An Arduino-Powered Upgrade Gives This Microfluidic Lab's Microscope Newfound Timelapse Powers
Designed to capture imagery of microfluidic chips over the course of several hours, this Arduino upgrade makes life a lot easier.
Scientist Yuksel Temiz found the microscope in his lab ill-suited to a microfluidics project — so rather than throwing it out in favor of a new one, turned to an Arduino microcontroller to perform an in-situ upgrade.
"[The] lab's microscope didn't have [a] timelapse option, which we needed to monitor the flow of liquids in microfluidic chips for hours," Temiz explains of the problem. "I hacked the camera to control and program the shutter and the video recording buttons using an Arduino, two optocouplers, an OLED display, and a custom-built IR remote."
The microscope is being used by students part of a microfluidics project led by IBM Research, and which could help revolutionize future healthcare — and has already resulted in what Temiz and colleagues call the "world's smallest liquid 'clock'" — a proof-of-concept creation that puts the microfluidics to use in an very unusual wristwatch.
Having already used an Arduino microcontroller board for the control of the microfluidics themselves, it was a natural progress to use another for the timelapse control system.
"I know my solution was not so elegant," Temiz admits, "especially because it required a risky and tedious soldering to the switches, but we would anyway change the camera if this didn't work, so I took the risk and its very easy to use for our students."
More details are available on Temiz' Reddit thread.