Linear actuator

Optical microscopes + digital photography
Post Reply
jdaniel
Posts: 1
Joined: 11.07.2012 12:50

Linear actuator

Post by jdaniel »

I have been using the demo version of Helicon with an inspection microscope for the past few weeks now and have had great results!
I am now looking at automating the stack acquisition. I currently have access to a range of linear positioners and wonder if it is possible to interface these with Helicon?
http://www.thorlabs.com/NewGroupPage9.c ... up_ID=2419
http://www.thorlabs.com/thorProduct.cfm ... mber=Z825B

Falling that I wonder if anyone could recommend an alternative linear actuator for this purpose, has anyone else found an easy to interface with a microscope? I have looked at slackshoot but the positioning system is too bulky for the job.
User avatar
Stas Yatsenko
Posts: 3841
Joined: 06.05.2009 14:05
Contact:

Re: Linear actuator

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

Sorry, these actuators are not supported. You may look for gear based on Trinamic stepper motors, that may work.
Stephan Wolfsried
Posts: 8
Joined: 13.09.2008 15:15
Location: Germany

Re: Linear actuator

Post by Stephan Wolfsried »

Maybe this article helps.

http://www.mindat.org/article.php/2066


Cheers Stephan
George Langford
Posts: 11
Joined: 09.12.2009 01:54

Re: Linear actuator

Post by George Langford »

Regarding automation of the interface between HF and a microscope:

1. On my Olympus stereomicroscope, I added a stage to support the object and a dial indicator with one inch range reading in 0.001 inch increments easily resolved to follow the head of the microscope. For some pix I move the head 0.001 inch at a time at 35X and as much as 0.005 inch at a time for low magnifications. My Olympus camera can be operated with its internal self-timer to expose the image as few as three seconds after I press the shutter release. The exposures range from one second to 1/125 second, depending on the object. This gives nice results, and most of my time is spent waiting for those three-second delays to expire. It's all very flexible, and the object stays in place just fine.

2. On my metallograph everything is just about the same (same camera, for example) except that I use the calibration of the fine focus knob to space the stacked layers. At high magnifications, the increments have to be in fractional microns (0.001mm) but the results look like color scanning electron microscope images at similar magnifications. Same three second delays between exposures, but sometimes a great many images, say 200. HF never chokes on this quantity of images. My light source is a one watt white LED. I'm limited only by the working distance of the objective lens.

The first Olympus camera logged more than 20,000 images using HF. I'm now using another Olympus camera (E-620) because it has Live View, which saves a lot of guesswork about where to start the stack.

George Langford
User avatar
Stas Yatsenko
Posts: 3841
Joined: 06.05.2009 14:05
Contact:

Re: Linear actuator

Post by Stas Yatsenko »

George, do you still have problems with long stacks (200+) using the latest Helicon Focus version? We have not heard such complaints before.
Post Reply