Hi yes, you get two days for the price of one. Today now people were sending me this on Twitter because their minds were absolutely blown away. Now if you've ever looked at used a microscope like this, Tagana or whatever microscope you use, um and then you'll know how difficult sometimes it can be to read the part numbers on chips. especially the new like laser etched ones.

They're a real pain in the ass and you can't. It's very difficult to read the parts on there. So um. somebody pointed me towards this thread here and they were just absolutely blown away.

This is Um. Andrew Zonerberg um here who's into uh, infosec high speed digital? Excellent! Hi Andrew, thank you very much because this is absolutely it is actually mind-blowing Check this out! Got a demo of some different lighting accessories for my microscope for my from my Leica rep. Leica make really high-end like probably the highest end uh microscopes like. I've got my uh mantis here.

Um, and it's You know it's top of the line too, but Leica is like probably like the top shelf, um kind of stuff. anyway. Uh, the use case is reading laser engraved chip markings. Yes, because they're a pain in the ass.

Here's a bass line with the scope in stock, configuration, ring, light, nothing else. It's pretty average chip, not uniquely difficult. You can see just how difficult it is to read these modern, uh, laser etched part numbers on chips. Sometimes it's almost impossible.

Um, so we had high hopes of using a a diffuser attachment that you can actually get for these Leica microscopes and other brands all of the serious microscope manufacturers and they will provide like a range of filters and accessories and lighting accessories. Uh, and that you can use depending on the exact requirements that you actually need because all sorts of different parts has different reflective and reflective, refractive properties and everything else right? It can be really difficult so if you have a specific need you can buy all these filters and attachments and stuff. So he hired and tried the diffuser on it and didn't really see anything but he put a polarizer on it and Whoa! He sold. Mind blow right! Everyone saw this and went i'm going out and buying a polarizing filter like these.

You know polarizing filters. Photographers use these all the time. They're like this one's a circular uh polarizing filter that you put on your camera. and uh, photographers know this is all you know.

bread and butter stuff for photographers that are polarizers help reduce reflections and stuff like that. So can this work on regular microscopes? Can you just put your polarizing filter on and it magically shows the part number like this? Well uh. some people immediately went out and bought them and were trying this out. Here's another Uh thread on Twitter here: This is stack smashing um info it security researcher and look at this once again mind blowing Just Camera.

put the polarizing filter in front of it. Does it actually work well? Here's me, it the bench over there just before. let's try it out. Check out this 40 pin dip.

I cannot read these part numbers at all, but I put my filter in front of it. Wow, Look at that. Unbelievable As you see it works. It's absolutely magic.

Can we get it to work with my Tagano microscope here? Well let's switch on light because you know the more light you have, the more better. Here we go and here's my Tagano microscope. Okay, and sure enough, right. I've got this pain in the butt laser etched markings on it.

You simply cannot see this at all. It's absolutely insane, right? Crazy. But if I take my polarizing filter, I put it under here. Ah, still no good.

but it actually rotates. Okay, so I'll rotate it. Look, look, magic. I rotate it back, it's gone.

Oh, I'll rotate at the full 360.. look at this. Wow. This is absolutely incredible.

It works. So should you rush out and buy a polarizing filter to put on your microscope to magically see these chips? Yeah, Nah. As we say here in Australia, let me show you what I'm actually doing here. I'm actually playing a bit of a trick on you.

Have you figured it out yet? You might not be able to see it, but can you? Can you figure out my trick has something to do with this? So if you go back over to Andrew's thread here, he actually tells you exactly how it actually does This Andrew replies, it's a polarizer disc on the objective at a fixed orientation and a ring-shaped polarizer on the ring light that you can rotate to an arbitrary orientation with respect to the objective. There's a D10 at the 90 degree position and that's what I was doing here. Sorry, I've tricked you, but I've actually added some polarizing film onto this light. So I've actually polarized this light to specifically duplicate the effect that Andrew is seeing here with this really mega expensive high-end Leica uh microscope thing.

It's very similar to like the mantis uh kind of thing I believe. but it has the option to buy a polarized light and it has just like these polarizer things you can actually you know you can rotate these things okay and you can change the polarization of the light. This one I'm using is what's called a circular polarizer and this is the most common for Uh cameras because these circular polarizers work much better than just polarizing film horizontal or vertical like linear, uh polarization. And I've done a uh, teardown video of an Lcd monitor and this is where I got this film from.

By the way, you can actually just peel it off. They'll have one front and back of an Lcd, so if you find an Lcd in the dumpster, you might be able to get yourself some nice polarizing film like this. But this is basically a linear, horizontal, uh polarizer. But this is circular.

and the circular ones work better with your digital cameras because the focusing, cyst and other systems in there have a bit of a problem with the uh, linear ones, but circular polarizers are better for that. But let's see if we can duplicate this again. Sure enough, there, it is right. Really difficult to see.

I'll use my film this time. I'll put my film under. Look at that magic. So if I take the film and I rotate it like this, you can see it come and go.

right. Look, It's gone. It's practically it's completely gone. There, simply rotate a little bit and it comes out absolutely perfect.

Look at that. But of course, the magic is the polarized light. If I switch it off, I don't need the film. I don't need the film at all.

There's nothing wrong with this chip whatsoever. I can read this chip just fine and dandy, right? So if you take the light away and let's look at this, I'll get my polarizer again. I'll put it under here, and I will rotate it. It makes absolutely no difference to that whatsoever.

Same with the polarizer. Film makes absolutely no difference. In fact, it just makes it a bit darker because it's just there's some attenuation loss of course. um, in this, so I don't need a polarizer to see my chips.

Does that mean that what Andrew and others are seeing is not real? No, of course not. Polarizers can produce absolutely magical results. And this is why your top tier microscope manufacturers will give you options for polarizing light that you can a big ring on it that you can adjust the polarization angle and things like that. They'll give you, uh, diffuser options and all sorts of stuff.

and they'll give you, um, polarization as well. And here's a shot of it. and they'll give you, um, like you can actually rotate. They'll give you nice little uh, controls and stuff to rotate the polarization of the light.

And for many applications, this is absolutely critical. and you can actually get this dramatic a difference by using polarizing light and polarizing filters. But the question is, will a polarizer magically make your life better and you'll instantly be able to see the part numbers? Well, the answer is obviously no, because look at this. I can read these part numbers just fine.

But watch what happens. If I tilt my board just a little bit. I'm only tilting it like five degrees. It'll refocus.

your bastard, It's gone. It's purely the angle of the light that you're uh, that you're using for this. This is why I will have different lights like this. I can turn my internal tagano light on and off, which comes down at an angle here, and magically I'm able to see that a bit better.

And if I lay it back down flat like that and I turn the internal light on, you can see it starts to sort of make it a bit harder to do. I'll turn my actual uh, like my studio lights off here and you can see it's still get. You know it's getting a bit hard to read and if I tilt it just a couple of degrees, that's all. It takes a couple of degrees.

Like I should see how little I'm tilting this board and it's just gone. It's just gone and I lay it flat. Boom like that. So if you have a look here, I've got a little light like this and you should have a little light Light This is.

this is a little um Aputure amaran one. I've done that as part of my that goes in my little portable vlogging kit that I've done a video on. I'll link that up there and if you move it around, look, look. if I move it like up above like that it completely and utterly vanishes, right? That part number completely vanishes and then it just magically comes in if I have it on an angle like this.

So unfortunately, a polarizing filter is not going to just magically, uh, help you. In fact, you're better off simply having a little light like this that you can just move around your board and or tilting your board like this until you can see the part number and trying to muck around with a polarizing filter. Not going to help you much unless you actually get matching polarized light as well. and you'd only do that for very specific applications.

So for generic use, I think you're better off just getting something like this. And I'll link it in down below if you want to get this specific one but a torch, anything, your phone, whatever, it doesn't matter as long as you can move the light source around and a lot of people will have them on like a goose arm or something like that or they'll have. I've done this before. I've actually had lights, um, like two of these.

one coming in from one side, one coming in from the other and simply switching one on and one off on the other side and moving them around That can solve your problems. This is why a lot of microscopes will come without these little uh leads on goose flexible goose arms that you can just move around and get your light in the specific angle that you require. So why do we get, um, this sort of, uh, problem of not being able to see these chips? It's more specific with like the laser etched ones um, these days rather than the old silk screen method although you know that's a problem too. But you know, like a lot of chips are laser etched these days, especially when they get smaller and smaller.

it's harder to silk screen them so they do the laser etch thing. Well, what's happening is your package here has a reflective properties, so your light, depending on the angle of it, um, will actually then reflect off this. So if I have the light like this, the reflection off the surface of the chip is much greater than what we're getting from internally. um, in, like, down in the laser etched part of it.

That's why if I go down an angle like this, I just you know, like that we can magically start seeing those numbers because we're not getting the light directly reflected back up into the lens here. And this is why all photographers know you get this: when you're shooting water or something like that, or mountains or something like that. They get these polarizing filters because you get the same sort of effect. You get the light, the sun reflecting off a reflective surface like the water or clouds or things like that.

So you can use a circular polarizing filter to cut out those reflections off the water or whatever, um, thing you're shooting. and then you get more light coming through from the mountain or the thing, the person or the thing that you're trying to actually photograph. And this is bread and butter stuff for photographers and the same thing is happening here. Let me show you another neat tip.

Also, uh, that you can use for viewing part numbers as well a whiteboard marker. Um, this is just a sharpie whiteboard marker. I've got a red one here. and I've tilted the board so that it's you know, at a deliberately bad angle like this.

And watch this. Watch this. You see how you could see it differently when the light changed, But look, I'm I'm not tilting the board at all. I'm not changing it.

And look, you can see the part number. The part numbers actually come out a bit. There isn't that neat. Once again, we're changing the reflective properties of it's going down into the laser etched well in there.

and it's changing the properties of that. There you go. But you can do exactly the same thing of course, by just tilting by just using your light and going like that. of course.

But yeah, cool huh? Now of course. one other reflective thing you've got on boards: solder joints, right? Solder joints are notoriously reflective. So let's uh, turn on our polarized light like this and we can see that. You know I can't see the part number.

But let me use my filter again. Those solder joints. Look, you can on the left hand side there. you can really see the light on their solder joints change.

So this is. this is probably not the best example. if I turn the gain down. There you go.

That's the difference between massively reflected and I just rotate it and boom. All of a sudden we can get sharp contrast there, on our shoulder joints. So there you go. I hope you found that illuminating here all week.

It's just magic, what you can do by just angling the light. So yeah, nah, don't rush out and buy a polarizing filter. But as I said, highly recommend if you find an Lcd in the dumpster. Um, some of these will peel off nicely.

I just, uh, peeled one off a Lcd monitor that I had in the dumpster. For this, I got two large sheets of this stuff front and back and uh, this is linear polarized film. It's handy to have some of this hanging around for various applications, but for reading, uh, part numbers on chips? Yeah, not really. That example I set up before on my bench over there.

I actually had to specifically go to a lot of effort to set that up. so the light reflected at the right angle and the polarizing did its job. and the other ambient light coming in. and the type of uh, chip that I was using and all sorts of stuff so that you know it took me a little bit uh to set that up.

So if you're having these problems uh, you know I, you're just unlucky due to Murphy. But you can fix it by simply just moving your light source around like that and or tilting your board. and Bob's your uncle Anyway, I hope you found that interesting if you did, give it a big thumbs up and as always, discuss down below catch you next time you.