MS LifeCam Studio dismantled

[Gina]

There is an AVI file of Jupiter - the planet stays in the frame for about a minute and a half - only watched it in a video viewer so far. Files are currently transferring.

[Gina]

None of the AVIs will load into Registax Need to sort that out!

[Rob L]

What a nightmare. Wish I'd have advocated giving up now! Good luck with the mount, fingers crossed it's nothing serious.

[Gina]

What a nightmare. Wish I'd have advocated giving up now! Good luck with the mount, fingers crossed it's nothing serious.

Thank you I tend not to give up for long, sometimes if things are going wrong I leave it until the next day though.

[JamesF]

sometimes if things are going wrong I leave it until the next day though.

That's not giving up. That's a tactical withdrawal

James

[idbvideo]

Try loading the file into virtual dub then saving it again, it may put it into a container that registack understands.

[Flying Eye]

Just tried that and although VDub makes it a little darker, Registax can now read it! Thanks very much indeed! I can probably figure out how to tweak VDub to keep it brighter with some luck.

[Gina]

I'll try that - thank you

[Gina]

The mount is fine Thank goodness

[Gina]

Rather than mess about with the hand controller, I though I'd try computer control with the simplest setup, EQMOD/EQASCOM and use the direct controls rather than the gamepad. It all worked - set the slewing speed to 4 and used the buttons to slew the mount in all directions - perfect So then I parked it and shut down the EQ Utility and ran CdC instead. Parked perfectly. Unparked and connected through CdC and slewed to various celestial objects - slewed perfectly according to CdC.

I now suspect the gamepad. Testing will continue later...

[Rob L]

The mount is fine Thank goodness

That's good news ;-)

[Gina]

One thing is certain - the modified webcam needs an IR cut filter. Without it the terrestrial pics look like they've been taken with an IR camera - which they have, of course, plus normal light. I had the same effect with the Cinema after I first removed the lens and IR filter. Also, I need to clean the image sensor - in spite of being careful NOT to get dust or bits on it, it looks like a rubbish tip!

Here are a couple of stills I captured yesterday of the road signs and trees. The first was taken at 1920x1080 resolution and scaled to 1024 wide for here otherwise no processing. In the second I moved the scope to put the road signs in the middle of the frame and captured at 800x600 - this is the image exactly as captured - no post processing whatever (other than whatever PhotoBucket might have done to it).

[idbvideo]

Glad your mount is OK Gina.

A thought sprung to mind, if you were capturing at a high resolution, the gamepad driver might just have been pushed back in priority such that any control inputs were ignored until the cpu managed to give it time of day and deal with any input again until it became lower priority again. This is only a guesssoI could be totally wrong.

[Gina]

Glad your mount is OK Gina.

Thank you

A thought sprung to mind, if you were capturing at a high resolution, the gamepad driver might just have been pushed back in priority such that any control inputs were ignored until the cpu managed to give it time of day and deal with any input again until it became lower priority again. This is only a guesssoI could be totally wrong.

That sounds quite a possibility. I could check that by using two PCs - one for control and the other for capture.

[Gina]

Had a go at cleaning my Studio sensor tonight - it's better but still not spec free.

[thudbruiser]

Hi Gina, what did you use to clean the chip? I too have some bits on it post modding.

Dave

[Flying Eye]

I think it's worth checking these cams PRE mods, as some of them seem to have minor issues right out of the box. My example of the xbox livecam did.

Might be you are going to be trying to clean pre existing faults? The "faults" might be fine and unnoticed in a web camera, but get noticed during astro use.

[Gina]

Hi Gina, what did you use to clean the chip? I too have some bits on it post modding.

Dave

I used a dry cotton bud plus lots of air from my "rocket". I must get some proper stuff

[Gina]

I think it's worth checking these cams PRE mods, as some of them seem to have minor issues right out of the box. My example of the xbox livecam did.

Might be you are going to be trying to clean pre existing faults? The "faults" might be fine and unnoticed in a web camera, but get noticed during astro use.

Good point! I checked mine for function beforehand, as a webcam, but never even thought of taking some flats - doh!

[Gina]

I've ordered an IR blocking filter for the Studio - I don't think it's worth trying to capture any more images with it until I get the filter. Did a search and the cheapest I could find was Telescope House @ just under £15 all in :- Revelation IR Blocking Filter 1.25"

[grey]

Gina, whatever happened after all with your studio webcam?

[Gina]

Gina, whatever happened after all with your studio webcam?

It's finished Installed in the mounting tube part of an unwanted 4mm Plossl EP with UV/IR 1.25" filter attached. Not used it yet.

[grey]

I found this, I think it might inspire someone to try and mod the lifecam setup to be peltier cooled... I'll attach the links, unfortunately they do not service Canada, but you shouldn't have any issue in the UK.

1. http://www.uweelectronic.de/en/temperature-management/peltier-modules/miniature-modules.html

2. http://www.uweelectronic.de/en/temperature-management/peltier-modules/thin-film-substrates.html

cheers

[grey]

Which program did you use it as a guidecam with? PHD? if so which driver are you using?

[Gina]

I thought of adding cooling but decided it wouldn't be any advantage as this camera won't do LX and noise shouldn't be a problem with planetary. Not that I'm doing any planetary ATM. Not actually doing much of anything ATM - dying for a cloud free night Lots of high cloud about this evening