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

[Civitus]

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

Hello, I have just read the term "Raman" with great interest.
Exactly the project, which I will implement hereby ...
I have already realized the first prototype of a Raman microscope for the identification of minerals.
Here I was very glad that the optical resolution of the spectroscope with the 1800 grating is about 1nm, because if you turn the grid counterclockwise and so the laser line on the array direction shorter wavelength, you can reach with this grid with the 200-250 nm band width quite more than 5000cm-1 stroke-shift.
(10000000 / 532nm) - (10000000 / (532nm + 250nm)) = 6009.27cm-1 or at 200nm bandwidth (10000000 / 532nm) - (10000000 / (532nm + 200nm)) = 5135.79cm-1.
I do not need the antistroke, because it is weaker and so about a mirror from the stroke.
You also save the expensive notch filter and can use a cheaper sharp-edge long-pass filter.

Dear Chloderic,

I am also very interrested in Raman applications
I deduce from your message that you are using a 532nm laser for your set up.
Will you try it with this spectrometer ? or may be you have already tested it?
Can you message me please? I would like to talk about the Raman issue, but it is not the topic here.
Thank you

 

[Civitus]

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

So....not to through another spanner in the works, just removed the filter from my second unit, and it has a different optical coating....... :thinking:

J

Are the two filters from different units, or are they from your second one ?

 

[jnrpop]

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

first filter (left) is from my first unit, second filter (right) is from my second unit. Both with different optical coatings.
not sure yet what filter passes/filters what wavelength/s

J

 

[chloderic]

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

So....not to through another spanner in the works, just removed the filter from my second unit, and it has a different optical coating....... :thinking:


J

The optical components of the parts of the whole units are compatible with each other, ooking through the two beam splitter will recognize what I mean .... these two splitters will be in this case a mirror image differ, because they will have also different dicros inside. .....

 

[paul1598419]

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

That is odd. I have only had time to remove one filter so far. I can't imagine why this same unit would use two different band pass filters. :thinking:

If those are from the two I sent you, Corey, I removed the baffles from both units and they were in the same location inside the bench.

 

[jnrpop]

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

That is odd. I have only had time to remove one filter so far. I can't imagine why this same unit would use two different band pass filters. :thinking:

If those are from the two I sent you, Corey, I removed the baffles from both units and they were in the same location inside the bench.

Hi Paul, yes i only have the two units, both from you. each unit had a different coated band pass filter in the black cylinder as you see in the above photo. I have one unit set up as my main "working" unit, and the other unit i've used for spare parts, as the internal optics where all scratched from the loose focusing mirror

J

 

[diber]

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

in an old document "Spectrometer Command Set for BTC110/BRC100/BRC110/BTC200" i found

Set Coefficients
Description: Set coefficients.
Wavelength=coef_0+coef_1*pixel+coef_2*pixel*pixel+coef_3*pixel*pixel*pixel
Command syntax: C n {DATA WORD}
Response: ACK or NAK

Examples: C 1 1.23E-5 ------ coef_0=1.23e-5
C 2 2.345e+2 ------ coef_1=2.34e+2
C 3 123 -------coef_2=12
C 4 12345E-10 -------coef_3=12345e-10

Notes: Specialty
Response of command (?C):
Char0-Char 12 Char13-Char 24 Char25-Char 36 Char 37-Char48 10 13
Char0 ---Char12: *.***E** --Coefficient a0
Char13---Char24: *.***E** --Coefficient a1
Char25---Char36: *.***E** --Coefficient a2
Char37---Char48: *.***E** --Coefficient a3

Thanks for the document chloderic. I tried with a serial terminal on my units and the C command does not seem to work as described in the protocol (strangely enough, the commands are acknowledged (which normally happens only for valid commands), but the response of the ?C command does not change. Furthermore, this response does not comply either. I did notice that each of the spectrometers is however giving a different response (including a CSxxxxx with xxxxx a 5 digit number which is different for each spectrometer). I think I will use this as the "discriminator"/serial number of the different spectrometers and store the coefficients on the PC as Mosc007 is doing.

 

[paul1598419]

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

Yeah, having that loose mirror bounce around inside the optical bench would have been hard on the other optics inside there. It has likely been bouncing around in there for a very long time. That is why I saw no need to remove it as the damage was already done. Once I have time to get back into these spectrometers, I will look for other band pass filters too.

 

[Civitus]

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

Yeah, having that loose mirror bounce around inside the optical bench would have been hard on the other optics inside there. It has likely been bouncing around in there for a very long time. That is why I saw no need to remove it as the damage was already done. Once I have time to get back into these spectrometers, I will look for other band pass filters too.

Paul,
Do you mean that the spectrometer you got was damaged and was no longer usable ????? it means it is a waist of monay

Civitus

 

[paul1598419]

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

No, it was a spectrometer sent to me by another member here that had the loose mirror. When I got the first of the six meters I used a 12 volt supply on the first one as it was shown on an eBay sale for this spectrometer and it ruined the board. There is now a short somewhere on the +5 volt line. I am keeping it as it has a perfectly good bench and I may be able to repair the short at a later date. I had little to no information on these at that time and thought the 12 volt supply was legitimate. It was likely put there to confuse people, like myself, who had no information on them. Lesson learned.

 

[jnrpop]

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

Paul,
Do you mean that the spectrometer you got was damaged and was no longer usable ????? it means it is a waist of monay

Civitus

Hi Civitus,

Yes unfortunatley one of my two units, sent to Paul directly from the seller had a loose focusing mirror and it scratched all the optical components inside the bench, i didn't know this until Paul sent me the units.

I guess i could of sent it back to the seller, but these units are only worth ~$15usd, so not worth the stress and fuel driving back to the post office.

I got one good working unit, which Paul kindly removed the baffle on.

No, it was a spectrometer sent to me by another member here that had the loose mirror. When I got the first of the six meters I used a 12 volt supply on the first one as it was shown on an eBay sale for this spectrometer and it ruined the board. There is now a short somewhere on the +5 volt line. I am keeping it as it has a perfectly good bench and I may be able to repair the short at a later date. I had little to no information on these at that time and thought the 12 volt supply was legitimate. It was likely put there to confuse people, like myself, who had no information on them. Lesson learned.

It's all apart of this hobby, experiment and learn

How many ~$200usd PHR 405 diodes did we all blow back in the early days

Thanks for your efforts Paul :beer:

 

[paul1598419]

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

Thanks, Corey. I hope you are able to get a good working spectrometer out of the one that wasn't damaged. Absolutely keep the other one as you never know when you might need a part for your working one. Someday the board may fail on you and you have a perfectly good board left to trade out if need be.

 

[Richard A]

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

No, it was a spectrometer sent to me by another member here that had the loose mirror. When I got the first of the six meters I used a 12 volt supply on the first one as it was shown on an eBay sale for this spectrometer and it ruined the board. There is now a short somewhere on the +5 volt line. I am keeping it as it has a perfectly good bench and I may be able to repair the short at a later date. I had little to no information on these at that time and thought the 12 volt supply was legitimate. It was likely put there to confuse people, like myself, who had no information on them. Lesson learned.

I removed the short on mine my replacing the CPLD. The microcontroller responded but the unit gave me error codes and just returned zeros on the scan.
The CCD is probably still good on yours since it is powered by a VR, and not directly from the power input. I didn't want to spend anymore time and money on fixing it so
I just used a microcontroller to drive it. The ADC on these units isn't cheap. I haven't
bothered testing it yet.

 

[paul1598419]

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

OUCH! I'm sorry to hear that, Richard. I was hoping it might be some insignificant shorted device. Not a CPLD or some expensive A/DC. I thought, at first it might be a zener on the +5 volt supply, but that didn't pan out. It might not be worth my time to go further if you had these problems. I still have a couple of good ones left beside the one I am currently working with.

 

[chloderic]

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

Thanks for the suggestion, but it is not fully clear to me what I can do. I have the latest version of Spectrum Studio installed on that PC. In the RAR you provided, there are the exe's (together with all the supporting files such as the dll's), not an installer... it could thus well be that the registry is not OK.

When I execute the SpectrumStudioMDI.exe from your RAR file, the program runs without a problem. When I run the SetCoefficients.exe, I just get the error window stating that SetCoefficients has stopped working (Windows is checking for a solution... which it does not find). Same behaviour after uninstalling the new Spectrum Studio.

Again to this ..... is that the error you got ? Than i may have the reason ...

 

[chloderic]

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

It may be, that your spectr hang up after an illegal serial command while testing something or closing spectrum studio without stopping the capturing of an spectro.
Than the calibrationtool will hang up while starting, you have to reset the spectro. .....