I started with this but ended up designing my own system around a vertical 4040 aluminum extrusion post and various 3d-printed components including an XY stage

I started with this but ended up designing my own system around a vertical 4040 aluminum extrusion post and various 3d-printed components including an XY stage (often costs $10K or more) and a Z stage (for focus). It was quite challenging to get everything to line up in a single optical axis and keep the dust out but the results have been quite good- I wrote my own software after trying to get micromanager to work, and can do large acquisitions (25x75mm, AKA a single microscope slide) as well as real-time object-detector based tracking. It's remarkably hard to equal or best a $150 scope from Amscope in terms of optical quality, it's automating their stages that is tricky.