Eric J Ma's Website

Last week, following a power outage, the expensive gel doc machine & its computer failed. (It's also one floor up.) And so, we decided to just take a photo with our phones - and it turned out just fine.

So, as things turn out, we don't need a $3000 gel imager to get an image of the gels. But if we think carefully about what a gel imager really is, it's a light box on the bottom, a camera on the top, and a box that shrouds the lighting to make imaging easier. If we have a computer that can send the images anywhere, even better. Guess what? All of that can be hacked together for less than $100.

Feeling inspired by Google Cardboard, I took some cardboard boxes, and cut out five 24 cm² square pieces out of old cardboard boxes, and taped them together in a "+" configuration. I then taped them together to form a 24 cm³ illuminator cover. On the middle square piece, I cut out a small square hole, big enough for an iPhone 6+ camera to peer into. This turns out to be about just the right size for the transilluminator that we have, with the right amount of elevation for the phone to capture the entire illuminator at one shot.

Here's a few images of how it looks.

And for those who are curious what the final, cropped gel image looks like:

Bill of Materials:

1. Smart phone: An old Moto E with 5 megapixels rear camera should suffice. $70.
2. Cardboard box: Free; price may be higher if actually welded/laser-cut/3D-printed instead.

Some thoughts:

I believe in taking a hacker's approach to science. New labs, start-up companies, and labs in resource-poor regions need these alternatives to the "premium" products that are being sold in developed nations. The more we can use cheap, off-the-shelf components to do our science, the better.