JPH08211301A - Microscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a means easily focusing a microscope only by simple operation of a lever. CONSTITUTION: By properly operating the lever 1a of a voltage generation part 1, a control voltage with a polarity and a level according to the angle of the lever is generated to be inputted to a control part 2. In the control part 2, a speed of a stepping motor 3 is decided according to the level of the control voltage, and drive directions (UP, DOWN, STOP) are decided according to the polarity, and a drive pulse is generated to be imparted to the stepping motor 3, and the motor 3 is driven. The rotary shaft 3a of the stepping motor 3 is joined to the fine adjustable shaft 4a of the focus adjustment mechanism of the microscope 4. Thus, only by properly operating the lever 1a, the microscope 3 is focused easily.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microscope for observing and photographing a subject of a sample, and more particularly to improvement of a manual operation means of the focusing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In order to observe and photograph a sample subject in a microscope, a fine movement axis of a focus adjusting mechanism of the microscope is manually operated while visually observing an image of the sample subject. .

[0003]

The manual operation for adjusting the focus of such a microscope is quite delicate and requires skill, and it is not so easy even for a healthy person. Very difficult if you have a finger injury. Grasping the operation dial of the fine adjustment shaft of the focus adjustment mechanism and performing the rotation operation in the front direction and the opposite direction,
It is quite difficult to move if your finger is damaged.

In order to solve such a problem, it is an object of the present invention to provide a means capable of freely controlling the speed and direction of a focus adjusting drive mechanism of a microscope only by operating a very simple lever.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the microscope of the present invention comprises a microscope optical system for forming a magnified image of a sample subject and an image of the sample subject by driving the optical system. And a focus device for focusing,
The focus device is a control for driving the stepping motor at a predetermined speed and direction by a stepping motor attached to a fine movement shaft of a focus adjusting mechanism of a microscope optical system and at least one operation lever that can be arbitrarily tilted and rotated. The gist is to have a control unit that generates a voltage.

Further, in the microscope of the present invention, the control section includes a voltage generating section for generating a voltage having a magnitude and polarity corresponding to the position of the operating lever, and a clock having a frequency corresponding to the magnitude and polarity of the voltage. Alternatively, it may be composed of a pulse generator that generates a clock pulse for driving the stepping motor in the counterclockwise direction.

Further, in the microscope of the present invention, the pulse generating section includes a first comparator, a second comparator,
A first pulse oscillator whose oscillation frequency depends on the input voltage,
A first pulse oscillator including a second pulse oscillator having a constant oscillation frequency, wherein the voltage from the voltage generator is input to the first and second comparators and responds to the output of the first comparator in the first voltage range. An output pulse of a second pulse oscillator which is driven by the output pulse of the pulse oscillator so as to gradually increase the speed of the stepping motor, and which responds to the output of the second comparator in the second voltage range equal to or higher than the first voltage range. Then, the stepping motor may be driven at a constant high speed.

[0008]

In the microscope of the present invention, simply by appropriately tilting and rotating the operating lever, a control voltage corresponding thereto is generated and applied to the focus adjusting stepping motor and driven in a predetermined direction and speed.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention shown in the drawings will be described below.
FIG. 1 shows the basic configuration of an embodiment of the microscope of the present invention,
Reference numeral 1 is a voltage generator, 2 is a controller, 3 is a stepping motor, and 4 is a microscope. The voltage generator 1 is composed of, for example, a joystick for a TV game having one tiltable and rotatable operation lever 1a, and generates a control voltage according to the angle of the lever by operating the lever 1a.
The control unit 2 generates a drive pulse in response to this control voltage and applies it to the stepping motor 3. The rotation shaft 3a of the stepping motor 3 is coupled to the fine movement shaft 4a of the focus adjustment mechanism of the microscope 4. When the stepping motor 3 is driven by the application of the drive pulse, the fine movement shaft 4a is rotated and the joystick lever 1a moves. Focusing control is performed by (operation).

In the voltage generator 1, the lever 1a is used as shown in FIG. 2, assuming that the joystick is used.
When is moved in the UP or DOWN direction from the center point position, the control voltage of the level and polarity (+, −) according to the angle from the center point is taken out from the variable resistor 1b.

As shown in FIG. 3, the controller 2 drives the stepping motor 3 in the driving directions (UP, S) according to the polarity of the control voltage.
TOP, DOWN) is determined and a pulse having a frequency set according to the voltage level is oscillated, and the frequency determines the moving speed of the stepping motor 3. Then, drive pulses for clockwise rotation (CW) and counterclockwise rotation (CCW) for driving and controlling the stepping motor 3 are generated based on the drive direction and the oscillation pulse. However, in "STOP", a stop pulse for turning off the excitation of the stepping motor 3 is generated. In this "STOP" state, the rotary shaft 3a (microscopic fine movement shaft) of the stepping motor 3 can be easily manually rotated.

The pattern of the moving speed of the stepping motor 3 according to the level and the polarity of the control voltage generated by the operation of the joystick lever 1a is set, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, and is also set in "UP" and "DOWN". In the range of "SLOW", the oscillation frequency of the pulse is gradually increased to gradually increase the speed of the stepping motor 3,
Further, the stepping motor 3 is driven at a constant high speed within the range of "FAST".

FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of a speed control circuit provided in the control unit 2 for realizing the speed pattern of FIG. In the figure, COM _{1 to} COM ₅ are comparators,
OP ₁ and OP ₂ are operational amplifiers, OSC ₁ and OSC ₂ are pulse oscillators, VOC ₁ and VOC ₂ are voltage controlled pulse oscillators, AND _{1 to} AND ₄ are AND circuits, OR ₁ and OR ₂ are OR circuits, and SV is a stepping motor. It is a drive circuit.

In the comparators COM _{1 to} COM ₄ , the control voltage V is compared with the predetermined reference voltages V _{1 to} V _4, and the range of UP, DOWN and the range of SLOW <FAST are determined according to the comparison output, and the respective ranges are set. AND circuits AND _{1 to} A enabled by ANDing the pulse of the oscillation frequency from the corresponding pulse oscillator and the comparison output of each range.
CLOW or CCW SLOW and FAST drive pulses P _{1 to} P ₄ are obtained from ND ₄ and input to the stepping motor drive circuit via OR circuits OR ₁ and OR ₂ . If the control voltage V is in the STOP range of V _5, no drive pulse is generated and the stepping motor 3 is stopped by the output P _{5 of} COM ₅ . The excitation is turned off by the stop pulse. The speed pattern of the stepping motor 3 is as shown in FIG.
a pattern of speed proportional to the operation angle of a, or FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, various speed control patterns can be adopted depending on usability, such as a pattern in which the speed is very slow at the beginning and the speed is rapidly increased in the latter half.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, 1
The focus of the microscope can be adjusted with a simple operation of simply pressing the lever of the book, and the focus can be adjusted even when the fingers cannot be used. Moreover, the lever can be operated slowly with a small angle at first, and then gradually with high speed, so that focusing can be easily performed at low and high magnifications. The above-mentioned lever may be one-dimensional or two-dimensional movement, but if a two-dimensional movement is used, focusing can be performed by pushing the lever upward or downward in any direction, which is useful for people with disabilities. It will be easy. The lever operating device is not limited to the joystick.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a joystick.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a function of a control voltage generation unit using a joystick.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a speed control pattern of a stepping motor.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a speed control circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a speed control pattern of a stepping motor.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing still another example of the speed control pattern of the stepping motor.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Voltage generation unit 2 Control unit 3 Stepping motor 4 Microscope

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A microscope optical system for forming a magnified image of a sample subject, and a focus device for driving the optical system to focus an image of the sample subject, wherein the focus device is a microscope optical system. A stepping motor attached to the fine movement shaft of the focus adjusting mechanism, and a control section for generating a control voltage for driving the stepping motor at a predetermined speed and direction by at least one arbitrarily tiltable and rotatable operation lever. A microscope having: 2. The voltage control unit, wherein the control unit generates a voltage having a magnitude and polarity according to the position of the operation lever,
The microscope according to claim 1, further comprising: a pulse generator that generates a clock pulse that drives a stepping motor in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction having a frequency corresponding to the magnitude and polarity of the voltage. 3. The pulse generator includes a first comparator, a second comparator, a first pulse oscillator having an oscillation frequency dependent on an input voltage, and a second pulse oscillator having a constant oscillation frequency, and the voltage generator The voltage from the generator is input to the first and second comparators, and in the first voltage range, the speed of the stepping motor is gradually increased by the output pulse of the first pulse oscillator in response to the output of the first comparator. In the second voltage range above the first voltage range, the stepping motor is driven at a constant high speed by the output pulse of the second pulse oscillator which responds to the output of the second comparator. The microscope according to claim 2, wherein the microscope is configured.