I built both variants of the Delta Stage Microscope (I haven’t tested them yet). The transmission microscope was definitely much easier to make than the reflection microscope. Both of them required soldering which was a step up from the easy IO Rodeo microscope kits. Overall, they were quite straightforward to make, the transmission variant more so. However I did run into a few issues. Firstly, the beamsplitter size is very annoyingly precise. I don’t recommend a thickness of 1.5mm for a beamsplitter because the 1mm thickness beamsplitter barely fit. I need to pry open the little hands on the filter cube. We used this beamsplitter 12.5 x 17.5mm, 50R/50T, Plate Beamsplitter | Edmund Optics. It works without the need for glass cutting. I also burned the LED on the reflection microscope because I did not realize that the default setting for the adjustable power supply was 32 volts. Another still-unsolved problem that presented itself was that a screw that screwed the main body to the Raspberry Pi base got stuck on the nut and will not unscrew or fully screw into it. Now there is just tape over that location as a temporary fix. I also ran out of parts while making the transmission microscope since we had originally planned on two reflection microscopes, but that was solved with a stop to the electronics store. I also had a bit of trouble with the actuator feet. We did one divergence from the instructions on the final step. Instead of suspending the sangaboard above the Raspberry Pi, and connecting via usb. we just used it as a hat, and used a shorter standoff to support it. I mainly learned physical skills from this project, soldering, and glass cutting. These builds were still quite straight forwards, but definitely a step up from the IO Rodeo Open Flexure kits. Next I am working on software to control the microscopes over MQTT
(I will reply to this post with updates when it is tested and functional and show demo videos and images)
If you want to see another similar build here is a related post Building the high-resolution, motorized OpenFlexure Microscope (v7) using the Rodeostat kit - Tools - Accelerated Discovery (accelerated-discovery.org)