• It's time to cast your vote in the January 2025 Turning Challenge. (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to Alan Weinberg for "Elm Burl Bowl" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 27, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

Endoscope for Hollowing

RichColvin

RichColvin

Super Moderator
Staff member
OTI Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Messages
699
Likes
602
Location
Marysville, OH
Website
www.colvintools.com
I have used several different ones ...for examining the bore of rifles. I would have to wonder if the camera will give you the detail you may be looking for. There are some that you can purchase - which plug into your smart phone. Your smart phone likely has a higher resolution screen than what is built into the device that you provided a link for......
 
I've been using a USB inspection camera off eBay with an old laptop for something like 6-7 years. Works wonderfully! I told people about it right after Trent Bosch came out with his system. I caught a lot of flack, and some people never would believe me. I guess they thought there was some kind of magic in the purchased system because of the incredible difference in cost. The laptop I have is an antique, so zero cost there, and a complete system cost of $10. I bought a camera that would directly replace the laser in my Jamieson rig.
 
I don't think I would like such a small TV screen, only 4 inch diagonal. The one I use is similar to this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/15FT-USB-E...bAAAOSwBpVdIugv:sc:USPSFirstClass!44149!US!-1

I have been using this for about 4 years. It plugs right into a USB port on an old laptop that I don't mind getting dusty. It looks like technology has continued to advance, many wireless models are available for about $5.

A key feature is the focal distance, mine stated it was "4 cm to infinite" the one I linked to above says 3-10 cm, which seems a little tight. Your camera is likely to be greater than 10 cm away from the cutting tip, so it will be a little out of focus. But not too fuzzy that would preclude tracing the contours with a marker. The outside surface of the hollow form will be closer to the 10 cm distance, so will be in better focus. The focal length on the one you referenced is only 6cm
 
Michael,
I purchased one of these does yours have LED lights that illuminate from the end?
What software are you using to operate the endoscope with?
I tried accessing the link that came with the endoscope and it no longer is a valid website.

Mike Johnson
 
Yes it has LED lights on the end. I don't think they are needed if you have a lamp shining down on the piece. Mine came with a CD that had the viewing software on it. This worked fine on a laptop running Windows 7. My older laptop, running Windows XP, (or was it Vista?) was too old and the software didn't run correctly. I searched under "webcam viewer" and found a couple dozen different software packages (all free). I had to try 3 or 4 before I found one that worked. I believe it was called "VLC Media Player"
 
I have VLC on all my computers (XP, 7, and 10) and it will play just about any video source on any platform. Here is the website: https://www.videolan.org/index.html

BTW, focal length and focus distance are not the same thing. Focal length is basically a magnification factor that is the distance from the sensor plane to the effective center of the lens. Focus distance is the distance from the sensor plane to the subject. Sometimes the information in an ebay ad confuses the two and asking for clarification might not get you anywhere.

A camera with a short focal length is low magnification and a wide field of view. Conversely a camera with a long focal length gives higher magnification and a narrow field of view. Probably the most useful information for our purpose would be the angle that gives the field of view. Armed with that information you could easily determine the right distance from camera to spin axis to give you the desired image size.
 
Yes, I misspoke calling it focal length. In fact the Amazon ad in Rich's original post called it "focal range". In various ebay listings I have seen "focus or (focal) distance," " focal length" and "Best observation distance"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top