Hacking a Dinosaur: Upgrading a Vintage Microscope with the Raspberry Pi
THE MICROSCOPE
2019, Volume 67:2, pp. 65–74
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59082/LBVB9679
AUTHOR
Martin Kocanda
ABSTRACT
Vintage microscopes have occasionally surfaced on the surplus market. With some effort, these scopes can be rebuilt to retrofit them for photomicrography with commercial hardware. Although this can be challenging, the availability of low-cost, single-board computers, camera peripherals, PVC fittings, and some programming experience, an older compound microscope can be upgraded to capture quality images and video. Using a Raspberry Pi 3, an open source hardware and software platform, a digital imaging systemcan easily be retrofitted for less than $75.