So I've identified that I need more light too as a general rule. So I've ordered this: https://www.cooksongold.com/Jewellery-Tools/LED-Illuminated-Magnifying-Lamp-Pro-prcode-997-1412 which should be a little more sturdy than the normal amazon lights. I have a 400/800 lumen work light and that's ok but it needs to be close enough to get in the way of soldering. This is adjustable but 6500 lumen when maxed (northern daylight levels). I have the option of using as a quick access magnification although it's low. I may then get a pair of magnifying glasses if needed.
The Mrs has the same issue (mainly light but she also has the same issue with sewing). The idea is to see if this works for us both, and the 4ft reach means she can use when cutting materials on a different table if needed.
I've come to the conclusion I need more light than magnification so anything between 2x to 5x is probably good enough for hand soldering unless I use paste. At which point the old microscope could be used for small PCBs.
The Mrs has the same issue (mainly light but she also has the same issue with sewing). The idea is to see if this works for us both, and the 4ft reach means she can use when cutting materials on a different table if needed.
I've come to the conclusion I need more light than magnification so anything between 2x to 5x is probably good enough for hand soldering unless I use paste. At which point the old microscope could be used for small PCBs.
Oh, I did try something similar and I don't like that at all. I hope does exist such magnifying glasses frame+LED but based on the good quality optic, that would be an ideal tool for me.
As of the microscope lights - I tested a few models and this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1975499754.html turned out the most powerful of them, by a large margin. Used on both of my digital and optical stereo scopes.
Some of my coworkers think I’m weird and agree with you, but there’s a couple in my camp too so I don’t know.
I'll happily go through a bit of fussing to not be hunched over. I guess we choose our pain?
After several unsatisfactory cameras, microscopes and led lights I decided to build my own camera things this way:
Camera and microscope is mounted on microphone stand -> https://www.thomann.de/gb/km_210-9_stativ.htm
Amazing led lights, very good qualitty -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32989490586.html (I decided not to use direct vertical led light like ring led lamp, direct vertical lights produce huge reflection, so I decided to buy something which will not light strictly vertical but from an angle, this one is ideal and nice quality. Polarising booth and things is well done : ))
Auxiliary barlow lens -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32809788262.html
Amazing microscope -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32916828145.html
3x CPL filter 25mm -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33012338593.html filters will be mounted on booth led lamps (with help of thermal tape) + one to microscope, so that all 3 filters can be manualy adjusted to get the most of the polarised light
Camera -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006236848544.html , I'm not satisfied with camera, I'm cheated, seller tolds about IMX sensor inside camera but sensor is Panasonic, not bad but I decided to make my own camera, based on RaspberryPi CM4 and RaspberryPi high quality camera those one with C-mount.
Diy camera filer removal https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/accessories/camera.html#filter-removal
Filter will be put back to my own diy enclosure and camera will be mounted into enclosure including CM4, will contain also an wifi antena, usb, hdmi, sdcard... : )
Hope this help somebody to decide the right thing for their work.
Camera and microscope is mounted on microphone stand -> https://www.thomann.de/gb/km_210-9_stativ.htm
Amazing led lights, very good qualitty -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32989490586.html (I decided not to use direct vertical led light like ring led lamp, direct vertical lights produce huge reflection, so I decided to buy something which will not light strictly vertical but from an angle, this one is ideal and nice quality. Polarising booth and things is well done : ))
Auxiliary barlow lens -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32809788262.html
Amazing microscope -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32916828145.html
3x CPL filter 25mm -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33012338593.html filters will be mounted on booth led lamps (with help of thermal tape) + one to microscope, so that all 3 filters can be manualy adjusted to get the most of the polarised light
Camera -> https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006236848544.html , I'm not satisfied with camera, I'm cheated, seller tolds about IMX sensor inside camera but sensor is Panasonic, not bad but I decided to make my own camera, based on RaspberryPi CM4 and RaspberryPi high quality camera those one with C-mount.
Diy camera filer removal https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/accessories/camera.html#filter-removal
Filter will be put back to my own diy enclosure and camera will be mounted into enclosure including CM4, will contain also an wifi antena, usb, hdmi, sdcard... : )
Hope this help somebody to decide the right thing for their work.
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Sorry to disagree. The first thing that should not be ignored is the direct influence of smoke when the head is above the soldering of the printed circuit board, the fumes are inhaled directly, for this purpose a smoke collector must be purchased, which is not cheap and too bulky, with the camera you can make a sufficient distance from direct inhalation of vapors, even without having smooke collector. Another thing, today's cameras are so advanced that you can literally see objects as they actually look, but you need to find a suitable microscope, such as the one I posted above. As you can see on picture above objects is apsolut 3d and depth.
I also forgot one important thing, any lens is dangerous, it spoils the vision. I switched to digital in time, saved my eyes! Those who do not take this seriously can ruin their health due to impaired vision! I also recommend going out into nature once a week so that your eyesight can recover! I definitely recommend the digital camera to everyone who works on smd! If it is possible to get an OLED monitor, ordinary LED monitors do not have sufficient protection against blue light, they also damage the eyes!
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Come on, blue light is not dangerous! UV light is dangerous. LED and OLED monitors both emit red, green and blue light, that is their function!
Lenses allow you to focus to your most comfortable range, working close without using lenses definitely risks eyestrain, as does inadequate lighting. Working with a monitor loses depth perception. Regular breaks and looking out of a window or into the distance are always recommended for eye health. Not once a week, more like once an hour.
I found this page about ergonomics of using microscopes BTW: https://zeiss-campus.magnet.fsu.edu/articles/basics/ergonomics.html
Lenses allow you to focus to your most comfortable range, working close without using lenses definitely risks eyestrain, as does inadequate lighting. Working with a monitor loses depth perception. Regular breaks and looking out of a window or into the distance are always recommended for eye health. Not once a week, more like once an hour.
I found this page about ergonomics of using microscopes BTW: https://zeiss-campus.magnet.fsu.edu/articles/basics/ergonomics.html
It's more in the technique. I was born cross-eyed and have no idea what normal 3-D vision is like.
My hand-eye coordination is very good. Hand soldering 0.5mm pins is no problem. Good tools help
a lot.
G²
I have it the same way. Trying to do the work under digital (if possible), but always checking under stereo optical.
There is big diferencie between oled and led monitors in relation to backlight! Also see this https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cul...effects-on-your-eyes-sleep-and-health/2022/08
Since you have read/watched the UC Davis report, is OLED better or worse than LCD monitors?
We've been using an OLED TV for 7 years and I got an OLED PC monitor for Christmas. I'm
thinking this is more like "eggs are bad for you" and "margarine is better than butter" in other
words, in 10 years it will turn out to be another "the sky is falling" deal and we'll go back to
butter and eating eggs.
G²
We've been using an OLED TV for 7 years and I got an OLED PC monitor for Christmas. I'm
thinking this is more like "eggs are bad for you" and "margarine is better than butter" in other
words, in 10 years it will turn out to be another "the sky is falling" deal and we'll go back to
butter and eating eggs.
G²
Today oled is the best, tommorow maybe led get better than oled, maybe! https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-offi...-difference-and-is-one-better-than-the-other/ Cheap led monitors is very bad for eyes, I had one cheap 21" from AOC, comparing them with an oled is like day and night.
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Hello all . Interesting discussion is going there ,so i will add my few cents .
A several years ago , needed to repair cheap a phone , change usb socket . It was so problematic , i've had just magnifying glass 8x with small led light at that time,and no mini soldering iron. It took me entire evening...
Later ,another few years ago ,had to solder LTC3440 ,in vssop-10 package,pins are very close there ,and now i had a tool named third hand .It has two magnifying glasses with adjustable position,whose can be used together, and pcb holder (aligator type clips) ,probably most of us know such tool . It was even more problematic ,and after soldering i was unable to properly see a half day (!) .Optics is doing something like discalibrating/disfocusing the eyes ,i was scared ,that i may had damaged my vision .But at another day it was fine ,but i dediced not to risk again any more ,costs of eyes uncomparably more than any microscope . You can't buy new eyes !
After that i have quickly purchased digital microscope with hdmi output ,camera was rated at 32MP (but who knows the truth) ,FHD,and a bit later pc monitor tft ,probably cheapest one .It's like a day and night . Watching to monitor don't disfocus my eyes .If i try to use magnifying glass , i clearly see vision problems after that . Also i notice no lag on monitor ,maybe because it's not usb based (hdmi probably much faster) . So for me no more optical things ,only digital .
Only two things i would like to improve somehow , it's the microscope ring type light , which makes not all prints on smd parts readable ,some needs to be placed at angle ,that was mentioned by another user too . So maybe led light with adjustable light is an option .Another thing is that camera lens is somewhat close to board ,contains no optical zoom ,only digital zoom .But picture is still very clear ,much better if compare to phone camera or magnifying glass .
A several years ago , needed to repair cheap a phone , change usb socket . It was so problematic , i've had just magnifying glass 8x with small led light at that time,and no mini soldering iron. It took me entire evening...
Later ,another few years ago ,had to solder LTC3440 ,in vssop-10 package,pins are very close there ,and now i had a tool named third hand .It has two magnifying glasses with adjustable position,whose can be used together, and pcb holder (aligator type clips) ,probably most of us know such tool . It was even more problematic ,and after soldering i was unable to properly see a half day (!) .Optics is doing something like discalibrating/disfocusing the eyes ,i was scared ,that i may had damaged my vision .But at another day it was fine ,but i dediced not to risk again any more ,costs of eyes uncomparably more than any microscope . You can't buy new eyes !
After that i have quickly purchased digital microscope with hdmi output ,camera was rated at 32MP (but who knows the truth) ,FHD,and a bit later pc monitor tft ,probably cheapest one .It's like a day and night . Watching to monitor don't disfocus my eyes .If i try to use magnifying glass , i clearly see vision problems after that . Also i notice no lag on monitor ,maybe because it's not usb based (hdmi probably much faster) . So for me no more optical things ,only digital .
Only two things i would like to improve somehow , it's the microscope ring type light , which makes not all prints on smd parts readable ,some needs to be placed at angle ,that was mentioned by another user too . So maybe led light with adjustable light is an option .Another thing is that camera lens is somewhat close to board ,contains no optical zoom ,only digital zoom .But picture is still very clear ,much better if compare to phone camera or magnifying glass .
Excatly the same isue I had, general health isue too because of problem with "eyes discalibration". I also had a small space with poor light, similar to what you showed in the picture. : ) There is a problem with balance, confusion, mood, general health problem! Take this seriously! I have reverted back my eyes function but not completely, problem stil exist with small discalibration, I will never ever go back to anything which contain glass.ximikas said:
See post 26 about CPL filter, if you need to clearly see text on chips you will need polarised light! I had vertical light similar to ring leds, vertical lights simply have reflectios to camera so I decided to buy led which will light from angle, that prevent direct vertical reflections but some reflections still exist, but if you polarise booth led and camera you can remove reflection. I will put two cpl filters on my led lamps and one to camera so that I have 3 locations for filter adjustement. Also see this video moght help you ->
polarised light help to remove reflections, for example the most iritating reflections is from flux, filter nice remove them. Idecided to diy polarised light instead of buying an led ring with polarized light.
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Done my diy polarization, very good work! Now I have on 3 items ability to fine tune polarization, on booth two led lights and also on microscope. It is able to remove any reflection and also shadow removal is also possible! A bit of thermo tape is need to fix it on led ligh lamps, good work I'm happy to have this finaly, : )
