de Nidhogg » 08 Jan 2017 14:14
Thank you Pierre,
the pneumatic micromanipulator is a "Micro-manipulator de Fonbrune" which I bought on Ebay for around 150€. It arrived with the frontal bellow of the probe moving unit broken, because of poor packaging. I had to fix that with soldering and structural glue and of course I asked for a refound to Ebay (global shipping from USA was used). It's not too rare piece to find on US Ebay for reasonable price, around 200€ and it's easy to use!
I also have a home-made "frankenstein" mechanical manipulator which works just as good as the other one, made of spare parts I had at home. It's very heavy and stable. The movement in the Z axis is given by the old focusing block of my Universal, which I replaced with the stainless steel version on the scope.
If you want I can give you all the informations about the stage and Arduino project and the code. But maybe I should open a new post in the proper section of the forum!
Of course I can't use the mechanical stage for arranging Diatoms because it doesn't have the precision and responsiveness of the hand moved one! Nothing can replace the touch of your hand! I am fascinated by how Mr Kemp moves the slides just by hand, without using the knobs of the stage, when arranging Diatoms. I really have no idea how his hand can be so precise without the use of any mechanical device! Chapeau to him!