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Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Issues with my first microscope
« on: March 30, 2019, 08:00:51 pm »
So my first microscope came in, I bought a Eakins Trinocular microscope, but I'm having issues with my eye pieces.  When I look through them it's mostly black.  What am I doing wrong or is it the microscope?
 

Offline Habropoda

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2019, 08:23:07 pm »
Try these:

Remove or fold down any plastic or rubber eyecup, especially if you wear glasses.  Maybe remove your glasses.  Your eyes need to be closer to the eyepiece.

The distance between the eyepieces can be adjusted.  Play with that until the view improves.
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2019, 08:58:02 pm »
This might sound weird, but the closer I get the less I can see, farther back I go more I can see.
 

Offline KL27x

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2019, 09:20:50 pm »
After seeing some of the idiotic things people do with a microscope, I can't be surprised, anymore. Here are some pointers, in no particular order:

1. The eyepieces can be adjusted wider apart or closer together. Humans have a range of interpupillary distance. We are not all the same.
2. When the eyepieces have the correct spacing between them, you will see a single circle. Not two circles.

The microscope is focused by moving the entire head up/down. Unless you change the lens or add lenses (barlow, for instance), the focal distance between lens and object were/when the image is in focus will be static. You do not turn the eyepieces to focus the scope (although initially you might have to adjust them to get the image focused in both eyes, plus you have to adjust them to where the microscope is parfocal if it is a zoom microscope).

Harbropoda's tip is important. I wear glasses, and I have to remove the rubber cup from the eye pieces, altogether. But I can still see an image with the cups on there. It's just a smaller circle with more black around the edges.

Some people can't use a binocular microscope, because they can't correlate the two images unless they are perfectly aligned. Some people can't use a binocular microscope because they are idiots. They might eventually get the hang of it if they used it regularly, but they otherwise can't get one to work without help. I've seen lenses turned upside down, eyepieces completely out of focus with each other, people who couldn't figure out the width between eye pieces is adjustable. All kinds of stupidity. Leave a microscope in given work place and it might get "adjusted" farther and farther away from usability until people complain the microscope doesn't work, anymore, and my naked eyes work better.

If you're experiencing a problem, first off, look thru only one at a time. Don't use both eyes until you get a proper image in one of them.
« Last Edit: March 30, 2019, 09:39:46 pm by KL27x »
 

Offline grizewald

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2019, 11:07:45 pm »
One thing about a zoom stereo microscope is that even when you have the interpupillary distance correctly adjusted and your eyepieces adjusted for your eyes, the position of your eyes is critical.

Your eyes have to be looking into the eyepieces exactly in the centre. It takes a little time to adjust to keeping your head in the right position at all times. Keep at it, you'll soon get the hang of it!

It's also vital to perform a parfocal adjustment of your microscope. Until you do, the focus will change as you change the zoom factor. Once you have done the parfocal adjustment, you don't need to touch the focal control as you zoom at all, as long as your subject is at the same height. Here's a great guide to parfocal adjustment: https://www.aventools.com/how-to-parfocal-your-stereo-zoom-microscope/
  Lord of Sealand
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2019, 01:31:05 am »
That did the trick man.  I'm from a small town in Mississippi an went to school at a high school that didn't have any microscopes what so ever, an when I was in community College there was 3 or 4 to share between the entire class (2010-2012) so this is the first time I've used a microscope at all in my life.  I appreciate all the help, I soldered a small qfp just to see if I could, now to keep practicing at all of this.  Thanks for the help!
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2019, 01:12:30 am »
One more question, the holes where the eye pieces slide into screw, pushing one lens out at a time.  I have been trying to figure out if that is my diopler adjustment.  There was no paperwork with this microscope so I'm having to basically wing it, an i haven't seen any diagrams label that exact function.
 

Offline grizewald

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2019, 05:35:55 am »
Yes, that is your diopter adjustment.

On my microscope, there are two lines which appear around the eyepieces as they screw out. This is the +0 point which should be used when doing the parfocal adjustment.
  Lord of Sealand
 

Offline jfiresto

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2019, 08:10:59 am »
... There was no paperwork with this microscope so I'm having to basically wing it, an i haven't seen any diagrams label that exact function.

This PDF, with instructions for the Meiji EMZ microscopes, may help. The section, FOCUSING PROCEDURE, on page 7, covers what you are asking about, at least for these microscopes which Eakins may have copied. (I don't know the brand.)
-John
 
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Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2019, 09:26:14 pm »
Well let me ask you this, by the time I get both eyes into focus, one eye piece ends up push out further than the other one thus preventing me from being able to fully center on the eyepieces thus having 2 images instead of one image of what's under the microscope.  I found some amscope eye pieces with diopter adjustment built into the lens.  Is that gonna fix my issue or did I just waste that 50 dollars on the pair?
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2019, 09:27:19 pm »
Thanks for your reply, but I'm thinking the Eakins is a clone of the amscope microscopes.
 

Offline jfiresto

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #11 on: April 02, 2019, 08:34:18 am »
Well let me ask you this, by the time I get both eyes into focus, one eye piece ends up push out further than the other one thus preventing me from being able to fully center on the eyepieces thus having 2 images instead of one image of what's under the microscope....

Even after you push the tubes toward each other horizontally? If that still won't fuse the images, the mirrors inside the eyepiece head (or they may be prisms) could have been knocked out of alignment.

An adjustable eyepiece raises and lowers the eyepiece optics, with the same effect that the diopter adjustments on the eyepiece tubes raise or lower the entire eyepieces out of or into the tube.

Could you post a picture of the head?
« Last Edit: April 02, 2019, 09:07:25 am by jfiresto »
-John
 

Offline jfiresto

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #12 on: April 02, 2019, 08:38:24 am »
Thanks for your reply, but I'm thinking the Eakins is a clone of the amscope microscopes.

You may be ending the cloning chain too early. What microscope might Amscope have copied?  :)
-John
 

Offline windsmurf

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #13 on: April 02, 2019, 09:19:34 am »
Thanks for your reply, but I'm thinking the Eakins is a clone of the amscope microscopes.

You may be ending the cloning chain too early. What microscope might Amscope have copied?  :)

... or perhaps Amscope is made by the same factory in China. 
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2019, 01:19:05 am »
 https://m.aliexpress.com/item/32851330647.html?pid=808_0000_0101&spm=a2g0n.search-amp.list.32851330647&aff_trace_key=2d978536a0cd43e2bb7fe15a9029781d-1549423025918-03508-UneMJZVf&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=927amp-9oDNZhv64VUcF2lveC0HKA1551373348607


Unable to post pic but here's the link I purchased from.  When I put both eye pieces to diopter point 0, I can look through both eye pieces an see one image,but after doing the parfocial adjustment the difference in eye pieces is so different I can no longer center, thus only seeing out of one eye at a time.
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #15 on: April 03, 2019, 01:22:57 am »
When doing the parfocial adjustment, I dial everything in using just one eye, and when I have a clear image in it, make the diopter adjustments to the second eye piece, but that is when my issues start.
 

Offline jfiresto

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #16 on: April 03, 2019, 08:00:06 am »
For a user with corrected vision, the microscope should be parfocal (stay in focus as you zoom in and out) when the eyepiece diopter adjustments are set to 0. That way, he can add a reticle to an eyepiece and expect the reticle to be in focus. There are a few possibilities if the microscope is not:
  • its maker does not care about reticles
  • they sent you eyepieces meant for a different microscope (perhaps they were a bargain in the market that day) or
  • the microscope is defective.
Do you get the same split images at both minimum and maximum zoom, or does the splitting vary with the zoom? If it does, how so?
« Last Edit: April 03, 2019, 08:02:34 am by jfiresto »
-John
 

Offline grizewald

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #17 on: April 03, 2019, 11:28:57 am »
Looking at the picture on Aliexpress, this microscope seems to be very similar to the one I have.

I have had no problem at all getting mine set up and parfocal. I only wear glasses for close up vision and I don't wear my glasses when using the microscope. I just use the microscope's diopter adjustment to compensate for my middle aged eyes.

Do you wear glasses? If so, for what kind of defect? I don't have practical experience of using a microscope if you are near-sighted, so I can't really say if that would be a problem.
  Lord of Sealand
 

Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #18 on: April 03, 2019, 11:53:13 am »
I don't wear glasses, but in normal life I do have issues with double vision from time to time.  Using normal binoculars no problem, before adjusting the diopter for each eye, when there at the same 0 on the diopter I can see one image fine, blurry and out of focus but one single image, but once I do the parfocial adjustment I can no longer find center thus I can't get 1 image from the microscope it becomes 2 images overlapping.
 

Offline grizewald

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #19 on: April 03, 2019, 12:01:12 pm »
Kfire778 sent me these two images to post for him here.




  Lord of Sealand
 

Offline grizewald

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #20 on: April 03, 2019, 12:08:58 pm »
If you don't have bad eyesight, the adjustment for both eyepieces should be the same.

Here is how much I have to adjust mine:



Are both eyepieces the same? Mine are both Wide Field 10X/20mm

  Lord of Sealand
 

Offline grizewald

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #21 on: April 03, 2019, 12:18:37 pm »
If you swap the positions of the eyepieces, does the problem move with the eyepiece?

Have you checked to make sure that the objective lenses on the bottom of the microscope head are both screwed in properly?

  Lord of Sealand
 

Offline Psi

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #22 on: April 03, 2019, 12:49:30 pm »
When doing the parfocial adjustment, I dial everything in using just one eye, and when I have a clear image in it, make the diopter adjustments to the second eye piece, but that is when my issues start.

Rotate the focus on each of the two objective eyepieces to center position. (Move them all the way in either direction so you can figure out their full rotation range and where the center point is)
Look through the microscope
Adjust the diopter to align the 2 images into one by moving the two eyepiece stalks inwards/outwards.
Close one eye (lets say right) and adjust the microscopes main focus adjustment knob until you have the left eye image in focus.
Now close the left eye and look with your right eye only.
Rotate the right eyepiece objective focus adjustment until the right eye image is in focus.
Now open both eyes and it both should be in focus and one signal image.
If something still is not right try adjusting both the objective eyepieces focus adjustments together and in the same direction by the same amount.


Note1: The diopter adjustment for each eye stalk should be linked internally by some gears. If you move the right eye stalk inwards it should move the left eye stalk inwards, and vice versa.
If it does not do this then you will need to do it yourself manually. They're positions should be a mirror image of the other.

Note2: If you focus zoomed out and then zoom in this will almost always go out of focus, even with parfocial correct.
This is because you cannot get perfect focus adjustment on a zoomed out image. There will be some small error that will become huge when zoomed in and make it out of focus.
But if you focus while zoomed in then it should be in focus for all zoom levels when parfocial is correct.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2019, 01:06:13 pm by Psi »
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Offline Kfire778Topic starter

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #23 on: April 03, 2019, 01:08:46 pm »
Just as soon as I get off work I will check all of these things and get back to everyone.
 

Offline jfiresto

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Re: Issues with my first microscope
« Reply #24 on: April 03, 2019, 03:16:44 pm »
Thanks, guys, for the pictures of the microscope. It appears to be a Greenough design with a fixed tube length. I may have to keep quiet as the microscopes I know best are Common Main Objective with infinity optics. I do have a Greenough, but it is a nearly indestructable student model that discourages students from taking it apart. Which is probably good, as back then I would have, to see how it works.  :)
« Last Edit: April 03, 2019, 03:22:46 pm by jfiresto »
-John
 


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