usb inspection cameras

noticed one of these in one of the many ad emails I get on a daily basis, just wondered if anyone had tried using one to inspect the inside of a chassis

I have one, if it just a cheap one which like I got off ebay for £8 , although they can give good pictures the focal length is very limited.

Cheers

I've got one. Mine gives a good picture. However, I've found that when you put it in to an enclosed space such as through an air brick under the floor, chassis rail, wall cavity etc, it's hard to tell which way is up and what you are looking at. I've marked the top of my camera so I know what is the top! But, once it's inside the chassis rail it will rotate and it starts getting confusing. I haven't used it that much so probably with experience/self training I would get better at interpreting what I was looking at.

thanks chaps, its mainly so I can decide whether to buy a new chassis for the s3 or just patch if it gets a hole, so the picture quality is most important, I guess the direction would become more important if the chassis wasn't too bad inside and maybe needed a just a bit bit of attention in parts.

don't want to splash out on a new unless its absolutely necessary - although having one would give a lot of comfort knowing it was all pukkah - not knowing what it is like inside does worry me sometimes

For about £8, it's worth it mate. I think it would give you a good idea of the rust levels in your chassis. I've been impressed with the Fertan I am currently using. I would certainly use it down a chassis rail. You'd need a long tube with a spray nozzle on the end to run it down, as you would Dinitrol etc. That is if you haven't already got something in there.

I would have thought gentle hittiing with a hammer would have given a better understanding of the general condition of a chassis. But as a way of double checking a questionable area then maybe a camera , even a cheapie might be a good answer.
Trying to check and validate a whole chassis and understand exactly what you are looking at would be in my opinion a nightmare, unless you spent mega bucks on a good quality tool.

Cheers

well I am sold on the £8 drop in the ocean c.f. over a grand for a new chassis, used fertan on my chevy, amazing stuff imho and topped it off with dinitrol black. good thing about that chassis is that it was a girder type so no box sections - just a bit in the engine bay - wish landrover had done theirs like that.

just trying to get an idea of how crusty it is inside neilly so that I can plan a new chassis purchase say if it looked a year or so away, and maybe build up a rolling chassis and galv'ed bh with new springs and refurbed axles and relay then all I would need to do is swap the engine box and top over

here you go,
pictures of the instruction page taken at 1 " 2" and 3" distance.
other two are inside of a length of 1 inch sqr steel tube, using the inbuilt light one is open end and one is end closed off with a shiny alu plate. Biggest problem is not only the orientation but also being able to direct the camera. As it is on a flexible cable it can be difficult to get it to point where you want ( may be fixable by using a strong wire to direct the camera with as you feed it into the chassis.

thanks those pics are a good help, should be good enough for what I want, better than cutting the dumb irons off and shining a torch down the rails which was the other idea I had