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Okay, but what's its max rep rate?

Dang.

),

So, we can finally build a vehicle-mounted EMP gun (for use against annoying car audio systems, of course) with a phased array driven by its big brothers, built into plastic door etc. panels?

;>)

Mark L. Fergerson

That a lot :-)

I was fortunate to get mine almost like new, with stand, all the lens, for... 40 Euros

Well, almost, as I had to drive 50km to fetch it.

Have you tried it? How does it focus?

Sounds like it might be useful for places that are hard to get to.

For $26, it doesn't have to be used often to pay for itself.

For PCB work you only need 4 to 8 times magnification. I have used a Mantis at lot as well and I agree with John that it works excellent. One of the major advantages is that there is quite some distance between the lens and the object so there is a lot of freedom for moving tools and probes around. The focus isn't very sensitive at all; the depth of view is large. Actually you can't compare a Matis to a microscope. A Mantis has been designed to work on an object with an enlarged view. A microscope is made to look at an object in detail.

If you happen to come across one for free send it to me. But don't use the Mantis otherwise you'll keep it.

I haven't bought one. That was why I was asking, "Has anyone tried one of these USB dental microscopes for $26?"

I disagree. You definitely need zoom to looke for tiny solder bridges, hairline cracks in solder joints, bits of debris shorting adjacent pins, whiskers, reading faint part numbers, etc. You need to be able to zoom in and out depending on what you are doing at the moment.

A system that lacks zoom and autofocus is tedious and difficult to use. You will not take the time to change lens and refocus

A simple dollar store hand magnifier would give the same results.

That is called working distance. With the Canon and a selection of close- up lens, you can match or exceed the available working distance of any commercial inspection tool.

The Mantis is a low-magnification device. That automatically gives a large depth of view. You get the same with the Canon.

But you cannot use high magification with the Mantis. According to the literature, the highest magnification lens is 20X.

That is barely enough to see some of the fine details you need. You will not be able to hold the object in your hand and stay in focus.

It takes time to switch lens and refocus. That will discourage you from making the effort to track down difficult problems.

I sincerely doubt it. Optical zoom, autofocus, very high quality images, saving images for reports, making measurements, ability to take movies with sound, circular polarizer if needed for reflections, interchangable lens to suit your exact needs, etc. These are all part of a professional toolbox. They do not exist with the Mantis.

Larkin even admitted he got the Dino-Lite to be able to take measurements and store images. Unfortunately, the quality of the lens in the Dino-Lite is extremely poor, and the images are very poor quality. The Canon has extremely good lens, and the image are much higher quality.

I just ordered one. It should arrive around the end of August.

Let us know how it works, and post some photos captured with it where we can see them.

That's the wonderful thing about capitalism. You can buy what you want, and not buy what you don't want. (Except for health insurance.)

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

The focus of a Mantis takes advantage of the variable focal length - the autofocus - of your eyes. That lets you move the head to the rough height, and then use your own lenses to focus on things at different heights. A camera/monitor can't do that.

The color rendering is perfect, too, with no CCD and LCD pixels distorting things.

The things you said above are simply not true.

Mantis has autofocus, because it enhances the superb focal mechanisms of your eyes. A video system removes your biological autofocus.

I posted pics taken with Mantis and Dino. Why don't you post some pics taken with your rig.

That almost sounds like 'be as stupid as you can' :-)

I'm 52, so I buy good health insurance. If I were young and single, I might very well save the money to buy a house instead. I might lose big, but OTOH if things went well, I'd be way ahead. Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Offtopic: I'm not so sure a house is a good investment. If prices are booming for several decades people forget a house also ages, needs to be maintained and eventually must be replaced. Professional investors always tell you to spread your risks. How do you do that with one house? What if the neighbourhood goes bad? Or there simply is no demand for houses?

Most of us buy them to live in, because we prefer being owners to being tenants. The modern tendency to apply financial leverage to one's domicile is a big part of the problem.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Around here, that's in the same metro area. That's about the same distance to my favorite Greek restaurant... a 38 minute drive ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Yep. That's the big advantage over any other optical inspection system. I find it make it much easier to get the iron and solder to meet at the component, too. ;-)

Yeah, the lack of a focus knob is my biggest complaint. It cost me a lot less than that. ;-)

It doesn't seem that they make the larger units anymore. I think I specified the 4x and 8x.

It sure works for my eyes.

partner

I paid about 30 cents on the dollar for the Mantis, but the rest of my stuff averages more like 2 cents. I needed it ASAP for some actual paying work for a large Far Eastern electronics manufacturer, so I couldn't be as patient as I usually can.

The project was a biochip preamp that needed to measure 1 nA in 100 MHz bandwidth. A current of 1 nA is 6.2E9 electrons per second, so the theoretical maximum SNR of this measurement is 6.2E9/(2*100 MHz) = 31 (15 dB), which is the number of electrons received in a half-cycle of the high frequency limit.

I got within about 6 dB of that in a built-up circuit, which I'm pretty happy with.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs