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USB Microscope for checking stylus condition

wintersdawn

wintersdawn

Active Member
I am thinking about buying a USB microscope to check the condition of my stylus.

The ones I am seeing have 50x-500x digital magnification with a 2MB camera & 8 LED's and are around £10 delivered but I'm not sure if the magnification is strong enough to clearly see any wear/damage to a diamond stylus? Thanks.
 
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I havent yet seen any economy digital microscopes that have enough optical magnification for wear evaluation. Mostly when people post their images taken with those stating that it is 200 to 300 x magnification it really compares with an optical microscope or loupe at about 50 or 60 x. There are some interesting things to be seen with them, but you probably won't be able to discern wear facets. I use a 300 x optical scope and any wear is very plainly visible at that magnification.
 
Just last week I went through the process of trying to figure out which way to go: cheap USB magnifier or expensive microscope. It wasn't very scientific and it was aimed at just my needs, but here's some of what I found:

There are many 300X and 500X USB cheapo microscopes on Amazon for $15 - $90. The "mp" or megapixel rating is useful way to compare them or guess at one unit's real resolution, but the descriptions are tricky. To have a nice, sharp image you'll need a high MP rating of the sensor itself, not the MP rating of the images the software makes from the sensor. Many of the USB microscopes have tiny sensors, apparently, but enlarge those captured images to something much bigger and claim the MP rating of those enlarged images. The software that comes with the USB microscopes also varies wildly: some working OK on both PCs and Macs, some working only on one. The USB microscope I ended up buying, model UM012C, had image capture software that worked fine on my Windows 7 PC, but the USB driver itself didn't work on my main PC. It worked fine on an identical PC, though. So, some PCs will "see" the USB microscope fine and others may not. And I'm no slouch when it comes to locating oddball USB drivers, but still couldn't find a working one.

There are plenty of used "real" microscopes on eBay. I don't quite grasp the differences between darkfield and not darkfield, 3D tray and regular tray, but I do get the multiple lens that can be rotated in or out affecting the raw magnification level and the eyepiece adding another factor of magnification. It seems a good set of lens and an eyepiece you can shoot a digital photo through is a good combination.

Looking at new microscopes, it seems the lowest price would be about $200 for the microscope and another $150 to $200 for an add-on microscope digital camera. The choices there range from 0.5 MP to 20 MP camera. That range of choices was great, but the overall cost now hitting $400 pretty quick was too much for me.

The new microscope-specific cameras also stated they were good for any microscope with a removable eyepiece of a standard 21 cm (or maybe it was 23 cm) diameter. That made me think I could buy an older used microscope and easily add a new, high resolution (5 MP maybe) camera so long as the microscope had a standard eyepiece size.

I couldn't tell how much room, vertical height adjustment, there was in each microscope so I wasn't sure if I could easily adjust it to fit a whole cartridge in the viewing area. So, I opted for the cheap USB microscope route, knowing it was a small investment for learning purposes. It works well enough to ID the needle, see any debris I need to clean off, but not good enough to see needle wear.

Denon DL-160 and Ortofon 2M Red with USB microscope UM012C:

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Those pics are very good for inspection for hygiene and gross problems and appear about the same resolution I get with a 30x loupe. For comparisons sake, the following image is of a Shure N104E in good condition at 300x optical with a camera held over the lens of the microscope, so not as clear as it appears to your eye when actually viewing it firsthand. This view is from the left (outside) side of the stylus as I like to study styli from the side as well as looking down from the top. Notice that you cannot see any part of the cantilever at this kind of magnification. The area of most interest is the radius on the bottom where you can see the slight reflection of light in this image. That is the place that will eventually turn into a mirror when it becomes worn and will reflect a fierce amount of light that can almost overwhelm the contrast of the image. This is very easy to see on conicals and ellipticals but maybe not so much on advanced shapes, and in that case I would recommend a person have a new stylus to study against the one in question so that any "facets" can be judged as to whether they are wear or whether the stylus was made that way from the beginning.

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Wow. Nice pics tubewade, JP and Davey.

I am finding it quite difficult to get good visual images with my scope. I have a Tasco lab scope, with 10x, 40x and 100x objectives, and 10x eyepiece.

I can view at 100x (10x + 10x), but centering the stylus in the view field is a PITA (let alone having to work where up is down and right is left - glad I'm not a dentist).

With the 40x and 100x objectives, focus is too low to the stage to accommidate the stylus above the stage. And at those magnifications, I can assume that centering the stylus in the view field would be aggravating, to say the least.

How do you guys do it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks guys for all the info and pictures, I think in my case as I use a budget cartridge/stylus (ATN71E) it is going to be easier/cheaper to just change the stylus! Unless I spent a considerable amount on a decent microscope I don't think I will be able to definitely know if it is damaged/worn and also even with a better image I may not interpret what I am seeing correctly.
 
Winter, you are welcome to borrow my scope to see if you can get any useful images from it. It shouldn't cost too much to ship it to you. Where are you located?
 
GoBlues said:
Wow. Nice pics tubewade, JP and Davey.

I am finding it quite difficult to get good visual images with my scope. I have a Tasco lab scope, with 10x, 40x and 100x objectives, and 10x eyepiece.

I can view at 100x (10x + 10x), but centering the stylus in the view field is a PITA (let alone having to work where up is down and right is left - glad I'm not a dentist).

With the 40x and 100x objectives, focus is too low to the stage to accommidate the stylus above the stage. And at those magnifications, I can assume that centering the stylus in the view field would be aggravating, to say the least.

How do you guys do it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I took the easy way out and bought a SEK-2. It uses a 10x objective and 10x to 20x variable eye piece for 100x to 200x total magnification. Sparky's thread mentioned in post 3 is the best overall resource I've seen for modifying a microscope to suit. Micrometer stage is nearly a must, and getting the lighting right is critical.
 
Thanks JP. I will take a look at the post that you referenced.

I do indeed have a micrometer stage, but at least for my Stanton D72E stylus, the stylus body is so asymmetrical as to cause all kinds of rotational issues during adjustment.

Perhaps I should leave the stylus attached to the cart? Maybe this is one of those Duh moments for me...
 
You could. My SEK-2 didn't come with the mounting blocks so I use a ball of blu-tac to hold the stylus where I want it.
 
GoBlues said:
Thanks JP. I will take a look at the post that you referenced.

I do indeed have a micrometer stage, but at least for my Stanton D72E stylus, the stylus body is so asymmetrical as to cause all kinds of rotational issues during adjustment.

Perhaps I should leave the stylus attached to the cart? Maybe this is one of those Duh moments for me...
Click to expand...

I tend to leave the stylus attached to the cart and agree with JP that lighting is very important.
With standard microscopes I personally prefer as much natural light as possible, but do concur that once you get to 100x and beyond it becomes tricky focussing.
But it can be done and the results can be pretty impressive.
Prior to using the digi-scope, I used to take snaps through the lens with a basic digital camera - here's an example at 200x

VSTV-200x.JPG


Best advice I can give is just practice.
Work out how best (with your scope) to hold the cart firmly and align the tip under the lens.
It does become easier with time.
 
GoBlues said:
Wow. Nice pics tubewade, JP and Davey.

I am finding it quite difficult to get good visual images with my scope. I have a Tasco lab scope, with 10x, 40x and 100x objectives, and 10x eyepiece.

I can view at 100x (10x + 10x), but centering the stylus in the view field is a PITA (let alone having to work where up is down and right is left - glad I'm not a dentist).

With the 40x and 100x objectives, focus is too low to the stage to accommidate the stylus above the stage. And at those magnifications, I can assume that centering the stylus in the view field would be aggravating, to say the least.

How do you guys do it? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

My scope will focus up to about 1 cm above the stage at 300x so I use a piece of cellophane tape to hold a stylus on its edge on a clear specimen slide and mount it to the stage with the tip pointing away from me. There is a mirror below the stage for lighting so I arrange a 1100 or 1700 lumen lamp in a reflector so that part of the light hits the mirror and part hits the stylus directly, that way the mirror provides background light to assist in locating the stylus (shadow) in the eyepiece and getting it staged correctly and then focusing on it. Yes, PITA is a good way to describe it, but I've been doing it for many years and its like after you've done it a quite few times and know what to expect it really does get a lot easier. Getting the light where you want it and getting enough of it can be a challenge. At 300x magnification it takes a lot of light or the image won't be bright enough to see what you want to.
 
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