Spectrometry
spectrometer

The Public Lab spectrometry project is an open source community effort to develop low-cost spectrometers for a range of purposes. All open spectrometry hardware and software efforts are welcome here! **Join in by:** * Learning [what spectrometry is](#Whats+spectrometry) * Reading about goals and [asking great questions](#Frequently+Asked+Questions) * Building a basic spectrometer using [one of our starter kits](#Starter+Kits) * Trying (and critiquing) our [community-made how-to guides](#Activities) and posting your own * Building on others’ work; hack and remix the kits to refine and expand them * [Share your upgrades](#Upgrades) for others to try -- and perhaps for inclusion in an upcoming starter kit release or add-on kit **** ## Starter Kits Public Lab’s Kits initiative offers several starter kits, including many of the basic components, and instructions for constructing a basic visible light spectrometer. The point of the kits is to provide a shared reference design for building experimental setups onto. Lego Spectrometer Kit Our most recent kit, incorporating community improvements while balancing low cost and ease of construction. Choose between webcam and Raspberry Pi camera versions and build attachments width standard Lego connectors. Build one Buy one Papercraft Spectrometry Intro Kit A $9 paper spectrometer which you can attach to a smartphone or webcam. It’s made of paper to reduce cost and complexity, and is mainly intended as an “introductory” or educational kit. The flat design can be printed on a laser printer or photocopied to make more. Build one Buy one **** ## Activities This is a list of community-generated guides for specific applications using your spectrometry setup (either a [starter kit](#Starter+Kits) or a [modded design](#Upgrades)). These [activities can be categorized](https://publiclab.org/wiki/activity-categories), and some may be more reproduced -- or reproducible -- than others. Try them out to build your skills, and help improve them by leaving comments. Together, we can repeat and refine the activities into experiments. > **Note:** If you are working on an **urgent issue** such as a threat to your or someone else’s health, please know that these techniques may not be ready for your use; it's possible that they never will be. [Read more here](/notes/gretchengehrke/09-29-2016/common-low-cost-technique-limitations) ### Activity grid [activities:spectrometry] **** ## Upgrades Have you added to your starter kit, improved it, or redesigned it? Show others how to take it to the next level by posting a build guide here: [upgrades:spectrometry] Add your upgrade guide here Request or propose an upgrade _Mods should include a parts list and a step-by-step construction guide with photo documentation. See an example._ **** ## Challenges We're working to refine and improve DIY spectrometry on a number of fronts; here, take a look at the leading challenges we're hoping to solve, and post your own. For now, we're using the Q&A feature, so just click "Ask a question" to post your own challenge. Be sure to add: * constraints: expense, complexity * goals: performance, use cases [questions:spectrometry-challenge] **** ## Builds There’s a lot going on in open source spectrometry -- if you’ve developed another open source design you’d like to show others how to construct, post it here! * [RamanPi](https://hackaday.io/project/1279-ramanpi-raman-spectrometer) * [Hackteria “drop”-style spectrometers](https://publiclab.org/notes/gaudi/04-03-2014/diy-micro-volume-spectrophotometer) / [DIY NanoDrop on Hackteria.org](http://hackteria.org/wiki/index.php/DIY_NanoDrop) * _Add yours here_ ##What's spectrometry? Colored light is often a blend of different colors. A spectrometer is a device which splits those colors apart, like a prism, and measures the strength of each color. A typical output of a spectrometer looks like this spectrum of the daytime sky, with the actual light spectrum at the top and the graph of wavelength (horizontal axis, in nanometers of wavelength) and intensity (vertical axis) below: [![sky.png](https://i.publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/005/455/original/sky.png)](https://spectralworkbench.org/analyze/spectrum/19882) > Needed: overview of spectra, calibration, units, comparison, and fluorescence/absorption. Please edit this page or link to a resource, potentially [the Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy), although that's quite full of technical jargon. ## Software Spectral data can be analyzed with https://spectralworkbench.org to create spectra plots, find centers of emissions plots, and find similar spectra. Data also can be exported in various formats (JSON, CSV, XML) for further analysis and visualization. ## How does this compare to a lab instrument? The [Desktop Spectrometry Starter Kit](/wiki/desktop-spectrometry-kit-3-0) is only one part in an experimental setup, and the following shows where it fits in an overall diagram of a lab spectrometric setup: [![tmp_31873-IMG_20161027_101601_2-79757779.jpg](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/018/635/large/tmp_31873-IMG_20161027_101601_2-79757779.jpg)](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/018/635/original/tmp_31873-IMG_20161027_101601_2-79757779.jpg) [![tmp_31873-IMG_20161027_095939_2-108076392.jpg](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/018/636/large/tmp_31873-IMG_20161027_095939_2-108076392.jpg)](https://publiclab.org/system/images/photos/000/018/636/original/tmp_31873-IMG_20161027_095939_2-108076392.jpg) There are many, many different types of spectrometry and spectrometers -- many don’t even measure light. Even among those that do, some detect light in the ultraviolet range, and others in the infrared range of light. The range of Public Lab spectrometers depends on the range of the commercially available cameras we attach them to (~400-700 nanometer wavelengths). A commercially available product with a slightly wider range (from 335 to 1000 nanometers) is [available from Cole Parmer](http://www.coleparmer.com/Product/Cole_Parmer_Visible_spectrophotometer_335_to_1000_nm_wavelength_range_analog_output/UX-83055-10). **** ## Frequently Asked Questions [questions:spectrometry] Note our previous Frequently Asked Questions page, which [can be found here »](/wiki/spectrometer-faq) -- please help port these into the new system, here!...


Author Comment Last activity Moderation
warren "Gosh, sorry for the late response! When you haven't yet completed the calibration, the numbers shown are for pixel position, not wavelength. Once y..." | Read more » almost 4 years ago
WendyJospeh "It is a good effort by you. " | Read more » about 4 years ago
EllenHarri "Wow, Good Project " | Read more » about 4 years ago
EllenHarri "It is a very Useful post. " | Read more » about 4 years ago
laxmiassociates "Very informative. Information is detailed in a comprehensive way regarding oil testing. Insightful. Thank you for this. " | Read more » about 4 years ago
Xenon "Does thw 2710 Amazon module include an IR filter, and can it be easily removed? Thanks " | Read more » about 4 years ago
rotcivetec "What program did you use to analyze spectra from photo? " | Read more » about 4 years ago
VickiBaez "Try another camera, in comparison everything will be noticeable " | Read more » about 4 years ago
utobolearning "Totally worth attending this summit. Glad you share the update. utobo " | Read more » about 4 years ago
bhamster "Sounds like a neat project! For the first part of your question, are there specific compounds in food waste that you're interested in detecting? I..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
msuphysicsformcb "Update: I just looked through the other spectra posted that are tagged as white LED and they all look similar to mine, with 3 peaks instead of 2 th..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
msuphysicsformcb "Thanks for all the advice. This class will be online next semester due to the pandemic (I’m assuming). We have no resources or facilities to dist..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
wln215 "I primarily use these gratings for my spectrometers (my professor supplies them for his optics class) as I find the square shape to be easy to buil..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
mimiss "The Public Lab store also offers diffraction grating as an option when purchasing lego spectrometers. The grating that we carry is also 1000 lines/..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
JSummers "sure, you can do it. Of course the diffraction angle will be different. It looks like the dvd has 1300 lines per mm and the grating has 1000 so t..." | Read more » about 4 years ago
sialasad24 "Nice its great i like it its so useful for me and i got interesting information from your works... GIF MAKER " | Read more » over 4 years ago
liz "Thank you for sharing this great work @glenn_butcher , and for taking the time to credit and celebrate @stoft, a wonderful contributor! :smiley: " | Read more » over 4 years ago
glenn_butcher "This is a bit off-topic to the thread, but I want to give credit to @stoft for contributions from this thread to a project I've been working on for..." | Read more » over 4 years ago
Craziks "How do you calculate absorbance from intensity and wavelength??. Give beers formul@ " | Read more » over 4 years ago
mimiss "@familysimon have you compared the DVDs vs diffraction gratings yet? Any results you can share? " | Read more » over 4 years ago
liz "@liz awards a barnstar to wln215 for their awesome contribution! " | Read more » over 4 years ago
milanq "Hey! I was trying to califrate a fluerescent bulb, and it appeared to fit good with the reference spectral workbench ives you, but when looking at..." | Read more » over 4 years ago
mimiss "Thank you for this idea! I have laser pointers in a few colors in my house that I can try out. On May 5, 2020, at 11:19 AM, notifications@publicla..." | Read more » over 4 years ago
liz "I think I used a red laser and a green laser to get the calibration to work at some point... " | Read more » over 4 years ago