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SPC900 LXmod yesyes style ;-)

yesyes

By yesyes
in DIY Astronomer

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JamesF

JamesF

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I've got the serial connector off. That was a bit of a trial. Suck up most of the solder with braid and then gently lever each connector away from the board whilst still applying heat. For a while I thought I might end up melting the plastic block in the connector, but it's actually all come away fairly neatly in the end.

James

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Gina

Gina

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I shall be visiting this project again as I want an LX webcam on my finder scope for finding DSOs. ATM I have an unmodded SPC900NC using afocal imaging to get the wide angle view. My other modded SPC has the lens replaced with a 1.25" adapter for prime focus planetary and small DSO imaging.

The next thing I might do with the prime focus modified webcam is Peltier TEC cooling with a cold finger on the back of the imaging PCB (as I recall, the sensor is flat down on the other side). Or I might start again with another SPC webcam in a bigger box.

BTW - anyone know how the Phillips webcam compares with the Canon 1100D image sensor? I think the webcam should be better as it's a CCD sensor with bigger pixels.

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Kbramley

Kbramley

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Thanks for clarifying that :hello2:, now then it still does not appear to work :), so I checked the RTS -> Gnd voltage when sharp cap is running with say a 4 sec exposure, when waiting the voltage is 6v, then drops to 0 for a fraction of a sec while it loads the frame, Im guessing that is the wrong way round and it should drive to 5v or so when its ready to read a signal?

soooooo tried selecting "invert" in the settings, now it reads -6v nominally, and when it grabs a frame it reads approx 4.5v briefly (although without a oscillscope its too quick for my multimeter to get the peak), but still no apparent increase in light, a 0.3sec frame looks idential to a 30s frame :)

looks like im going to have to do a component by component troubleshoot.

Keith

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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Sounds like there's something wrong with that serial adapter you used. It should go to at least 5V when RTS or DTR are on.

Could you disconnect RTS and DTR from the LX circuit and test again? This should show if the adapter is faulty of your LX circuit is pulling down the levels.

Thanks again.

I've tested the circuitry some more now and am led to believe it is a problem with the USB -> Serial converter (I have contacted the seller on ebay).

Can everyone please provide links to the working USB->Serial converters they purchased so I can perhaps order another one? I'd like to get this sorted this weekend...

Just for a bit more info on the one I bought, here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250914801480&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:GB:1123#ht_1897wt_1089

The IC that appears to be the PL2303 has had it's markings wiped off and so cannot 100% confirm what chipset was used. However, it appears to be a similar adapter to the one that SniffTheGlove had bought. Did Sniff have success with this adapter? (I have PM'd him)...

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JamesF

JamesF

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I *believe* that pretty much all PL2303-based serial adapters should have the same USB ids, so if you plug the adapter in and look it up (in device manager? Not sure -- don't really do windows) it should be possible to check.

James

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yesyes

yesyes

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I've tried one that came in the same packaging as the one you linked to. It did not work for me ( I never got around to measuring the levels because I simply could not get the adapter working at all under Win7 x64).

The one I had said PL2303 but it was not the one from Prolific. It seems someone else also calls their chip PL2303. On my adapter the chip was a round blob rather than the usual rectangular shape.

The ebay listing I bought the good ones from is no longer available. It was a chap who had 100 or so of them as over stock. He seems to have sold out now.

What I would recommend is to ask the seller to check whether the chip is rectangular or round. Luckily most of these adapters use translucent plastic so the shape of the chip can be seen. I would not buy from any seller who can't be asked to check that for me .. ;-)

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yesyes

yesyes

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I gave up when I failed to install it on Win7. The Prolific driver didn't want to have anything to do with this adapter and nothing else seemed to bring it to life either.

It might well work on XP or Linux, I don't know. But even if I got it working on XP, this would not be future proof enough for me. I wouldn't want to be stuck with XP forever on my asto PC just so I can use the LX mode of the webcam.

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yesyes

yesyes

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The chip looks good. Same shape and number of pins as the PL2303HX on the adapters I used. Is it being recognised by the Prolific driver?

However, I'm a bit worried about your soldering, to be honest... It looks like you did not tin the ends of the wires before you soldered them on. On the white USB wire it looks like only a single strand of copper is connected....

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Kbramley

Kbramley

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This is the one im using, all looks good.

Was up until 3am trying to solve this last night lol, started trying to bell out all the connections, one thing I noticed is that there is 0.5V between the switch wires when its open circuit, is this normal?

Pulling my hair out with this one lol.

Keith

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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The chip looks good. Same shape and number of pins as the PL2303HX on the adapters I used. Is it being recognised by the Prolific driver?

However, I'm a bit worried about your soldering, to be honest... It looks like you did not tin the ends of the wires before you soldered them on. On the white USB wire it looks like only a single strand of copper is connected....

I let Windows pickup the driver automatically initially and it picked up the USB->Serial adapter as 'Prolific USB to Serial Adapter'. I also tried uninstalling the drivers and installing the drivers from the CD that came with the adapter - this also picked up the adapter fine...

I'd have to agree that the soldering on the USB side of the Serial adapter could be soldered better, I may have rushed a little due to the excitement :hello2: I'll take a look at those wires again now (but I did continuity test them yesterday and they seemed ok).

Will update you shortly...

If anyone can still provide links or photos of the adapters that they successfully used for this project it would be also much appreciated.

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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I've just had a reply back from the ebay suppliers of my USB to Serial adapter.

They have come back to me and said that the adapter I purchased is not compatible with Windows 7 64-bit (only 32-bit).

They have now changed the description on the ebay listing to state 32-bit!

Maybe this was the problem then? I've just asked them if they have a 64-bit compatible version available...

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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This is the one im using, all looks good.

Was up until 3am trying to solve this last night lol, started trying to bell out all the connections, one thing I noticed is that there is 0.5V between the switch wires when its open circuit, is this normal?

Pulling my hair out with this one lol.

Keith

Do you have the link to where you purchased your adapter?

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yesyes

yesyes

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If it is a real Prolific PL2303, then it is compatible with Windows 7 x64. Maybe the 64bit driver is not on the CD or the package might not list it as compatible. But prolific do have a driver that works on Win7 x64:

http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31

Also, I just remembered that there were issues with some of the status lines (potentially DTR and/or RTS) in older PL drivers. I'd recommend trying that driver above first and see if that changes anything....

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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If it is a real Prolific PL2303, then it is compatible with Windows 7 x64. Maybe the 64bit driver is not on the CD or the package might not list it as compatible. But prolific do have a driver that works on Win7 x64:

http://www.prolific.com.tw/eng/downloads.asp?ID=31

Also, I just remembered that there were issues with some of the status lines (potentially DTR and/or RTS) in older PL drivers. I'd recommend trying that driver above first and see if that changes anything....

Arghh!

Only just seen your message. Nevermind, I will test the newest drivers now. It won't hurt to have a spare one anyway :hello2:

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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I've just uninstalled then re-installed the latest drivers for Windows 7 64-bit from the Prolific website as suggested. The drivers work fine but I still have the same problem :hello2:

I've just contacted the ebay seller to try and now report this as a faulty item to see if they can send a replacement.

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Kbramley

Kbramley

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It works!!!!! - kind of :), the LX mode works perfectly now, turns out I had a faulty transistor, replaced this and now Im getting exposure of any duration I like, the only downside is that it wont work in normal webcam mode, the switch definitely works as switching it during LX mode and drops the exposure back to normal, but then when selecting standard webcam in Sharpcap the image is just noise.

As this was always going to be a guide cam project I think I will call it a day here and stop fettling, just like to thank Yesyes :hello2: for this excellent thread, couldnt of done it without the extensive diagrams and advice and also thanks to everyone else who chipped in.

Clear skies.

Keith

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raiderturbo

raiderturbo

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It works!!!!! - kind of :), the LX mode works perfectly now, turns out I had a faulty transistor, replaced this and now Im getting exposure of any duration I like, the only downside is that it wont work in normal webcam mode, the switch definitely works as switching it during LX mode and drops the exposure back to normal, but then when selecting standard webcam in Sharpcap the image is just noise.

As this was always going to be a guide cam project I think I will call it a day here and stop fettling, just like to thank Yesyes :hello2: for this excellent thread, couldnt of done it without the extensive diagrams and advice and also thanks to everyone else who chipped in.

Clear skies.

Keith

Great news!

I think I might go back to component by component testing again on the LX circuit while I await my new serial adapters...

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JamesF

JamesF

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I've been doing more soldering this afternoon.

I now have the LX and amp off PCB wired up to the USB<->serial converter and the converter and camera both wired up to the hub. Plugged it into the PC and can see the serial UART and get pictures from the camera, so we're looking ok so far.

Next step is to solder up the LX switch and connections to the camera, test that, and finally do that nasty bit of soldering for the amp-off mod.

James

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