DIY Desktop Video Microscope for Micro Soldering

[phunguss]

I don't know the limit of photo attachments, so I will make this post multi-part.

Part 1:

After seeing some of the amazing repair work that people do on YouTube, I have been wanting to get a digital microscope. Trying to get by with these things is just not making the cut anymore.

I have a cheap reflow box and I picked up an Aixum T3A micro soldering station from eBay for $80. But throwing in another few hundred dollars for a bi/tri-nocular is not in my budget. Being the DIY'er that I am, I thought about this for a while and fell back on some photography knowledge : the Reverse Macro lens. I have used these in photography as well as a set of belows for adjusting field of focus and macro photography. I have a few lo-res webcams for telescopes (no lenses attached) and thought I would try it with an old lens.

All of my photography equipment is Canon, so this Nikon lens was donated to me by one of my sisters and I could not just throw it out. So this is the base of my microscope. Here is a lo-res webcam I used to test some ideas.

I 3D printed a lens cap style cone to attach them together and keep the extra light out.

A view of them assembled.

Now I have not figured out the arm at this point, so I took some shots handheld.

Not bad... but contrast was very poor. So I dug around and found a higher resolution webcam (1080p) with an attached lens.

While this camera does have an adjustable lens, it just does not get close enough.

When adjusted correctly for focus, it is about an inch away from the keyboard, so no room to actually work on anything as well as a limited amount of zoom.

But using it with my reverse lens, I get much better contrast than the lo-res camera.

Again, this was handheld, so not as sharp of focus as desired.

 

[phunguss]

Part 2:

The cone attachment and the lo-res telescope camera have some room for adjustment. By moving the camera closer to the lens, you adjust the focus and zoom. With the 1080p camera, I had to disassemble everything and remove the built-in lens.

I abandoned the cone idea, and decided to use my Belows as I don't use it much anyways. It had canon mounts on both sides, so I removed those and 3D printed pieces to connect the 1080p cam and lens threads to screw on the Nikon lens.

The camera mount.

And a cap to stop stray light.

Of course a light ring will be helpful.

I have some leftover flexible LED light strips from my shelving project, so I will use that. I will have inner and outer ring strips in there as well.

What it looks like all together

Now for the arm or stand... I have some old chemistry stands, and I decided to use one of those. I have not 3D printed all the parts yet, but I will post updates when completed.

Here is a shot without any lighting. Plenty of room between the lens and the materials for working.

A damaged AGP card I hope to resurrect:

And what the camera sees:

As close as I can get:

That still gives me 3-4 inches of room to solder.

More later!

 

[phunguss]

Part 3:

Just to show the original Belows with the Canon connectors I removed:

I finished the 3D mount with a nice tri-wing knob on it so I can move it up and down the chemistry stand much easier. Then I soldered in the light ring. Rather than go all out, I decided to have three options: inner ring, flat face, outer ring.

There is a 12V PWM DC motor controller used as a dimmer. Then a Binary Output Dial Push Wheel Switch (mine has positions 0-6, I would have preferred 1-7, but whatever). This gives me the options:
0 - off
1 - inner ring (6 inches of LED strip)
2 - Flat surface (12 inches)
3 - Inner + Flat (18 inches)
4 - Outer ring (12 inches)
5 - Outer + Inner (18 inches)
6 - Outer + Flat (24 inches)
So all 3 are never on at the same time. It is not a matter of power draw, but a limit of the switch I had on hand. I could have used an arduino or some other logic controller, or 3 individual pushbutton switches, but I went with this weirdo for now.

At the max zoom, I have about 3 inches of working space.

At the farthest/widest view, I have about 10.5 inches of working space.

Maybe I will 3D print a opaque cover for the light ring to diffuse it a little, maybe not.

 

[phunguss]

Part 4:

Completed assembly and all parts 3D printed.
Overall view:

Closeup of the light control... I had 3D printed the case to include external buttons, but they did not move far enough so I clipped them off. Back to using a toothpick or paperclip to push the buttons. I will likely just use it in 'mode 6' anyway.

The light ring in mode 6.

Zoomies next!

Lets start normal wide: 11.5 inches with the chemistry stand rod being about 20 inches long, and both mounts still on the chemistry rod.

Even wider, it's a bit risky because only the bottom mount is on the chemistry rod. 17.5 inches

Danger zone!

Closest focused zoom is about 2 inches, not really enough room to solder around, but a good measure of max.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

That is an absolutely fantastic build. Thank you for sharing

 

[Kai Robinson]

So when can we expect a kit version for us plebs?

 

[phunguss]

So when can we expect a kit version for us plebs?

The thing is that I had all these random parts laying around from other projects, life, and hobbies... It would probably be cheaper to just buy the outright scope and be done with it. This was a learning experience, and a way to repurpose some things I had on hand without money out of pocket. These things you could probably find in a 2nd hand store, a surplus store, or just rummaging around your own inventory of stuff... otherwise purchasing might be something like this:

Camera Belows, about $30 on eBay
Chemistry stand about $45 on eBay
1080p webcam $2-15 almost anywhere
LED light strips $10 on eBay
PWM controller $3 on eBay
50mm lens $10-30 on eBay
BCD switch $6-12 on eBay or use an arduino, or 3 separate switches, or just wire all 3 together on the PWM dimmer.

I can supply STL 3D models of what I used, but they likely would need some adjustment based on the exact parts you have for this project.