Fast shutter for Nikon Ti

Hardware
1

Dear All,
We have a Nikon Ti with Nikon Intensilight Epi Fluorescence Fiber Illuminator System.
It seems that microscopes do not have independent shutters, so we have been using the shutter of the illuminating device to control the fluorescence exposure time. However, the shutter switch speed of the Illuminator is too slow (approximately 300ms), which can cause the sample to be exposed to too much light.
Is it possible to install a high-speed shutter for Nikon Ti，without replacing the Illuminator? Or is there some kind of shutter installed on the Liquid fiber optic? We don’t have much knowledge about microscope hardware, so we hope to have equipment that can adapt to microscope.
Thanks in advance,
Frank

1 Like
2

How fast a shutter do you think you need? A mechanical shutter is probably not going to get much faster than about 50ms.

Which Nikon Ti? Does the fiber illumination system mount right up against the filter cube?

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3

Dear Frank,

thanks, interesting question. I understand that you don’t want to ask your Nikon representative - probably for good reason. They charge a lot for service.

I assume that you have this kind of connector:

01_intensilight
01_intensilight375×209 35.8 KB

Source

What I would do:

  1. disconnect the Illuminator from the micorscope
  2. place it about 10 cm away from the microscope and align the beam
  3. insert an external shutter e.g. from Thorlabs that has 10 ms shutter close time.

I have never build something similar by myself so please be aware that it’s just a guess.

Best wishes
Wojciech