not to go too far off thread, but one thing i’ve wanted is to be able to overlay the design over the boards, so i started putting something together, spent about 20 minutes to parse the eagle xml and draw it, so far so good. i’ve added the tracking and that in, so just have to hook up all the rest…
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i wanted dual video output from the camera, so i ordered this box, and confirmed it works with the camera, 2k monitor and capture card.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions and thoughts. I went for the Amscope SM-3T with the 144 LED light ring. The optical quality is fantastic. – Seems as good as the Nikon with the fiber optic light ring I had at my last day job. I can’t wait for financial justification for a camera!
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Nice!
I just moved and I’m setting up a somewhat similar configuration to yours. I’m a hot air user though.
Hot air is on the wish list. I started a thread on the topic last month. I am waiting until I have a customer or R&D requirement before I buy.
I like the microscope cover. But, the table is a little to clean to be doing any work!
I just set it up yesterday 
. I haven’t actually built anything on it, yet, and I still need to add an outlet in order to get electricity to it.
Microscope cover also serves as a banya hat.
I have the AmScope SM-4TZ-144A here, very similar, plus the USB camera. Feeding the camera to a desktop monitor works great for inspection or extended periods of heads-up detail work. Also use an OptiVisor and a illuminated 7x aspheric hand magnifier, sometimes both in series.
Hey Darryl (or anyone else that might know) -
I have always avoided the ring light illuminators because I WANT shadows. If gives depth/3D to what I’m doing so I can see how far the part is off the board as I place it. Plus it shows defects better when trying to show a supplier. So I’ve always used directional light sources. Well, I need something better than I’m using today for my AmScope.
So, I see the SM-4TZ-144A has a ring light that has 4 zones and claims to be able to show shadows, etc. How does it work? Does it really work as claimed? Occasionally, having a full ring would be nice but good directional light is a priority. So, how well does that work?
Thanks,
Keith
the amscope ring light i have on my boom scope has the three circles of leds at slight angles with a narrow beam, they cast somewhat of a shadow i can grab some pics if it helps, though not always easy to capture
LEDs are controlled by quadrant, each independently switched with the 4 arrow buttons. The level can be set with the +/- buttons. So you should be able to cast shadows in 4 directions.
yeah it’s really neat, there are a couple versions now. it’s 1K per year for the desktop app and since its in my wheelhouse i ended up just rolling my own. i should tidy it up and throw it on github, its one of those apps that has just grown in specific utility for my use case so i may try to do a specific version. it started off as an app to measure circles.
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The fact that that’s in your wheelhouse is impressive! I’d be interested in a macro version for inspectors checking large assemblies.
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apologies to the thread for off-topicness, but here is a stitched image from my eakins with an auto XY table. i’m still in dev with it but its pretty basic capture, move, capture, stitch(with helion at the moment) my next step is to have the focus stack + the xy capture.
also apologies for dust and what not, but we’re in socal so fire, and we just had insulation and drywall work so our place is dust central at the moment.
i’m driving a tinyg to control the xy, a stickvise to hold the pcb and a couple of Amazon.com held together with a 3d printed block. i didn’t overlay the pcb schematic since i’m working on the camera control side.
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I am shopping for the HAYEAR 34MP also. I have a setup with a microscope, but it’s annoying to dismantle wires etc when I need to do a modification
@ChrisGammell: Seems like you have a camera distance of at least 60cm. Do you need other special lense than than the 0.5x to do that?
I use the one that comes with it, I’m not sure if it’s 0.5x or what. It’s a pretty long lens though, physically.
One thing that helps is even if you are further away, the digital zoom will make up the difference. It’s adjustable up to 5x. There is some image degradation, but nothing terrible.
I was having a bunch of trouble with the clamp solution I was using, since it was actually two of the clamps coupled together. They really didn’t hold the position very well, especially in the “pointing straight down” orientation.
It was disappointing the manufacturer didn’t put a mounting screw hole on there, but I suppose this is what I got a 3D printer for, right?? 
I modeled a couple different holding solutions and 3D printed a holder.
Pretty happy with the final product:
If anyone wants the STL, let me know
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After reading all of this and talking to a friend of mine, I purchased:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RNCQJG3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
from this thread, but it seems I have to get extremely close to get the maximum magnification. Am I doing something wrong? I was a bit disappointed because until now I have been using something like: Helping Hands Soldering With LED Magnifier and USB Fan, 3 Brightness LED Third Hand Tool Station with 6 Flexible Gooseneck Arm Heavy Metal Base for DIY Craft Solder Detailed Electronics Repair Jewelry Office Supplies Office Instruments Magnifiers
(I can’t find the Amazon link for the one I actually bought).
I noticed that none of you guys used anything like that, but I was hesitant to jump all the way to a double boom microscope.
My helping hands magnifier seems to get better magnification without me having to bend over the board.
I suppose I have a two part question:
- Am I doing it wrong?
- It it worth the plunge to get the nice new AmScope? I just don’t want to get caught up with shiney! new! syndrome, spend a bunch of money, and then use something else.
My eventual goal is to be able to make boards with FPGA’s on them. I realize that I will probably pick and place for those chips, but I hear that I will have to be able to do rework anyway.
those just seem bulkier forms of “reader spectacles” if you have bad eyesight levels of magnification a microscope digital or analog has way more magnification i use those for some desk work assembly to help with worsening vision but yes you need to hold the thing close to your face for it to work , higher the magnification the close you have to get
i use the digital camera/monitor version the most nowadays, i have the boom trinocular amscope and a mantis scope but i just prefer the camera because it offers way more features and gets in the way less.
the mantis i prefer to amscope for rework since its “3d” but its a lot more expensive even in the used fleabay market though the mantis i have is a bit more cumbersome to deal with space wise than a boom microscope since its really meant for production setups