Fan for LED

The original cheaposcope recipe uses a heat sink for cooling LEDs, but I presume fans like those for CPUs would be better. Of course they are bigger and more expensive, but they may be better off...

Heatsink

According to the cheaposcope recipe and the LED manufacturer, LEDs seem to get very hot and they don't like it, which was a bit of surprise for me because I always thought LEDs are so energy efficient that they would produce little heat.

Anyway, reality check. I decided to go with RS's Pin Fin heat sink (#35718) similar to those in the recipe. It was £3.25+P&P, which turn out to be very expensive... (£4.95) if I order online. I think I will go to Maplin to see if I can find one off the shelf.

LED

Bought LEDs.

1 x Luxeon Star weiss, 5W, 120 Lumen, 140° (LXHL-LW6C) = 19,00EUR

1 x Luxeon Star/O blue, 1W, 200.000mcd, 10° (LXHL-NB98) = 8,99EUR

As can be seen, the blue one has much narrower light than the white one which was originally used in Cheaposcope. Because I only need to illuminate a small area, the blue one should be better, I think

Another cheaposcope

Bizarrely, there is another cheaposcope, which seems to be for microprocessors. Looks interesting but wish it had more information on how to actually build it.

Ordered microscope

I decided to go with TS-100F and placed an order for it. It was well below £10000 and came with Hoffman Modulation Contrast (HMC), which is a bit like DIC but works with plastic dishes too.

Basic microscope

Even for DIY microscopes, I need to something to start from! I think TS-100F from Nikon looks reasonable at the moment. I am going to get a quote and see what they have to say.

Soldering tool

Bought a soldering kit from Maplin. It was about £30 with three different tips. Here is the link.

Cheaposcope

A plant scientist at Cambridge university has got a fantastic recipe for making your own fluorescent microscope! Visit his website for more information.