Taking A Look At The Plugable Microscope!

[@NeilHillard]

I had the same component positioning issue with mine... Then I remembered that I could rotate the base so that the orientation of the camera matches the screen! That makes things much, much easier!

[@stevesfascinations1516]

Good video as always. We all need visual support with these ridiculously small electronic devices!

[@AnotherMaker]

That thing is pretty impressive. I may be ordering one.

[@microcolonel]

Picking one up. They are very clear that it's a UVC camera and works with Linux on the product page (no need for additional software, everything is exposed through the v4l2 UVC parameters); looks like a much more real product overall. I'm going to use it to inspect "new" "unopened" products from eBay, to make sure I'm getting my money's worth. The nice thing about the way I'll be using it, is that I can lock the white balance to the actual measured temperature of my work lamps. Looks like it'll help with other things as well. :+ )

[@microcolonel]

Yup, it helped me detect an eBay counterfeit, just as I had hoped.

[@stanthompson9379]

I use it to compare trichome development on my cannabis plants. This really is an excellent contraption. I’ve been happy with it as well.

[@personaldronerepair6141]

Good use of the equipment

[@larryseibold4287]

i think you overlooked the second focus point. the camera focuses a second time at 4x the magnification of the primary point towards the end of the focus ring. it is hard to use at this magnification, and the contrast is even worse, but it has it uses. This feature is not well documented.

[@StreetWorksMedia]

could you explain how to get this working? I have tried and see no results. thank you

[@larryseibold4287]

@@StreetWorksMedia At the closest distance with the clear shield touching the object, there are two possible magnifications. The first is at around 30x, but if you continue to rotate the focus wheel (to the right), the image will get blurry, then sharp again at around 120x, or 4x of the first focal point.

[@StreetWorksMedia]

@@larryseibold4287 wow thanks, this is really cool

[@simontay4851]

Looks good but the problem i have with all USB microscopes is the lag. There is always significant lag. Also they don't have autofocus or zoom like a proper camera or a way to control it remotely. Thats why i bought a microscrope that connects directly to the TV or PCI capture card via composite. No lag at all. I also have an old DV Camcorder with S-video out that has a LANC port, can zoom in from a good distance with no loss of quality and has good autofocus. Im going to use it as a microscope mounted on a boom arm from the ceiling above my bench.

[@larryseibold4287]

@Simon I am interested in what you ended up with. This one is certainly nice for the price, but i want something more. I want to turn off auto focus and auto illumination (gain). Inspecting while holding in your hand is very hard with these. fist the magnification is a bit too high (30x vs 60x) at 2cm to 5cm, and the lag and auto focus and auto diming make it a pain to use. At high magnification the lack of good contrast kill you (problem with non-stereo optical w/ camera). Looking a a knife edge makes the edge look much worse than it really is, showing all shinny and deep scratches.

[@StreetWorksMedia]

I just got this one in and it works fine. no lag at all and resolution is really high.

[@deankq4adj125]

I have one too, it has worked great for me!

[@electroniquepassion]

Très bien merci 👍✌️🇫🇷

[@cpcnw]

Did you try soldering underneath it?

[@MikeysLab]

I do wish it had a micron scale imposed on the video :( why do the cheap ones never have that?

[@PureBlood42]

The Microscope works great, but a bit laggy. I had no problem using the Microscope with Win7 but Win10 on my laptop keeps thinking the Microscope is my laptop webcam and Win10 sees the Webcam as my Microscope. I've tried everything and just can't seen to fix this. I've even tried totally disabling the webcam and it comes back on every time I restart laptop. I'm still learning Win10 but it seems like the consumer has less control over device management than with the previous versions of Windows.

[@personaldronerepair6141]

Tip of the iceberg. Consumers are losing control by the minute.

[@PureBlood42]

No doubt. I don't use Windows 11... but I've had people tell me that when an update is available and they keep ignoring it, control of their computer will literally be taken over and the updates install against the user's wishes or permissions. 😮

[@MikeysLab]

Sweet, will have to get one, think I will still print a better stand :) Does VLC see it as a video source?

[@SimpleElectronics]

Let me get back to you on that one!

[@MikeysLab]

@@SimpleElectronics It would be under file -> open capture device. This would mean you are not limited by the video resolution of the App for recording :)

[@pileofstuff]

@@MikeysLab It would also mean that this thing has a chance of working in Linux!

[@SimpleElectronics]

It totally works, just tested it!

[@MikeysLab]

@@SimpleElectronics Well that is a plus, I figured it would if it is seen as a webcam, now you can use VLC to record the stream :)

[@wardprocter2371]

Thanks for the interesting video. Is it possible to trigger the camera from the app or just from the button on top of the scope?

[@SimpleElectronics]

The app can do it as well!

[@robertcartier5088]

You mention the cheap ones often... have you actually tried one, or are you just assuming they're crap because they're cheap? Because spec-wise, they beat the crap outta this one, and at 50 bucks(!), I dunno if this one's 480 is enough resolution. Might as well just put a magnifier on my smartphone camera! ;-] But seriously, it would be cool if you had a cheap one to compare it with... then maybe 50 bucks wouldn't seem so high. Indeed, I've seen some for 50 bucks with the same resolution but they have a built-in screen, so no need for a computer!

[@lmaoroflcopter]

I've tried two before buying this pluggable one. My last one was labelled as "HD USB Microscope". It was not HD, it was 320x240 and horrific to use due to being super laggy. So nope they didn't blow this out of the water, you may be confused because this guy didn't actually use the extra magnification point the unit has, the cheap ones may seem to have higher magnification and I'm assuming you mean that's why it may beat it out, but this one does it too you just have to turn the focus knob further, they all suffer from a lack of illumination though even with its built in LED you need to flood the area with light to get decent contrast at that higher magnification. I used mine with my nephew to look at the structure of butterfly wings and with a lit stage (I used my smart phone with a white background open) it worked amazing.