This page collects efforts to develop a Raspberry Pi (#raspberry-pi) based spectrometer, building on Public Lab (and others') open source [DIY spectrometer designs](/wiki/spectrometry). ## Design goals The Raspberry Pi camera (especially the version 2 camera) is very sensitive and good resolution, very inexpensive (<$20), has very low baseline noise, and is extremely configurable. ## Software You can now [download ready-to-use camera software on our Pi Builder page](/pi-builder). ## Questions Questions can be either frequently asked questions, or "next step" challenges we're looking to solve. [questions:raspberry-pi-spectrometer] ## Activities Activities show how to use this project, step by step. [activities:raspberry-pi-spectrometer] ...
| Author | Comment | Last activity | Moderation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tonyc | "That's a really cool use case I hadn't heard of before! Is it something you've had luck with using the PL spectrometer, reading fruit? I imagine e..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| cristoforetti | "@tonyc, the idea is having a portable spectrometer to evaluate fruit maturity in the field to decide about harvesting. In this sense design is cert..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| tonyc | "Is the form factor your main concern in these designs? I'm curious what is the test you are trying to run in the field with the spectrometer? " | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | "I have a similar camera in my spectrometer and was having the same light spot interfering and showing up in the spectral data, I had to bring mine ..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| warren | "This is especially cool as it uses a Raspberry Pi camera, which it seems can be set for fixed exposure and uncompressed image capture. I'm going to..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | " stoft, see, that's what I'm talking about, finding the work-around, that's actually a great idea and very cost effective. " | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| stoft | "Yes, both aluminum and silver oxidize very rapidly which is why all mirrors with those surfaces are coated -- the type of coating affects the mirro..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | " cristoforetti, oh yeah, that's perfectly fine I do the same thing when I build a prototype. I use some pretty unconventional material sometimes! " | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| cristoforetti | "@dhaffnersr thank you for the reference. You are certainly right, my only point is that it will take some time to have an aluminum coated mirror, i..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | "hey cristoforetti , I just wanted to give you some info on why you should be using the aluminum coated mirrors: Aluminum is also common used in m..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| cristoforetti | "@stoft thank you very much for the clarification and suggestions. About 1) I am looking to use cars mirror, that should be front-surface mirrors. ..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| stoft | "@cristoforetti, the camera focal distance is based on using a slit to simulate collimated light -- non-collimated light gives multiple diffraction ..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | "Sounds good, the 3D printed prototype looks cool also! " | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| cristoforetti | "Thanks dhaffnersr, that dimension shouldn't be a problem. Probably I will need to modify a bit the design, shifting the optics 5mm to the left sho..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | "hey cristoforetti, my web cam's dimension's are 32mm X 32mm, so your project is pretty small I hope it will work, as far as the mirrors, if i were..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| cristoforetti | "@dhaffnersr: assuming that the angles are right I think that it will be crucial to have good mirrors reflecting on a wide range of wavelengths with..." | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| dhaffnersr | "This is certainly a very ambitious undertaking. 70X70mm that would be pretty amazing. " | Read more » | almost 8 years ago | |||
| warren | "Hi! We just released a Node.js version of the core library here: https://github.com/publiclab/spectral-workbench.js I think it'd be possible to ta..." | Read more » | about 8 years ago |