The Visible Microscope is inspired by the OpenFlexure microscope. The Open Flexure microscope is a laboratory-grade microscope constructed using 3D printed parts and a single-board computer that is widely used in research laboratories internationally (Sharkey, Foo, Kabla, Baumberg & Bowman, 2016). This Visible Microscope is an adapted version of the Open Flexure microscope designed for K-12 schools.
As its name suggests, the Visible Microscope is designed to make the underlying operations of the microscope visible. It is intended to provide an on-ramp that will familiarize K-12 students with foundational principles of digital microscopy.
Re: The holes of the laser cut parts not fitting the components.
We have a Universal Laser Systems laser cutter and they did one pass through. The material thickness was set at 6.4mm and the Auto Z setting was turned on.
When I was looking at the links on the bill of materials, some of the links labeled for M8 sized parts led to a M6 sized part instead. Since the holes are around 6mm in diameter, I’m wondering if that is what the holes were sized for on the laser cut parts?
That should be working. I just did a test cut using those settings, and the acrylic fits the connecting rods perfectly.
The only hardware should be M8, M3, and M2.2. It sounds like there are some bad links in the bill of materials. I’ll check that now.
Are the M3 screws fitting in the smaller holes? Are the linear bearings fitting into their holes? They should both fit into the microscope stage pieces.
Also, check to make sure the .svg isn’t somehow resizing when you open it. The holes in the acrylic should measure as follows:
I’ve updated the CAD files in the download package. Two things.
I added a .DXF file. Supported file times now include DXF, SVG, and AI.
I tried to rescale the files as best as I could. The problem with scalable vectors is that the are, well, scalable. Depending on your import settings, they might come in at the correct size and they might not. To help solve this issue, I added calibration squares to the file.
Using the Calibration Squares
In the bottom right of the files for the laser cutter, there are two squares. One should measure 10mm. The other should measure 1 inch. Use whichever square matches the units in which you’re working.
Check to make sure that your chosen square is the correct dimensions. If it is not, do the following:
Record the measurement of the square.
Divide the correct size of the square by the current measurement. This is your scaling factor. (e.g., If the calibration square measures 8mm and it’s supposed to be 10mm, you would divide 10 by 8 and get 1.25.)
Select all shapes in the sketch.
Rescale the objects by the scaling factor.
Onshape: Onshape uses the simple numerical value of the scaling factor (e.g., 1.25). To rescale sketches in Onshape, use the following instructions. Transform Sketch.
Inkscape: Inkscape scales by a percentage rather than a raw number value. To convert the scale factor to a percentage, multiply it by 100 (e.g., a scale factor of 1.25 is equal to a percentage increase of 125%). Here is a video that will explain how to use the Scale function in Inkscape. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMg29D9uhDI
Check your calibration square again to make sure you have properly scaled the sketch.
If you cannot scale the sketch perfectly, for example if your scale factor is .333333333, round the scaling factor to three decimal places and get as close as you can.
