Need one of these for fine pitch SMD work. The microscopy groups have deemed just about all made in China to be crap unless they are Zeiss, Olympus, Nikon or Lieca brands. Are there any favorable opinions on cheap Chinese no-name brands used for SMD work?
I use a scope by Meiji and have been VERY happy with it. It isn't Chinese and cheap is a relative term. You didn't specify what your price target it is. The model I have cost about $2000. Often times, though, you get what you pay for, so you might want to consider getting a decent unit, especially if you are going to be using it a lot.
Thanks for the replies.
Hi, I bought a stereo zoom boom off ebay with no problems. Have used it to help repair gold ribbons on N connectors in an S parameter test sets. Have used it a lot to inspect SMD and through hole and to help repair cracked tracks. Used it to inspect HP 8491 series attenuators and HP power sensors that were blown to see if I could repair (yeah right!)
From my limited experience with these - On average, I don't use the scope for multiple hours a day or regularily on a day to day basis, ie every day - I looked for a unit with the greatest working distance I could find, one with reasonable quality objective lense and the eyepieces are up for grabs as you can use any (I stuck with the ones supplied), but made sure they were widefield eyepieces.
By the time I added other magnification eyepieces and the 2nd objective - totalled around $700 inc shipping (CONUS not aus)
If you're going to solder under it, which I haven't done but I haven't needed to work on less than 0603 nor have I needed to rework a 400 pin fpga - but you wouldnt do that under the scope anyway) I expect you'll need a fume extractor at a minimum to protect the objective or perhaps a sacrificial UV filter or similar. This is where I was going to use a ccd (thought about buying a trinocular), so I could look at where I was working, as I haven't mastered the art of disassociating my hand and eyes working through a microscope but I suppose it's a learned skill :)
btw the ebay id I bought from was precision*world
Hope that helps
Cheers Greg
I'd give the Chinese stuff a miss, but the Japanese have been making excellent stereoscopes for decades at much lower prices than the German/Swiss stuff. The one I use has superb optics and is only let down by an insufficiently bright light source (which *one* day I'll fix).
-- "What is now proved was once only imagin\'d" - William Blake
ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.