This is description of this part:
Lamp house and EPI condenser for the Lomo MMU-3 / MMY-3 metallurgical microscope.
This part is a component of the illumination system of the Lomo MMU-3 microscope. The light source is inserted into this housing (the standard light source in this model is an 8V 20W bulb). The entire housing is covered with dense metal fins acting as a heat sink to dissipate heat. At the end of this housing there is a condenser lens collimating the light beam and a dovetail mount. This mount is used to attach the condenser to the next element of the illumination path, namely the holder with a slot for insertable sliders.
The model designation MMU-3 is written using the Latin alphabet. When written in Cyrillic, this designation looks like MMY-3, and people unfamiliar with the Cyrillic alphabet may therefore refer to this microscope model in that way.
Interestingly, the dovetail connection used here has a diameter of 41.5 mm, which is the standard mounting diameter for accessories (for example microscope heads and intermediate tubes) not only in Lomo microscopes, but also in Carl Zeiss Jena, Romanian IOR, Czechoslovak Meopta and many other microscopes. For this reason, this lamp housing is sometimes used as an EPI reflected light source in various Carl Zeiss Jena microscope modifications.
In the last photograph, on the scanned page from the instruction manual of the Lomo MMU-1 microscope, an arrow indicates which element is being offered and where it is located in the microscope, allowing this part to be identified unambiguously.
What is this part needed for?
- if you have a Lomo MMU-3 microscope with an incomplete illumination module and this particular element is missing or damaged
- if you would like to adapt this EPI condenser to another microscope, for example a Carl Zeiss Jena microscope
- if you are building your own DIY project and need a light beam collimator
