Hi everyone!!
This is Chrystal writing this post on our progress. Sorry about the delay in getting the update posted, the holidays distracted us a bit, but now that Christmas is over and everything has slowed down (except school) we have got a fair bit done on our project.
So here is the long update (With photos I took):
I have the microscope working!! I have it at about 80X, it isn't up to the power we need yet, but it works great. I took apart some old cameras to salvage their lenses (Don't want to waste) and attached them to a web camera. So far it is just cardboard and duct tape (My dad is right, duct tape is for everything) but I got some good photos from it. To run the web cam we (actually Dad) programmed the Beaglebone Black to run a program called "Cheese". I looked it up on-line to see what would work for running the camera and came across this program (I also liked the name!!).
Below are some pictures I took through the microscope with a description of what your seeing.
First is a magnified LED light. You can see the close-up of the inside quite clearly!!
Next is a picture of cork.
While I was looking for things to magnify I found this tiny ball of solder on my dad's workbench (His bench is a mess and he complains about my room)
This last photo is of a piece of construction paper. I wanted to take a picture of my dad's workspace (To show how messy it is) but he said NO!!
The microscope is still work in progress but will be complete soon.
Next is the centrifuge, we ended up building our own as we are still waiting for parts. With time going by fast we decided to build one so we can complete on time. This was driving my dad crazy, such an easy machine but how to make it safe and balanced. I found a small fan that had one of the fins broken (Salvage parts, no wasting). So we took it apart and got the motor and speed control, added a hard plastic storage container and 4 vials. Attached is a picture (Without safety cover so you can see).
I took the picture with the web cam attached to the Beaglebone (No lenses to magnify). The centrifuge spins fast (We need to calculate speed yet) and is very well balanced. There is no wobble and the vials are very secure. We don't turn it on without the safety cover attached. This weekend we will test how well and long it takes to separate particles to look at. There will be lots of photos and a video of this part of the project working.
It is getting late so we will update more this weekend.
Chrystal and Dale Winhold
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