraviolet may I suggest a thin film of teflon? Often fluorescent bulbs used in food preparation areas are required by law to have this to contain shards in the event of breakage. It is transparent deep into the ultraviolet. Thanks again, I was very impressed that you even went so far as to get a deuterium bulb to use with it and it pleases me see you got even got some use out of my old spectrum on the wiki for it, (my very specific labeling of the Fulcher a band gave it away, haha).
I'm both grateful and pleased that you have replied - your comments on 2nd order diffraction are fantastic, I understand much better now. Learning is its own reward!
I'm glad there is this answer already.
Great video, BTW! Very clearly narrated and informative.
@studio326- and incidentally that 1064nm line you noted for the pump on the green pointer probably IS real and not from, or at least not merely from the second order diffraction. Something else you may find interesting is the spectrum of blue, clean burning, premixed flames, which is caused mainly by vibronic coupling in diatomic carbon molecules, and you can see my annotated spectrum for blue flame on the wiki as well, showing some other molecular radical band emission in the uv such as from NOx, CO, etc.
Would really like help buying one from US if you can work out how. Your physics analysis of the various light sources is very impressive. Thanks for all your careful work.
When I figure that out, I will post in the community section of this channel.
Most of the cheap stacks of DVDs that I've bought come with two clear DVDs used as protectors on the top and bottom of the stack.. $15 for two large diffraction gratings and 100 recordable DVDs is not a bad deal...
nice bit of info, thanks!
I always thought that the fact the DVD grooves are circular and not linear would be an issue, but clearly not! I guess with a small enough field of view, it's a close-enough approximation. I have a much more expensive compact VIS-NIR spectrometer with a real industrial grating and precision-formed 25 micron slit, and its resolution is not amazing. I see FWHM on a neon bulb spectrum somewhere around 1.3 nm. Now I did get it used, and maybe there's something wrong with it.
@@dancevideo2 The trick with the DVD grating is to cut it as far towards the outside of the disc as possible and minimize the height of the image that gets processed. You can still see some curvature, but It's not too bad...
@@project326- Given that it's using a 2D image sensor, I suppose the curvature might also be correctable to some extent in software?
amazingly enthusiastic! Some CFLs used double coating to prevent ultra viole(n)t exposure and some LEDs have also been considered as possible source. It is good to demonstrate the difference between CLF and LED exposure to incandescent and halogen that only follow the natural black body spectrum. That has been the reason many drivers have complained on the use of LEDs on first models of Passat, as it is very intensive and inconvenient. Likely the regulation counts for total power limit, rather then the spectral peak, so that limits for black body should not be used for monochromatic sources, or CRI less then 100%. That resulted that later generations of Golf used incandescent again. But this is not only the spectra but LEDs using pulse width modulation in most cases. At the generation of LED backlighted TVs it was feel of dizziness. That led me to DIY the spectrum analyser, basically photodiode coupled to the audio amplifier and headphones to test exposed models in the store and select the one flicker free. The result of the test was that the Panasonic has been the only model that may produce flicker free backlight but only if brightness has been set to 100% so that duty cycle is 100%, but that results to dimming over bright screen by reducing contrast. Not perfect, but TV set does no more cause dizziness or headache.
As the moment is a challenge to find the lower cost filter for wavelenghts shorter then 280 nm, to try capture plane trails and compare if they are pure vapour or contain chemicals that spread to clouds. In the theory vapour should be transparent for UV-C. Did you try to check it? If you know any supplier that may offer such filter with transparency better then 40% it would be useful, thank you!
I don't really know of any vendors in that market, but if I see any, I will reply to this thread. For water vapor, NIR is a pretty good band to be using. I discovered this by accident when I was working in the 4K version of the night vision camera I made. The cloud formations were far more visible under 850nm NIR than at visible wavelengths. What I mean by this, if you are interested in seeing the dispersion of aircraft exhaust plumes, then seeing how it effects the water vapor in the atmosphere might be a productive angle. NIR cameras are really cheap, its just a standard camera with the short-pass filter removed...
Thanks for the feedback!
@@project326- thank you it is worth a try, I have the night vision webcam lissom that does not filter IR so is likely similar as yours. The principle of NIR is the high absorption in the vapour and the principle of UV is the low absorption of vapour to try distinct it from the particulate matter that some trails may use, so Herndon in his research used 250 - 300 nm spectra and found increased absorption by chemical trails, that remain much longer then standard chemtrail, but research has missed to compare the standard contrail vapour, but just refer to theoretical low absorption in that range. Interesting manufacturer of UV capture devices discouraged from use of this as efficiency is considered lower then photodiode used in the study. Still not aware why he decided to use this high cost filtering spectral range, as he mention that ice absorption is very low at 300 - 600 nm, for which lower cost filtering can be used. Did you notice the difference between contrails and longer lasting chemical trails in the NIR, as particulate matter may also have different absorption then vapour?
@@samoime1955 I haven not had the chance to look at con-trails with anything yet but now that you mention it, I might take a look...
Thanks for the information!
@@project326- if you notice the difference between classical contrails that dissapear normal and possible chemical that stay much longer and spread to clouds make a post, as vapor and particle matter may also have different imprint in the NIR spectrum.
I found out about spectroscopy & diffraction gratings some years ago.
I am still fascinated by them & I recently purchased a quartz grating to see UVC spectra with a converted camera.
What is the wattage of the Deuterium lamp that you used please ?
Could intensity be calibrated on this piece of cheap equipment?
To measure transmittance and fluorescence intencity.
It wont be so simple as it seems, but its quite useful project.
Would definitely buy one if it were available.
Is the author in any way interested in publishing the stuff they did to make it? Instructions on delaminating DVDs, for example, would be of great interest to others doing projects of this type. Similarly, anything about the rest of the manufacturing process would be pretty awesome. If the person wishes to be comped for such things, that's great. It's a step toward opening the sources a.k.a. sharing the joy a.k.a. inviting people to the party.
That is also one of the approaches I am exploring with the creator of this device. Stay tuned, if you are subbed and have notifications switched on, then you will see the updates to this project as they come in.
23:35 I guess us nerds are all the same, no matter where we live or what we were taught to believe in 😀
I thoroughly enjoyed this video, and would love to buy something else I totally do not need, especially in that kind of price range. I haven’t seen the laser writer you used either and would be interested in that. And filters - because I have none, nor UV paper. You may need some good sized boxes…
I will bear that in mind!
Thanks for the feedback...
I think that they stopped making the little engraver a few years ago. Its from a Taiwanese company called Cubiio.
Cool! I want one of those at that price!
The additional peaks in the infrared-region are just the second diffraction order (n = 2) of the main line and not from a pumping diode or something similar 😉
Hi Stoppi, thanks for that info. Actually the original curator of the wiki on this subject commented on that earlier. BTW, your channel is fantastic! I am a regular viewer and sub.
A spectrometer could be so useful tool. Unfortuinately there seems to be only lab quality instruments easily available ready made. Sure, I could always just make one but I have so many other things to diy as well and not enough time for everything.
I wonder how linear the intensity is. I'd assume cameras and lenses can affect it a lot, especially outside visible light range. I cannot think of a simple way to calibrate linearity to measure light sources. For filter it is a simple normalization.
I completely agree with you, let someone else spend 2 months figuring out the exact angles, how to de-laminate a DVD, where to source the monochrome camera, having built one myself (rather badly) I is clear how much effort went into this - I wish this creator the very best of luck and hope to be able to help him to get some rewards for his work. After buying all the parts and allowing for all the consumables, there can't be too much left on the table as a margin...
Awesome video thank you. For those two free softwares, I have both of them. But I have been on the hunt for someone to give me or share with me library files that I can import to them to have basically automatic element / chemical identifications. Do you know where I can change such libraries / library files so I could import them and get the most out of the softwares?
Sorry, I don't know where to find those kind of data files, I end up doing everything manually.
I have allways wanted to own a spectrometer to do some experiments.
I hope that you can find a way to make it available to the rest of the world.
I'm working on it...
34:20 When you disassembled it and I saw the MCU made by the company I worked for~~😆 This spectrometer is better than my expectations
The older I get, the smaller the world seems to me. Everything and everyone is connected, sometimes we just have trouble seeing those tiny threads that hold the world together...
I remember the first time I saw a product I designed in a high street shop, its a weird feeling, right?
Please let us know. It’s awesome video. Thanks.
Great video!!! Where did you obtain the Deuterium Lamp and power supply for $70? Please provide a link etc.
thanks!!
I got the deuterium lamp and PSU on the Chinese marketplace TaoBao. Sadly, TaoBao only works in Mainland China, so any links I send you will not work. :-(
@@project326- i wonder if there is anyway i could order this from here in the U.S.? Ebay?
@@georgeyork8975 I really don't know, but given the high demand for the intesting things I find on TaoBao, there is certainly an opportunity for a small business...
Now I am wondering why Theremino offers only 2-point linear fitting for the spectrum calibration. I suppose I can't complain if it's open-source. But still the math for 3 points or any number of points doesn't seem all that hard. AFAIK there are plenty of existing software packages that provide that kind of fitting as a ready-made function. The old user manual from Ocean Optics actually shows how to do an n-point fit to generate a simple 2048 point lookup table to provide the pixel number-wavelength function, just using an Excel spreadsheet.
That sounds like something I'd be interested in. What year's user manual for which product?
@@restcure Ocean Optics USB2000 manual (c) 2005 page 31 "Appendix A: Calibrating the Wavelength of the USB2000" photos.labwrench.com/equipmentManuals/9443-3596.pdf
For the cheap multi spectral lights, I think they used high efficiency IR LED to generate the white LED and the UV. The are usually cheaper than the blue LEDs and rather often used in cheap, at least white, LEDs...
How do they frequency double the light - phosphors can only re-emit photons of a lower energy, ie longer wavelength than the original absorbed photon. In green laser pointers, they use a special crystal and cavity to allow the 'more energy' part to come from more incoming photons being added together. I kind of doubt that my cheap LEDs have that kind of optical components included.
Some of the other comments have mentioned that this is most probably an artifact of the diffraction grating, ie 2nd order diffraction. Having looked that up, it almost certainly is the case.
Thank you!, wow very interesting again.. i am trying to find this Spectrometer on AliEx.. but no success, is there anyway i could find it on other that Taob.. that you maybe know of?
it would be great if some store can ship it to EU / Netherlands. ......In the end if the video.... yes interested
Hi Tony, I will let everyone know in the community page if/when I figure out something with the creator of this interesting little device.
@@project326- Thanks!! great
10:22, I'm not sure if this is relevant, but if you divide the frequency of 1064nm light by 2^(2/3)-1, you get the frequency of 625nm light.
interesting...
interesting...
You did a DIY x-ray generator, and reviewed this spectrometer. Now can you do a DIY XRF device for metal analysis, particularly gold analysis?
XRF Machines are just too far out of my budget range. I am working on something similar using beta back-scatter though...
@studio326-
LOL. That is the issue with XRF all around. They tend to be outside of everyone's budget range. There are inductive feedback analyzers that are much less. But those are comparative analyzers, it either matches what you have it programed to look for, or it doesn't. Great for checking coins and bullion. Not so much for inquiries about what's inside.
Should have put the glasses between Hg lamp and spectrophotometer to measure UV attenuation.
I did that, I didn't show all of my experiments, the video was already painfully long when I released it. If I included everything, it would have been a 2 hour video. At the end, you can see I tested my reading glasses, which were far more effective than I would have expected. The two pairs of UV protection goggles that I own had mixed results.
@@project326- ah. I must have missed it. Yes, editing is important and I mostly skipped to the Hg because i know a little from long ago past work.
30:56 you could have captured the white clouds - what the standard "D65" illuminant is based on.
That is a good nugget of info, thanks. To be fair, the color of the monsoon rain clouds is very 'grey'. I'm looking out of the window right now as I write this and it raining again...
Would it be possible to measure reflected light with this device? I'm thinking of a situation where I want to determine how well two paints or dyes match.
yes, but if the reflected light is of a low intensity then adding a lens would be helpful...
Amazing piece of kit! I want one! :) When will it be available outside of china?
I'm still working with the creator to figure that bit out...
Stay tuned!
@@project326- Sweet! Will you be posting on youtube community or somewhere else about it?
@@robinoja Probably on the community.
I would be interested to get this unit. Is it available outside China?
@@alnaumi Not yet, but I am working with the creator to figure out a way to get this to be available outside China. If you are subscribed, then you will get notifications of the updates.
I'm curious if this device offers a fixed-gain mode, or is it always auto-gain (AGC) like many cheap web cams seem to be? In the video it appears to be in AGC mode, where the background light spectrum pops up on the live graph as soon as you turn off your test light sources. That would make it hard to use for measuring absorption spectra, where you want the ratio of the original light source, and the spectrum after passing through a sample, both using the same gain and exposure settings.
it is select-able in windows setup, uncheck the AUTO mode.
@@project326- Thank you. I think there are a bunch of people who would be excited to own one, if they could buy it outside of China.
could this measure the isotopes ratio of chlorine? if so, i needs it for Dexster's Lab!....
I think... different isotopes are related to the nucleus of an atom, ie different numbers of neutrons, but as the element is only related to the number of protons - the number of paired electrons in the various shells will match the number of protons. General chemistry is all about how the electrons interact and given that they will be the same number for all isotopes of the same element, I don't recon that will work.
Very nice video. What is your profession? I was close to take a job at ZEISS... and they have maybe highest demands regarding the precision in many fields. So I took a job where I could use all my talents besides super-precision.
Me? I'm and AI...
:-)
@@project326- A very 'sophisticated' AI... but Gemini has better spelling... but does less good videos.
@@project326- But in the meantime I asked SORA to make a video about the same topic... guess what? It putperformed you in quadratic measures... so please get more trainers and input data!!!
@@Heisenberg2097 Not really very sophisticated, I just prefer some anonymity as I am currently based in Mainland China. It's just text to voice, but it takes me 50 times longer than using an actual voice, getting it to sound reasonable takes any, many edits of the script and the punctuation, often requiring a complete section to be re-written.
As for the spelling, well that's just me being a Brit that always resented spelling tests at school. My video editing tool doesn't have a spell check, so lots of spelling mistakes get through. An AI would not misspell anything at all...
@@project326- I will not ask anymore about your profession. The level of detail you present betrays bits and pieces... but could also be out of a hobby... now I assume later... cuz if you were in the deepest heart of spectrometres... you wouldn't waste your time with the reviewed device!!! Anyways. I enjoyed your video. I worked on an endoscopy sensor that was claimed to be one of the most advanced tech... turned out it was cheapest crap from Japan. Don't get that wrong. Japan is capable of delivering highest quality as much as delivering LQ.
BR
Chris
You know you can buy diffraction gratings in a slide format for peanuts online? I had some and they are amazing. I tested with a laser and I could measure the wavelength perfectly. Mine have 500 lines/mm but there are finer ones.
Yes I have some of those, in cardboard 35mm slide mounts and also plain sheets. They are formed on a plastic (PET?) film thin enough that it is always somewhat curved or wrinkled, causing often large optical distortions, and this is hard to calibrate out because it changes with any mechanical flex, temperature, vibration, etc. I even tried to optical-glue a piece onto glass for support, but the glue layer isn't necessarily flat either. I worked with items from several different vendors for a while and maybe some get this to work but personally I'd recommend a different route, for anything you want to be quantitative and not just "gee whiz, it makes colors".
@@dancevideo2 I didn't know that. I was keeping them for a test for a while. I have some ideas to sandwich them evenly... but I think the real problem will be that this glass or other substrate will absorb diferently different wavelengths or even cut UV an IR completelly. I think this is the reason they are thin.
Special glass that don't do that do not absorb those are made of quartz or germanium and they are expensive so the whole idea falls apart.
I once read about refletive difraction grids made on a similarveay of PCBs and IC dies using a photoresist, those could be made over any material like metal, glass or thick plastic and will reflect a broad band more evenly and this process seems cheap and affordable but I never cared to dig more.
you did use LEDS but I would like to know if there is much of a difference in spectrum between these cheap large LEDS and the LEDS you see inside of tiny electronics like RGB strips and so on
I am receiving new suggestions all the time in the comments, so I might have to make a follow on video...
Please send me a note, if I can buy it from Germany! It is a realy interesting video!
any updates on when your NUKALERT is coming in for testing ?
I have a couple of videos to finish first, bit I do now have a sample of the NukAlert to test...
@@project326- great....looking forward to it. Hopefully your test will confirm that there is some useful elements to it....since it is a very small lightweight unit that is permanently on and is supposed to run for at least 10 years continous before needing battery replacement. When I bought mine a few years ago, I never expected it to be incredibly accurate but was hoping it would have the ability to alert me if there were elevated radiation levels ...I did not need it to alert me of small radiation levels..like 100 microseiverts...
@@davehimlin2374 I have already run some tests - don't hold your breath that this is a useful device. It isn't. Spoiler alert, it's snake oil.
@@project326- Ty...if it wont detect radiation, even in the " rems" scale I would be dissapointed...I surely thought it would be able to detect something like 1 -10 rems per hour if such a scenario arose.
What is your opinion about Radiacode?? Thanks in advance!
I did a video review of the RC102, perhaps look on the channel for that video, there is a lot of info in that...
I will also soon be reviewing the RC103G, but that video is at least one month away from being released.
@@project326- thanks a lot!!!
@@project326- thank you very much Sir!
On the matter of wasted infrared light with filament bulbs, could that light be scavenged with a frequency doubling material and converted to usable light?
That's a good question. I'm pretty sure it could, but perhaps the question is can it be done economically?
Can i use this to check the content of certain alloy?? If i 'powdered' the alloy and shoot a light bulb to it, will the reading give me some hint of the content???
Not really - you need XRF for analysis of metals.
The Deuterium bulb was cooooool!
I just had to have it, and yes, really cool!
@@project326- I found someone selling a Hitachi H4141SV on Yahoo Auction here for Y2500 so I bid on it not expecting to win, knowing how expensive these bulbs usually are, but I won. THEN I saw how $$$$$$$ power supplies are! Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck...