Xbox Livecam Mod (Cliff)

[gdheib0430]

I went off Cliff's instructions and figured I would take pictures and explain in a bit more detail...Thanks for the initial mod Cliff.

Here is the beginning...Materials used:

1. livecam

2. Plastic rubber cement

3. Small flat head and phillips screw drivers.

4. Gerber or small saw blade with a knife to smooth edges out.

5. 1.25" PVC plumber pipe (grab the cheapest one you can find I spent $1.24 for this on pictured)

Steps:

1. Unscrew lense from camera and remove...it will screw out just a little ways, but find the light gray clip on outerpiece and pop it off casing to unscrew it the rest of the way and remove it.

2. Remove the front casing from the camera body...this is by far the most tedious task and it will mess up the casing as stated by Cliff. You want the flat head to slide to the front of the casing not the back like it looks like you should be doing. Dont worry about hitting the board as working the flat tip into the crack will contact a plastic clear piece that connects in side of the casing...this is what needs to be pryed out to get the front piece to come off...take you time it is a bit of a hassle to get off. If someone else finds an easier way please share this.

3. Remove two screws on the board and the two screws holding the USB cable and bottom mount to remove the back plate of the case.

4. Remove the two screws on the back of the board that hold the IR cut filter and it will fall right off...this is the point when you need to start being a bit careful so you don't mess up the chip.

5. Here is a close up of the board. In this step we want to destroy the LED lights on the board so the heat from them doesn't effect the chip. I have lebeled them for you but to find all four I just plugged the camera into the computer for a split second and saw their location.

In order to break them, I used a pair of needle nose pliers to crush them...the top two you can crush fron the sides of the LED and the bottom two because of other components you need to crush them from the top...be careful doing this as it can damage the board (it doesn't take a lot of pressure). To test them just plug the camera back into the computer and run sharpcap.

Link to large picture: Click Here

6. Now screw your board and usb mount back onto the back casing and then clip the front mount back onto the back mount of the case.

7. Lastly, cut a 2" pice of the 1.25" pvc pipe, smooth it out with a knife or sand paper and cement it onto the camera's front mount...let set and enjoy the views.

Make sure your scope "adapter" is facing straight up while it sets and dries or you will get running glue or it will fall off .

Edited January 14, 2012 by gdheib0430

[Flying Eye]

I found it easiest to remove the front moulding by starting at the sides. On mine, the top right (as you look at the front) seemed to go easy, then worked my way down that side, then over to the other side and repeat. during this one or two top clips might even undo themselves, so do the rest of the top ones. Lastly the bottom edge, start with left and right corners in no particular order. The middle will probably then pop out without very much pressure. I've done this two or three times, and it's getting pretty easy by now.

Mostly you have to just push in firmly rather than try to to dig in towards the back of the cam too much. Once you know this, you can cause virtually no marking of the case.

HTH:cool:

[gdheib0430]

For sure the right side seemed to go the easiest on mine as well...too bad I started on the left side so I cracked it up pretty bad, however, it did not effect the inner plasitc piece from clipping bad onto the camera...I can't wait to test it out tonight.

[gdheib0430]

Would like to edit the above...could not achieve proper focus on my scope because my focal point was past the extension of the 2" piece I glued on...need to put a 4" pice on.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Brilliant i use 1 xbox cam as normal without red filter facing skies itself with original lens you get some great sky images and picks up star lights from quite distance light years away

also i use 1 for telescope use.

if i see any more in games shop worth getting them.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

For DIY Astronomer no telescope or binoculars needed just the cam and some computer software you can take some cool images of night sky

example image below

taken with modded xbox cam without red filter using original lens

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Here where i have my 2 xbox live cams

also xbox cam on it's own outside on window ledge in modded tintin box

very very sensitive to light picks up star light from about 1000 light years.

[gdheib0430]

Nice! Apart from the extra cam outside taking shots we have pretty much the exact same setup on the newt. Unless that is a 2X barlow...will take a pic of mine tonight and post it up for ya

[Stargazing_Cliff]

on me newt have the 1.5x erecting eyepiece adapter thing

have also test on the x3 barlow lens but when connect cam to that it kind of lower's the light doesnt pick up as much.

best cam attached to telescope without any adapters for best results

or erecting eyepiece lowers light slightly pretty awesome for moon imaging.

Look forward to seeing your set ups any captured you take.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Stargazing_Cliff

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Thought i'd share me site where i now have one of me xbox live cams

live updates every 30 seconds

Cliff's skycam 2012

Edited January 17, 2012 by Stargazing_Cliff

[Bumfluff]

Hey guys, I have also done this mod to my Xbox camera except I used an old barlow barrel instead of the pipe. Anyway I have had some great shots of the moon and Jupiter with this but I tried for ages last time I was out to capture the Orion nebula, but could not even get it on screen.. I gave up after an hour or so of tinkering out in the freezing cold! I used a 127 mak and sharpcap. Has anyone here tried to capture Orion nebula with the Xbox camera? can it even be done?

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Worth getting more these cams before they go obsolete from games shops

for orion may need to get exposure to longest setting. may pick up nebula in telescope i havent tryed yet but me normal xbox cam without red filter

picks up lots star light on it's own.

bit tweeking i rekon it pick up nebula

[Gina]

They look good - high sensitivity I've ordered one from Amazon for four and a half quid, to see what it's like.

[gdheib0430]

Still trying to figure mine out but this is my first webcam experience...find my view is very grey but haven't really sat down to look at the configureation and get a good focus on it...only messed with trying to see jupiture and for some reason I couldn't obtain focus...I can get focus inside the house on the wall...would you have to advance the camera closer to the secondary to focus further away or the other way around?

[Nova]

Hey Cliff, looks like a great little site but wish I knew about the techno music before I opened it in the office lol. Also was flashing up a "line 11" error and I couldnt close it hahaha had to Ctrl+Alt+Del/task manager to close it down. Luckily people saw the funny side.

I need to have a play with my live cam at some point.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Nova

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hey Cliff, looks like a great little site but wish I knew about the techno music before I opened it in the office lol. Also was flashing up a "line 11" error and I couldnt close it hahaha had to Ctrl+Alt+Del/task manager to close it down. Luckily people saw the funny side.

I need to have a play with my live cam at some point.

Oh yeah forgot to mention me music site

cool live cam like i switch cams during day to a modded

wii cam with different lens used trust spacecam 120 lens also added home made IR Filter thats whole new mod page for that one hehe!

they just as good as xbox cam when imaging moon not as sensitive to light so i use wii cam for daylight scanning skies.

maybe perfect cam to do solar imaging when get beader film.

thats awesome Gina worth it for price they are at what you planning on doing with cam attached to telescope or have it on it's own looking up at stars.

and gdheib0430 you get hang of it just play around with software settings

get long exposure setting on then shud pick up some stars from telescope.

when it's grey screen you have too much brightness on maybe or gamma possibly.

sort the long exposure setting i posted up some settings i use normally to pick up stars with cam on it's own. i'll get post and link it up

Edited January 17, 2012 by Stargazing_Cliff

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I have from cam settings for xbox live is this

for best exposure sometimes cam plays funny have to click that box also

then these settings

and the yuy2 setting

You can also lower the setting to 60 frame rate

but picture size is smaller 320 x 240

makes the sensor even more sensitive to light.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

then have different settings in different software's

[sausages]

Hi All,

Just completed my own mod of an xbox live vision cam. The black 'lens attachment' on the pcb (see images from gdheib0430 on the 14 Jan) has a standard M12 0.5 screw thread fitting, meaning it will work with the various black metal webcam adaptors you can buy from Astronomy websites. The snub-nose of the Vision Cam needed to be widened in order to allow the Webcam Adaptor to fit in, but this was fairly easy to achieve.

Finished, it looks like this:

Haven't had a chance to play with it yet (and I appreciate my Skyliner isnt exactly the ideal tool for Astrophotography, but I'm hoping to get some reasonable Moon shots...).

[Stargazing_Cliff]

sausages thats exellent hope ya get some good result images

[Stargazing_Cliff]

on pc may need to install the drivers they easy to find i have download link for driver for xbox cam if needed

driver is here for windows op system

http://cliffraves.cyborgcow.net/camdrivers/Driver%20update%20for%20Microsoft%20Xbox%20360%20Live%20Vision%20Security%20Method%203.rar

[sausages]

I use Windows 7, the drivers downloaded automatically as soon as it was plugged in, but thanks for posting the link.

I know the Camera works ok since the mod, fngers crossed, I will get a few half-decent moon pics soon.

[Bumfluff]

Hi gang, well I'm not one to admit defeat so the big fella is out in the garden cooling as i type, what software is deemed the most popular for webcam imaging? I found sharpcap VIA Google which seems okay but i struggled to get an on screen image of the Orion nebula, any suggestions?

[Nova]

I use Sharpcap Bumfluff another ive heard of is wxastrocapture. After that its Registax to stack and process. With a 127 mak (at f12?) I think you will struggle to get any DSO's using the cam, stick to the moon and planets

Thats a noce looking Mod sausage, you'll get some nice shots im sure

Look forward to seeing both sets of results

Edited January 17, 2012 by Nova

[Stargazing_Cliff]

tryed me newt outside today damn clouds come over whilst watching big bro:( will try another day mite also test cam on me smaller telescope 50mm sometime.

Edited January 17, 2012 by Stargazing_Cliff