Last week I described here the inspection microscope I bought to improve my visual comfort while working on small-sized projects. This morning, I made a few improvements to my setup. First, I replaced my old ViewSonic VP191b monitor, which was unable to display the signal outputted by the AFSCOPE C102 C-mount camera, with a new 13” HDMI-only display. I had similar issues earlier this month when I worked on the VidHD video card for my pimped Apple II computer (here). I will likely upgrade this 13” monitor later, for something a tad bigger and more importantly with additional inputs (BNC, RGB, Composite, VGA at least in addition to HDMI).
The other improvement of the week was in extremist salvation. I am using several NAS-es to store and mirror our digital data at home. Over the years, I learn the hard way never to trust these devices. Not only HDDs fail – we have RAID to protect ourselves from such failures –, but PSU-es, motherboards, and even NICs can and will fail us. I had it all! In particular, I recall the awful experience with Western Digital, and their infamous Sentinel DX4000. The system is garbage, and the customer support is deplorable. You can read about it here. Well, guess what? For some unknown reasons, the UPS protecting two NAS-es and my workstation crashed (I am adding this to the list of what will fail on you). After swapping out the UPS, of course, the last Sentinel DX4000 I own refused to boot and stubbornly showed a useless Startup Failed: 0xD9 message. I relived the same horror movie: no more support (that’s the only wise move from WD), no clear explanation or procedure to follow on the forums, miserably failing recovery procedure, etc., etc. In the end, I was ready to toss the unit into the garbage can where it belonged when I tried a final trick. While the NAS was powered on, I removed and re-seated every HDD. Then, I rebooted forcefully the system (the only thing you can do after 0xD9 error anyway). Then a miracle happened, and the unit engaged in a repair cycle. As suspected, there was nothing terrible, and the recovery only took a few hours – versus a week when I swap out a dead drive. Good job, WD (this is ironic, just in case 😊).
Hello our company just received the C102 from AFSCOPE. But it doesn’t come with instructions. I need to know how to take a pic that will be sent to my computer. Can you help sir?
Dear Michael,
The camera has an HDMI out port. For simple visualization – like during inspection work – you use an HDMI cable and connect this port of the camera to your monitor. If you want to capture the video – and/or take still images – you need a video acquisition card – or dongle – for your computer. Indeed, this camera model doesn’t record (other models can record as a camcorder). Then, you connect the output of the camera to the input of the acquisition device. The software shipped with the acquisition device allows you to record the video feed and take still images from your computer. Some acquisition devices have an HDMI out port that you can connect to your monitor. Otherwise, you can watch the video on your computer. I have a desktop PC and I use an Elgato capture card. Note that there are different form factors for acquisition devices and each has its pros/cons. A USB dongle for example can be used on different computers or a laptop. I use a PCIe card model because I am not mobile and I wanted the HDMI passthrough feature (resend the video feed to my monitor). I didn’t choose a high-end model, because the resolution of the microscope camera is low (compared to modern 4K) and I do not need a high framerate. I hope this will help you to take images and record videos from your microscope! And please tell me if I have answered your question, Michael.
— just in case you missed my answer, I add it here —
Dear Michael,
The camera has an HDMI out port. For simple visualization – like during inspection work – you use an HDMI cable and connect this port of the camera to your monitor. If you want to capture the video – and/or take still images – you need a video acquisition card – or dongle – for your computer. Indeed, this camera model doesn’t record (other models can record as a camcorder). Then, you connect the output of the camera to the input of the acquisition device. The software shipped with the acquisition device allows you to record the video feed and take still images from your computer. Some acquisition devices have an HDMI out port that you can connect to your monitor. Otherwise, you can watch the video on your computer. I have a desktop PC and I use an Elgato capture card. Note that there are different form factors for acquisition devices and each has its pros/cons. A USB dongle for example can be used on different computers or a laptop. I use a PCIe card model because I am not mobile and I wanted the HDMI passthrough feature (resend the video feed to my monitor). I didn’t choose a high-end model, because the resolution of the microscope camera is low (compared to modern 4K) and I do not need a high framerate. I hope this will help you to take images and record videos from your microscope! And please tell me if I have answered your question, Michael.
Great! Thank you sir.