USB microscope

[millegps]

Well, magnification index is missing, it's a cinese microscope

btw on the box there's a transparent sheet to do calibration with acquisition software. I have to check how to use it.

About distance, microscope has a transparent head, which is about 2cm height. I just placed it over pcb.

Lens can move, so with the highest magnification optic is at about 1cm from pcb, while on the lowest magnification optic is insire microscope.

There are 8 3mm white leds and you can set light intensity with a potentiometer.
There's also a button to take snapshots.

Some more "funny" pics:

motorola EPROM 2532


Vodafone simcard (not very focused, because I didn't use the stand)

[MAXPAYNE]

millegps,

from where u bought the microscope ? I want to have one. it looks pretty cool !

[millegps]

I bought from a local chinese store in Italy.

You can find for about 20$ (I paid a little more, but I didn't have to wait for shipping).

I'm not sure if I can post direct link, but it's very easy to find on the most popular auction site, if you search for usb microscope, for a price between 20 and 35$.

This is very similar to mine, but it is missing light regulation



edit1:
A few more informations:

Microscope came with software and drivers for windows (tested on windows 7 64) and MAC (not tested).

It is also compatible with linux as UVC camera (I didn't capture with commadn line tools, but I'm sure it is compatible):

dmesg output:

Code:

[1481783.279425] usb 1-1.3: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 18
[1481783.390944] usb 1-1.3: New USB device found, idVendor=0ac8, idProduct=3450
[1481783.390947] usb 1-1.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[1481783.390950] usb 1-1.3: Product: Vimicro USB Camera (Altair)
[1481783.390952] usb 1-1.3: Manufacturer: Vimicro
[1481783.391052] usb 1-1.3: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[1481783.436585] Linux video capture interface: v2.00
[1481783.439918] uvcvideo: Found UVC 1.00 device Vimicro USB Camera (Altair) (0ac8:3450)
[1481783.441706] input: Vimicro USB Camera (Altair) as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/input/input4
[1481783.441809] usbcore: registered new interface driver uvcvideo
[1481783.441813] USB Video Class driver (v0.1.0)

lsusb:

Code:

Bus 001 Device 018: ID 0ac8:3450 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp.

edit2:
Chipset is vimicro VC0345

[calabazas]

Wonder why they don't use better resolution CCD sensor. Lots of that in digital camera and recent mobile phones.

[millegps]

I don't think 1024x768 is so bad. Software can acquire also in 1600x1200, but it's interlaced.
Chipset supports sensors up to 1.3M, so maximum real resolution is 1280x1024. I didn't check which CMOS sensor it has inside, because it's a little hard to access optical parts without cracking.

Today I saw an X-ray inspection system working. It's amazing how you can check a PCB with it!

Wonder why they don't use better resolution CCD sensor. Lots of that in digital camera and recent mobile phones.

[calabazas]

X-ray is good for profile (z) checking. Camera is for surface (xy). Recent CCD is around 2M-10M pixel range.

[Gallymimu]

Wonder why they don't use better resolution CCD sensor. Lots of that in digital camera and recent mobile phones.

You mean CMOS...

[chandra2sekhar2000]

i have ordered one Usb-micro 0 -500x continous zooming..i will be getting it 2 or 3 days.i will try to take few photos and post it...soon