Archer's poor man camera hack (Logitech C270)

[J_Archer]

If the topic is not suited for this particular forum section,by all means relocate it to the right forum section,but I would like it very much if you would notify me first,thanks!

Now,first and foremost I must apologize for the quality of the pictures,but due to unfortunate circumstances (i.e equipment failure) I am now without a camera,and therefor must use my lousy mobile phone camera.

I would normaly use a webcam but,well,...it's obvious why I cannot.

So,first you buy a C270,which is a decent webcam for an amazing price (around 20 quid here,but google tells me it's even cheaper elsewhere)

Then you take it apart like this:

(i would normaly make a video,but ,once again)

There's not much to it,you just pop up the lid,then unscrew 3 small screws,after that it's down to the two screw holding the PCB.

You must cur the black wire,otherwise you cannot get the circuitboard out,as far as the bundle of wire goes,no need to cut it,there is a sort of a jumper cable that you can just pop out,and later pop back in!

After that,you put a zip tie around the base of the eyepiece,and a rubber band between the ziptie and the eyepiece,meaning you can take the webcam off for visual observations,and pop it back in for imaging!,just as simple as that:

Once you're done with that,you take your camera and put it in the eyepiece,like this:

Put the eyepiece in:

And voila,now you have a very cheap webcam!

I'm sorry I can't put pictures here,I don't have a laptop,so I was forced to look at some rather bleak stars through the window,but the image at the screen was surprisingli good!

(I have a few friends with laptops,if you're wondering why I'm even doing this,I guess I'll resort to begging )

Btw,this was a product of pure boredom,done in about 20 mins,planned in even less,so ofcourse there a flaws in design,and ofcourse I believe most of you can easily upgrade my "design",actually I'm very curious to hear your ideas.

I plan to do a fiberglass case later on,but who knows how much will that take,and even how I'll go around making that one,since they are not really easy to make.

Well the mold is not actually easy to make.

I hope I helpet you,and not just put a rubbish topic.

Cheers!

[tich]

I modded one earlier in the year click here By using a nosepiece from a Philips webcam. I did have some success when imaging Mars but i did find it hard using the settings. Maybe more practise was needed to get used to it. I'm back to using the Philips but at least I know I do have a back up camera should I need it

[J_Archer]

I stole,well modified an idea from a local forum.

Pictures are pretty self explanatory,but what I basicaly did was make a case out of styrofoam.

[J_Archer]

Btw sorry for not answering to your post,it is a bit rude i know.

I feel like I've done shoddy worksmanship now,yours looks so much better

I hope to test mine soon..the weather is horrid ATM.

[tich]

Let us know how you get on with the webcam images as I'll be interested to see the results. As I already had a nosepiece I just adapted the camera to fit it although if I ever have to use the logitech again for whatever reason the nosepiece will probably have to be glued on permanently. We are clouded out here too so who knows when it will be before I get to use the scope again.

[Guy Wells]

I stole,well modified an idea from a local forum.

Pictures are pretty self explanatory,but what I basicaly did was make a case out of styrofoam.

[Guy Wells]

Results??

[kev]

Interesting, ive been playing with one of these, a HP2200, and a Sweex Pink webcam for viewing inside our pond (covered at the mo). Using tem with skype, ive found that the C270 wasnt the most sensitive thing in the world, although it was nice n sharp. I would be most interested to see your results. (BTW Found the cheap Sweex was quite sensitive, but maybe not the shapest in the world, IUSWIM).

[Guy Wells]

Just waiting for our lovely weather to clear...

[J_Archer]

Unfortunately so far I've had no luck in thorougy testing the camera, I have some moon shots with which I am fairly disatisfied.

I'm sorry for my long absence I've had a ton of work lately.

Here's a photo from my one and only run with it, mind you there was a thin film of clouds over the moon:

I think there's a lot more setups to be tried with the same cam, and that I might just do when the whether clears up.

Unfortunately I rely on 3 factors which never seem to coincide: the first of course being good weather

second, is the car available that day, as it is a family car

and third, if I can borrow a laptop from someone, since I only own a PC.

And so far, the weather has been utterly depressing.

There was one good week here, which was warm and nice, but somehow almost exclusivly during the day.

Some good news though, using a map of light pollution in Croatia, and roaming through the woods with my car, I've found a spot almost clear of any light pollution!

I can honestly say, going there even without a telescope is a sight for sore eyes and a lot to chew on for the mind.

[tich]

I will confess it did take me a while to get the camera settings right as it seemed the lightest touch with the sliders & it would be way out. The lunar shot hasn't turned out to bad though, what did you use to capture & process the image?

[J_Archer]

I used the Logitech webcam original software for capturing, and as for the editing, there was none, this is a print screen image from a video that was taken of the moon.

Honestly I do think there's potential in the camera, but for now I am devising a different means of strapping/casing it, stirofoam gets compressend too soon, and stars to wobble around, which is one of the reasons why I couldn't simply take a picture.

I thought about making the casing from fiberglass, as I have some experience in making molds and parts out of it, but then I figured out it's too much work, and would pose as a bad DIY tutorial.

Fiberglass is cheap, it would still be a poor man's camera hack, but would require training with resins which do sound like child's play, but in fact are not, and more to the matter are very toxic, both epoxy and polyester.

So far I am without idea, but that is more because I am busy with other things, mostly trying to make positive strides with my education.

However, spring is coming, and good weather surely is on the horizon, I promise I'll make more shots when the time comes.

[tich]

When I used mine to capture Mars I used sharpcap then stacked the video in registax 6 & altered the wavelets to bring out more detail, there's a few tutorials online like youTube.

I didn't do any more processing with it although if you have any image software like Gimp you could probably enhance the detail & colour balance a bit more. If you still have the original camera body & you can source a 35mm film canister you can use one of those as a nosepiece by drilling a large enough hole in the base then gluing it to the camera body. Or bond the base off an old eyepiece to it then at least you'll have a screw thread for an IR filter then that way the sensor would be protected from dust.

[Guy Wells]

114mm + c270...not the best. But good for the 114mm from London.

[Vetinari]

I know this is a Necro-thread, but...

I can't seem to get the circuit board out of the casing, despite unscrewing the two screws. Has anyone any idea why and how I can work around this?

[Vetinari]

Ok, I just noticed: This topic is about the C270, I own a C310. Still, according to

video, it should work the same. Also, did anyone try to remove the lens?

And where is the edit button, btw?

[JamesF]

Thanks to previous abuse you can only edit after you've made fifty posts.

James