There are hackers who have soldering configurations on the dining space table, as well as then there are hackers who have scanning electron microscopes in their living room. [Macona] is part of the latter group, with a Hitachi S-450 SEM he’s repaired as well as customized himself. [Macona] has documented the whole thing on Hackaday.io. The Hitachi pertained to him as well as a buddy as a derelict. very first it was broken, then kept for 10 years. It turned out the issue was a high voltage cord cut as well as spliced with electrical tape. The tape ultimately broke down as well as shorted out the 500V supply. Thankfully the rectifier diodes were the only parts that needed to be replaced.
The SEM sprang to life as well as provided [Macona] as well as a buddy their very first images. However, SEMs are finicky beasts. ultimately the filament burned out as well as needed to be replaced. new filaments are $500 us for a box of 10, which is a lot more than [Macona] wished to spend. It turns out filaments can be developed at home. A bit of .089mm tungsten cable as well as a area welder were all it took to repair the issue. Next to go poor was the scan amplifier. While SEMs utilize lots of exotic parts, the Hitachi utilized fairly typical Sanyo STK070 audio amplifiers for the function – an simple fix!
One thing that makes this SEM special is the is energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX) system connected to it. The vulnerable liquid nitrogen cooled sensor was working, however the 1980’s age signal processing computer was a bit as well old to bring up. A buddy as well as fellow SEM hobbiest provided [Macona] a somewhat newer Kevex Sigma Gold signal processor, which was almost a plug as well as play upgrade for his machine. The new processor processor likewise provided him digital beam controls as well as a digital output which might be utilized to catch pictures with a PC.
Once all the connections were made, the EDX worked surprisingly well, even discovering gold in a uranium ore sample put in the microscope.
Now that old scanning electron microscopes being retired, it’s only a matter of time before more us get a possibility to join the ranks of [Jeri Ellsworth], [Ben Krasnow] and [Macona] with our own personal SEMs!