Inspection Mirror

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adamaj

Member
Location
Washington
Hey All,

I was wondering if anyone has ever come across a non-conductive inspection mirror. We are hoping to use this to pull information off of somewhat tightly grouped equipment in live panels (480V).

All safety precautions are being taken (Arc Flash Gear, above and beyond Arc Flash study cal ratings).

The only thing I've come across so far are the small inspection mirrors used by dentists, but it would be nice if we could find something a little more functional.

If a borescope exists that would work for this purpose, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well.

Thanks in advance for your help.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Hey All,

I was wondering if anyone has ever come across a non-conductive inspection mirror. We are hoping to use this to pull information off of somewhat tightly grouped equipment in live panels (480V).

All safety precautions are being taken (Arc Flash Gear, above and beyond Arc Flash study cal ratings).

The only thing I've come across so far are the small inspection mirrors used by dentists, but it would be nice if we could find something a little more functional.

If a borescope exists that would work for this purpose, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I wish you luck. I have a large inspection mirror my wife bought me years ago. It's about 2" across. You can get similar from Home Depot, now with LED lighting. However, like mine they all seem to have metallic telescoping handles. Probably not what you want to bang around near/inside live 480 gear.

If you want to step it up, Big Orange has a number of borescope cameras in the $99 price range with 3 foot leads. The leads are all have rubberized coverings but I doubt they're rated for 600 volts. If you need longer, Milwaukee has a unit with a 9 foot lead.
 

Santa49

Member
Location
Pittsburg, ks
Occupation
retired
santa49

santa49

I wish you luck. I have a large inspection mirror my wife bought me years ago. It's about 2" across. You can get similar from Home Depot, now with LED lighting. However, like mine they all seem to have metallic telescoping handles. Probably not what you want to bang around near/inside live 480 gear.

If you want to step it up, Big Orange has a number of borescope cameras in the $99 price range with 3 foot leads. The leads are all have rubberized coverings but I doubt they're rated for 600 volts. If you need longer, Milwaukee has a unit with a 9 foot lead.

A cell phone camera selfie stick might work. not rated for any voltage, but sure can zoom in on something pretty easy.
 

shoon

Member
Location
Canada
Amazon sells a cheap borescope for $15-20.

I was skeptical about quality given the price range, but the reviews came in positive and for $20 why not.
It can be plugged into your cell phone or laptop. It has LED's built around the camera and you can adjust the brightness to suit your conditions. I am pretty impressed with it.

It doesn't produce super high quality pictures but it's decent enough to let you see what you're working on with decent enough detail. One of the main complaints was the cord was kind floppy making it hard to navigate the camera through tight spaces- some people opted to take a piece of copper wire and some heatshrink to give the cord some rigidity- (this might not be a good solution given your intended purpose)

The cam is waterproof and entirely plastic.
 
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