Posted by
Ivo Telley on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Best-dual-camera-CSU-W1-Spinning-Disc-solution-tp7587628p7587663.html
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Dear Kai,
We have been working with one of the first Andor W1 scanners of its time, connected to a Nikon Ti body, working with it for 4 years now. I must admit that I regret the decision we made at the time.
Ours is a single disk (50µm pinhole), single camera port unit, initially run with a Zyla4.2 sCMOS camera, and we have later extended it with a TuCam allowing the switch between this one and the iXon Ultra 888 EMCCD (with 2x post-magnification to meet Nyquist). At the time of purchase the Borealis unit for flat illumination has not been available.
As has been mentioned already, one of the biggest flaws of the W1 design is the dust ingress; it is mostly caused by the ventilation of the electronics, the space of which is not sealed from the space of the optical path. That was not the case with the smaller X1 scanner, for example. That means that the difference in pressure causes air influx from the microscope body. Andor tried to solved that by installing a new adapter with a glass window, and it improved a little but honestly not much. At some point, Andor provided a “kit” that came from Yokogawa directly, which consisted of a few metal parts that were supposed to solve the air movement problems, but it has also not improved much. Thus, Andor has been doing cleaning maintenance by sealing the body as much as possible - in house and at the headquarters. Despite these measures we have dust particles flying through the focal plane where the spinning disk is, and they show up a bright particle signals in the images. As a consequence of dust ingress, the dichroic mirror, which sits between the pinhole and the micro-lens disks, is continuously “sputtered" with particles due to the disk turning and air/dust being propelled, and we have to clean it fairly regularly (~monthly).
We think that we are not the only one with this massive problem as we have heard from others reporting the same. I suspect that this dust ingress issue will never be solved satisfactorily unless the design of the W1 body is changed => Dragonfly
Clearly, no commercial interest whatsoever, just a word of caution.
Regards,
Ivo Telley
Ivo A. Telley, PhD
Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC)
Rua da Quinta Grande, 6
2780-156 Oeiras, Portugal
Phone: +351 214 464 606
http://www.igc.gulbenkian.pt/itelley