New USB Microscope!

[whitnasty1]

What's up everybody, I just ordered the Adafruit USB Microscope, I haven't received it yet but I have a quick question concerning the usage. I am a Manufacturing Engineer and I commonly use a "normal" two eyed Microscope at work to do all of my SMT reworks with, but I didn't feel like dropping almost $1,000 just to be able to work on fine pitch surface mount parts at my house, so I found this little gem of a microscope. So my main question to anyone who has used it or knows about the microscope, can I adjust the microscope so it sits far away enough from the part that I can get my soldering iron and solder under it to be able to do reworks with it? I guess that has something to do with the focal length? I am not very microscope savy, but I really just want to know if I am going to be able to use this microscope to do reworks on some of my boards? Does the image display on your PC in real time? I would really only need about 5 or 6 inches at the most to be able to comfortable do reworks. Thanks for all of the help, I greatly appreciate it, and whenever my microscope arrives next week I will post back with the results! Thanks again everyone and have a safe Labor Day weekend!

[dattaway]

There is plenty of room and the view on the screen is great.

[whitnasty1]

Awesome man! Thank you for the quick reply I greatly appreciate it! I am running a Win7 Pro computer with a i7 2600K @4.8 GHz, 8GB DDR3 RAM, and 2x Nvidia GTX 570's in SLI (video cards), have you noticed any lag while using the microscope? If not, that is great! That is just one obstacle I could foresee being an issue, working with those small SMD parts, you know you can't be having any lag while trying to rework some fine pitch pins! Thanks again for the reply! I hate that I forgot about Labor Day on Monday, so I won't have the microscope until Wednesday.

[dattaway]

I would estimate the delay as a few frames behind. Very fluid and not very noticeable. Depth of field gets extremely narrow at high zoom. The light source is adjustable to zero, which is nice if I'm using colored lights around the subject for effect. Image quality is very high. I'd image dust and solder fumes may fog up the lens after a while. Cleaning the lens might require expert surgery.

[dattaway]

Here's what a corner of a chip looks like at 180x. I had to shrink the image, but the jpeg itself can be zoomed in for much greater detail. The resolution is quite high!

[whitnasty1]

Oh thanks man! That looks great, man I can't wait to get a hold of my microscope! Yeah a few frames doesn't seem too bad, you don't think it would be too much of a delay to interfere with soldering surface mount parts do you? From the looks of the video on the product page, it looks like it is definitely do able, you could imagine how a bad delay would wreak havoc while soldering some really small parts, it needs to be as close to real time as humanly possible you know? Anyways, thanks so much for all of the replies, have you ever personally done some surface mount soldering with this microscope? I normally use a stereo microscope at work, but it was like $1500 and I'm not spending that much for something to use at my house, so I am a little bit spoiled by using that beast. Anyways let me know about your experience with soldering using this microscope if possible, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you very much, I greatly appreciate all of the help and your time!

[dattaway]

The delay is just like a camcorder hooked up to a television. You'll see it if you are looking for it, but it is great for action work.

[JBeale]

Is this the item "USB Microscope - 5.0 Megapixel / 220x magnification / 8 LEDs " listed at https://www.adafruit.com/products/636

I downloaded the manual linked on that page, from http://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/MicrocaptureV2.5.zip which is labelled "Veho VMS-004 USB Microscope" and on page 2 it states: "Image sensor 1.3 Mega Pixels (interpolated to 2M)" so I assume this manual is for a different microscope? What is the actual resolution? ("Software Interpolated" resolution is a marketing number, not true resolution).

[adafruit]

The camera is actually a different model - we upgraded it! The software is the same but the manual is different so ignore the manual

[Ricmrly]

Is it at 60fps? so its good for soldering? thanks / Ric

[Ricmrly]

Im acculy thinking of building one myself, buying this one and put my 8mp inside, if i can just open it up and put it inside. i quess its that easy? i dont understand how you can put a bad webcam into a awesome microscope! thanks / Ric

[adafruit]

It is not 60 fps. We use it for inspection, not soldering
You cannot replace the camera module inside.

[BruceF]

It is not 60 fps. We use it for inspection, not soldering
You cannot replace the camera module inside.

Do you think it would be too laggy for soldering, or is the lens just too close to the work or something? Or you don't use it for soldering just because you don't?

I get a pretty decent look at solder-size objects with once of those magnifying visor thingies, my only complaint being that when I switch from "looking through the visor at small stuff" to "looking not through the visor at anything, small or large" my eyes accommodate like I'm dragging them through cold molasses. Soldering "on TV" might be an improvement for me, if the equipment was reasonably usable for the purpose. I guess I should just buy one and try it, unless someone can show cause why it definitely wouldn't work.

[adafruit_support_bill]

The working distance for the scope is a bit closer than a magnifying visor. It can be very helpful for soldering a particularly difficult joint. Between the working distance and the lag, it is not my first choice for general purpose work. Depending on your vision and preferences, YMMV.