It Was Never a Prism: My Spectrometer Has a Diffraction Grating

Still trying to solve the monitor calibration problem — need to measure the actual spectral output of my monitor's primaries, not just RGB. The CR30 held against the screen gives something, but it's not designed for emissive sources. What I need is the pocket jewel spectroscope I've been using all along, properly …
Read MorePavo20 Pro II GPS Fix Attempts: BEC Switching Noise at 1575 MHz and What Actually Helped
Jul 9, 2026 · 10 min read · fpv gps pavo20 noise rf tinysa betaflight emi bec switching-regulator gps-l1 electromagnetic-interference whoop ·
The Pavo20 Pro II is a capable 2.5" whoop — compact, powerful, with a good camera and a surprisingly solid video link even on linear whip antennas. I wanted it as a mountain trip quad: something that fits in a jacket pocket, dives canyons, and has GPS Rescue as a genuine safety net. GPS is not included; I added a …
Read MoreTraining a Neural Network to Detect Shaheds and Quads from Audio
Jun 15, 2026 · 14 min read · machine-learning audio neural-network pytorch shahed drone-detection onnx quantization drone-detector ·Live demo: drone-detector.sintra.site A note before the technical content: the staggered training protocol described in this article was developed with significant help from Sintra AI. What started as a series of questions about why the naive P1→P2 schedule kept plateauing turned into a structured debugging …
Read MoreBuilding a Portable Visible Light Spectrometer with Raspberry Pi and Fiber Optics
Feb 21, 2026 · 18 min read · Spectrometer Raspberry Pi OV9281 Spectroscopy Color Science Fiber Optics TOSLINK Golang OpenCV 3D Printing ·
After successfully reverse engineering the CR30 colorimeter, I found myself wanting something more versatile - a device that could not only measure reflected light but also handle transmittance measurements with fiber optic coupling. The result is this compact, portable visible light spectrometer built around a …
Read MoreAdventures in Color Science: Building a DIY Calorimetric Laser Power Meter
Feb 21, 2026 · 12 min read · Laser Power Meter Calorimetry Thermistor Raman Spectroscopy IR Laser RP2040 Color Science Spectroscopy ·
So here I am, a physicist who got bitten by the color science bug. What started as innocent curiosity about how light works has turned into a full-blown obsession with spectrometers, colorimeters, and now... laser power meters. You know how it goes - you start with one simple question and before you know it, you're …
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One day my DS420+ just died. Well, not completely dead - it powered on, fans spun up, disks spun up too, blue LED blinked... but that was it. No network, no beeps, nothing. Just an expensive paperweight with my data trapped inside. Initial Diagnostics First thing I tried was removing all the drives. Sometimes a bad …
Read MoreAdventures in Color Science: Reverse Engineering a Chinese Colorimeter CR30
Oct 19, 2025 · 17 min read · CR30 Colorimeter Reverse Engineering Color Science Python Protocol Analysis Spectral Analysis ·
I've always been fascinated by the intersection of hardware and software, especially when it comes to understanding how devices communicate. Recently, I developed a need for monitor calibration as well as properly color correct my photos. I've been looking at X-Rite, Datacolor and other calibration devices and am on …
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