This project consists of a low-cost electronic microscope based on the Raspberry Pi.

​

Unfortunately for electronic hobbyists on a budget, there's no much choice for them when it comes to getting a microscope. The professional ones are very expensive and the cheap electronic ones have less resolution than my first Nokia from 2004 and even worse, less than 5 frames per second, making them useless for soldering.

​

This is why I decided to build one myself, trying to save costs but keeping it relatively useful.

​

The first version uses a structure consisting of two plastic calipers for adjusting the camera and an old CD-Drive as a base (no live-testing circuits here!). For the hardware, I use a Pi camera module and a Raspberry Pi 2 B, which has an SD-card with some custom scripts to start automatically the camera. The camera module was slightly modified: I removed the fixture that stopped the lens from being manually focusable and I placed a small stick to adjust it easier with the hand.

​

This first version worked pretty well, but I was still not satisfied with some things: the Pi 2 was cheap, but not the cheapest. The camera module was also quite difficult to adjust, with the small stick falling off constantly. It also lacked any lighting.

​

That's why I did a second version with a Pi Zero (not the one with wifi, the 5€ one) and another camera module with comfortable manual focus. I also used a tiny USB desk lamp to spare me the frame and have LEDs already built-in. The only problem I had was that the camera was by default on IR mode only, looking everything pinkish. After some research, and buying IR-lenses for nothing, I found out it can be adjusted per software.

​

Although this version met my expectations, it is still quite uncomfortable for soldering, since it is too close up to the circuits (this is even a problem for many commercial microscopes). And because some close-sighted people like me can see perfectly at a very close distance, I barely had to use it, except to read some really worn out chips.

​

Credit for the programming goes to "Magkopian" ( https://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-HDMIWiFi-Soldering-Microscope/ ), who made the use of raspbian-lite easy even for people like me with about no experience with open-source OS.