DIPLE - the REVOLUTIONARY microscope for any smartphone
Created by SMO SmartMicroOptics
Explore the microscopic world around you with the most powerful, compact and easy-to use microscope for any smartphone or tablet!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Update 10
over 4 years ago
– Sun, Nov 08, 2020 at 09:57:13 AM
Dear Backers,
The DIPLE project is very live, and with important updates!
The main news:
1. Today we shipped a first, little group of DIPLE units with Fine Stage (all those with Standard Stage have been already delivered; DIPLE units with Standard Stage are now ready to ship, for those of you interested in getting it too 😊…).
This last group of DIPLE has inside the first lot of Fine Stages that we received, right this week, from our partner in charge for assembling them. The assembling process has improved, so in the next days/weeks our partner will mount and send to us many other fine stages to add into the DIPLE kits already in our headquarters.
Some kits already packed, some ready to pack, and other DIPLE units that will be sent in the next shipping batch
We recently faced new issues, but problems are part of any new project... Some of them: non-compliant components from one of our suppliers; reduced workforce, due to quarantine of collaborators; shipments delayed of many days, due to Covid effects (according to the courier…); the pandemic is back, and quite strong again, here in Italy.
2. We have not sent units to the USA in this shipment. In order to offer a good service with express courier, we had to ship to the US a group of pieces of 100kg. Therefore, we will start to ship again in the USA from the next batch. However, using Fedex we should be able to ensure a fast and efficient delivery.
3. DIPLE Lux. While the samples of plastic parts that we received weeks ago were good, the first production batch had a deep shrinkage near one corner that must be fixed. For this reason, the production has been postponed of some days. The new samples showed to us right yesterday seem ok, so we are confident to can mount and ship the first group of DIPLE Lux within this month.
Top part of circuit cover (and handle) of DIPLE Lux, from injection molding
4. On our website, at this page, you can find a link to download a little manual that we created in the last months with Science experiences that you can do with DIPLE.
Update 9
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 12:00:49 PM
Dear Backers,
Here a new update about the progresses on DIPLE
The main news:
1. On last Friday we completed to ship the DIPLE kits with Standard Stage. :-)
Moreover, most of the DIPLE units shipped some weeks ago has been delivered.
We are receiving pleasant messages of feedback, and this makes us very happy, after the efforts faced in the last period; a period with many difficulties indirectly generated by Covid (unpredictable also during the first months of this crisis, at least for us and for a so long period). Thanks!
2. About the kits with Fine Stage, in the previous update we reported problems with few of its components; in the last weeks it seems that we solved these issues, in collaboration with our suppliers. We made some minor changes in the design and our supplier sent us, for validation, first components obtained from mass production process (not prototyping). Here a link with the use of the fine stage in its final design.
Now, all the parts for the fine stage are in mass production. Most of the DIPLE’s components have been already made and on their way to our headquarters, where we will assembly them. Other parts will be assembled from our main partner in China and then shipped to us. We are working with them in these days to limit the delay due to the Chinese national holiday of the first week of October, when also many shipping companies stop their activities. In these days we are also intensively working in our headquarters assembling lenses and in preparing/pre-packing add-ons; indeed, the proper packaging of the mixed orders of the last shipment took us more time than expected. If everything will go as we expect, we should start shipping the DIPLE units with fine stage in October.
Fine stage with parts from mass production processes
3. DIPLE Lux: we received all the assembled PCB a couple of weeks ago. We got samples from injection molding of the containers of the circuit last week, but they needed more precise threads. These parts are in mass manufacturing right now and they should be shipped to our headquarters soon, together with other parts from the same supplier.
Bringing the sun's superpower in your pocket & backpack. Be ready for anything, anywhere.
The Photon is, as its name suggests, highly compact. When folded down, the entire device is roughly the size of your wallet, and can slide easily into backpacks, purses, or even pockets. Open it out, however, and its 5 solar panels let you channel the energy of the sun into your devices. The Photon comes with 5 durable, weatherproof panels that capture solar energy no matter what the weather. Engineered to capture twice as much solar energy as conventional solar chargers of similar size, the solar panels found on the Photon come with high efficiency, highly optimized back-contact monocrystalline solar cells that help grab more energy, efficiently converting the harnessed light into electricity, and do it in a format that’s robust enough to last for years.
UPDATE 8 - The first DIPLE units are leaving our headquarters
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Sep 03, 2020 at 12:45:01 AM
Dear Backers,
Here the monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE
We have some important news:
1. We will start shipping a first group of units in the next 2-3 days. We are packing them now. First, the early bird with standard stage, almost 200 pieces.
3. About the kits with Fine Stage, we are waiting some parts to test from one of our suppliers. Indeed, while we validated the representative samples of all the components some weeks ago, a couple of type of components coming out from the mass production process are out of tolerance. Therefore, we are working to solve these issues in the shortest time, refining and changing some minor details. We are confident to solve these problems in the next weeks and to start shipping the first group of DIPLE kits with fine stage before the end of September; we will communicate every important information about this issue.
4. DIPLE Lux: we will receive all the assembled PCB in the next few days. The containers for the circuit are under production now and they will be delivered to us in two weeks, so we should be ready to ship the first units before the end of this month, too.
Assembled PCB for DIPLE Lux
In addition:
We are very proud to inform that 2 independent professors at the University of Wisconsin and at the Cornell University (two top Universities in the World University Ranking) tested and selected the DIPLE kits (with standard stage, the only version available also for tests, rights now) for their remote courses of the next Fall. 😊
Thanks for your support in these extra-tough days and Stay Safe!
The SMO Team
Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, Youtube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct
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This time we want also let you know about a couple of interesting projects (one very scientific, the other very portable, both features in common with DIPLE):
The Microcosm in Glass is a collection of 3D laser etched models of viruses, bacteria and cells.
The microscopic cracks inside the glass reflect light and turn these solid glass cubes into beautiful and educational decorative objects.
Choose from Covid-19, water bears, bacteriophages and many other interesting models.
With Magnetic Rotating Mechanism, it feels like the lid is hovering. This is the most effortless organizer for your Everyday Carry Objects.
Update 7
over 4 years ago
– Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 01:00:02 AM
Dear Backers,
Here the new monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE
The work keeps moving, but with some obstacles. Nothing serious but it will take some more days to fix.
The shipment of DIPLE with standard stages will have some days of delay on the timing anticipated in the previous updates; the plan was to start shipping in the end of July/beginning of August. Now, we need about 2-3 weeks more. The reason of this delay is a problem with the manufacturing of the external parts of the boxes. As reported in other updates, we decided to make both the internal and external part of the box in plastic, instead of thick cardboard. So, the whole product is much more solid and long lasting than the one showed in the campaign. As you can see in the next video, the samples that we got from our supplier do not fit well. Therefore, we have asked for a change in the mold; it will take about 10 more days. We expect to be ready to ship the units with standard stages within the end of August. These issue will not affect the plan for the shipment of the units with fine stage, as it was already estimated within the end of September.
The other parts making up the product are ready. In the next pic you can see the first batch of DIPLE. Once the external part of the boxes will be ok, our partner in China will ship them to our headquarters; then, we will insert the components (objective lenses and some other components) made in Italy and we’ll be ready to ship the DIPLE units to you in few days.
Diple units with standard stage
Thanks for your support and Stay Safe!
The SMO Team
Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, YouTube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct
Update 6
over 4 years ago
– Sat, Jul 04, 2020 at 12:43:22 AM
Dear Backers,
Here the sixth, monthly update about the progresses on DIPLE
We ordered all the parts that we need to assembly the DIPLE units during May and June, to our suppliers.
We have been informed of some delays for parts of the Fine Stage and parts made of transparent plexiglass. These problems are related to: 1. Excessive bending of Aluminum plates during the step of anodization; the manufacturer needed some days to optimize the process, now it seems to be solved. 2. The parts of transparent plastic (slide shifters) have a delayed delivery because there is shortage of transparent sheets in this period, because this material is extremely requested for making shields (for Covid19 related products).
Tiles for Diple Grey and Plates for Standard Stages
All the molds for injection molding should be completed within few weeks. According to the timing provided from our suppliers, we will be able to test the pieces coming from the molds for mass production in mid-July.
Pic of the molds, from our supplier
We sent the Backerkit survey some weeks ago; in June we ordered all the materials requested to also prepare the add-ons.
We plan to build and ship the first units starting from the end of July/beginning of August.
The first orders to ship will be the units with Standard Stage; these units have less components, and, in particular, do not have the parts for which we have been informed about the aforementioned delays. For the units with Fine Stage we think to start the shipments in late August/September. We can write this scheduling, following the information from our suppliers, and assuming normal lead time for the ordered components. In May we experienced a delay of 3 weeks for custom inspection on a DHL express shipment; this kind of delays is obviously out of our control.
We will share with you a more precise calendar once will have received all the components in our warehouse.
This week we have completed the lens manufacturing phase (we make the lenses in our headquarters in Italy). Now we have 1000 red objective lenses ready to ship. In the next 2 weeks we will receive other DIPLE red tiles and the tiles for the assembly of the Diple Grey and Black lenses. We have made thousands of lenses, now we have to mount them in the tiles.
1000 Diple Red objective lenses, ready to ship
Within the next week we should be ready to print also the instruction foils. This point can appear a detail, but it is not. We have improved the system during the last months (DIPLE is now much better than during the Kickstarter campaign), and the description of its components and how to manage them has changed. The instruction must be clear and short (otherwise no one read them, as I use to do…). Therefore, we’ll make some video tutorial, and we will probably improve the instruction in the next months, according to the feedback of the users. We will always share new versions of instructions on our website.
We are now working also on the file management for the invoicing and for preparation of the shipping labels. Our shipping provider has changed its file management system since our previous Kickstarter campaign of four years ago, so we must change the way to prepare these documents. Moreover, in addition to all the Covid19-related problems, we have been informed few weeks ago about the doubling of the shipping cost for small packages to the US, starting right from July of this year (as reported here). Of course, this does not imply any cost for you, but it forces us to further focus on leaning all our logistic tasks.
Thanks for your support and Stay Safe!
The SMO Team
Follow us on Instagram @diplemicro, Facebook @diplemicro, Youtube: https://bit.ly/2TBfhct
