Smartphone Microscope Stand

Smartphone Microscope Stand

Avoid straining your eyes when working on electronics or inspecting small objects! Use this stand to turn your phone into a simple digital microscope.

The stand clamps onto most tabletops and holds your phone above your work surface, allowing you to use the phone camera on max zoom to better see small objects. Simply place your phone on the tray, open your camera app and set it to the maximum zoom, and use the stand's knob to finely adjust the phone's height until the image is in focus.

Features

• Two knobs adjust the height and tilt of the phone, allowing you to easily adjust focus, quickly move the phone up or down to view taller and shorter objects, and view objects at an angle. Both use worm drives, allowing for fine adjustment while remaining stable.

   

• After assembly, the stand can be easily broken down into two parts for storage and portability.

   

• The adjustable screw clamp fits onto any desk or table that's 5 cm thick or thinner.

   

• Holds the phone anywhere between 10.5 and 15.5 cm above the tabletop.

Compatibility 

The phone tray fits any smartphone with a camera in the upper left corner, and includes a cutout for camera bumps. It has been tested with an iPhone 15 but should fit all iPhones 1-16 and many other brands of phone.

I plan to redesign the phone tray to use a clamp that fits all phones. In the meantime, the STEP file of the phone tray is included, and modification of the model is encouraged to fit your specific phone and phone case. Please share your redesigns!

I achieved the best results when maximizing my camera zoom before adjusting height to pull focus. If this does not work (image is still blurry), try slowly decreasing zoom and adjusting height again to get a clear picture at the maximum magnification possible.

Printing

The pictured model was printed with a Bambu A1, but it may be compatible with many other printers. Included is a print profile for Bambu Studio. I found success with the following settings:

• 0.2 mm layer height

• 15% infill

• worms printed without supports

• screws and nut printed without supports

• rack guide, phone tray, phone tray mounting bracket, and rack printed with supports on the build plate only

• a support blocker is used on the rack guide threading. Supports will ruin the threads.

The .3mf print profile should already include these settings and additions.

The .3mf print profile loaded in Bambu Studio. The red cylinder is a support blocker protecting the threading from being ruined by auto-generated support interfaces.

Assembly

Below are some GIFs demonstrating the assembly process.

Inserting the clamp screw

Assembling the height worm drive and rack

Assembling the tilt worm drive and phone tray

Assembling the tray onto the guide

Things to Note

Do Not overtighten the clamping screw when securing the stand to a desk, to avoid stretching/peeling the print.

If the phone tray is at the maximum height and does not lower, remove the phone before turning the knob. It should then be able to re-engage the gear, and you can place the phone back.

Motivation

I found myself often using my phone camera to check solder joints when assembling or reworking circuit boards. I wished I could hold my phone at just the right height for the image to be clear, without using a hand. This does just that, keeping the phone stable and hands-free! It's made to streamline the soldering process, but can be used for any task for which a magnified camera view is useful. Works well for a live view as well as still images.

Credit to the GF Gear Generator add-in for Fusion, created by Gras Solutions and graciously made free. This was used to help create the gears used in this model.