I received a flyer from Harbor Freight yesterday, and one of the items
in it was a new "borescope" that was priced down from $139 (on their
website) to $99.99 in the local stores.

So, knowing that I would need one soon to exam the inside of my fuel
tanks when I get the holes for the fuel filler assembly cut (and who
knows what other little holes I'd have to inspect), I went down and
bought it.

I bought it...it was much better than I expected, and a lot more solid
than other Harbor Freight items I bought in the past. The first thing I
noticed was that it was very well packaged in a semi-rigid plastic
container. I'll use that to store it in.

I think it has a lot of neat features (in addition to the price), so I
thought I'd pass it on to you people in case you are looking for a tool
to examine those hard to view places as well.

The camera/light source head is 5/8 inch in diameter...the flexible
shaft is 3 feet long.  The camera, flex shaft and mounting head on the
handle are attached with o-rings and are claimed to be water proof. The
whole thing (including the monitor) has a nice solid feel to it and
appears to be pretty rugged. Not the usual thin plastic like the
Chinese
stuff often is.

The length of the camera head before it starts to be bendable may be a
problem for some applications though, as  even though the camera and
it's fitting itself is only a little less than 3 inches in length, it
needs 4-1/2 inches of clearance straight in to get a full bend in the
flexible shaft.  An application like this would be a good place to use
the 45 degree mirror attachment that comes with it that I mention
below.

The monitor/display is in color, has adjustable brightness (in addition
to the LED light source brightness adjustments), contrast and
orientation (rotates the image in four steps) and can be removed easily
from the handle and remoted as it uses a wireless connection to the
camera.  It also has a video output.  It's cable has a standard RCA
connector on the end so you can input it to any device that will accept
a composite video input for recording or viewing on a larger screen.

The camera and LEDs runs on 4 AA batteries in the handle, and the
monitor has a rechargeable lithium ion battery.  It comes with the
charger as well.  It has three attachments that fit over the camera
head
...a mirror, a magnet and a pick.  So you can hunt down and move or
pick
up things you find in those deep dark holes.

It uses super bright LEDs for the camera's light source, and the light
level is adjustable through a trigger on the handle.  The camera does
pretty good in low light as well...I was viewing items in my house this
morning without using the LEDs.

You can see it online here:
www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?function=Search

And the manual is here:
www.harborfreight.com/manuals/66000-66999/66550.pdf

Harley Dixon
Long EZ N28EZ
Canandaigua, NY

I'll have to pop over to harbor freight and take a look.
I have a couple of engines that I would like to inspect.
5/8th won't fit through a spark plug hole I don't think.
Or would it?

Paul Lamar


 Look for item # 66550 when searching on the site.  I couldn't find it
 under "bore" "scope" or "borescope", but the number is on the manual
 in the link provided.

 I too want to know if the tip with go through a spark plug hole.


 Matt-

OK...you made me look!  I just removed one of the plugs from my 13b on
the engine stand...and the camera fits as far as the threads only...it
doesn't go down into the hole.

Harley


Been playing with it for awhile...looking in my ears, nose and throat
for example...also inside my entertainment center at the back of my
amplifier and the TV.  The only major problem I see is the focal
range...too close and you can't figure out what you are looking at.
It'll take awhile to get used to maneuvering it to check out something
specific as well...it helps that the monitor has a provision for
reversing the image or turning it upside down without having to move the
camera. Will help when using the mirror and everything is reversed.

I think it will be fine for what I originally wanted it for...looking
around inside the fuel tanks, and all the dark corners in the plane (and
probably looking for money under the car seats!)

I can see where a true fiber optic borescope is better in that the
resolution with fiber optics ALWAYS depends on the size of the fiber and
doesn't change with distance...this unit is a miniature color camera, so
the focus is dependent on the lens and the distance from it. About 3-4
inches and beyond is excellent focus in my experience this afternoon.

Harley