December 16, 2013

Make a cheap digital microscope with automated slide movement using Arduino

Using an inexpensive microscope, a webcam, some stepper motors from an old optical drive, some assorted hardware and an Arduino you can build an automated microscope that can be controlled via computer to take detailed photographs of the subject and stitch the images together to create enlargements of incredibly small subjects.

This type of project may have sounded like a type of science-fiction, but it can be done and is demonstrated by Instructables user Gl0cal. The two motors help move the slide under the lens of the microscope, allowing the PC to take the images via the webcam and microscope that will form the larger final result. This is demonstrated in the following video:

You can learn more about this project through Instructables. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're looking for an Arduino Uno-compatible board to work with, choose what thousands of others have done and use our Freetronics Eleven - the Arduino-Uno compatible with low-profile USB socket, onboard prototyping space and easy to view LEDs: 

 

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