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Vividia VA-400 Borescope

On an iPhone?

I?ve threatened to buy one of these but they say it won?t work with an iPhone. I have a buddy who says his works great with his iPhone. I have an iPhone 11. Will it work?
 
Odd man out . .

I have this unit and find it usable and providing good, but not outstanding, views in the cylinder. It is the best unit for the dollar I have found though. Although a little short on resolution, the focal length, depth of field and articulation are spot on.

For the price you would likely find it returning more value than it's cost, I have.

I recently got a $50 borescope for a .22 rifle. It has much better resolution and while perfect for its application, I don't think it is usable for an engine due to focal length and rigid probe. It makes me hopeful a low cost unit with much better resolution is possible.

As the search for a better scope continues, this is best found.
 
Mine is several years old and now has a hazy film on the backside of the lens, which degrades the image. Need to spend some time with it to see if the lens is removable.
 
+1 on Bill?s comment.
Had the privilege to try some other pro borescopes that are far superior. But for us amateurs the 400 will do fine.

One warning, do not use on a hot engine, the lens doesn?t like it!
 
I?ve threatened to buy one of these but they say it won?t work with an iPhone. I have a buddy who says his works great with his iPhone. I have an iPhone 11. Will it work?

To use it with an i-phone you need to buy the wifi adapter
 
I recently bought the Longer flexible VA-800 version but have only used it a few times so far.
I got a bundle offering from Newegg which included the AirBox so I can use my iPad and iPhone to view. Got a $10 iPhone remote battery charger to power it.
Works great as others have said. However, the photo snap button quit working almost immediately. Apparently this is a common complaint.
Case is very nice.
Customer support sucks but maybe because of the Covid-19 issue.
The bundle I got was $430 so saved a bunch over separate purchases.
May not be the best for professional use but great for occasional hobbyist use.
 
Cheap amazon camera

I bought a $50 CDN wifi endoscope camera on Amazon. It has a 5.5 mm diameter, so it fits easily through the spark plug hole. To see the exhaust valves you have to bend the camera back on its own cable, tape it in place and then push that through the hole. It?s a bit finicky but works well enough for a cheap solution and gives good images of the exhaust valves. I thought that bending the cable 180 degrees in a tight radius might snap the wire or fibre, but so far so good. YMMV. It has an iOS app to send the images to your phone over wifi. I?ve also used it to locate pipes in the wall of my house, etc. I?m happy with it for the price.

Scott
 
I believe there still is a $80 Sun n Fun discount.
I bought one last week.
Coupon code is SunNFun
It came out to $169.98
 
I use mine all the time. Works great. I don't use the hard snapshot button on the cord, I use the screen button. The 180 articulation makes for easy view of valves in the cylinders.

Ever have somebody want the serial number or model number of an oil filter adapter or altitude encoder? Poke than sucker in there and woola.

I use mine with PC, Android smart phone and iPad Mini. As mentioned earlier in this thread iPhones and iPads require the wifi adapter and a wifi network router to work. Good old Apple, eh?

Jim
 
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I bought two of those. One was for our mechanic. Works great with iPad and iPhone. Just need WiFi adapter as stated before. The snapshot button hasn?t worked for me. Called them and they said it doesn?t work with iOS.

We got a special price when they were selling at the Reno air races. I?d suggest calling them and asking if they have any SNF or other show specials. Our second one was purchased a month after the show, and they honored the discount. Ours are the VA-800. A Battery USB charger is handy to use with it so it can be powered without an extension cord. Takes minimal power to run.
 
Locking Feature

From Oasis Scientific: https://www.oasisscientific.com/sto...mm_(0.33")_Diameter_Probe_and_LED_Lights.html

I have the locking feature on my several-years-old VA-400, and find the locking feature to be useful. It appears that feature now it is only available on a limited basis, nomenclature VA-400L.

After many years of VA-400 use, I bought some new sleeves and the sleeve changing tool from Oasis ($10). It works well. It would be challenging to replace the sleeves without the tool or something similar.
I recommend watching Vividea's youtube video for hints, plus reading their cautions in the comment section. Don't push the sleeve changing tool on too far. https://www.oasisscientific.com/sto..._VA-400,_800,_920,_980,_9150,_and_UV-400.html
 
What App?

I had been using OTG View on an Android device for a display, but this was no longer working during my most recent attempt. Has anybody got a recommendation for an Android App that can take still photos and isn't too top heavy with ads?
 
I once got mine to work with a friend's phone, which he no longer has. It will not work with any of the other 4 Samsung phones in our possession. I have tried all the manufacturer recommended apps with all of the phones and none of them work, a study in frustration. With some of them the light will come on but no picture.

Worked for one inspection a couple of years ago with one out of five phones.

Not good value for the money, at least to me...
 
Light glare

I've had a Vividia for a number of years and the reticulating feature is very good for viewing the exhaust valves. However as others have noted the resolution is pretty ordinary.

My biggest beef with the unit is that the LED lights around the camera lens cause severe glare by way of reflection in the middle of the image when viewing close-up (such as inside an engine cylinder). It's really annoying because the intense glare hides detail in the centre of the image.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced the same problem?
 
Overall good quality boroscope, solid case and easy handling. The cons are low resolution images and the need for an extra wireless adapter when using iOS.
 
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