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 rev `11/7/03


The Creative Web cam PRO EX


PREFACE:
Let me first acknowledge work done by others, that this information is derived from. They are Steve Chambers Martin Burri Jean-Pierre Bourgeay and many others.....

WARNING!! and DISCLAIMER
I assume no responsibility for any actions taken by anyone who chooses to undertake any of these modifications. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. If any damage occurs to your person, hardware, or mental health because of attempting procedures illustrated here. TOO!!! BAD!!

ADVANCED MODS (Interlace Frames AMP OFF)
ULTRA MODS (I2C Interface project)

The following is a very basic SC1 mod to the Creative Web cam. This is a nice little unit and is easy to modify for several reasons shown below. HOWEVER!!!! the cam is not without its challenges, and this mod is limited to Long exposure only. No advanced mods are detailed! As this camera uses a Sharp CCD any SC-3 mods aren't currently evident. Also I've done Interlaced/ and Amp Off mods, which will be presented at a later date . The camera does work fairly well and is a good beginner project. The camera does also have some challenges that I've not solved yet. It's got a lot of noise, both in the imaging system, and the USB. The good news here it that transient noise levels do not seem to increase with longer exposures. And ambient noise levels drop proportionally with cooling. I've compiled some details on noise testing.  Check out my humble real time capture stacking tracking app, I've implemented some real time noise reduction that works well for me .The Sharp CCD used has significantly less Amp glow than the Sony chip used in the Logitech QC's. And another bonus, the ambient noise can be greatly reduced with cooling.  The Sharp CCD, does rely on an integrated Infrared filter in the lens, and will yeild better light sensitivity with the IR filter removal, or a lens substitution. The Sharp CCD does not have the light sensitivity as the Sony chips. Please see the note about the cable connections. Despite these shortcomings, this is still a very suitable platform for long exposure modifications. I've done mods to QC-3000, QC-4000, Intel Web cams, and a few others. This web cam uses the same chips as the Tou-cam (SAA8116 and 16510). This cam has provided the best results than any other I've tried so far. Results being the most consistent capture of images with the fewer DARK or LATE frames. The biggest feature of this camera is that the modification areas are LARGE And easy to access, Being a person with poor vision this is a GREAT Advantage......

I'm in mourning  Just trashed another of these miserably tiny cameras , to paraphrase a quote, "Damn my eyes' (30 points if you recognize the flick) I Just cant get a logitech camera to final stages (Could have bought a sac for the money I've spend on the accursed tiny #$%#$'s. The Creative is a much more forgiving bit of hardware.

 






Release the mounting base by pulling it out. It simply snap's out.
The two screws to open the casing are located on the rear, bottom of the camera unit.
The two clam shell's are opened by popping them at the lower edge, and then splitting. A small screw driver is useful here. Split the case by prying the front and back portions with the screwdriver. Starting at the bottom of either the right or left edge, pry the back side out and away from the front. Walking the screwdriver along the joint, continue to pry the back edge out and away from the front. Repeat the process for the other edge.








The circuit board can be accessed by removing the two screws at the upper portion.




Note: this camera seems to have a lot!! of noise!! You can remove the usb cable by pulling it from the socket, you will have to also cut the grounded shielding cable. The cable shield is tethered to the circuit board directly. If this grounding is not reconnected after modifications, the camera may not be recognized by your computer.
NOTE : See Revision for LOWER NOISE


The circuit board is removed and the back side is shown. This camera is pretty neat to mod because of several factors:


Click for a LARGER VIEW (1 meg) right Click to leach Click for a LARGER VIEW (1 meg) right Click to leach


CUTTING THE TRACINGS CUTTING THE TRACINGS
Using a knife, or razor tool scrape away the tracings as shown. The tracings are easy to find. Just locate the two plate thru holes above the inside edge of the SAA8116, towards the 16510. There are a couple more holes closer to the SAA8116 near the corner. Don't get confused, just look for the holes with the tracings leading to the 16510. We only need to worry about connecting to Pin/Line 8 and Pin/Line 10. The circuit board connects pins 8 and 13 under the 16510 so no worry's here.


Click for a LARGER VIEW (1 meg) right Click to leach Click for a LARGER VIEW (1 meg) right Click to leach

The actual circuit board mods are quite simple and all can be see from this image. The actual circuit board mods are quite simple and all can be see from this image.


ATTACHING THE LEADS ATTACHING THE LEADS
Keeping track of wire pairs, is simplified by using different colors. The paired connections are simple too. Left, right. I've chosen to pair the leads out of the circuit board with inner and outer placements.

NOTE Minimalist Circuit only needs the lead for Pin 8/13. You can skip the Pin 10 lead. A minimalist circuit will lose some functionality during daylight lighting.

Attach the leads for the V-Gate and Shutter SAA side by:


Tack the leads on the 16510 by:

Finish up by tacking the leads along the edge of the circuit board with some more super glue, too keep them from being ripped off or other wised damaged.


WOW IS THAT ALL
WOW IS THAT ALL
In so far as the actual modifications to the web cam, YES. All that remains is to build a control circuit. Establish an interface for manual or computer control. Devise some means to attach the device to your telescope/microscope.  And Optionally cool the image sensor/camera. There are several methods for these. Here are some of the things that have worked for me.

Control Circuitry: Control Circuitry:
Here's some circuits that have worked for me.



4066 Circuit 4066 Circuit
 Click for a LARGER VIEW right Click to leach Click for a LARGER VIEW right Click to leach
REVISED 9/20/03 REVISED 9/20/03

The easiest circuit I've built lends itself to a dead bug design quite well.

FYI The cable entering the socket has red, white, green, black. The red line is +5v, the black ground.



You should now have a functional web cam. Lets find some ways to establish an interface to the web cam.

Control Interface: Control Interface:
The simplest method is to use a momentary contact switch, crossing the control lines to the circuit. You could take a small pill box, mount a switch and 1/8" inline jack, to make a nice hand held control. This little dead man switch would work well for triggering a frame during an streaming media capture. But as long as you've got this thing connected to a computer, it's only logical to use the computer to control the exposure period. So I've used some designs from Steve Chambers for Serial control. Since serial control is easiest to access in Windows XP, and 2000, for my use I've standardized to serial control.

Click to see more of Steve's work. Click to see more of Steve's work.
One note: I've always used the tip edge of inline jacks for 'hot' lines, and the sheath for neutral lines.

 

In addition to the DTR RTS lines, an additional line can be used. The transmit data line (TX) , can be set to a "BREAK" position. so that line may be used also giving a total of 3 control lines per serial port. Just enough for  V-gate control, frame control, and Amp off. 

 

 Physical Attachment or Mounting.

So by now you have your long exposure modified camera all ready to roll. You still need some way to connect it to your telescope. Basically there are 2 methods to accomplish this. 

The first, called afocal, accomplishes this by placing the web cam with it's lens installed in behind of a standard eyepiece. 

I've had success in using a pharmacy bottles. (or pill bottles). Find one that slips over your eyepiece, and then drill a clearance hole in the center of the  bottle to fit the focus ring of your web cam. The focus ring diameter is about 21mm. The focus ring is attached to the threaded lens by a bit of glue, and can be separated with a bit of prying. You may separate these to prevent getting the lens dirty. Connect the focus ring and pill bottle with a bit of adhesive.  When the adhesive is set, re install the lens assembly 'if removed', wrap the pill bottle with black tape. 

If you can't find a bottle that fits your eyepiece easily, try to find one that can be shimmed with felt or some other soft material.  

If you are using original camera body, you will then need to remove the trim plate from the front of the camera. It's attached by three small tabs, just pry them over and pop off the trim plate. You will also see a small bit of transparent plastic, to illuminate the front of the camera for active status. Remove this too, by popping it out with pliers.  The final step before re assembling your camera body is to expand the diameter of the clearance hole for the focus ring/ pill bottle assembly. 

You're now ready to park your web cam behind your favorite eyepiece.

The other method (most preferred), is to mount your web cam (without lens, or eyepiece ) at the prime focus of the telescope. There are commercial products to do this but here are a few things I've used in the past.  The camera has an integral IR Filter so by removing the len, the color balance will be changed.

 

The first is basically the same as the above procedure with a few changes. The pill bottle is to fit inside of the eyepiece holder. You may need to cut off the little clips that hold on the pill bottle cap. And when removing the threaded lens, ALSO remove the actual glass (or plastic) lenses from that assembly. The lenses are usually held in place by either a threaded or compression ring that if unscrewed/pried out, will let the lenses drop out of the assembly.  You can now reassemble the threaded lens holder/focal ring/pill bottle, and case, and park the web cam in the eyepiece holder.

Another method is to take a 35mm film canister, drill the bottom to clear the image sensor assembly. Remove the trim plate/light, from the case, and expand the diameter of the case to fit the canister. Re assemble the camera, sliding the film canister into the hole, with a bit of adhesive. You don't need the lens/focal ring, and can protect the image sensor from dust with film canister's cover.

 

And here's another Idea. The camera body just fits within a 2" PVC end cap. I'll leave the rest up to you. But I've build peltier cooled units, that perform quite well, that fit in the PVC Assembly quite nicely, I Might get around to putting that up on the web site if there is any interest. Here's a teaser

 



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