video microscope.

[plunger]

In the Dan Gilbert video on youtube he mentions a video microscope connected to a rear view camera and its real cheap. he uses it on his beautiful weiler lathe for lining up threads etc.
Has anyone done this and what type of equipment is need . ? I wouldnt know what to ask for in terms of geek talk.

[deltap]

I don't have any knowledge of this, but I have witnessed an interesting application. A company that manufactures eye glass blanks uses one on a lathe to partially shape or modify dies for injection moulding the blanks. The machinist watches the screen as he turns the dished part. The rough lenses are then moved onto grinding operations to form exact optical specs.

[qwerty12345]

In the video he mentions he's built these things out of cheap reversing cameras designed to be retrofitted to cars. So you get a little stand-alone battery-powered camera and display. He's obviously added his own optics to it. If I remember correctly, Dan Gelbart made a lot of his money selling an optics business, so...taking a back-up camera and turning it into a microscope that can stand being spun at a couple hundred RPM is probably no big deal for him, but for people who aren't as experienced in optics...maybe not!

I assume you'd need a concentric-enough metal housing to hold the camera + the additional optics. Maybe pot the camera in epoxy into a turned component that is then secured to the main body somehow? As for the additional optics, maybe you could just buy used microscopes and tear them apart? I assume old-tech microscopes are cheap enough used, and the lenses are probably high quality.

Could also just ask him for details, maybe there's a way to be in touch.

[plunger]

In the video he mentions he's built these things out of cheap reversing cameras designed to be retrofitted to cars. So you get a little stand-alone battery-powered camera and display. He's obviously added his own optics to it. If I remember correctly, Dan Gelbart made a lot of his money selling an optics business, so...taking a back-up camera and turning it into a microscope that can stand being spun at a couple hundred RPM is probably no big deal for him, but for people who aren't as experienced in optics...maybe not!

I assume you'd need a concentric-enough metal housing to hold the camera + the additional optics. Maybe pot the camera in epoxy into a turned component that is then secured to the main body somehow? As for the additional optics, maybe you could just buy used microscopes and tear them apart? I assume old-tech microscopes are cheap enough used, and the lenses are probably high quality.

Could also just ask him for details, maybe there's a way to be in touch.

I thought he just used a digital microscope and a rear view reverse camera moniter screen. Maybe I misunderstood him.

[Bob Engelhardt]

I have a digital microscope that displays on my PC monitor. It was nothing special when I bought it years ago. The biggest limitation is the depth of field, so I think that you'd want one with lower magnification. Oh, wait ... Dan uses a 100x scope, so I guess depth-of-field isn't a problem.

[Bob Engelhardt]

I...taking a back-up camera and turning it into a microscope that can stand being spun at a couple hundred RPM ...

His was hand-held & not spinning at any RPM.

[Bob Engelhardt]

I thought he just used a digital microscope and a rear view reverse camera moniter screen. Maybe I misunderstood him.

He says "... rear view camera kit ...". Implying that the camera is used as well as the screen. Seems strange that a wide-angle "distance" camera could be used as a microscope without mucking around with the lens. But he says that it's simple to make ("convert"). They are cheap enough - $30's.

[plunger]

He says "... rear view camera kit ...". Implying that the camera is used as well as the screen. Seems strange that a wide-angle "distance" camera could be used as a microscope without mucking around with the lens. But he says that it's simple to make ("convert"). They are cheap enough - $30's.

Is he perhaps not just using the screen of a rearview camera kit and connecting a video microscope to it. They come with usb ports and I think the rearview camera are av connections,but being weak at tech stuff I could be talking nonsense.

[Dan Dubeau]

His was hand-held & not spinning at any RPM.

In one of his videos he has a wireless one spinning on his Moore Jig bore. He's zoomed in on a spec of dust and centered within a few microns according to him. A little different than the old spotting scopes I remember using years ago to pick up scribed crosshairs lol.

[garyhlucas]

I have a cheap video microscope I wanted to mount on my CNC and also to use to inspect small parts. It works very well. Gave it to my wife to inspect coins quickly. I haven't gotten it back!

[Cheap Jon]

There was a post on here a few years back it used a telephoto lens and a PC camera mounted on a stand with a rack and pinion adjuster. Might have been posted by Evan.

Jon
SW Mi

[ATW]

In one of his other videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otSjut1iGGk) around the 8 min mark he mentions the lathe video camera setup and converting a reversing camera kit by "... putting the camera in a different housing and changing the distance of the lens to get a different magnification ...".

[darryl]

I have what you could call a video microscope. It's a usb device made for magnifying small print. Actually works quite well. I can't imagine these being very expensive- mine was $5 at a thrift shop. I have one of those remote cameras as well, and it's absolute **** by comparison.

A backup camera, hmm- maybe.