
Micro Soldering Microscopes - walterbell
https://microsolderingsupply.com/blog/2017/07/17/micro-soldering-microscopes-everything-you-ever-needed-to-know/
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LeifCarrotson
They don't list it, but a critical feature of their microscope is the stereo
or binocular eyepieces, which allow you to see depth. Single-eyepiece lab
microscopes do not let you see how high or low the soldering iron tip is from
the board!

A TL;DR:

1\. Binocular microscope to see depth.

2\. 4" or greater working distance, achieved with a Barlow lens, not <1" as on
other microscopes.

3\. The best and brightest ring light you can afford.

4\. Stable mount.

Also, with regards to #3, I found their recommendation of LED ring lights odd:

> At $30/each and requiring us to keep a few in stock in case one blew, we
> found that although halogen lights made it easier and clearer when examining
> motherboards, the reliability, flexibility, and low operating cost of LED
> lights prevailed in the end.

Surely $30 every 3-4 months is a tiny fraction of what their work is worth. I
pay that without hesitation, because the light is just better. Also, the 200W
heat of the halogen bulb is far away, at the end of a fiber optic cable, while
the 40W of LED lights is right under my eyes and near my hands, and I have a
gentle fan to move soldering fumes away so only the latter is bothersome.

~~~
lmilcin
I have a condition where I don't have stereoscopic vision. This poses a
problem when doing fine SMD.

I am using a camera connected directly to a monitor to reduce lag. This allows
me to see both the monitor and the board at the same time, without moving my
head. I see the board an the tip at an angle allowing me to judge the height.
When soldering, I will mostly look at the monitor and regularly scanning to
see the height of the tip.

The bigger problem is with placing fine components on the board. It's just
slow and irritating. I will position the component in its location and then
slowly bring it down until it touches the paste.

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mhei
Could it help to have a point-like light source from a good angle that gives
you a sharp shadow? Then it may be possible to judge distance based on the
distance between the tip and its shadow.

~~~
lmilcin
Haven't thought of that. I will investigate, thanks for the tip!

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toomanybeersies
I was a solder monkey for a summer, and did a fair bit of soldering at
university. I also have pretty marginal vision and can't even read out of my
left eye without correction.

I found that with practice, you don't actually need magnification for SMT
soldering. I can solder down to 0603 without magnification. I have also never
used fine point irons, since I was taught how to solder SMT using a medium
point. Trying to solder individual connections is a waste of time, use flux to
direct the flow of solder, and desoldering braid to clean up the excess. Good
lighting was my most important tool for good soldering.

On the occasions I did use magnification, I found the best tool was the big
stand mounted magnifying glasses with a light ring. We had a really fancy one
at university that gave you really good stereo vision using some magic.

~~~
analog31
_I found that with practice, you don 't actually need magnification for SMT
soldering._

Youth is wasted on the young. ;-)

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555h
I've recently moved to an eyepieceless microscope, and it's really quite an
improvement over traditional stereo eyepiece microscopes. They are made for
SMD work and part inspection, and generally max out at 20x (which is plenty of
magnification for SMD work).

To see into the microscope, you look straight ahead into a viewing window.
There's a huge margin of error for head position; you can move your head
around quite a bit and still keep the image visible. Additionally, it's much
less strain on your back, as you're not hunched over. Your focus distance when
looking into the microscope is the same as when you glance down at the work,
significantly reducing eye strain. These microscopes can also be used with
glasses. (Quick summary video here[1])

One of the coolest parts of this setup is that you can actually change your 3D
view of the object simply by moving your head around. You can actually "look
around" the magnified object. It's hard to describe how impressive this is --
experiencing it in real life is quite astonishing.

As far as I know, there's only one eyepieceless microscope on the market: the
Mantis. Buying these new[2] is very expensive ($3000, plus $500 per objective
lens), due to the massive optics inside the unit. However, you can find the
older models on eBay for $500, sometimes even including some objective lenses.

I recently got a cheap one from eBay that needed a bit of repair, and now have
it mounted to my bench for general inspection and SMD work. If you end up
going this route, I recommend replacing the MR11 halogen bulbs with LED bulbs.

Dave Jones (of EEVblog) is a big fan of this, and has a good video describing
it[3].

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpN83dv0f7Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpN83dv0f7Q)

[2] [http://www.visioneng.us/products/stereo-
microscopes/mantis-e...](http://www.visioneng.us/products/stereo-
microscopes/mantis-elite-3d-eyepieceless-inspection-microscope)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3o0EWHEH08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3o0EWHEH08)

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toomanybeersies
We had one of those at university. They are an order of magnitude nicer to use
than a normal stereo microscope. It takes a little bit of getting used to the
magnification and your hand/eye coordination, but I could happily use it for 8
hours with no pain.

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dbrgn
For hobbyists that don't use the microscope every day and don't need stereo
optics, I can warmly recommend the Andonstar ADSM201 (around 160$ from China).
Look on Youtube for reviews, the image quality is great and it can be
connected directly to a HDMI screen!

Edit: There's also a guy on Ebay selling polarized lenses for it to get rid of
reflections.

~~~
lmilcin
ADSM201 is nice but don't buy it! Buy ADSM302 instead ($299 from AliExpress).
It is recent addition and leaps and bounds better than ADSM201.

~~~
dbrgn
Looks really nice, but it's also double the price. For me, the upgrade from
the Andonstar A1 (40$) to the ADSM201 (160$) was definitely worth it, optical
quality is massively better. But from ADSM201 (160$) to ADSM302 (300$), I'm
not sure.

Also, from 300$ it's not that much more that you'd need to pay for a proper
stereo microscope.

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mitchty
Reminded me of this recent marco reps video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EfMRKujWAY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EfMRKujWAY)

Of which, great youtube channel to subscribe to.

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the-dude
To solder SMD, I use a 'reading aid' from Tieman.

Example : [http://www.dlf-
data.org.uk/product.php?product_id=0033982](http://www.dlf-
data.org.uk/product.php?product_id=0033982)

~~~
eveningcoffee
How do you fix the misalignment in your head?

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the-dude
Not sure what you mean with misalignment.

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stan_rogers
That would be the "what you're looking at isn't where you're working" thing.
And, like using a Wacom pad or similar device, it's really an easy thing to
get used to quickly.

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hahamrfunnyguy
I have an AmScope stereo microscope. It certainly gets the job done for me.
For the amount of time I spend using it, I am very happy with it and glad I
didn't buy anything more expensive.

One of the PCB assembly houses I use has purchased some AmScope stereo
microscopes. They use them as "backups" for their higher-quality microscopes
and have them sprinkled through the plant so they'res always a microscope near
by and you don't have to walk far.

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madengr
I have that same Amscope setup, but without the camera monocular. Working
distance is key for an inspection/soldering scope; the more the better.

The ring LED is not strong enough. Go with the fiber light, though the
potentiometer crapped out on mine and I had to replace it. It’s not UL listed
either.

Can take decent pictures just holding a camera up to the eyepiece, through
lose about 1/2 the field of view.

You can get fiber LED, but those are $1500 themselves.

