Xbox Livecam Mod (Cliff)

[DrRobin]

Hi Peter,

Did you take your 'dark' shots during daylight? I got something very similar and it was caused by light leak through the back of the case, especially where the Microsoft label is. I wrapped mine in black tape and most of the pattern disappeared.

Mind if a fan gets rid of it, some of it must be thermal.

[peppertarts]

Hi Peter,

Did you take your 'dark' shots during daylight? I got something very similar and it was caused by light leak through the back of the case, especially where the Microsoft label is. I wrapped mine in black tape and most of the pattern disappeared.

Mind if a fan gets rid of it, some of it must be thermal.

It was day time but I placed the camera in a black bag. I'm pretty sure it's heat that's causing it. I've added a heatsink (the kind used on computer memory) to the chip on the back and that seems to have helped. I'm waiting for a small fan to arrive now. I think with cooling it will make a nice guide cam.

Peter.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

It was day time but I placed the camera in a black bag. I'm pretty sure it's heat that's causing it. I've added a heatsink (the kind used on computer memory) to the chip on the back and that seems to have helped. I'm waiting for a small fan to arrive now. I think with cooling it will make a nice guide cam.

Peter.

Peter good idea that use one them heatsinks press it against the chip mite do that to me outside cam sometime / got fans on bother me xbox cams like

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Link to my xbox skycam fixed me server where have me skycam auto updates.

http://cliff.r.first....uk/skycam.html

direct to live image it automatic update when reload this thread

[peppertarts]

Hi Peter,

Did you take your 'dark' shots during daylight? I got something very similar and it was caused by light leak through the back of the case, especially where the Microsoft label is. I wrapped mine in black tape and most of the pattern disappeared.

Mind if a fan gets rid of it, some of it must be thermal.

OK, it looks like I was wrong about the glow being caused by heat. I shone a bright light on the back of the PCB while the front of the camera was in a bag and this this is what I captured... the shape I saw before along with what I guess is the back/inside of the CCD. There are even numbers and letters visible.

Peter

[DrRobin]

Hi Peter,

Yes, same pattern as mine. I covered all of the white case with black PVC tape and that cut out most of the light leak. I think Most of the light leaks through the Microsoft logo and some through the joint in the cases.

I will fire up my modded camera with a bright light source to show how much light leaks after the tape is applied. I have another here that isn't modified to show the comparison.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Shud see state my xbox skycam 1 pmsl and totally covered in black pvc tape and extra black plastic extra cooling fan box even it's own little dew shield i leave this out all weathers monitoring skies 24/7

Got loads room for more cams along window sometime

[Aenima]

crop venus.bmp

Hey cliff, just a couple xbox cam shots of planets as i'm learning slowly to capture using your excellent modded livecam.

Being a noob with the whole process of imaging I am finding this a very nice cam to learn with, cheers dude.

The SATURN AVI. was a very quick shot taken through a fully foliaged tree, so waiting for better chance.

The MARS AVI. was tiny as a video image but stacking in reg6 tweaked a few details (white polar cap, a darker patch of surface maybe.)

The VENUS AVI. was shot with xcam through my new 200p but low on horizon causing wobbles and turbulence, cleared up a bit with registax6.

I hope these images give a general idea of what a noobie is able to sketchily put together with your xbox livecam mod.

Thanks again,

Regards,

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Aenima they really good nice one saturn and mars interesting white polar cap maybe life on mars talking mars they have that new rover landing soon.

the xbox cam is pretty awesome.

i'm still waiting for clear night to test me latest xbox cam mod on telescope.

Created some a-focal kind lens thing using with 20mm normal original eye piece.

[Aenima]

Aenima they really good nice one saturn and mars interesting white polar cap maybe life on mars talking mars they have that new rover landing soon.

the xbox cam is pretty awesome.

i'm still waiting for clear night to test me latest xbox cam mod on telescope.

Created some a-focal kind lens thing using with 20mm normal original eye piece.

Yeah man, when i did my cam before the lens got unscrewed I noticed it gave sharp n clear images when focussed, so its probably going to work quite well A-Focal. Best thing to test it on the moon, be interesting to see how it does.

Regards

Aenima

[DrRobin]

Nice one of Saturn, you can just see some banding on the main disc. Mars is quite small without a Barlow and not an easy target with. I reckon your Xbox will do well with Jupiter when it makes it return after the light nights.

Nice photos all the same at a difficult time of the year.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Yeah man, when i did my cam before the lens got unscrewed I noticed it gave sharp n clear images when focussed, so its probably going to work quite well A-Focal. Best thing to test it on the moon, be interesting to see how it does.

Regards

Aenima

I have created somet where i'm not using orginal lens i'm using some kind of focus lens thing from old video camcorder and it's working with original 20mm eyepiece got with me newt

i dont even see circle inside 20mm EP. i also have zoom from software. as cam have so much zoom function.

workes on lamp post in distance and focuses quite nice.

wish this weather would just shift so can try test oon moon/ any planets / star's just to see how many stars show through.

area space can view with it.

got about 3 little dust bunny's so once i have tested it i need to take thing apart lol just to clean lens then rebuild if works awesome.

[sausages]

That's a nice shot of Saturn there Aenima, even more so given what sound like some really difficult conditions! This is probably my best image so far with the xbox 360 cam, taken a week or so ago - 5 min avi file processed with registax. I'm pretty pleased with it and hope to get more detail when the seeing is better. All in all, I reckon the cam is pretty good considering the low cost, kudo's indeed to Cliff for the idea.

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Another shot of the sun taken earlier tonight through thin high level cloud with an Xbox camera, solar filter and a ST80

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Wow the power of the xbox cam captured streak of lightening thats how good me sky xbox cam is with the awesome lens i put on it

I think that is totally E P I C i had settings on motion detect

[Aenima]

Wow the power of the xbox cam captured streak of lightening thats how good me sky xbox cam is with the awesome lens i put on it

I think that is totally E P I C i had settings on motion detect

I agree that is awesome!

Is the motion detected by the software on ur pc or is it built into the modded part of xboxcam? Sorry, dont know much about the tech stuff.

But lightning? Definitely a great shot. You must be chuffed with that one.

[Aenima]

Hi,

Another shot of the sun taken earlier tonight through thin high level cloud with an Xbox camera, solar filter and a ST80

Nice1.

The sun looks good with the solar film filter.

I have seen a few different sun image colours that seem totally different. eg white/purple or fire with prominences, and I wonder whether processing can reveal these other 'colour types' or if you'd need better/different filters and also maybe a coronado pst?

Another nice example of the xboxcam's potential.

Regards

Jay

Aenima

PS. I havent actually gotten round to making my sheet of film into a working cardboard aperture filter, I wondered if I make it to fit a 5" scope - say, with a 3.5" filter area (the rest being cardboard) could I later on add extra cardboard so it fits my 8" newt - with still the 3.5" filter area - without losing the benefit of the larger scope?

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers

[Aenima]

Hey all,

Have been looking at buying another xboxcam and noticed there is a bit of confusing labeling and pricing differences, i.e Amazon do what seem to be two slightly different xbox webcams, its hard to tell as they look identical and the prices are only differing by a few pence. If I remember right there is,

1st: Official Xbox 360 live vision webcam - approx £4.49. Then,

2nd: Official Microsoft Xbox live vision PC webcam. -approx £4.99. This is only from memory but the fact that there seems to be more than one is going mainly by the different labels/prices, does anyone know why or what this is?

Regards

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hi Aenima the motion detect was from software used desk share webcam monitor 5.0

sensitivity 05 just in middle using windows xp.

i had 3 lots filters over top of lens

2 lots of uv 400 sun lens and extra darker uv 400 lens

i use to put over lens so cam works in daylight

then i just remove all them when it's dark.

[DrRobin]

Hi Aenima,

To get Solar prominences I think I need to run more magnification, which I might try next. I have been using a focal reducer to get the whole of the sun in the frame, but more mag would certainly show more detail. Provided the features are in the visible spectrum or IR, they should show up on the Xbox camera same as any other.

Regarding filter size, I started with a 80mm filter on a 80mm refractor and that was too big, the camera was right down on the minimum exposure and difficult to get the gain right. I then made a second filter with about 40mm diameter and that is much better.

I would go for something similar for your newt. To answer your second question, yes, make one filter and then make a holder for it to fit your large scope. Just make sure that the cardboard is dense enough and it doesn't come off. I used two pieces of cardboard with a thick hard outer (white). I tried one piece against the sun first to make sure it blocks out the light before risking it on my scope.

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Forgot to mention, it is easy to over exposure on the sun as the centre is much brighter than the edges. If you use Sharpcap, turn the histogram on and go for about 75% exposure. Once stacked, the extra 25% gets used and you end up with a correctly exposed picture.

BTW my last picture was taken with the full sized (80mm) filter as high level cloud robbed me of quite a bit of sun light.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hi Aenima,

To get Solar prominences I think I need to run more magnification, which I might try next. I have been using a focal reducer to get the whole of the sun in the frame, but more mag would certainly show more detail. Provided the features are in the visible spectrum or IR, they should show up on the Xbox camera same as any other.

Regarding filter size, I started with a 80mm filter on a 80mm refractor and that was too big, the camera was right down on the minimum exposure and difficult to get the gain right. I then made a second filter with about 40mm diameter and that is much better.

I would go for something similar for your newt. To answer your second question, yes, make one filter and then make a holder for it to fit your large scope. Just make sure that the cardboard is dense enough and it doesn't come off. I used two pieces of cardboard with a thick hard outer (white). I tried one piece against the sun first to make sure it blocks out the light before risking it on my scope.

Dont you need some kind filter to see proms on sun or will normal baarder solar filter will work

and just over exposure them cam ?

[DrRobin]

Hi Cliff,

I would have thought that the Baader film would give images of the prominences, but haven't tried it yet. You might need a 2x Barlow to get them. I would try correct exposure somewhere on the side of the disc first. Of course, knowing when and where they are there helps, try Solar Weather website for that.

[Aenima]

Thank you DrRobin,

I dont mind missing the venus transit because now I have a solar filter that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Can't wait to see the sun through a telescope - and, hopefully take a picture. Appreciate the tips on making my filter, one that will hopefully work with both scopes.

Regards

Jay

[DrRobin]

Hey Cliff,

That lightning bolt is awesome. Thought we heard the odd rumble of thunder up in Newcastle.