SENSORICA Value Network
Show Help
Resource: Equipment - Optical - Microscope : Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA   Event history   Incoming Value Flow
Quantity 1.00 Each
Notes

You can find this at SENSORICA lab.
Goes up to 100x, large working distance, with light.

Photo
Record created date Feb. 3, 2013
Record created by None

Demands:

Where from:

We don't know.

Where to:

  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 2.00 HR July 30, 2021 from: Greens for Good
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 3.00 HR Sept. 25, 2014 from: Manipulator - Mantis
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 4.00 HR July 21, 2014 from: Micro 3D Printer
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 2.00 HR July 8, 2014 from: Micro 3D Printer
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 2.00 HR July 8, 2014 from: Micro 3D Printer
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 5.00 HR April 2, 2014 from: SENSORICA
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 1.00 HR March 28, 2014 from: SENSORICA
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 10.00 HR March 19, 2014 from: SENSORICA
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 3.00 HR Oct. 22, 2013 from: SENSORICA
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 0.70 HR July 31, 2013 from: SENSORICA
    • Process: Fluid level sensor
      • Workers: Work - R&D optics from: Tibi
        • Labnotes:

        03, JUNE 2013
        I discovered this new sensor by playing with the microfiber transducer.
        Ideas were there before from discussions with Frederic about the constriction transducer. Frederic thought that the mechanism of the constriction transducer was leakage, and suggested to plunge it in water to see how the signal changes. The microfilament is a constricted optical fiber on a longer length, so the connection was easy to make, I plunged one microfiber transducer into water and it worked.
        I also tested it to see a difference between water and alcohol, and it worked. I tested saturated salted water, and the signal difference with pure water was too small to make a conclusion.
        I published the results in this video http://youtu.be/oA-0UgrdPBU
        I believe that the working principle is leakage: the fiber is pulled to a smaller core, some light transferred into the cladding, which propagates if the fiber is in air. If the fiber is immersed in a fluid with higher refraction index some light escapes. We're measuring intensity fluctuations. So yes, it depends on the difference between the index of refraction of the cladding and the external media. Nothing out of the ordinary. There is some specific know how for the fabrication of the fiber, which has to be tapered and pulled with a certain geometry, the tip has to be melted to a ball and coated with silver (we're using our in-house low cost silver coating method) to send the light back to the detector.
        I marked some time for documenting the work, communicating to SENSORICA and publishing it on social media.
        I used 125/63.5 MM glass Infinicor300 Corning fiber, pulled with the microsplicer, voltage used 8.5V, max current. I pulled the fiber by hand using the manual micrometers on the device. One can diminish the voltage down to 8V. 7V is not enough to melt the glass fiber. At 8 one can do finer stretches.
        The tip of the pulled micro fiber was melted to round it, and was coated using our inhouse wet silver coating method. Only the very tip was coated. I made 2 devices, 1 to 2 mm long, 40 and 20 microns diameter. Only the 20 microns diameter was sensitive when immersed into water.
        I used the 850nm LED to test it, before it was improved with filter and amplifier.
        TODO: try different diameters. It seems that the critical diameter is between 40 and 20 microns. Also try multiple constrictions to see if we can have a discrete level sensor.

    • Event: Resource Production Prototype - Fluid level sensor 0.70 HR July 31, 2013
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 4.00 Each July 16, 2013 from: SENSORICA
    • Process: Characterization of the Piezo Micromanipulator
      • Workers: Work - R&D optics from: Tibi
        • Labnotes:

        June 17, 2013
        See documentation in this doc
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/180NuS2Rn6rIUfML0skvjQJAYBXNdBNxFsIZbZXa3HwU/edit#

        The setup was made before, there is another labnote for it.
        http://valnet.webfactional.com/accounting/labnotes/324/

        June 17, 2013
        Continued the work. See the Google doc for more details. Jonathan and Antonio were also involved.
        We discovered that the analog out of the Labjack is limited to steps of 0.02Volts. We need 0.002Volts resolution, in order to test below 0.5um piezo steps. Jonathan will make a circuit for this.

        July 18, 2013
        Continued work on characterization. I am doing long acquisitions for precision tests. These results will be entered in the document in the Precision section.

        August 01, 2013
        Worked with Bing and Antonio on the Piezo. We have a problem with the assembly of the piezo controller. Jonathan made a new prototype and we tested it and it did not work. Frederic's prototype still works fine. We could not clearly understand why the second prototype did not work. The new boards for the product seam to be fine. So the problem is still a mystery.

        August 05, 2013
        Recreated the characterization setup, because Jonathan had taken the piezo driver prototype away for the fabrication. I modified the way the fiber is attached to the piezo stack.

        August 06, 2913
        Resumed characterization experiments. I worked on Precision. See more
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/180NuS2Rn6rIUfML0skvjQJAYBXNdBNxFsIZbZXa3HwU/edit#
        The long-term stability problem prevents us from directly measure precision. I put a note in the doc and sent message to the team about it.
        "This [long-term stability of the Mosquito] is a problem with the acquisition system and with the Mosquito in general that we need to address! We need to improve the architecture of the Mosquito by integrating a reference, which is divided from the signal to account for intensity fluctuations."
        I entered the best data here.
        https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjrQyEif2HItdGJ4TEQxcHdOVzJvdmdHU3lrVUN4OFE#gid=0
        One way around the stability is to measure the difference between 0 Volt and the x Volt, "x" representing an input voltage to the piezo controller, which will result in a motion step.
        Data still needs to be processed.

        Oct 23, 2013,
        tested the 2 axis piezo system, driver and the actuator. Worked with Antonio and Jonathan. Produced the piezo manual
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/18K3m9b_4ah3igcSYuZX4mkTkGPJBSjQVfBVbWE10GC0/edit#

    • Event: Resource Production R&D report 4.00 Each July 16, 2013
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 10.00 HR June 2, 2013 from: SENSORICA
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 1.00 HR May 21, 2013 from: SENSORICA
    • Process: Make Photonics - Joint-type transducer
      • Workers: Work - R&D optics from: Francois
        • Labnotes:

        2013 May 21 (5.5 h + 1.5 h):

        prepare 5 joint-type transducers in angle using Ivan's pre-bent glass capillaries. Result: broke one, fried one, one has a damaged mirror. 2 left to connectorize. Connectorization failed. 0 transducer made....

        2013 May 22 (4h):

        goal: mirror 4 levers, connectorize one transducer.
        silvering quality tests: played with number of silver layers and reaction time:
        red lever: 3 times one minutes shaking. Intensity = ?
        one black strip lever: one time one minute shaking. Intensity = ?
        two black strips lever: one time 2 minutes. Intensity = ?

        Arranged power supply memories for shrinking:
        M1 = 0
        M2 = 0.32 A x 0.67 V = 0.2 W
        M3 = 0.4 x 1 = 0.4 W
        M4 = 0.6 x 0.1 = 0.6 W

        Determined ideal length for delivery fiber at the very beginning (before cleaving 1 cm both side) = 16.7 cm

        Result: made one pre-bent joint-type transducer.

        2013 May 24 (0.5 h):
        tested transducer with LED Mosquito: it works

        2013 June 5 (7.5 h)
        goals: test new LED-Mosquito with amplification + filter
        1) signal tests on LED-Mosquito: signal without anything plugged (no delivery fiber): 0.995-1.065 V (average 1030 mV), noise = 70m V.
        + delivery fiber: 1.205-1.125 V = 80mV noise (average baseline 1165 mV), so the delivery fiber increases reflexion of 135 mV.
        Reference: with industrial mirror max signal goes to + 10.3 V (note that signal goes up now when light goes back to the PD, it was the opposite before: signal was going down when more light).
        Note 2: signal saturates when lever with mirror in front of delivery fiber, so gain is too high.
        2) Shrinking trial 1: OK, Shrinking trial 2: failed: shrinking tube didn't stick to the fibers, dust or grease ? Didn't stick even with washing with alcohol.
        3) connectorization procedure update:
        step 1) verify if chinese ST connector is not clogged. Place the conenctor horizontally on the table and push a stripped fiber in. Don't maintain the connector so if the fiber can't go inside, the fiber won't break, it will just oush the connector.
        step 2) assemble the glass capillary and the black plastic cover
        step 3) insert the shrunk fiber into the glass capillary
        step 4) use the same technique as in step 1) to insert the shrunk fiber free end into the connector
        step 5) adjust the gap position relative to the capillary end by gently sliding the capillary. Apply glue on the connector to fix the black cover. Add glue just below the gap between gap and capillary end.

        2013 June 6 (1.5 h)

        tested transducer.

    • Event: Resource Production Prototype Material - Joint-type transducer 1.00 HR May 21, 2013
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 4.00 HR May 10, 2013 from: SENSORICA
    • Process: Make Photonics - Constriction Transducer
      • Workers: Work - R&D optics from: Tibi
        • Labnotes:

        Worked with Francois on exploring the constriction transducer with the LED 850nm Mosquito.
        See report
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aAjJoOfv3M1zt1lPsye8TAxtrE_dlt8lXVRBzGoWAf0/edit#

        May 22
        Worked on the constriction again. I made some experiments to distinguish between my model and Frederic's model of the constriction transducer.
        My model: some light get's transferred into the cladding at the constriction site and after some travel comes back in the core. As it does that, it interferes with the light that continued into the core and the detector sees this interference pattern. I thought that if I coat the entire constricted area and the lever with silver I would increase the sensitivity of the transducer, because more light would come back into the core.
        I made 3 transducers, one with 4 constrictions, one with 2 constrictions and the one with a single constriction. The first two I constricted approx 30%, the last one approx 50%. I connected them to the Chinese LD Mosquito that came back from Phil.
        Through the fluctuations of this Mosquito, because we understand its defaults, I could measure some sensitivity for the 4 constrictions transducer, but not good enough for the other ones. The Mosquito behaves in a strange/unpredictable way.
        I used the reusable optical fiber connectors to connect the fiber.
        In conclusion, it seems that my theory about the mechanism behind the constriction transducer is not the one I thought.
        Pictures and videos were made.

    • Event: Resource Production Prototype Material - Constriction transducer 4.00 HR May 10, 2013
  • Event: Stereo microscope - large SENSORICA Resource use 10.00 min April 25, 2013 from: SENSORICA
    • Process: Make Optical - Tape sensor
      • Workers: Work - R&D optics from: Tibi
        • Labnotes:

        Before I start working on this project I review and restructure documentation - website and docs
        I also communicated to SENSORICA about my work.
        Project page link
        https://sites.google.com/site/sensoricahome/home/projects/tape-sensor
        Main doc link
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HaZh-O3oWcgtxrxaUcCfX6607BS6JPf8PwP6Xq3Xg-Y/edit#
        There are a lot of docs that need to be updated around the Tape Sensor.

        DESIGN USED
        Optical Design - Tape sensor one in (glass) 3 out (PMMA)
        https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Hlj7-XZFfIicAkXNWfoTiXn3oe-N7Hp_oNsOA2K7WLQ/edit
        with the melted glass fiber tip for a smaller exit cone within the gap.

        Received the order from Thorlabs and assembled the optical fibers (3 out 1mm PMMA and 1 in, 125/62.5 glass) together.
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HaZh-O3oWcgtxrxaUcCfX6607BS6JPf8PwP6Xq3Xg-Y/edit#heading=h.rnxa416up1yi
        It is not easy to assemble these fibers. I attached the together using a think metal wire. I also put them on a metal bar, but I am not too satisfied with that. Need another bar, probably with a groove in it. Also, the gap is not straight, the joint tube is a little too flexible.
        The joint tube is a 2mm diameter transparent shrinking tube. No need to shring the tube around, it is tight enough.

        I also prototypeed 7 fiber 250um diameter PMMA fiber, using a shrinking tube to hold them together. We already tried this structure using the 1mm PMMA fiber, and it is quite stable. I polished these fibers and it looks good.
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HaZh-O3oWcgtxrxaUcCfX6607BS6JPf8PwP6Xq3Xg-Y/edit#heading=h.4cxrib3loxsq

        April 23
        I worked with Jonathan on the Tape Sensor.
        I assembled the rod, from a cylindrical piece of wood, approx 1m long, which I had so buy. I made a groove in it using the Dremel.

        April 24
        I completed the prototype - glued the optical fibers in the groove of the wooden rod, sanded the rod and inserted it into the aluminum tube. Before inserting it into the aluminum tube we tested the prototype, and it seamed to work well. Some optical fiber preparation (cleaning) was required before connecting the fibers to the PDs and the LED. After the wooden rod was inserted into the aluminum tube I tested the device again. The sensor still works. We need now to find its axis. I also thought about the algorithm to extract the spatial information from the 3 intensities measured on the 3 PMMA collector fibers.
        Jonathan helped mounting the PD on the circuit.
        Microscopes were used for fiber preparation and for gap alignment inside the groove made in the wooden rod.

        April 25.
        I continued to work on the demo for Zhu, which was dues on Friday - the day after.
        I wrote the equations to extract spatial information from 3 intensities (need to scan the calculations and put them online!)
        See document about the mathematical model and simulations
        https://docs.google.com/document/d/131qH4gp9XwgynTSZXWs5rarloIF1bV8F_pdhur_t-Yk/edit#
        The LabView program (used for acquisition, data processing and display) required some modification, and the equation needed to be implemented - coded in the LabView program.
        After these modifications I moved the setup on a different table that we chose for the demo, and wired everything.
        I started testing the device and I encountered some problems. No spatial information could be extracted and the data made no sense within the model we were using.
        I tried other ways to extract spatial information from the data, but things did not improve.
        I discussed with Ivan and Daniel about the problem, and we realized that our model about the prototype was wrong. It turned out that compression and stretch of the joint were dominating the effects. The mirror tilting was was too small to be detected.
        The 3 fibers ware applied off center within the aluminum tube. The intensity fluctuations with vending were max if the bending was done on plane containing the fibers. If the device was rotated fibers were 90 degrees no signal was detected.
        So it turns out that this prototype doesn't work as expected, but this gave us other ideas about the hockey stick project (see smart sports equipment).