CNC Camera 

Implementing a High-Quality Digital Camera/Microscope for a CNC System

 If you wish to replicate the Camera/Digital microscope setup that Bob Dzuricky uses, here is some information that will be helpful in putting a system together.  Note that the Dino-Eye (USB) camera, the AM4023CT will NOT work by itself, it needs a lens system to properly focus an image onto it.  The Dino-lite camera comes with their proprietary software, DinoCapture, a very useful and powerful image processing application.  It will NOT interface with Mach3, however, and if you wish to use it, you will need to concurrently have both Mach3 and DinoCapture running.  The Dino-lite camera, on its own, will interface successfully with the Dietz plugin for Mach3 if you wish to go with it instead of the DinoCapture app.  There are advantages to either method.  The Dietz plugin is convenient but DinoCapture has many useful features and is much more versatile.  A few samples of what you can do with DinoCapture are shown below.  These measuring capabilities are handy when reverse engineering something.

This shot of a dollar bill shows how you can pick 3 points on an arc (the top of the "pluribus" ribbon) to determine the exact radius of that arc.  Note the detailed specifications in the box.

This example shows how easy it is to determine the diameter of the black circle on this Kamui tip.

And here, we can easily determine the length of the letter "I" in Kamui.

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Also...

 The camera makes it simple to find the correct location for your inlays, be it finding the center of your buttsleeve or the center of your points.  Full splice cues have a unique problem in that the points are rarely 90° apart.  I show a method of determining the exact center of FS points in this video.  It's quick and accurate.

Another problem that sometimes occurs is a mistake with an inlay that isn't discovered until the cue has been

removed from the machine and the final cut taken.  This video shows how I corrected one bad inlay.  It might have been possible to fix this without the camera but it wouldn't have been as painless as this repair turned out to be.

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The package is assembled from three basic components:

A microscope eyepiece:  Dino-lite AM4023CT, approx. $330.

A spacer:  C mount to C mount spacer, approx. $15 or so

A CCTV lens:  Tamron 23FMxxL, approx.  $25+ on eBay (xx=focal length...see below)

Update: Dino-Lite now offers a holster for the camera.  This will help with your mounting issues.  You can see it HERE.  Thanks, Phil!

The cost of the lens and length of the spacer will depend on which lens you select.  The lens is designed to work with a “2/3” digital system, a sensor chip of 8.8 mm x 6.6 mm, - about “2/3” the size of a standard 35 mm digital camera sensor chip.  This size is common in Closed Circuit TV systems and there are certainly lenses other than Tamron which would work and perhaps save a buck or two. 

Both the 23FM25L with a 5 mm spacer and a 23FM35L with a 10 mm spacer are known to work, with the 35 mm option providing somewhat higher magnification.  There seem to be more 35 mm Tamrons available on eBay than 25 mm at the moment, and at slightly lower cost. The chart below from Tamron gives the specifications for the lens and spacer combination.  For instance, the 25 mm focal length with a 5 mm spacer shows a focus range of 77.5- 125.7 mm and a field of view range from 27.5 x 20.6 mm to 44.3 x 33.1 mm.  You could also, for instance, use a 23FM50L and a 40 mm spacer – this combo would give a similar focus range, and a more extreme magnification.  The size of the field of view gives you a relative comparison for the magnification relationship between focal length and magnification. The smaller the FOV, the higher would be the magnification.

The lowest numerical f stop gives a wide open aperture and hence, the brightest image.  A higher f stop will often give a sharper image as the "sweet spot" for most lenses is in the f 4. -  f 6. range.  Some Tamron lenses have screws which you can tighten down to lock both the f stop ring, and the focal distance ring to keep them from moving once you find a combination which you like.  The lens I used did not have lock screws so I applied a few spots of epoxy to prevent the lens settings from changing.

This table of lens combinations/options is available along with LOTS more technical detail here:  LINK