DIY Macro PCB Photography

by dsalzmanon 3/17/2024, 1:13 AMwith 19 comments

by s0rceon 3/17/2024, 5:36 PM

Labsmore is a commercial option with open source software, >10x cheaper than the existing microscope vendors. https://www.labsmore.com/

by bschwindHNon 3/18/2024, 6:23 AM

Not quite the same thing, but I use the magnifier tool on iOS for closeup views of PCBs (it's under the accessibility settings).

With flash on, it can give quite a detailed look at your board. You could then strap a macro lens onto your phone if you need even more magnification.

I used to use this and also take still images, but I'm on an older iphone and apple introduced a bug which makes the still image blurry after you capture it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb659_4yIZ0

(I realize the youtube player really sucks for this, the effect is seen in the last second of the video but youtube just _has_ to shove its related videos screen in your face once you get near the end of the video)

by londons_exploreon 3/17/2024, 6:41 PM

What scale is this example?

If those are 5 mil traces with 5 mil spacing, then you might get better performance with a simple smartphone camera. The built in superresoloution algorithms seem to do a decent job on PCB's.

by zokieron 3/17/2024, 8:59 PM

The Hugin output image at the end is pretty rough still :( With all that ado, I was hoping to see better final result

by scientoon 3/17/2024, 8:21 PM

What's the magnification that you can get with such a setup?