Crackpot Growing Theories 101

Any information contained in this thread is to be considered theoretical, experimental, and otherwise completely nuts. If you're looking for a how-to this is probably not the right place.

I'm starting this thread to discuss the possibilites of creating a poor-mans spectrometer from a webcam and a home-made spectragraph consisting of an old CD and cardboard tubing. This is probably going to be my first order of business.

I am also proposing growing with lasers, that's right, I said it, lasers. Just because I think I'm the first one to try something so ludacris. And with 6.5 billion people on the planet it's getting harder to find things to do someone else hasn't already done. Before you say I'll just burn and kill plants I'll say you might be right, but that's not going to stop it from being attempted. They would of course have to be diffused and the beam would have to be spread, but hey let's see what happens... ...pending I don't get too many irons in the proverbial fire at once.

it was pointed out to me that a blueray laser while not cheap, may be a common source for a blue laser as I'm planning on collecting most of them from used optical drives. Now.. in my research I found out two things, 1. a blueray laser has 5 leads and 3 different laser diodes in it, so it can put out ~400nm light ~650nm light and ~800nm light (don't quote me on the exact values I'm not looking at the specs right now) all in one neat little package... and 2. the laser in a blueray is the same laser emitter that was used in the now-defunct HD-dvd technology, and you can pick up an xbox360 hd-dvd from ebay for around the $30 mark.. *cough* generous donations are always accepted :D

DIY Digital Spectrometer

Required materials:

There are two links to DIY spectragraphs, the difference between that and a spectrometer or spectrophotometer is former will show you the spectra and the later will measure it. We'll need the former to make the later so anyone on board should either already own a simple spectragraph or get busy making one.

C'mon it's fun and you can look through it and see clearly what colors of light your lighting is putting off and to what intensity

I didn't really follow the instructions so closeley, Mine is made from a giant cardboard tube from an empty roll of mylar cut to 25" and an old bon jovi cd I didn't mind splitting in half. I used a plastic lid from a can of tobacco to make the cover with the slit in it. I'll post pics if I absolutely have to :D

Fitting it together

this is a much cooler spectragraph than the cardboard tube, more durable as well

uses a dvd case

Sounds like a cool project.

i'm onboard farred! this sounds very cool!

the lasers thing is cool too! why not, right?!

subscribed.

i feel myself more and more everyday being sucked into my den, learning, reading, trying and reseaching crackpot!

-shake

I think the laser thing is maybe possible, I was looking at this home made spy gadgets book with a plan in it to make a high powered nightvision illuminator from a laser. It looked like he just spread the beam with a little 10x optic peice, and it put off easily 10x the illumination as an LED illuminator spread over a nice area at a HUUUGE distance but it got me thinking... why not i have a few optic peices i collected when i saw an article on solar puffing ( no matches or lighters :) ) so I guess all there is to do is get one, or some, of those xbox hd-dvd drives and see if the the 405nm/650nm/780nm lights it can produce are 'close enough' building something to heatsink them and power them is not a big deal then finding a lens or combination of lenses that give the right amount of beam spread and probably shine it through something to difuse the light but perhaps not, results would say for sure.

this is the of light intensity of the hd-dvd lasers same laser diode as in blueray

Quote:

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Originally Posted by farredeyed

I think the laser thing is maybe possible, I was looking at this home made spy gadgets book with a plan in it to make a high powered nightvision illuminator from a laser. It looked like he just spread the beam with a little 10x optic peice, and it put off easily 10x the illumination as an LED illuminator spread over a nice area at a HUUUGE distance but it got me thinking... why not i have a few optic peices i collected when i saw an article on solar puffing ( no matches or lighters :) ) so I guess all there is to do is get one, or some, of those xbox hd-dvd drives and see if the the 405nm/650nm/780nm lights it can produce are 'close enough' building something to heatsink them and power them is not a big deal then finding a lens or combination of lenses that give the right amount of beam spread and probably shine it through something to difuse the light but perhaps not, results would say for sure.

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definitely sounds plausible. makes perfect sense. if a laser is merely amplified light, why not use it in laser for travel (much more efficient i assume) and then diffuse into the necessary pattern?

-shake

this is a must read, granted they grew vegetables but it's all produce right?

http://www.hortiled.ff.vu.lt/apzvalg...wer%20leds.pdf

falls in to some extent with the martian method, being that they used far red and experimented with night cycles.. I'm most interested in how contrasted the concentrations of different phytohormones were in the same plants just by altering the far red usage.