I recently needed to drill through the top of a wall to install a thermostat, and that stud space has wiring running through it for two light switches.
Not knowing where the wires ran in the wall, I decided to try to rent an 'inspection scope' to hopefully see up the inside of the wall and guide the wall drill so I didn't electrocute myself. Who knew that people don't rent those anymore...
So I went in search of something that would help me pull this project of. While at the local Home Depot, I saw a new product line from Ryobi called 'Phone Works', where the iPhone actually becomes part of the tool.
Intrigued by that product, I bought the Phone Works Inspection Scope, along with a less expensive Rigid scope, just in case.
Opening the package for the Ryobi product was a challenge. It's basically a hard plastic clam shell, heat riveted at many spots. Slipping a knife in-between the thick layers worked to break the spots without shattering the plastic packaging and leaving sharp edges behind. How many people have been cut on those sharp edges...
The package included the scope, and already installed batteries, and a mount that uses hard plastic Velcro-type attachment tape to stick on the back of the device.
The mount was pretty sturdy to the back of the device, but the mount for the phone was just two spring loaded paddles with rubber on them. I've seen similar configurations on phone mounts for cars.
Having no manual included, I had to go to their website to find out how to use the thing. (There is a 'pull me' tab from the battery case to power the device with the included batteries)
The inspection scope is basically a wifi hot spot that you have to connect to through the wifi setting in the Settings app. and then you have to download the free Ryobi Phone Works app from the Apple iTunes App Store. The app is used for all of their Phone Works devices, yet aside from being advertised as 'free', requires you to 'register' with their website to be able to use the device. I don't consider 'Free' involving having to identify myself to a company who could spam me incessantly in the future, but the app is pretty well laid out.
There are capture, movie and transfer functions built into the app. You can actually shoot a movie of whatever you are trying to look at.
The flexible lens part is one of the thinnest I've seen, and the lights seemed pretty bright for as small as they were. The mount held my 6+ securely too.
You can control the brightness of the lights through the app, but I found them not to be bright enough to see clearly to the top of the wall space that I was trying to check out.
The most annoying thing of all was the wifi was disconnecting a few times. The app would say something ominous about losing contact with the device, and I'd be back to my local wifi connection. Possibly that could have been controlled by the setting about connecting to certain wifi when available, or something more about the device itself.
I ended up using the Rigid scope which had a much larger head and larger aperture with brighter LEDs on it to see to the top of the wall space.
I ended up returning the Ryobi scope due mainly to the cost of it over the Rigid one, but if it worked better, could see the added functionality of being able to save pictures of what you were looking at being worth the cost difference, with the ability to make movies a definite bonus.
We have ten foot walls here in some areas, and seeing that far up was too much for the Ryobi.
Not knowing where the wires ran in the wall, I decided to try to rent an 'inspection scope' to hopefully see up the inside of the wall and guide the wall drill so I didn't electrocute myself. Who knew that people don't rent those anymore...
So I went in search of something that would help me pull this project of. While at the local Home Depot, I saw a new product line from Ryobi called 'Phone Works', where the iPhone actually becomes part of the tool.
Intrigued by that product, I bought the Phone Works Inspection Scope, along with a less expensive Rigid scope, just in case.
Opening the package for the Ryobi product was a challenge. It's basically a hard plastic clam shell, heat riveted at many spots. Slipping a knife in-between the thick layers worked to break the spots without shattering the plastic packaging and leaving sharp edges behind. How many people have been cut on those sharp edges...
The package included the scope, and already installed batteries, and a mount that uses hard plastic Velcro-type attachment tape to stick on the back of the device.
The mount was pretty sturdy to the back of the device, but the mount for the phone was just two spring loaded paddles with rubber on them. I've seen similar configurations on phone mounts for cars.
Having no manual included, I had to go to their website to find out how to use the thing. (There is a 'pull me' tab from the battery case to power the device with the included batteries)
The inspection scope is basically a wifi hot spot that you have to connect to through the wifi setting in the Settings app. and then you have to download the free Ryobi Phone Works app from the Apple iTunes App Store. The app is used for all of their Phone Works devices, yet aside from being advertised as 'free', requires you to 'register' with their website to be able to use the device. I don't consider 'Free' involving having to identify myself to a company who could spam me incessantly in the future, but the app is pretty well laid out.
There are capture, movie and transfer functions built into the app. You can actually shoot a movie of whatever you are trying to look at.
The flexible lens part is one of the thinnest I've seen, and the lights seemed pretty bright for as small as they were. The mount held my 6+ securely too.
You can control the brightness of the lights through the app, but I found them not to be bright enough to see clearly to the top of the wall space that I was trying to check out.
The most annoying thing of all was the wifi was disconnecting a few times. The app would say something ominous about losing contact with the device, and I'd be back to my local wifi connection. Possibly that could have been controlled by the setting about connecting to certain wifi when available, or something more about the device itself.
I ended up using the Rigid scope which had a much larger head and larger aperture with brighter LEDs on it to see to the top of the wall space.
I ended up returning the Ryobi scope due mainly to the cost of it over the Rigid one, but if it worked better, could see the added functionality of being able to save pictures of what you were looking at being worth the cost difference, with the ability to make movies a definite bonus.
We have ten foot walls here in some areas, and seeing that far up was too much for the Ryobi.