4 ms·

I attempted this before, even on Kickstarter: http://www.openspectrometer.com/ http://www.openspectrometer.com/ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makerhaus/

I attempted this before, even on Kickstarter: http://www.openspectrometer.com/ http://www.openspectrometer.com/ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makerhaus/open-spectrometer?ref=live http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makerhaus/open-spectrome... Unfortunately we did not hit our fundraising target, and it's now a dead project. I'd love to see this new Kickstart project succeed, especially the online spectral database. Commercial databases of spectral signatures are expensive (thousands of dollars), and they shouldn't be. Part of our problem, I think, was that we were attempting the project while taking classes full time, and working. We were planning to release two different designs at different price points. One would have used inexpensive ruled transmission grating, while a more expensive unit would have used a concave holographic aberration-corrected reflective grating. The latter would have had better system efficiency, less "smear" across pixels, and better linearity. Each would have made use of a linear CCD array with good sensitivity (the same chip used in the Ocean Optics units). Concave gratings add a couple hundred bucks to the price, but are well worth it if you need to do UV. A challenge we didn't get to solve was how to make something DIY that could be used to detect UV. It's difficult to sputter a uniform phosphor coating or remove a sensor window without specialized equipment.

forgottenpaswrd 14y ago
"Part of our problem, I think, was that we were attempting the project while taking classes full time, and working." I think your project was fantastic. I see the main problem is the price. Most of the normal people can't justify expending $800 on an spectrometer. They don't even know what they could use it for. People that could justify it because they need it will buy tested equipment anyway, they have money but not time. So you need to fill the gap. The new project is making it super cheap so they could get traction like Reprap machines. At first they are terrible, but with enough people and huge market improvement is so fast like with the PC that at some point in the future it could get better than commercial closed systems. Start small, if you can't detect UV it does not matter, remember it is 100x better than Newton ever had.
- nmz787 14y ago
  Thanks for the kind words! The $800 price tag was just a kickstarter only price, since we were still largely in the development phase we weren't sure of final pricing. Now it looks like a UV capable scientific instrument with a chinese grating would cost around $400, if you want the same optics but U.S. made it would be around $900.

forgottenpaswrd 14y ago

"Part of our problem, I think, was that we were attempting the project while taking classes full time, and working." I think your project was fantastic. I see the main problem is the price. Most of the normal people can't justify expending $800 on an spectrometer. They don't even know what they could use it for. People that could justify it because they need it will buy tested equipment anyway, they have money but not time. So you need to fill the gap. The new project is making it super cheap so they could get traction like Reprap machines. At first they are terrible, but with enough people and huge market improvement is so fast like with the PC that at some point in the future it could get better than commercial closed systems. Start small, if you can't detect UV it does not matter, remember it is 100x better than Newton ever had.

nmz787 14y ago
Thanks for the kind words! The $800 price tag was just a kickstarter only price, since we were still largely in the development phase we weren't sure of final pricing. Now it looks like a UV capable scientific instrument with a chinese grating would cost around $400, if you want the same optics but U.S. made it would be around $900.