Wednesday, September 27, 2023

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My new favorite tool: I’ve solved so many RV issues with this gadget!

By Nanci Dixon
My new favorite tool was just delivered. It is a Digital Inspection Endoscope that allows me to see into very tight, small, dark spaces. It is two cameras at the end of a long, 16 ft. cable connected to a viewing monitor so I can see exactly what the cameras see. This thing is cool!

I have been consumed with tracking down the entrance holes of the mice invasions in our motorhome. I could see where they came out (under the island cabinet) but not what they left or chewed up on their way there. I also couldn’t see far enough in the bays to discover the entrance. This endoscope is perfect! I found a chewed up wire and a torn furnace duct. I also found the hole under the bay they slunk through, and sealed it up. Whew!

Next, I wanted to see behind the TV to check if all the connections were tight. The TV has been blinking on and off, so I knew something was wrong. It was easy to fish the cable and camera through a small opening, look around and snap a couple pics! You can view the camera live and take pictures or video to review later. I found the loose plug.

It was hard to see the motorhome’s diesel engine without taking a panel out in a bay or removing the tile floor in the motorhome closet. We simply pushed the camera through from the back and with the two lenses, and got a great front and side view.

Lost my hairbrush somewhere behind a drawer – found it! The tangle of wires in the AV cabinet? Now I can find where they come from, what they connect to, where they go and how to untangle them without disconnecting everything. Now that’s something I’ll be celebrating…

Just can’t wait to find another problem to “look” into. If you don’t have one of these nifty gadgets, I highly recommend buying one. You’ll have a lot of fun with it, and I can say that from experience.

##RVT964

Nanci Dixon
Nanci Dixon
Nanci Dixon has been a full-time RVer living “The Dream” for the last six years and an avid RVer for decades more! She works and travels across the country in a 40’ motorhome with her husband. Having been a professional food photographer for many years, she enjoys snapping photos of food, landscapes and an occasional person. They winter in Arizona and love boondocking in the desert. They also enjoy work camping in a regional park. Most of all, she loves to travel.

Comments

  1. Going to use mine today. I have Coroplast covering the bottom of my TT but want to run a cable for my new Weboost Reach RV antenna. So I will just drill a few small holes to see where I can run the cables and then cover them with gorilla tape.

    • I got one of those the fist time RVTravel recommended it. IT DOES NOT CLOSE-FOCUS. Thus, in those tight space you cannot focus on anything. Waste of money.

  2. I have the Harbor Freight camera assy complete kit in a plastic carrying case. 3.5″ screen, 320×240 pixels. 14″ fiber-optic cam cable. (.jpg and .avi formats). Rechargeable lith-ion batt. to 4 hrs. continuous. 5x digital zoom or view on a monitor or laptop via USB. Item #60695. I have had it for some years and if I recall it was $87.00. Solved a few problems with it – in addition to tooth and facial orifice exams!!!

    I also have a small USB plug-in cable and software which works well on my laptop. Waterproof. 60 deg. angle w/6 LED lites at end of 16.4′ cam cable. It works well too, however the lite could be brighter. Still or video directly into into your PC or lap-top. (Phone – ?) I have had this a number of years also – not sure where I bought it. Ebay?

  3. Yes, but how did you reach the hairbrush to retrieve it? Couldn’t you use the same process to see the hairbrush in the first place? Ditto for the tv. You still had to reach the loose plug. You found the mouse hole. You still had to reach it to plug it. Not sure why you are so enamored with this camera.

  4. This is awesome and at a nice price.
    If you put the camera end on a long rod, you should be able to see the top of your slides or even the roof. By lowering the rod to the ground, you should be able to see the underside of the coach.

  5. I ordered one of those scopes and ran it into tight places on my RV. It does NOT close-focus, so everything in a tight space is out of focus. Worthless!

      • Have a DEPSTECH brand and am very happy with it. Is it possible the factory messed up and you got the bad unit. Might give them a call, if they can’t help would most likely send out a replacement at no charge, best wishes. Mike

        • I too have a Depstech with a 35′ cable I bought to inspect a drain line at home. Love it. It was invaluable when I had to replace the water pump in the cassette toilet in our truck camper. I last used it about a month ago to run a new wire through the roof structure from one side of our rv to the other side. Was able to find a small passageway and see the end of the wire as I snaked it through.

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