Inspection camera

[alec green]

Hi, I am looking to buy a flexible inspection camera to look under floor boards and inside pipes. Can anyone suggest a good cheaper one.

Thanks

[John Williamson]

boards and inside pipes. Can anyone suggest a good cheaper one.

Maplin if you want to use a laptop with it, or Aldi if you can wait until they're on offer again.

[geoff]

In message , alec green writes

CPC were doing one not so long ago for £27 with a USB connection IIRC or about £70 with a viewing attachment

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I got a very nice one off Ebay for 30 quid. The head is a smaller diameter than most which was an advantage to me. It is USB so has to be used with a laptop, etc. IMHO, the all in one types sold for about 70 may have rather a small screen. But if you go for one of those, make sure it has a port for the ability to record the image if needed.

[John]

alec green explained on 23/09/2012 :

I got a USB inspection camera or "Snakescope" off Ebay from Hong Kong:

use with my laptop and it's really good. Used in conjunction with an electrician's fish wire/cable rods or unfolded wire coathanger, it'll go fairly much anywhere I've needed it.

[John Rumm]

I was toying with getting one of those... what is the field of view like, and how good is the illumination?

(I have a proper endoscope, which is great for some things - but is best with stuff that is very close to the end. So it would quite easily focus on a 22mm pipe if you slid it down, but its rather wide angle to capture much detail if poked into a under floor void for example)

[Fred]

Hi,

There are a few cameras on offer at CPC at the moment. I was interested in the usb one because it was the cheapest ;)

other two have their own screen but one of the other replies said that the screens are generally too small to be useful, so I think I had chosen the right one for the wrong reasons!

The problem is the photo is too small to be helpful in seeing what you are buying and CPC are terrible for not showing photos of the item you will receive, so it could look nothing like that shown (IME).

Like you, I was wondering how well they focus and the field of vision, etc. Does anyone know?

Do they come with any software or do you have to look for that elsewhere?

Can you use a usb extension lead with one of these?

TIA

[geoff]

In message , Fred writes

anger. Yes it comes with a disk, but its only a basic interface

Dunno, I have one of those too. It was invaluable when an item (data tracker) "dropped" under the floor pan of my escort van. Small, but usable

No peace for the wicked, eh? Found my USB one

It has a length of just under a metre handle to tip USB cable is 2m long. Extension lead? no idea

there is a button to snap photos and a pot to set the internal light intensity

It gives a clear picture at 1cm (text on the computer screen is clear and crisp), and at 4m (the other side of the room) the picture is what I might call "low photographic" quality

For the few quids it costs, you can't really go wrong (unless you were hoping to use it as a spanner or something)

[John Rumm]

I was looking at the ones with a sensor head on the end of a long[1] wire. Could be quite handy to tape to the end of a cable rod and then feed several rods deep into the fabric of a building for seeing if that blockage really is a dead end or just a nogging that needs to be jumped over etc

e.g.

[1] 3 to 10m being common depending on what you pay

[Fred]

I hadn't thought of looking on ebay until now, thanks. The advantage of the ebay ones is that they do have a much longer cable. I think that has got to be better than using usb extension leads because one would need a bigger hole to pass the usb plug/socket combination through and there would be the potential for the extension lead to become unplugged if the cable got caught on something.

I see the ebay ones claim to be waterproof. I wonder whether where that is on a scale between splash proof and submersible? After all, one possible DIY use could be looking down drains.

I wonder how scratch resistant they are. No use if it becomes unusable after one or two uses.

I think these could be very useful though, I have used my digital camera to see what is under floorboards before now.

[Fred]

To answer some of my own questions, it seems from the descriptions on ebay that the cameras are all the same: they all appear to be 300k pixels with 4 white leds.

The only difference is that some appear to be plastic, whilst others have a brass camera enclosure. I wonder the brass ones are more hard wearing.

Not all descriptions mention how waterproof they are. Some say they are IP66 rated; one said IP67 which I hadn't heard of before; I assume it is a typo.

For Windows haters, one had the interesting line: " It can be just compatible with windows system"

HTH

[charles]

IP67 is real. It means item can be underwater up to a depth of 1 metre for a short duration. Testing tme 30 minutes.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

This is the one I picked:-

[Fred]

rather than four. I don't know whether that makes any difference in the real world, but it certainly shows there is more than one model out there. I think this one is only 7mm wide whereas the other models are 10mm.

Sorry I didn't know about there being an IP67. It seems there could be three classes of camera: cameras that are waterproof but no IP rating is stated, IP66, and IP67.

[Andy Champ]

I've just been looking at IP67 rated mobile 'phones. So...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The 7mm head was why I picked it - and it might account for more but smaller LEDs. It also had a longer snake than than some of the others. The small size was important to me as I wanted it for examining the inside of car panels, etc.

[John Rumm]

>>>>>>>

USB also has a max reliable length of around 5m without repeaters (hubs).

It ought not be too hard to make something like that fairly water resistant.

Probably plastic lenses. Once could possibly stick a glass front on them if they are flat. Also if pushing through with a cable rod set etc, one could add protection by taping it a cm back from the tip of the lead rod.

Indeed same here. I can quite often get that into places I would have no hope of getting my eye!

[John Rumm]

7mm is quite good - its smaller than my "proper" endoscope.

[damduck-egg]

I'll probably end up getting arrested one day,the missus runs away if I see something of interest like an old pump house or similar industrial artifact. camera stuck to a stick or held close to a keyhole can sometimes reveal what remains inside easier than the naked eye, especially if you can a bit of flash in there. Have thought about getting one of the ones the OP is asking about but it would be difficult to blag out an excuse if caught using it. I got into enough trouble as a 12 year old when friends and I discovered a home made periscope could peer through a grating into the adjacent Girls changing room at school.

G.Harman

[Bill]

In message , [e-mail] writes

Why trouble? You were only putting your knowledge of physics and metalwork together to aid your knowledge of biology.