This is a fairly complex project as it stands especially from the embedded system point of view. I would like to break this for now into 3 main components: the tip, the custom PCB and the stage. 

- The tip is currently a commercial AFM tip I was able to get fro free from my lab to test things out. But I am working on an etching jig to make my own tips out of watch tuning forks and electro etched tungsten wire similar to the Mad City Labs AFM 

- The custom PCB was fully designed by me and is aggressively cost optimised and will be further cost optimised as well as its fully assembled price stands at something like 70ish bucks from JLCPCB. It's still a working progress as there are some things to optimise but as it stands it works fine. Software is really the magic, here, I implemented a digital lock-in amplifier as well as PID for amplitude modulated (AM) and frequency modulated (FM) AFM. Additionally there is also Q control to dampen the tuning fork if someone wants to operate in AM mode in vacuum. 

-The stage is a fun one. For the testing stage in the pictures, I have a 3D printed flexure stage. There are 2 linear 3D printed flexure stages stacked on top of each other forming the x and y axis. The z axis is a piezo buzzer. The flexure stage is based on the work of Eric Clot who realised hepatic feedback piezos are great cheap precision actuators! His project is linked here https://hackaday.io/project/202424-haptic-piezo-for-high-precision-actuation I want to design a flexure stage and have this CNC machined by JLCPCB (Wire EDM is very expensive...). There are currently some piezo hysteresis issues I am trying to sort out (lines outside the calibration grid squares in the images) but I am looking into this so this can be close to a commercial educational system for <1/20th of the price tag. 

I will try my best to document the project in detail but I am also currently doing a Physics PhD so it might take some time to get updates on here.