I am pleased to say that the Upright microscope is now integrated into the main repository and incorporated in today’s release of A new alpha! v7.0.0-alpha2
Thanks once again to @MilliRowland for doing most of the work on this one, and @j.stirling for completing the integration with the rest of the release.
Wouldn’t it be better to make an upright using the delta base? This way, the optics does not move and makes it possible to use the high-resolution optics module. Any pointers on how to get started with this? I am an intermediate openscad user, if that helps.
Thanks,
Balaji
@makerinmaking the upright was designed for the normal microscope base. It should fit on the Delta stage as well, but as you say the Delta does not need the z-axis movement so this version of the upright is unnecessarily complicated and not a stable as it could be.
If you do look at the OpenSCAD, the Microscope and Delta repositories have diverged, as the Microscope code has been cleaned up considerably to make further development easier. In the microscope codebase it should be relatively straightforward to make a fixed z-axis, and then to call that in the upright instead of the moving axis.
A hack to try a fixed upright Delta out as an idea would be just to add a large block in the OpenSCAD for the moveable upright, to fill in all the mechanism.
The idea of adding a large block to the moveable upright seems to be a simple enough idea. Let me give that a shot and report back.
Hi everyone, I am having a hard time deciding which version to print, and it is mainly because I do not understand the upright version. I have gone through all the available images and for me it looks like there is no room for the objetive on the top OR the tube lens just collects what it is transmitted/reflected by the sample and sends it to the pi-camer. What am I getting wrong ? if someone has a quick sketch or cross’-section it would be of great help ! Thanks !
Welcome @Atahualpa76. The upright version that is shown in the instructions is described with the optics module from the ‘low cost’ version of the microscope. That module has no objective lens, the lens from the Pi camera is used with a spacer to give magnification and resolution similar to a microscope using a 20x objective.
If you want to use an objective then the optics module that is described in the ‘high resolution’ version of the microscope will also fit on the upright, the optics modules are interchangeable. I currently have an upright version set up with a 40x objective. You might need a longer camera cable, I think I am using 450mm.
If you are building a microscope right now I would recommend using the current master version, rather than the v7.0.0-beta1 release that is linked from the web site. I would not usually recommend a development version, but there are a large number of bug fixes and improvements since beta1, particularly for the upright version. We are approaching the next beta release so there will not be breaking changes in the current master until that beta2 is released (unless there is some mistake Edit 2024-5-17: Beta 2 is now released, so this no longer applies.
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If you are choosing between upright and the standard version, the main consideration is what kind of samples you are using. The Openflexure standard (inverted) microscopes are more compact and slightly more stable because the optics are in the body. The upright is really intended for samples where it is not possible to turn them upside down to use an inverted microscope. However there is not really any performance difference.
If in doubt, I would build one of the inverted versions as they are more tested and the illustrations in the instructions are more comprehensive. You will not really loose anything if you then change your mind, all of the electronic components and most of the printed parts and hardware are the same. From memory to change an inverted to an upright you would need to print a new illumination module and platform, a z-spacer and a separate z-axis and an extra small and large gear and z-foot. You would need one more o-ring and a few more screws. You might need another condenser lens if you don’t want to push the lens out of the condenser to put into the new one, and a longer camera ribbon cable. So that is a few spares of the hardware and printing 7 small pieces. In the image in the first post on the thread the two green parts are new for the upright version, basically everything else would be part of a standard inverted build.
Thank you so much! it is very clear now. I-ll print the pieces for both since I will mostly use it in an inverted config, but it can be practical to have an easy access to the objective to switch it for different magnifications.
I made a cover for the Z-axis actuator of the upright microscope to give it a cleaner look:
upright_feet_cover.stl (21.0 KB)
@rootboi that is really neat. What CAD package did you use? It would be nice to add something like this to the repository. If your CAD source includes the designed dimensions, then having that would make it easier to copy into OpenSCAD. I am assuming no-one would have chosen to use OpenSCAD anyway
For CAD I use onshape. Will have a look at how to transfer designs to OpenSCAD.
Thank you. I don’t think that will transfer in a way that gives helpful design insight. It is probably going to be easier to start from scratch. Often the main work is in deciding what shape is useful. Drawing it up again is actually not too onerous.
@rootboi Probably the best way to transfer it to OpenSCAD is if you could make a simple technical drawing in Onshape, then we don’t need to try to measure the STLs to create the same shape in OpenSCAD. One of us who knows OpenSCAD can probably make that very quickly as @WilliamW says if we know the shape and dimensions. Or if you export as STEP, we can probably measure directly in FreeCAD.
Merge request here, created from @rootboi’s technical drawing he sent me
Replicated by @rooksoup in Glasgow!
