Scanning Electron Microscope

Dr Virago Pete's Scanning Electron Microscope

International Scientific Instruments ( ISI )

ISI SX30 Scanning Electron Microscope ( SEM )

I am not affiliated with the ISI mfg in any way - other than I own one of their machines and seeking to restore it.

Here are the photos from my machine at the High School it came from.

My Notes on Parts Acquire Progress

1) Jan 2014 in discussion acquire digital image capture device which is DOS based possibly adaptable to ISI - I will need to locate schematics and port pinouts for ISI to adapt this board as it was originally intended for JEOL. Craigslist ad Wanted posted.

2. The seller has sent the circuit board and a CD-ROM for digital  image capture (in transit at the time of this writing)

3. 1/12/14 the ISI SEM is indoors and off my trailer and out of the cold Chicago area winter where it was exposed to a record breaking minus 50 degrees F "Polar Artic Vortex" and then 2 days later the weather was 37degrees and slushy melting the 17 inches of snow. During this 90degree approx temperature difference (-50degF to +37degF) the SEM was moved indoors and is resting on a 1/2" plywood sheet to protect the floor from the extreme weight and allow rolling the machine to access the backside and all sides for rstoration work. It has been outdoors under a tarp for 5 weeks (Purch early Dec 2012). The extreme weight meant a ramp needed to be built and then dismantled and then the wood from the ramp re-used to make bridge over the doorway and then re-use the wood under the SEM to support its weight indefinitely. So it was quite a challenge geting it off the trailer and into its spot- A move of only 20ft away. It took 10 men and a Tracktorloader with forklift attachment and $100 worth of hardware store wood and steel hardware and a jetski/small boat trailer to accomplish this and payments to the labor provided. I didnt keep track of how many hours it took- but it was alot of hours on my part. I dont see any damage from being outdoors. Probably the deepfreeze weather prevented extreme damage from humidity because most days were very cold. Some days were beyond cold and are on the record books as the coldest days in history in Chicago area (I'm 35miles North of Chicago). There are some tarnished areas where I saw this at the time of purchase. This machine was outdoors in its previous life, and I saved it from a landfill fate. I couldnt save the carbon coater from that fate because it was just too heavy and big. It probably weighs as much as my SEM. I have included a photo of it here as a download - I dont own this carbon coater but I was offered it for a mere $100 and includes a pump. I just dont the room for it and my small space cant support the additional heavy weight machine.

I am including photos of the Edwards Sputterer which was offered to me by th esame seller. I have no way to transport it -  It was a true bargain for $100 but I had to pass on it. I think it is for carbon sputtering as my best guess. This Edwards sputterer was the mating set for my ISI SX30 microscope and I was told the sputterer contains the roughing pump.  I will need to acquire a small slow roughing pump to fit my small space. I purchased my SEM from a High School 40 miles south of my location.

Update 1/12/14 regarding Edwards Sputterer

I contacted the seller to say thanks for the SEM and to let him know I would pass on the huge Edwards Sputterer and he replied that the sputterer was sold last week and the buyer "hauled it away" and believe me - I'm sure it wasn't easy to do because it is one big heavy machine. They probably used the same big yellow tractor loader with forklift attachment - the same one used to load my SEM on to my trailer. So the downloadable pictures of the Edwards sputterer are only for FYI as I did not buy it - but it is part of the history of my SEM.

Here is an email I sent to the seller of a image capture device called "Image Thief"

The seller said that it was removed from the SEM because it stopped working and they replaced it with some other device - it was originally in a Jeol SEM 5600 but I hope to adapt it to ISI SX30 if possible. The first step is to purchase it (done) and troubleshoot the boards (done) and this is what I found as postential issues:

I did some testing on your  Image Thief Board and the DMA card and I see 2 possible reasons why you had an issue a decade ago.

None of those are a complaint- I'm happy as a clam to have this item so dont get me wrong.

I'm just sending this as an FYI because maybe you were wondering what happened a decade ago and why it stopped working.

I tested the Image Thief and there were 2 chips I didnt have a tester for but everything else tested fine and was nice and socketed.

I tested the DMA board and found one chip which gave me a fail only once and I couldnt get it repeat that- subsequent tests always passed. So I may attribute that to operator error (me) or possibly an intermittant glitch inside the chip. Regardless I wrote a note and will save that information and that note will ride along with the card in its plastic wrapper for future reference.

Another thing I saw was several bent pins on the backside - I tested it on an esr capacitor meter and all the capcitors one by one tested fine. There wasnt any chips which my collection of testers skipped over on this board. So all socketed chips tested fine. There are a few soldered in chips which I didint test.

I usually stop troubleshooting at the very first sighting of a potential problem and I think this one is big enough to have caused a malfunction.

See there is a group of pins sticking out on the solder-side of the board. For some reason someone at the factory was half-asleep and put in a capacitor only halfway. Then they soldered it in place much much taller than the other capacitors on the same board. Now functionally - this is not an issue. However the board came into contact with something of great force - enough to bend the pins- that takes alot of force to do that.

The 3 pins are bent over in such a way as to make me think at least one was possibly touching each other or the U14 chip next to it - or possibly up against some metal object.

I sent some photos here and you see the bent pins - I'll straghten them and also desolder the U14 chip and probably some more chips for testing purposes - but most likely none of those chips are bad- it is all low volts 5v or possible was shorted to ground - either way I dont expect to find any chip errors.

That may answer some questions about why it stopped working 10 years ago for you.

My photos are not super great but you can clearly see  bent over pins and those pins are from the too-long capacitor which someone didnt trim off the extra length of legs at the factory.

Here are some photos of the DMA 8-bit board- it shows the pins bent and it is very likely to have been the issue while installed in the Jeol 5600 SEM. I will straighten the pins. The IC chips and capacitors I tested them on my equipmnent and they look fine. WIth the exception of 1 intermittant chip and that may have been my error but nevertheless - for good measure and just to be sure the device is rock solid 100% I will plan on changing out that IC Chip. When checking ICs it is important to notice and pay attention to odd things and those could be trouble spots. I'm lucky I saw it fail one time and I never could get it to repeat. I'm lucky to have seen that. Luck has very little to do with it really - I've seen that sort of thing before. It is a good idea to change out the part.

Above pictured "Image Thief" homemade perfboard prototype digital capture board and cable and DMA 8-bit card and manual. This board was used to capture a very wonderful SEM photo on a Joel 5600. I have included here an actual photo that this very board captured ten years ago on a totally different microscope - attached to a DOS Pentium 133 PC. I hope to be able to connect this board to my ISI SX30 and achieve similar photos. I need port and pinouts and schematics to be able to do that. Anyone have schematics or port pinouts for ISI SX30? Here is the wonderful digitally captured photo. It is astonishingly sharp and clear. Wow.

Here is a link to the authors and inventors page - he is working on a USB version and is an open source project. I asked to purchase his old non-working board. I believe it will now work as I tested most chips and found bent pins and straightened bent pins and cut them short/close to board as should be.

It looks like the monstrous cave worm the Millenium Falcon flew into in the asteroid field. But seriously it is not a photo taken by me. The inventor of the "Image Thief "captured this image  and is a PCboard trace and island with a component in the hole.

Here is a link to the inventors page and open source project

http://people.umass.edu/~dac/projects/ImageThief/ImageThief.html

I have a penpal and he said about 15 yuears ago or so he built the Imgae tHief and installed it on a Joel 5400 and it worked very well. He said teverything I needed to build it and the softeare and everything was in the downloadables. He made his own board from this download.

I asked the author if he could could sell me a prebuilt one and I jumped at the opprotunity to buy the actual board that made this picture The image measures approx 2000x1400 resolution and is very detailed. The inventor wants help on his open source project and I am not a programmer in assembly language or USB familiarity - but I am good at sourcing parts and people. Maybe a reader will see themselves as helping in the progress of the USB version of the "Image Thief" open source progress.

I myself am going to do my best to get the older DOS version up and running. My microscope is from that same era. Mating my vintage ISI SX30 with a vintage DOS PC is what I intend to do. I suspect this photo was created by using a backscatter detector whereas I will be using a Secondary Emissions Detector so The image iteself will have different highlighting method/appearance. 

Another important point about the Image Thief is - I dont see the data infomation such as KV or magnification on the image itself. It leaves the image clean and uncluttered and unobstructed. It is a beautiful image. I hope to someday make an image of this quality myself using SED and in a different subject matter - but nonetheless very comparable quality-wise.

I carefully stored the sensor which the seller said to be careful with - but I found that it actually had been mishandled very badly before I ever saw the machine. The sensor was broken off and because I had never seen an electron microscope upclose or in-person I just assumed that the sensor is supposed to be on the table and connected when you plan on using it- because it was not connected at the school. Its funny that someone told me to be careful with it - when obviously it had been smashed separate from the column and probably dropped on the floor. The telltale sign for me that something was not right was a tiny rattling sound .

I unscrewed it expecting to find a loose screw and save myself from an electrical short. But it wasnt like that at all. What I found was a tiny piece of glass and this piece of glass was the"belly button" when a tube is blown and sealed by the glassblower or machine. So I knew that the photo multiplier was bad before I disassembled too much. As I disassembled more I saw a large crack and a white cloud ring inside the tube and all of the pins were crooked and bent in all directions. (Is it possibole someone tried to unscrew a vacuum tube as if it was a lightbulb - yikes) Here are some photos, and I need to start looking for a Hamamatsu R268 Photomultiplier Tube as mine is broken from the previous owner bumping into the sensor and it dropping on the floor most likely (or possibly sabotage) I will need to make a replacement plastic mount on my lathe but that is not my big concern - finding the tube is probably one thing that caused my SEM to almost get scrapped. I see an ebay tube with Make Offer and I may try to make an offer on it. I see one sold for $40 back in March of 2012 when I do a google search but I may not get so lucky to find one at that price. Maybe the reader has one they can sell me?

Here are some photos of my disassembled sensor - there is really not much to it at all. I will store it in a plastic mayonnais/salad dressing type jar for safety as the glass shards can be dangerous to my pets. A thorough vacuum with a shopvac for fine glass fragments was also done in the entire area.

Some possible cross reference to this tube made by Hamamatsu - Philips, EMI, Burle, and possibly other brands. If the reader knows of a possible substitute let me know as that will widen my search and make it easier to find a replacement - if there are substitutes from a different mfg.

Some online vendors scavenge old lab machines and find tubes or have an inventory of used or new tubes. I hope to find a replacement for it.

The location / placement of this sensor on the SEM column makes it easy to brush against it if the machine is put in high traffic area where people can brush up against it.

The sensor is basically a light sensor - a very sensitive one. I have 3 photomultiplier tubes in my Kodak Telecine made in 1973 (one for red blue green) but is otherwise solid state. I have read that photomultiplier tubes are extremely sensitive and that is why it is a vacuum tube rather than solid state. The other many PCB circuit boards are solid state with many IC chips and transistors. Having one tube inside of a solid state machine seems a little out of place - but the simplicity of the sensor is astounding that it comprised of a photomultiplier tube and a litle round circuit board with one chip - inside the sensor housing.

I dont know enough about the microscope at this point to give the sensor a name - possibly "secondary electron SE detector"? It is basically a photomultiplier tube facing a glass window (short fiber optic glass) facing the specimen holder. As the electron beam strikes the specimen it creates light and the photomultiplier detects it. What wavelength of light - I dont know yet - probably not visible light.

Shows broken off metal can housing from Secondary Electron sensor. See the black plastic round piece that was once part of the mount. When I first got the SEM I thought it was a round gasket - but no it is part of the plastic mount. This is the way I bought it. No damage was done by me. I either need to find this round plastic piece as a replacement part or fabricate it myself or epoxy it back together and stregthen it. It is most likely an electrical insulator - I cant image that the factory arbitrarily decided to make it from plastic when almost the etire machine is metal. So I would imaging it is an insulator. As a replacement a phenolic or glass-filled high temp plastic would work. Since this plastic piece is right next to the hot PMT tube - it needs to withstand heat. The edges of the round aluminum tube are crikled like like someone tried to straighten it. There are ridge rings inside of the aluminum tube where the round plastic piece is. This means it gets pressed in place and the ridges keep it there. The plastic round black piece isnt intended to come out as once it is pressed in there the ridges lock it in place. Maybe there is enough ridges left for me to apply some epoxy and then try to repress the aluminum tube over the repaired plastic.

The boogered up end of the aluminum tube makes me thing that I need a tube expander to do a good job to straighten the tube end which is crinkled and attempted straighten by the previous owner.. I purchased a muffler/tailpipe expander last year and it may contain a mandrel of the right size. I'll have to ckeck on that.

You would thunk that there would be some kind of guard surrounding these sensors sticking out th eside of the column since they are so delicate and someone bumping in to them is a real possibility. I will consider welding on some type of barrier between my room entryway door and the SEM as I dont want this to happen to me years down the road after I had already fixed it.

See the socket for the photomultilpier tube

Hamamatsu R268 Photo Multiplier Tube which I need to find a replacement as it is cracked. Pins are bent in all directions - when this was broken it probably made a big crashing sound and a loud pop when the glass broke. I hope I can find a replacement tube. I can fix the mount and the metal housing.

Photomultiplier tube is sometimes written Photo Multiplier Tube or PMT for shorthand.

I was communicating with a scavenged parts supplier for SEM microscopes and I ordered a replacement used tube which has the black round plastic piece and an ISI SX30 200page approx Service manual. I am happy with the price negotiated for these 2 items. Here is a picture of this aluminum tube (I have not received it as I am writing because it was just ordered today 1/23/14. This seller also had a glass vacuum tube R268 Photomultipier tube but the price was beyond what I can afford. I will need to search for another source for this. I have maxed my budget for while.

I will need to figure out a way to protect this aluminum tube from being leaned on or brushed against as I may not be so fortunate to find another one in the future. I may need to weld a brace onto the frame so that a protective shield encases this delicate perpendicular sensor which is resting on a very thin plastic plate held by 3 philips screws. It would not take much to shear it off. I can imagine the gut wrneching feeling that would have been for someone to have destroyed an SEM microscope with an elbow or a backpack brushing against it (possibly - who know what really happened).

I read that SEM columns are made of stainless steel - the author was not correct. Columns are made of steel with a decorative plating. The frame is steel. The control panel is steel. The electronic enclosures are steel. Lots of steel. Very little plastic. I dont see any stainless steel- maybe there is a piece somewhere made of stainless steel - but the column is not stainless steel. The author of that article was wrong about the column being made of stainless steel. I saw a very rusty column on big-auction-site which the plating was being pushed up all over due to the underneath rusting of the steel column. The fact that it was so rusty - tells me it was steel and was outside in a boneyard for a long time.

Also is visible the thin black rubber gasket which goes behind the round plastic piece. The gasket came with my replacement parts. I'm glad to have purchased these parts.

I ordered and received 1/2014 the replacement aluminum tube and also the black round plastic piece (from scavenged parts supplier) which goes on the end of the tube. The plastic piece is a mount for the tube to be attached perpendicular to the column. These parts are from the Secondary Emisssions Detector. I am glad to have these parts to replace my broken plastic.  In addition I purchased a technical manual (from scavenged partts supplier) for ISI SX30 which shows adjustments for voltages and pictures of waveforms. This 200page 3-ring binder book jumps right into the adjustments and calibration but I feel there is proabbly some other book which I'm missing still. 

I dont have schematics or an overall layout of which parts and pieces should be in this ISI SX30 microscope. I dont have a port diagram or pinouts showing me the data for each port- which is really what I was asking for but still this book is a great help to me and I will be able to check voltages at the power supplies etc. But I will continue to look for more books - maybe a reader has a book they can sell me?

I see a couple of things not attached to anything and I'm scratching my head on whether something should go there or not.

I plan on making a video showing the ISI SX30 with the panels off and pointing out the parts that I need clarification - maybe that will help to identify what needs to be purchased for it.

 I always liked how Secondary Emissions images looked like as they have a surreal metallic looking appearance. Where Backscattered images look like light-photographs and closely resemble how our eye sees. Secondary Emissions created photos have a SCI-FI look that is hard to describe -except that there is a white outline which sharpens images and sometimes shadows are white rather than black. It almost looks like a combination of a positive photo and a negative image all rolled-up into the same image. I played with Photoshop 5.0 to duplicate this SEM Look of Secondary Electron Images or to correct it to look more like Backscattered images and what I found is that if I go into "Image/Adjust/Curves"

I find that images which are created on a Secondary Emissions Detector can be made to look more like Backscattered created images by using the above curves (I invented this process (C) Copyright2014 All Rights Reserved) and I believe that it is due to the clipping or attributes of the image sensor. The above curves reverse the trend for shadows to be white- they should be black to look more like our eyes see. Instead the sensor at a certain point starts to display shadows as shades of white. The above curves reverses that. Now depending on the SEM the curves are in different points on the graph but the idea is to find the point where that SEM starts that white shadowing and then make the curve sharp in that spot - this "fixing that image" to look more like a backscattered image.

I actually like how Secondary Emissions Imags look - so dont ge me wroing when I say "fixing image" as the surreal look is quite amazing and I like it alot. Because I understand graphics - I recognized this as a function of the curves within Photoshop 5.0 and later versions  have this too. I sometimes began with a photonegative of the image or a positive of the image - it possible to work these curves from either positive or negative. Easy to flip positive/negative in photoshop by "Image/Adjust/Invert" also since SEM images are grayscale making the image grayscal helps "Image/Mode/Grayscale"

The above image was redone in Photoshop to create a fake pseudo Secondary Emissions detector image - made from a Backscattered detector created image. I used the above curve to create it and then brightness and contrast to give it the correct overall correct tonal quality for viewabilty. See how the details now stand out so much more pronounced. It is my hunch that the SED and Backscattered detectors have different curves and this is transposeable between images produced from SEMs with Backscattered or Secondary Detector created images. I see very little reason to have both detectors on my machine. I think my Secondary Emissions Detector will be just fine for my needs. Once I have it working - that is. Choosing between Secondary ELectron Images and Backscattered images sometimes has to do with the depth or flatness of the subject being scanned. I think this technique blurs the need for choosing which detector to scan the image with.

It seems to me that some authors writing about SEMs and how they work are incorrect in their understanding of the materials the SEM colums are made of and also in their understanding of Photomultiplier tubes and those authors feel that something different is being resulted in their image- whereas I feel that much of this is simply curves in how the photomultiplier tube sees. It is not a straight line. There are less sensitive/insensitive/overly sensitive areas of the curve.  These can be corrected or exaggerated or turned opposite by using the curve.

The same TIF file produced both images - it is just a different way of displaying the same scanned data. The data itself is the same or similar as long as you realize the Photomultiplier tube itself is slanting the data or skewing it.

The above colorized image was created in Photoshop 5.0 by selecting (lassoing) the area to be colored and then Image/Adjust/Color Balance and using the sliders to color only the selected area. Then selecting or lassoing another area and coloriung that portion of the image in a different color. The colorization gives the image a pastel-like look that is very typical of colorized old films. The colorization is non-destructive as merely using the Photoshoop "Desaturate" function removes the colorization and restores the original B&W shades of grey/gray - however you spell it. This process can be used to highlight key areas of the image or to give the image the proper colors - as if we were viewing the object in sunlight rather than B&W color-less electrons.

In the above example - it shows a green circuitboard with a copper trace and a shiny silver-color component sticking out the through-hole. The colorization of the copper-color and green circuit board make it more realistic - but still gives it that surreal SEM microscope look - which I like alot. So we took a SEM Backscattered Detector image and from that created a colorized fake SEM Secondary Emissions Detector created image.

Comparing the before and after results is quite remarkable, and the image is much clearer and easier to view and understand. It is important to note/mention that the image was modified in Photoshop so the viewer knows. Photoshop is often used - without anyone mentioning - that it was used. Showing both the original and the Photoshopped image can go a long way to satisfy those that need enhanced images and those that like original unmodified images. Providing both - is always a good idea and adds to the credibility of the image rather than detracting from it.

I should also point out that Photoshop 5.0 also has the ability to adjust the saturation level. The colorized pastel-look can be made milder or more exaggerated by using the Image/Adjust/Hue Saturation slider left-or-right. Also brightness and contrast and other functions help bringout details in the image.

I would like to find a new or used 14-pin Photomultipler tube

(Any of the following would work)

A. Hamamatsu R268

B. Burle S83068E (Exact substitute for R268)

C. Hamamatsu R6095 (recommended by an online website vendor as a replacement but wrote not quite as rugged as the original R268 - whatever that means. That website said that Hamamatsu discontinued the R268 and the mfg recommends R6095 as the replacement - I dont know if that is correct. Can someone confirm or refute that?)

D. Various brands 9524B

E. Various brands 9924B (different number of dynodes than R268)

F. Thats is all I can find - if you know of another substitute - let me know

Update 2/3/14 I received an anonymous response to my Craigslist ad looking for ISI SEM parts and the message said, "Fyi, I believe that a Thorn EMI Model# 9924A will substitute for the r-268 that you need." I dont know the sender and I cannot verify if this is a fact or a hunch on the sender's parts - can anyone confirm or refute this?

2/23/2014

I am putting forth effort to buy 2 things - a Hamamatsu R268 used PMT tube from an ISI SMS2 and a flip open cover from an ISI SS40 (slightly too long but I am hoping to modify it to work). This week was dismal for me saleswise as the cold winter weather (An extra few weeks of winter and extreme cold conditions - Polar Artic Vortex) probably depleted most people of their paycheck as utility bills were astronomical (Mine too). Also the Olympic Winter games and Superbowl drew large viewing television audiences (watching TV reduced online browsing) and having all three events all in the same short period of time - affected my online sales. I am hoping that the end of the month will bring in some needed sales - so I can make these 2 purchases. These 2 vendors of used ISI parts have been very kind in granting me a small grace period - and they wont hold out forever so I hope I wont miss this opportunity to obtain these 2 parts.

Ironically I'm fixing a formerly half-million dollar machine and having trouble coming up with a few bucks to buy scavenged parts. LOL.

The wood to build the ramp costed more than the microscope purchase price. Aint that something. And these small replacement parts cost more than the wood. But I'm not complaining. Ill find a way.

The above picture shows the used Hamamatsu R268 tube and detector I purchased.

2/28/14

I received the Hamamatsu R268 tube (which was part of a detector) which I purchased on big-auction-site for $100 plus shipping. This detector is from a SEM microscope being parted out by the seller. The other parts I saw for sale from that seller - were very very rusty and I'm so glad that the pins of the tube are not rusty at all. The tube and tube socket are nice and clean and the tube was not rusted in place or anything. The tube looks nice and clean and the only flaw I see visually is that there is a circular scratch on the sensor end of the tube- probably caused by someone breaking off the detector from  the very same plastic disc. The very same black plastic disc was broken and the previous owner was fortunate that the tube didnt get cracked. At this time I feel that I have a potentially working PMT Photomultiplier tube. I am also thinking that the circular scratch that I see may or may not be a scratch. I'm wondering if it is a calcium or lime ring or other chemical ring. I dont know at this point if it is a scatch or not. But the sensor should be able to see enough to function as the scratch is not a visual obstruction and the tube's vacuum doesnt seem to be compromised. I can tell that the tube is still holding a vacuum by the "getter" inside the tube. This getter is a chemical they put inside the tube as they are sealing the glass during the mfg process. The "getter" absorbs whatever remains of the air inside and becomes chemically bonded to the "getter" If air was introduced by cracking the tube - the "getter" would change color to white. So I know that there is no crack in the tube glass. Whether the tube is good or not remains to be seen - but I know it is holding a vacuum and visually looks good-enough.

My intention for the above 2ea photos was to show the circular scratch on the used tube I bought. The circular scratch is minor and didnt show up well no matter how many times I tried with various lighting conditions. But interestingly if I turned the camera flash on or off - that made a big difference in the translucent qualities of the sensor end of the tube. A Camera flash makes the sensor end transparent. No camera flash makes the end of the tube opaque. I am likening this effect to LCD shutter glasses or auto-darkening welding helmet (except opposite - a welding helment darkens when it sees a flash). The inside of the tube end is coated with a coating. My cracked tube does not look like this and my cracked tube has the silver side very deteriorated from within. The inrush of air had a very violent effect on the broken tube? Who knows - I am only guessing.

The above 2 pictures show the column liner which is made of brass. It is made of many small sections which are threaded (like how a ball point pen is disassembled) and each section contains a small insert with a tiny hole. My question is about the odd looking section above which is actually "floppy" and dangles. It reminds me of a pen assembled without the metal ring in the center. Can anyone confirm that the section shown in the above pictures is supposed to be like this? Or is something missing? I would like to buy a spare Column Liner (like pictured) if someone has one for sale.

Update 3/5/14 I received a reply from a knowledgeable vendor of ISI parts that my Column Liner is supposed to look like this. The "gap" is normal and looks like this. So I am relieved that I am not missing a piece. I am still looking for a spare column liner and more parts and books.

Update 6/11/14 I received an email from a university student looking for information on the ISI microscopes. I'm restoring this SX30 machine and acquiring parts - but I've actually never operated one or seen an SEM in person - only my own machine. My skills in repairing electronics are general so I have no doubt that I will get this machine up and running. My budget is limited so it will take quite some time to complete this machine. I still have to buy a pump (and step-down transformer) which I believe the original pump was a "Hitachi 160VP CuteVac" which is a 100 volt pump. I see other ISI Electron microscopes of various models on websites and big-auction-site which are using the Hitachi pump - so I am fairly sure that is what the machines came with - although the manuals dont mention which model it came with originally. My machine didnt come with a vacuum pump. The seller of my SEM offered a BIG BIG BIG and heavy carbon coater machine with a bult-in pump for $100 but I had to pass due to the size and weight - due to floor space and extreme weight would damage my floor (someone else bought it a short time after). My SEM was so big and heavy that it sat on my trailer for a month until I could figure out how to bring it off my trailer and into my small lab and build a ramp and pay people to help me. So that was the best I could do- especially just a couple weeks before "Polar Arctic Vortex" storm hit my area - coldest winter (-50deg F) in recorded Chicago area weather history - dating back - records kept even in the 1800s. I couldnt have done any better or worked any faster with limited resources. Even now as I write in June - its been 2-1/2 months since I purchased any parts - I'm still paying off my winter bills in installments and being hounded by utility company. $1500 utility bills for one month is hard to tackle when you have regular months bills to pay too- yikes. Even so I am juggling 3ea restorations at the same time Thermojet 3d wax printer (see my webpage for restoration) Rank Cintel restoration (see my webpage for restoration) and ISI SX30 Electron Microscope Restoration (you're reading it right now) I saw an ad for an SX30 being sold online by a SEM microscope reseller- the price was $30,000 and in working perfect condition. I could never afford that. I'm glad to have a fixer upper and worth all of the effort, expense, time it takes to restore it.

I noticed that Windows XP running Firefox 12 and Flashplayer 9 does not work anymore for the webhost I use - for uploading photos. I was going to upload a photo of the Hitachi 160VP vacuum pump but I am forced to upgrade software. Dont you hate that? I purchased Windows Vista 2 weeks ago ($10 approx from big-auction-site and came with a memorystick 128MB) and will need to buy an IDE hard drive (I learned a long time ago to install a removeble HDD for each version of Windows so I can just swap back and forth between OS by just exchanging the HDD cartridge) and install that sometime. One step forward and 2 steps back ... Once I have Vista up and running (have to buy a HDD first) - then I think the later version flashplayer downloads will load fine. But text functions work fine. This webhost doesnt offer ftp (old school way of uploading files) and relies on manually upload my files as I build my webpages manually as I go.

Update 6/18/14 I see that my website host has fixed the upload issue which has plagued the hostsite for months. Today it worked very well; And so, I uploaded a photo above - which shows the nameplate of the Hitachi Vacuum Pump which I suspect is the original model. I could be mistaken; But, it my hunch that it is what the SEM came with. I don't yet have a vacuum pump.

Update 7/29/14 A phone call from ISI SX-30 owner confirms that his microscope purchased 1 year ago came with the Hitachi CuteVac 160VP and he said there is no voltage input sticker on his unit - so the input voltage of this pump is not known. I believe it is a 100V pump and requires a step down transformer to operate in USA or overheating or premature failure is a possibility. It is not clear whether the transformer is intended to power the pump and SEM microscope simultaneously.

Update 12/3/14

I purchased a Anatech Hummer VI Sputter Coater on big-auction-site. It is decribed as having a working pump. It is at least 20years old as I see a sticker on the unit which states that the oil was changed in 1994 LOL.

I know it is missing the glass Pyrex (Borosilicate Glass Tempered) and the source disc and holder ("magnatron" or "magnetron"). Sometimes things sit in my lab waiting on a part or piece which I find later on big-auction-site or sourced from a reader. The description says that the pump is working and pulls a vacuum. I read from the downloaded online PDF manual that the interlock wont work without the glass and without a vacuum. The sputter coater looks to be in good shape. People pull out the source disc (gold or other metal) before they sell sputter coaters - I see that quite often in my search for a used sputter coater. Its not the source disc which is precious to me - it is the souce disc holder ( "magnetron" ) which is more important to me - that is missing too - I only see three ea banana plugs in the photos - that is where the source disc holder "magnetron" goes.

The actual gold usually  found on these source disc holders is very very thin and the high price the vendors put on the gold is ridiculous. a 2" dia gold disc with a thinckness of a piece of paper .004" is $1300. Ebay has gold leaf 24K foil for $1 and is a similar thickness. That can be applied with silver bearing conductive epoxy. That is is same way the replacement gold discs are mounted. The sellers of gold discs are raking in the pofits. The only thing I need to be careful about is which gold foil or gold leaf - it is usually coated with wax - so the gold leaf that I find will need to be wax-free. Other metals can also be used like silver or copper.

I will need to find a glass "Pyrex chamber" and also the source disc holder "magnetron"

The Anatech Hummer VI has a built-in pump which is what I was looking for - something with a pump.

The school teacher who sold me my ISI SX30 microscope wanted to sell me an enormpous carbon coater for $100 - and I passed on it because the sheer size/weight of it exceeded my available space. So I feel that I have found something better now - even though I will need to source replacement parts or improvise. This is a much better way to do things (for me and for my applications and space requirement) - with a smaller multifunction sputter coater.

I need to find

A 4" Dia Pyrex Tube (this is an inner diameter and could be greater than 4")

B 2ea Rubber seals for the above Pyrex Tube (I dont have a Pyrex Tube - I seek this) sometimes called L-gasket duy to its shape (pretending as if cross-section view - but it is a continuous ring)

C (Source Disc Holder) "magnetron" or "magnatron" or "target" or "annular ring" etc

Let me kow if you have Anatech Hummer Parts - I think this Pyrex tube and rubber seals and source disc holder "magnetron" is applicable to several models of Anatech sputter coater - let me know if you have used parts for sale.

Also I see some other brands like SPI which have models which use a 4"dia Pyrex glass - let me know if you have 4" dia Pyrex glass from any brand sputter coater (or other application) as I may be able to adapt it to work.

Sometimes high heat OTHER items - like street lights, gas mantle lanterns, custom length tubing etc other scientific applications may be a source for these Pyrex 4" dia tube. It needs to be a pretty hefty wall thickness - let me know what you have. I may be able to cut it to length?

This sputtering technology is sometimes referred to as "DC Magnetron Planar Sputtering"

(The sputter has a mode switch for etching and more - but at this time - my only need is sputtering SEM samples)

I was looking through my video cameras and lenses and smoke alarms trying to find something that could test my geiger counter. I didnt find anything that would be considered radioactive or hazardous. All I could find is 1 item that clearly shows the geiger counter is working. This item is a 15year old smoke alarm "First Alert" which was retired because it would only use a battery for 3 months and then start beeping requiring a new battery more than typical. I bought replacement units at a department store and they werent much better requiring a new battery at 5-6 months. But anyhow - I still have that old First Alert smoke alarm and when I put the geiger counter on it in various positions trying to elicit a response on the geiger - I can play around with where I place it and can get readings from .22-.36 I was only able to get .36 once and .28 once. the typical number is .22-.26 But this clearly shows the geiger counter does work. And those numbers are approx what other people show on youtube videos. I'm gonna say that this smoke alarm gives somewhere between .22uSv/h and .36uSv/h and that my typical background radiation is somwhere between .08uSv/h and .14uSv/h which is extremely low and actually much lower background than some videos I see on youtube. I feel that I have tested my Bella geiger counter and got some normal readings and I feel confident that it is working correctly. I'm not going to buy any thoriated gas mantle for my lantern - when I do buy a replacement lantern mantle - it will be the non-radioactive current mantles available at department stores. I dont want radiation exposure. I want to avoid it.

Update 1/25/15

Wjhile snowing at 5:30PM I placed my geiger counter in a ziplock bag and then placed it on top of fresh snow in my driveway, under the gutter drain spout, and in my yard always on top of fresh snow. I saw counter per minute betwee 4 and 11 counts so that is definitely not radioactive. My Bella geiger counter only measures Beta and Gamma. It does not measure alpha particles. I was expecting to see much higher counts when I placed it on fresh snow (as per youtube videos - which shows a major amount of radiation in snow) but I saw only normal background radiation - no elevated counts or any other indication of anything radioactive in midwest Illinois. I can only speculate that those youtubers have radon gas coming out of the ground??? Or possibly their geiger counter is contaminated. Who knows. I didnt see any such thing when I measured. Which is a good thing. Im glad there is no radiation around here.

Update 6/2/16
Unfortunately my Bella Geiger Counter is not working. I wanted to use it to test a CRT inside my film equipment which scans using a flying spot scanner - when I went to my cabinet to get my geiger counter - it was in a ziplock bag and no 9V battery installed. I put a fresh brand new battery in it and I see all zeros O.O.C.O and one of the zeros is incomplete "C" due to one of the LED segments unlit. I see no incrementing or tic tic tic. It is unresponsive. I pressed the zeroing button on top of the unit and red LED lit but I see no sensing of background radiation at all. So unfortunately I was unable to test my CRT inside my film scanner (one of several extra parts units which I am trying to rebuild/restore/combine into another good one) which I am currently repairing. I dont know how it could be non-working as it has been undisturbed in the cabinet and safely stored. I enjoyed using it and I hope to find time someday to fix it. I used it about 12 times in the last year and was a very useful tester. I didnt do anything to cause it to die - was just stored in a cabinet.

Update 6/7/16

I decided to open it up and see what is wrong. I tried 2 batteries and still was stuck at O.O.C.O and I disconnected battery and tried moving the bodge wires and then reconnect battery. No change. Disconnected battery and then tried moving all of the components over just slightly - that was it a loose connection on one of the components. I reassembled after it worked. I didnt touch up any solder joints. There is a certain point of - "if it aint broke - dont fix it" Im glad that it works again- one segment of the display shows a C rather than an O but nonetheless - it is useful again. Normal background radiation differ from minute to minute but is somewhere around 7 to 13 clicks. If I put it on a stack of extra floor tiles I get a couple more clicks around 13 to 15 - so I can cell it is working normally and LCD numbers are incrementing now. The mfg coated the PCB and components with a clear coating (varnish? Clear paint?) and I dont wish to disturb that - so it works and Ill not reheat all of the solder connections.

Update 12/25/16

I tried my geiger counter yesterday and today - to read normal background radiation. The counter was stuck at 0.0.C.0. and was no incrementing or beeps. Today I decided o try and wiggle parts (to find fault) using a plastic tool and then resolder to fix this intermittant issue. I was trying to wiggle alot of parts and couldnt find anything that would get it to increment. The last thing I tried is - Doing/poke the speaker with my index finger - you know like flicking a piece of lint on your clothes. The speaker surprisingly makes a resonant sound when you doing/poke it like that- and then it started incrementing the counter. Amazingly that vibration closed whatever loose connection. So I decided to fire up the 15/30watt soldering iron and I resoldered everywhere near the speaker wires and ground wires going to the metal speaker. Including 2ea IC chips near those wires. I also resoldered the audio on/off and power on/off switches. I also resoldered the transistor closest to the reset LED. Some solder joints were stingy with solder - I redid those adding just a tad of solder.

I have been testing this geiger counter for half an hour and turning off and on - I couldnt get it to stop incrementing. That intermittant fault MAYBE solved. My LCD still has a segment which doesnt work for example 0.0.0.0. shows up as a C on one digit. So soldering some chips/transtor etc didnt solve that. But at least it increments and counts and is useful again.

I read background radiation between 8 and 13 on numerous tests. Always different each time - very normal readings.

Update 12/28/16

I tried my geiger counter just to make sure that it does work after soldering a few days ago. Still has that 0.0.C.0 pesky no counter movement and no clicks problem. I once again took it apart and got it to work by doiking the speaker and parts. This time I resoldered ALL of the solder joints for all of the reachable parts on the solderside (LCD screen side) I didnt resolder any parts on the component side - which also has solder traces etc. Im hoping whatever solder joint that was cracked/intermittant connetion got resoldered.

I played with the geiger counter for 30minutes and could not get it to error - I got normal background readings of between 6 and 13 typically. Intermittant errors are really hard to track down.

1/15/17

I have been trying the geiger counter for the past 5 days approx. It didnt startup on its own at the begin so each time I removed the case cover and tried moving some parts on the component side (speaker side) to get it to start counting. Each time I would get it to go and then the next day - tried it and same thing - stuck at 0.0.C.0 and no clicks or counter increment until I tweaked something.

Well for 2 days now after moving the vertical resistors in the 1/3 section below the speaker. And for 2 days now it starts up without having to doink or bend slightly any component. So by process or elimination - I have determined the section that has a bad solder joint. I have not resoldered on the speaker side yet. All of the joints on the other side were resoldered and had no effect.

Resoldering on the speaker side is difficult because you have to bend over the components in that cramped space. Kind of like inserting a branch in an artificial Xmas tree requires moving the other branches out of the way.

So far for 2 days I was able to get counter movement and clicks right away when powered up. So that tells me that wherever the cold solder joint is - it is leaning against the solder hole/solder pad and making contact.

Update1/8/19

I was contacted by the same seller about 3 items he has for sale and he offered me a lot price for all three things

1. 1ea Steel panel (see pic above)

2. 1ea Box of filaments (not pictured but he sais brand new/sealed)

3. 1ea ISI Robinson Detector and cable (see this pic gallery)

I expained that I just dont have funds to purchase right now as it is winter etc. I just barely have enough to make my mortgage payment.

I am posting pics of the ISI backscatter detector here in this gallery:

I have 30+ years electronics & restoration & engineering etc experience and many ic testers and parts checkers etc I believe that I have the skills necessary to restore this machine. It will take time, money, and patience. Sometimes I will need to improvise as not all parts may be available.

Let me know.

Dr Virago Pete
(847) 454-7858 between 11am and 7pm daily

My email address:

drviragopete@att.net

Some similar models which may have exactly the same parts I need
ISI SX40, SS40, SX30E,  SX30, SX25, SX60, SS60, model 40, model 25, model 30, model 60, SMS 3A, SMS 2 (SMS2 column looks possibly identical to mine)  and others??? Sometimes ISI microscopes are referred to as " Topcon " I realize all these microscopes have differences but they also may have some parts in common- please check your parts-machine/donor/non-working SEM to see it if has the parts I need.

This webpage last updated 1/8/19