Vividia Ablescope VA-980 USB Semi-Rigid Articulating Borescope

Love this thing. Super clear picture. App is easy to use. Adaptors are self explanatory. button on the wore obviously takes pictures. Found out the dial on the button actually adjusts the brightness of the light. Best boroscope I've ever owned. Worth every penny.

I bought this item to borescope my airplane's engine. I use Apple products exclusively. There are many free imaging apps that display the Ablescope's image. All of these apps worked with the scope's LED dimmer, but finding one that worked with the scope's snapshot button took some doing. I eventually installed Digital Viewer on my Macbook Air, and it works well. Pictures and videos are not saved to Apple's Photo app, but maybe that's not a bad thing... Regarding its functionality, the ability to bend the camera between straight ahead to 180 degrees back is fabulous. I've tried other endoscopes, but their use is limited by the fixed angle of the camera. Taking snapshots is easy, but a fully controlled video takes a little bit of practice (the attached clip shows that I need to work on my technique). I found that to get the valve at the proper size, it helps to turn the prop to move the cylinder up or down, which in turn moves the camera closer or farther from the target. Finally, I tried to image the seat of the intake valve, but it's only possible to see a small portion of the seat. The camera and bending mechanism is small, but not that small.

With this inspection camera was able to diagnose a multitude of problems (valve train, rodent damage, leaking head gaskets). Providing pictures for warranty purposes and authorization, avoiding tear down and wait scenarios. Bought this instead of snap-on camera, because I like that I can look up at valves and chamber. Articulation also makes scanning around under plenum for rodent damage easy. Proved to be pretty rugged, as I am not easy on my tools. I feel I definitely got my money's worth with this product.

So this is a good tool for the price. It is the second unit that I have bought. I had a mishap with the first unit and needed parts to repair it. No phone contact so I sent an email and never received a reply. The first one worked several years before we broke it...from abuse. After searching for a similar product to buy I ended up reluctantly buying another. Nothing else compares for the price. JUST DO NOT EXPECT CUSTOMER SERVICE from Vividia. It does not exist.

This articulating bore camera saved me over $1000 in repairs. I can clearly inspect the outer edge of each piston and see the intake and exhaust valves. After two valves looked burned, I reinspected with the exhaust valves open and both looked fine. So I do not have the heads rebuilt. This camera articulates to one side only, so you have to turn the entire camera assembly inside the spark plug hole. You will also have to remember to straighten out the camera before pulling it out of the spark plug hole. Also, do not turn the engine while the camera is inside the cylinder. Finally, you should get a lot of replacement sleeves because they will get dirty.

Only borescope I could find that could actually view my engine valves from the spark plug hole.

There aren't any other low cost borescopes that have the head that turns 180 degrees. This scope works really well for looking in engine cylinders. The image quality is good, but it's too bad that this is only a 0.3MP image (480 x 640) when you can buy an inexpensive 2 or 5MP videoscope for $30. I wish Vividia would upgrade the sensor to a higher MP one. The focal distance on the one we got was not what Vividia claims. I tested ours and it is 2-15cm (.75" - 6"), not the stated 4-40cm (1.5" - 16"). Hopefully this will not be a problem for our usage, but I am disappointed that it is not as advertised.

The device itself works good but advertised included software, needed to view and record, pictures did not work on my Android 7 phone. The company acknowledges the problem but refuses to update the software, citing cost issues. Their advice is to use a freeware video camera interface; it works, but much of the screen is then covered with ads! I did not expect to have ads on my video after paying $400 for this item and its "included" software!