A microscope for tiny soldering

[darrin41]

Hello members what is a good microscope for soldering tiny components. Not try to break the bank lol

 

[cowboy619]

Get an andonstar


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[binkinator]

I bought this one (TOMLOV DM10.) It’s cheap and dirty but it worked for reballing bga153 chips.

 

[mrdude]

I made my own with an old usb wecam and a camera zoom lens. I plug it into my laptop and it does the job pretty well. You can buy usb camers and plug it into a phone or tablet and make your own for cheap.

 

[binkinator]

I made my own with an old usb wecam and a camera zoom lens. I plug it into my laptop and it does the job pretty well. You can buy usb camers and plug it into a phone or tablet and make your own for cheap.

Just some comedic feedback…

Step 1…start w/ $600 phone
Step 2…buy $100 worth of various web cam
Step 3…save money?

For the life of me I would never be able to hot glue two sticks to a board that would be anything CLOSE to parallel within a margin of error for the span of anything more than about 1”!

I love the anything goes measurements used in this video…1” x 3” x 3mm
Getting directions from this guy must be a treat:
Yeah, you just go about 2 miles and a half a kilometer down this road, turn NEbE and head up the dirt road about 100 yards and it’s the second house on your left.

Thats the best I’ve got…

In reality almost every adult with a Switch probably already has a smart phone and there’s even a decent chance of having a USB camera laying around. I actually love hot glue projects like this, in spite of my talent handicap.

 

[mrdude]

Just some comedic feedback…

Step 1…start w/ $600 phone
Step 2…buy $100 worth of various web cam
Step 3…save money?

For the life of me I would never be able to hot glue two sticks to a board that would be anything CLOSE to parallel within a margin of error for the span of anything more than about 1”!

I love the anything goes measurements used in this video…1” x 3” x 3mm
Getting directions from this guy must be a treat:
Yeah, you just go about 2 miles and a half a kilometer down this road, turn NEbE and head up the dirt road about 100 yards and it’s the second house on your left.

Thats the best I’ve got…

In reality almost every adult with a Switch probably already has a smart phone and there’s even a decent chance of having a USB camera laying around. I actually love hot glue projects like this, in spite of my talent handicap.

I made this one, no need for a smart phone as I just plug it into my laptop.

https://operationalsmoke.blogspot.com/2014/05/diy-usb-soldering-microscope.html

Also you can change the focus distance and use it for spying on your neighbours....not that I do that :-)

 

[slaphappygamer]

I’d give something like this a shot.

https://a.co/d/eD4jh0B

 

[xoINARIox]

The Andostar microscopes are really good and not too expensive.
I use this personally:

Andonstar AD208​

https://andonstarmicroscope.com/pro...80p-digital-microscope?variant=41732394221730

 

[Hanafuda]

That'd be nice but I've gotten by this far with a magnifying visor. I need to drop a few bucks on one of the new types that wear like glasses.

 

[darrin41]

The Andostar microscopes are really good and not too expensive.
I use this personally:

Andonstar AD208​

https://andonstarmicroscope.com/pro...80p-digital-microscope?variant=41732394221730

Just brought one but I’d like to add it on a boom stand with arm

 

[xoINARIox]

Just brought one but I’d like to add it on a boom stand with arm

 

[binkinator]

God damn that’s sweet!

Found this guy for a yuppie buck:


Comes with the bouncy mic holder, a dimmable ring light, and a spit guard. I need all three when I’m micro-soldering.

E: welp. Somebody mentioned they found Hall effect joystick replacements in another thread and this was already in my basket. Will let you know tomorrow how this works out.

https://gbatemp.net/threads/hall-effect-sensor-joycon-sticks-on-amazon.624698/#post-10048047

 

[urherenow]

After destroying an OLED using a microscope that was too small, I bought this one. Gets the job done, and cheaper than the others posted here. The sd card socket is janky, but otherwise pretty nice. You can snap photos and record video.

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholes...roscope&spm=a2g0o.order_list.1000002.0&dida=y

 

[FAST6191]

Only cheap microscopes suitable for live soldering as opposed to inspection after the fact (in which case pretty much anything, preferably with a top down light rather than transmission) I have found are old school TV screen magnifiers they give to old people and you occasionally see them in charity shops, yard/estate sales...

Otherwise you get to pay, or make do with the 80s nerd magnifying headset (they do very well actually, more than most would give them credit for).

 

[binkinator]

Only cheap microscopes suitable for live soldering as opposed to inspection after the fact (in which case pretty much anything, preferably with a top down light rather than transmission) I have found are old school TV screen magnifiers they give to old people and you occasionally see them in charity shops, yard/estate sales...

Otherwise you get to pay, or make do with the 80s nerd magnifying headset (they do very well actually, more than most would give them credit for).

Like this?

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/d.../repurposed-television-magnifier/id-f_884483/

 

[FAST6191]

Like this?

https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/d.../repurposed-television-magnifier/id-f_884483/

No, and that is a hideous price for that device (search for fresnel lens if you want such a thing).

These things were basically zoom cameras attached to a screen such that you could put a book beneath them and zoom right in/blow things up, and because CRT and no brains between things the latency was fast enough to count for soldering (500ms because crap phone camera is occasionally killer in this for soldering). You might also see them in libraries from time to time.

More modern one

 

[evil_santa]

I'm using this one and I'm really happy whit it.
Except the ring light it's could be more powerful for the camera.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ev17Yk9

 

[binkinator]

I'm using this one and I'm really happy whit it.
Except the ring light it's could be more powerful for the camera.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ev17Yk9

That is a nice rig, man!

 

[mrdude]

If I was making a homemade one again, I'd use a camera module for raspberry pi, like this:

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera?variant=31675712241747

That way you can attach various lenses into it, you can also plug it straight into a TV or a tablet with HDMI in. I have a TV already, I have a 8GB rapsberry pi 4b, I have camera lenses, so basically I would just need to buy that camera module, an adustable boom arm and make an enclosure for it. It would probably also be a lot higher quality than most of these cheap crappy microscopes you can buy. The homemade one I already made is great already and works fine for smd soldering, I could probably plug it into my raspberry pi and view it on my TV if I wanted. That's why it's good to make your own for your own needs. You end up with a higher quality device for a fraction of the price.

Here's a video of someone using a raspberry pi zero w with a cheap camera module doing some soldering:

https://www.instructables.com/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-HDMIWiFi-Soldering-Microscope/

 

[l7777]

I'm using this one and I'm really happy whit it.
Except the ring light it's could be more powerful for the camera.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ev17Yk9

That's pretty good for a trinocular scope. Did you go with the .5x objective lense too?

I didn't trust all the camera based units after messing up my Mariko switch so I ended up with one of the Amscope models with the telescoping base. The price tag hurt but it makes microsoldering easy on the eyes. Got the 201 capacitors back where they were supposed to be and then modded my OLED switch too. Have also used it for plenty of other projects since then and likely more in the future.