# Portable Microscope Lighting!!



## kreisl

i got the "*MG10085-1A*" a while ago, it is a widely available mass-produced popular noname Chinese portable microscope with integrated 2xAA lighting, scale in the visor/ocular, 100x magnification, included pouch. All in all a 9$-value item but it can cost up to 30$ depending on the Western retailer. It has lots of positive reviews *because*, even if it feels cheap like **** because it _is _cheaply built,* it really works* and does the job well. Also a cool thing, people with glasses, for example shortsighted users, can take off their pair of glasses because the microscope focus adjustment does not require the user to have good eyes. Imo the key feature why the product works so well is the integrated lighting, a 3mm LED powered by 2xAA. 

After disassembly of the product, i learned that there was no circuit board, electronics or anything. The 2xAA in series are connected directly to the LED, through a black ON/OFF switch. This is called Direct Drive, right? Right. It also means that 2xAlkaline AA is brighter than 2xEneloop AA. The LED emits CW light with a minimally purplish hue. I was using 2xNiZn AA for a long time without problems, it was even brighter than 2xAlkaline AA. Yet after several weeks the light, one day, got notably purplish and thus, dimmer. Maybe the battery needed recharging? So i recharged the NIZN batteries to 2x1.90V :devil:, put them back into the microscope, and … … … the LED got even more purplish, violet!, and dimmer and dimmer!

What was da happening? :thinking:

And at some point the light went off. Dark. Dang. . :candle:. :mecry:

So i decided to use my AAA lights or 10180 lights as lighting source. Done. Disassembly was easy, just 1 screw, and the rest is clipped/snapped together, no glue involved. The gutting was easy too. 

This is one of battery contacts. I thought that i could polish it and use it as mirror to channel the AAA flashlight beam out of the orifice:






Then i had a better idea. 1 segment of a segmented blade Stanley knife fits perfectly into the corner of the plastic tube. So i polished the backside of 1 blade segment with chinese diamond el cheapo polishing paste, from 40 down to 0.5micron (watt's dad? should be 10000grit, no?) resulting in a mirror finish. Then i seated that blade segment with double-sided adhesive tape (2 layers or whatnot) into said corner:





Yep works as mirror and will channel the flashlight beam:





Total success! The light output is higher and 1 single AAA is sufficient in a high-efficiency power LED light:





You name it, any common size AAA light fits into the tube, Vollsion/Eoslamp, Lumintop, Maratac, even K18 or LD01SS. You could also throw a 10180 light in the tube, wtf cares. After the gutting i don't need the internal **** anymore: 





Maybe this is where a 1xAAA clicky (Lumintop Tool, etc) would come in handy. I am gonna leave my Maratac AAA SS in the tube with 1xEneloop AAA as my default lighting source for the microscope.

Watt do people/we adults use such a cheap (yet very functional!!) chinese portable microscope for, you asking? Looking at buyers' reviews, a very common application is the checking of blade edges.

Sorry for the kinda incomplete photo documentation of my microscope lighting mod, but nobody might be interested in the microscope or in my mod anyway. So nm. I am just so happy about the successful mod that i had to share it anyway. The lighting is not only repaired, but it is even better and brighter!

:twothumbs

Thanks for your interest.


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