Is there such a thing? Real calibrated spectrometers were always bitingly expensive (~1000$ +) even 2-nd hand. I am aware of different hacks from cardboard/hot glue/knife pieces/DVD but more looking for something that at least resembles a real instrument)

There seems to be Chinese Hopoocolor spectrometers at Aliexpress with a reasonable resolution and a big plus of being pocketable with a local display. Also calibrated and able to do some useful measurements like CRI. The price is still a bit steep at ~$650 minimum for just a toy. May be an idea for a high end birthday gift for a lamp freak anyway

Any feedback on them? May be I have overlooked some other inexpensive options?

Not sure on which continent you are, but here in North America, school laboratory suppliers have some inexpensive ones. They are not accurately calibrated, but they do have a scale in the viewfinder. Sargent-Welch is one such company, but there are others. I believe they sell non-restricted items to the public, but I have never ordered other than on school accounts.

I am at the edge of Europe/Asia now. Looked up Sargent-Welch. They do have same cheap spectroscopes, but all with just visual output. Only one electronic model from Ocean Optics, at rather steep price of $2K with a single short piece an optical cable for $400 (!)

Chinese spectrometer for $650 shows rather respectable large optical chamber with a diffraction grating and a big linear CCD, probably borrowed from a document scanner. There is also a cheaper model for $500, but with resolution of 4nm it is not much fun looking at discharge lamps spectra.
   

Hello,
im really interested in that topic as well as i am also after a electronic spectrometer which can be used to look at discharge lamps and hunt down some elemental spectral lines.
By now I haven't found any good soltion. You may use a modified webcam in a cheap DIY project, however it may only be viable for the hunt of very prominent lines. Also you have artefacts in the DIE of the camera chip which is rather annoying. The chance of finding a cheap one on the internet is thin, likely in you region even harder.
I personally asked around at my university that maybe some time i may get one but i strongly doubt it.
The chinese seem to offer some intriguing devoices but i don't really trust it. Also importing a $650 from china to Germany... well yeah the states needs money and thats a good option to suck money... so better buy something thats already here...
I don't know, next year is light and building fair in Frankfurt. Maybe there is some chinese company brings some manufacturing/ quality control equipment maybe there i can find something cheap on the last day. But again I doubt it.

best regards,

Alex

I'm using two discs: One CD-R for viewing spectra with the unaided eyes, and one DVD-R/DVD-RW to capture high resolution spectra with my camera: https://www.lighting-gallery.net/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1562

Hello Dor123,
the method you used is the basic idea of using a webcam, which i described above. A prism or cd is used to break the spectrum apart. However again the problem with artificts and different sensitivity remains when the pc software draws your spectral graph out of it. And to be honest the result of just picturing it with a digital camera-that blurry picture- is absolutely useless to me.

The last time I looked into this the Ocean Optics spectrometers were the cheapest way to do this professionally.  Or their predecessors from when the company used to be called Avantes.  Those are often cheaper or to many people even scrap because there were no drivers for later than about Windows 2000.  I still use some excellent Avantes S2000 at work but its always a pain to get them communicating, and often requires an old PC+Win version.

The Hopoo spectrometers seem to be becoming very popular among Chinese lighting companies and give excellent results.

Calculating photometric parameters like lumens, CCT, CRI, Chromaticity etc is possible once you have the raw spectra data.  For this I have put together a spreadsheet in Excel to calculate all main parameters.  I can share this file if it helps for people whose spectrometer software does not offer such features.

Is that Avantes S2000 spectrometer you are using to get that great hi-res spectrums on your site, James?

Spectrometers from Avantes and Ocean Insight (two independent companies) can still be way out of budget for hobbyists, even in the second hand market. There are other companies who offer way more affordable solutions for nonprofessionals, such as Science-Surplus and ThunderOptics. Offers from the latter can be found on e-bay: https://www.ebay.de/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=ThunderOptics+spectrometer&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=Thunder+Optics+spectrometer&_osacat=0

Still there is no free lunch. (

$150 one is just a toy, on par with what can be made with a carton box, a piece of DVD and $20 webcam. The one that I am starting to like costs $450... Even then, it is PC-tethered, windows only. You get what you paid for. Can you please share which one you are using for your spectra plots?

Some of my older spectra are indeed from the S2000.  I am not so sure of their history but we have at work S2000 models from Avantes and 100% identical S2000 models with the label of Ocean Optics.  More recently I am using the Ocean Insight Maya Pro, and in case of UV+IR spectra a Bentham IDR300.