We’ve all struggled with mirrors on sticks – used in conjunction with magnets on other sticks – and a torch, and with the advent of LED lights, one of those in the centre of a magnet on a stick. But they’re usually too big, because the heads usually contains the batteries for the LED and those are bigger than the hole you want access to.
What we really want is something like doctors use in similar circumstances but not quite so small, delicate or expensive.
An Endoscope.
And that’s what we’ve got, if you choose to look for one.
In this case, one that communicates with your phone using Bluetooth, so you can see what the camera in the end is looking at. A camera surrounded by small and dimmable LED lights in a housing that measures just 8mm in diameter, and which generates video.
Look at fuel tap filters in situ, under fuel tanks, or perchance make sure that the chain on your Shovelhead isn’t eating its way through the starter motor bridge, because you had the audacity to fit slammed shocks.
And why would you want to do that with a camera rather than just get a glimpse with a much cheaper mirror and a torch? Actually, not that much cheaper if you get the wired type that connects to an OTG-enabled micro USB plug on your phone.
Because you can then share problems across networks, rather than trying to describe what you are doing, where you are working and what you can see.
I would strongly recommend that you mount your phone – and ideally the wireless transmitter – on a reasonably heavy tripod somehow, because the 7m of this particular device’s semi-rigid cable is both a blessing and a curse when you are focusing on the business end in tight places. And I need to tell you that the focal length is between about 1 and 2 inches, but that’s fine for what it’s supposed to do.
It is reckoned to be IP68 safe, if you put the waterproof end-cap on, and it comes with three others ends: a hook, a magnet and a 45° mirror.
If you can’t see the need for one, you don’t need one.
But if you can … / Andy
Pancellent HD 1200P WiFi Endoscope
Part #: TES-EN-5MWF
Retail: £23.99