Killer deal on USB spectrometer! (update: legitimate!)

[kecked]

I have a project for next summer. I want to capture the spectrum of lightning!

 

[paul1598419]

You could likely get the same effect, much easier, by taking a spectrum shot of a HV arc. The larger the better.

 

[kecked]

Not as much fun.

 

[paul1598419]

Good luck on timing it and knowing where it will occur.

 

[kecked]

Just continuous log for a while during a night storm. Should be pretty easy if the spec reacts quickly enough.thinking I might use an Andor for that one.

 

[paul1598419]

I'll be watching too see how it does. I'm using Spectrasuite, which is older OEM software. Not really familiar with Oceanview, so maybe you have options I don't. I hope it works out for you. My knowledge of andors is with respect to RAMAN spectrometers. I suppose they could be useful in transients like you are after. Let me know.

 

[kecked]

Well I decided to go one farther. Going to try a photon counter set to a couple uv wavelengths of interest via a jobin monochromator and pmt setup. Tried it with xenon flash and it worked well. Yea won’t get entire spectrum in one shot but will be interesting. I want to look at the uv anyways. Might also set to triplet oxygen line in the red and the oxygen in the blue greens. My trigger is 2ns set to a second pmt with a moderate discriminatory level. Going to treat it like a fluoesecence experiment cuz that’s what it is. Never seen that published actually. Well I have 4 months to get it right.

 

[Civitus]

Seems like a better product.. Not sure if
it's full of Hot Snot or not.

Jerry

Hi every one,
I got one of the new model. I can tell that it is really much better than the first version. it is really more sensitive, i made a test wt my students to compare both models, we got 117 +/- 6 more sensitive than the previous model.
It is more robust, it has a slit of 100um by default, but they made one for me with 75um (they also offer 25um). but because of the dimensions of the spectrometer, they told me that there are not that big differences between 25um and 75um.
I discussed with the guy behind these innovations, he told me that they are working on an other model even much better.
he assured me that the SMA Spectrometer model has been used by several universities, gemologists, schools .

i give a 4.5/5

 

[Civitus]

I found another very cheap spectrometer, also using a webcam sensor, but it is well-made and reviews are excellent.
Search for "i-Phos"

Hi FlatBroke,

I think that this is mostly a toy and made by a non professional. He is missleading, or in the best cases he ignores and does not know any thing about physics. This is what makes me think that it is a toy made by a hobbyist.
he speaks about Raman and stellar spectra. It is impossible to get with su device !
a braod range low cost webcame can not (what ever you do) get Raman spectra.
And for astronomy, it needs also a more serious detector.

I would like to suggest him to correct the description to not misslead potential buyers.

But, anyway, i am sure that it can be used a toy to see the approximate spectra of leds, lasers, ... a 1mm slit is just huge (200um is already too big and is rarely used).

I can say definitly a good toy, i may buy one for XMass for my nephew.

C

 

[N7DKQ]

I got my spectrometer today -- FAST shipping.
I plugged it into two computers and the systems
only recognized the camera. NO software.
I was told that I need to download the software from
their website -- What a mess -- I can occasionally
get a display but no calibration instructions or anything
else.
HM

Last year - I purchased a SMA-E unit from Thunder-Optics, and installed it - it worked well; not as good as the Ocean Optics unit ($4000) that I purchased for Intel when I wrote the Intel Test Plan for LEDs; but ok

But then, after a few weeks - it wanted me to update the license key, which I had - but, no matter what I did - I kept on getting the following error message (see attached picture)

I contacted Thunder-Optics and provided the picture, their attitude was that no one had ever got this error message before - so it couldn't happen and that was it

Its been 14 months, and they still to this day refuse to help me - the last message I received from them was " I spent much time on you, it would be unfair to all other users to spend even more. Full stop"

I find that very unprofessional, should the car dealer I just bought a car from tell me the same 'No one has ever had that problem before' and just walk away from me ?

Ocean Optics support was incredible, I even found an interesting problem with Sunlight that they never thought of and they even added a very nice feature to their product, but they never told me to "go away" like Thunder Optics did..

I am not going to purchase any more products, nor recommend this company to others