Borescope

I have just received from China a Borescope bought for the princely sum of around £6

No instructions of how to use it just a USB connection for the laptop. When plugged in the LED light comes on but how do I get to see the Picture ? I do not really need this it was bought on a whim when having bike engine trouble and I thought it may be useful.

Hi Chris,

I use a program called Amcap that used to be written by Microsoft, then a guy started writing software updates for it and charges people for the privilege, not sure what the story was behind it all.

If you can find a copy of the original MS version it works with many usb camera devices.

Ed.

Edited By Ed Duffner on 17/06/2016 20:54:18

This?

I to purchased a similar one which should have worked with a mobile phone but I couldn't get it to work so tried it ion my laptop and found it worked ok all I did and I use win 10 was to select the camera app I was then asked if I wanted the web cam or the scope made the selection and there was the picture

H

Back after hip replacement but will not really ready to get into my workshop for a few weeks yet.

I have had many happy hours, days, using borescopes. They are a truely useful tool but most of the time you will not have a clue what you are looking at. Most people who took the day long course at work never knew what they were looking at. I spent over a day looking at a 10mm x 500mm bit of an engine without coming to a conclusion about the potential failure I was looking at.

JA

Hmmm I looked at the Amcap program and my computer tells me it is an unsafe site. Just tried windows movie maker and got all sorts of dodgy looking things come on the screen. I may need a hand holding exercise to get this sorted as I struggle with most computer things.

Chris,

I have three 'general purpose' webcam programs on my Win_7 machine [all checked with Trend Micro antivirus] ... If you want a copy of any or all of these; send me your eMail address by Personal Message.

amcap.exe

ehe_v2.exe [this seems to be an improved version of amcap]

Play Camera.exe [this one is by Samsung]

MichaelG.

Chris,

I have one of those scopes.

I had the same problem until I realised that you needed to change the setting on your computer which dictates to the computer which video input (camera or scope) you want the computer to use.

There will be the original built-in cam that is the default one.

You have to change that setting to tell it to use the borescope. It is a while since I used it but I remember it was simple once I copped what needed doing, and the video quality was quite good.

John

Amcap is/was a Microsoft product. there are indistinguishable rip-offs out there under the name 'CamApp'.

If you want a totally flexible camera control program use the excellent Sharpcap, it's meant for astronomy but that just means extra features, it works for any camera and will take stills, capture sequences of videos at intervals from seconds to hours etc. and automatically accesses any special features of your camera such as zoom, capture rates., different codecs...

One thing you will need to do (and it sounds like you haven't done as it won't work in movie maker) is get the right driver for your camera. Find it in device manager and look at its properties, if you can identify the product number of the camera then googling that plus 'driver' will help - but beware some driver sites are virus traps. Sorry if that confuses rather than helps...

Neil

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... not forgetting that many [most?] modern USB cameras are USB 'Video Class', and should work without any custom drivers.

MichaelG.

In theory - I haven't found any yet!

Neil

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Hint: Try looking for UVC ... Here's a few on ebay **LINK**

... There are many more.

MichaelG.

I'm not looking for one, just Sharpcap has some stuff that's specific to controlling them. Most more flexible cams have their own drivers.

Neil

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I guess that would explain why you "haven't found any yet!"

Hi Chris,

I've also just bought a similar camera from Ebay, it came with a mini CD with software to run it (apparently) but it was entirely in Chinese so that ended up in the bin! I had a chat with a techy nurd mate at work and he suggested a programme called Debut by NCH Software. Google NCH Software and you will find Debut under video capture software. It is free to download if you are solely using it for home use and can be downloaded for either Windows or Mac platforms.

It's very quick to download & install, then just plug in your usb camera, select it in the settings menu and off you go! You can adjust recording resolution & file type to suit your needs and you can record both video and snapshots from the camera. I've had a quick play and it works great on both my Mac & Windows laptops. It seems it may also have other features such as text overlay but I haven't had a chance to play with them yet!

I should point out I have no connection with NCH Software other than being very impressed with their freebee!

Regards Martin.

That looks useful, thanks, Martin

Here's a **LINK**

MichaelG.

I'm not looking for one, but I have got through a fair number in the last 12 months...

Neil

Neil,

I think we're trying to have two different conversations ^^^

... I will bow-out, before it causes any more confusion.

MichaelG.