I was thinking about for a while, how to attach a microscope to the stickvise. It became handy to have a microscope while soldering tiny SMD parts.
After a few weeks of thinking, tweaking, finally I developed a working prototype.
This is the second version. The first one had a monolithic cross section block, what used to much plastic, wasn't easily printable, and hard to handle.
After I assembled this model just realized a major design flaw. The microscope can't be positioned close to the bar of the stickvise where it is mounted. So I decided to tweak it a bit, so a newer version (v3) will come shortly.
Nope. Even I was running a quick test session tonight with 4 microscopes. I wasn't seen any lagging at all (Core i7 notebook, intel video). Actually I guess that the lagging may produced by the slow machine or the badly written handling software - I used a software written by myself for a work project previously based on aforge.net.
I seen actually two problems with the cheap eBay microscopes:
- too big magnification. 50x minimal magnification make it useless
- lack of polarizing filter. It makes the internal lighting completely useless
I'll write a project log on it tomorrow, as now getting too late here.
I have that scope and the mount that came with it is horrible. This is a great use of a 3D printer. Have you figure out how to get the delay out of the scope? I find it's not possible to solder under it with such a lag.
Have you tried the "Andonstar"-type usb microscope? I've borrowed one and they seem to be better (and less laggy) for PCB use: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=andonstar 500x&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=98&_trksid=p2045573.m1684