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DIY Computer Video Microscopy For Under $50
cybrpnk writes: "The QX3 Video Microscope may have been an obscure commercial failure as an educational toy, but it is widely available (for now, at least) as a fantastic tool/toy for any geek. The QX3 hooks up to a USB port and delivers live color 10X, 60X or 200X microphotos at 512x384 pixel resolution. Its kid-friendly software even makes time lapse videos a snap, like this one of TNT synthesis - a whole new way to blow up the lab, do not try this at home! Educators are doing amazing things with the QX3 in their classrooms.
Sourceforge even has documentation on the software command structure used by the QX3, so it may be considered an open source microscope. Get yours today for under $50 at surplus closeout or EBay before they're all gone!" The Toys-R-Us nearest to me has one QX3+ left (now with my name on it) at $30, so I hope it really does work under Linux. And it's a lot less complicated than building a Scanning-Tunneling microscope.
First, Intel's official position on Linux support: CPiA chipset inforrmation which the QX3 uses for its imaging. Note that there are still some problems getting everything working right. Back up your kernel.
If none of the above works, try some more generic hacks with the CPiA driver. It seems the biggest problem is getting the lights turned on...
I work in a plant growth research lab, and we bought one of these to get real time images of protoplasts (plant cells in culture). It was cheap, and produces surprisingly good-quality images. Of course, we also got a $100,000 Bausch & Lomb scope to do more "serious" work...
Freedom: "I won't!"
Why? 10x is easier to use and you can look at all kinds of real world objects. You catch some funny looking bug and you can look at him real close up and personal like. You've got a cut on your finger healing? Nothing like seeing that filling your field of view. Now sure, at 400x you can see cells if you prepare a slide. But the real interesting stuff has to stained and prepared properly, those nice micrographs you see don't come without preparation. And you can't just stick a circuit board in there and see if you have cracked traces or cold solder joints.
Bleh!
The IntelPlay site has a good QX3 FAQ as well as the product's 3/29/02 obituary. We can only hope they are clearing out stock before introducing the new improved version, but I doubt it - Intel is discontinuing ALL Intelplay toys, not just the microscope. With MTV style advertising like this it's no wonder it failed to find a continuing market niche as a classic toy - it takes longer than a 10 second attention span to do science. Some gross-out photos are here, as well as a comparison of a QX3 vs.Zeiss dissection scope as well as a comparison of the QX3 and another "inexpensive educational toy" called the Pocketscope. The main Pocketscope site talks about how to add video and lighting to their superior optics. Tinkering with, adjusting, modifying and using the QX3 is discussed here, here and here. More places to buy a QX3 before they go universally out of stock are GlobalMart, Erwincomputers, and Amazon.
It just happens that I spent Friday afternoon finally getting my QX3 (I've had for about a year, picked up for about $50 at a supermarket (!) in an after-Xmas sale last year) running on my Linux box.
I'm using a mostly stock SuSE 7.3 distro with the 2.4.10 kernel, the camera built into the QX3 is the same CPiA chipset that many other webcams use. I haven't done the necessary tweaking run the lamps, I just an external light. The "gqcam" program works fine for viewing/grabbing the images.
-- Alastair