Webcam Microscope Stage

Simple Hack

In short hack a standard webcam can be turned into a USB microscope with a magnification of around 100 to 400 at a working distance of a few mm. The highest magnifications can be achieved by inverting (putting upside down) the webcam lens (no extra lens needed!). Addition of good lighting by the use of leds allows to see single cells such as blood or yeast cells.

See here how to do the hack:

http://hackteria.org/wiki/index.php/DIY_microscopy

The Design

The design is for a laser cut inverted microscope stage. The design is fully customizable including the thickness of the materials used. To adapt to your webcam an adjustement of the object plate position is built into the design. Focus can be set via the focus wheel.

Customizer is not yet able to create 2D drawings. If you want to export the design as .dxf, you should download the .scad file, and open it on you computer with OpenScad. Then you can edit manualy the size of the microscope, change the ouput type to DXF and export your creation.

And here for more stage types:

http://hackteria.org/wiki/index.php/Laser-cut_microscopy_stages

This is a project from the Hackteria Network for Open Source Biological Art, DIY Biology, Generic Lab Equipement

http://hackteria.org/wiki/

See the instuction file (PDF) in the download section for a simple instruction on how to build the microscopy stage.