Tuesday 7 May 2013

Heath Robinson and the Hacked Microscope

This morning I tried to install my microscope USB camera on the laptop but Windozy 7 threw a tantrum and would have nothing to do with it. Tried searching for an up to date driver - no joy. Humph! What to do - buy a more up to date model? Nah. Too expensive for a decent quality camera. Think - painful but useful exercise. Last week I bought a couple of cheap USB web cameras. I was hoping to use one to monitor the bird bath while I had the laptop in the summer house. That idea was a complete flop as they are not designed to work in bright lighting conditions and the software I have couldn't make a usable compensation. Complete and absolute over exposure.

But - the USB webcams are focusable and I had already experimented to see just how close they could be made to focus. Almost down to zero - the only limit, leaving enough room between the camera and the object to let light in.

So - how to mount one of the cameras solidly to give it a chance of reasonably clear pictures? Simple - hack an old hefty microscope and mount the camera on that. Both cheap cameras worked well but the clincher was the one which had the cable emerging from the centre of its back. That meant it would be easy to route the cable up through the middle of the focussing tube once all the microscope lenses had been removed.

Final solution:

 DSCN0951 copy

 DSCN0949


That was followed by a long session playing with the set up to see how it performed.  As I said, the webcam hates bright light which is ideal for this job as it can be pretty dull right under the lens. Here are some of the items I tried:

 DSCN0957


And here the actual photo grabs made using the free version of  Debut Video Capture Software, warts and all - no cropping or tweaking:

The circular mat
Untitled 52

Bee Legs:
Untitled 33

Screw:
Untitled 19

Flower:
Untitled 39

Leylandii:
Untitled 84

It was difficult to get full colour shots - too much light could wash out the colour so even in the shade of the summerhouse I sometimes had to add extra shading right next to the microscope. Watch out - I could be finding this set up useful for the Monday Macros.

Instead of £50+ this cost me £4.99 (free p&p) for the webcam from eBay. I was lucky, they are now £5.79 (free p&p) If you are a tinkerer like me and interested the camera I ended up using was

"USB 12.0M Pixels 6 LED Camera Webcam" from ornahouse on eBayUK

Magnification is not high but will do for what I want. It might even be worth trying a bit of focus stacking. BTW the LEDs are of no use for this job - it is too close to the object to illuminate in the right place. I have no connection with the seller, just a happy buyer.

14 comments:

  1. that's what i was thinking! a whole bunch of 'what is this?' posts!

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    1. TWG: I'm building up a small stock ready for use!

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  2. Brilliant John. I was going to suggest stacking but you beat me to it,

    Your posts are always entertaining though I'm a Luddite and like to get images that will print big, sharp and colourful. I fail more often than I succeed.

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    1. Adrian: Seems to be the story of my life - find a different use for some object, especially if it's cheaper than the real thing.

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  3. oh me, how much more Macroer can Macro Monday be? I'm afraid to guess any longer.

    I do enjoy the creative set up, the fantastic price, and the Flower.

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    1. ImaBurdie - I'm sure you will do well with your guesses.

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  4. You got some great results from that set up John.

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  5. Oh my goodness. This is fantastic. You amaze me. Finally go to see Mrs. Tit on the next. She was moving the eggs around a bit it seemed. Thanks so much for all the neat things you share.

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    1. Bonnie: Mrs GT spends a lot of time turning the eggs to keep them at the right temperature right through.

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  6. Great results John. Well done and on the price, your talents were well rewarded!

    Good to read on earlier posts that things are progressing well in the nest box.

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    1. Thank you Jan. Plenty of 'will it work if I do ....' experiments stops the little grey cells from stagnating.

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  7. John, Have you thought of surrounding the webcam with tin foil? The light from the LEDs would possibly reflect onto the subject.

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    Replies
    1. Adrian: I'll give it a try though I think the colour may be wrong, too blue by the look of them.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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