A microscope for tiny soldering

[binkinator]

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/

Did you add the ”C or CS mounted lense”?

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-hq-camera-lens?variant=31675768963155

 

[mrdude]

Did you add the ”C or CS mounted lense”?

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/raspberry-pi-hq-camera-lens?variant=31675768963155

C - 50mm

 

[evil_santa]

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.

Yes it's really good and I had luck whit shipping from Poland to Germany. I bought the right one and i working most of the time whit the 0,5x lense.
For trace repair I use the 1x lense.

 

[mrdude]

This is my DIY one, with an old webcam + camera lens - it's about a meter away from an esp32-s2. I shrunk the image down.

This was the screenshot from my laptop at that distance

It's a bit blurry because I shone a torch on it so there's light reflection on the pins.

 

[binkinator]

This is my DIY one, with an old webcam + camera lens - it's about a meter away from an esp32-s2. I shrunk the image down.

This was the screenshot from my laptop at that distance

It's a bit blurry because I shone a torch on it so there's light reflection on the pins.

That’s pretty damn clear and the camera is WAY out of the way. That’s pretty sweet!

 

[mrdude]

That’s pretty damn clear and the camera is WAY out of the way. That’s pretty sweet!

If you made a raspberry pi version you bypass the USB as it connects straight to the GPU so there's no latency as it doesn't need to do any processing for USB to GPU + Straight to HDMI, Also lenses are easy to change. That's why I would use the 12 mega pixel camera + zoom or microscope lens. You get decent mounts from Ali express, but I'd probably just buy this and make the bed + mount pole myself.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32819153199.html

or this

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004356258146.html