Hi @fordicus Happy to hear you like our work and that you want to work on open documentation. In fact I am follow different DIY Atomic force microscopy (AFM) projects for a while and as far as I understand there is still no real open source project that is properly documented. @Edwin did a great job a while ago developing a DIY ready AFM, based on a Optical Pickup Unit (OPU). Some of it is documented on this popular instructables page:
However as I understand the full plans were never released. I guess also because Edwin was using some software (and maybe electronics and datasheets) that he got from the industry and that he could not release openly.
I also met people from the LegoToNano project. Students that tried to build a AFM based on Lego as an exchange project with China (Shenzhen) I guess. Guess they were also inspired by Edwins work but developed a different kind of mechanical stage because they were afraid to get in trouble with some intellectual property. They had a kind of functioning electronics and were working on software. Have not heard from the project for a while and maybe they stopped:
https://www.london-nano.com/news-events/ucl-and-chinese-students-join-forces-build-low-cost-nanoscope
Then there was the startup company stromlinet-nano that used to sell the Strømlingo AFM kit. A well developed kit that was also based on Edwins work (maybe a spin-off). However this kit was never open source and only commercially available. Now I can not find the company anymore. Maybe they went out of business?
http://www.stromlinet-nano.com/
Then I developed the DVD laser microscope. This is basically an optical laser scanning microscope, not an AFM. It works ok and is open source. We also got an almost complete reverse engineering of the OPU now. I think it could be developed further into an AFM by adding a piezzo stage and a AFM lever. That would be awesome and the closest we can get to an open source AFM at the moment I guess.
http://www.gaudi.ch/GaudiLabs/?page_id=652
This is all just my understanding. Please anyone, @Edwin correct if you know more.
And @fordicus please share your thoughts if you are interested on working on this.
Best,
Urs