Do you have any insight on how to take spectroscopy measurements at home on a <1k€ budget? And how to select an LED manufacturing supplier when CRI is often the only thing available on the datasheet?
Starting points for first question: Look into i1Pro (later models of the first generation), which can be had for $200-400. Combine with some free or $99 Windows/Mac/Android software [0] [1].
Second question: It is still too hard even to find CRI for most offerings. It's pretty much a "buy, test, return the ones you don't like" situation. If independent reviewers start publishing spectrograms and making YouTube/etc videos, perhaps the industry will move forward some day.
A little garden spectrometer is pretty good, and around $60: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQmaJYMOAk . And the LED supplier should give a spectrometer graph. If you can get a dual peak LED that will give a better spectrum distribution. The Amaran 200x S is one of the best.
Very cool! I definitely want a spectrometer at home now! edit: looks like it's more of a DIY project than a commercial thing. Maybe DIY spectrometer is my next project then!
I bought a little garden on aliexpress from the guy who makes it. It's very plug and play and it does about 350-1100nm, which is pretty impressive. I used it to verify how my own DIY sun reproduction setup works. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807055520087.html
There is also this commercial one that is Bluetooth and more portable for around $150, similar spectrum range but lower spectrum resolution than the little garden one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOXryggwr_Q
My current issue is finding a 250-400nm UV spectrometer or IR spectrometers beyond 1000nm that don't go into the $1000+ range. Standard mass market CMOS sensors don't go into those ranges, so they become far more specialized parts and thus way more pricy.
The luxeon 2835 website that’s linked in the article has a data sheet for the LED source. Scroll down and you’ll see the spectra for various subtypes of that source.
