PrintedLabs – 3D printable optical experiment equipment

[thenobsta]

Related cool diy-ish optical stuff...

A friend sent me this simple design for a raman spectrometer [1].

And some 3D-printable cage optics for when alignment is really important [2].

[1]: https://hackteria.org/wiki/images/a/a0/MobPhone_RamanSpec_20...

[2]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246806721...

[eternityforest]

I remember that paper! I wonder why they aren't using modulated light?

It seems like an ESP32 camera could handle everything pretty cheaply, why is this not a thing you can just buy for $50 on Amazon yet?

[nativeit]

Tangentially related: https://openflexure.org/

[amelius]

Very cool, but I wonder how far you get with something like this:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005004262524839.html

[nbernard]

For those interested, there is also OpenUC2 on this niche: https://github.com/openUC2/UC2-GIT It would be interesting to see how the two systems compare.

[elephant81]

what is the best plastic to print these lenses from? I've found over time all of the clear prints I've don't suffer from UV degradation.

[dekhn]

I don't think this project has you printing lenses- it wouldn't really make sense. It's very time consuming to print lenses. If you are going to do this, it makes more sense to print a mold and then cast resin (even then, this only really makes sense if you need a highly custom shape and are making multiple copies). See https://www.instructables.com/Making-Custom-Lenses/ https://formlabs.com/blog/creating-camera-lenses-with-stereo... https://www.instructables.com/Resin-Casting-Lenses/ i would use UV-resistant epoxy casting.

[InDubioProRubio]

TRIZ says to solve it with ablateable materials- thin foilsheets with a evaporating binding agent - there are uv-resistant plastics https://topas.com/uv-transparency/ even transparent ones, but they are not printable.

Actual recommended technique: grind it https://hackaday.com/2023/11/16/a-3d-printed-grinder-for-pri...

[skybrian]

It’s for teachers and their students, so presumably they don’t need it anymore after the class experiment is over and durability isn’t a concern? And they could always print it again.