Xbox Livecam Mod (Cliff)

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Ah rite mite try that with me barlow x3 lens from me newt mite actually put it to me 50mm as it fits or try it with newt for more close up.

thats when ever see sunshine like here it's been clouded out weeks

thanks for comment on lightening strike.

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Shot the sun again this afternoon, in between breaks in the cloud. Xbox camera, 2x Barlow and ST-80. The three big sunspots are 1504 and 1505, the others to the left are 1506 & 1507. It is the three largest which sparked the Aurora currently passing through.

Going to give my 200mm scope a try next, try to get better resolution.

[Aenima]

Heya peeps on thread,

Was hoping someone knows anything about the apparent difference, and it could be just my confusion, between the xbox live vision webcams? I dont really know how to explain or work it out myself, sorry if its a trivial issue, but as on sites like amazon there seems to be two prices and two descriptions, was hoping to clear it up, if only so I can buy one without being unsure which 'description' to click on.

Thanks n Regards

Jay.

Ps. another great shot of the sun, dr.robin, nice1

[DrRobin]

Hi,

I wonder if the two cams on Amazon are actually the same thing. Probably just describe them differently to get more hits on the search engines.

As far as I know there is only one Xbox camera, just ake your pick for the one you like best.

I am enjoying this solar astronomy, gives me something to do when the nights are so short and light.

[Aenima]

Cheers dr.robin, the whole thing was beginning to give me a headache, I didnt want to get the lesser cam over a matter of a few pence and a description difference. Gonna eeny meeny it and hope for the best!

And yes to more solar imaging, interesting stuff.

I have taken your advice and decided to do a 40mm aperture that will fit both scopes. I dont think there's any reason to have an increase in aperture just for the larger scope, and 40mm seems to work with your set-up I believe, so nice1 for the input.

As the sun doesnt count as a target on the goto handset and venus has moved on, I can use the leftover solar film on my finderscope/s. Having missed the transit over 5/6th june that night I put the scissors down and thought it over some more, which i'm now glad of.

Thanks again,

Regards

Aenima

[DrRobin]

Hi,

Yes go for it, I think 40mm will work okay. If your scope's lens cover has a smaller cover offset, that is for a solar filter, probably best to make it fit that, rather than the whole aperture.

I made a solar filter for my finderscope at about 15mm diameter, if anything it is a bit small and if I made another I would increase this to 20 or 25mm.

Finding the sun on GOTO is not that easy, it isn't in the memory to save you from looking directly at the sun. I use planetarium software to find out which star or Messier object is directly behind the sun or so close it will show up in the finder and then set the GOTO to that object. I then use the direction keys to centre the sun. I don't bother star aligning my mount first, just set it up in the same position as it was last used (at night) and it seems to work pretty well.

[DrRobin]

Hi Cliff,

Just been checking into solar prominences, apparently you need a Solar Hydrogen Alpha filter with very narrow band filter characteristics. Since these cost more than a Coronado PST, it looks like it is easier to buy one of those.

The Baader film lets through too many wavelengths to see the prominences and flares which are only visible in a small narrow band as there is too much light comes from the rest of the sun. Shame, but that looks to be it. You could still use your Xbox camera on a PST.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

This is Arcturus star was testing me A-focal xbox cam using some special lens thing attached to me 20mm EP till it all fell apart i shall rebuild it later as all me cooler fan system fell apart.

As they say that star gives off the spectrum of light full of emission lines

me xbox cam thats in infrared seems to be picking up some spectrum of light from it nice i was time lapsing skies in 1 stable position and that image of star showed up.

I wanted to try capture skies where stars lot smaller not big showing how do i do that with telescope cam ?

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Think today i'm going to create skycam 2 and it will see so many stars/ufo's if any fly past

out of these bits n bobs.

Will be awesome when i have created it as i'm very creative.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Yes created skycam 2 for me ufo hobby capture any fly by's

This fan doesnt vibrate either.

All ready to time lapse / motion detect skies

Will post some time lapse image once i do any if skies stay clear for change.

[MattS]

Hi guys, forgive this noobish question... I've started to take my xbox cam apart and have only got to the first stage so far (removing the lens) . Looking into the camera, I can see the CCD chip which is surrounded by a black assembly ring with a thread where I've just unscrewed the lens from. Why is it suggested to remove the front of the casing to destroy the LED's? Is it purely the heat, or is it to do with the light getting into the CCD... if it's the light issue, then won't leaving the black assembly ring thingy will prevent the light from being picked up?

-edit-

Ah, I see, it looks like the black assembly has an IR filter on the end too, so that needs removing too, right... onward and forever looking upward!

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hi guys, forgive this noobish question... I've started to take my xbox cam apart and have only got to the first stage so far (removing the lens) . Looking into the camera, I can see the CCD chip which is surrounded by a black assembly ring with a thread where I've just unscrewed the lens from. Why is it suggested to remove the front of the casing to destroy the LED's? Is it purely the heat, or is it to do with the light getting into the CCD... if it's the light issue, then won't leaving the black assembly ring thingy will prevent the light from being picked up?

-edit-

Ah, I see, it looks like the black assembly has an IR filter on the end too, so that needs removing too, right... onward and forever looking upward!

Them led's do give lot heat they easy to clip little flat end screw driver they little gap just put screw driver near that gap and twist so led's go out.

also the light does get onto ccd.

you want to get little brush or air blower clean away chipped led's otherwise goes all over ccd.

[MattS]

Thanks Cliff, the only thing I have left to do now is source some 1.25" tube to glue onto the end - I'm thinking of making it a threaded piece so I can screw on different lengths should I need to switch to a different 'scope, I read an early poster say that his 2" length wasn't enough to hit the focal point so I figured that I may as well make it adaptable, right?

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Thanks Cliff, the only thing I have left to do now is source some 1.25" tube to glue onto the end - I'm thinking of making it a threaded piece so I can screw on different lengths should I need to switch to a different 'scope, I read an early poster say that his 2" length wasn't enough to hit the focal point so I figured that I may as well make it adaptable, right?

Just experiment with differnt tube lenths see which fits your telescope and see if focuses into stuff best try stuff in distance like try daytime looking at somet far away see if get things in focus. then try on night sky

[MattS]

I am hopefully getting my Celestron NexStar 4SE delivered tomorrow, but also have an older model TAL reflector (the one with the short eyepieces), so I'm guessing I will need two different length tubes so I can use it on both.... Or I get another xbox cam....... Now there is a thought!

[Aenima]

I am hopefully getting my Celestron NexStar 4SE delivered tomorrow, but also have an older model TAL reflector (the one with the short eyepieces), so I'm guessing I will need two different length tubes so I can use it on both.... Or I get another xbox cam....... Now there is a thought!

HI there Matt, good to see more and more people catching on to Cliff's amazing mod. If you haven't already done the led's could I just say - be very careful doing them.

I hope this will be helpful generally for people unsure about the led's - a few have broken their cameras this way

If your mod is going to go wrong - popping the led's will be what does it.

It may sound like a bit of hassle but if you can find something like a mini-extra thin hand tool drill, like (some) girls use to put extremely small holes in their fingernails (i didn't want to know why didn't ask Nail jewelery?.) anyway, they look like a v small electrical screwdriver but with a micro thin drill-bit for a tip, even a tiny cross head screwdriver that you can gently, slowly twisting, bore a little hole in each led, just far enough to slightly perforate the glass, checking after every turn - by plugging it into your laptop, with software running - until it fails to light up before moving onto the next one, all the time carefully avoiding slipping with the tool and especially avoid getting any dust or grease or particles on the chip - after taking off the lens to remove ir filter replace the screw-in original lens asap to cover it from contamination.

I apologise for lengthy post but i'm hoping this will also be of use to other newbies, like me, when doing their mods.

All the best,

Jay

Ps. to get the casing off try inserting the round end of a thin teaspoon in the gap and twist - should click open with little damage.

HTH.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Hey microsoft xbox makers i woudnt mind new xbox and any cams u can send me my xbox got red rings of death about 2 years ago i even tryed fixing with x-clamp kit nope pmsl the fridge method worked for few weeks.

got xbox somewhere bottom of me shed lol i used to play all them halo's, gears of war so on.

[Aenima]

Hi,

Yes go for it, I think 40mm will work okay. If your scope's lens cover has a smaller cover offset, that is for a solar filter, probably best to make it fit that, rather than the whole aperture.

I made a solar filter for my finderscope at about 15mm diameter, if anything it is a bit small and if I made another I would increase this to 20 or 25mm.

Finding the sun on GOTO is not that easy, it isn't in the memory to save you from looking directly at the sun. I use planetarium software to find out which star or Messier object is directly behind the sun or so close it will show up in the finder and then set the GOTO to that object. I then use the direction keys to centre the sun. I don't bother star aligning my mount first, just set it up in the same position as it was last used (at night) and it seems to work pretty well.

Hi Dr.Robin, thanks for the post. I do have both offset caps for my scopes, and if this size is pretty much all I'll need, then making one filter for each scope, attaching directly onto the aperture cover, would need only a third of the A4 sheet.

Not to mention being able to better attach it to the opening without flimsy cardboard.

Using the full aperture plastic covers with the smaller offset plastic caps cut-out & fitted with approx. 35-45mm film making it a removable plastic solar-filter that fits perfectly onto the end-cap offset hole.

Do you think this will work?

So far it seems like the best plan - very economical use of film and making great use of the well fitting scope aperture-caps.

Many thanks, regards

Jay.

[DrRobin]

Hi Jay,

Yes that should work well. I taped my 80mm solar filter over the smaller offset filter on my 200mm newt last night and got some fine views of the sun at 800mm focal length. The 60mm (approx) diameter of the smaller offset aperture was just right. Unfortunately, it turns out that both my Xbox camera and DFK31 were covered in dust so the pictures were a little disappointing. I hadn't noticed before how a 2 or 3 times barlow really shows up the dust with a bright area like the sun, whereas without the barlow they dust spots are alomst invisible.

Before I could get chance to sort out the dust issue, the sun went below the houses and since the hard drive on my laptop was full, it was time to call it a day.

I am going to make a proper filter for my 200mm newt, cameras have already been cleaned to be ready for the next big sun spots.

[Aenima]

Nice1, I have been waiting

Hi Jay,

Yes that should work well. I taped my 80mm solar filter over the smaller offset filter on my 200mm newt last night and got some fine views of the sun at 800mm focal length. The 60mm (approx) diameter of the smaller offset aperture was just right. Unfortunately, it turns out that both my Xbox camera and DFK31 were covered in dust so the pictures were a little disappointing. I hadn't noticed before how a 2 or 3 times barlow really shows up the dust with a bright area like the sun, whereas without the barlow they dust spots are alomst invisible.

Before I could get chance to sort out the dust issue, the sun went below the houses and since the hard drive on my laptop was full, it was time to call it a day.

I am going to make a proper filter for my 200mm newt, cameras have already been cleaned to be ready for the next big sun spots.

Nice1, I have been waiting since the transit failed in the middle of putting a filter together for a decent way to make a good, reusable solar filter, and didn't really like cardboard and double-side sticky tape format as much.

My 200p came with two 50mm caps - one for the finder, another for the offset aperture cap. I dont mind using one to make the filter

And something similar for my 130mm newt and YAY ready to check out the sun!

Even though the transit of venus was clouded, it was still a good opportunity - I have the sun as an alternative viewing target now.

Thanks for the ideas and advice.

Regards

Aenima

[DrRobin]

Hi Jay,

It's cardboard and spray glue for me, hoping to make it tonight for my 200mm newt. I have really got in to this solar observing, so much I am toying with the idea of buying a Solar Hydrogen Alpha scope at around £500 to see the flares and prominiences. Now just to sneak it past Mrs DrR....

[Aenima]

I think i remember seeing a attachment on one of these threads that was mind-blowing, like magnetized fire! It was through a PST and stacked with, i think, a drizzle (not sure on that) but it was truly amazing. You'll probably find or remember it but if not i'll try and re-post it. If anything will convince you to buy a pst this pic is it.

Good luck on the solar-filter for 200p, will the bigger mirror/aperture scope get more magnified pics? Eg. the same 45mm filter on a 200p will be greater than that same filter on 130p?

Regards

Jay

[Aenima]

Hey microsoft xbox makers i woudnt mind new xbox and any cams u can send me my xbox got red rings of death about 2 years ago i even tryed fixing with x-clamp kit nope pmsl the fridge method worked for few weeks.

got xbox somewhere bottom of me shed lol i used to play all them halo's, gears of war so on.

Yeah I remember them games. . I could never control my characters, alway crouching in some corner shooting my own people, while the point of view was spinning everywhere but straight ahead, bloomin control pads! give me a mouse and arrow keys any day.

Jay

[DrRobin]

Hi,

I made my 200mm newt filter to fit inside the small offset aperture in the lens cap, only used about 60x60mm piece of solar filter, acouple of bits of mount board and some glue. total cost, probably about £2. If you bought an A4 sheet of filter, a piece of mount board and the glue it would cost about £30. For that you could make about 15 of these.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Update on me skycam 2 i'm still working on it tested few lens but they where bit poo pants lol found some other lens and i allways test see which one shows clear found some lens from some broken binoculars eye piece.