Go for stereo microscope, but be careful. Here atre my practical
experience:
1. if you have larger PCBs, you'll need longer arm for microscope, but
here the cheap crap is useless. It's not rigid and picture will shake.
Good arm for at least 50cm working area will cost you more than few
cheap stereo microscopes.
2. Don't look for magnifications larger than 15-20. It's enough for 0201
or 0.5mm pitch. Normally, x5 is most commonly used for all work.
3. Look for good illumination. Cheap bulbs are useless. I replaced with
power LED - it's like night and day.
4. Get good grip or holding tool with heavy base, which will hold your
PCB in place. For hand soldering QFNs it's very practical to tilt the
PCB, but you'll have to move it 4 times for each chip - get holder with
handy quick release.
5. ... I can't remember anything else at the moment. That's all which is
usually under my microscope, beside good soldering station, good
tweezers, flux gel, gull wing tips for my weller, desoldering wick...
... ...
That's for hand soldering work.
M.
javaguy11111 pravi:
>
>
> Go for a stereo zoom microscope. If they have them, get one with a
> camera mount on it. Then you can mount any kind of camera you want.
> When I bought mine, I also got the movable boom. It adds to the cost
> some, but makes it much nicer to use and put the scope exactly where
> you want it.
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> <mailto:Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>, "mcjonster" <mcjonster@...>
> wrote:
> >
> > I'm looking for suggestions on a decent stereo microscope. There are
> many options on ebay but I have no idea what is good for SMD PCB work.
> >
> > It'd be nice to be able to solder or fix stuff as well as inspect.
> >
> > Also, I was thinking that maybe a good option would be a digital
> microscope like this one:
> http://www.carsonoptical.com/Pocket_Microscopes/Pocket_Microscopes/MM-480B
> <http://www.carsonoptical.com/Pocket_Microscopes/Pocket_Microscopes/MM-480B>
> >
> > I always seemed to have problems looking through a microscope lens
> as whenever I blink I'd see my eyelashes and stuff but I probably just
> didn't know what I was doing.
> >
> > Anyway, it sounds like a good idea to get a digital one which I
> could hook up to my netbook. Any experiences/suggestions?
> >
>