Does Anybody Recognize this Inverted 'Scope?

[GerryR]

I came across this inverted microscope. It's made in China and only has the markings shown in the pictures. I would like to find a manual for it or something close to it in construction. Any ideas will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Scarodactyl]

That looks like a Union Optical logo. Weird

[PeteM]

Gerry, It looks pretty straightforward and of decent construction. I'm not sure a Chinglish manual will add much to your understanding.

The exception to that would be if the objectives are phase contrast and the condenser annulli are missing -- and you hope to find something that matches. If so, you'd likely have to measure the size rings you need and try to find a match.

Are the engravings on the objective brightfield or phase? Are they the right matching long working distance types? 160mm finite?

[zzffnn]

Gerry, I almost bought that one for DIY modifications if all parts work, then it is a good value (especially for its removable trinocular head, mechanical stage and DIY friendly condenser mount).

It looks decent for the price you paid.

Manufacturer (Jiangnan Yongxin / Novel) does not sell that model anymore:
jnoec.com/en/product.html

It has 4x, 10x and 20x inverted semi plan long barrel 160mm tube length objectives. 20x seems to be a phase model with NA of 0.4, though I could not see clearly.

The scope head looks similar to LOMO.

[GerryR]

Gerry, I almost bought that one for DIY modifications if all parts work, then it is a good value (especially for its removable trinocular head, mechanical stage and DIY friendly condenser mount).

It looks decent for the price you paid.

Manufacturer (Jiangnan Yongxin / Novel) does not sell that model anymore:
jnoec.com/en/product.html

It has 4x, 10x and 20x inverted semi plan long barrel 160mm tube length objectives. 20x seems to be a phase model with NA of 0.4, though I could not see clearly.

The scope head looks similar to LOMO.

I haven't received the unit yet; I expect it Monday or Tuesday next week. I was impressed with its build and it relatively nice construction. (I actually made an offer and was surprised when he accepted it and how fast he responded.) It looks like it is missing a slider, which I assume is for phase operation. That is really why I would like a manual for it, to see what it had for parts and accessories. I have downloaded a number of manuals from other manufacturers assuming they are similar in operation, but am more interested in components. Thank you all for your inputs; I'll update when I receive it.

[Scoper]

Gerry, It looks pretty straightforward and of decent construction. I'm not sure a Chinglish manual will add much to your understanding.

The exception to that would be if the objectives are phase contrast and the condenser annulli are missing -- and you hope to find something that matches. If so, you'd likely have to measure the size rings you need and try to find a match.

Are the engravings on the objective brightfield or phase? Are they the right matching long working distance types? 160mm finite?

Is there a chart that lists various manufacture’s ring sizes?

If so please list the link to it.

Thanks

[PeteM]

Is there a chart that lists various manufacture’s ring sizes?

If so please list the link to it.

Thanks

Not that I'm aware of.

There's an eBay seller making laser-cut rings out of Delrin to fit various phase setups. He lists the dimensions of his sets. In my limited experience, they are often right but at least once wrong.

The simplest approach is to put a transparent rule (even laser or ink-jet printed) where the phase rings should be placed in the condenser and read directly what size rings the objectives will need. Then, make or buy what you need.

[apochronaut]

Your phase diaphragm goes on a slider. The simplest method is to cut a piece of hard transparent plastic the width and length of the slider and put some ruled marks on it to establish your diaphragm size quidelines. You can later cut another piece and black out all but the diaphragm ring.

[apochronaut]

That logo is very similar but not quite exact to the logo of NOIF. Ningbo Optical Instrument Factory, in Ningbo. The company goes back to the 1960's. Many such factories function under the Ministry of Engineering and Electronics Industry. Maybe there are similar logos scattered around China. China has thousands of microscope "factories", from small assembly facilities to specialized component fabricators to huge vertically integrated state of the art complete production plants. Some do engineering, some don't.
A few of the microscope types produced at Ningbo are/were a Laser Doppler Microscope, an Infrared Scanning Microscope and Modulation Contrast Microscope, their version of a Hoffman contrast microscope.

[GerryR]

Thanks for the inputs. Sorry for my delayed response, but Ive been"down-for-the-count" for the past couple of days, fighting off some weird disease; no such thing as a common cold anymore. I should have the 'scope in-hand today, but I'm not sure I wil feel up to diving into yet. No rush in any case; I have a lot of learning to do on this one.

[GerryR]

I received the unit, but unfortunately whoever packaged it had more faith in Fedex than I do. It was well wrapped in bubble wrap but unrestrained in the box and was left to bounce around. The binocular head was torn from its place, along with some other parts. I was able to repair the head and reposition the objective turret, but this is going to be a longer term project than I anticipated. It does look worth fixing though, so I'll be at it and keep you posted as to my progress.

[apochronaut]

Long ago, I have taken to giving packers instructions on how to pack a microscope. most don't mind but I have been chewed out for thinking they are stupid.no, they just need to know how to pack a microscope if they are shipping one., some have thanked me. it potentially can save a mess.
i hope your damage wasn't too bad. that looks like one that might be hard to track parts down for.

[GerryR]

Working at it slowly. It is cleaning up pretty well. The objctives are as follows: PH 1 SP4/0.1 160/-; PH SP10/0.25 160/-; PH SPL25/0.40 160/1.00 (Can someone explain the difference between PH1/PH and SP/SPL? Also, 160/- (the meaning of the -) I assume the 160/1.00 is for 1mm glass thickness (?). I have the binocular head to do; then come the real questions.

[apochronaut]

- is used on objectives that work equally well with or without a cover . It is seen on objectives with N.A.s below .40. A cover glass spec. of 1.0 is pretty ideal for using slides or well slides, where an inverted sees through the slide as though it is a cover.
Ph 1 usually denotes the specific condenser diaphragm used. Some phase instruments use the same diaphragm for more than one objective.
SP and SPL usually both mean the same thing and various mfg. have their own codes. Without a manual it becomes a bit of a guessing game. The L added on to SP could indicate Semi Plan Long working distance in this case, though.

[GerryR]

Thanks for the clarifacation,Phil. (Did you get my PM on the 1036A illuminator. If not, please visit that subject, as I posted there what I had sent you. I'm having trouble on this website. It will not keep me logged in and it doesn't always semd PM's.) Thanks, again.

[Macro_Cosmos]

The logo says 上海 which means Shanghai, likely it came from one of the three or four state-run optics enterprises back in the days. It does not indicate which factory, but perhaps a nameplate at the back would say something like 上海光學三廠 (Shanghai optics Co 3rd factory), indicating its origin.

I own a refractometer made by Shanghai Optics Co.

(Speaking of that, I think I will never get around to restoring my PLA field microscope...)

The true origin could be different as well. Someone I know got hold of a "LOMO" microscope that was designed for an ex-state-owned metallurgy lab, it had the serial of literally the number "1". He told me this cannot be LOMO because the mechanics were superb, something LOMO and their unrationed Soviet tank grease was not known for. He stripped the stickers and the scope was revealed to be a Zeiss that was painted over. The objectives were all Zeiss with an extra shell. I bet the revolutionary brothers over at Stalingrad made a nice capitalist white label gain from that bucket of green paint. I wonder how they smuggled that Zeiss in.

[apochronaut]

These might be the sliders for your microscope.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/264270038071?it ... BMsLr-xrpj

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/264270038078?it ... BM-rWWx7pj

Silo often will take an offer of half or even less if the item has been sitting for awhile.
Just ignore that shipping price. The link I sent is for Canada.

[GerryR]

These might be the sliders for your microscope.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/264270038071?it ... BMsLr-xrpj

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/264270038078?it ... BM-rWWx7pj

Silo often will take an offer of half or even less if the item has been sitting for awhile.
Just ignore that shipping price. The link I sent is for Canada.

They look like they should work. I'll need to have some measurements sent to be sure. Thank you for the links.

[apochronaut]

I did an objective search at Silo for 25X , which are almost all European. B & L made a fantastic 25X .65 Flat Field apochromat for the Balplan but outside of that 25s are scarce and a 25X on a Chinese scope is quite odd but there may be more 25x formatted outside the .17 or .18 cover types I am most familiar with than I know. Anyway, they have your 25X objective and then I found the 10. It looks like someone parted a scope like yours out. The bin #s for the objectives are very close to that for the phase disphragms, so those do look to be at least a variant of your sliders.

[MichaelG.]

Forgive me if this is a ‘Red Herring’ but those sliders look remarkably similar to the ones for the Olympus IMT

https://microscopecentral.com/products/ ... e-imt-rs40
https://www.alanwood.net/downloads/oly ... manual.pdf

I believe these were offered in a set of three, for the ULWD illuminator
10x 40x and a simple empty pass-through

MichaelG.

[apochronaut]

Maybe a Baijiu inspired version. I can almost hear the after work discussions weighing a 20 vs. a 25. I wonder if somewhere out there is a 45X or maybe even a 50..

[GerryR]

A couple of questions. The binocular head had a bad mirror, which I replaced. When looking through either eyepiece either singularly or together, there is a a bright center section and a darker perimeter. Will the "sliders" somehow take care of this. The bright center section is about 2/3 the field of view. The field iris seems to have no affect on this. Also, when adjusting the field iris down to its minimum opening, there is a perfect image of the bulb filament in the field of view (image plane(?)). Is this normal or am I missing parts other than the sliders? I have virtually no experience with inverted microscopes. Thank you for any input.

[apochronaut]

Is the vignetted field perfectly uniform ? does it have a fuzzy or sharply defined border?
The condenser should be focusable for Köhler, which should defocus the filament image. The sliders are just to obtain phase, otherwise you should be able to to fo BF o.k.
I came across a parts head and eyepieces for that scope. The head is just missing a side panel. It was cheap. Do you want a link?....if I can find it again.

[GerryR]

Is the vignetted field perfectly uniform ? does it have a fuzzy or sharply defined border?
The condenser should be focusable for Köhler, which should defocus the filament image. The sliders are just to obtain phase, otherwise you should be able to to fo BF o.k.
I came across a parts head and eyepieces for that scope. The head is just missing a side panel. It was cheap. Do you want a link?....if I can find it again.

The vignetted field has a sharply defined border. Yes, I would like the link, if you can find it again. Thanks very much for your input!

[apochronaut]

See if you can adjust it for Köhler and see what happens. At least you know how to get a filament image so you can center it.
It's not possibly the partially closed condenser iris in focus, is it?

[GerryR]

See if you can adjust it for Köhler and see what happens. At least you know how to get a filament image so you can center it.
It's not possibly the partially closed condenser iris in focus, is it?

There isn't a condenser iris as in a standard microscope, but if you look at the last picture in my first post you can see a lever below the the binocular head that works just like an iris. Adjusting this allowed me to get rid of the vignetting, however it has the effect of "zooming in" on the specimen, actually magnifying the image. I don't know what to make of this. I haven't tried Kohler as yet; I will get to it tomorrow.

[apochronaut]

I looked for that link but cannot find it. At the time, about two weeks ago, I was searching for 15X eyepieces I think and that listing showed up way down towards the last page. The listing was something like Unknown trinocular head with eyepieces , so that explains sort of why it popped up under my search, although the eyepieces were 10X W.F. I recognized the lettering on the the eyepieces from your thread and when I checked on the design of the Seidentopf head it seemed the same. It had a problem , so had been invaded and one of the prism covers was missing. I think it was about 25.00 or something like that.
Regarding the phase sliders. They obviously want too much for them and they likely aren't going anywhere too soon. They have the matching objectives as well and want too much for them but Silo is like that. I have to pay over 40.00 just to get them to ship to me across the border but they will ship 5 items for that 40.00. About 3 times now in around 12 or 15 years I offer 1/2 or less on 5 items that I need for restorations and they usually come through rather than lose those sales. I have found Silo very good.

[GerryR]

Well, I tried Kohler and was totaly unsuccessful. Let me explain. On the illumination post there are two colored rings, one yellow and one green. These, I assume, correspond to the colored rings on the objectives, so when the objective with the corresponding colored ring is used, I set the illuminator to that position. All I get is a perfect image of the bulb filament. I tried sliding the illuminator to different positions but to no avail. There is an iris above the condenser lens (think inverted), but none after the lamp (one iris between the bulb and the condenser lens), so is the existing iris the field iris or the condenser iris? I assume it is the condenser iris and there is no field iris. I'm totally confused; any help will be appreciated.

[apochronaut]

How far is the iris from the condenser front lens ( the one on top) and and are there any lenses between the iris and filament?

[GerryR]

How far is the iris from the condenser front lens ( the one on top) and and are there any lenses between the iris and filament?

The setup is as follows:
Bulb
Centering Mechanism
Lens
Filter slot
IRIS
Slider slot (0.7" x 2-7/16")
Lens (lens closest to specimen)
Distance from the iris to the lens closest to the specimen is 1-1/2"
Distance from the iris to the lens closest to the bulb is 2"