Bio-rad SmartSpec Plus Spectrophotometer
I picked up a Bio-rad SmartSpec UV-Vis Spectrophotometer on eBay. The SmartSpec uses a Xenon flash lamp and is a much more compact/similar design than the DU530/DR4000 I previously looked at. Of course I decided to pull it apart, and my pictures are below for reference.
The basic layout is shown below. The PCB looks like a very traditional 1980s/90s design:
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-1024x934.png)
The lamp sits above the spectrometer block in the metal enclosure, with the cuvette sitting between lamp and the spectrometer:
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-1-552x1024.png)
Inside the spectrometer block we see a couple of mirrors and the diffraction mirror:
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-2-889x1024.png)
It uses a traditional design, fairly similar to that employed by Ocean optics and other spectrometer makers:
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-10-300x203.png)
The light essentially reflects off the diffraction mirror and into a linear CCD. I suspect this is an ILX511, which is pretty common in spectrometers and I’ve played with before.
A few more pictures of other parts of the instrument are below. I’ll add more posts if I do any more work with this device.
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-3-1024x850.png)
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-4-768x1024.png)
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-5-1024x768.png)
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-6-1024x768.png)
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-7-1024x512.png)
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-8-1024x692.png)
![](https://41j.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image-9-1024x711.png)