AO One-Fifty Phase

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dtsh
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AO One-Fifty Phase

#1 Post by dtsh » Sat May 15, 2021 12:29 am

I will be travelling to visit friends later this year and we have discussed the utility of having a basic microscope on the farm; for this particular use the optics don't have to be demanding, having 100x and 400x magnification is sufficient, but it has to have a mechanical stage. As I intend to leave the microscope and kit for them to use, inexpensive was also a concern.

There are a lot of microscopes which fit that rather meager spec, so I was waiting to see what I could get when an AO One-Fifty Phase popped up. The seller had two, listed as "For Parts", but the description was promising and at the price they are asking, it seemed worth the gamble. At this moment, the other one is still listed.

It has 4x, 10x, and 45x objectives, the 10x and 45x being dark phase. The phase condenser has the two annuli, brightfield, and darkfield. It's a monocular scope with an AO138 10x eyepiece so the FOV is limited, but loosening the setscrew allows the 138 to be removed and WF eyepiece to be inserted. I swapped in a 176 and it looked to perform fine. The objectives are 4x (130), 10x (1224 dark phase), 45x (1238 dark phase).

It's in pretty good condition, better than I expected to be honest and everything works, though the condenser was out of alignment and the mechanical stage was tweaked. I removed the mechanical stage (2 screws on the side) and tweaked it back to sit flush. Aligning the condenser was nowhere near straighforward. No wrenches to adjust the annulus, the condenser is pre-centered and permanently mounted, the nose doesn't appear adjustable as with many other AO models, so I loosened the two allen screws which hold the stage on and found I could nudge it into place while using a phase telescope to see when the rings aligned. It worked well and was easy, but without the phase telescope I suspect it would be much more difficult.

Hard to beat a phase contrast microscope with brightfield and darkfield for less than $75

Kindly excuse the images, I'm still messing around with the Raspberry Pi camera connected to a Cat 176 eyepiece and I didn't have the resolution anywhere near what it can do. Images are stacked, bt visually it looked better than the images would suggest (do note the FOV would be narrower with the 138).
AO_150.jpg
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Images are of a mosquito wing.

Stacked images at 10x phase
AO_150_2.jpg
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Stacked images at 45x phase
AO_150_1.jpg
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Last edited by dtsh on Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#2 Post by dtsh » Sun May 16, 2021 2:11 am

I did a little more cleaning and adjusting.

A single mosquito scale with the 45x dark phase.
AO_150_5.jpg
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dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#3 Post by dtsh » Sun May 16, 2021 3:06 am

One done in brightfield wih the same 45x dark phase
AO_150_6.jpg
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dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#4 Post by dtsh » Wed May 19, 2021 8:34 pm

Phase contrast is more useful for harder to see subjects, so here's an image of the copepod I've imaged in other scopes.
The only changes in setup were swapping the 176 eyepiece for a 180, still coupled to the Raspberry Pi HQ camera using the C mount lens of uncertain origin (likely Bosch or Pelco).
10x Dark Phase objective
copepod_ao150.jpg
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dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#5 Post by dtsh » Wed May 19, 2021 8:57 pm

I tweaked the focus of the camera lens and of the C mount itself to get it closer to the same focus as without the camera.
It's turning out to be a nice scope, part of me wants to keep it. Thankfully I already have a much newer phase contrast scope (which I don't think I've touched in months)

Stellaria (chickweed) pollen, 45x dark phase.
Stellaria_pollen_ao150.jpg
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dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#6 Post by dtsh » Thu May 20, 2021 1:39 am

And here's an image of the petal margins of one of the petals from the same sample as the pollen grain (Stellaria sp.). 10x dark phase
Stellaria_margin_s.jpg
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dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#7 Post by dtsh » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:49 pm

I couldn't leave well enough alone and acquired a "working" One-Fifty with a bino head, the quotes are because it was in terrible shape, the nose was bent, illuminator didn't work, and it was probably the dirtiest microscope I've seen. At the price though I can't complain and even having disposed of the stand itself I still feel like I got a good deal.

The One-Fifty phase now has a bino head and 4 hole nose! The donor was a beige paint One-Fifty, but the head is compatible even if the color scheme is off.
The damage to the nose was relatively easy to fix. Unlike with the Series 10, where a bolt goes through the entire nose assembly, the nose on the 150 is held in with a strap of steel anchored by two bolts reached through the holes for the objective. It's a perfectly functional design, though significantly less robust. The fix was simple enough, I removed the two bolts and bent the strap back into shape and, after relubing and putting the ball bearings back, reinstalled it.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the head, while not manufactured to the standards of the series 10, is made quite similar with prisms, beamsplitters, and mirrors in exaclty the same places as on a Series 10 head. I was expecting to see mirrors used where prisms would be and other shortcuts, but while there are noticeable steps taken to reduce the cost, it wasn't as bad as I expected.

I had considered making an adapter plate to allow mounting a Series 10 head onto a Series 150 body, which I may yet do. If anyone is interested in such a plate I may put more effort into it. The amount of effort should be small as there isn't much to design and being an infinity system, the distance to the telan lens is unimportant and leaves a lot of leeway in the design. A nice bonus of this approach would be that the optical path would then be exactly the same as on a Series 10, so performance should be the same as well.

DrPhoxinus
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#8 Post by DrPhoxinus » Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:25 pm

I continued to be impressed with your refurb and mod work with the AO scopes.

I have an AO 150 which is plan. It is an easy grab and go scope. I had a Reichert 150 but it had only achromatic objectives with those crappy painted objectives

It is being used by a friend’s 11 year old.

Gerard

dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#9 Post by dtsh » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:11 pm

DrPhoxinus wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:25 pm
I continued to be impressed with your refurb and mod work with the AO scopes.

I have an AO 150 which is plan. It is an easy grab and go scope. I had a Reichert 150 but it had only achromatic objectives with those crappy painted objectives

It is being used by a friend’s 11 year old.

Gerard
Thanks DrPhoxinus, Im having fun, which is what matters most.

I couldn't get it out of my mind, so I made the adapter plate. So all of you who have a One-Fifty sitting on a shelf or jammed in the back of a closet, you can take it out and put a trinocular head on it.
I like the One-Fifty as a platform because it's nice and light, being super cheap is a great bonus too.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4910007

I'm sure there will be revisions and I'll need to put one of the trinocular heads on it and do some imaging to really know for certain that it's viable, but the short bit of testing I did seems good. It fits the One-Fifty like a glove.

apochronaut
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#10 Post by apochronaut » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:19 pm

The 150 was an excellent student scope for it's era. Probably it's only defect is the illuminator which lacks sufficient controls. As a starter microscope, especially if one is considering phase, it is hard to beat but it is also hard to determine whether it or the series 4 is a better bet. Both come at rock bottom prices. I bought a fully functional 4 in the last year for 65.00 just to get the phase objectives and lucked out by getting an uncatalogued Dark H, which is a kind of dark field phase.

On the plus side of the 150, it can be equipped with plan objectives but seldom are they and a plan phase would be quite rare but doable. Later ones also show up with the modern Reichert head, even trinocular, so can be used at a 20mm f.o.v. Presumably, one could then add a Bertrand lens under the head but they are hard to find. Theoretically, if you can find them, the 150 could be used with 9 phase options but probably needs some illuminator upgrading to brighten up the three 100X . DF would be difficult.

The downside of the series 4 objectives is that they are never plan but the array of objectives is staggering with 26 possible phase options. The more odd ones are hard to find. Most available are Dark M followed by Bright M, then B-Minus L. The phase has medium and long working distance condenser options too, which use the same objectives. It has Köhler, and a fairly bright 18 watts, so the illuminator is a fairly superior one. There is an array of condenser options : 1.3 and 1.4 achromat/aplanats, and the same 214F DF condenser used as with the Series 10, as well as a 1.4 W.F. condenser. All of them have popped up fairly frequently on ebay. There is an oil fluorite 97X 1.3 objective as well as a set of 4 apochromats and some higher N.A. achromats. The f.o.v. with the achromats and fluorite is 19mm, so the same as the series 10. The apochromats have the standard restrictions of their era, at around a 13mm f.o.v. DF is good up to 430X but since the illuminator is rear entry, it is not hard to upgrade for high resolution DF. There are both 50X and 97X objectives with irises.

There are 2 trinocular options : a 20:80 permanent beamsplitter and a 0:100---100:0 sliding prism. One big bonus of the series 4 is that the phase versions almost always have a built in push pull focusable bertrand lens.

dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#11 Post by dtsh » Fri Jul 16, 2021 3:09 pm

apochronaut wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:19 pm
The 150 was an excellent student scope for it's era. Probably it's only defect is the illuminator which lacks sufficient controls. As a starter microscope, especially if one is considering phase, it is hard to beat but it is also hard to determine whether it or the series 4 is a better bet. Both come at rock bottom prices. I bought a fully functional 4 in the last year for 65.00 just to get the phase objectives and lucked out by getting an uncatalogued Dark H, which is a kind of dark field phase.

On the plus side of the 150, it can be equipped with plan objectives but seldom are they and a plan phase would be quite rare but doable. Later ones also show up with the modern Reichert head, even trinocular, so can be used at a 20mm f.o.v. Presumably, one could then add a Bertrand lens under the head but they are hard to find. Theoretically, if you can find them, the 150 could be used with 9 phase options but probably needs some illuminator upgrading to brighten up the three 100X . DF would be difficult.

The downside of the series 4 objectives is that they are never plan but the array of objectives is staggering with 26 possible phase options. The more odd ones are hard to find. Most available are Dark M followed by Bright M, then B-Minus L. The phase has medium and long working distance condenser options too, which use the same objectives. It has Köhler, and a fairly bright 18 watts, so the illuminator is a fairly superior one. There is an array of condenser options : 1.3 and 1.4 achromat/aplanats, and the same 214F DF condenser used as with the Series 10, as well as a 1.4 W.F. condenser. All of them have popped up fairly frequently on ebay. There is an oil fluorite 97X 1.3 objective as well as a set of 4 apochromats and some higher N.A. achromats. The f.o.v. with the achromats and fluorite is 19mm, so the same as the series 10. The apochromats have the standard restrictions of their era, at around a 13mm f.o.v. DF is good up to 430X but since the illuminator is rear entry, it is not hard to upgrade for high resolution DF. There are both 50X and 97X objectives with irises.

There are 2 trinocular options : a 20:80 permanent beamsplitter and a 0:100---100:0 sliding prism. One big bonus of the series 4 is that the phase versions almost always have a built in push pull focusable bertrand lens.
I've looked at a few of the Series 4 as well, but since I had other AO infinity systems it seemed reasonable to stay within that platform so I could share more parts.
I need to make more room on the shelves for more scopes.....

apochronaut
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#12 Post by apochronaut » Fri Jul 16, 2021 4:04 pm

There are relatively fewer of them around than the 150 and it was a unique last stab at 160mm optics before they jumped wholesale into the infinity corrected 34mm system. However, it was their flagship instrument for about 5 years, so many were used in labs and some research because the system was quite elaborate. Like the Microstar/Diastar, they clearly intended originally to expand the system, likely with a 100 watt rear entry illuminator, probably a 5 place nosepiece, maybe plan objectives but the fast development of microscope systems and competing companies in that period gave them a change of heart. Many parts are transferable to the 10/20 series. The condenser dovetail is the same as the 10/20 series, so those DF and achromat condensers will work. In the early years of the series 10, they catalogued the 15X eyepieces from the series 4 for it. Even though the nosepiece dovetail is different, you could replace the 4 hole rotating carrier on a series 4 nosepiece with the grey 5 hole rotating carrier from a 10/20, if you were inclined to do so. Setting up a photo system on one is a breeze. It is a nice complete, fairly expandable microscope system with good to excellent optics, a wide field and it is cheap. There is even enough room to put in D.I.N. objectives if you were inclined but that might be a bit experimental due to the negative telan lens in the system. The stage with the drop down coaxial controls is really nice to use and it has that classic one hand AO slide carrier they continued with for another 40 years. Old school build quality. 1 micron fine focus.

dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#13 Post by dtsh » Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:51 pm

Further testing seems to show some significant dimming of the view, so I have since removed the adapter until/unless I can correct it.

DrPhoxinus
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#14 Post by DrPhoxinus » Sun Jul 18, 2021 8:31 pm

Alas,

If only something could be done about the 150 marginal illumination that relies on the 110 volt bulb.

Gerard

apochronaut
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#15 Post by apochronaut » Mon Jul 19, 2021 1:42 am

The 150 was a student microscope at a low price. It had the rather extreme advantage for it's day of being able to utilize the unique and innovative infinity corrected optical system that AO introduced close to 25 years in advance of it's competitors.That's why so many of them were sold and why anyone can buy one so cheap now.
Was there an Olympus student microscope of that capability and quality available at that price in it's day : no. Was there a Leitz student microscope of that capability and quality available at that price in it's day : no. Was there a Zeiss............... in it's day. no : Was there a Nikon.............. in it's day. no. Only Bausch & Lomb produced a competitor and the two duked it out in the N.American market.
There was no need to produce one with a better variable illuminator because the series 10 was available with several illuminator choices. I guess the step up was a basic 10 with a variable illuminator, which wasn't that much more expensive and upgradeable.
The 150 was student and the 10 was advanced student to lab, depending on accessories snd the 20 was lab to research depending on accessories.

dtsh
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Re: AO One-Fifty Phase

#16 Post by dtsh » Tue Mar 01, 2022 1:38 am

I mentioned earlier that I had installed a bino head and 4 objective nose, just addimg images to show what it looks like now. Not as nice looking as with the monocular, but nicer to use. Perhaps I will repaint the beige head at some point, but the paint doesn't affect its performance, so maybe it'll be a while...
AO_150_1.jpg
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AO_150_2.jpg
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