Endosnake Endoscope Review

Endosnake-Endoscope Review
(Endoscope MSRP $49.99, WiFi box $24.99)

      The Endosnake is an inexpensive endoscope. If the term endoscope is something you never heard of, it is a tool that allows a person to see inside things through a very small opening. The Value Gear Endosnake costs $49.99. It has a 3.9 mm diameter three foot long cable that has a very tiny camera surrounded by a ring of tiny lights at one end. At the other end of this cable you have a USB-A, USB Micro, and a USB-C plug that you use to plug the unit into an Endosnake $24.99 WiFi box or directly into your old smartphone or PC. For direct USB attachment your smartphone or computer must support OTG devices. See photo 1-4..
     Places you might use such a tool could include any place where you have to view the internal structure through an opening that is so small that you can’t directly physically see inside. Since the Endosnake can’t make physical turns, it works best with tubes that are straight such as a gun barrel.
     The company indicates that their Endosnake product can be used with your. iPhone or Android smartphone and also used with your PC or Mac. I only tested the unit using an iPhone and a Samsung Android phone. Any reasonably new iPhone will require the purchase of the company’s WiFi box. If you have a very old Android phone that is not running the latest Google software you can plug the unit directly into your smartphone. It will not work with an Android smartphone that is running the latest operating system.
     The company indicates Android phones will work with the WiFi box but at press time the apps that they suggested did not recognize their endoscope. The Endosnake worked properly with the WiFi box when I tested it using an iPhone and it worked properly when I tested it with an old Samsung smartphone that was not updated with the new software.

Pro
     You can control the brightness of the lights that surround the camera. The MoView free app is available at the Apple and Google Play stores. When I tried this app on an iPhone and the old Android phone it did provide a clear image. For straight viewing down a tube it gives a very clear view of the internal structure and you can record what you see for later inspection. The lights that surround the camera work well and their brightness is adjustable.

Con
      The free app has too many ads and the Endoscope, because of an Android OS update no longer works with my Samsung Note 8. The company indicates that the WiFi box can be used with Android phones but at press time, even with assistance from the company, I could not get it to work. They give you some small accessories (example tiny mirror) that you can attach to the camera barrel to perhaps see areas that would require the endoscope to be able to turn corners. If you use any of them to enter through a small opening there is a good chance the attached accessory will end up falling off inside the object that you were trying to view.