EEVblog #566 - Cheap USB Microscope Reviews

[xrunner]

Can anyone share the andonstar software?

Thank you

I just got one of these yesterday. I'm pretty pleased with it, very well made. It really doesn't need any specific software, just any generic webcam viewer. It works on bot my Linux netbook and my Windoze machines. Comes with attachments for the tip end - not sure what all of them do, I think one is so a female can look up inside herself ... 

[Internetausdrucker]

Any recent Uupdates on these Lapsun systems? Has anyone bought one recently? I am just thinking about ordering one for me.

[Internetausdrucker]

So I am thinking about ordering this one here, as the Lapsun ones do not seem to be available any more.

-> Link to Aliexpress

The only problem is that it is unclear to me, if these things put out 1080p over HDMI.

[KeebRDB]

Regarding Dave's review of the Andonstar USB Microscope:

It's worth noting that you can get 30 frames per second at the full 1600x1200 if you simply change the "Color Space / Compression" to MJPG in the Options | Video Capture Pin settings.   (see the attached image)
That looks fine for my needs and I really like the faster response time. 

[Nagle]

I've used this Plugable Technologies USB microscope for placing SMT parts. It's pretty good for $35. No special software; it talks to "Cheese" on Linux and webcam programs on Windows. Depth of focus is OK for SMT; board and tops of parts are both in focus at the same time. You can move the lens in and refocus if you want a close up. There's a ring of LEDs around the camera lens for illumination. Color fidelity is not great, but for assembly, that's not a big deal. It's not zoom, but magnification is about right for SMT placement.


The camera gooseneck attaches to the base with a suction cup, so you can attach it to other things.

I do SMT assembly with this watching the laptop screen, not looking at the board. It's much easier than with the usual lamp with a lens setup.

[rrinker]

 That is exactly the one I have. I did find the cheesy base and suction cup didn't work very well, it kept falling odd. So I unscrewed the suction cup and for now, until I can engineer an alternative mount for it, I just have the shaft stuck under my scope on the lowest shelf over my work area, which holds it in place. And even though it's a much greater distance than just bending the arm as shown, it still can focus at that distance.
 SO far I've mostly used it for parts ID. I tried soldering under it - it will take some practice to adjust my hand-eye coordination (which never was awesome to begin with -0 musical instruments and being really good at most handheld controller type video games is beyond me, but I've been soldering so long I can do that in the usual manner just fine - I just can't see as well and even through hole I tend to look over my glasses and solder inches from my face because that's the clearest view. Haven't burned myself yet) so I can effectively solder while looking at my video screen. But it does do the job, and I'm quite impressed for the cheap price.

[frozenfrogz]

Bought one of the Andonstar ones recently. Not too bad for the price point. However, the first unit I got was mechanically well made, but there was something wrong with the sensor. Images looked solarized and flakey (see attachment).
The second unit seems not as good mechanically and the LEDs are flickering on lower brightness settings, but the image quality is as expected.

After all, you can clearly make out it is coming from far off lands :/

[Brumby]

Oh, that is hard to look at.

[frozenfrogz]

Oh, that is hard to look at.

My initial thought was: Awesome! FLIR microscope for 50€!

But nah. Its just looking funky.

[daveyk]

Are they really fast enough to solder under? When I tried one at work a few years ago, there was a noticeable lag from mechanical movement until the display showed it, so soldering was impossible. Would you need a high end gaming computer or gaming video card for the display to update fast enough for these to really be useable?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[frozenfrogz]

These are just "sort of" usable for soldering. There is a lot of lagging going on and you need to use lower resolution video stream.
After all, these are just camera modules hard wired to USB 2.0 without compression. They are doing a reasonably well job for documenting and inspection however.

[rrinker]

 The image from mine is MUCH better than that Adonstar, none of that false color and artifacting. You can clearly read the designation on SMD parts. There is maybe a slight lag but with a little practice I believe I will be able to solder under it. As I stated, my issue is more the hand-eye coordination when not looking at my hands but rather watching the screen. I can;t type without looking at the keyboard - and even then it's not the greatest. It often looks like I can't spell even basic words but if you ask me to verbally spell things I am actually pretty good at it - won the spelling bee in elementary school  It's all typos. I swear. 

[frozenfrogz]

Just to clarify: The image quality of the Andonstar is not too shabby either.
What I posted above was from the defective one.
See the attached screen grabs from maximum distance the mount mechanically allows up to minimum focusing distance.
Depth of field is obviously not the best, but that is to be expected with such a tiny pin-hole camera.
Lighting conditions were a little sub-optimal.

By the way, this is a Wifi-Relay I ordered of eBay. Chinese manufacturer / QC department fucked it up again mounting the rectifying diode in the upper left corner (F1) backwards - not wanting to offend any of you coming from China of course

[bktemp]

Chinese manufacturer / QC department fucked it up again mounting the rectifying diode in the upper left corner (F1) backwards - not wanting to offend any of you coming from China of course

It is even worse, because F1 should probably be a fuse.
First mistake: Put the fuse after the voltage transient supressor diode. It should be next to the input, so an overvoltage can blow the fuse when the TVS diode starts conducting.
Second mistake: Place a diode instead of a fuse.
Third mistake: Mount the diode backwards.

[Brumby]

Much better images... 

[Zbig]

The logo... seriously...?



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence

[frozenfrogz]

Yes, facepalm much indeed xD

However, the ESP12F is a pretty capable Wifi module with more than enough GPIOs and 4Mb flash memory to tinker with for 3€

[Grapsus]

Hi there !

I just got the cheapo USB2 andonstar A1 from amazon and spent some time playing with it on Linux.
It looks like the chip used in this product supports real-time MJPG compression which helps getting more images through the USB2 bottleneck.
The original software doesn't make use of this mode and only streams YUV bitmaps hence the 5 fps limitation in 1600x1200.
With MJPG enabled, I could get a steady stream at 16.66fps@1600x1200 (you have to make sure there is enough light otherwise the autoexposure will slow down the framerate).
It is quite usable for soldering in this mode.

I'll try to use a raspberry pi zero to get a dedicated device which just outputs HDMI. Maybe also wire two buttons one for taking snapshots and another one for recording video.

[xzswq21]

Hi
I have 20 pieces of 0201 SMD resistors on my FPGA board, if I buy the below microscope, can I solder them?

http://optix.com.my/index.php/product/andonstar-2mp-usb-digital-microscope-video-otoscope-endoscope-loupe-camera-cam/

Thanks

[PlainName]

I have 20 pieces of 0201 SMD resistors on my FPGA board, if I buy the below microscope, can I solder them?

Unlikely, because the focal length is too short to get a soldering iron under there. Or tweezers if you're doing to it properly and reflowing paste.

But these things are cheap enough to try it anyway, and then you'll know what 'features' you don't want in the next kit you buy

[xzswq21]

I have 20 pieces of 0201 SMD resistors on my FPGA board, if I buy the below microscope, can I solder them?

Unlikely, because the focal length is too short to get a soldering iron under there. Or tweezers if you're doing to it properly and reflowing paste.

But these things are cheap enough to try it anyway, and then you'll know what 'features' you don't want in the next kit you buy

I have a big boom magnifier, when I see a 0201 resistor with the boom, I see the 0201 resistor in similar a 0603 resistor with my eyes.
is there any chances to solder 0201 resistor?

also I have a SMD rework station (Hot Air) and 0.3mm solder wire.

[PlainName]

I would suggest that this is a case of suck it and see. Different people will have different success rates, and only you will know how you might fare.

[amspire]

I have 20 pieces of 0201 SMD resistors on my FPGA board, if I buy the below microscope, can I solder them?

Unlikely, because the focal length is too short to get a soldering iron under there. Or tweezers if you're doing to it properly and reflowing paste.

But these things are cheap enough to try it anyway, and then you'll know what 'features' you don't want in the next kit you buy

You can choose whatever distance you want - the closer the higher the magnification.

I tried a 25mm gap to the object as I think this is probably the closest you would want for comfortable soldering. Here is an screencapture image of a 0.2mm grid using a Chinese clone of the Andonstar microscope at 25mm. The resolution was set to 1600x1200.

0201 is 0.25 mm × 0.125 mm so it is slightly longer then one of the divisions.