usb microscope

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Paul Barker
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#16 Re: usb microscope

Post by Paul Barker »

Neal wrote: Fri Aug 14, 2020 6:07 pm Hours of fun, dead crane fly

Image

Image
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#17 Re: usb microscope

Post by ed »

Not sure if it's funny or not...but both those models Neal linked to are the same model as mine but with a different stand. The exceptional one has a monitor already built in but I think the actual microscope is the same...

I may be wide of the mark but all the models I looked at have 2mp - 5mp sensors. The prices start to move up when the sensor changes to one with more mpixels. I imagine the lens quality might improve with the more expensive examples.
Last edited by ed on Sat Aug 15, 2020 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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#18 Re: usb microscope

Post by Neal »

Ah yes I see now Ed, you where using the digital zoom in s/w have you tried using the optical zoom on the ‘scope it’s self?
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#19 Re: usb microscope

Post by ed »

ahhh...I see now:

I clicked the optical zoom button 3 times(I think it's the max)
opt-zoom.jpg
and the same optical zoom at 300% zoom in the software
opt-zoom 300pc sw.jpg
I really need a cartridge to test to see if it's capable....it's certainly more than I need for soldering. The big decider for me was that the focal length was long enogh to get the microscope away from the work, far enough for the soldering iron and fumes.
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#20 Re: usb microscope

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Judging by the quality of Neal’s stylus image, it would seem these are suitable for my needs. Think I may get one. Thanks, Ed and Neal for the heads up.
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#21 Re: usb microscope

Post by Greg »

So, today I spent some time Investigating the digital microscope. It seems that the original, as used by Ed and Neal is a Chinese design manufactured/sold by Jiusion which are advertised as X40-1000 magnification. There are plenty of Chinese copies out there including the ones claiming to have 1600 magnification. From what I have read, I would suggest regard all of this as classic Chinese advertising lies. It is worth exploring some of the YouTube videos and particularly the comments from viewers who claim that even X60 optical is more magnified than the 1000/1600 digital claimed. Anyway, exploring further, I found there are European companies producing similar products at 4 times the price.

Nevertheless, Jiusion do seem to produce some quality products at affordable prices, so I stretched beyond Ed and Neal’s price range and ended up buying this which I like because it is their latest product that will work with WiFi on my iPhone/iPad.


I’ll report back once I’ve had a play with it.
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#22 Re: usb microscope

Post by jack »

This basic design has been around for many years (at least five).

The changes over the years have centered on increasing the resolution of the sensor, rather than the quality of the optics.

Consequently, the image quality has improved a bit but the depth of field is still poor - you then end up fiddling with the unit a lot, especially when soldering something like a tssop or a qfn where even getting 1mm DoF can be problematic.

There are a lot of choices out there - it's definitely worth paying for better optics with better depth of field.
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#23 Re: usb microscope

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jack wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:57 pm There are a lot of choices out there - it's definitely worth paying for better optics with better depth of field.
the devil in me feels the need to labour this point because I totally fail to understand this....

For my use, and Greg's for that matter, we are talking about a microscope, which focusses down on a flat, or nearly flat 2 dimensional surface. I admit that a record stylus is not 2 dimensional, but the distance between near and far is surely not enough to start worrying about depth of field. Or is it?

My son has been playing with flys and the like and they are totally in focus, top to bottom. What could improve here?

Also, in 2 days of searching I couldn't find anything that was different from the model I bought. With the exception of the lab microscopes with a digital sensor attached, which all had close focus and didn't look good for soldering work. Which choices were you referring to Nick??
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#24 Re: usb microscope

Post by jack »

Devices like the ADSM302 which we've discussed here before.

They are considerably more expensive, but you don't need to go that far.

For a stylus, the required depth is not great, however for PCBs any movement in the board, e.g. by applying a soldering iron, can lose focus.

Over the years I guess I used maybe half a dozen of these sorts of cameras, and I, like Nick, have settled on the ADSM302, but there are many others out there too...
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#25 Re: usb microscope

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They are £200+ or £150ish on aliexpress....or £144 on baggood.com :shock: Probably will get banged good ordering from there! :D Will be interesting Greg to see if your lower cost version is good enough
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#26 Re: usb microscope

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Neal wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 7:39 am They are £200+ or £150ish on aliexpress....or £144 on baggood.com :shock: Probably will get banged good ordering from there! :D Will be interesting Greg to see if your lower cost version is good enough
I mentioned them here: http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... f=9&t=7503

To be absolutely clear, this is an "apples vs. pears" comparison. The cheap ones are perfectly adequate for a lot of jobs, but they save on the optics, sensor & functionality (as in all things). It's not a criticism of the low-end ones - I have a variety of those too and everything is built to a price, but I found that for me it was definitely worth the extra for the tasks I had in mind, in particular the inbuilt screen, HDMI output, full 1080p, 30fps, depth of field, decent stage & lighting plus stability in use. All that plus EEVBLOG's review was extremely positive.

About GBP 140 at Banggood at the moment - on promotion this month - always worth watching Banggood's pricing on more expensive items - they periodically have some real bargains. https://uk.banggood.com/Andonstar-ADSM3 ... rehouse=CN

EDIT!! Just seen - there is an AD407 now with a better spec for only a few quid more: https://uk.banggood.com/Andonstar-AD407 ... rehouse=ES
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#27 Re: usb microscope

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jack wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:57 pm There are a lot of choices out there - it's definitely worth paying for better optics with better depth of field.
You're not going to get better depth of field from improved optics - probably slightly less, in fact. Unless you are talking confocal microscopy of course, which is a whole different game and price realm. Maybe that's what you meant ?
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#28 Re: usb microscope

Post by jack »

IslandPink wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:13 am
jack wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2020 12:57 pm There are a lot of choices out there - it's definitely worth paying for better optics with better depth of field.
You're not going to get better depth of field from improved optics - probably slightly less, in fact. Unless you are talking confocal microscopy of course, which is a whole different game and price realm. Maybe that's what you meant ?
Probably (not)! - the ASDM302 is much much better in that regard than the other USB microscopes I have... The more sensitive sensor and better lenses allows a smaller aperture and consequently a deeper field - that was my understanding anyway.

I had to look up confocal microscopy - thanks for that!! Very interesting indeed!
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#29 Re: usb microscope

Post by IslandPink »

OK, maybe if you can stop-down then I agree you could get more d.o.f.
Depends to some extent in what way the cheap microscope optics are poor. If you have spherical aberration, for instance, the depth of field can be increased, but with less ultimate resolutiona anywhere over the focus range.
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#30 Re: usb microscope

Post by ed »

lot of fuss about nothing imo...£13 gizmo for soldering smd parts...perfect, what's not to like!!

especially as I've just discovered it works natively in linux using cheese...
here's another tssop32 breakout from my trusty old netbook(with a dodgy touch pad), no maginification or zoom at 640x480...
2020-08-22-105505.jpg
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