DIY optical microscope

Abstract

Recently technology like laser-cutting and 3D printing became more easily available. With this and various electronics one can build scientifc equipment at home, for instance a microscope. The optics for a micro- scope can all be provided by the Raspberry Pi camera module and can be controlled by a Raspberry Pi, both very afordable. We have designed a microscope that can be build in 3 hours, has a feld of view of over 260 by 200 micrometers and can produce data with a resolution of approxi- mately 4.5 micrometer. It is quite stable on the long term, drifting only 0.37 micrometer after 48 hours in our measurements, and is capable of electrophoresis measurements.