Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

Everything relating to microscopy hardware: Objectives, eyepieces, lamps and more.
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Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#31 Post by Antartica » Sat Jul 10, 2021 9:44 pm

thanks guys. Appreciate the input.

So basically people use newer parts to power the bh2-uma. Makes sense.

Just to clarify for myself, the BHM needs a BH2 TGH transformer to control the light intensity correct ( see Photo below) ?

Also, the manual says the Bh2-uma needs a Halogen lamp housing model BH2-ULSH, but again, there are none on ebay. Would other Olympus Halogen lamp housings work? If so, which models.

Lastly, what is that cylindrical Prism Mount shown in the manual (see Photo below). I've looked at many NIC setups and cant find any pieces that look like it.
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Scarodactyl
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#32 Post by Scarodactyl » Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:41 am

The prism mount screws in to the nosepiece, and then the nic prism attaches to it via a dovetail arrangement. This allows them to be installed on a conventional nosepiece, where otherwise their large size would make them bump into each other as you tried to thread them on.

Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#33 Post by Antartica » Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:24 pm

I see. Where can I buy these prism mount screws? Do you have a link to where I may get some?

microb
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#34 Post by microb » Sun Jul 11, 2021 5:04 pm

Antartica wrote:
Sun Jul 11, 2021 4:24 pm
I see. Where can I buy these prism mount screws? Do you have a link to where I may get some?
They normally come with the prism. This e-bay item for example. I don't know the seller. I just wanted a reference image: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Olympus-Micros ... 3262708023
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Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#35 Post by Antartica » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:01 am

Scarodactyl wrote:
Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:34 pm
I wouldn't retrofit this setup. The halogen bulbs are cheap and easy to source and give off good light. My second choice is retrofitting a fiber optic light guide from a 150w source. Retrodiode is good but I'm not sure about the color temperature, or if I'd want to use a pwm-dimmed LED for photography.
Following up on this, does anyone have links or information on a modern way to power the bh2-uma? I’m seeing a lot of bh2-umas on eBay with cracks due to the weight of the original halogen lamp housing. I want something more lightweight and compact if possible.

Scarodactyl
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#36 Post by Scarodactyl » Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:44 am

The lamp housing is not heavy at all. Those cracks would likely be from unrelated abuse. You could likely fit an LED easily enpugh, or attach a fiber optic light guide, but I doubt either would give better results. The uma is a very good illuminator.
Incidentally I finally got my own bhm listed on eBay. I can take more pictures of the setup if you'd like to see how it goes together.

microb
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#37 Post by microb » Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:42 am

Antartica wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:01 am
Scarodactyl wrote:
Sat Jul 10, 2021 5:34 pm
I wouldn't retrofit this setup. The halogen bulbs are cheap and easy to source and give off good light. My second choice is retrofitting a fiber optic light guide from a 150w source. Retrodiode is good but I'm not sure about the color temperature, or if I'd want to use a pwm-dimmed LED for photography.
Following up on this, does anyone have links or information on a modern way to power the bh2-uma? I’m seeing a lot of bh2-umas on eBay with cracks due to the weight of the original halogen lamp housing. I want something more lightweight and compact if possible.
Having bought them, a surprising number of ebay sellers will assume that the heft weight of the microscope means it's an invulnerable brick. They'll actually not take off the epi, and pack the frame with the UMA epi attached. Any movement snaps the neck of the UMA. It's a weak point. It's also possible someone leaned against the UMA, pressing down as they got up. But I'm betting it's bad shipping. Also the bad ones are the ones that are put up for sale.

Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#38 Post by Antartica » Wed Jul 14, 2021 5:20 am

Scarodactyl wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 3:44 am
The lamp housing is not heavy at all. Those cracks would likely be from unrelated abuse. You could likely fit an LED easily enpugh, or attach a fiber optic light guide, but I doubt either would give better results. The uma is a very good illuminator.
Incidentally I finally got my own bhm listed on eBay. I can take more pictures of the setup if you'd like to see how it goes together.
Oh, I didn't want to replace the UMA, only the Halogen lamp housing that hangs on the end. I think it's bulky and ugly looking. Something smaller would be nice. Has anyone attached a fiber optic setup like the one you mentioned?

And yes, could you take more pictures of your setup please. I would really appreciate that. Thanks.

Scarodactyl
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#39 Post by Scarodactyl » Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:42 am

I'll take some more tomorrow.
I have not tried it on an olympus but I did use a fiber optic light guide on a Nikon optiphot and was happy with that, though I think it was a bit underwhelming for epi darkfield. It was perfect for DIC though.

Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#40 Post by Antartica » Wed Jul 14, 2021 7:43 am

Scarodactyl wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:42 am
I'll take some more tomorrow.
I have not tried it on an olympus but I did use a fiber optic light guide on a Nikon optiphot and was happy with that, though I think it was a bit underwhelming for epi darkfield. It was perfect for DIC though.
Thanks! Some photos of your fiber optic light guide on your Nikon would also be nice to see ;)

Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#41 Post by Antartica » Fri Jul 16, 2021 8:35 pm

@scaro have you taken any photos yet?

Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#42 Post by Antartica » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:21 am

Scarodactyl wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:42 am
I'll take some more tomorrow.
I have not tried it on an olympus but I did use a fiber optic light guide on a Nikon optiphot and was happy with that, though I think it was a bit underwhelming for epi darkfield. It was perfect for DIC though.
You ever get a chance to take the bhm and Nikon photos? 😊

Antartica
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#43 Post by Antartica » Thu Jul 29, 2021 6:06 am

Never saw any photos from scaro :mrgreen: but that's okay, I have another question.

Does anyone know what (if any) differences exist between the older model BHM http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes ... us_BHM.JPG and the newer model shown here http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes ... HM_new.jpg

A description is on this site http://earth2geologists.net/Microscopes ... Scopes.htm

I'm referring to the base and stand. From what I can tell Olympus simply changed the paint job to beige from the older gray. Was that the only difference? And are all parts and pieces compatible with the older gray model. Does the BH2 vertical illuminator, DIC/NIC prisms and objectives all fit the older gray model?

Scarodactyl
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#44 Post by Scarodactyl » Thu Jul 29, 2021 6:59 am

I'll get the pictures taken eventually, I just never think of it when I have a chance to actually take them.
The older bhm is part of the original bh line so it was meant for shorter objectives. I think the head dovetails are pretty close so mounting the parts shouldn't be an issue, and I think the nosepiece dovetail might be the same too. The stage probably doesn't go as far down though.

Scarodactyl
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Re: Questions about metallurgy on Olympus

#45 Post by Scarodactyl » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:45 am

Or not, I ended up selling it and forgot to get additional shots before packing it up. But I can still run you through it all.
Here's an overview of what it looks like fully set up:
Image
Let's start with the BH2-UMA illuminator. At the far end you have the lamp house which attaches with a simple dovetail. The filament can be centered with two adjustment screws, very easy stuff. It is powered bt that external power supply--overall I was quite pleased with the illumination this produced, it's quite bright. The illuminator has the standard field stop and aperture stop which are internal and controlled by the levers on top. Then there are three removable sliders after that--one is the rotatable polarizer, one is a quarter wave plate/nd filter or just an nd filter and then finally one is the analyzer slider which slides in on the front. The sliders will often be missing and the rotating polarizer is very expensive for what it is. You will also want the quarter wave plate as it will often help a lot in getting good coloration, so consider that carefully when looking at a bh2-uma. The front of the illuminator has a slider to switch between two mirror cubes, typically brightfield and darkfield but it may be missing one or in theory there might have been some other option available at some point. At the top of the illuminator you have your 180mm tube lens. Above that tube lens it acts just like a normal 160mm finite olympus microscope which is neat.
The nosepiece is the standard dovetail mount so you can easily put on other nosepieces--it slides out very easily which is nice. The prisms are removable--they attach with first one component which screws into the m26 mount and has a dovetail, and then the prism slider screws onto the dovetail so you can get the alignment just right. Levers push the prisms in or out of position or in between for different coloration.

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