SuperMacro Photo With Cdrom/dvd Rail and Arduino

This project reuses a motor lane from a DVD or CDROM to be able to take macro photography with fairly high precision; 1.5cm approx 99 steps => 0.015cm x step or 15 microns. 5cm => 333 steps max Rings 49mm x 2 = 98mm (with the meter gives 11cm) ... That would be 3:2 that is 1.5x . From here up to 10:1 (x10) bellows would be necessary.

I have used macro lenses (Nikkor 60mm F2.8 D Micro), microscope lens with adapter and B/W enlarger lens with extensions and/or bellows.It is also possible to use an inverted lens with its adapter to flip it.

"I have to say that this assembly has a drawback, what moves is the object to be photographed and not the camera, so it will have to be held tightly or it can move or fall."

(Sorry for my bad english, some thinks could be in spanish.)

This is just an example of what I have used:

• Arduino UNO: https://store.arduino.cc/products/arduino-uno-rev3/
• PCB and components: https://oshwlab.com/Kike_Glez/supermacro-zip
• Reflex or mirrorles camera (I used Nikon d7000), It has to allow working with lenses without information (manuals)
• Remote release cable for camera: https://shuttercable.com/nikon/d7000
• An old CDROM or DVD unit, with motor (SLED) that can be continuous with pulse detector or stepper: http:look for the attic.com
• For the stepper motor the recommended driver would be the DRV8825 (polulu): https://tienda.bricogeek.com/impresion-3d/853-controlador-de-alta-corriente-drv8825.html
• Camera centering bracket: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/33064491194.html
• Bellows for your camera: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/32996393589.html
• Microscope lens with adaptors:
• 4X Plan Achromatic Objective Lens with Knurled Ring: https://amscope.com/products/pa4xk-v300
• Interface adapter ring for RMS microscope to M42 x0.75: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005001362633138.html
• Lens Mount Adapter (Type 2), M42 Lens (42mm x 1 Thread Screw) to Nikon: https://www.amazon.es/Fotodiox-10LA-M42-NIK-V2-c%C3%A1mara-fotogr%C3%A1fica-adaptador/dp/B003Y2ZESE
• Or Magnifier lens (B/W Enlarger)
• For example Schneider Kreuznach Componar-C F2.8 50mm: https://www.profilmdirect.co.uk/schneider-kreuznach-componar-c-f28-50mm-lens-1602-p.asp (second hand)
• B/W enlarger lenses usually use Leica M39 thread,mount on the M42 adapter: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/32904458223.html
• A table 45cm x30cm (even a kitchen one), some spacers and screws.
• This tiltable Z Flex tripod head was also useful to me https://es.aliexpress.com/item/4000192024625.html
• Universal quick release plate: https://es.aliexpress.com/item/4000395547632.html
• A bubble level and a ruler also came in handy
• It will also be necessary to provide good lighting with lamps, flashes or flashlights and some reflectors, filters, etc.

"All this will depend on what camera you use and how you want to do it, this list is not mandatory, it is better that you adapt and think that you need, that you can recycle and in the end buy only what you really need"

The first thing we have to do is find an old Cdrom or DVD unit that we no longer use and disassemble the mechanism that moves the reader on the disc. There are several types, but the best one is the one with a two-winding stepper motor.

Look: https://www.instructables.com/28BYJ-48-Stepper-Motor-Arduino-L293D-Motor-Shield-/ (Thanks for the help ;-))

We disassemble the CDrom or DVD drive and discard everything, even the laser disk reader, except the rail and the motor, which is what we are going to use.

We will mount it on a small plate and we will put some spacers on it. You also have to solder a connector to the four wires of the two windings of the stepper motor.

In the laser reading head of the disk (disassembled) I put a kind of hard sponge where I can pin the object to be photographed without it moving when it moves along the track, this is a very important task.

We assemble, on the one hand, the plate with the motorized rail with the tiltable Z Flex tripod head and raise it 8cm, so that it does not collide with the camera base plate for Arca Swiss.

On the other hand, you have to mount the camera centering bracket and on it the Arca Swiss clamp to hold the camera base plate where we will mount the bellows.

In my case I had to put an extension ring to be able to mount the bellows to the camera, and on the lens part I put some extension rings. Then the M42 adapter and the second rms adapter are mounted for the microscope lens or a 42 to 37 ring (leica) in the case of B / W enlarger objectives.

To complete the set I added a ruler, a position indicator and a buble level on the side to balance the rail table. Also some arms with clips to hold backgrounds (a picture or postcard) and reflectors or filters.

The camera base plate for Arca Swiss turned out to be essential to work with b/w enlarger lenses, because the minimum focusing distance is very large, on the order of 15 to 30cm, while with microscope lenses you almost have to be careful about do not touch the object to be photographed.

To illuminate macro you need a lot of light, you can put some brackets for flashes at 45º and it goes very well, although it is more complicated than working with constant light, if you prefer, some bulbs used for video also work well. It is also good to put some light to illuminate the background that also counts a lot, in this case with a led table lamp was ideal.

For the background, a black, white or any color card that suits you is enough, but with a 13x18 paper picture or a postcard you can get incredible backgrounds, even with undone photos it is great, think that it usually comes out of focus but it is intuited by example a mountain and a horizon or some leaves and water.

Assemble a PCB shield board for Arduino where to install the pololu drv8825 driver and some connectors, leds and controls for autonomous operation, the most normal (and easy) would have been to use a 16x2 LCD display for example, but I wanted to reuse some old TIL331* displays , which also gives it a certain vintage air. I recommend to be inspired only by my assembly and to do it from 0 according to your needs, although the one that I do is available in Easyeda. A pair of optocouplers are also necessary to control the shooting (and focus) of the camera.

https://oshwlab.com/Kike_Glez/supermacro-zip

It is important to correctly connect and adjust the motor chopping in the polulu driver, or we run the risk of burning the motor, it is convenient to make this setting on a prototype board before connecting it to the shield.

I had a bug in the design and the display #7 did not work so in the end I used less than expected.(Fixed now on PCB, but not tested)

A surprise was the high consumption of the displays, so I had to put a 7805 regulator and a heat sink that, incidentally, served to comfortably attach the board to the table. And R6 I set it to 100K to adjust the brightness of D6

Later, after testing that there is no short circuit and checking that everything is ok, we can pick the arduino uno and load the skecht.

In case you use my code or a similar one with the polulu encoder and driver, the Encoder.h, AccelStepper.h and AccelStepper.cpp libraries will be necessary.

*These displays have the ability to display 4-bit hexadecimal characters, which simplifies hardware and complicates code.

At this point, we will connect the remote trigger cable, the motor and the power source for the arduino and we will see how it first does a test to the displays and then a calibration tour of the rail.

We have 3 digits on the left on the display (U2,U3,U4) that will show us the steps or photos and one on the right (U8) that shows us the mode or indicates that the other shows photos with an F. We also have several buttons and an encoder.

Modus operandi:

When connecting the power, it does a test of the displays and a complete route with the motor that also serves to synchronize it and establish the 0 or initial position. (The same will happen if we press the reset button).

We start in 0 or standby mode, the encoder control does not change anything, but if we press the (enter) it resets to 0, like a hot reset, with the select button, we change the mode progressively.

1)     Mode 1 (Set Pos one)

a)     Put position one, the closest to the camera and to enter the lens blur area.

b)     Use the encoder turning to go forward or backward, We can also use the up and down buttons to go up or down one step and with left or right the same but 10 steps each time.

c)     Press enter to validate the position, at that moment the values ​​on the display flash as a check that we have done it.

d)     Finally the mode advances, automatically.

In the example we have set position one to 50

2)     Mode 2 (Set Pos two)

a)     Set the furthest or end position just like we did in mode 1

b)     Use the encoder turning to go forward or backward, We can also use the up and down buttons to go up or down one step and with left or right the same but 10 steps each time.

c)     Press enter to validate the position, at that moment the values ​​on the display flash as a check that we have done it.

d)     Finally the mode advances, automatically.

Now position two is 180

3)     Mode 3 (Check)

a)     Shows us the steps and the number of photos alternately.

b)     Press enter it returns to position 1 and waits.

4)     Mode 4 (Test)

a)     Press enter to perform a complete simulation trip, but without triggering the camera. Useful for checking camera position and focus.

b)     At the end it will quickly return to position 1, the screen will show the step increment, but not the photo number.

5)     Mode 5 (Shooting)

a)     Press the encoder it will travel and shoot one image per step when leaving.

b)     When it reaches position 2 it will return faster and without shooting to position 1.

c)     With each shot, the red led will light up each time and will show us the photo number.

d)     Press the encoder, this will perform a new sequence of shots.

6)     Mode 6 (setting delay)

a)     Use the encoder turning to set the waiting time between steps (and images) is set in steps of 50 (1/2 sec)

The right display shows modes 0 to 5 as numbers, with the letters A for the adjustment mode (mode 6), F for the image number when in mode 3 or 5, and E for any errors.

The green led indicates the correct state of the motor.

To restart we will go (with the selection button) to mode 0 and press the encoder, then position 1 is 0. or better a reset.

“It may seem complicated, but it can really be summed up as adjusting the start and end with modes 1 and 2 and go to 5 and start”

The first shot is the focus, at 0.2 seconds the camera shutter opens for 0.3 seconds, so if the camera is put manually, in bulb, it shoots at 1/30. (but it will take at least 0.5 seconds)

In microscope lenses there is no aperture. That is, we could adjust the exposure with the ISO and/or the intensity of the lighting, although it is also possible to configure any fixed speed (consider the delay setting of mode 6)

"What you can never do is set the camera to auto mode, or the stack will fail."

To apply in focus, the dozens (many times more than a hundred) of pictures we have taken, we will need a program such as CombineZ (free) or Zerene Stacker (paid, not free) and finally a thorough editing with an image editor such as GIMP (free).

The original version of Combine Z was CombineZ5

This source code is still available, but has not been developed since 2006.

Next (from 2006 to 2008) came CombineZM.

CombineZP is the current work by the author (Alan Hadley), and it boldly is open source (under the GPL)!

The source can be downloaded from Alan Hadleys site as combine.zip.

CombineZ runs only on windows, so a Mac or Linux user is out in the cold.

The little birdies have told me that the GIMP can do focus stacking via: Filters->Combine->Depth Merge

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

"One of the things that will have to be done is to remove the pins with which we have held the sample, if they are visible."