Laser Scanning Microscope from Blu-ray Player #2: Shooting Images

It is actually possible to abuse a Blu-Ray player (at least parts of it) as laser scanning microscope. See how I built it, how it works and how it takes amazing images.
Schematic, source code etc. for those who want to replicate the project: www.hackster.io/michalin70/la...
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Special Parts:
Joy-It SBC-NodeMCU ESP32: amzn.to/3VXhOwF
OPU BDP10G: amzn.to/3PrssJq
FFC/FPB adapter board 40 pin, 0.5mm: amzn.to/3PrssJq
Custom 3D prints with LEDO6060 resin: jlcpcb.com/?from=DVolt
Tools:
Camera: amzn.to/3kDp1BJ
Blu-Ray player: Samsung BD-J5900 (No more made)
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00:00 - Intro
00:17 - Optical Pickup Unit (OPU)
01:42 - Assembling The machanics
04:42 - Electronic circuitry
05:50 - The software
06:19 - Shooting first images

[@xyz2112zyx]

You did a very impressive tool!! I can't believe anyone can do that with a blu-ray laser!!

[@maciejkowalski6045]

Yeah but it's slow not good for live blood analysis or non fixed slides

[@simonemastroianni1985]

​@@maciejkowalski6045yeah, it's a prototype, on a breadboard, not a professional product. So much could be improved to make these images a lot better. But still it's amazing, I wouldn't have ever thought of reusing a blu-ray player laser to make microscopic images.

[@maciejkowalski6045]

uv light would be more resolution but blue ray is actually violet not blue@@simonemastroianni1985

[@barthchris1]

WOW!!! Having ripped apart many blu ray drives to harvest the 405nm diodes so I can use them for powerful laser pointers I know the optics train is complex and compact. I always thought those photodiodes were super simple , didnt think they were this complex. Laser pointers... Yeah, pointless hobby but I learned a lot doing it. Anyway, this is absolutly ingenious. To pull this off you really need to have a whole host of skills along with persistance. Not many people could have done this. BTW, I found this on the picks for you feature of Google News. It linked to an article about this project in Gizmodo. Not sure where you live but in the US Gizmodo is pretty big. Congrats!

[@aronhighgrove4100]

You are probably aware, but just in case, please be careful where you point those laser diodes, they can harm human eyes, and not everyone will wear safety glasses.

[@barthchris1]

@@aronhighgrove4100 Oh yeah, definitely use caution with lasers not only with human eyes but animals as well. Even need to be careful with electric "eyes". Some camera sensors are easily damaged by lasers. Gotta admit, I did think about blinding the sensor in a speed cam a while back. Lol!

[@michaelsills8038]

We need a part three so badly!!!! I am incredibly impressed.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

This is great! Excellent job

[@RobSchofield]

A very clever idea, brilliantly executed. Superb!

[@hullinstruments]

Seriously next level! I've dabbled with laser microscopes for years professionally and personally as a hobby in my lab. I love all types of microscopy/ spectroscopy/science type DIY nerd stuff. I love a lot of the other iterations shown on KZbin and online.... there have been some great examples over the years. However, I think yours has gotten some of the best results I've seen. And it's probably the most well done. Really really impressive and I'm very glad to have found your channel. Going to try to set up a few from your design next to a professional laser microscope I was lucky enough to win at an industrial auction. I used to go to those all the time... It's one of the only ways regular folks can't afford photonics/optical science equipment. It really is a golden age for science and technology equipment from government auctions, industrial auctions, and even college academia clearances and auctions Would be cool if you could look at the atomic Force microscope next . And there are several other pieces of gear that are nearly untouchable for most folks outside of professional labs. Would love to see some DIY stuff along the same lines. several other very interesting science implements that could be possible to DIY in a small home laboratory. I wish nothing but the best for you and your channel and we'll look forward to watching your progress!

[@MikeGervasi]

THis is the best electronics repurposing video I've seen. Brilliant.

[@joshuaoduroadu5376]

Super awesome. This is on another level. Excellent work done. Thanks for sharing.

[@keithwins]

This is fantastic, thanks so much. What an incredible reuse of old electronics. I'm really very excited

[@asciimation]

This reminds me of messing about with the optical sensors in computer mice back in the day and getting the camera data out of them.

[@yt4krist0f]

Hats off... Amazing project..! Working, producing great results as well.

[@RichardCyberPunk]

Much respect for you, Doctor Volt. Very impressive.

[@user-wt2um8yf7p]

Cool project. Very good engineering work.

[@iurlc]

Very nice idea and good realization!

[@Dr.pabloschmirtz]

Wooow!!!..you proyect it's great!!...and very motivating!!...thank you very much!!

[@williamhouck9702]

Very nice! With the controls you have built, you could next investigate exposure stacking and focus stacking of the subject to enhance resolution.

[@DoctorVolt]

Maybe in part three, if there will be one.

[@scottpelletier1370]

@@DoctorVolt you easily passed your 500 thumbs up! Nice work

[@DoctorVolt]

So there will be a part three.

[@bottlekruiser]

This is mighty cool! Kinda want to see some sand and/or microbes in there :3

[@freedom2000]

fantastic. I love this

[@juanete69]

Good job.

[@paule2580]

What great fun, I guess with a nano position stage, you could get closer to the 500nm resolution. I must find an old blu ray drive a rip one apart. Just the kind of project I love - one that make me want to rip things apart to see what I can do with the parts !

[@dr.ignacioglez.9677]

Excelente! Eres un Genio! 👍

[@707PAS]

Wonderful hack. If you make more videos using this unit could you try examining some biological specimens - microbes or bacteria? Getting good resolution, above 1000x, is difficult with my light microscope.

[@DoctorVolt]

This could be one of the next steps.

[@nathanaelmurphy3056]

@@DoctorVoltVERY much looking forward to biomed Sabine samples! You are a genius and superb teacher. Almost to 500 thumbs up!

[@amsmuh]

Amazing!!

[@peterh3947]

excellent video, well done and thank you. looking forward to the next video. i would love to see a scan of a piece of a vinyl record if one can be found

[@DoctorVolt]

See it at 9:42

[@Zalo29]

Amazing project! So the scanning process is done in conjunction by the lens magnetic mount and the stepper motor, isn't it? Do you think you could record/burn/print the target using the laser should it be powerful enough?

[@DoctorVolt]

Maybe with a laser for DVD/Blu-Ray burner. These are much more powerful than the blu-ray player-laser I used here. This one is actually not much stronger than an ordinary laser pointer.

[@mertgulcurgs]

Excellent. Can you actually get a 3D scan out of this data?

[@DoctorVolt]

Yes, that"s possible.

[@EmbSys]

Hat sich gelohnt, mal wieder vorbeizuschauen. Sehr cooles Projekt! Wie kommt man auf so eine Idee?

[@DoctorVolt]

Gute Frage 🤔Hatte den kaputter Blu-Ray Player jahrelang in der Bastelkiste. Die Garantie war eh abgelaufen und ich wollte ihn nicht gleich wegwerfen.

[@weirdboyjim]

Nice work! IIt would be interesting to see how far you can push the resolution. Have you considered a galvanometer to give finer control over the laser?

[@DoctorVolt]

I think that galvanic forces are not strong enough to push the sample forward. Piezo might be a better approach there.

[@weirdboyjim]

@@DoctorVolt galvo's are usually used to deflect a mirror rather than the sample.

[@DoctorVolt]

Ok, but galvos work with collimated laser beams over long distances. But I have a focussed beam over a very short distance here.

[@SamAgro2024]

What an amazing work. I am working on a project to build a similar scanning microscope. I have a high resolution confocal system connected to its controller. Now I want to integrate it to a motorized xy stage so i can do scans and stitch images. But I dont know how to do this. Someone suggested I need to connected the stage encoder to the imaging controller so the two systems are in sync and the imaging data output can be read and stitched. But I dont know how to do this either. If you can make a video explaining how you did scanning, that would be very helpful. Thanks.

[@Razor2048]

Quite amazing results so far. I wonder what would be the smallest feature size it is capable of scanning given the 130nm process on bluray disks.

[@DoctorVolt]

I guess it is around 150nm, which is the size of a blu-ray pit.

[@javieralvarez6729]

Greetings, congratulations on the project. do you have the schamatic to add it to the PC?

[@DoctorVolt]

Yes, link is in the description.

[@temyraverdana6421]

WOW!

[@critic1236]

Very interesting. How do you get such a nice image when the FES signal is so sensitive to vibration? Wouldnt the image be full of vibration noise? Did you lock the FES with a PID control. Even so, wouldnt the correction signal from the PID loop contain the vibration noise?

[@DoctorVolt]

I did an averaging of the values. This greatly reduced the noise. Overall, the less sensitive sum signal resulted in better images than the FES.

[@user-xu2im9lh4r]

Amazing works on the laser scanning microscope. I have been trying to replicate this project and having trouble with the OPU's PDIC output part. I able to get the software, laser, voice coils working but the part where get the SUM and FES did not go as expected. Do you have any ways to test the PDIC and what is the expected voltage and current from the PDIC output for each Ua,Ub,Uc and Ud pins?

[@DoctorVolt]

As there is no documentation for all these OPUs, the only way to find out is to try with a voltmeter or oscilloscope. With mine it was 2.5 +-1 V.

[@user-xu2im9lh4r]

@@DoctorVolt Thank you for the reply, I would like to ask how do you get the PDIC working? it is all I need to do is supply 5V to FD_5V pins and the PDIC outputs pin a ,b ,c and d should react to the laser according to the range you provided (2.5+-1V) even without the circuit that calculate SUM and FES?

[@ulbed]

Am I right that you didn't use the voice coils for scanning at all? Could you use them to do "micro stepping" and scan the area in between the steps of the linear screw? That way you should get much higher resolution.

[@DoctorVolt]

I already use the voice coils for scanning in X-direction along the lines. The Y-direction is done by the stepper motor and the spindle. Unfortunately there are no such coils for this direction.

[@bitman4204]

You are a genius!!!!!! O:

[@qweqwerty7537]

Sir, thanks for your work. I have a question, why do you connect only one side movement to coil TPIC FR+ to L293, another direction is not possible to move?

[@DoctorVolt]

It moves in both directions, left and right.

[@maciejkowalski6045]

Can u make x-ray microscope for live blood analysis?

[@danielramstein]

Ese nivel de aumento lo veo sin necesidad de hacer tanto fandango , pensé que podríamos ver bacterias we

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Have you tried micro-stepping? That might be easier than a new spindle, but needs a capable stepper controller.

[@DoctorVolt]

Yes, I did with 32 microsteps.

[@fonecelautorizadatim882]

Why can't I make the connection between the software and the esp32 board? I was able to upload the arduino to the board, do I need to change something in the board's firmware for the WI-FI connection?

[@DoctorVolt]

Did you enter your ssid/password into the header file?

[@markusdei531]

Neato!

[@SphaeroX]

I'm currently in the process of ordering a finished PCB. I have a question about what kind of ribbon cable this is or what kind of adapter.Is there a name for this?

[@DoctorVolt]

It is a standard 40 pin, 0.5mm pitch ribbon cable + adapter board. You can buy these everywhere. Nothing special...

[@SphaeroX]

Thanks I will check this out and make a commit on the repo if it works 😁👍

[@sabaselliut1798]

What is the magnification of the microscope?

[@DoctorVolt]

Can't say for sure. But It can resolve structures of roundabout 5 micrometers.

[@zheyingchin4194]

is it possible to increase the scan area?

[@DoctorVolt]

No, because it is already limited by the electromagnet that moves the lens horizontally.

[@Katiethekitten]

Wiliot light

[@peterrichards1989]

I wish you could transplant a blu-ray laser into an old laserdisc player!

[@zheyingchin4194]

What is the maximum area this can scan?

[@DoctorVolt]

It's approx. 0.9x0.9 mm

[@zheyingchin4194]

@@DoctorVolt is the resolution limited by the motor driver or the motor itself?

[@Deathhead68]

I wonder what qualifications you have and what you do for a living? You seem to know a bit of everything.

[@DoctorVolt]

Actually I learn a whole lot of new stuff with every new video I make

[@mikeross4081]

You are way too modest Sir. I bet you have a Phd in some technical subject. Probably two! 😀

[@davidederosi6068]

What about biological sample like blood smear?

[@DoctorVolt]

It tried, but saw nothing that made sense.

[@76439]

💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

[@rjameslower]

Source code and schematics?

[@DoctorVolt]

Will publish on Hackster soon.

[@nicknack941]

@@DoctorVolt I think you want to check that code and remove some info (in the const char fields)

[@DoctorVolt]

@@nicknack941 Thank you. I just did. Now I have to change my WLAN key 😅

[@zilog1]

yo dude suck nice i love this. cant wait

[@Azlomets]

👍👍👍 Я думал только в странах бывшего СССР умеют делать полезные вещи из говна и палок 😂

[@lotharmayring6063]

it is nonsense to move the laserdiode by stepingmotors. You have to move the laserbeam with mirrors

[@markae0]

how do you move the mirror?

[@lotharmayring6063]

@@markae0 look at a galvanometer

[@Throckmorton.Scribblemonger]

9:38 "Like this video or I won't make a follow-up." This feels like being in middle school again.

[@DoctorVolt]

That's how it is. The more likes, the more a video gets recommended by the algorithm, the more views it will get. Only if enough people are interested in a topic it is worthwhile to carry on. This is how the KZbin business works...

[@Throckmorton.Scribblemonger]

@@DoctorVolt Good luck, you'll need it.

[@danielramstein]

Wtf it wil not be useful to observe bacterias ,all the effort that you have make is unusual

[@RomanesEuntDomus.]

Interesting idea, but its resolution looks much worse than what you got with the dissecting microscope you used at the beginning, so it's kind of useless