Hello, open source community guys, thank you very much for your excellent work. I’m an engineer from China and I’m assembly openfluxe v7 and there were some problems, could I ask for your help?
Firstly, the first step in * Assemble the illumination* , m3×10 hex screws are not long enough, I try to use m3×12 and work fine.
Secondly, the spotting lens I got here is without rim, is the given model the diameter with rim or?
Thirdly, regarding the sangaboard I made my own version v0.3, but how should I make sure the sangaboard is working before I install it? Also how should I link the raspberry pi to the sangaboard, could you come up with a detailed test and connection diagram? In the last step of the assembly tutorial, the diagram is a bit obstructive for me to see, despite there was the assembly video.
Fourthly, if using an arduino instead of a sangaboard, could you also come up with a detailed tutorial and a responsive bom?
Thank you for the feedback @lyctze.
To mount the illumination dovetail 10mm should be plenty. 8mm are actually long enough here, but we specify the same 10mm everywhere to reduce the number of different parts. To hold the condenser assembly to the dovetail it is a 25mm hex head screw in the illumination thumbscrew (step 3 on the page), 10mm cap head will not be long enough. We specify the same screw already needed for the actuators.
The condenser lens we use is a plastic lens with a rim, as in the renders in the instructions. The overall diameter is 12.7mm (1/2").
For the Sangaboard, you can check whether is working by trying some direct commands over serial. I have never actually used a V0.3 - is it connected over the UART to the Pi or by USB? The standard Openflexure server is set up for USB connection to the Sangaboard. The Sangaboard repository is the best place for information on loading and the command set so that you can test. There is also no hole in the microscope stand to allow you to access the USB connector on the Sangaboard v0.3. You will need to make a hole, either in the slicer or CAD before printing, or with hand tools on the printed stand. The instructions for the Delta stage may give extra useful information for wiring up the Sangaboard V0.3
I have only used the nano-workaround which works well. The instructions for how to wire it up should be clear, then it is just a matter of fitting it into the box. Where things go on the nano converter plate should be fairly obvious. It is a tight fit to get all of the wires out of the way as you push the electronics drawer into the microscope stand. The instructions for the microscope V6 should not contain any different information for the Nano version, but might help with some different pictures.
The Sangaboard v0.3 only ever connected using USB. As it’s based around an ATMEGA32U4 (IIRC) it has 5v logic levels so if you connect directly to the Pi you’d need to make sure to add level shifters.
So, the short answer is that you should connect the data micro-usb port on the Sangaboard to a USB port on the Raspberry Pi. You can test it by connecting the USB port to a PC and either connecting directly to the serial port it exposes (115200 baud) or using the sangaboard python library (pip install sangaboard should get it).
For the screws in the illumination, did you follow the “prepare the main body” step, and embed the nuts in the top of the nut traps? If you did not do this, the 10mm M3 probably won’t reach the nuts if they are just sitting in the bottom of the nut traps.
Thank you guys for the nice reply.
I will try again as the suggested.
I have a question here that why design the sangaboard, it’s too expensive to build the sangaboard myself. I find it very cheap to use the delta version with arduino and three ULN2003s.
The version with Arduino and three separate motor driver boards is indeed generally easier and cheaper for an individual microscope build. We aim to continue to support that version, and it is the one I use.
The reason for integrating everything onto a custom Sangaboard is to reduce the number of wires and plug connectors, and there will also be the possibility to deal with the power for both the Pi and the motors with a single USB power plug (although that is not in v0.3). These things reduce failure modes, part count, and build time, which are all very important to bring down costs when building many copies.