This is my first time working with a Raspberry Pi so bear with me.
I just built the high resolution microscope using the build kit from IO Rodeo. (The build instructions on the OpenFlexure website are excellent, by the way - though I would love more step-by-step instructions on using the microscope.)
I have the microscope plugged into my router with an Ethernet cable. From my laptop, if I enter http://microscope.local:5000 I can see the OpenFlexure Connect screen. I can also see that the microscope is powered because the illumination is working, the green and yellow lights by the Ethernet port are on, and there’s a solid red light coming from the Raspberry Pi.
However, all I’m getting from OpenFlexure Connect is this blank screen:
Initially, I was prompted to calibrate my camera. During calibration, nothing happened - including no movement of the stage. Attempting to recalibrate triggered the error message: “source port is already connected”. There’s a very long error log from the microscope failing to calibrate.
I tried to use the OpenFlexure Connect software to see if that would work better. I installed the version (last updated June 6, 2026) from the Ubuntu App Center - unfortunately, it doesn’t boot.
The software v2 that I think you are on is now rather old. There has been a gap while we move over to a v3. Logs on v2 are not always informative, but copying here might show something useful.
The white screen I think has occured before, but I don’t exactly remember. I shall have a look around and see whether there was an identified cause.
EDIT: The main white screen issue was a specific video problem Camera feed going white with earlier software. That was fixed. There were a couple of other posts more recently, but no follow-up from the user so I don’t know any outcome.
In settings on your microscope, there shoild be a camera section. Could you disable flat field and lens shading, to reset the calibration, and then also do the auto gain and exposure. A screenshot of that setting page after each of those steps would be useful - I think.it has an image preview to see what happened.
The error messages and blank screen occurred while using the browser, not the software.
I did uninstall the version of OpenFlexure-Connect from the Snap store and downloaded the file from the OpenFlexure website, and that does run (though it cannot see the microscope).
I tried to recalibrate this morning but was unable to connect to the microscope via the browser or the software.
So far I’ve tried:
Microscope plugged directly into laptop with Ethernet-to-ethernet cable with IPv4 and IPv6 set to “link local only” - neither the software nor the browser can find the microscope
Microscope plugged into router with Ethernet-to-ethernet cable - might be an issue here because my laptop is on a wireless connection and it sounds like this has caused a problem for other users. Neither the software nor the web browser can find the microscope.
Other ideas I’ve had but haven’t tried yet are:
Buying a display, mouse, and keyboard from Adafruit and plugging those directly into the Raspberry Pi (if there are recommended models that’d be great to know!) - haven’t purchased these yet
Plugging the microscope directly into my laptop with a USB to Ethernet cable (haven’t bought one yet but if anyone has found this works better that’d also be great to know)
The plan is to have this available as a backup microscope at a free clinic, potentially used in mobile outreach settings, so controlling the microscope directly in an off-grid setting is the eventual goal. In the meantime though I’m trying to reassure myself that I put this together correctly.
Network connection: a direct cable connection to a physical ethernet port on your laptop is the most reliable generally. A USB-ethernet adapter just adds another component that needs to be recognised by your operating system.
If your microscope is no longer showing up at all in Connect or in your browser, that suggests that it is now not running. The screenshot that you put in your first post is the webapp which is served by the OpenFlexure server software that you have on the Pi. It seems that it was running but with a fault to start with, and now is not running at all. The most common cause of that is a problem with the SD card in the Pi. The SD card is a weak link in the Pi system, and can cause all sorts of odd behaviour. I suggest that you try reflasing the Openflexure operating system onto the SD card. Was the card supplied with your kit, or did you have it?
For a keyboard mouse and screen, any USB keyboard and mouse should work, and any HDMI screen, with the correct cable. Are ypu using a Pi3 or a Pi4?
That should just work then. However it is worth reflashing the software if you are able to. When you want to turn the microscope off, always shut it down first from the webapp - in ‘about’ I think on v2 - and then wait a short while. If the power is switched off while the Pi is doing something that can also corrupt the SD card.
Is there any information in the logging tab? You should be able to download the logs from there.
We know the microscope is booting as the web app is stored on the microscope. So this is a good sign. Hopefully the logs can say why the camera is not working.
Ok thanks all. Got sidetracked from this project but am going to try reflashing the SD card - that’s a bummer that it seems to be such a weak link in the microscope.
Just tried installing it - there seems to be an issue with the URL when adding a custom option in RPI V2. I went to the link (https://build.openflexure.org/raspbian-openflexure/manifest.json) and I’m seeing “SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 41 column 5 of the JSON data”.
Maybe something happened to the code on that page with the new v3 release?
Fantastic, thanks. I was able to reflash it and I’m now able to connect to the microscope and calibrate the motors. I’m still not getting a signal from the camera and after double-checking the ribbon cable connections I’m guessing the camera module itself might have an issue. Glad to have the network connection issue solved, though!
