Making an endoscope

Suggest you cross-post to the wider s.e.* groups. Might get better response from the engineering population...

Good luck,

No, not cross-post. He shouldn't have posted a non-repair question in a repair newsgroup.

Before he posts again, he should read Mark Zenier's guide to the hierarchy, ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/m/mzenier/seguide9706.txt and then determine the most appropriate newsgroup before he posts again.

There is virtually no reason for someone to cross-post. It's usually laziness.

Michael

I was doing some work here with fibers. I was going to make some couplers for LEDs. Still in the works. I got something like 50 feet of bundled fibers. They were just floating so i could do anything i wanted. By epoxying the ends, then finely polishing the ends, I could get good light transfer, but far from optimum. The process needs tweaked by be. I also had an assembly made, and the polishing is so much better than by me. These assemblies have the fibers in not perfect order I'm sure it takes special layout to be able to keep an image intact. First you need good terminated ends, good lens conversion, then, good continuity.

greg

You could buy one of these if you had enough work to justify one.

How about something using a miniature camera innards mounted on a mini gooseneck if it doesn`t have to be steerable?

Ron(UK)

I`m presuming that it`s needed to inspect the positioning of the violins tone post?

Ron(UK)

about

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finer

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thou

How small ? without going into 007 territory, do you reckon the lens plus CCD is (assuming this is separatable and can be extended) for a standard webcam or CCTV camera. I did do similar, ages ago, to make a printing microfiche viewer by extending a standard fax CCD out to under an illuminated fiche viewer

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

"N Cook" wrote in news:f1d64p$ga9$ snipped-for-privacy@inews.gazeta.pl:

Finer fibres maybe. Perhaps even glass ones, not plastic. Plus better coating to keep them from cross interfering.

I have a colour camera and lens which the pcb is less than half an inch across, possibly just small enough to poke through the f hole of a violin. The lens screws in and out for focusing, and can get pretty close up, you'd need a strong light source as well, probably a hi brightness led would do it.

How do professional violin repairers do it?

Ron(UK)

I thought myself that plastic would work. I bought a roll of fishing line to experiment. it does not work at all. Glass or other materials are needed. Also bought some really good fiber, but it was so expensive I could not get enough coverage. The better fibers are individually coated. I looked through some light source assemblies, but the fibers don't always form a correct pattern. You can buy these relatively cheaply, but they are not ideal.

greg

Nonetheless, his question is valid and broadening one's experiences can't hurt. :)

A totally optical endoscope uses what's called a "coherent optical bundle". This has 100s of thousands of fibers arranged in exactly the same pattern at both ends. That's why they cost 10s of thousands of dollars.

Google: "coherent optical bundle" or something like that. Or, "endoscope" for that matter. :)

Many newer ones use miniature CCD cameras.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

Inspecting the sound post would be one reason, though I guess it could also be to inspect for internal damage.

Not sure how much better that would be than a small 45 degree mirror though.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ:

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.

Try a place that sells auto repair tools or mechanics tools.

Ya know, I bought a spy camera on E-Bay for about 100 bucks CDN. It is about the size of pezio buzzer, and runs off a 9V battery. It is also wireless. I was going to put it in a bottle attached to a kite to take aerial shots at the beach I go to, and then I was going to mount it in my model train engine, for a forward view.

Check out E-Bay, they are probably still selling them...

- Tim -

Ya know, I bought a spy camera on E-Bay for about 100 bucks CDN. It is about the size of piezo buzzer, and runs off a 9V battery. It is also wireless. I was going to put it in a bottle attached to a kite to take aerial shots at the beach I go to, and then I was going to mount it in my model train engine, for a forward view.

Check out E-Bay, they are probably still selling them...

- Tim -

From my vcr repairing days (remember those?) I still have a dentists mirror taped to a pen light. I guess you you easily mount a small bullet camera to look at the mirror in the same way or modify some small optical toy or device.

Ron(UK)

Like this one?

No, mine was much smaller than that. More like these ones;

I see they are much cheaper now, and this particular auction is for a 2 camera setup. My seller was Chai Po Ying.

His email was bidok snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com.hk in May of 2002 anyways

- Tim -

There are some cheap endoscopes on E-Bay US for about $130 USD from a seller in Tokyo:

HandyScope 351L Tool Endoscope - Borescope - Fiberscope

N Cook wrote:

"Ron(UK)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com:

A dentist's mirror.