4500 dollar LCD monitor microscope.

Maybe it could be justified to inspect the correct installation of this component

I have an IntelPlay USB microscope I've used for inspecting stuff. It's 200x and produces low resolution images, but the optics are reasonable and it was just a "cheap toy".

Google for it and you'll find a couple of sites that have crystallography photographs that are stunning, taken from this "toy" microscope.

This really isn't bad, except the software sorta sucks. The 200x is worthless, but the other mags are pretty good. It costs $60 or something.

More seriously, I'd go for a network (ethernet) camera and use that with a pc.

John

Actually, I have one somewhere. I got it on eBay for something like $25. I never really used it because the software was just so annoying with it's "made for 5 year olds" interface. :-(

Mine runs under Linux's "tvtime" video player.

A company i worked for paid AU$40000 odd for a similar thing. The only difference was that the software could reject PCBs by looking at the solder joint. That thing picked up stuff i could never see until i put it under much larger magnification.

Clearly the optics and resolution of these two $5k systems greatly exceeds that of an NTSC camera. Otherwise they wouldn't be up to the task of replacing an eyeball. I imagine a $1.5k Nikon camera + computer + LCD display might match the resolution if not the speed.

I doubt it's any better than 800 x 600 resolution, could be straight

Probably using an industrial single-1/2"-CCD camera. Their higher end system uses a 3-CCD camera rather than the Bayer+interpolation stuff.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Carl Smith wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.west.earthlink.net:

Way back when (mid-80's), I was looking at a projection microscope for PC board and wafer fab inspection. Two models - 5" and 7" screens. No electronics (other than lamp), no digital, polroid camera attachment. The only thing we needed digital cameras for was a semi-automated inspection station that had "digital mictometers" (video comparison sizing). For metalization in the wafer fab area, we had a microscope with an IR camera and a small B&W monitor. Wafers were illuminated from below by a small 40W bulb. Silicon is transparent to IR, the metals (alum. and platinum) are not so voids show up well.

They're TWAIN-compatible. You can grab frames with IrfanView, or even MSPaint if that's all you have.

Mark L. Fergerson

Now that you mention it, I think I figured that out at the time, but what I didn't like was that I didn't get a live video preview of how I was aiming and focusing.

I'll have to dig the thing out of the closet and experiment with it some more.

Referring to the "IntelPlay USB microscope:"

I feel so ripped off, I paid the full $75 retail for mine, circa five years ago! A co-worker bought one earlier than that, and paid over $100!!! I can only wonder how many of these were sold to the intended market vs. how many were sold to technically minded adults.

The big problem I had with that thing is the field of focus is so small. Focusing is tricky with that cheap plastic mechanism, ESPECIALLY on the 200x setting. It's barely usable with something flat, but I was trying to look at a phonograph stylus with it, and I had a hard time FINDING the thing.

Even with the original LCD thing at the start of this thread (I'm sure it's quite useful for what it is), there are times when I'd rather use a real several-thousand-dollar stereo optical microscope.