Does anyone in the hive have experience with phone mounted borescope/endoscopes?
Do they work for things like cylinder wall inspections?
What brands do you like?
Asking because I may have acquired a large-displacement Dodge truck... I want to eyeball the bores.
I don't have any personal experience, but I can give you a bump in case anyone missed this.
I have used both the cheap IPhone ones on Amazon that are WiFi for about $35 and one for about the same price that has an integral screen. Both work fine and are super handy to have around the shop. The negative is that the cheap ones all seem to have like a 6-10 foot scope cable. The extra cabling always seem to be an annoyance looped up. Once you have one you will wonder why you didn't buy one before.
They're very useful. I recall having to remove the steering wheel on a 2017 Ram I used to own. Lining up the clips (working backwards, only workable through a small notch in the back of the wheel/column, 3 clips) to remove the airbag was a difficult task. As annoying as it was, it would've been MUCH harder without that cheap borescope camera taped to the steering column so I could see what I was doing.
These tools are inexpensive. Buy one or two. I have 3, and they're well worth it.
The cheap ones suck unless you like a really snowy visual. It's better than nothing anyway.
You definitely will want one with a mirror attachment. Most of the time I use one, I want to see something next to the hole I am poking through, like a valve or a head gasket edge.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
I picked up a ~$25 amazon camera with mirror, magnet, and hook attachments.
Not the best picture in the world, but perfectly serviceable.
I got a floppy cable one that plugs into the phone, thinking I could rig it to a stiff wire if I needed to, but it's just kind of annoying as-is and I wouldn't go that route again.
I wasn't aware of the mirror thing. That's a good idea.
I was just recently thinking of these, so thanks for the tips/reviews! I just ordered one with an integrated screen instead of using my phone. I will try to remember to post up how well it works once I get it.
I got this one fairly recently. Good image. I've used it several times since I got it (except for what I bought it for) and I don't know how I've done without it.
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