Borescope cameras

[FORANE]

Can anyone recommend a good borescope camera? It seems there are many coming on the market in recent years. Would like a good high resolution model for the occasional user.
Prefer either USB-C, bluetooth or WIFI capable to my android.

 

[timrb]

I recently bought one of these to check rifle barrels:

https://www.oasisscientific.com/sto..."_(91_cm)_Long_Semi-Rigid_Insertion_Tube.html

I have been generally pleased with it, so for 80 bucks it might suit your needs.

Tim

 

[schmookeeg]

I got fed up with the chinesium ones I bought off of amazon.

The VA-400 I bought (also a Vividia like the above) has done well for me.

 

[LesGawlik]

The Ablescope from Vividia. There are two kinds, one that just plugs into a USB port and another that has a little WIFI transmitter with it. The latter is for Apple products that don't have a USB port.

I had a problem with the first one, and I sent them an email. I got a response from a human within a minute. It was ao quick I thought it was an automated response, but no, it was tech support. They resolved my issue quickly.

Although it is called rigid, there is a section at the end that can turn about 180* to see things like valves, etc. That movable piece is controlled with a plunger. There is illumination on the end controllable by a thumbwheel on the cable.

 

[Snowmass]

I agree with above but I see no advantage of using it to look into my cylinders as a compression test tells me more; however, they are great for for finding hidden airframe cracks such as the Cessna AD concerning the strut to fuselage inspection.

 

[LesGawlik]

The current standard is that borescope inspection is the gold standard for engine health. Compression testing is done mostly because it was all that we could do. It is at best another datum to be used with filter inspection and oil analysis.

 

[schmookeeg]

When I do prebuys for people they giggle and clap seeing those little red round concentric exhaust valve deposits.

Since I mainly inspect continental-powered planes, the compression numbers are basically "roll 3d20 + 10". Even when I note leakages and the presumptive source, buyers only care about "omg but why is this one a 58 does it need an overhaul?"

 

[Silvaire]

The current standard is that borescope inspection is the gold standard for engine health. Compression testing is done mostly because it was all that we could do. It is at best another datum to be used with filter inspection and oil analysis.

Yea right, I'm gonna stick a cheap camera into a cylinder with perfectly good compression and tell the owner he needs to pull it because of some funny colored stains.

 

[FORANE]

The eye doesn't see what the brain doesn't know to look for.

 

[schmookeeg]

 

[Bell206]

The current standard is that borescope inspection is the gold standard for engine health.

I don't know who labeled it the "gold standard" but the borescope inspection is simply a secondary check to the compression checks. There is zero guidance to determine the serviceability of a cylinder based solely on a borescope inspection. Does the borescope provide an intermediate check vs remove a cylinder to access condition, sure. Can a borescope inspection detect all faults vs an inspection of a removed cylinder, no. The borescope is simply another tool in the process determining cylinder health, nothing more.

 

[Randomskylane]

Boroscope can’t see rings, cam, crank, lifters etc but does allow exhaust valve inspection top of pistons and ?

Seems like it could be of some use along with oil analysis checks compression checks etc for those of us spooked by the cardinal rg engine failure in the other thread

 

[Checkout_my_Six]

I got a VA-400 Vividia. It does it’s job.

 

[LesGawlik]

Yea right, I'm gonna stick a cheap camera into a cylinder with perfectly good compression and tell the owner he needs to pull it because of some funny colored stains.

No, I'm sure you would check the heat patterns and colors on the valve, look at the contact patterns on the valve and seat, look for deposits on the stem, insure that the valve is rotating and the rotocoil was in good shape, tell the owner to fly it and recheck it in a few hours.

 

[Silvaire]

No, I'm sure you would check the heat patterns and colors on the valve, look at the contact patterns on the valve and seat, look for deposits on the stem, insure that the valve is rotating and the rotocoil was in good shape, tell the owner to fly it and recheck it in a few hours.

I've got half a dozen of these things from way back when the first optical ones came out, no camera just a flexible tube and a lens with a light at the end and a clip on mirror to look backwards that you'd pray wouldn't fall off into the cylinder. I was on the front lines when everyone was buying twenty nine dollar Chinese dental cameras and modifying them to fit through a spark plug hole. They have a 90 degree angle and are probably still the best tool for looking at valve faces. The last one I bought was the Vividia AbleScope and it's pretty good with the articulating head that will turn 180. But let's not kid ourselves here, these are not borescopes. Go ahead and Google borescope and you'll find that the price is listed as "request a quote" meaning unless you plan to make money with this thing you got no business here.

So anyway, useful tool? Yup, but not so much for cylinders. Despite the rumors the good ol' compression test is still the "Golden Standard" d;-)

 

[Craig]

Base price on the XL-GO’s we use at work is around 79k$, the last time I looked. That included two batteries, charger and 6 of the 14 or so available tip lens units. It’s a 7 or 8 foot guide, 4 mm diameter, fully steerable with both video and still recording capability. Not cheap, but less than the Olympus ones with the thru cable tool capability we have.

 

[Snowmass]

The current standard is that borescope inspection is the gold standard for engine health. Compression testing is done mostly because it was all that we could do. It is at best another datum to be used with filter inspection and oil analysis.

Well as somebody who thinks for himself I question this for exhaust valves. It's valve leakage, at least in TCM engines, that CAUSES the burning so you will see leakage BEFORE burning. TCM valves cool by seat contact and as soon as there is poor contact and therefore blow by you will then start the burning.

 

[Bacho]

Can anyone recommend a good borescope camera? It seems there are many coming on the market in recent years. Would like a good high resolution model for the occasional user.
Prefer either USB-C, bluetooth or WIFI capable to my android.

I have a $40 amazon one that is fantastic for finding fallen hardware or similar. Its paid for itself several times over. That said, its not a machine to inspect engines.

At work we have a $40k one for inspecting engines.