Andonstar AD409 Microscope For Board Repair & Inspection

[@karldunn1464]

I have the AD207 I bought on AliExpress and I absolutely love it. Helps me when soldering on small whoop boards. Image is crystal clear.

[@typxxilps]

totally agree - serves and works the best, but i have the AD208S with 8,5 inch screen

[@martr]

One of your best reviews in terms of structure and objectivity. Thanks !

[@johnk8825]

I receiver the 8.5 inch screen version last Christmas. It definitely makes soldering to smaller pads much easier. I did remove the clips and just stick the board to the base with bluetack.

[@originafreerangechicken]

Way nicer than my cheap 4.3” no-name model. lol. I always planned to upgrade when it fails but the dang thing just won’t die. Regardless, these are great tools to have on the bench.

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic testing and review, Ian! 😃 I definitely want to get one of those some day! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@typxxilps]

I got the AD208S earlier this year before the war when prices were still low the last few days: paid 88€ shipped from Aliexpres warehouse in CZ and arrived within 3 days via dhl Great scope for the money and the work, but your one has an even better software I guess or the UI . Looks different, more crisp and with more features. Just need it for soldering more safely and investigate. Had used the scope not much cause I still quite often use the phone for quick investigation cause the scope is stored in a safer spot and not always on hand. Overall quite impressive even with the cheap display it comes with. And this is also a device on the lower end of the entry models of this market. I simply did not wanna get the cheapest with all the issues and it worked out quite well or met my requirements and overdelivered tbh. Not often these days that I am surprised by a chinese product, last time it was a simple smarthome temperature sensor with an e-iink display and the history of a full year recorded. Quite often you get the opposite, quite good and some cheap components thrown together with an unreadable LCD display cause I also gotten such in the same week , a 2 sensor thermometer for fridges : works OK , but display is a total mess with tiny angles where you can read the measurements and worst of all false labeling. They say Sensor 2 is displayed on the upper line and Sensor 1 is on the second line. It looked like a label misplaced first, but it was not a label, cause all the three switches are labeld in the factory so it must have happened there. You can not scratch it away , just glue a label over the previous one. This Adonstar was a result of your thought back then before you had ordered yours and where you had been askin in a live stream what to buy. the stand works for me great but be aware to tighten the screws that hold the arms that hold the pcb cause mine got once lost already and it was a long and hard search to find it again. This is the biggest tip: tighten that screw or add a small line just to avoid loosing that. You will not always need that and then unscrew it where the mess had started cause when I had screwed it in again after work was done I must have lost that screw / spring / arm which I realized weeks later. I also like the quality of the stand cause it was real metal, looked rock solid and worked great - but I also have to emphasize that mine was about 25% of the value of the one you had checked. You might have also mentioned the price of your optical one for comparison. The 8,5 inch screen of my edition was good enough but I also liked hdmi out great review of a product I love not only for board repairs which I rarely do but it is a great part of the small bench like my cheap loto usb microscope that uses my dji tablet as display cause I could get a 18$ app that worked perfectly with the loto scope instead of the windows software. the android app even supports a lot of sophisticated features like the fft methods and some other stuff like the 8 channel car analyzer which is quite usefull too.

[@ddegn]

I purchased the microscope mentioned by Strange Parts in his "Boy and his Microscope" video. I think my microscope is very similar to your optical microscope. The 'scope I purchased works just fine but it would be nice to have internal recording like AD409 has. For now, I'll stick with the microscope I have but I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on this one. Thanks.

[@aviphysics]

and here I am slamming my head against a magnifying lamp :D. I have been slightly tempted to get something like that though.

[@AlfieDoug]

Can you get a full size mother board on that base plate and move it around or is it only suitable for small circuit boards ?

[@typxxilps]

what do you mean full size mother board ? a big pc mainboard might fit quite good but you might have to unscrew the 2 arms with the springs and then later get those tight back in place cause I had lost one during that adventure. I had a big pcb under it and you have to be aware that you can reach a certain amount of the border of the scope cause there is a limit cause by the distance of the stand mounted on the plate to the optics. To reach deeper into the board you can push or pull the stand and might reach twice as much as before but you will change or loose perspective. To avoid that: There is a work around you can understand watching the still a 4:10 You have to remove the plate and build your own horizontal plate and longer horizontal arm to move around and get deeper over the mainboard. If you have a deeper one then that is your only choice but it is quite easy and cheaply to improve cause you simply need a bigger plate (in my case 3 times bigger) and a horizontal kind of arm that is screwed to the plate but puts the arm about 25 mm above the plate to reach over the pcb and its components like the BMS I had gotten. The stand is connected to the arm and there is a second pivot point cause with 2 such piivot points you can reach any position on the board. But you can not expect such solution shipped from china cause shipping cost would kill the benefit. My AD208S was about 88€ shipped from CZ warehouse in february before the war broke out and it worked fine even though with a bit smaller 8,5 inch display. I often had thought that I would loved to have my tablet used instead of that display but then you would have lost those buttons in the frame of the display and the stand would not be as stable cause each tablet is different. Might have worked for some but not all of them like for example the ipad family but not the huge variety of android tablets. For a quick and fast investigaiton these are great. If you need more you simply have to connect a monitor but that will take a lot of space, also your working position cause soldering on the pcb and looking to the right on a monitor had not worked out for me at least If you consider that then you will need a monitor arm and move your monitor above the display of the scope to look up and work below and look down from time to time. You can not do that if you have to turn your upper body to the side to watch on the big screen on the right of the scope. But get the cheaper and smaller one just to start with cause they feel quite good for such repairs with smd components like on our bms.

[@AlfieDoug]

@@typxxilps You understood well enough to answer my question thanks.👍

[@fj1100mark]

Well I clicked on your link and it gave lots of details but no prices when you click on where to buy in the main menu. It says you can buy Amazon or AliExpress and then you can find the prices out from there

[@typxxilps]

he had added a search linke that showed you the current available AD409 microscopes cause they simply sell out quite fast and the one link would be outdated or sold out. You have to press control + f and type ad409 to find all AD409 and its prices cause aliexpress and sort by price does not always work especially if you search with a 2 word expression. If you go to aliexpress and simply search for ad409 only then you will get a smaller list of right results and not all the other andonstar microscopes. Aliexpress search is the biggest mess so be aware that sometime aliexpress hides results from you. To avoid that there is only 1 trick how I got behind it: do a google search for each item you want to find on aliexpress and then jump to the shopping tab of the resullts and there sort by price for example search for ad409 site:aliexpress and the usual . and a com Now you will see some even cheaper options of aliexpress offers aliexpress does not show to you in their search engine. You always need to be aware of that the fastest result and best price can only be found by usually using google search and the shopping option. If you are inside aliexpress the sort criteria by order can make sense in the hope that the swarm has bought from the cheapest and that the seller had not changed his price position meanwhile. Sometimes the shop that had sold the most had incredibly high prices which makes you wonder how that shop could have sold 10 times more than all the other together. Simply in a batch sale for a very low price and high volumes that brought him to the top - and then he increases the price in the hope for some that will buy not checking any further for lower prices.

[@fj1100mark]

@@typxxilps my iPhone doesn’t have a control button and I didn’t need all that explanation I found it on Amazon. I said I found it on Amazon it’s 400 quid

[@lasersbee]

Must be Expensive.... No prices on their website you linked to...

[@marcel4679]

330 USD from what I've seen on amazon

[@typxxilps]

check it again on aliexpress and search just for ad409 and you will find this. On Amazon these items sell out quite fast and then it say unaavailable or no stock and no price depending on what the vendor has setup. Aliexpress dealers do have them still in stock and his link is working but you can better search for ad409 only to avoid all the other addonstar models in that search list. Best offer today is about 409€ incl. shipping to europe and VAT, but there could be an additional custom fee for items above 150€ therefore I went for the cheaper one back in february the AD408S for 88€ from CZ warehouse tax and customs free and arrvied in 3 days via DHL. works great, uses same stand or mount and mostly everything looks same or similiar, only display was 8,5 inch and maybe the camera is a different one. But for me the cheaper one has worked out. Be aware that my order had been 2 weeks before the war broke out cause since then prices have roughly increased by 50% due to its shipping costs mainly caused by the packaging and its volume caused by the stand annd all the components. But if you search for 208S be aware that there are 2 different versions sold under the same name or traps / scams for 65€ (5,5 inch display and cheap crap camera) and a 115€ version with the 8,5 inch screen.

[@typxxilps]

Aiexpress cheapest offer for the AD208S is about 114€ right now if you search for AD208s and then sort by order. The AD409 is far more expensive about 409€ right now, while the closest is the AD 407 pro which also includes hdmi for about 240€. I also had gotten the AD407 pro for the hdmi out but I could not work with a monitor on the side. I would have needed a monitor arm to place that above the microscope to solder. You can not work in front of you while looking to the side on a monitor cause even the tiny delay makes you crazy. If you move your head a bit the soldering tip will have moved too a tiny bit but too much for smd components.