We have a Dinoscope AM413ZT with a little stand. It is a useful tool, but not in the same league as the tools mentioned in this thread. We use it to communicate questions and problems. A picture is worth a thousand words. I can take my laptop and the camera to the problem, capture an image add some notes, take some rough measurements and send the image to an interested party in minutes. http://www.bigc.com/ -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Gold, Scott Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 8:29 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Trinocular Scope With Display Slightly off-topic - There are some relatively inexpensive USB microscopes out there that go to 200x. Has anyone tried these? I'm working on a project right now where I need to inspect things down in the .001" range and funding is low. http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/923a/ for $200 http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/9955/ for $350 --Scott -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bev Christian Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 7:49 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Trinocular Scope With Display Joe, That is quite an ambitious range! Why don't you start with seeing what you can do for circuit packs and component inspection and leave component FA for another day? To do the latter you better have deeeeep pockets, because you will need more than what I am going to suggest! We have: 1) Nikon Eclipse MA100 metallurgical microscope with a Digital Sight Ds-Fi1 Camera. Images are brought up on any CRT or LCD screen of a computer married to the scope system. 2) Hirox KH-7700 digital microscope with an endoscope, plus a MX-10C (high power lens), a lower power lens (number obscured by support rod) and an MX 5030RZ II lens for angle viewing. These four lenses are all on different stands and have an interchangeable 14 MB camera which gives awesome images on the monitor. None of the above is tri or even binocular. The former is mono plus the display and the latter only has display. Bev RIM -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kane, Joseph E (US SSA) Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 2:16 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] Trinocular Scope With Display I may have an opportunity to put together a decent inspection station for our lab. The choices out there have my head spinning, maybe some of you have experience or recommendations to share. Not sure what we'll have to spend, but this system will be used partly for customer presentations, so I'm hoping we can do it up right. This would be used for everything from FA on components, to solder inspection on boards, to looking inside small chassis. Need capability for image capture, and maybe a nice big screen so others in the room could see. Optics - Trinocular, zoom, good depth of field/working distance, magnification from about 5-7x up to about 40-50x. Some have a lever that disables one of the binocular eyepieces whenever you want the camera to work, and I think this is a pain. In the archives I saw a recommendation for a Meiji EMZ-8TR - any others? What about a 0.5x objective lens to increase working distance? Stand - Articulating, single or double boom arm? Counterweight? Swivel? Biggest pain I've had is adjusting the Z height easily. Usually you have to release the slip ring, lower it, retighten, then release the head, and drop it down on the slip ring, sometimes heavily. Is there any easier way to adjust? Screen - maybe around 40". LCD, so no burn-in. Camera - CCD or CMOS? Resolution? Output? What about Sony? Some might think we'd be better off with a good hi-res digital still camera. C-mount? Either way, is it realistic to expect that the image would be close to what we see through the eyepieces? Lighting - Probably a ring light and moveable fiber optic arms. Anything new being done with LED's? Polarization? Any hints for picking up tin whiskers? Image Capture - Any special kind of card in the PC? Software? Probably output in bitmap, convert to JPG. Don't need PhotoShop, but some basic image processing will be helpful. Joe Kane BAE Systems Johnson City, NY --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- This transmission (including any attachments) may contain confidential information, privileged material (including material protected by the solicitor-client or other applicable privileges), or constitute non-public information. 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