January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
Welcome to the GemologyOnline.com Forum
A non-profit Forum for the exchange of gemological ideas
It is currently Fri Mar 29, 2024 1:04 am

All times are UTC - 4 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 18 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:38 pm 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
Hi All,

I hope I'm not violating any forum rule here…

I am in the final steps of developing a new add-on kit for gemological microscopes. The new kit will give (almost) any gemological microscope many new features, which today are either not available for some models or are offered by the manufacturer for ridiculously high prices. The new kit is aiming to suit most available gemological microscopes in the market.

Information on the product can be found here:
http://www.gemoaid.com/universal-microscope-upgrade-kit-special-price

I would like to utilize this forum's wisdom of crowds to hear your comments, suggestions and ideas on how to improve the kit and making it more useful, before finalizing and going out with a big campaign. I think the feedbacks of fellow gemologists (and hopefully future customers) are highly important.

Please note that the website is active and orders can be placed. Yet, as I said in the beginning, I would like to hear your thoughts.
Therefore, if you choose to order it, I will wait for a week before sending it. If a good suggestion will be given during this time and could be easily and quickly implement into the kit, I will add it to the package without an additional fee. This will be my gratitude to your assistance.
If you have questions about the kit, please let me know.

Moderators, if I violated the forum rule, please accept my apologies and move it to a more suitable forum.

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 10:36 pm 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm
Posts: 21602
Location: San Francisco
I think this is a great kit! If I didn't already have all that stuff I would definitely order it.
Thanks for sharing!


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 8:57 am 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
Thanks Barbra!

Do you have a suggestion on how to improve it?
I deliberately chose this forum because its way of thinking is more practical with lesser interests, comparing to the other social platforms. I can update that I already received two good ideas (via email) and I'm now inspecting the possibility on adding them into the kit.

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Thu Dec 21, 2017 5:19 pm 
Offline
Gold Member

Joined: Mon May 14, 2007 11:00 am
Posts: 1133
Location: Monterey, CA
Consider my products, which you can check out by contacting Mineralab.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 3:08 am 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
Thank you Dr. Hanneman! It is indeed a good idea.
I will look at it and get back to you shortly...

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 12:20 pm 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2014 10:04 pm
Posts: 27
Congrats on launching your new product! I've just saw it on eBay selling at the original price =D>

My suggestion for set #2 is definitely a spectroscopes holder (clip), convertible from 90° to 45°, pointing towards the illuminator. A modified bottom piece with 2 fiber optic light guide attachments -- a small one for spectroscopes with internal scale, another one for reflection method of spectroscopes reading (it doesn't have to be very long...) You may also include a 591nm narrow bandpass filter attachment (for light guide) to provide monochromic light to refractometer.

Sunny


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 3:56 pm 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
Thank you very much Sunny!
I'm still running it in a "soft launch" without any promotion campaigns, but the results for now are VERY GOOD!

The dichroscope/spectroscope holder sounds like a very useful addition.
I am already working on it, but obviously, will not be able to add it in a few days.

The fiber optic addition is a little bit more complex as it demands adding some basic electronics.
It's quite simple to create, but for now, I prefer not having electronic components in the kit.


One update that I can already give you:
I received a suggestion to change the colored filters in the kit to be half colorless and half colored. This way, gemologists will be able to easily move the gem between the colored (i.e. the filter) and the colorless (i.e. no filter) areas and compare the observations. I'm not sure if this is better than a full size filter, but I decided to add this to all orders coming from this forum and let you guide me which is better.
This offer will be available for you until the end of the year. Just remember: if you are ordering, send me an email or PM, saying you came from the GO forum, so I can know and add the new goodies to your package.

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 8:45 pm 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:31 pm
Posts: 4015
Location: North Carolina
Mine just arrived, and I will admit to having overall positive but mixed feelings.

Pros: it looks and feels solid and well-made, the design is simple in a good way and the pieces are easy to fit together. The scaffold is nice and modular and you can easily swap filters with little to no effort. The filters themselves seem to be of good quality--the polarized lenses are certainly a cut above the very cheap ones I've bought before with perfect extinction, and the color filters (including half-and-half) look quite good.

Cons:
First, I'm not convinced by the immersion cell--it appears to just be normal labware, so the bottom is flat'ish' but has plenty of wiggle that might affect things. The first picture is the provided cell vs a GIA immersion cell.
Image
Image
This may not matter though, and it's hard to get the GIA immersion cell alone for much less than the cost of this entire kit so that's not 100% fair to compare.

The main issue is that the filters doen't fit my microscope well. I have a Gemolite mk V with a SZ7 head attached.

Basically there are two issues with the fit. First, there is too much space between the filters, which means if I want to use crossed polars I have to crank the microscope's head way up to be just above the top filter.
Image
I can understand how this variation could be overlooked since the Gemolite V base originally had much shorter heads on it, but it is a fairly common upgrade, I assume especially so here given how often it's been advocated here.

The second issue is that the bottom filter holder is too tall for the gem tweezers to work comfortably--I have to angle them at least ~20 degrees up to get the stone above the filter. This of course limits my ability to position and manipulate the stone.
Image

Overall it seems like a nice and well-made product and I like the design. I hope that there's a remedy for these two issues for a somewhat easier crossed polar solution.

Edit: fixed some details

_________________
Rough and cut classic and exotic synthetic gems:https://store.turtleshoard.com


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:30 am 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
Hi Stephen,

Thank you for the purchase and the very valuable feedback!
The product was planned to give gemologists useful tools and I need such responses to solve issues.

regarding your questions:
I believe an immersion cell must be transparent from all sides and not just from the bottom. But, producing an all-glass immersion cell always creates a slight "wavy surface" at the bottom due to the fact that the injection point of the melted glass is located at the top of the molding (bottom of the turn-around glass) to ensure even spreading. I've checked with plenty of glass producers and all of them are working with the same method.
This, as you demonstrated, results in a small interference of the light.
However, when adding water and/or placing the diffusion plate below the cell, these unwanted effects are reduced dramatically and become virtually unnoticeable.

Regarding the set height, I admit I haven't checked it with Mark 5 models (only 7 and up) and forgot about the head size difference.
I would like to assist you with that. I'm thinking on replacing the long rod with a one much shorter, that will give a solution for such models. Can you please suggest a "reasonable height" for it?
You'll, of course, get the needed part for free.

Regarding the stone holder issue, I'm sorry but, currently, I have no solution for that...
The rings' high walls are made like this in order to keep the immersion cell steady. I thought about adding a narrow path at the rings' outline which will allow the holder to be at smaller angle (still not horizontal) but this will not offer any mobility for it.

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:14 am 
Offline
Valued Contributor

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 1:41 pm
Posts: 172
First off, let me say, this is just great that someone is making such a kit in order to fully maximize the use of a gem microscope. Stephen has given some good feedback on the kit and I will say that the GIA immersion cell with flat bottom is excellent and does not require transparent sides. However, it is expensive and probably not even available anymore.

For the stone holder, I have some small riser posts for my microscope that go in between the stone holder and scope mount. something like this would be a good solution to the problem in Stephens image. this would be particularly useful to solve if one wishes to take photomicrographs using polarized light.

Otherwise, this is great that such a package is available at a reasonable cost.

nathan

_________________
Professional Gemologist and Microscopist

The views expressed here are the author's opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the his employer.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:48 am 
Offline
Moderator
User avatar

Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 9:31 pm
Posts: 4015
Location: North Carolina
Hello,
That makes sense. A shorter length would definitely solve the first issue. About 5cm might be an appropriate length from some quick measuring and estimating. For the second one I am considering getting a cheap pair of microscope gem tweezers and directly attaching them to the bottom filter holder--I suspect that would provide a good solution without needing to make any changes to my existing setup, assuming I can figure out an effective way to attach it without screwing anything up. It's something I'll have to play with.
The GIA cells are definitely great and probably not a fair comparison. They show up on eBay every now and then and I got decent deals on both of mine but they're not as common there as old forums posts suggest they used to be. As long as you aren't using a dixie cup or something.

_________________
Rough and cut classic and exotic synthetic gems:https://store.turtleshoard.com


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 5:32 pm 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
Ok, will talk with my engineer to produce a 5 cm long rod.

Thank you Nathan for the support!
I Never meant to show disrespect to the GIA immersion cell. I'm just saying that, from my experience, transparent walls may allow light to enter the observed gem in more angles, and this, sometimes, may reveal hidden features.

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:17 pm 
Offline
Valued Contributor

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 1:41 pm
Posts: 172
Guy Borenstein wrote:
Ok, will talk with my engineer to produce a 5 cm long rod.

Thank you Nathan for the support!
I Never meant to show disrespect to the GIA immersion cell. I'm just saying that, from my experience, transparent walls may allow light to enter the observed gem in more angles, and this, sometimes, may reveal hidden features.


no problem at all. i really like the idea of this kit and the reasonable prince. from looking at the photos on your website my only other concern that I see is the textured diffuser. I think a smooth diffuser would be better as with transparent gems you may see the texture through the stone which could be distracting.

_________________
Professional Gemologist and Microscopist

The views expressed here are the author's opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the his employer.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:44 am 
Offline
Established Member

Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2016 11:18 am
Posts: 16
The diffuser is actually very smooth.
The image was taken before I switched the diffuser manufacturer. I made the change because of the noticeable texture.

The lower plate is the old diffuser and upper is the new one.
Image

_________________
http://www.gemoaid.com

The idea behind GemoAid is to provide a new series of low-cost add-on devices, adjustable to most available gemological instrument models in the market, enabling the enhancement of their testing capabilities.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
 Post subject: Re: Microscope upgrade kit
PostPosted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:59 pm 
Offline
Valued Contributor

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 1:41 pm
Posts: 172
Guy Borenstein wrote:
The diffuser is actually very smooth.
The image was taken before I switched the diffuser manufacturer. I made the change because of the noticeable texture.

The lower plate is the old diffuser and upper is the new one.
Image

That looks great!

_________________
Professional Gemologist and Microscopist

The views expressed here are the author's opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the his employer.


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 18 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 4 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group
Gemology Style ported to phpBB3 by Christian Bullock