Spectrometer

I was sent these links today.
I haven't checked it out yet-made the spectrometer...

Looks cool.
I already made a DIy spectrometer but this one has a program that is supposed to actually tell you what wave lengths between 400nm and 900nm your lights put out on your computer.
The one I have just shows the bands of light.You guess what the percentages are by how thick the bands are.
Only a ballpark guess.

I'll post later when I see if my sugar cube camera or web cam is good enough for this program.
Only thing I don't know about is the removal of the infa red filter...
I don't think my sugar cube camera has one because they say I can use it at night with an infa red light source.

Looks like a cool toy.

http://publiclaborat...er-construction

What also makes this cool,IF it really works is it cuts all the BS type crap going around about cheep leds or led growlights.
What if the gazillion $ growlights actually put out less of the plant usable wave lengths than the cheep knock offs do?
Then it would be only a matter of lumens.
Buying 4 cheep growlights would still be cheeper than 1 overpriced one that doesn't/or might not put out as many of the plant usable wave lengths.

Stuff like this,IF it works , goes a LONG way to give access to what different light sources put out.
Could cut a lot of the advertising claims down to meaningless crap not worth reading OR back up said companies advertising claims...
This thing LOOKS to be cheep enough that anyone could build it and actually know what they bought lighting wise without having to use it first.
A spectrometer and a light meter would let you know everything the average person needs to make a decision whether to return their product within a short time without having to use it first.

I gotta mess with this.It looks like a good toy if it works.If it doesn't,isn't accurate enough,it'll be fun messing with anyway.

Sounds like a fun project. Anything that helps to pull back the curtain on marketing or governmental BS is good in my book. The more science experiments and testing we can do on our own the better off we'll all be. Now I really need a cheap home water quality testing machine to see what is actually in the drinking water at my tap. (Not 10 miles away at the treatment plant.)

why the dvd lens?

It acts like a prism separating the visible light spectrum into bands which can be measured. It's actually better than a prism because it doesn't compress the (important to plants) red spectrum like a prism does.

frosty said:

why the dvd lens?

Click to expand...

DVD lens is like a prism.
Take a CD and angle it next to a light,you'll see a rainbow.
BUT you only get the thickness of light bands,not what wave lengths.
All it shows you is what percentage of the light source is as far as how thick each band is.
This is supposed to show NM in a +/- 3nm (probably depends on your web cam).

This,IF it works,WILL tell you what exactly your light source puts out.

Very cool.
You'll be able to KNOW within 3nm what you actually are growing your plants under.
Tell you IS the advertising actually factual about whatever.

EXAMPLE.
Add says wave lengths and Lumens.
This will tell you what percentage of each wave length your light ACTUALLY puts out.
IF your light is supposed to put out X Lumems/Par or whatever you can see if your light puts out a majority of wave lengths in PLANT USABLE LIGHT.
A gazillion Lumens or whatever of non plant usable light might make a lot lesser lumen growlight better if it is ALL plant usable wave lengths.
As I speculated above.MAYBE it could be better to buy more CHEAP growlight in lesser Lumens than buy a higher lumen light at 5X the price of 3 cheep ones.

Until I make AND use the one in the link.I don't know what to think.
It's free and costs very little in general.

As I said,IF it works as advertised it would be a GREAT tool to cut through all the half truths posted on the internet about "YOU GOTTA DO THIS OR USE THAT" or you are wasting your $ or whatever.

Just a possibly Very Cool toy for the guy who likes to play with different light sources and not spend $ on stuff that isn't worth messing with.
I see it as a possible tool in comparing different light sources when you just bought them.
Especially LEDS.
Test stuff the day you get the growlight and be able to return the junk ones.
Also you could compare HD,Fluoros or whatever to each other.
This CAN possibly lead to being able to make a more informed decision about what light source you want to use rather than going by trial and error.

As I said,this thing might not work.
I haven't tried it yet.
It just looks too cool to not try.
Being free it ,to me makes me think it has a better chance of working.
No hype etc.,no reason for these guys to try and get you to use it.

Greenman posted while I was hunting and pecking away with my 1 typing finger.

Thanks guys

I was just thinking.Hook it to a laptop and take it with you to the hydro shop to check out light sources BEFORE you buy it.
Might piss a few sales people off when they see their super deluxe , gazillion dollar model doesn't put out the wave lengths their cheaper model does.