Thanks for mentioning me! I watch all your videos and really like your explanations.

Hands down this is what diy engineering channels should aspire for. It's safe to say I have waited for a channel like this for a decade, now. Subbed and Loved!

Just to remind people that hot glue exists in black for this kind of application.

As a guy that's responsible for training new users in flow cytometry, I used to have this elaborate presentation I would run through, now. I just link them to the start of this video. Excellent explanation of spectrometry and very succinct

You're videos are great, not only for the actual builds, but for the absolutely superb explanations.

i was watching Applied Science video and you video was "Up next" and thats how i found out about your channel and i am subscribed to you ever since ;)

I’ve been looking for this tutorial for months and didn’t even know it. Thank you so much.

No time to follow this through right now but I had to compliment you on the excellent introduction. Definitely will come back to follow it to the end! Thank you for the quality contribution.

cool stuff, your diversity seems vast. btw "Applied Science" certainly is/has been a great channel, Also "Tech Ingredients" is top notch too, just in case anyone wasn't already aware & is interested.

What a prize to find this channel. Thank you for sharing this great content!

AMAZING! can't wait to see what you use it for!

Nice. I found this a bit funny since, just yesterday, my physics teacher showed us your video on measuring Planck's constant using light diffractions.

Very nice, I look forward to seeing the additional modifications to this design.

Actually you can estimate the concentration of bacteria by how much light is dispersed, not absorbed. That's why it's called OD instead of absorbance. Awesome video as always by the way

Wow! This is incredible! What a nice project I'll have to make :P I'm so glad you posted this, thank you so much!!

This thing is amazing! I can't wait to build one :-) Thanks for sharing

Nice build and presentation. All systems started with a handmade system for the most part. Increasing accuracy as needed with improvements in tools to make improvements in whats made and so on.

Lovely video mate! keep it up, big support!

Brilliant video! Loved it thoroughly.

I've used the 'proper' UV-vis machines at my university (I study chemistry), and this was really interesting to watch. I might have to try and build one of these at some point

your videos blow my mind every time

I am a MSc in Biotechnology and I am still learning cool stuff which I could have done thanks for sharing such goods information for free.

Underrated video, honestly

I just love your videos 😍. Waiting for the spider silk video series

I didnt know There was a software to do that! As always nice video!

i love this scattered sciencey stuff

The world could use more scientists like you :)

If I were ever to be marooned on a deserted island with only a can opener, a flat blade screwdriver and a flashlight, I would hope to have you or your doppelganger with me! The quality of your work and narration is simply stunning. I really have hope for the future of humankind when I see that the world is awash in smart people like you. May you find peace and prosperity all the days of your life. Amen. (Just a quirky little thing I picked up on UKposts.) ;^)✓

Yesssssssss another upload ❤❤

AMAZING! Thanks

Dude, you are amazing. Thank you.

WTF thats absolutely amazing wow

I love the idea of making a hyperspectral camera that gives 4D data and the ideas behind it are very interesting.

To split off narrow strips of glass I recommend using a pliers that has vinyl, masking, duct, or painters tape wrapped over the pincers. There's actually a couple special bronze tools for splitting glass used by glaziers, but they're all basically variations of pliers. Putting Kerosene or alcohol on the glass before scoring it can help create an uninterrupted scratch which breaks cleanly. It gets more difficult and less forgiving the closer the strip being cut is to the thickness of the pane. Glass is surprisingly amenable to sanding, and the edges could be sanded flat without compromising the strength of the piece. However, sanding the edges might cause back scattering of light and mess up the function of the spectroscope.

This is pretty awesome :)

Excellent!

Thanks for the inspireing video! Looks like I am not the only biologist affected heavily by phisics and electronics. I am curently building a spectrometer to test the light sources I am going to use to grow my plants. One note... you actually try to use your "nanodrop" in a fluorimeter mode. It is challenging using the current geometry as excitation light is usually orders of magnitude (3-4) more intense than the emitted fluorescent light. Ususally the emission is measured from a perpendicular direction, so the excitation light does not hit the detector. You should be able to measure DNA based on absorbtion using 260nm of full spectrum light (e.g xenon flash): A(260nm DNA) - A(260nm Water)

Love ur vids!

Thank you so much

this is so cool!

Very clever.

I can make this. Thank you!

Love it!

Wow, i really like your videos, especially this one since you mentioned works of ELISA tests. as i was misdiagnosed with stage 2 Lyme borreliosis, i did an elisa with a false positive and had to bear with 2 years of therapy for lyme disease. and elisa was veeery expensive at that time, it probably still is.

Lots of good ideas here. I would like to add that finding a ready made black box would make the manufacturing part much faster. For example, another builder used old VHS cover case made out of black plastic. Hot glue should stick that pretty well and you can easily make the required holes on the plastic.

Hi, are there any updates on the Spec? I am probably going to try it out. I am especially interested in the identification and quantification possibilities :)

You should pick up some black hot glue. It is amazing for projects like this, where you're trying to limit light coming through cracks.

This is really amazing. I'm learning about spectrography. I'd like to make my own to analyze grow lights for indoor gardening. I'm confused about a few things. You use a white led in your device, but my understanding is that white LEDs do not emit very broad spectra. In your computer program the image showed a very even spectrum. Did you use a special LED? Also, I've looked at many DIY spectrography, and one thing they all seem to neglect is the fact that the camera isn't equally sensitive to all frequencies of light. I haven't figured out how to calibrate this away, given that I can't easily generate light with both a known wavelength *and* intensity.

Nice! I think next is a flow cell and a pump and some silica for a column

Something I've always wanted to do see the other portions of the spectrum. There's such a world we don't know about

Now I'm sure that UKposts can read your mind. I was thinking of Thought Emporium's DIY spectroscope and this video showed up in my feed right away.

I remember I made a analog paper recording model, with a motor turning the grating, and a couple of light sensitivite resistors! It was just weird, compared to the instruments of today, 40 years later!

Pretty interesting video. I've used NanoDrop 2000 to measure DNA concentrations.

i know that styropyro has a pure uv laser pointer but the diode he used was a nichia NDU4116 , 375 nm laser diode but that thing costs like 4300$ or if my calculations are right a 750 nm lazer diode sent through a non linear cristal shuld work too

tip: to get a surface reflecting mirror.. rub paint thinner on a regular mirror.. it strips the color coat revealing the mirror surface.. hobby stores sell small precut mirrors..

feeling smarter. thanks

I love you videos man

Using paint remover, one can turn any regular mirror into a first surface mirror. It's cheaper too. If you don't have glazier pliers, you can use cardboard and regular pliers. Lubricate the glass cutter or it won't make a good score: automatic transmission fluid works great for this. It takes practice to cut glass. I have a friend that's a professional glazier who showed me how to cut glass. Wear gloves and sand down the sharp corners for safety. My friend used a belt sander.

What a great project and a great video! I'm always amazed how a diffraction grating instantly creates a spectrum c.f. FFT et al that require time to produce the same spectrum...I know, "duh"...but it still amazes me - the universe works in parallel and near on instantaneously....man we have a long way to go! Keep on plugging other science sites...the world is suffering from far too much BS.

Far-Red is possibly the most neglected portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. It consists of the portion from 700nm to 800nm, roughly. The visible spectrum and infrared do not have a clearly defined boundary, and far-red is a sort of transition zone between the two. Far-red light is visible, but it is not as bright as light in the rest of the visible spectrum. Far-red will also reflect off of most of the fabrics we call black. Some of you may have noticed that many black, fabrics have a very slight red tint to them when looked at under sunlight or incandescent light especially. This is due to far-red reflecting off of them. I have some 730nm LEDs, and I built a flashlight from a 3 watt one. When I take this light into a room and shine it on my black fabrics, the fabrics shine back red. Even more interesting is the fact that if the black fabric had been written on with black permanent marker, the writing becomes readable. Far-red LEDs make any other red LED look a bit orange by comparision; these far-red LEDs are so red that no screen can display how red they are. Far-red makes up some of the colors of a sunrise and sunset as well. Have you ever noticed that your black fabrics look a lttle bit 'rusty' at sunrise and sunset? The CIE and lumens are not perfect, because they ignore far-red and say that "anything over 700nm is infrared." I have some 3W 730nm LEDs, and they are visible, so not infrared. Before anybody says, "well maybe its just the portion of light under 700nm that you see.", nope, I have a lens from a broken digital camera that cuts off all light above 700nm, and when I look through this lens at these LEDs, almost no light is seen. When you look through the cut-off filter, if you have incandescent bulbs, you'll notice a few small color details missing as well.

Great video. I’d like to build this to measure the color of vintage postage stamps. Do you have any advice for doing this?

To quantify DNA (or anything really) you will also need to calibrate the distance between the coverslip and the fiber optic cable end on the detector because of Beer's Law you need to know the light path length.

Very interested in Updates :D

I like biology but your videos really want me to go into the field

You've got an amazing educational system going for private research for the general public. I'd like to discuss working together sometime.

Muito Obrigado (thank you).

I hope someone releases this as a kit Could be usefull for all sorts of things

You can measure DNA with absorbance at 260nm, don't need fluorescence if sample concentration above 5 ng/µL or so

After scoring the glass, sharply tap the steel ball end of the cutter ( on the opposite end of many glass cutters) directly under the scored line. When properly done, you will see an internal fracture start. Continue tapping ahead of this fracture.

Hoya makes a great filter that removes most visible light and only allows ultraviolet light to pass. I use it for viewing florescent minerals under UV-C shortwave 265 nm light. It blocks out everything but the UV-C perfectly.

Nice job. I wanna know, what the type sensor u use??

Awesome! So in what spectrum range are cheaply available sensors sensitive? Can you remove the beyer filter to get a monochrome image with higher resolution / sensitivity (throwing less light away and less noise). Thanks for the video your channel is really awesome!

This really should exist as a build kit with precut mirrors and stuff...

Could this work for telling how much UVA, short-spectrum UVB, long-spectrum UVB, and UVC is emitted from some bulbs? (At least assuming the bulb doesn't emit much heat)

I would like to know how you get the thermino spectrum tool to work with a narrow spectrum? I can't ever seem to make it work it seems to expect the blue to be way at the left end. Great info here. Thanks.

your contribution in this field is mind-blowing but I have a query. What was the total cost of febrication? And which software was use to peak display

Next time you need a mirror or glass: scratch it, heat it with boiling water then dunk it in ice water. After a few times it will break on the scratch line. Awsome build!

Cool to see another subber to BenNbuilds

Black hot glue is fantastic for sealing light tight boxes.

Do you guys have a video on orgon? I tried searching and didn't see your channel come up. It would be cool to see how you make a generator.

Please tell us when you find a way to quantify the data. Im currently working on a similar project and it would be very nice to compare the data properly.

please make a comparison video between diy and commercial spectroscope, and i have some questions: how do you measure and control the thickness of the sample? and need more details on setting up the camera and its position and lastly, how to calibrate and start with the software? TIA

Hi I am trying to build a spectrometer to do reflectance spectroscopy of a powder. Do you have advice for this? I'd like to be able to collect the diffuse light but also measure the light collected as a function of angle.

Do you have to adjust to the metal of the mirror absorbing certain wavelengths (probably UV)?

Great video -- just a note, Black 3.0 is now available and is way blacker!

Where can I find the yellow, translucent glass at 14:11 that you were using to filter out the violet portion of the spectrum for DNA quantification..? 🤔 Did this filter ever end up working out?

Хочется, увидеть спектр обычной лампы накаливания ;) Только он может показать точность измерения спектра.

Great breakdown to how this stuff works! loved it :) I was going to ask why you were planning to get DNA concentration from fluorescence, as opposed to absorbance (i.e. log(Transmission)), which is what a nanodrop/any decent professional UV/vis spec would do. But then I realized its either your camera, or your laser doesn't go down to at least 260 nm, which is where DNA absorption is usually measured. I think with the laser/camera combo you have right now, you aren't actually getting much more functionality out of having two light sources. Also, why use a UV laser, as opposed to a more broad spectrum UV LED, or at least smaller wavelength laser? That might help you with the DNA fluorescence - if you are using ethidium bromide, it absorbs most between 210 and 285 nm (for excitation at 600 nm). So even if your camera can't see those photons, it will excite EtBr without needing to jack the laser up as high as you do right now.

How do you achive the same thickness in every one of the mesures?. The absorvance also depends on the thickness of the sample.

It is great. Can you make an adaptor for an old spectrophotometer as a nanodrop?

did you ever modify the spectrometer with the filter to quantify DNA?

Could you use this to (for example) detect and identify chemical contaminants of drinking water?

What will be the size of the slit that can be used? Is there any specific formula to calculate the entrance slit

what dye are you using to run your DNA gels? it would be more accurate to quantify DNA if the dye only florese when it binds to DNA, but does not when it is on its own. If you could make your home-made nano drop compare absorbance in ratio (A260/A280 and A260/A230) then you wouldn't need to add any dye to quantify pure DNA and RNA

You could accumulate data over multiple frames of the video in order to get more precise results, it's not like there's much if any external noise here, so your exposure time could be arbitrarily long.

Next time , cutting glass, score the glass with your glass cutter, then hit it a few times with intense heat (butane torch maybe?). The thermal shock will cause the glass to shatter along your scored line (which is hopefully a straight line).

You are the smartest man on the Internet. I used to be the smartest man on the AOL years ago.

I can't find that Thereamino software. Is there a link? I did find an open source general tool called Theramino, but it's not the code we see here. Great job here! I want to build this, but fear that the software will be the hardest part. It's worth the effort though.

Really cool project. I have recently thought about trying to make a "Near Infrared Spectrometer" to analyse the properties of different polymers. I thought about having multiple IR LEDs with various NIR wavelenghts and one photo sensor for each wavelength. Do you think something like this might be possible?

Dude you should totally make a spectroheliograph