cheap endoscopes

[BrokenBiker]

just an update, the one i bought turned up this morning, it is not plug and play as it claimed and the software cd is in chinese, i have tried opening everything but it just keeps telling me to connect my android phone...am awaiting a response from seller

 

[ronan]

Is there a barcode thing in the instructions you scan with your phone to open an app ?

 

[BrokenBiker]

there is but it takes me to a chinese web page....i have got it running now after downloading a generic usb webcam program and assigning this device to it...it seems to work ok, nothing special but the LEDs are dimmable so you can cut reflection out.

breech face of my SBS with camera roughly at the end of the chamber so about 70mm from breech face

 

[ronan]

Whats the mark on your barrel ? Edge of the forcing cone or leading ?

 

[BrokenBiker]

Whats the mark on your barrel ? Edge of the forcing cone or leading ?

bit of both...it hasnt had a clean since i was out early hours this morning with it...but that is roughly where the forcing cone ends too

 

[Wallace]

I bought a cheap Supereyes camera to look inside inaccessible car spaces, works well but has a fixed focal length. If anyone needs a copy of the Supereyes 3.5 software I can email it.


Checking pipe bends for a turbo manifold.



Checking welds and spying on a sneaky Russian.

 

[DAPPH]

It's on the web and's gone viral Wallace , you now have 69 million Russians spying on you , Plus 48 million North Korean servicemen & women , best watch out for rockets in the sky in a few days time .

 

[tomsutton529]

I have been thinking about getting one of these for a while now, mainly to look inside pumps, gearboxes inside framework etc... The only thing is they seem a little flimsy and getting good control over 5M looks impossible. SO, anyone got some ideas to make the cable more stiff, but no so stiff it cant bend.. but not so bendy you can't push it..

 

[ronan]

I have been thinking about getting one of these for a while now, mainly to look inside pumps, gearboxes inside framework etc... The only thing is they seem a little flimsy and getting good control over 5M looks impossible. SO, anyone got some ideas to make the cable more stiff, but no so stiff it cant bend.. but not so bendy you can't push it..

I think a bit of heat shrink tubing over the outside of the cable would certainly make it stiffer, but still useable.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I have been thinking about getting one of these for a while now, mainly to look inside pumps, gearboxes inside framework etc... The only thing is they seem a little flimsy and getting good control over 5M looks impossible. SO, anyone got some ideas to make the cable more stiff, but no so stiff it cant bend.. but not so bendy you can't push it..

my one is next to useless over any sort of length...even the photo i put on of my shotgun bore was difficult to get it lined up well enough to take a photo of the firing pin...and that was only 28"

 

[tomsutton529]

I think a bit of heat shrink tubing over the outside of the cable would certainly make it stiffer, but still useable.

I was thinking along those lines, with maybe some wire in there also to allow for a little more rigidity, or just in the first inch or so so you can bend it at right angles.

 

[tomsutton529]

my one is next to useless over any sort of length...even the photo i put on of my shotgun bore was difficult to get it lined up well enough to take a photo of the firing pin...and that was only 28"

I was thing how often I am going to have inspect a pump down 5M of pipe work.. Up to now its been never but I never offer.

 

[ronan]

my one is next to useless over any sort of length...even the photo i put on of my shotgun bore was difficult to get it lined up well enough to take a photo of the firing pin...and that was only 28"

If it were me and i was testing or viewing the same sort of thing over and over, i'd make up a simple tube to fit over the outer of the cable with an od close to the bore of the work. Should work shouldn't it ?

 

[BrokenBiker]

If it were me and i was testing or viewing the same sort of thing over and over, i'd make up a simple tube to fit over the outer of the cable with an od close to the bore of the work. Should work shouldn't it ?

as long as its a nice easy slip fit then yeah it should do

 

[Wedg1e]

If it were me and i was testing or viewing the same sort of thing over and over, i'd make up a simple tube to fit over the outer of the cable with an od close to the bore of the work. Should work shouldn't it ?

It would, we've done similar at work.
These things are cheap because they are simple; a full-articulation fibrescope or Videoprobe with focussing will run into thousands. When I first got into NDT it was £18000 for an Olympus 3m one.
Nowadays you can get a stereoscopic version which lets you take measurements of the viewed subject... still not cheap though!
Next up from a fibrescope is a rigid borescope; these can have multiple lengths of (usually 4-6 foot) brass tube screwed together to go tens of feet in a straight line, but the slightest dink or kink and the tubes are scrap as it knocks the light path out.

After that you get the typical 'drain camera', these tend to have a 6-8mm fibreglass rod (up to 60m on the Pearpoints we used) propelling a flexible camera; drawback with them tended to be that they would lie in the bottom of the pipe and get obscured by crap (often literally)... if you used a centralising device then you'd go round a couple of bends and get it stuck
You can achieve much the same results over shorter distances with a bullet camera on a fishing rod.
After that you are into wire-guided 'cars' to run up sewers; these may have articulated booms on them.

So there are pros and cons to each type; with the cheapo flexi ones it's down to your ingenuity to make it more or less rigid but you're still stuck with the fixed-focus and sometimes fixed brightness.

 

[Shox Dr]

They are called 'obedent' made from coiled Stainless steel, it sort of holds position, and like the brass tube design, they are fibre optic. I have a meter jobby, 8mm dia (istr) little light at the end. Very short focal length

 

[Robotstar5]

I have been thinking about getting one of these for a while now, mainly to look inside pumps, gearboxes inside framework etc... The only thing is they seem a little flimsy and getting good control over 5M looks impossible. SO, anyone got some ideas to make the cable more stiff, but no so stiff it cant bend.. but not so bendy you can't push it..

Tape it to a length of welding wire, may need to experiment 'til you find the right diameter

 

[BrokenBiker]

Tape it to a length of welding wire, may need to experiment 'til you find the right diameter

that is a good idea, would work well for me looking in and around the hard to reach bits of the megane...must remember to borrow a length of tig wire from work tomorrow

 

[the snooper]

that is a good idea, would work well for me looking in and around the hard to reach bits of the megane...must remember to borrow a length of tig wire from work tomorrow

will there be many voids to look in when its in a cube shape

 

[DAPPH]

I think a bit of heat shrink tubing over the outside of the cable would certainly make it stiffer, but still useable.

Hows about a knackered mig wire liner minus the metal work or two , fully taped along it's length to the cable with a longer length of stainless mig wire bent /curved towards the tip of the mig wire end at the camera end ?

Smooth off the cut off wire ends to them it as scratch free as possible ...block this front /camera end of the liner with a plastic plug that is a tight internal fit so it stops the wire breaking forth and damaging anything . Have the free end of the wire come out the liner at th rear end of theb liner arange ment and end in a ring made in the wire so you can rotate the ring with a finger in the ring and in turn rotate the curved end to move the camera about ?