B&W-tech Spectrometer & 473 module: Setup+Mods+Info

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

Alaskan said:

Paul, looking forward to seeing what we can do, the 785 nm wavelength is a bit shy of the 812 nm top I want to be able to reach with it, but from what I gather, the accuracy is going to be limited to 1 nm. Do you think this spectrometer can be biased to go to a longer wavelength? If so, maybe I could use one with the normal range and another setup to measure at longer wavelengths? I have no knowledge of these things to know anything, so I'm probably asking a very newbie question on this subject, but enquiring minds want to know!

Diachi, thanks for additional information and photo, is that a picture of one used without the prisms and focusing lenses? I hope i get some with them in it, was this an earlier version without them and they added them later?

I bought a bunch of them because I've been collecting crystals to build some higher power DPSS 532 nm lasers, maybe I can use one of these boxes, anamorphic prism pairs and lenses for either that, or the 589 nm project I want to build too.

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Mine was manufactured in late 2003 and has the pump shaping optics in it. I believe the NEWER units were the ones without the pump shaping optics. And now I need to do some homework on turning it into a reasonably powered 532 seeing as I don't have a need for a low output 473 or IR labby.


As for calibration, I have a feeling we are missing a config file seeing as these spectrometers have what appears to be a calibration code on the top of them and I bet when new, these came with individualized software specific to each unit that was calibrated.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

If I manage to get one I'll take a look at the code and see how it's calibrated. If needed we can change that.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

Alaskan said:

Paul, looking forward to seeing what we can do, the 785 nm wavelength is a bit shy of the 812 nm top I want to be able to reach with it, but from what I gather, the accuracy is going to be limited to 1 nm. Do you think this spectrometer can be biased to go to a longer wavelength? If so, maybe I could use one with the normal range and another setup to measure at longer wavelengths? I have no knowledge of these things to know anything, so I'm probably asking a very newbie question on this subject, but enquiring minds want to know!

Diachi, thanks for additional information and photo, is that a picture of one used without the prisms and focusing lenses? I hope i get some with them in it, was this an earlier version without them and they added them later?

I bought a bunch of them because I've been collecting crystals to build some higher power DPSS 532 nm lasers, maybe I can use one of these boxes, anamorphic prism pairs and lenses for either that, or the 589 nm project I want to build too.

Click to expand...

Sure, it can be done, but probably will require realignment, which is tedious and difficult to get right the first time. Maybe, just maybe, the 812nm limit you are looking for is close enough to the 785nm limit that it can be captured without realignment, but I wouldn't count on it. I'll know more when I get to calibration of these things.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

I did pull the cover off the laser head and this one does have the corrective optics. It came to me through jnrpop. He wants the spectro, but the rest is mine.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

After having tried to source the original BW-Spec software, this included software is most certainly not even close to that software. Would be fantastic If we could get ahold of that software but unless someone here has an account with BW Tek that is active within a year, good luck. Or unless someone can be very persuasive/sell their soul and get a copy from them or somewhere else that uses it.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

Actually, it's quite simple to get. You just pay for it. It is a one time fee and you have it for life. If there's a password, and there usually is.....then it could be shared.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

paul1598419 said:

Actually, it's quite simple to get. You just pay for it. It is a one time fee and you have it for life. If there's a password, and there usually is.....then it could be shared.

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Looking into an alternative along these lines. Emailed a small company that sells unaligned or aligned spectro kits using these spectros to see what I can do about getting better software for it. They wrote their own and their kits with a spectro and their software are a lot cheaper than the price BW-tek wants for their software alone. Maybe I will get really lucky and just get given a download link or a cheap fee for this software instead of bwspec. Not willing to pay $500 for a piece of software for a dirt cheap spectro.

I will post an update on this inquiry when I receive a response.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

I'm not to the point yet where I am ready to look for alternatives. I've got a lot more work to do and if that other company wrote software for "their" spectros, I'm not sure it would have the advantages that the OEM software would have. Don't think anyone is asking $500.00 for software. But, there may still be hope for the software we got and it may be as good as the one you are now trying to get. I'll let you know when I get everything I am waiting for.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

I managed to get a look at the code from the software the seller is sending and it seems relatively simple. It's probably possible to modify it if needed, or even write our own. I'll dig more if/when I get a scope.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

Atomicrox said:

I managed to get a look at the code from the software the seller is sending and it seems relatively simple. It's probably possible to modify it if needed, or even write our own. I'll dig more if/when I get a scope.

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Can't be all that complicated, certainly isn't very big. It's not a whole lot larger than the Autoclicker I wrote a few weeks ago... May have to take a look at the code.

Edit: Would help if I could program in C*...

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

I didn't mention it before, but I got the five coming from Alaskan, though I have yet to unpack them all. I still have another one coming from jnrpop which will give me 7 of these in total. Don't think I can take anymore. I'll run out of room before much longer.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

Realignment for a different wavelength range involves moving the grating (because that just puts a different spectrum on the focusing mirror,) and the focusing mirror, because shifting the grating introduces astigmatism that must be corrected. I think the collimating mirror can be left alone for such a small shift.

I've aligned a spectrometer once. And once was enough for me. Altering any of the mounts requires re-adjusting of the other mounts... which in turn requires re-adjusting of the first mount, back and forth. And of course, each adjustment requires re-assembling the cavity and booting up the software again to check the spectrum. It takes several hours.

Using lasers as a calibration source is the hard way to do it. Just use any CFL/fluorescent lamp. They've got very obvious mercury atomic emission lines at 365.4nm, 404.7nm, 435.8nm, 546.1nm, and 578.2nm.

For the reds, you can use the emission lines from a neon indicator lamp. Look around your house and you'll probably find several... power strips and electric ranges often have them for example. Or they're 10 cents on ebay. Here's what I was able to discern - More reds than you can poke a scope probe at:

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

I got one box of one and another with four. Sorry. I opened the boxes to check and I only got the five.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

Yeah, I'm sorry, Chris. I wish they had sent them to me by mistake, but no. I would contact UPS as they are the ones who have delivered all three packages mine came in from you and jrnpop. Must either be they're mistake or the seller didn't ship those.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

I have ordered one of these as well. Shipping to Aus doubled the cost. But it's still a good price for what you get.

It should arrive very soon.

Re: B&Wtech 473nm unit / Spectrometer Mods & Info

There's a lot of good stuff in just one of these units. I now have a collection of junk parts including optics, electronics and spectrometers. There's enough here to keep me busy for a very long time. I expect to get at least one of the lasers going. More than that in spectrometers.