EEVblog #1125 - Amazing $500 Soldering/Inspection Microscope!

This sub US$500 Eakins microscope from Aliexpress seems identical to the new AU$1800 Suba Engineering microscope for 1/3 the cost.
And Dave shows how it can out perform the $4500 Tagarno!

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[luscus]

I have a microscope which I use mainly for inspection, but prefer using my head mount magnifier for microsoldering. I don't know about anyone else but I find it hard soldering looking at a screen rather than looking directly at the PCB.
I lost the vision in one eye last year, (walked into a plasma TV in the dark - yes very ironic; sharp corner right in the eye) also doesn't help as my depth perception has gone. Getting the iron and the solder in the same place is challenging. Having to learn how to solder all over again.
I have my own repair shop so learn and adapt I must.

Big fan Dave. Thanks for all the vids.

[jakp]

I’d like to hear what Suba engineering has to say about all this and their claim that they engineered their camera.

[MathWebs]

To my understanding a power rating is the equivalent area seen magnification. We can take the square-root of the power rating and you can find how many times longer or wider it will appear. For example, an object viewed through 100x will appear 10 times longer or wider.

[sharymens]

Hi there, which microscope do you currently prefer voor smd components?

[rocketmanprojects]

They must have seen your video. They raised the price to $523 now.

[Mosfet]

This is a neat little device. Bang for buck, can't go wrong and I really like the ability to tilt the board and it focuses automatically.

[rh]

Is the eakins camera still the state of the art in this price bracket for someone looking to buy an affordable hobby electronics microscope in 2021?

The killer feature seems to be the auto focus, and it would be golden if there were an easy way to lock/unlock it.

[eakinswu]

We are Eakins sellers, we have reviewed the review, many of our products, thanks to the review of EEVblog

[jmcasler]

Benevolent Overlord Dave, please try soldering with it. Curious if the latency of the display is acceptable for precision work other than just inspection.

[ReinForceOne]

In regards to the capture - I believe that this is some sort of Medical grade HDMI-Signal which is not supported by most capture cards.
Louis Rossmann had a similar issue with his microscope cameras

[jayeahsem]

We have one like this in the lab. Very useful in checking for stray solders and shorts not visible to the naked eye

[bryanswaggbeast]

Please give link for the set of 3 lens. I only see them individually sold.

[juststeve]

What's the maximum focus distance? Could you not at least double the field of view just by sliding it higher up the mounting?

[jsleeio]

I don't use a microscope myself but this left me wondering if a foot pedal controller to activate (or deactivate?) autofocus would be a good addition? That way you'd have both hands free to handle the device being inspected... Maybe could do this with a custom USB HID device?

[vincei]

Thanks to the person that posted a link to an ebay store 5 days ago. I bought one for $599 and it does indeed work. The difference is I got all the components, stand lens, camera, ring light, everything for that price including the DHL shipping from Hong Kong. Just received It and it does actually work! I'll buy the other lenses from the cheapest seller. The auto focus is worth the price alone.

[AmbiguousAdventurer]

Have you tried using ffmpeg to decode the H264 file to a different format and then use open it with the video editor?

[movaxh]

Please test somehow if this is really 60 fps. I.e. by recording LCD display with high speed counter . Some people claim that it doesn't produce 60 fps when recording to SD card. Might be too slow processor to encode stuff fast enough. I wonder if the screen capture with some 1080p60 HDMI to USB video capture card would actually capture full 60 frames per seconds.

[chippy]

You can get a random HD security camera and a Tele-Zoom Lens, add some CS-Mount distance rings and voila you have a 50x Digital Microscope for around 50 Dollars..

[Chriva]

Buuusted! I'd love to hear their explanation :)

[bryanswaggbeast]

Do you have a link for the stand and everything?