tonyowen

Thank you all

I've found the Beaconhill site, and yes they do have them

regards all round

Tony

I have an old brass telescope that can be used for both terrestrial and astronomy viewing. However, the lens capsule at the end of the terrestrial eyepiece assembly is an odd size.

Removing the terrestial assembly reveals a 1.25inch RAS female threaded housing that is brazed onto a 1.25inch od brass draw tube that goes into the rack & pinion unit.

I would like to use a webcam and standard lens with my telescope.

So, does anyone know of an adaptor that has a RAS male thread at one end and a 1.25 inch female socket (or T thread) at the other end?

Any and all suggestions welcome

regards

Tony

That's good Tony. How did you get it to recognise on Vista/Win7. From your original post you seem to be able to do it with just using the XP inf file of Morgans site. I have a firend which is about to purchase the SPC880 and he has Win7. I previous insturcted him to go through the entire procedure of flashing etc but if you have a simpler way that would be good for him as he is has no IT knowledge.

Sean, the following worked for me

I inmserted the webcam into my computer usb port.

I opened Device Manager and right clicked the unknown device and chose Update Driver Software.

Next screen was "Browse for driver software"

I chose "Let me pick from list of device drivers on my computer".

Next took me to Show all devices

then to "select the device driver you want to install for your hardware"

Clicking Next got me "Select from list", which was empty

I clicked "I have disk"; and directed the search to c:\windows\inf

I was offered the choice of many manufacturers and dropped down to Philips

Here I was given the choice of various Philips webcams.

I chose Philips PCVC750k Camera, Video.

and Eureka

regards

Tony

Tony, the inf file is just the installation instructions for XP to load the drivers, in no way does it flash the webcam.

To flash you need a bin file (firmware) and software (WcRmac) that can upload the firmware to the cam.

Unless of course Tony I have mistaken your comments and you are describing something else and not flashing

Hi Sean

I'm not flashing the 880 webcam at all.

I've got both my Vista 32bit laptop and Win7 64bit desktop computers to recognize and operate the 880nc webcam (from Morgans) as a 900nc unit WITHOUT going through the risky and non-reversible procedure of flashing new firmware.

The webcam hasd bene working on both computers for upwards of three weeks with a a vareity of software viz: IRIS, wxastrocapture, astra image, vlounge, and ANCap

regards

Tony

Hi all sorry to be a PITA on this subject, but this thread is VERY long I haven't managed to read it all (skimmed over) We are just getting into astronomy and would love a webcam capable of not only showing us all what the scope is seeing but taking pics and movies and this cam seems to fit the bill. My question is, this cam (SPC900NC) is on ebay at a price of £22.95 +PnP or as a bundle of cam, adapter, IR filter for £49.95.....is that a good deal?

Thanks

The 880 webcam and adapter from the Morgan sitre are good (financial) value . You do not need to flash the 880 to get the 900nc state. You can do this by using the downloaded inf file from the Morgan website and accessing it from your computer's inf subdirectory.

I've got this to work on both my Vista 32 bit and Win7 64 bit machiines

keep it simple

regards

Tony

yep, just tried it through the scope, really feel im out of my depth with this, gonna be a right learning curve

I've a similar situation. I'm using an (unflashed) 880 fitted directly into the focussing rack of an 80mm BCF brass terrestrial telescope. I've tried focussing on a island 6 miles across the sea to no avail, though I can focus on an islet a mile or so away. The weather has been terrible so I haven't had opportunity to try the moon. My guess is that the range of my focussing rack is too short, so I need to extend it.

(I'm running the 880 aka 900 under Win7 wihtout problems)

HOWEVER, using the same situation with a 35mm camera setup everything viewed through the camera and the resulting images are in focus!!

Given that both the 880 and 35mm camera are used without a lens I'm surprised that there is such a shift in the point of focus.

Any advise welcome

regards

Tony Owen

There is no reason to go the possibly fatal chip flashing route to make the SRC880NC into a SRC900NC webcam.

By using the C:\windows\inf directory you can get the webcam to run in both Vista 32 bit and win7 64 bit -- i've done it!! and both have run okay for the past couple of weeks.

For Vista 32 bit move the downloaded inf file from the Morgan's website to your INF directory

For Win7 64 bit get your computer to search its INF directory for the requisite driver.

I've run 'my webcams' unde AMCap, VLounge, Astra Image, IRIS, and, wxastrocamera.

regards

Tony

I'm new to this forum, please forgive if I breach any protocols.

Like others I've ordered a SPC880 webcam from Morgans and I assume that the downloadable *.inf file will activate the webcam on my computer.

However:

Firstly please advise the advantages of flashing to SPC900NC status; with its inherent risk of fatal damage to the webcam?

Secondly in "Philips SPC900NC Uncovered" reference is made to Howard C Anderson's non-flash method of upgrading. - but this requires files from the 'original philps installation disk'

Does anyone know how I can get these files?

regards

Tony