For optical microscopes, light is everything. If you don’t have a good amount of light passing through or bouncing off your sample, you’ve got nothing for your eyeballs or a camera to pick up. To aid in this regard, [Halogenek] whipped up a nifty microscope lamp with some LEDs.
The build uses a neat arch-shaped PCB with a hole in the middle for the microscope’s optics to pass through. Surrounding this are the LEDs, which provide a circle of light focused on the sample, akin to the ring lights so favored by today’s online influencers. The LEDs are powered via USB C, so the lamp can be run off of any garden-variety phone charger you might have lying around.
[Halogenek] reports that the lamp has proven useful for extreme macro shots of PCBs. It’s an easy build to replicate or redesign your own way if you’re doing similar work.
Microscopes are super useful, and there are all kinds of hacks you can do to make them perform better in your quest for science. Meanwhile, if you’ve been jazzing up your own lab hardware, let us know—we’d love to hear about it!
Great on the the project and it solves and issue. there is one thing that bugs me. If you are submitting a project or even using it where other people can see, why settle for low quality, partially failed 3d prints?
I reckon that they value the functional aspect of the thing more than the performative one. It works, I wouldn’t bother re-printing it for making it pretty for the community either ^^
I presume because the goal is getting good macro photos. Making a PCB, printing a case, and uploading the designs are all side quests that divert time/effort from taking photos. If 3D printing is not a skill I concentrate on, then I’ll take ugly but functional and move onto the next thing.
My thoughts exactly!
Wow that 3D print would go right in the trash off my priner after maybe a test fit
A ring light is great, but I don’t understand why building your own as they can be bought under €10 including shipping from AliExpress, which looks better and have more leds.
I didn’t find a suitable one (small size and USB C powered) and I wanted to use specific LEDs (temperature and spectral properties).
Wow, 8200K and 24000K. Why those colors?
Or for instance https://www.adafruit.com/product/4433 : “This LED Ring Light is designed for use with microscopes” at 18 USD.