Recommended microscope for starting in SMT?

Chat about pick and place machines, reflow ovens, assembly techniques and other SMT tips & trix

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
markmoran
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 6:47 am

Recommended microscope for starting in SMT?

Post by markmoran »

Adafruit sells at least two USB microscopes, a 5MP one (PID 636) and a sturdier aluminum one (PID 1031) that is more expensive but only VGA resolution? Which do you recommend for a relative noob in SMT? Or is one of those old-fashioned illuminated magnifiers that attaches to a bench better than either?

Thanks.

User avatar
adafruit_support_mike
 
Posts: 67391
Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm

Re: Recommended microscope for starting in SMT?

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

For SMT you need a work envelope more than you need magnification. You want to be able to see an area at least 1.5" square at any time. If you can't, you have to look away from the microscope to get your tools into the viewing area. You want at least 2-3" of clearance between the PCB and the business end of the microscope. If you don't, getting your tools to the parts will be awkward.

Magnification of 3x to 5x is usually good enough. At 2x, the pins of an SOIC chip will appear to have the same 0.1" spacing as a through-hole chip, and at 10x it would look like they're half an inch away from each other and you'd need a 15" screen to get a decent viewing area.

User avatar
brucef
 
Posts: 215
Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 4:51 pm

Re: Recommended microscope for starting in SMT?

Post by brucef »

At 3x or 5x, doesn't a magnifying visor make more sense? That's my preference, at least.

ltest10
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Dec 15, 2013 5:53 pm

Re: Recommended microscope for starting in SMT?

Post by ltest10 »

depends on budget and how serious work is of course, but most important is:

- working distance that is distance from bottom of scope to PCB surface;
- variable magnification (10x - 40x range is fine);

you'll probably want LED illuminator and large mounting surface, or turn
microscope around on mount and work from table. better not deal with
Chinese microscopes, they are blurry at high magnification.

Leica Wild 3B or 3Z, 3x series type is fine; Zeiss is also good ones
(though more expensive); i used to assemble panels with 1000+ components
by hand under microscope, most are 0402 in one day, though it is not an easy one.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “SMT (Surface Mount Tech)”