Work Magnification

[raptor1956]

I mentioned in another thread on component selection that my nearly 60 year old eyes is making things tough even with through hole and unbearable with the smaller SMD/SMT components.  I have one of those magnifier gizmos with a couple alligator clips for holding stuff and I have a 2.5X headband magnifier arriving tomorrow so I'l see how that goes though 2.5X is probably not enough -- they make replacement lenses at 1.4X, 2.0X and 3.5X as well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0143LSOFE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The other thing is that you have to have your head at the right distance or things will be blurry and that's true whether you use the headband or table mounted magnifier.

Another option is the use of one of those cheaper USB microscopes that can be had for as little as about $30USD with better ones running closer to $100USB.  The advantage to them is you do not have to have your head (eyes) at the prescribed distance and the focus control might even obviate the need to wear glasses.  The downside to any magnified approach is that it changes the control-loop (hand-eyes) and you have to learn to work using magnification.  The other downside as I see it to them is that they are generally 20X or more and while that could be helpful at times the higher magnification reduces FOV so feeding in solder could be a problem as you could be off by only a bit but still outside of the FOV.

If I were spec'ing such a device I'd want 3X to 15X or maybe 5X to 20X as the typical working magnification though having the ability to go higher still would be nice some of the time.  It would also be nice if the working distance of the microscope were a bit further than you see typically so it isn't in the way.

So, what are the other old farts doing to see the small stuff?


Brian

[ataradov]

With real microscopes, I find that 5x is optimal. It gives reasonable magnification for even smallest components, yet maintaining good FOV.

I also did quite a bit of SMD work with one of those helping hands with magnifying glass and it worked real well. Don't know what is the rated magnification on those things.

 

[DTJ]

I use a head band magnifier for some work and a binocular zoom microscope from Amscope for pcv assembly work. The microscope is AWESOME, can see very clearly and work ends up much better quality. I'm on a mobile device and cannot see your location, if you are in the states the microscope will cost you around $200. Shipping outside the USA pushes the price up by $100+.

I've also tried higher magnification  'telescope glasses' like surgeons sometimes use, I could not get my head around using them and found them absolutely useless.

Search the forum for some of the microscope threads, there's some really useful info in them.

[raptor1956]

Well I've been looking around some more and an alternative to a microscope appears to be "document cameras".  They look to have much greater working distance which is a plus and some appear to offer magnifications of about 1X to 12X optically and of course digital zoom beyond that.  From a working distance and magnification standpoint these seem better.  BUT, and it's a big but, the big problem with them is LATENCY.  If the frame rate is low and/or the latency is slow then working with it could be a PITA.

The digital microscopes, particularly the USB kind that are kind of tubular and in the 40mm diameter and 125mm length ballpark might be useful if you can focus at the longer working distance AND the latency is low enough, but, getting info on working distance and latency is hard to come by.


Brian

[ataradov]

Go for a real optical microscope. As mentioned, AmScope offers good variety of affordable microscope.

[noidea]

I've also tried higher magnification  'telescope glasses' like surgeons sometimes use, I could not get my head around using them and found them absolutely useless.

That's food for thought, what magnification were you using?
My dentist let me have a look through his at my last check up and as my eyes are going downhill now I thought about getting cheapo pair from ebay as I spend a lot of time inspecting circuit boards that get returned to me. The biggest difference I found between them and a headset magnifier was that you had to remember to not bend your neck over / crouch forward like you tend to do with a headset magnifier.

[DTJ]

I've also tried higher magnification  'telescope glasses' like surgeons sometimes use, I could not get my head around using them and found them absolutely useless.

That's food for thought, what magnification were you using?
My dentist let me have a look through his at my last check up and as my eyes are going downhill now I thought about getting cheapo pair from ebay as I spend a lot of time inspecting circuit boards that get returned to me. The biggest difference I found between them and a headset magnifier was that you had to remember to not bend your neck over / crouch forward like you tend to do with a headset magnifier.

The ones I got from eBay were described as "2.5 x 320mm Dental Surgical Binocular Loupes".
They cost me Au$45

As mentioned though, I found them pretty much useless for working - they might be OK for inspection but for soldering I felt really unco. They did not work for me.