Recommend a stereo zoom binocular microscope

[NYJimbo]

I am doing alot of chip level work with laptop motherboards and have found that I can no longer use a combination of loops, magnifying glasses, penlights, etc. to get in to do tight work. Its either too clumsy or is killing my eyes or neck.

What I really want to get is a stereo zoom binocular microscope, the kind that is on a boom where I can pull it in to do SMD work, especially when I am trying to verify high density package rework. Its just too risky with a handheld mag or loop and if you send power to the laptop and you spanned the pins on a resolder you can kill a mobo dead in seconds.

Anyone using something like this?. I want to keep it below $800 if I can. It doesnt have to be a trinocular for a digital camera, but that would be nice. I would also like real life experience, not just recommendations from other people.

I am wasting too much time with my current setup. Last night a guy brought in a dead DV4000 and I found a tiny mosfet loose in the chassis. With a handheld mag I was hunched over the board for half an hour until I found where it came from. With a stereo zoom bi or tri it would be less hunching over and squinting. You can only do so many hours of that per day.

 

[studiot]

Have you ever tried one?

I think mine is a Meiji, though I don't use it much for board work. You soon run out of field of view.

A good alternative is a (usb) microscope camera. The screen size and field of view is better.

I bought special lenses years ago for my 8mm video camera and still use them with adapters on its successors. But you can get it all in these days.

Happy to dig out some details if you like.

 

[NYJimbo]

Have you ever tried one?

yes, I have tried three so far, but they were in the $1500+ range.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I use a 5X magnifier with circular florescent lamp and find it a good balance between magnification and field of view. Perhaps you've already tried that and find it too cumbersome.

 

[coreyspeed]

we have an older model of this at work it works really well and is much more comfortable to use than the old microscope we had.

http://www.visioneng.com/elite_overview.php?PHPSESSID=561e3f0fc34ef8065b4a6a0080305882

 

[atlanticjim]

I have been using these. . . very comfortable, my regular (bifocal) glasses fit underneath. The little lights on the side are useless.
And my wife loves the geeky look.

All this for only $8.00 USD at Ace Hardware

Features
head magnifying glass with dual light
magnifying glass with adjustable dioptry: 1.8 / 2.3 / 3.7 / 4.8 by making a combination of the glasses
Specifications:
power supply: 4 1.5V AA batteries (not incl.)
dimensions: 7.9" x 2.4" x 5.5"
weight: 5.3oz/

 

[NYJimbo]

Thanks, I either have all the small stuff or have tried it. I really need something for very tight, up close work. I will look around for a forum that might use this stuff and see what they say.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I just tried a web cam for close-up inspection and it's helpful if you need to document something tiny, but it's no better than a good loupe if all you need is close-up inspection. The following pics are of a few components on a Dell 1525 MB. To provide scale, the spacing of the pins in the one pic is 0.4mm. The second pic is the DC jack, re-inserted into the MB after it had been removed just to see if this set-up could help examine solder joint quality. The cam is capable of even closer focus and more magnification, but getting that close around 3-dimensional objects is problematic, given the spherical housing of the cam and the way it obstructs the light. A home-brew LED ring-light might do the trick. I just used an LED flashlight for this trial. Fun, but not very practical.

 

[KompuKare]

I don't even do any solder work but...

... years ago I worked in a medical devices factory and we used to do inspection and rework work using mostly Leica stereo microscopes
(I do not remeber the exact models but similar to these:
http://www.google.co.uk/images?um=1...scope&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=)

AFAIR, they were okay for rework up to around x20 after that they became increasingly hard to use because keeping the area of interest focused get very hard then. For inspection, they were okay up to around x50.

This was for medical devices (mainly plastic coated hypotybes and similar) and not electronics. The problem I thinks the normal thing of trying to keep anything in focus at those kind of magnifications and probably more importantly, the fact that maximum dimension of anything under inspection cannot really be too deep because of the stand which is around 150mm behind the focal point.

One other thing which was used at this place too were high-res analogue cameras hooked up to a mono monitor. That lost a good bit of detail and was mainly done for speed of working (this was a factory...)

Don't think any of the above is that is particularly useful to NYJimbo though. I wonder if any digital electronic microscope exist which can auto-focus maybe by having multiple optics offset in depth by a mill or so.