[Metrology] Mill Spindle Mounted Microscope (aka Cheap Optical Comparator)

[RJSakowski]

That's down right generous of you to to do this. The program installs without error in win-10. The program loads and appears to be behaving. I do not get a picture from the camera. I opened Settings>Cameras>Add New Camera. I am presented with a long list, but I don't recognize anything that would be the microscope. I get the same thing with Win-8.1.The solution is probably obvious, but it escapes me. In my defense, I just got out of the hospital after 3 weeks of pneumonia. My brain is about as sharp as jello right now.

When I first opened the program, the USB2.0 PC Camera options were not visible. I closed the program down and reopened and they appeared. It appears that thye camera has to be installed on a USB port first. No problems since.

 

[Baithog]

I finally found it in the list. It took several times going through it to find it. It is one of the cameras that come up on my machines. The w-10 machine has the microscope driver installed. The w-8 machine will not install the driver. So the names are different on the 2. If anyone else has the problem, look at entries that start with USB and if it isn't there, look for ones that end with Camera.

The DC Microscope program runs as expected in W-10. The program installs in the X86 program directory, and that is where captures are saved by default. I copied the executable to a folder in my Document tree and run it from there. The captures are then saved in a more convenient place.

Pretty darned cool stuff, Bob and Jim. As soon as the wife gets off my back about recuperating and lets me into the shop, I'll fab the holder

 

[fretsman]

Hi, Jim, had the updated program moved the picture save location? I can not find where they are saved anywhere now...lol. I checked and searched for "test.bmp" pics but found none. By the way, I'm using Win 10.

I'm including a picture of my in progress setup. I need to come up with some staging blocks but the little micrometer stage is going to work great. I'll be permanently mounting a microscope stand using the black indicator holder in the one picture. This will give me a lot of adjust-ability.

I wanted to post a pic of the cutter under the scope, and I will when I find it!

Thank you so much, Jim, this is really coming out great!!

Dave

 

[RJSakowski]

View attachment 114269 View attachment 114270 View attachment 114271 Hi, Jim, had the updated program moved the picture save location? I can not find where they are saved anywhere now...lol. I checked and searched for "test.bmp" pics but found none. By the way, I'm using Win 10.

I'm including a picture of my in progress setup. I need to come up with some staging blocks but the little micrometer stage is going to work great. I'll be permanently mounting a microscope stand using the black indicator holder in the one picture. This will give me a lot of adjust-ability.

I wanted to post a pic of the cutter under the scope, and I will when I find it!

Thank you so much, Jim, this is really coming out great!!

Dave

Didn't Jim change the file name format to testx.bmp where "x" is an incremental number which is reset each time the program restarts? Check post #56.

Bob

 

[JimDawson]

Hi Dave,

I need to update the help file. Do a search for ''Snap*.bmp'' Snap will be followed by a number. It saves to the working folder, ie: where ever DC_Microscope.exe is located.

 

[fretsman]

Thank you, Jim, I checked the DC_Microscope.exe folder and there is no working folder? Also did a search for that snap file as well with no luck.

EDIT: Added picture

 

[rwm]

I'm jumping into this thread late but this looks like an awesome tool!
Excuse my ignorance but I missed something early on. How do you adjust the scope so the center of the field is the center of the spindle? I didn't see any adjustment on the holder?
I wonder if there is a camera out there with less vertical length that would not require so much spindle travel.
R

 

[JimDawson]

Thank you, Jim, I checked the DC_Microscope.exe folder and there is no working folder? Also did a search for that snap file as well with no luck.

The working folder is where DC_Microscope.exe is located. It could be that you are not actually saving a picture. The buttons are a bit confusing. Before you click SavePic, you have to click Snap. Looks like I need to put these into a one-click function, would be less confusion.

 

[fretsman]

The working folder is where DC_Microscope.exe is located. It could be that you are not actually saving a picture. The buttons are a bit confusing. Before you click SavePic, you have to click Snap. Looks like I need to put these into a one-click function, would be less confusion.

Actually I had no problem saving pictures on the Win 8 PC but not on this win 10. I reinstalled to try again but still no "Working" folder is being created. Should there be a working folder when the install completes? Because none is generated when it is intalled, or after I "snap and save" a picture.

Thanks again Jim.

 

[JimDawson]

Actually I had no problem saving pictures on the Win 8 PC but not on this win 10. I reinstalled to try again but still no "Working" folder is being created. Should there be a working folder when the install completes? Because none is generated when it is intalled, or after I "snap and save" a picture.

Thanks again Jim.

I am going to have to wait until my son gets here this afternoon to test this on Win10 on his laptop. I don't have any computers with Win10 installed. I understand that Win10 handles the file system a bit differently than previous versions.

If any one else can help here, please feel free to jump in.
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