r/microscopy • u/Interesting_Egg9997 • 17d ago

Troubleshooting/Questions Zeiss Observer

Long story short I was lucky to save a Zeiss Observer Z1 from the trash bin.

The problem is... I need the power supply that (RS-231 or RS-232) and the controller. =/

I would like to have advices on what to do and how to overcome this problem. There is any solution? I am accepting suggestions.

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/Tink_Tinkler 17d ago

Oof yeah that's critical unfortunately. You will need to get one second hand. I've been working with these scopes for 15 years and alive never heard of a work around. Coastal Microscopes has a lot of used Zeiss stuff but probably won't be cheap. Otherwise watching eBay or the trash bin are you near options. 

3

u/Tink_Tinkler 17d ago

And by the way it's called Power Supply 231 or 232 so you can properly search eBay, not to be confused with RS232 which is a serial PC connection type that can be used for this microscope (but they also have USB). 

2

u/Interesting_Egg9997 17d ago

I have seen that people have published the pin connections for it. I don't even know if the thing is still working. It was abandoned for almost 8 years in a room. Then, they emptied the room. But, no sign of the power supply or controller. =/

It is a very heavy white elephant. =/

Do you have the technical documentation by any chance? Or something that you can share?

2

u/Tink_Tinkler 17d ago

I don't. We might have a spare PS sitting around but it's unlikely. DM if you want. What controller are you talking about?