Microscope bulbs

[flaxton]

When my bulb went after seven years I found the spare after a bit of a search and it turned out to be the fitting that had given up the ghost. It took almost three weeks to get up and running again

Mal

[SheffieldLass]

7 years .... this is the second in just over a year .. the first packed up within 2 days ...


Managed to get something today that will do for a few days, slightly higher wattage so I have to keep turning it off to cool down ...

Melanie

[Nick_in_Scotland]

Originally Posted by SheffieldLass

7 years .... this is the second in just over a year .. the first packed up within 2 days ...


Managed to get something today that will do for a few days, slightly higher wattage so I have to keep turning it off to cool down ...

Melanie

I dusted off my severely under used scope the other day and, although the bulb is still working, had a go instead at using the light from a white led torch with the mirror which also came with my scope. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the results, although I must also point out that I don't have a lot of microscope experience, I just thought the image looked pretty good. Not only that but directing the beam from the torch on to the specimen worked extremely well as a dark field(?) image where light scattered from the specimen is observed, rather than light passing through it from below.

This reminded me of this thread so I thought I'd mention it. I've lost count of the number of times I've forgotten about the heat of the bulb and it has melted or burned the surface on which I've put the scope. An LED light runs cool, almost never needs replaced and uses less power- could even be battery powered so you can use your scope in a power cut! Something to research anyway.

Nick.