The Making Roscope | Hackaday

Normal people binge-scroll social media. Hackaday authors tend to do online -tech messages and shopping pages. The problem with the shops is that you buy things and then have even more projects for which you don’t have time. So I found the make-roscop, an accessories aimed at children that turned a cell phone into a microscope. While it was clearly trying to address children, I had some children’s microscopes that were actually useful and for 20 US dollars I decided to see what it was about. If nothing else, the name has made it appealing.

My goal was to see if it is worth having the things we do. It turns out that I should read more precisely. It will not really help you to read in your next circuit board or this tiny pressure in an SMD part. But it is interesting and – depending on your interests – you could enjoy having one. The material claims that the range can increase from 125x to 400x.

What is that?

The whole thing is in a modest oldoid-like can. In the box there are mainly accessories that you may need or not, like a lens cloth, a keychain, plastic pipettes and the like. There are only three really interesting things: a silicone strip with a glassball and a grinding container with five glass slides, three of which already have something. There is also a replacement glass ball (the lens).

What I didn’t find in my box were cover briefs, the opportunity to prepare copies, and – perhaps most important – clear instructions. There are some tiny instructions on the back of the can and on the lens fabric paper. There is also a QR code, but to really get started, I had to watch a video (embedded below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td62kpb24tu

What I quickly recognized is that this is not a metallurgical area that takes pictures of things. It is a transmission microscope that you can find in a biology laboratory. Usually the light goes through the film in such a area and into the finish. This is upside down. The light comes from above, through the slides and into the glass ball lens.

Bio scopes can be fun

If you have an interest in biology or thin films or other things that need such a microscope, this could be interesting. After all, mobile phones sometimes have macromodi, which you can already use as a pretty good microscope with low performance if you want to introduce part or a PCB. You can also find many lenses connected to the phone when you need them. However, this is a traditional microscope that is a little different.

The silicone compresses what seems to be the real trick. This is how it works in practice. You switch on your camera and switch to the selfie lens. Then put the silicone strip over the camera and move it. You will see that the lens makes a “spotlight” in the picture when it is in the right place. Let it center and zoom until you can no longer see the circle of the lens.

Then put your slide on the lens and move it around until you get an image. It could be a little blurry. Here the silicone comes into play. They press down and the picture is in focus. The most difficult part is to push down while holding still and pressing the trigger.

Zeiss and Nikon have nothing to worry, but the pictures are okay. You can grab a drop of water or dab your cheek. It would have been nice to have a stain and a way to have microtom samples or at least instructions on how to do this with household items.

Verdict

In most electronic tasks, you are better off with a magnifying glass, magnifying glass, an incarnated cell phone or a USB microscope. However, if you want a traditional microscope for science experiments or promote a child’s interest in science, it may be worth something.

For the electronics, they are better off with a metallurgical area. The soldering under a stereoscope is life -changing. We also saw more expensive versions of it, but we are not sure whether they are much better.