I spent the day building my own version of Public Lab's Spectrometer today and was rather pleased with the results. They have very detailed instructions for hacking together a make-shift spectrometer with nothing more than a broken DVD-R, a webcam and a Home Depot electrical junction. Once you have the rig built, all you have to do is take some captures using Spectral Workbench, calibrate with a CFL and you're all set.
Here's a capture of my CXA2011's (5000K) from my veg tent.
This one is from the veg tent with everything on. This includes the CXA2011's above along with a few different 10W ebay COBs. Some of the COBs are a mix of 6500K white and blue, the others are a warm white.
This last one is from the flower tent. Its a huge mix of COBs including CXA2540's running at 3000K, some 630nm red COBs off ebay, some 630nm Luxeons, some 660nm Luxeons and a few other misc COBs. More details on that lamp here.
I don't think its totally dialed in yet as some of the results aren't quite in the color ranges I'd expect them to be, but I think with a little more practice, I can get some really neat results. I had most everything laying around, so the entire thing cost me a trip to my junk bin and about 4 bucks at Home Depot. Public Labs sells a kit for $40 bucks if you want to go that route.
Here's a capture of my CXA2011's (5000K) from my veg tent.
This one is from the veg tent with everything on. This includes the CXA2011's above along with a few different 10W ebay COBs. Some of the COBs are a mix of 6500K white and blue, the others are a warm white.
This last one is from the flower tent. Its a huge mix of COBs including CXA2540's running at 3000K, some 630nm red COBs off ebay, some 630nm Luxeons, some 660nm Luxeons and a few other misc COBs. More details on that lamp here.
I don't think its totally dialed in yet as some of the results aren't quite in the color ranges I'd expect them to be, but I think with a little more practice, I can get some really neat results. I had most everything laying around, so the entire thing cost me a trip to my junk bin and about 4 bucks at Home Depot. Public Labs sells a kit for $40 bucks if you want to go that route.
Last edited:
