was said: hardly determine location in wall. I have used the larger 
version video camera in pipe to determine location by counting pipe 
joints, could determine if elbow was 45 or 90, etc. to fairly accurately 
find the location. Also a standard feature on the bigger units (maybe 
200 feet of snake out in pipe) is the snake reel has a distance counter 
that is displayed on the TV monitor. They are surprising accurate, just 
zero the counter out when head end enters pipe. And too, mark the snake, 
pull it out, and lay it on the tarmac where you think the pipe is 
going.  But it's alway fun as the lense moves through the pipe, it might 
rotate a bit. If there is a liquid ( not always water in sewers or 
process piping), one can mostly count on gravity to show which is the 
pipe bottom. :) :)

Arkady wrote:
> Thank you, all, for suggestions.
>
> Wouter and Nate, thanks for that vacuum cleaner idea. Actually I do this for
> a friend of mine that occasionally needs this work to be done.
> I certainly will recommend him to try this.
>
> As for the problem it was initially stated (to find the end of a fish tape
> in the wall), a simple magnet and a compass solution suggested by Pete might
> be what I was looking for.
>
> Carl Denk wrote:
>   
>> If you have the money to buy, rent or hire with equipment, there are in
>> the plumbing industry in particular fiber optic snakes that are used for
>> internal pipe inspection. For a mini sized one see:
>> http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/Underground-Technologies/EN/index.htm
>> Roto-Rooter type people usually have one.
>>     
>
> There are no prices there, but I can guess these are far more expensive my
> friend is willing to invest.
> Besides, while camera can help to understand the origin of the problem, it
> will hardly help to determine the exact position in the wall.
>
> Arkady
>
>   
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