Microscope - - new thread
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The camera microscope is very clever. Getting a monitor screen in the right place to avoid twisting your head and neck after hours of soldering may be a challange. Stereoscopic vision is very useful, though, and I made myself a present last year of one of these:? The 10X power and 9" working clearance brings me to the limit of how steady my hands are. This has enabled my to mount Si5351 with little trouble. It's expensive, but makes working on this tiny stuff fun again.73, Paul |
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I've wanted one of those AmScopes for a while now, but the price is out of my reach at the moment. Maybe in six months. My next two slated purchases for my bench are a stereo microscope and a 3d printer. I want to be able to make small parts and enclosures, and need something to give me good vision of what I'm working on.
I have one of those USB microscope things. It works so-so. The picture is wonderful, but what isn't wonderful is having to screw my neck into a cruller just to look at the screen while working on a board. Since I have a bad neck due to an accident in 2006, I can't do that for very long. The microscope with its own screen still requires bilocation to some degree -- working on the board while looking at a screen -- but at least the screen is in line with the work, and doesn't require that I bend my neck into a pretzel to use it. But a 3d printer is the next big slated purchase, I think. I did back a resin printer on Kickstarter, but it's one of those "will it EVER ship?" projects. I've lost confidence it'll ever actually ship, and that if it does, that it'll ever actually WORK. |
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The $60 Chinese microscope is actually kind of nice. It's a whole lot better than the $15 Chinese USB microscope I've been trying to work with -- about 10X as stable, easier to focus, an actual stage to place a board on under the camera, and it's RECHARGEABLE. The USB microscope had me twisting my neck to look in the bench PC's monitor while trying to work on the board in its view, which is insanely uncomfortable as well as disorienting, and just when I'd start making decent solder connections with the silly thing, the suction cup base would give way and the camera would fall on its face, right into my work, which would then bounce any loose parts all over the bench and the floor.
This thing, while certainly no AmScope, at least has me looking straight ahead, only a few inches above the work instead of at a 40 degree angle to the left and eight inches up. It doesn't tie up my bench PC because it's self-contained. It doesn't send pictures to my computer, but I can pop out the microSD and read THOSE on the computer if I really need to. The picture is sharper with this thing than the USB microscope, and it doesn't take up a lot of bench real estate. Do I still want a nice AmScope stereoscopic microscope? Sure I do. But the next big purchase for the bench is going to probably be a 3d printer...and after that, it'll likely be Christmas, and I think I'm going to logroll to get one of those RFinder DMR Android thingers. The M1 in particular looks nifty...but I'm easily amused by shiny objects and fancy electronic gadgets. And musical instruments, of course. I meant to practice the violin today, but got sucked into my uBitX build, disassembling my initial wiring and installing the breakout boards for the 3.5mm jacks and the encoder that I got from W0EB. (Those worked great, Jim, except that there was insufficient clearance for one of the sockets to be installed level with the main board because the 3d printed back plate had two of the holes too close together. I made it work, though.) But I digress... The $60 self-contained Chinese electronic microscope actually works quite well, and should give me a good enough view to start practicing with SMD building. I unpacked my i-Extruder and set it up with a syringe of?Amtech NC-559-V2-TF Tacky Flux I got from Louis Rossmann in NYC. I figure it'll be a while before I'm ready to start using the i-Extruder for solder paste, but I can make use of it for flux right away. (Great gadget, that. I backed it on Kickstarter.?) Eventually, I'll probably get the pick-n-place pen accessory, the foot pedal, and the stand for it. |
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The little microscope with the screen looks like fun! Trouble is, though, a stereoscopic microscope helps a bunch. Nothing like a bit of depth perception to help guide your hot soldering iron to its destination. Same goes with trying to pick up something. Trying to do that with one eye gets old fast. Although I like the dental loupes at times, they don't have the amplification and since they are mounted on my head the focus wanders as I move and my neck starts to feel it after a while. K9AC's SolderScope gives a better, more stable view. Yes, it takes some DIY innovation but check out his wooden stand that he made from scrap. Until somebody gives me a Mantis Elite I prefer the SolderScope. It's smaller, too. 73, Don
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This is what I bought for $29 plus shipping,??There were no comments whether it was compatible with Linux. For less than $30 I can tell you that it is not compatible with Linux. Its a cute toy but for the $29 I could bought a nice meal for my canine and I. LOL Terry - KB8AMZ Brimfield Twp, OH? USA Linux User# 412308, Ubuntu User# 34905 On Fri, Jun 22, 2018 at 7:30 PM Don, ND6T via Groups.Io <nd6t_6=[email protected]> wrote: The little microscope with the screen looks like fun! Trouble is, though, a stereoscopic microscope helps a bunch. Nothing like a bit of depth perception to help guide your hot soldering iron to its destination. Same goes with trying to pick up something. Trying to do that with one eye gets old fast. Although I like the dental loupes at times, they don't have the amplification and since they are mounted on my head the focus wanders as I move and my neck starts to feel it after a while. K9AC's SolderScope gives a better, more stable view. Yes, it takes some DIY innovation but check out his wooden stand that he made from scrap. Until somebody gives me a Mantis Elite I prefer the SolderScope. It's smaller, too. 73, Don |
Lee
Paul Galburt - K2AYZ
Gwen Patton
Don, ND6T
Terry Morris