User:Anthony Salvagno/Notebook/Research/2009/01/20

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Piezo Tried to test the piezo. We got a movie of it moving. Right now the setup is very crude, and kinda bad. The driving board doesn't reach the objective so I put a slide in the sample/slide holder. This also proved to be pretty bad. The new breadboard stage is not as high as the previous stage so the minimum focal length of the objective is not within the height from the objective to the slide. THIS MEANS EVERYTHING IN THE SAMPLE PLANE IS BLURRY. To fix this I put the sample/slide holder on double stacked slides held together by double stick tape. I then double stick taped them to the breadboard so there is minimal motion. To get the piezo to move the slide holder I detached the adapter plate (the thing that allows us to connect the piezo to the micrometers) and attached the piezo to it. Next I moved it around on the micrometers until the driving board was touching the sample holder. Thus in principle the slide could be moved in one direction. This is because the piezo will push the sample and since there is nothing holding the sample to the piezo when the piezo returns to its initial position it will not bring the sample with it. Clear? I know, you have to see it to understand I guess. Anyways... we messed with some LabVIEW to try and get it to control the piezo but that was fruitless. Instead we used a power supply and that is what showed it worked. We got the proof. Now we just need to fix everything. So here is my list of adjustments: Driving board - needs to be made longer, thinner, and with a bigger whole for the objective to fit through. Adapter plate - needs to be made better. The screw holes are tight. Spacing - the driving board will come in contact with the objective as it currently stands. We will need for this to be higher off the stage and there needs to be room for one of the micrometers to move (it bumps into the stage). LabVIEW - need to try again. That's all I can think of for now.