MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Greg Howald wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 12, 2021 11:53 am

Dear Nate. You are correct so far as centering is concerned. I've also tried using a 5x eyepiece and had success with a centering telescope. The simple rule is this. If it looks to be on center, it is.
Greg

Thank you again!

Just speculating, but the design does look like it could be optimized with a relatively narrow beam from the LEDs in mind. What is the distance from the LEDs to the diffuser/lens? It is hard to be exact, but about 45mm Yeah that is a normal forward voltage for a single LED, doesn't tell much except...

Centering the condenser. Many condensers on Amscope equipment can be centered with some difficulty even though instructions for that are not given. To see if it can be centered, remove the condenser and examine the condenser holder. Many consist of a ring of metal inside the casting. That ring is u...

An interesting thing about the T-1 3/4 packages is that some have quite narrow beam angle around 15 degrees or less due to the relatively large diameter and longer focal length of the dome compared to the size of the die. That appears to be the case with the original ones judging by the large appar...

PeteM wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 7:17 pm

Nate - thanks for the additional pictures and information on the LED version.

No problem!

dtsh wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 4:05 pm

I see no reason a person couldn't replace the supplied LED array with a different one; though you would likely need to replace the driver circuit as well. There looks to be plenty of room at least.

Great! Thank you!

-Nate

Would be interesting to know what LEDs those are. When I was looking at LEDs the T-1 3/4 ones I saw were limited to not much more than 20 mA due to high thermal resistance of the package. So even 7 of them at ~0.5 W total would still be less than the 3 W shown in the specifications. Hmmm, suspiciou...

Your photos are quite good. Those diy contrast techniques you mention are quite commonly used at the magnifications you are working at. At 40X and up both centering of the components and intensity of the illumination become limiting factors. It helps to use oil immersion for higher magnification DF...

The led's appear the same shape and size of the one watt led bulb used in the Amscope m148 -150 series of monocular scope. If so a burned out bulb could be replaced with one of the spare bulbs which are available. I'm sure some soldering would be required. If those are one watt bulbs you are using ...

Greg Howald wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 09, 2021 3:21 am

I opened the dark field condenser, removed the patch stop, and made Rheinberg and other stops to mount in it. That works well for me, even at 40x.

Thanks Greg! That's great info! You can remove the patch stop from the Amscope darkfield condenser?

-Nate

hans wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 08, 2021 10:44 pm

The look like T-1 3/4 LEDs with clear domes to me, possibly seven of them arranged in a hexagonal pattern?

Hans, you're right about the arrangement, but I'm not sure about the kind of LEDs.

-Nate

More pictures: 1. The wires from the LED assembly and elsewhere plugging in to some part of the electrical system. Viewed through the collector lens hole, Black, threaded collector lens removed. 2. Black, threaded collector lens held up to the light to help visualize the frosting. 3. Black collector...

Great Questions! There is a frosted portion inside the removable black piece whose thread diameter I was discussing (the collector lens). I will take some more complete pictures of the LED assembly. It is difficult because there is a wire or two that prevents me from opening the LED access door very...

Ya, I don't care for oil. When I get plan objectives I am going to get a 4x, 10x, 20x, 40x and 60x. I think the 60x might be a good idea. I think that would be awesome to have all of those plan objectives! A forum member on here offered to make them for me. If your interested you could ask him to m...

Javier,

There is such thing as having multiple nuclei in one cell, but I am not sure if that would be the case in plums. It's also possible that you saw two overlapping cells.

Wow! Those veins are really interesting!

-Nate

As a follow up, I purchased an Amscope T490B-LED (no Kohler) and have been impressed with the evenness of illumination, brightness of the 3W LED system, and have been able to perform darkfield and Rheinberg illumination with 4x and 10x objectives. I would take more brightness if I could get it, but ...

To those who care about my questions, I purchased the Amscope T490B-LED (and have put lots of information on it and my experience with it here: https://www.microbehunter.com/microscopy-forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=12208). In the interest of building public knowledge about this scope and other Amscope ...

I also got the t490B. (darkfield and halogen). It's a truly amazing microscope for the price and I would also recommend this microscope to everybody. It's even better than the leica scope's I used in college in my opinion. I upgraded the eyepieces to a reticle eye piece, added a 20x objective and s...

More pictures as attachments. All pictures and videos are available in the imgur links.

Hello everyone, I'm a college biology student and a lifelong science enthusiast. I had a toy microscope growing up and had some limited experience with real microscopes in high school and college. A while ago, I caught the microscopy virus afresh and I got the stronger strain this time. My fellow bi...

So you’ve got a scope natedoggraymond? You’ve welcome show it off in the “my microscope” section of this forum-it’s where excited microscopists post a pic and rave about their new current set up-people often have used the same scope and offer advice etc. it’s a bit of fun! Regards Ross P.S when loo...

Indeed, thank you very much! I purchased an LED scope incapable of Kohler, but have found the illumination to be sufficiently even.

Hey natedoggraymond -ditto-if I may offer advice-if you get a quadruple scope,make sure it’s got a 20 or 25x or get one get one to go with it-it’s easily the most used mag for pond protists.Heaps of scopes skip it with 4x,10x,40x,100x-or get a quintuple-you miss so much jumping from 10 straight to ...

Javier wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 11, 2021 12:13 pm

I can certainly get the effects of Rehinberg illumination without performing Kohler illumination.

Wonderful! Thank you!

I like the idea of the Amscope T490 but what is the difference between the 490 and the 490B? Also when I looked at this one I then saw the Swift Compound Trinocular Microscope SW380T. How does this compare? Hi Kent! I don't currently own a microscope, but I am also very interested in the Amscope T4...

Hello all! I'm very excited to be a part of this great forum! I am a young college student and a passionate biology major. I could see my career or some of my research coming out of my experience with microscopy. It is certainly something I love. I have been greatly inspired by the work of James Wei...

So can anyone confirm that Kohler illumination is not necessary for Rheinberg?

Check with your school for surplus! The schools around here retire the older, but entirely serviceable gear after some time and get new, so there's a good chance you can get a fairly high-end microscope of yesterday for not a lot of money. That's a very good idea! Would you recommend checking with ...

Hobbyst46 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 10, 2021 8:46 am

Maybe they are sort of standard; mine is a 10W LED and is fine, lower intensities seem just adequate, and I think that the brighter the better (provided that heat effects are weak).

Ok, thank you! Maybe I can look into upgrading mine if it isn't bright enough.

Greg Howald wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 10, 2021 2:54 am

If you don't have Kohler illumination and you think it might help you can cheat by purchasing an iris diaphragm on Amazon and placing it over the illuminator lens enabling you to have better control of the light. It works. I use it All the time
Greg

Do I not also need a collector lens?