Differences between LAbMaker and OEPS Miniscopes

[Alessandro Di Filippo]

Hello!

Today I had a few issues with my LabMaker Miniscope (which I will talk about in another topic), the one I used for baseplating.

I have 4 other OEPS Miniscope and I decided to switch to them (it is not the first time that a LabMaker Miniscope gives me troubles...).

Sadly, I discovered there are a few differences between them.

-Baseplate compatibility: the LabMaker objective module is more rounded around the corners compared to the OEPS one. It is possible to use a vice to make the OEPS objective module more similar, but it takes time.

- EW lens: the values are reversed between the two. Superficial FOVs require negative values for the LabMaker and positive for the OEPS, while deep FOVs require positive values for the LabMaker and negative for the OEPS.

- Working distance: I bought the standard version of both systems from the companies with no modification requested. Regardless of this, the value of 0 for the EW lens of the LabMaker corresponds to the deepest value of  -127 in the case of the OEPS (after baseplating with LabMaker).

I hope this information can be useful to somebody.

Moreover, if anybody has any suggestion on how to modify the optical characteristics of the two systems to be more similar, I would be grateful.

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi,

Thanks for posting all this info.

The Miniscope team works pretty closely with OEPS but we have very limited contact with LabMaker. 

• Initially, they both were using our suggested machinist for fabricating all the Delrin and Aluminum parts (he also sells the individual components here: miniscopeparts.com) but it looks like LabMaker has switched to someone else. We have been very happy with the quality of parts from this machinist/OEPS but I cannot speak to the quality and consistency of the parts for LabMaker.

• The EWL values being reversed between OEPS and LabMaker is interesting. Sounds like LabMaker installed the EWL upside-down. Not ideal but hopefully not a huge issue. That being said, the flex cable that connected the EWL to the rest of the electronics has very specific shaped contact rings for the bottom and top EWL surfaces... This could cause unexpected performance and/or shorts.
• An EWL value of ~127 corresponds to ~150um in focal distance. This could just be due to a slight difference in placement of the internal lenses or it could be due to using different lenses. Most likely the former but I wouldn't be able to rule out the latter. I know OEPS uses the exact Edmund Optics lens part numbers from the Miniscope Wiki but maybe LabMaker is using something different?