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Hi everyone, my name is franco. This is my home built confocal microscope project. I used Nikon eclipse C1 scanning head and rebuilt the control system. Now it works well in confocal fluorescence and bright field imaging. I would love to discuss and learn about confocal imaging with you in here.

This is my youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_DOH ... 00iZ5kr3oA

duuudee,

I wish I was that smart haha

Epic stuff. Good job!

Wow, that's a very impressive project, and the results look great!

Cristian11 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 12:40 pm

duuudee,

I wish I was that smart haha

Epic stuff. Good job!

I know, right!?

Looks great, high tech

Congratulations on your success

Very impressive work, Franco.

Did you build it with a purpose in mind (if so, what is your purpose?), or did you build it just for the fun of creating it?

I have used confocal (only as tool to get particular results) in my cell biology research, but don’t really know much about it.

Great work, thanks for showing!

Can you give some more details on the software you used for controlling the scanner and on the utilized objectives and tube as well as scanning lenses?

Cristian11 wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 12:40 pm

duuudee,

I wish I was that smart haha

Epic stuff. Good job!

Thank you~

Scarodactyl wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 2:20 pm

Wow, that's a very impressive project, and the results look great!

Thank you, I am very satisfied with the result.

Next, i want to design my own scanning head, and hope better than this.

imkap wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 5:50 pm

Looks great, high tech

Congratulations on your success

Thank you~

zzffnn wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 6:19 pm

Very impressive work, Franco.

Did you build it with a purpose in mind (if so, what is your purpose?), or did you build it just for the fun of creating it?

I have used confocal (only as tool to get particular results) in my cell biology research, but don’t really know much about it.

Widefield flouresence and Confocal fluorescence imaging are two main characterization methods in my research.

The commercial confocal microscope is tooooooooo expensive for personal use, so, i try to make it in low cost using used parts.(Just for prototype~)

Microscopy_is_fun wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 22, 2022 7:11 pm

Great work, thanks for showing!

Can you give some more details on the software you used for controlling the scanner and on the utilized objectives and tube as well as scanning lenses?

I used custom LabView programm to control the system. The objectives is olympus PLN20X, the tube is removed from olymupus cx21 binocular observation tube, and the scanning lenses is a part of the Nikon c1 scanning head.

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 1:50 am

Next, i want to design my own scanning head, and hope better than this.

I would be glad to hear more about that when you progress with this project!

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 2:57 am

I used custom LabView programm to control the system. The objectives is olympus PLN20X, the tube is removed from olymupus cx21 binocular observation tube, and the scanning lenses is a part of the Nikon c1 scanning head.

Thanks for the info!

Amazing job !
What illumination sources are used ? the lasers of confocal microscopes that I have met were large, and water-cooled.

Microscopy_is_fun wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:22 am

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 1:50 am

Next, i want to design my own scanning head, and hope better than this.

I would be glad to hear more about that when you progress with this project!

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 2:57 am

I used custom LabView programm to control the system. The objectives is olympus PLN20X, the tube is removed from olymupus cx21 binocular observation tube, and the scanning lenses is a part of the Nikon c1 scanning head.

Thanks for the info!

You can subscribe my youtube channel to get the latest progress.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK_DOH ... 3oA/videos

Hobbyst46 wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:48 am

Amazing job !
What illumination sources are used ? the lasers of confocal microscopes that I have met were large, and water-cooled.

I use two HeNe gas lasers.

The large and water-cooled laser may be the ultrafast laser.

Most commercial confocal microscopes now are using compact laser，like Coherent Obis, Sapphire.

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 2:46 am

The commercial confocal microscope is tooooooooo expensive for personal use, so, i try to make it in low cost using used parts.(Just for prototype~)

Do you already have an idea which galvoscanner and which photomultiplier tube you would like to use?

If you haven't seen yet, Thorlabs offers very detailled information about their modular confocal platform:

https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9. ... p_id=10647

Microscopy_is_fun wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 25, 2022 8:18 pm

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 23, 2022 2:46 am

The commercial confocal microscope is tooooooooo expensive for personal use, so, i try to make it in low cost using used parts.(Just for prototype~)

Do you already have an idea which galvoscanner and which photomultiplier tube you would like to use?

If you haven't seen yet, Thorlabs offers very detailled information about their modular confocal platform:

https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9. ... p_id=10647

Thank you so much~ I have bought some galvos and different types of photomultiplier tubes (like Hmamatsu HC120, R928 and R1617).

Now, i am focusing on scanning head modeling. After the system finished, i will test the confocal imaging quality between different photomultiplier tubes, and try to use SiPM module designed by Vincent et al. as detector.

Here is the paper published by Vincent et al. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84522-0

This is fantastic work, great job! How did you couple the pickup fiber output to your PMT?

Cheers,
John

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:18 am

Now, i am focusing on scanning head modeling. After the system finished, i will test the confocal imaging quality between different photomultiplier tubes, and try to use SiPM module designed by Vincent et al. as detector.

Very interesting! Here are some more links that might be relevant for the project you are looking at:

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01141210/document

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0110475

http://www.cyto.purdue.edu/archive/flow ... /index.htm

abednego1995 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 26, 2022 5:18 am

This is fantastic work, great job! How did you couple the pickup fiber output to your PMT?

Cheers,
John

Hi, John. I used original Nikon C1 Detection Module, the optical fiber transmits the fluorescence directly to the PMT through the fiber collimator, and every PMT has its own collimating lens.

Here are some pictures about it.

Microscopy_is_fun wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 26, 2022 6:41 am

franc0_c wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 26, 2022 2:18 am

Now, i am focusing on scanning head modeling. After the system finished, i will test the confocal imaging quality between different photomultiplier tubes, and try to use SiPM module designed by Vincent et al. as detector.

Very interesting! Here are some more links that might be relevant for the project you are looking at:

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01141210/document

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0110475

http://www.cyto.purdue.edu/archive/flow ... /index.htm

Yes, I have read all the links you mentioned before.

Ah, I see you got the whole kit!! Good way to go. Looking foward to your results with SiPM conversion!

abednego1995 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 26, 2022 1:37 pm

Ah, I see you got the whole kit!! Good way to go. Looking foward to your results with SiPM conversion!

Thanks for your attention, John

Franco,

Congratulations.
Amazing job!

I am also trying to implement confocal on my Nikon TE300.

Rogelio

rogeliomoreno wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 10, 2022 6:36 am

Franco,

Congratulations.
Amazing job!

I am also trying to implement confocal on my Nikon TE300.

Rogelio

Thank you Rogelio.

I am looking forward to your results!

Franco,

I would like to know the length (in mm) of the white tube (your picture shows the scan head is inserted in silver adapter then the silver is inserted in the white tube)?

In your picture where is the 200mm tube lens?

Rogelio

rogeliomoreno wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 10, 2022 3:39 pm

Franco,

I would like to know the length (in mm) of the white tube (your picture shows the scan head is inserted in silver adapter then the silver is inserted in the white tube)?

In your picture where is the 200mm tube lens?

Rogelio

Rogelio

The white tube size is about 25mm and i use 180mm tube lens.

Franco,

Thanks for the answer.

On what microscope are you planning to use the confocal system?

Rogelio

rogeliomoreno wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 6:09 am

Franco,

Thanks for the answer.

On what microscope are you planning to use the confocal system?

Rogelio

I just use C1 system for prototype because i haven't got the nikon microscope. Now i am designing my own scanning head couple with olymupus IX-51.