[chbot] More - Contemplating the purchase of a (cheap) inspection microscope

[Mark Atherton]

I nearly included "positive, thoughtful replies only please", but I 
though that I was going a bit over the top !

At 09:10 a.m. 28/09/2014, you wrote:
>On Sat 27 Sep 2014 13:22:01 NZST +1200, Mark Atherton wrote:
>
>IMHO you are barking up the wrong tree. If a 3x lupe isn't enough, get a
>10-15x one instead. Such thing is essential for any SMD work later than
>about 1990. Fits into your storage box easily, portable, cheap.
>
>I've seen an expensive Sony job that had (apart from flash cards of an
>obnoxious format) no depth of field, image quality more like looking
>through a wet car windscreen without the wipers on, and generally being
>more like a pain than a time-saving tool.
>
>Those aliexpress jobs I'd expect are pretty much the same. High
>magnification is of no use whatever when all you get is a 1 square
>micrometer sharp area hidden somewhere within your field of view. You
>could hope technology has improved, but make sure these things are good
>for you before handing over $x00. Everyone on aliexpress sells stuff
>looking good on the outside...
>
>Is 180x magnification any good for the purpose of SMD soldering? I doubt
>it, your viewing area becomes far too small so you start moving things
>large distances by micrometers. You can see bad joints at much less than
>180x.
>
> > The work plane will be sitting in the hot-air pre-heater about 90mm
> > above the deck, so must be able to focus there
>
>Anywhere you like to look.
>
> > Lens needs to survive hot air !
>
>Good luck. Perhaps make yourself a lupe cover. Thin perspex? Glass?
>Sceen of an old dumbphone?
>
> > Nervous about HDMI, so stick to USB and VGA interfaces only.
>
>Reconsider and readjust your requirements. VGA is just about dead, and
>let's leave it there for good reason.
>
>USB implies proprietary driver rubbish from the manufacturer (Ever heard
>of a generic USB microscope device? Like a USB storage device?), so you
>won't be plugging the tool into any on-the-road computer just like that,
>and certainly not into anything but a 'doze job. Your microscope's
>lifetime will be defined by its driver, not its hardware. Your by now
>irreplacable (noone sells such small capacities any more may be your
>only hope of getting images out of it, if you're lucky enough to own a
>card reader still handling those historic esoteric flash cards.
>
>HDMI seems to just work. You can use an adapter for about US$15 from
>aliexpress, it works with the RPi.
>
>HTH,
>
>Volker
>
>--
>Volker Kuhlmann
>http://volker.top.geek.nz/      Please do not CC list postings to me.
>
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