Spectrometry
spectrometry

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
tmanmerlin "Here is a look at the set up. Maybe you all can tell if this is to far forward or up/down, or a bad orientation ( cable on top like in other pictu..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
tmanmerlin "Another open air image. I noticed that I can block the direct light to get a black background, and the spectra is blocked from the same direction,..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
tmanmerlin "Hi Warren, Try as I might I can not seem to get the light coming through the inlet to provide a spectra. I've tried all orientation of the gratin..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Pushpaw "Umm... It's quite a while since I fired up my Raspberry Pi but as far as I recall it has a couple of activity LEDs plus two status LEDs on the netw..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
warren "Oh wow!! I want to know more about this especially: spectralworkbench.org capturing images on Raspberry Pi Zero W with Chromium browser. " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Quick update: Followed this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iVK8dn-6x4 And this: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=173181 And..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Also tried to build this app:grinning: https://github.com/valgit/uvc_scanner/tree/master/UVCCap The app starts but doesn't detect any UVC devices ..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "CamHolderApp didn't detect the camera. So these are my next steps: 1. Connect the camera to Raspberry Pi Zero and access via VNC Connect: https://w..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Pushpaw "Unbelievable!, Linux has several free webcam utils and most web cams come with utils for Windows. I was struggling to come to terms with the idea t..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Tried building CamHolderApp from source, but had to download QTKit later, found that QuickTime has been removed from Xcode, etc. Finally found a b..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Thanks, Warren it MacOs and I'm looking at changing camera setting. I hope something like this might help: https://github.com/HBehrens/CamHolderApp " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Pupshaw, thanks I tried that, it made no difference. I'll try to get the camera setting changed. Didn't have much time in the last few days, but th..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
warren "Huh, this looks almost perfect. Can you upload a picture of it with a light in the frame? I don't see any rainbow effects. Can you also send a pic ..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
warren "Hi, what operating system do you use? There's some guidance on webcam selection here: https://publiclab.org/wiki/spectral-workbench-usage#Webcam+s..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Pushpaw "In fact, if you have your photo film slit mounted on the slide in piece of card. Just slide the slit out of the way altogether. This was you are pr..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Pushpaw "For what it is worth, I just dug out and hooked up my prototype of the Public Lab Spectrometer 3 and, without fiddling around, got exactly the same..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "OK, I'll resume tomorrow, but feels like I'm on the right track. Thanks a lot for the help so far! " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "I'm playing with this right now: https://www.npmjs.com/package/uvc-control2 Might do the trick, I'll post the update " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Pushpaw "I don't know the Mac OS well but I'd guess there is a thing somewhere to manage devices and that should show your cameras. If you see two cameras t..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "I also found this which, I'm reading at the moment: https://publiclab.org/wiki/spectral-workbench-usage Most webcams have auto exposure and color..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Hmmm, I wonder if I need to install any special drivers for the camera for the Mac OS...? " | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Pushpaw "OK well if I remember rightly Settings as you show above doesn't change the camera settings. It allows you to select your sample slice through the ..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Also tried both Safari and Firefox (while having Chrome closed). In both cases, there was a request for the permission to use the USB webcam, but n..." | Read more » almost 6 years ago
Tomas0413 "Also worth noting that when I press on "Settings" here, nothing happens: " | Read more » almost 6 years ago