Recommend me a micro-USB borescope

[Munkul]

I've often used my borescope as a handy mirror tool, when working on cars etc. But my proper one died, and I am tight... bought a £10 USB one off ebay and used a free windows tablet, the technology works well, just plug and play, with the stock camera app.

Problem is, the lighting quality is poor and it's just not good enough for dark spaces without extra lighting.

Given it's a 7" HD screen, it makes sense to pair it with a GOOD USB borescope.

Any recommendations?

 

[Shox Dr]

Watching with interest.
I’ve 2 cheap bore scopes. Both suffer from a very focus length, along with poor lighting, often the light is too concentrated causing reflections, turn the brightness down and its too dark

 

[Kram]

I have a chinsse one from ebay. It is not great quality but is functional. Coiple years old Id hope they are much better now.
Remove the outer glass. Leds and camera can not share - poor design here, just get glare.
The case was threads aluminium, threads paper thin. I removed case and used heatshrink which makes it smaller.

I use it with android phone and camerafi app.

Used it for sparkplugs this one had a helicoil and needed re tapping.

 

[Munkul]

Camerafi... interesting. I couldn't get it to work on my phone, It had a micro to USB-C adapter but still should have worked... galaxy s9

 

[Kram]

Its not great it seems they disabled video in the first one, but its better. CameraFi2 has a advert banner constantly poping up at the bottom, extremely irritating when your hands are dirty in a tight space and it blocks what your looking at!

 

[Munkul]

I think I'll keep the windows tablet then.

Android is going downhill... every single free app has a stupid amount of adware.

 

[Shox Dr]

I use HD Scope. Found I need to delete the wifi, after ive used it. Then start a fresh the nextine, otherwise it doesnt want to work.


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[Munkul]

My last borescope was Sealey. It's a discontinued wireless camera where you can seperate the screen from the hand-piece and works wirelessly... trouble is, the wireless tech DIDN'T work all that well and eventually I got sick of fiddling with it 10 mins every time to get the two bits talking to each other.

One of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sealey-Borescope-Ø8-5Mm-Wireless-Screen/dp/B008BFDUGW

BUT... the camera itself was really good. Low resolution, but excellent lighting and colour. Better than the £300 borescope i got for work last year, in fact.

So I'm contemplating going Sealey again...
https://www.sealey.co.uk/product/5637761191/rechargeable-o55mm-probe-video-borescope-for-smartphone

I'm not all that keen on wireless, but if the camera quality is anything like last time...

 

[Munkul]

I use HD Scope. Found I need to delete the wifi, after ive used it. Then start a fresh the nextine, otherwise it doesnt want to work.


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How does the wifi work? Does the camera broadcast a hotspot that you connect to, or is it all done in-app?

 

[Shox Dr]

How does the wifi work? Does the camera broadcast a hotspot that you connect to, or is it all done in-app?

its a little box that came with it. Shows up in your wifi

similar to this onehttps://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1200P-Wi...=133058912689a344d7087e3c47ebae7a2801334c384c

 

[Munkul]

looking at this one now, since it fits my needs

https://cpc.farnell.com/atp-instrumentation/vb-end5/inspection-camera-usb-5m/dp/TL18029

Bit long, though.

 

[Shox Dr]

looking at this one now, since it fits my needs

https://cpc.farnell.com/atp-instrumentation/vb-end5/inspection-camera-usb-5m/dp/TL18029

Bit long, though.

you dont have to pay that much. Both of mine cost less than 20quid a piece.

 

[Munkul]

But you've said that you aren't happy with the image quality/brightness?

My list of "needs":
- work with windows tablet without fiddling (i.e. micro-USB)
- 6mm head size max
- shorter length the better, ideally under 2m long
- semi rigid cable
- quality image in pitch black
- £80 budget if I'm confident of said image quality

I know it's a hard ask of any endoscope to give a quality image in sooty-black of engine internals, but the one I have atm... that picture in the OP is a plastic swirl flap stuck in the intake valve tract, but you couldn't tell that until it was pulled out. Whatever I buy NEEDS to be better than that, and I think it's more about image sensor quality than anything else.

 

[Shox Dr]

True, but what you linked to is no better than what i have for twice the price

 

[500e]

It's depth of field that is the killer as well
I have 1 camera on a solid tube + 3 packs all need batteries & may have other problems free for post if someone wants a fiddle

 

[Munkul]

This is the one I bought for work
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/inspection-cameras/1457886/

Price was £360 + VAT.
It's utterly terrible, the white balance is so far off that you can't make out barely anything. It's an expensive paperweight.
All it taught me is that I'll not buy another expensive camera without trialling it first!
The £10 ebay one is better.

What I will say is, I don't think its necessarily the hardware, it seems to be more of a colour/definition issue that could be software instead.

 

[Kram]

looking at this one now, since it fits my needs

https://cpc.farnell.com/atp-instrumentation/vb-end5/inspection-camera-usb-5m/dp/TL18029

Bit long, though.

You can see the LED' s share the same glass as the camera. It will be rubbish with internal reflections until the glass is removed. This looks identical to the ones made in china.

 

[Munkul]

You can see the LED' s share the same glass as the camera. It will be rubbish with internal reflections until the glass is removed. This looks identical to the ones made in china.

I'll see about modifying my ebay one tonight and see if its any better not sure I'll manage it though... they look very fiddly!