$1 Microscopes

[kfitch42]

I know this is a bit outside your usual area (the working distance isn't QUITE enough to solder with ), but I thought it might make a reasonably enjoyable rant. And, you are the only person I know with a 3d printer (or two).

I feel like I see a news article about these every so often, and they sound awesome, but every time I look into it, the article lacks detail and seems WAY over hyped. Could you build/test one or more of these and de-hype it? You seem like you could do a good job calling BS on the $1 claim. How much would you charge to really sell these? My guess is more like $20+.

http://availabletechnologies.pnnl.gov/technology.asp?id=393

http://www.foldscope.com/?

[Dongulus]

What sort of hype have you been seeing? Neither design is going to usher in a new era of medical science, but the real pictures captured using both designs indicate that they work surprisingly well for essentially no money.

There is no way anyone is going to get away with selling a piece of plastic and a glass bead for $20, unless if part of some children's microscope kit with some already prepared slides.

[atferrari]

I know this is a bit outside your usual area (the working distance isn't QUITE enough to solder with ), but I thought it might make a reasonably enjoyable rant. And, you are the only person I know with a 3d printer (or two).

I feel like I see a news article about these every so often, and they sound awesome, but every time I look into it, the article lacks detail and seems WAY over hyped. Could you build/test one or more of these and de-hype it? You seem like you could do a good job calling BS on the $1 claim. How much would you charge to really sell these? My guess is more like $20+.

http://availabletechnologies.pnnl.gov/technology.asp?id=393

http://www.foldscope.com/?

First link: I cannot access the site.
Second link: I cannot see images.

[JoeO]

The 2 websites work for me.

[kfitch42]

What sort of hype have you been seeing? Neither design is going to usher in a new era of medical science, but the real pictures captured using both designs indicate that they work surprisingly well for essentially no money.

There is no way anyone is going to get away with selling a piece of plastic and a glass bead for $20, unless if part of some children's microscope kit with some already prepared slides.

For the hype I have read a few news articles talking about how this will revolutionize lab work in 3rd world countries, and stuff like that.

For the price, well, building one of these can't be done for $1. You need a 3d printer, and a supply of glass beads to start with. So, the one-off cost is closer to $1000+. If you happen to be in a well stocked lab with the right supplies it might only be $1 worth of materials ... but then you probably don't need it. If you were to try to bring this thing to production... well 3d printing is probably not a good idea, and you need to select the glass beads that are optically good enough (again, doesn't sound like a trivial thing to do in a production environment.

[Spikee]

I almost never use my microscope for soldering. TQFP, QFN, SOIC, MSOP etc just have a decent soldering iron and the correct tip for the job.
For soldering for example a msop or tqfp just use decent flux and the drag soldering method works every time. The only time i really use my microscope is to look if there is enough solder on a pin and if there are shorts at those fine pitch chips.