Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Smartphone Microscope”.
The smartphone in your pocket is already a powerful tool for gathering data from the world around you, but what, if you could use it to peer into the microscopic world of cellular structures in this weekend project, you could easily turn your smartphone camera into a powerful microscope. All you need is a few tools, the focus lens from achieved laser pointer or two, and about $ 10 worth of materials from the hardware store to build an ultra portable microscope capable of 175 X magnification. The focus lens of just about any laser pointer will serve as the macro lens on the microscope. Don’T waste money on an expensive model, the lens from a $ 2.00 laser is fine to get the lens from the laser pointer start by unscrewing.
The front cone of the laser. The front of this assembly is where the focus lens sits: unscrew, the small black plastic retainer in front of the lens, and the lens will come free, it’s difficult to see with the naked eye, but the lens is not symmetrical. Looking through one side of the lens will provide more magnification than the other to test this hold the lens in place with a bobby, pin and place it in front of your phone’s rear camera use tape to hold it steady. If you need to determine which side produces the greater magnification and set it aside, but remember which side is up next, we’ll build a stand. Cut your plywood base to end with seven by seven inch square then trim your Plexiglas down to the same size to cut the Plexiglas score.
The top surface to the utility knife make several passes and use a ruler to keep the cuts straight. Put your scored line at the edge of your workbench and then using a scrap of wood place, even pressure along the panel push down on the piece you want to cut away in a fast firm action, and you should get a clean cut. Use this technique to cut a seven by seven inch piece of Plexiglas for the camera stage and a three by seven inch piece for the specimen stage mark the top of the plywood base at the front two corners 3/4 inch in from both the sides and the Front edge make a third mark centered three quarter inches in from the back edge stack, the Plexiglas camera stage. On top of the base, then stack the specimen stage on top of the camera stage, with 3/4 inches of the space stage, extending over the front of the base, clamp and drill through the entire assembly.
Don’T press too hard with the drill or the Plexiglas might crack. Just let the drill do the work. The bolts that stick up through the base must be counterbored in order for the stand to sit flat, flip the base over and counter board the holes with a large bit to accommodate the bolt heads now we’ll mount the lens find a drill bit slightly smaller than The diameter of the lens then measure mark and drill a hole for the lens in the camera stage, 3/4 inches in from the front edge and in line with the bolt holes.
If the lens doesn’t quite fit, use a file or sandpaper to enlarge the hole work. Slowly and test the fit, often it’s easy to overshoot and make the hole too large. Finally, it’s time to assemble the microscope, use your hardware to build the structure as you see here, but don’t install or tighten the top nuts yet use a level to make sure the stage is actually flat when the stage is level tighten down the final nuts, the Compression springs, keep the specimen stage stabilized and allow for far finer adjustments with the wing nuts slides will help with placing and viewing samples use some your leftover plexiglass and break it down into 2 by 4 inch pieces. Now it’s time to take some pictures, align your smartphone camera lens with the microscope lens, bring the object into focus by slowly. Turning the wing nuts on either side then use your phone to take a picture or video or even zoom in for a closer look.
If you build a smartphone microscope, tweet your photos to us at make you you .