Considering that you made a housing, stage, adjustable focus, lighting this is a great achievement.
So, if I have to do it myself I need to keep Rs.500/- for the webcam and 2 days to work to get a microscope for myself.
If I am not asking for more, a short video that shows how it is used by you will be a great addition to this thread.
Water flea and a worm.
Will do that tomorrow.
I just checked. It is opening.
It is working at my end too!
The stand is made from a strip of 2mm acrylic. We can use polycarbonate (lexan) or pvc strip. Transparent Acrylic is preferred so that ambient light provides sufficient illumination.
The slide has to be approx 5 mm above lens.
The lens + camera height is approx 23 mm
We add 10 mm clearance below the camera.
Thus the side of the camera is minimum 5+23+10=38mm
We add an additional 2mm thickness of the acrylic Hence 38+2=40mm
Each side =40mm
The bottom has to be the length of the camera 28mm + the 5mm x 2 threaded hex spacers for mounting + 2mm clearance. 28+5+5+2=40mm
The width of the strip is the width of the camera 40mm
Thus our strip length is 40+40+40=120mm and width is 40 mm.
We also need a focusing disc to rotate the lens. The dia is bound by the gap between the two sides ie. the bottom of the mount which is 40 mm.
Therefore cut a strip of 160mm x 40mm. Then cut out 40 mm from one side.
You will now have 2 pieces of acrylic one of 40x40mm and one of 40x120mm.
NOTE: The width of your 10mm wide hacksaw blade will eat up 1.3mm per cut. Hence your Acrylic piece has to be longer by how much?
You have two ways of making the stand - sticking or bending.
If you are sticking, then cut the 120 mm into 3 pieces.
MArk a center line.
MArk center for holes at 23,26 and 30mm from the top on the center line on two side pieces. drill 2.5 mm holes on both pieces. File the small leftover section between holes to create a 3 mm x 9mm slot.
Stick the sides ontop of the bottom piece along the edge keeping the slots vertical.
If you are bending, first mark a center line and on the outer 40 mm sections - the center 40mm section will be the mount bottom.
Drill holes as stated in the sticking section.
Scour the 2 lines at 40 mm to a depth of 1mm using a sharpy knife.
Hold a solder iron horizontally just above the scoured line without touching the plastic.
After around 30 secs the plastic will heat and sag along the scoured line. Bend it the acrylic to 90^o by placing it along the edge of a drawer keeping the scoured line inside the bend.
Repeat for the other 40mm section.
Your mount is ready.
We now have to just mount the camera in the acrylic C shaped camera mount.
This project encourages students to check with different sample…!!
In that case, why not suggest an easy method to make a microscope reserving such tough methods for later period! Yes, that means we should go for some specific web cans which are easy to manipulate for our purpose!
Yes. The hunt for a model that makes the fabrication easy is on.
The time taken includes the time to mull over design aspects, provide flexibility and use whatever material I had on hand. This would be the work for the facilitator based on available cameras and materials in his region.
Once the design work is done, actual building would take around 2 hours for the sticking method or bending method. If we do away with the screw mount it becomes even easier and will take 90 minutes.
MAking printable templates which are stuck on sunboard / acrylic and provide exact and ready cut lines will shrink the make time to an hour.
Once one starts tinkering there will always be multiple paths to achieve a defined engineering goal, a very vital aspect of STEM.
@jtd @GN @Arunan I think we can also make a better microscope that would be cheaper expecting one has a android mobile phone. I made it myself when I was in 5th grade.
Requirements:
If you don’t have a need to record you don’t even need a mobile phone. The magnification though might be a bit less but it is pretty cheap and easy to build. It requires only a few hours. Plus it will be portable and you can carry it in your pocket.
Post your design here.
This is the procedure to make one. I will soon draw and post the design @jtd.
@jtd there is also another method using which instead of a fully colorful picture we can make a shadow microscope.
Why not create one in makers lab, @pratit
Why not start making it and post pics at every instant so that it will be crystal clear to everyone who wants to make the same.
The only thing we would require for the above is any cheap toy laser.
For the next one any laser would work until it is of low enough power as not to evaporate or harm a specimen in a single drop of water.
Interesting! A digital Microscope using A webcam.good work!