Macroscope

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In the beginning, there was Disco!

coming soon ...

Macroscope:

what

why

capabilites (current and potential)

To build:

parts list and sources

basic structure

custom parts (cam and filter mounts)

Filter wheel mount. McMaster-Carr part *** machined to this spec ^^^. This part can also be ordered directly from emachine shop. Requires mating to the adapter that comes with the filter wheel (picture links).
Camera mount. McMaster-Carr part *** drilled with 1/4" bit to allow mating to camera tripod mount.
LED filter coupler. 1 per LED. Available through eMachine Shop. design link.
LED mount and heat sink. 1 per LED. Available through eMachine Shop. design link.

camera

Canon T3i, with Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens, and Canon ACK-E8 AC Adapter Kit for Rebel T2i
Canon SDK can be requested here.

LED illumination packages. filters and leds - chroma...clearance...mention gel filters...

Ball & Socket heads for aiming LEDs.

LED lenses

  * Wide dispersion
  * Medium dispersion 
  * Narrow dispersion used for fluo illumination.

* Single Luxeon LED lens for BFP

LEDs

  * CFP
  * GFP
  * YFP
  * mCherry
  * White
  * BFP

Excitation filters. Chroma clearance bin as possible.

  * CFP: Chroma D436/20x 25mm
  * GFP: Chroma S470/40x 25mm
  * YFP: HQ500/20x 25mm
  * mCherry: Chroma ET572/35x 25mm
  * BFP : Chroma D395/40 25mm

Emission filters and automated filter wheel

Emission filters. Chroma clearance bin as possible (50mm filters = $$)

  * CFP: Chroma D480/40m-50mmr
  * GFP: Chroma D530/20  50mm
  * YFP: Shares GFP emission filter
  * mCherry: HQ645/75m 50mm
  * BFP: Chroma 460/40 55mm (oops, should have been 50.  Works anyway, not perfectly.)

Starlight Xpress USB 5 Position 2" Filter Wheel - 72mm Male Input/ Output. Make sure here to get a filter wheel insert that is for unthreaded filters!

control box

Measurement Computing Switch and Sense 8/8 Overdoing it, but very plug and play

plate registration

this it???
LightPad A920 6x9 Light Box for transmission imaging.
Hey! - Include modifications to registration plate and light box(pins) for transmission imaging.

Software (link to canon SDK req; starlight express drivers, switch&sense)

Switch and Sense
Canon SDKs are requested here.
Macroscope operating software ....(Binary, Source links)
Filter wheel software .... (link)

etc

Thoughts:

notes

Fluorescence shading correction. Divide images by a flat field standard
Filters. Interference filters are far and away the most costly part of this device, but have an enormous impact on signal to noise ratio. A very inexpensive but lower S/N filter option is to use theatric gel filters, available with transmission spectra from RoscoLUX, ... (ref worm breeders). A still cheaper option is to see how much fluorescent signal can be extracted using just the RGB filtered channels of the cameras sensor, along
Often, grabbing a single channel of the output fluorescent image (eg, Blue for CFP emission) further cuts some background and may improve the signal for certain fluors.

improvements

Better darkfield illumination
3D imaging of fluorescence in transparent volumes using sheet illumination (laser, cylindrical lens, )
Hyperspectral imaging to allow fluorescent compound identification and spectral unmixing of combinations of FPs, and for transmission spectroscopy...(ref)

Similar Tech

sample images?