DIY USB soldering microscope

I just whipped this together, and i was bummed i couldnt find the lens i was LOOKING for, so i “settled” for this one…

this is the YEAR on a united states penny… working height? Uhm… i can stand a 2-liter bottle of mountain dew upright under it on the work table, lol…

this is nothing, i could easily get WAY more magnification, and WAY more working height, too… actually this is a little ridiculous, if i were using it to solder a driver component? I’d have to jack up the working height another FOOT i think, ha ha.

if this is going to be a competition? i plan on winning it, hee hee… i was given specs to push…

1) “more magnification”
2) “more working height”

I think i already exceeded those, and this is the “wimpy” set up… i could get “mid-evil” from this point out, this is just the starting point… I mean, when i said i could show you “up a fly’s arsehole” ?? that wasnt a JOKE…

my mock-up unit, is shaped more or less just like your commercial one… its a tube device, suspended over the work area. Right now, i am just using a c-clamp to hold my tube at about 12” or so above the table. Obviously for the final build, i will make a sliding clamp to adjust height.

my focusing is a push-pull though, one tube sliding in and out of the other. “zoom” in or out is accomplished by raising and lowering the work height. On MINE, I am actually zoomed in “too much” and i still have a FOOT of work height, in practical use, i would probably give myself even MORE work height, simply to lower the magnification a little bit to make it more reasonable.

I’m just starting to get the impression (just an inkling) that maybe you’re enjoying this a little too much sedstar :stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

:smiley: :+1:

well… this is a flashlight site. (i know, “duh”)

but, if i try to divide flashaholics into stages? I’m no longer a rank noob, but, i’m also far from being any expert. I’m in that “awkward” middle area.

but… when suddenly “USB digital microscope” appeared? Well, yeah i got very excited! just like a little kid! Why? simple… you wandered into MY WORLD. I might not be like “old lumens” (rip) with visible flashlights? But… I’m a lot more comfortable and “powerful” when i am doing digital imaging.

just like YOU guys cant believe what people are willing to pay retail for, and get so little out of flashlights? I cant believe what passes for a “USB digital microscope”. For the same money? I can CRUSH that unit, i think.

i am resisting “temptation” of lowering the working height DOWN from 12 inches, to 30mm… which seems to be about where most projects and commercial units give their “wow” images… at 12 inches, i already have the “2015” more than filling up the entire screen on the laptop viewing of the webcam image board, and am idly curious how small my field of view would become at that work height.

I’m kinda curious when i use the “big lens” how much more magnification i can GET, although i know its only academic… i already have magnification higher than i would want to solder at.

I am also kinda curious, if the money you spent on the commercial unit… was put only “where it counts” in a project build, how it would end up. I mean, lets face it… the work space is nothing, the imaging tube is just a tube and some sliding clamp or gooseneck to suspend it over the work area… the only things that REALLY matter, are the LENS and the IMAGE board.

but yeah, i get excited like a little kid, sometimes. I enjoy a project.

Let’s talk again in 30 years :stuck_out_tongue:

Also excited. I’ve been having severe envy of the magnifying binocs my dentist uses.
And the little wand camera they can put into my mouth and take pictures of individual teeth.

Waiting for someone to specify an ideal setup I can buy, for soldering.

Now, if there were shake-removing “waldo” devices, I’d be gratified.

Well? after i get a shower and a change of work clothes? I might see about a few more pictures, zoomed in and out on a real driver board… I need to change the focusing tube setup for a longer range of focus, too. I wonder how much more magnification i can get out of this lens without trying a different one…

switched to a KALIMAR - 135mm camera lens, machined the housing down for fitment to s machined plastic lens carrier… went from “2015” on a USA penny, to just the “20” out of 2015… a little more magnification. heres a shot of the penny doing “20”… also, the next photo is a MEMORY CARD for a PC… those tiny round dots are impossibly small, and you can see how big the solder pad of one of the smallest IC’s looks…

i had the light sitting funny for the “20” penny shot, but, i made sure i got the light right on the MEM card photo…

honestly, the magnification is a little much. (working height is still a whole 12 inches, though)

to be practical and solder a 15 or 20mm driver board? I would probably have to use a less powerful lens (breaks my heart) or get a “USB extension cord” so i can jack the working height up ANOTHER foot, just to get the magnification down to “reasonable”

But, i checked commercial units out, “long focus/high magnification” setups like THIS i have made? are considerably more expensive than run-of-the-mill entry level units.

i am gonna call this experiment/project a “success”.

Well, sedstar, I have to tell you I’m impressed :beer:

I enjoy not imagining myself 30 years from now :wink:

at warhawk….

poking around online? I think i found something out about your microscope that will interest you… i found a reviewer who like you, didnt know about the “lens” that ruins high magnification… he popped it OFF with his fingers? and instantly got clear video, and access to the higher magnification…

he surmised it was just a protective cover for protecting it during storage/shipping.

oh snap…haha that darn protective cover

Very cool on your maginfication being so far, the farther you can get the camera and still get clear magnification is what is needed, so people can magnify and still be able to solder without having the camera and lense in the way

I feel like a right numpty! I took the lens off as you said. Works better now :person_facepalming: It might even be suitable for me to use as is. This first pic is right up close to the microscope.





Oh wow! Is sedstar saying you can take a lens externally to that magnifier (such as a lens from an old busted projection tv RGB projector module) and increase zoom even more?

Pinkpanda, that one looks perfectly usable right out of the box. Which one is it, from where?

at warhawk…

QUOTE
Oh wow! Is sedstar saying you can take a lens externally to that magnifier (such as a lens from an old busted projection tv RGB projector module) and increase zoom even more?
ENDQUOTE

until i get my HANDS on one of “you guys” model?? I dont know WHAT i can do with it… i have HOPES though, but, really i cant tell until i get one what i can do with it.

but… the projection TV lenses? more than likely one might work well for MY project build… heck, i have SIX of those projection lenses from the older RGB projection TVs… stripped 2 different TVs and salvaged them.

===

what kind of lens is even ON you guys models? is it a single lens? a compound lens? what diameter? whats the focal length(s) (it has zoom, so, it will be a RANGE of focal lengths, i suppose)

once again, when i get my HANDS on one of there? i will find out if i can modify/add a lens to it, or, replace the lens. If i figure out i can REPLACE the lens? i will try to make it “swappable” real camera lenses… I was thinking c-cs mount. which are both the same thing, except one has a different flange focal distance. the threads on c/cs = “1-32 UN 2A”

figured MAYBE i can machine up a carrier for the mount, if i can mod these units, to kick the mover to real lenses for swapping. I know where to get the threaded mount reasonable, to put i my machined carrier.

=

i think we are confusing everyone, having 2threads called “DIY USB microscope”, lol… yours turned into “bought budget copes” and mine is “scratch build”… lol

but, by all MEANS? go grab you TV projection lens… and draw up an image on a piece of white paper… if its sunny out? you can see the CLOUDS and SKY pretty on a piece of white paper if your hands are steady…

Going through image results from a Google search, I see those for $12-15 from a great many different sellers.
All the same? All good enough?

Nobody specifies working distance (sigh)
and I haven’t found one saying it’d work with OSX/Macintosh (SIGH).
Some warn they will only work with Windows.

Hank?

Here’s my WAGs (Wild A##ed Guesses) :

= no one knows what the 12 dollar units are capable of. They might “be” the 60-70 dollar unis and warhawk overpaid, or, they might “be” the 640x480 “only” units… they COULD be all the same, but, the “software” unlocks the over-VGA resolution…

= my BEST GUESS? is that the webcame will work with MAC, as in “probably”/”maybe”/”perhaps”… and the software is only PC. My 64-x480 webcam? i just plugged it into my USB port, it went “ba-doop…ba-doop” and i can click on the “generic USB device” and i get rolling video and VGA “still shots”. I didnt bother with the software, as at THAT point it isnt “unlocking” much i need at that point. SOme units “look identical” brag PC/Mac?“linux with effort”.

= i’m buying a 12 dollar one ANYways, just so i will know if i can use the body and focus mechanism to “mod” with it. I will let everyone know, and make jokes if necessary.

= welcome to the world of chinese specs that cant be trusted until someone buys one that knows whats going on and reports it. Even then? it will only be “THAT seller, right THERE!”… IE, just like buying a ’68 flashlight off ebay, ha ha

= NO ONE is bragging about “great working heights” except on low magnification, the higher magnifications come at small/close working heights

= thats one of the multiple reasons why i am building mine from scratch. In addition to putting the money where it “counts” (wencam resolution, LENS) I have already proven “big working height with max resolution” is easily possible with a home build, as well as “swapping camera lenses”, things only available on the high dollar commercial units

= none of this “confusion” should really be anything new to a group of people used to “bnudget lights” and “budget specs problems”, LMAO

I paid a bit extra thinking that it did actually have higher definition than the others but I was gipped. I contacted the seller and they gave a $10 refund.

The bit about the lens on this thing is it is removable. I didn’t know this before hence the picture quality wasn’t good. One thing to note about the “zoom” it doesn’t actually have “zoom” it is just focus. Zoom is adjusted by moving the microscope closer or further away from the target.