Spectrometer idea...need linear sensor

Archive New Product Ideas
1

Hi,

I’ve been playing with this idea for a while, its a spectrometer.

I had taken apart a Canon LIDE scanner to get at its sensor. Simply by putting a reset/clocking + PSU on the sensor you get an analog output streamed out, which I can view on a oscilloscope. Had plans to add a micro+usb…by haven’t got around to it. By adding a prism/diffraction grating etc you could get a spectrum reading.

This would be handy for all sorts of things, like calculating the CRI of different lighting setups.

Only problem with the current setup is the sensor is the width of an A4 page…too long to be practical.

Does Sparkfun have any plans for selling small linear sensors, like the sort used in credit card scanners? Note the longer LIDE sensors used in the Canon scanners (presumably others) are just several smaller sensors linked together.

Phil

2

If you’re just looking for a source; Mouser carries some linear CCD’s from TAOS.

Note - credit card scanners use a magnetic sensor, rather than an optoelectronic.

Cheers,

–David Carne

3

Hi there,

I had a similar post about building an astrospectrometer:

viewtopic.php?t=7566&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

I had picked up one of the TAOS sensors at the time, and (this is all from memory, so I must appologize if it’s not entirely accurate), I remember the TAOS sensors were nice in that they only required a single voltage to operate, but the sensors are actually quite long without that high a resolution.

I think the linear sensors in most scanners that I’ve taken apart are probably physically smaller than a TOAS sensor, and with a higher resolution, but these salvaged sensors would be a bit trickier to interface – (if you can find a datasheet, they’ll likely have a number of different crazy voltages they need to operate).

I would be very interested to hear how your project comes along! :slight_smile:

silic0re

4

ooops, I meant to say Business card scanner. Those little boxes executives pay far too much money for to scan cards automagically into their contact lists.

Thanks for the link on the TAOS sensors, they probably would be suitable for my application actually. I don’t really need all that much resolution, just a reasonable sampling of the spectrum to perform a CRI index calculation. No doubt to observe the absorption/emission lines from a star or whatever you’d need to have higher resolution.

Phil