In the event people are interested in a higher budget microscope, the openFrame is a very nice modular system [1].
[1] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/photonics/research/biophotonics/i...
Lego Microscope
101–110 of 112 posts
Re: Lego Microscope
#102Great project, next one can you make an electron microscope?
yes, but the 'electrons' are actually those 1x1 lego disks and the output image is also rendered in lego.
Re: Lego Microscope
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Lego corporation is welcome to care about that for trademark reasons, but the rest of us don't really have a need to do so. "Legos" is clearly in common usage, failure to YELL ABOUT LEGO IN ALL CAPS and all.
Ugh Lego and trademarks. My wife and I had Lego threaten to sue us for trying to import "legos" of mass destruction, it seems. We ordered a lego-compatible kit, which is ok I think, since it's only the lego figure that is patented Lego, the logo and name of course trademarked to Lego, and any brand cooperation to respective rights holders (eg Star Wars). However, a kit without Lego names or logos, and without Lego-fi…
They send bulk of these threats for any package that customs mark as "probably fake Lego". Depending on a country, if you refuse to get the product incinerated you'd have to pay storage fees for the time it takes to get an expert to assess the claim. Lego is doing great job in making sure custom officers have as little knowledge of the real situation as possible.
And to add to Lego's sis each set includes unnecessary unique bricks so that you can't remake a set without buying these custom parts. There are tens of thousands unique bricks so far and this trend is going strong.
Re: Lego Microscope
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ugh Lego and trademarks. My wife and I had Lego threaten to sue us for trying to import "legos" of mass destruction, it seems. We ordered a lego-compatible kit, which is ok I think, since it's only the lego figure that is patented Lego, the logo and name of course trademarked to Lego, and any brand cooperation to respective rights holders (eg Star Wars). However, a kit without Lego names or logos, and without Lego-fi…
You're right to be bitter, especially so because Lego has a pretty sordid history in this respect, the only reason they exist is because the founder copied someone else's IP and made a bundle of money on it. At the root of every great fortune there is a great crime. Oh, and the original inventor committed suicide. Those little details.
Bricklink, now Lego's property, also has checkered past. Fits the family.
Re: Lego Microscope
#105If you're insterested in other scientific instruments built (mostly) from Legos, take a look at the watt/Kibble balance designed by former colleague of mine and his team at NIST: https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1119/1.4929898 and https://www.nist.gov/si-redefinition/kilogram/nist-do-it-you...
Re: Lego Microscope
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where are you from? In Britain I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone say "Legos", it sounds very American to me.
Strange because as an American I've almost always heard to them referred as Legos. As a kid, my friends and I said, "let's play with Legos". My parents would say " get these legos off the floor". Seems odd to me to think of these phrases without the "s" on lego
Yes, it's always "legos" when referring to the pieces (unless singular one piece), in my world.
Re: Lego Microscope
#107Note how this is built in the "stacked" method, i.e. old school Lego. Even with technical parts, this was uniquely accessible. My proudest achievement was a smooth running, jamproof pump for elevating marbles; you can see it from about 0:27 in this old camcorder video: https://youtu.be/Mw3dUbRfMSw?t=24 These Legos encouraged engineering thinking all the way and were the defining toy of my childhood. Modern Legos are…
The bottom up vs inside out has always been present - and the robotics Lego build on Technic which always had a bit of the inside-out build going on.
I think a big part of learning to build well with Lego is realizing the refactoring that’s built in - like Minecraft you build a prototype and then continually refine it until the final product looks amazing.
Re: Lego Microscope
#108I know a chem prof who built a Lego spectrometer. https://publiclab.org/wiki/lego-spectrometer Legos are just wonderful. edit: I know nothing about woodworking or crafting any building materials, but I always wish I could perform those types of projects. And whenever some potential project comes up, I think to myself, "but I could build it with Legos."
> edit: I know nothing about woodworking or crafting any building materials, but I always wish I could perform those types of projects. And whenever some potential project comes up, I think to myself, "but I could build it with Legos." I bought a case for the Raspberry Pi camera that has a LEGO-compatible back and a small LEGO set (10692) specifically for making things to hold the camera where I want it. It has worke…
If you have a part you really like BrickLink is often he best way to get it cheaply (as you can buy just it) - but if you want to expand your collection I would use BrickLink’s tools to find sets that have as many of the parts as you can find and try to locate those on sale.
Or try the local Goodwill Auction site (if you drive to pickup you save on shipping and can outbid others).
Re: Lego Microscope
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can put a flat Lego piece perpendicular between two rows of studs. I don't think it's quite as secure as having an L-bracket though.
That's almost what I ended up doing, except rather than putting the flat piece between two rows of studs, I put it on top of the studs and had adjacent stacks to stabilize it. Two flat pieces back to back are very very close to the width between the sides of two rows of bricks separated by one row of empty studs. Here is a photo [1]. Here it is with the three top braces and the cable holder removed so you can see eve…
If you want more options get some of the Technic sets - the pins and arms provide lots of freedom.
Re: Lego Microscope
#110Anyone know of an alternative site to buy bare lenses? Trying to find something where I wouldn't fork over the international shipping fees.
Could you retrieve lenses from otherwise junk hardware? If the lenses are different you’d likely have to calibrate it differently but it still should work.
Sources: phones, webcams, scopes, cameras, etc.