Hello Little World! My Micrograph Gallery and 3D Printed Microscope

2025 Sep 10 (E: 2025 Sep 15)

• About the Microscope

About the Microscope

The OpenFlexure Microscope is a 3d printed, inverted microscope built with a Raspberry Pi and Pi Camera. By default, using only a Pi Camera, the microscope is capable of viewing slides at 20x magnification.

(Every micrograph taken above was at 20x magnification.)

My friend and I assembled two microscopes, one for each for us.

1. the budget build with the Sangaboard and PCB, later upgraded to the high-res version with a 60x objective lens
2. the alternative version with resistors instead of the PCB and something else instead of the Sangaboard
   • the assembly instructions specify 150 Ω,¹ but 180 seems to work well enough.

After being extra careful not to kill the Pi Camera with static electricity,² we found some quirks to using this microscope.

• moving the camera involves setting (x, y, z) values where z (un)focuses.
  • unfortunately, there isn’t yet a ‘Cancel All Movement’ button; therefore, typo’ing an extra 0 can either break the slide or force the user to shut off the scope.
  • the position can be controlled with the arrow keys and the mouse, but I gravitated to typing values for z.
• the illumination module isn’t controlled in the interface (yet?)
  • meaning, it tortures photophobic specimens.
• the stepper motors can run hot though not too hot to burn.
• video capture is an extension.³

As the microscope is inverted, the lens is on the bottom. At 60x magnification, the slides may need the cover to be facing the lens especially if the glass is too thick for the optics to focus. Therefore, it’s also possible to be careless and have liquids fall in to the electronics.

More positively, the microscope is under active development, and the quirks can be refined over time. The microscope boots to Raspbian. A mouse, keyboard, and monitor can be plugged in, or the microscope can be operated through its web interface. While market prices are always changing, the price likely is competitive especially for those who are comfortable with assembling electronics and can print the parts.

We got the microscopes with the intent of contributing to the OpenFlexure Project. So you might find a later blog post detailing my contributions.

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