DigiMicro 200X Zooming USB Digital Microscope in ubuntu (linux)
I’ve wanted a USB microscope for a long time, and I have finally purchased a DigiMicro 200X Zooming USB Digital Microscope from dealextreme (product link) It only cost $40.23 USD (about £27.34 GBP) which I think is quite reasnoble for the fun and cool photos I’m getting out of it.
DigiMicro 200X Zooming USB Digital Microscope
Quick Review
Advantages
- Very Cheap
- Easy to setup (plug and play)
- Can take some awesome photos, see below
- Three illumination settings (full on, half on, off) on top of software compensation
Disadvantages
- Controls (lights, zoom/focus and snapshot) are located on the body which make using them difficult if you are trying not to move your sample
- The stand is not very stable, tightening it to maximum holds it steady at certain angles for short periods of time
- Takes ~ 2 weeks to arrive from dealextreme as they are based in hong kong
Setup
The beauty of this webcam is that it requires no installation with ubuntu 9.10 you simply need to run the software and the camera works! woo! The output of `lsusb` shows the device as:
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0c45:62e0 Microdia MSI Starcam Racer
and `dmesg` shows the following:
[22844.064666] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device USB 2.0 Camera (0c45:62e0) [22844.080844] input: USB 2.0 Camera as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0b.1/usb1/1-6/1-6:1.0/input/input9
Software
Most video programs will pick up the device, I am opting to use a program called cheese which is awesome not only because of the name but also because of its simplicity.
sudo apt-get install cheese
Screenshot of cheese webcam software in action
Lens Cap
Remember to take the lens cap off otherwise you will end up focusing on the plastic cap as shown below. It is fairly obvious if this is the problem as moving the microscope will only change the light levels not the image.
Photo of the microscope focussed on its lens cap
Pretty images
200x Microscope image of belly button fluff
Full ~200x zoom microscope image of belly button fluff
200x Microscope image of a £2 coin
Full ~200x zoom magnified section of a £2 coin
200x Microscope image of a custard blob
Nonmagnified screenshot of section of screen with the google logo
200x magnified section of screen with the google logo showing the individual pixels
Full ~200x zoom magnified section of screen with the google logo showing the individual pixels
Full ~200x zoom magnified section of my finger
Full ~200x zoom magnified another section of my finger
Full ~200x zoom magnified section of an LED
Full ~200x zoom magnified section of an LDR
Any requests for microscope images (within reason) will be considered 
Thank you SO MUCH for this post. Exactly what I was looking for…saved me a lot of time.
Purchased this for my skincare business but I am having a hard time getting it to work… my laptop’s webcam seems to steal the show, any suggestions?
@Christine Well I don’t know what software or operating system you are using, so I can’t really help you. You would be much better off emailing the manufacturer or a forum relating to this subject.
However I have some vague general suggestions for you. In whatever software your using try changing the camera source in preferences or settings or somewhere. You could try disabling your laptops internal webcam (via control panel / device manager if your using windows) so that the only webcam detected is the microscope. Good luck.
Sorry
but there is no way the LCD monitor shot, and the LDR shot is 200x magnification.
a LDR is about 1cm which at 200x would make it 2 meters wide, that image is 10cm at best making is 10x magnification
same with the GBP coin
@steve, Yeah I was just assuming the min/max zoom levels here on the microscope were as stated, I knew they sounded a bit rubbish so I measured the magnification of the microscope in this post. I also got a better microscope which can go upto “400x” (link here).
Just set it up but I cannot focus it for some reason.
What am I doing wrong? Please help. Thanks!
When I try to install software the computer locks up. I am using Windows 7, do you have a download?
Hi, I have the very same microscope and I manage to make it work with Cheese, but I can not manage to turn on the LEDs
eu preciso instalar meu microscopio
ele é digi-microscope bw708-2010
foi perdido o cd e o w7 acha ele mais dá com desconhecido
então ficou como pendente de instalação .
alguem pode mi ajuda fico muito grato a todos um forte abraço
Thanks for your post. It’s very useful. But, I have a question to you… Could you take photos with a major resolution than 640×480 in Ubuntu?
King Regards,
Marc.