4 ms·

Lego Spectrometer (2017)

65 points by matthberg 5y ago

matthberg 5y ago
Found this after looking into cheaper alternatives to yesterday's post on a DIY spectrometer with a raspberry pi [0]. Also interesting, and even cheaper, is a paper spectrometer which attaches to a phone camera by the same designer as this Lego one [1]. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30027804 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30027804 1: https://publiclab.org/wiki/papercraft-spectrometer https://publiclab.org/wiki/papercraft-spectrometer
jcun4128 5y ago
That DVD film part is neat
- devbas 5y ago
  Beginners question but what is its purpose?
  - Metacelsus 5y ago
    Diffraction grating (separates light by wavelength)
hawtkey 5y ago
This guy Les put together a piece of software to view/calibrate a spectrum[0]. He also has a YT channel[1] where he builds a couple RasPi spectrometers using pre-made spectroscopes that run $50-100, but the whole package is a lot more compact. There are also a number of spectroscope enclosures on thingiverse, but it's always so hard to gauge if any of the projects are actually worth printing. The most dead-simple and cheap example I found used the same slit/CD plastic combo capped onto the ends of a paper towel tube. Some other stuff[2,3,4] https://github.com/leswright1977/PySpectrometer https://github.com/leswright1977/PySpectrometer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAV7bnNrE-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAV7bnNrE-M https://physicsopenlab.org/2021/06/19/absorption-spectroscopy/ https://physicsopenlab.org/2021/06/19/absorption-spectroscop... https://www.effemm2.de/spectragryph/about.html https://www.effemm2.de/spectragryph/about.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy
- patcon 5y ago
  Generally, Public Lab builds and 3d print plans are worth your time. Everything they list is well-considered and well-maintained. When the stodgy old magazine The Economist wrote a "Punk Science" article about DIY science, they actually got them include a cut-out page to build a spectrometer :) https://publiclab.org/wiki/economist https://publiclab.org/wiki/economist

65 points by matthberg 5y ago

Found this after looking into cheaper alternatives to yesterday's post on a DIY spectrometer with a raspberry pi [0]. Also interesting, and even cheaper, is a paper spectrometer which attaches to a phone camera by the same designer as this Lego one [1]. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30027804 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30027804 1: https://publiclab.org/wiki/papercraft-spectrometer https://publiclab.org/wiki/papercraft-spectrometer

jcun4128 5y ago

That DVD film part is neat

devbas 5y ago
Beginners question but what is its purpose?
- Metacelsus 5y ago
  Diffraction grating (separates light by wavelength)

hawtkey 5y ago

This guy Les put together a piece of software to view/calibrate a spectrum[0]. He also has a YT channel[1] where he builds a couple RasPi spectrometers using pre-made spectroscopes that run $50-100, but the whole package is a lot more compact. There are also a number of spectroscope enclosures on thingiverse, but it's always so hard to gauge if any of the projects are actually worth printing. The most dead-simple and cheap example I found used the same slit/CD plastic combo capped onto the ends of a paper towel tube. Some other stuff[2,3,4] https://github.com/leswright1977/PySpectrometer https://github.com/leswright1977/PySpectrometer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAV7bnNrE-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAV7bnNrE-M https://physicsopenlab.org/2021/06/19/absorption-spectroscopy/ https://physicsopenlab.org/2021/06/19/absorption-spectroscop... https://www.effemm2.de/spectragryph/about.html https://www.effemm2.de/spectragryph/about.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy

patcon 5y ago
Generally, Public Lab builds and 3d print plans are worth your time. Everything they list is well-considered and well-maintained. When the stodgy old magazine The Economist wrote a "Punk Science" article about DIY science, they actually got them include a cut-out page to build a spectrometer :) https://publiclab.org/wiki/economist https://publiclab.org/wiki/economist