Hi all, this is my first post here... I hope its not considered off-topic.<p>My friends and I are building a photospectrometer, and we're open-sourcing code, design files, and parts lists.<p>We just got the CCD working, which companies sell as a line reader for a few hundred dollars alone. Its a $20 CCD chip, and while we think we'll use an ARM processor with USB and the ability to add ethernet, we are considering all platforms as viable (for instance, I've got a parallax propeller on the way to test with, as it can already talk directly to Android devices over a software ADB protocol, so would be a quick and easily hacked way to talk to the CCD as well as display and process data).<p>We've also been playing around with software ideas and spectral databases... big companies really sell their databases as far as we can tell... so we're starting one that's free and open too. The software will all be HTML and Javascript, so it will run in Python via webkit, or webkit on Android/iPhone, etc...

We're looking at optics from Newport Corp, Thor Labs, and Chinese suppliers (through Alibaba.com). We'll couple optics together with fiber optics, and will be looking into using commodity TOSlink cables if possible. We'll also put together some accessories to help actually taking different lab/field measurements (dip probe, cuvette holder, microvolume pedestal), and we've even done some microfluidic cuvettes using laser cut acrylic sandwiching double-sided clear tape.

Cheers!