WIFI Video laryngoscope
Dear fratpack,
I, Sam Ireland, am sending this blog to you from the future. Let me first explain how I arrived at this strange place.
I purchased A wifi endoscope, grabbed a broken training channeled blade from a king vision VL, put them in the fusion reactor, and then the next thing I knew I was here.
I pulled up the schematics from the fusion reactor to see it's process for fusing these two technologies from the past. Report to follow.
Sizing up the aim of the screen on a regular King Vision for reference later when the new camera is set.
The case from the endoscope was too large to fit inside the KV (King Vision) blade. These blades just split apart with a little force and then you can pull their camera attachment out.
The cord was also 3.5 m long, so extra cord was cut out.
From the length of cord that cut out, I practiced stripping and reconnecting these wires. Some of them are very small and can easily be broken or cut by accident.
The wifi endoscope does not fit, so the casing has to be altered to fit.
A dremel tool was used to shape the casing. The battery has to be moved around to the back side of the microchip (sorry not sorry if that's not the right word).
Still cutting.
The blade needed some shaping on the inside as well.
Wifi unit fits pretty well now. The battery is underneath and cannot be seen from this angle.
I used a sharpie to mark on the top part of the blade what needed to be cut away for the dimmer and power switch.
Round number two. A little more needed to be cut away. I'm using the dremel tool for all of this.
This bridge on the top portion of the blade was also in the way of the wiring and needed to be grinded away.
Everything is fitting pretty good at this point, but I haven't secured anything yet.
Once I made sure the blade would fit together well, I secured it with this glue. This glue is flexible and rubber-like when it dries. I felt this would give it a type of adaptable strength.
Here is a top view. I had to use a little piece of spare wire to prop up one side to get it to sit correctly. I then added glue all around the wifi case.
I then sat and waited..... I did make a few minor adjustments to how the case sat inside the blade until it felt and looked right.
Later on I marked the spot that would need to be taken out to make room for the much longer endoscope camera.
After opening up that portion of the blade.
This will create a very minor amount of extra width on the back of the blade when it is finished. The portion of the blade that carries the tube is about the same width. That wire will be covered with an epoxy prior to painting.
Figure out how much wire you need. Strip your wires. Be very careful! These wires are very dainty.
I unplugged the battery. I'm not really sure if it would have shocked me, but I didn't want to chance it.
Connect your wires. I'm obviously no electrician so I felt like this was the most tedious part of the whole process. My electrician friend would not be proud of how I connected the wires.... He told me I should soder them together and then heat shrinkwrap them. I didn't do that... I twisted them with my fingers and then used electrical tape. Sorry Matt 😳
Once the wires are connected and you've made sure you're not going to pull the two wires apart if you fiddle around with the camera, turn the endoscope on. Actually, let's call it a laryngoscope at this point. Turn your wifi laryngoscope on.
This part is really important. You need to make sure that the camera is oriented correctly. Connect it to your phone via wifi, set the camera into the blade, and see how much you need to rotate the camera to get it to see straight up and down.
I had to dremel the track several times to get it to point where I wanted it to. I then scored the top of the camera with a razor so that I could tell when it was pointed in the orientation that I wanted it to be even when the camera was off.
I then got my glue out and placed it all around the camera and held it in place with some zip ties and a makeshift shim.
BE VERY CAREFULY NOT TO GET GLUE ON THE LENS!
Fine tuning the corners of the case with the dremel tool so that the top part of the blade fits better.
I used some spare plastic from junk in the basement to form a cap for the top. I fine tuned it a little after this picture to make it more round by the charging port. The outside doesn't matter too much since it will be covered.
Once I was sure I didn't have to move the camera around, mess with wiring, or do anything else on the inside of the laryngoscope I put glue everywhere. Glue all around the edges in the tracks, then squeezed it tight, and then wrapped it in paper towel and zip ties.
I used some fingernail polish remover to clean up the camera, wire, and surrounding area.
I chose this "kwik weld" stuff from the hardware store to make a mold around to camera and wire sticking out. I painted it on with a brush.
This stuff dried insanely fast and was rock hard after about 15 minutes.
To finish up around the lens of the camera (going back to glue for a second) I put an 18g angiocath catheter from an IV onto the glue bottle and went around it very carefully. A needle would also work, or really anything that allows you to get very precise application.
Sanded and smooth. I used a rough grit sandpaper for the big bumps and a fine 220 for finishing.
I taped around the open spots and switches the best I could.
I also applied some "kwik weld" to the top around the charging port and then sanded it.
DO NOT FORGET TO TAPE OVER THE CAMERA LENS!!!
I then cleaned off the dust with a rag and some gentle cleaner. These are the spray paint and clear coat I used.
Before.
After.
I did about 8 light coats of paint and then 4 applications of clear coat. This clear coat says you can handle the with hands after 30 minutes..... completely wrong. It may have been because I was in a rather humid environment, but as soon as I touched it I left finger prints. I was pissed. Hours later.... I was redoing the finish. If you use this clear coat, leave it in a place where dust or debree and let it dry. Do not get finger prints on it like I did....
I decided to let it sit in front of a fan for a couple days. I read online that enamel clear coat can take up to 72 hours to fully cure, and I didn't want to take any chances. It was painful waiting this long! Check out the video at the bottom of the page!
My total costs for building this:
King vision blade: $31 (free for me because it was an old and broken training blade from work)
Wifi endoscope: $38
Kwik weld epoxy: $7
Glue: $4
Paint and clear coat: $9
Sand paper: $4
Total cost: $93 + a weekend of your time
I want to see your video laryngoscope projects! Comment and share!