What’s On the Bench Tonight (OBT)

SnubWay Noise Defender is happening and I hope everyone with Class D amp gets one! 😁

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On the bench is more progress on A40 last night.

Wiring harness final adjustments and fit check being made…
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Installing the MOSFETs and rectifier bridges onto the heatsink…
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As usual, small mods needed for production are being noted and cataloged.
 
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On the bench tonight is a compact optical spectrograph (a spectrometer that disperse light into component wavelengths in one dimension and has a 1-d line image in the other dimension). This is a design I developed 15 years ago. I had to make a test print because of a slight modification to the mechanical adapter to a new camera I am testing out.

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This is what the original one in CNC aluminum looks like:
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This is an image of sunlight as captured by 36 x 60 micrometer fiber optic array. Left to right is wavelength from about 400nm to 800nm. Up and down are the 36 different fibers.
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Next step is to run a 1in x 32 UN2 tap through some of the holes for a “C-mount” lens. Then tap some M3 threads for the screw mounts for the lid and camera.

I managed to capture the moment when the print job finished:
 
You sure get to have a lot of fun!!!!!

AFTER, I finally finish this all out RV remodel and high grade matching shed, get my Fiesta ST up and running and sold....I am probably going to get a small but good 3D printer and learn how to use it to make some fun parts for whatever I come up with. Thanks for posting this, I was already considering it for my next hobby though not planning on anything like you are doing, not even close🙂

Rick
 
It is fun to see a 3D object that is useful magically appear in front of your eyes. When these first came out, I called the 3D printer the “Santa Claus Machine”. For speakers and small instruments / jigs / fixtures etc it’s a game changer. You can send the STL files out to China and wait 2 weeks and they will do it for your very competitive prices. Advantage being higher resolution SLA (laser UV cure method) which is higher precision and even metal 3D prints.

The print is working out well - camera and lens fits perfectly. The structure is very stiff and structurally very sound.

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One of my most ambitious 3D projects is the bookshelf pointsource horn, here.

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Very nice looking projects indeed and that they do and or will perform well even better!!!

I could of used some metal 3d parts during some of my car projects when I had to shape them out of aluminum with a drill press, band saw, grinder, etc to test fit then have a machine shop make them for me. I will have to learn basic CAD and maybe a bit more advanced but printing at home would be very fun as you mentioned watching them magically appear... But more serious parts or if I ever got the bug to produce something to sell having them made on a higher end machine does look like the way to go.

From a few years ago, designed for a 300MPH street car no less.

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Spectrograph is almost done. Lenses and holographic volume phase transmission grating are installed. Sharp long pass prefilter will be installed next inside the middle lens tube. Black flocking will be added in strategic spots to reduce reflections to increase contrast. System optical throughput is F/1.6 - very fast for such a compact spectrograph.

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This is a laser Raman scattering spectrograph and can be used for many applications where Raman spectroscopy is useful (sensing chemical compound composition in pharmaceuticals, sorting plastics in recycling, detecting contaminants in water, etc.). My main use is measuring molecular gas concentrations in air. This is really demanding as Raman scattering in gases is very weak and hence design has to collect all the photons there are. This is for work obviously but it’s a lot of fun.
 
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Cool meter collection! I only had one really good one and it died a few years back, a Fluke I really liked, cap, inductance, etc....Now I have a couple of cheap ones and one half decent unit and still have my very old Radio Shack analog unit and an old SPL meter.

I need something good and affordable to check EMF, etc, 11 F'ing Smart Meters really close to my desk. I have shielded the new rear and back side walls and doing the whole place as I remodel, next I need to get the wire mesh window screens done but also need to test the results.

All I find online seem to be more BS marketing that verifiable facts....

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Rick

P.S. Nice sun shade, cool shape🙂