[Health] $30 microscope

Sun Mar 13 17:19:31 EDT 2011

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Beth Santos <beth at waveplace.org> wrote:
> Neat.
> Cell phone technology?
> http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/diy-cellphone-microscope/

“It still amazes me how you can build near-research-grade instruments
with cheap consumer electronics,”

I guess people's idea of cheap spans a broad range.

-walter

>
> ---
> Beth Santos
> Outreach Coordinator
> Waveplace Foundation
>
> Tel: +1 610 797 3100 x 44
> Fax: +1 610 797 3199
> Cell: +1 603 661 1273
> http://www.waveplace.org
> Waveplace on Facebook
> Twitter: @waveplace
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Cherry Withers <cwithers at ekindling.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> Finally got my Veho microscope in the mail today (had to cancel the
>> Digimicro order). Followed Kevin's instructions and it just worked
>> auto-magically. Thanks Kevin! So we are good to go for a microscope demo
>> @Scale9x. No dice on the Intel play microscope but not giving up yet.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Cherry
>>
>> On Jan 20, 2011 3:20 PM, "Kevin Gordon" <kgordon420 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Folks:
>> >
>> > We've been able to get the Veho USB 400x 1.3Mp/2.0Mp interpolated to
>> > work
>> > on the XO 1 and XO 1.5 under 10.1.3 with 'Cheese'. However, with this
>> > high
>> > resolution webcam, you just need to make sure it attaches itself to the
>> > USB
>> > 2.0 bus. If for some reason it comes up and attaches to the 1.1 bus, one
>> > gets get what looks like a 1970's color TV test pattern when starting
>> > the
>> > camera software..
>> >
>> > I can't speak to the specifics of the DIgiMicro; we bought a bunch of
>> > different microscope samples from various HK based ebay vendors before
>> > standardizing on the Veho. It is fully uvc compliant and also works on
>> > Ubuntu, Windows and the Mac. On Ubuntu, we use guvcview to control it.
>> > Due
>> > to the fact we needed to support multi-continent co-curricula, we needed
>> > one
>> > that ran everywhere on everything. It can cost between $40 and $75 from
>> > ebay depending on the day of the week, it seems. Be careful, the one one
>> > wants is the '004' product not the '001' or '004'.
>> >
>> > On the XO, Mikus Grinbergs has since done some magic for us to get
>> > guvcview
>> > to load on the XO, since guvcview only has an Fc12, 686 RPM. It gets
>> > more
>> > complicated since some of the dependencies for guvcview need the
>> > FC12/686
>> > rpm versions which one has to go out and find manually, while other
>> > dependencies need the FC11/586 standard repo versions. For us, we are
>> > still
>> > in the process of bullet-proofing this so young users can mod their
>> > 10.1.3
>> > box to install guvcview. guvcview has way more user-definable parameters
>> > than does Cheese.
>> >
>> > So, for simplicity, one can just install Cheese for now. It works from
>> > Sugar if called from the terminal prompt. It wont run properly as root,
>> > just stay as default OLPC user., dont know why, dont really care.
>> > Personally
>> > I run as little as possible as root. A bunch of weird messages come up
>> > once invoked from Sugar, but it does eventually come up. It will flash
>> > the
>> > built-in cafe camera light then proceed over to the USB camera. You can
>> > edit the preferences in Cheese to default to the USB camera. If the USB
>> > camera isnt seen in teh camera device drop-down, then for some reason it
>> > isn't being handled properly at the driver level. In terminal, check the
>> > output of the lsusb command, the camera should be seen there with a nice
>> > description and USB vendor./eqpt number. Once you are doen in cheese on
>> > the
>> > the sugar side, unfortunately you have to stop it 'inelegantly'' as it
>> > has
>> > no sugar activity button. You can use the ctrl-q, or function key back
>> > to
>> > the activity wheel and kill it from there. However, this seems to leave
>> > a
>> > little stub up and running, so you may have to reboot to get it going
>> > again.
>> >
>> > On the other hand the successful yum install of cheese puts itself
>> > nicely
>> > into the graphics submenu on the Gnome side, and behaves nicely there.
>> > You
>> > can then save your microscope photos ot the fiel system (preferably on
>> > an
>> > external SD card or a USB stick, then look at the photos from the Sugar
>> > side. Just remember INSTALL it as root, but run it as the normal default
>> > user.
>> >
>> > Summary. USB uvc compliant webcams (microscopes) should just plug in and
>> > be
>> > seen by both the XO 1.0 and XO 1.5. Then yum install cheese, and use the
>> > Gnome side to do any 'photos'.
>> >
>> > All caveats with respect to the snails-pace of the yum install are still
>> > in
>> > effect ont the 1.0, we do a yum install downloadonly to a stick on a 1.5
>> > (which does yum nicely), then yum localinstall from the stick to all the
>> > XO
>> > 1.0's to eliminate those install hanging and memory full issues. As an
>> > added benefit, Cheese has no other dependencies when installed to
>> > 10.1.3.
>> >
>> > For those who saw our little tech-geek table at the SF summit, this is
>> > exactly what we were demoing on the 1.5. Daniel Drake and Paul Fox have
>> > since done yeomen effort to bring the uvc, sisusb, and ldusb drivers all
>> > back into sync on the 1.0's and 1.5s at 10.1.3 . Have fun, it really is
>> > cool stuff.
>> >
>> > KG
>> >
>> > O n Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 5:45 PM, Mike Lee <curiouslee at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> [Copying everyone.]
>> >>
>> >> I haven't tried this with the new 10.1.3. But before that, it didn't
>> >> work on the XO-1 without having to get into kernal hacking. Paul Fox
>> >> confirmed that they are looking into adding support. I don't know if
>> >> they have.
>> >>
>> >> I bought my Digimicro from DealExtreme for $31.10. The catch is they
>> >> ship from Hong Kong (as I recall). It took 3-4 weeks to get the
>> >> 'scope.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11743
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Mike
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 3:03 PM, Cherry Withers
>> >> <cwithers at ekindling.org>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > Mike,
>> >> >
>> >> > I just ordered mine from Amazon. But we were discussing this on our
>> >> > Squeakland meeting today
>> >> > and wondering if you've tried this on the XO 1.0 as well and if
>> >> > you've
>> >> tried
>> >> > other brands?
>> >> > The Digimicro is hovering around $37-$45 at Amazon (without shipping
>> >> > and
>> >> > tax). Where have you found
>> >> > them for $30?
>> >> >
>> >> > Thank you for your help!
>> >> > --Cherry
>> >> >
>> >> > On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 8:14 PM, Mike Lee <curiouslee at gmail.com>
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Hi all,
>> >> >>
>> >> >> I ordered this Digimicro 1.3mp USB microscope and it arrived from
>> >> >> China today. I was able to pretty easily get it running on an XO-1.5
>> >> >> in Gnome. Photos and details here:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/5188951606/in/photostream/
>> >> >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/5188951710/in/photostream/
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Here's the reference I used for the installation:
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >>
>> >> http://www.stealthcopter.com/blog/2010/03/digimicro-200x-zooming-usb-digital-microscope-in-ubuntu-linux/
>> >> >>
>> >> >> Mike
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Beth Santos <beth at waveplace.org>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> >> > Interesting microscope I found via Woot! today:
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >>
>> >> http://www.suntekstore.com/1-3-mega-pixel-led-usb-digital-microscope-video-camera-10x__-230x-.html?&utm_source=woot&utm_medium=paid&utm_content=deals&utm_campaign=s0003
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > For less than a solar panel you could be sending one or more of
>> >> >> > these
>> >> >> > out
>> >> >> > with every deployment...
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Beth
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > ---
>> >> >> > Beth Santos
>> >> >> > Outreach Coordinator
>> >> >> > Waveplace Foundation
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Tel: +1 610 797 3100 x 44
>> >> >> > Fax: +1 610 797 3199
>> >> >> > Cell: +1 603 661 1273
>> >> >> > http://www.waveplace.org
>> >> >> > Waveplace on Facebook
>> >> >> > Twitter: @waveplace
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > _______________________________________________
>> >> >> > Health mailing list
>> >> >> > Health at lists.laptop.org
>> >> >> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> >> Health mailing list
>> >> >> Health at lists.laptop.org
>> >> >> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Health mailing list
>> >> Health at lists.laptop.org
>> >> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health
>> >>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Health mailing list
>> Health at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/health
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>
>

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org