JOYUSING Epicus-DC Model V500 Document Camera, Part 2

Product Review Part 2
by WA4JCK, Dale Jones

Part 1 of this product review described the JOYUSING Document Camera that is available at several recent local hamfests.  I purchased one at the Shelby Hamfest in 2024 to read printed material such as books, snail mail, package labels, etc.  I have visual issues that require high contrast and large fonts. In this article, I am describing its operation.

The control pad on the base performs most basic functions such as navigating through the various menus, selecting menu items, zoom in or out, light on/off, and intensity.  However, the Annotate menu does not seem to work with the Base Pad Controls.  I use a mouse with the device as doing so makes all activities much easier.

The Main Menu

Left-to-right:

Autofocus – Selecting causes the camera to refocus the image.
Magnifier – Variable Zoom from X1 to X100.
Zoom In – Step Zoom from X1 to X1010.
Zoom Out – Step Zoom from X100 to X1.
Rotate – Clockwise 0° – 90° – 180° – 270°.
Mirror – Mirrors the image.  Rotates through left-right-top-bottom.
Lock – Freezes the display.
Division – Display live image and stored image.
Camera – Store a still image of the camera view.

• Note: Images are stored as .jpg files and are named using a sequential number.  On my system they all always have the same date (6/23/2020 11:21 AM).

Video Camera – Video capture.

• Note: Videos are stored as .avi files and are named using a sequential number.  On my system they all have the same date (6/23/2020 11:21 AM).

Browser – Search images and video stored on SD Card.
PIP – Picture-in-picture.
Annotate – Brings up the Annotate Menu.
Settings – Brings up the device software settings.

Settings

Notes on the Settings Menu

Focus Mode – Auto or Push.

• Auto – Automatically focuses as needed.  This can be annoying because slight movements of hands or the item can cause refocusing to occur.
• Push – Causes the camera to refocus the image.

Color, Mono, Negative – Works as expected.

• Color – Shown true colors.
• Nono – Shades of gray.
• Negative – Black and white are reversed.  Colors are reversed.

Image Para – Text or Image.

• Presets the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness, and Denoise controls.  Manually adjusting any of the controls unselects both settings.

Volume – Record volume

• Record volume seems to be low.  I recommend setting this to the max if playback audio is required.

Light 1 – The light in the Arm Head.

• Shows current status as well as the ability to control the light.  This is on/off only, no varying of intensity of this light.

Light 2 – The light in the Arm Middle.

• Shows current status as well as the ability to control the light.  This rotates through off – 3 intensity settings – off.

Flicker – 50Hz or 60Hz.

• Set to 60Hz, although I cannot tell much difference.

SD Format – A brand new out of the package card must be formatted before the device will write to it.

Auto hide menu – Hides all on-screen menus until the mouse is moved to the bottom of the screen or until the Menu button on the base is pushed.

The Annotate Menu

Notes on the Annotate Menu:

House – Back to previous menu.
Broom on the monitor – Clear all.
Pencil – Freeform writing.
Line – Straight line, point-to-point.
Square, Triangle, Diamond – Outline shapes.  Border determined by 4 Line Width selections and the 8 Color selections to the right.
Floppy – Save to SD Card.
Left Arrow – Undo last action.
Eraser – You know that.
Circle – Draw a circular object.
Gear – Draw a polygon.  Move the mouse pointer and draw any amount and arrangement of straight lines.
Solid Block – Draw a rectangle with color filled in.
Square X – raw a clear rectangle, no border, and no fill.

The Browser Window

The browser provides access to images (still and video) stored on the SD Card.  As shown in the photo above, twelve images can be accessed per browser page.  The system adds pages as necessary.  The first page contains the latest saved images.  Clicking on an image opens it full screen.  You can then view the image or play the video.
While in the browser section, a submenu will appear that is content-specific.  You can navigate through the stored images, play the video, delete stored images, etc.  
 

Comments and Notes

The device is designed primarily to view and store still images.  It does this well.  With a mouse connected it is easy to zoom in/out and manipulate the view to better see what you are interested in.  Saving an image from the main menu does not store the screen display; it stores what the camera is seeing.  So, if you are zoomed in for a closer view, the image stored will be the non-zoomed image.  You can, however, store a zoomed image from the annotate menu even if you have not added any annotations.

The device will store video, but the camera system is not a video camera per se.  It does record movements, but the movement is blurred while in motion.  Once the motion stops, the image remains clear and refocuses as necessary.  
The picture-in-picture feature allows viewing a saved image (not a video) and a live image on the display together.  One image will be in a small window over the other image.  The images can be swapped as necessary.  Zoom in/out is possible on the live view but not on the saved image.

The division feature divides the display in half with a live image on one half and a saved image on the other half.  The display can be divided in half either vertically or horizontally.  Either image can be zoomed and moved around in its window.  This is different from the picture-in-picture ability.

The mirror feature is useful for those who like the challenge of reading text upside down and/or backwards.

The video capture is great for those of us that talk to ourselves while working.  You can always play the video to answer the question, “What was I thinking when I was doing this?”
The zoom has a few limitations.  Higher magnifications do not result in clear images.  For example, if you buy a product with an operator’s manual the size of a business card and written in 12 languages, it still will be difficult to see.  I find that I have to move the camera very close to the page (an inch or so) to get a good display.  It will work but you have to get the camera close so that you are not trying to magnify 50X or more.
The power supply is rated at 100-240 VAC 0.3A input and 12VDC 1.0A output.  There is no internal battery so portable operation is not a built-in feature.  However, hams could easily build (or find) a battery pack to make the device portable.  The device does not power up from a USB connection.  I have not tested with a computer as that is not a configuration that I desire.

Overall, I find this device to be useful to fill a need for me.  My main purpose was to enable reading of my paper library.  I have many books that I planned to read during retirement.  With this device I do not have to repurchase them in electronic format.  The main issue now is that most books do not lay flat.  However, a little more thinking may resolve that issue.  Maybe I’ll buy a kit at the next hamfest and see if I can regain some skills with the soldering iron.  That would be a plus: I used to love building little stuff as a learning exercise.

73, Dale Jones, WA4JCK 

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