Has anyone used a camera to assist with CMM inspections using a really small stylus?

I've been working on a program to inspect a plastic part which has machine tolerances, and I need to use a Ø .3mm (.012) stylus for the inspection. In some cases, I have less than a .0005 margin of error when I program these points, and I'm really tired of straining my eyes on this thing. So I wanted to ask if anyone here has ever used an endoscopic camera of sorts to zoom in for easier programming.

I have to use microscopes to see small details. I have also used digital cameras which work great. The trick is the mounting of the camera. It must be ridged so movement around it doesn't cause shaking on the monitor. It also has to be easily adjusted to get to where you want to see. So the money and time will go into mounting it for your use. Select a camera that can be easily and solidly mounted. Later when you want to zero in, you can try different frequency lighting that shows the part more clearly. It can be helpful to eliminate glare and blurring.

need proper lenses to not get distorted image. a wide angle fish eye lens obviously if you look at a square and on screen you have a square overlaid on image you will see the square part dont look square cause on lens distortion. also need lens that is focused the whole field of view on a flat object being viewed

As this is visual aid and the inspection is done by the CMM a $20 E-yuck one works.
Flat field is not a concern but they don't have a lot of standoff and you need to make some sort of mag mount. Both of which can be problematic.
Mentioned in another thread are these type things which you may find useful when teaching that stylus and building the program.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dental+l...refix=denatl+lou,aps,361&ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_1_10
You may find this easier than using a camera and monitor as X,Y and Z are in your world and not something determined by camera orient.
Bob

I have a Elmo presentation camera and I use it to work on small stuff. It works great and has crazy zoom. It outputs just about and video format you can imagine so you can use any old monitor or TV. It also does picture overlay with software. The last one I bought was like $30 shipped on the fleaBay.

Maybe useful info, some test shots with one inexpensive model and also good points from other users:
Digital microscope for lathe work

With the mentioned ADSM302 I can position things to few micrometers.
You can get also digital microscopes without display, connect to separate HDMI monitor as big as you want. HDMI cable is lot easier to find longer than 1 feet or to bend to three 90 degree angles than your neck

The geek in me wants to see two electronic microscopes (cheapies if good enough) fed into a VR headset for stereo image display (perhaps with enhanced depth perception) with overlaid data and voice-recognition input of notes/data. But that's just me.

Depending upon what you want to probe, you may want something with a long working distance. That is, centimeters rather than millimeters between the lens and the probe. This can easily be accomplished, but not usually with the cheapest scopes or cameras.

One heads up on the dental type. I bought one of these a bit under $100 to try out. It didn't work out for me, because the eyepiece magnifications weren't individually adjustable. If you wear glasses and have more than a diopter difference in correction between your eyes, make sure they're individually adjustable. Not sure of what's out there, but the better (and more $$$) ones will have this.

Longest working distance (yet high power) stereo microscope I own is a "colposcope" retired from medical duty. Who knew? Even an ordinary stereo microscope, of good quality, should have a few inches of working distance at around 7-10x.

MattiJ's camera example seems to be one with a decent working distance -- maybe a couple inches. It's a spec you'll likely want to check.

The advantage of a low power stereo microscope, over the single tube of a camera, is preserving a better sense of 3D depth perception.

Chip Chester said:

The geek in me wants to see two electronic microscopes (cheapies if good enough) fed into a VR headset for stereo image display (perhaps with enhanced depth perception) with overlaid data and voice-recognition input of notes/data. But that's just me.

Click to expand...

Tried similar with model drones, problem is you have to develop a feel for that depth perception based on camera zoom - distance the cameras are apart. After about 30 minutes your golden, till you take it off and you then walk into shit! It really screws with your brain in a way non stereo images just don't. You seriously could not drive after thirty minutes of it for about a hour or so till your brain returned to default. This affected both me and 4 friends like this, only one it did not was a friend that had lost a eye to cancer, hence he got little benefit and if anything the lopsided made it harder for him than a single straight on view. It just did not work like the stero microscopes that seam to not cause any of these kinda issues. Can only kinda assume its because the cameras were further apart than human eye balls + lens effects, but it was seriously weird retuning and then de tuning that altered depth perception.