Inexpensive digital microscope

Inexpensive? Fry's Electronics or the like, and the Celestron family. There is another brand I cannot think of.

Hell, even IBM sold a plastic housed digital microscope over ten years ago. It was cool. I'd bet if it were still around, it would be higher resolution.

I bought a Veho USB microscope for exactly that purpose.

I have the Veho Discovery one, $70 from Amazon. It's really pretty nice. It comes up as a Windows camera, so I haven't bothered to load the software. Have you used their software? Does it do measurements?

Yes, I use their software. Never done automatic measurement, I didn't even know that it can do that. This scope is merely a tool to be able to see and thus solder 0201 and stuff like that. The usual, man gets older, eyes do not exactly improve, SMT stuff becomes smaller and smaller. Didn't want to have a bulky Mantis on the table plus I don't like the slow wobble. A Leica would be an alternative but it's also bulky and I don't like staring into eye-pieces for hours.

I have an older model, the Discovery VMS-001. I saw that newer ones have better resolution. Also, it's "adjustable" stand is rather flimsy. Always wanted to replace it but you know how it is, always more pressing issues that get in the way.

In October I get to design a circuit with multiple switchers on there, super small, probably have to use 0201 and smaller, and eventually will get to test and debug it. Not looking forward to that one ...

Get a Mantis. You can really work and probe under one. The USB microscopes aren't very good for that.

I have used the Mantis at a client. Did not like it at all.

And I do work and probe under the USB microscope, that is what I bought it for. I became used to that mode of operation at EndoSonics where we had lots of video-camera plus monitor stations. Us ham radio guys are accustomed to aligning things while looking at some far away instruments, from antenna tuners and tube power amps.

Sometimes I use their SW and snap a picture, to show how soemthing is done or to document something I found.

The newer "compact" Mantis things are less wobbly. You have to adjust the inter-pupillary knob on the side to match your geometry, or they are uncomfortable.

I did adjust them. But what took them so long to get that dreaded wobble down? Anyhow, I didn't exactly want to spend an arm and a leg on it so it was either a used Leica or a new USB microscope.

Normally I favor PC-driven stuff. It saves a ton of space, is cheap, and best of all you can take it with you on the road. The topper was the USB spectrum analyzer that (finally!) came out. I did a fairly big EMC pre-compliance job with that and just the savings from not having to rent would have paid for half of it. This was right before I visited you guys. It's about the size of 3-4 cigarette packs and what later came back from the compliance lab was almost a verbatim copy of my scans.

Who makes that SA? It's toy time around here again, and I'm making a list. There's a cool surfboard-looking EMI antenna I'd like to get too. Of course, I'd have to haul everything up to Truckee to do EMI checks... it would be impossible here.

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These guys:

Only a month later they came out with the 12GHz version and now they also have a 12GHz track gen for it.

I got the 4GHz plus track gen, which was a good thing in the end because I do aircraft electronics design so I sometimes have to probe things below 100kHz.

Just keep in mind that these are largely SW-based so there are limitations. Mainly that it scans much slower than a boat anchor SA and due to the way they "calculate out" the image it's no good for fast pulse signal sources. So if something ain't there more than a few usec at a time it might miss it. Other than that, stunning. I can do tricks a normal SA can't.

That's what I love about the final compliance tests, they are often in very nice places. So far my favorite sites are in the Bavarian Forest (Germany) and then CKC Labs in Mariposa. The draft beer at the (only) pub at the Bavarian site is better but then again Mariposa has country dancing.

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A couple hundred thousand little bier stubes would reduce unemployment in the USA and keep the rest of us happy. One every 5 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail, for example.

I don't like the "compact" Mantis as much as the original. Changing the objective is a PITA. I don't understand the "wobbly" part. None of the Manti I've used wobble. Maybe because we buy real bases for them?

I wouldn't be happy if they took my Mantis (even though it's "compact") away. A few people from our other site came down a while back and were all gaga over it.

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I'd vote for one every 2 miles, at least. What I really, really miss after having moved across the pond a long time ago is the neigborhood pub. Like what "Kelsey's Pub" was for Archie Bunker, before he bought it. In most German towns and even tiny villages they are everywhere and the have the good stuff on draft. So you normally do not have to drive. So you could say that having a neighborhood pub saves lives :-)

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We were picnicking on the PCT when a couple of old codgers, with enormous backpacks, came struggling up the trail. They said hi, and I said "Do you want some beer?" They had been on the trail for 2 weeks. And they had never tasted Chimay, even though one was born in europe.

Nice guys. They took the empty bottle with them, to show their wives at the pick-up point. More stuff to schlepp.

INTEL, not IBM. Blue plastic, and worthless. A one second update made it useless for good focus. It was a waste of money.

I have a cool QX5 model. Focusing is touchy at 200X, easy at 10X or 60X. As Lever says, it's cool.

Looks like an updated QX7 is here.

I thought someone had said they used a Celestron for this, but I don't see that now.

Looking online I see one sold at adafruit at $80 with a 5 Mpixel camera. I can't tell who makes it. I guess these things all look alike.

Rick

John Ferrell W8CCW