I am building the high resolution version of the microscope stage and using a raspberry pi version 3b. I have removed the lens of the raspberry pi camera (version 2) and placed it on the bottom of the objective lens 3D printed part. On the top of the raspberry pi camera I have placed an achromatic lens and on the very top an objective lens 60x. I am running a script in python that captures an image from the raspberry pi camera and displays it. However, I am only getting a white image, and that colour becomes brighter or darker depending if I’m covering the LED. I have even tried placing pieces of pepper at different distances from the objective lens with no luck. I do not know on how to proceed to get a correct image.
Which version of the microscope are you building? Is it the microscope version 6.1.5 (the version on the web site) or the current testing version 7.0.0-alpha2? or is it the Delta stage? This seems to be an optics problem, the function is the same in all of the versions although the parts have some differences.
If you are building the High Resolution version, then you do not need the original lens from the Raspberry Pi camera at all. There is a good cut-away of the high resolution optics module in the new version 7 instructions which may help you to see how it should operate. OpenFlexure Microscope - Assembly Instructions.
If the optics module is correct, the objective lens will need to be very close to the sample. Apologies if you already know all this, it sometimes catches people out. With a 60x lens it needs to be less than 1mm from the sample. As the Openflexure Microscope is an inverted design with the objective below the microscope slide this means that the slide needs to be upside down with the sample on the underside, near the lens.
Let us know how you get on.
I am using the version on the website 6.1.5. I think it’s an issue with the distance from the objective lens that I’m placing the sample. I will try that and get back to you. Thanks for all the help! It was very informative!
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