Xbox Livecam Mod (Cliff)

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Had a little go at Jupiter with my ~Xbox cliffcam~ as I wanted to give it a better chance now I have the 200p, it didnt get fair trial with my 130p as I didnt know first thing about imaging.

Not bad - as I keep saying - for the money, even got a bit of colour there.

Regards

Aenima

Thats lovely image jupiter with cliffcam

[Aenima]

Yeh, cheers. Thought i'd try do it justice, though Jim has a point when he says to try a better camera - not really that the xbox cam is bad, just that there are better ones available and results will improve with an upgrade.

Learning the software is another area where results can improve things, its worth extra time working that stuff out.

But if your getting or got a snapshot digital, then clamping it to your EP is the way to go.

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Moved me Cliffcam now facing northish hopylly pointing towards polaris so get spirals on stars

[sausages]

Had a little go at Jupiter with my ~Xbox cliffcam~ as I wanted to give it a better chance now I have the 200p, it didnt get fair trial with my 130p as I didnt know first thing about imaging.

Not bad - as I keep saying - for the money, even got a bit of colour there.

Regards

Aenima

Not been on this thread for a while as my xbox cam has not been in use for a while (been trying my hand at some deep sky imaging). Have to say, I'm pretty impressed with that Jupiter image and I must give my xbox cam a try on the next clear night. I did have a go at imaging Jupiter last weekend though, using my Toucam Pro II cam, image attached. Its my first ever attempt and I'm still playing around with the processing, but decided to post it as a reference, see how close we can get to it with xbox cam...

[Gina]

Nice one

[Aenima]

Sausages, I like it.

Never used a to-u-cam - though i assume its similar in many ways to the spc900nc - and heard lots about them, so its nice to see your early results from it. I've not been at it long either and my shots of jupiter using the spc880/900nc still havent quite got the level of detail visible in your above pic. I had a go on photoshop today and almost immediately became lost and overwhelmed with its complexity, as well as my innate lack of tech skillz regarding such software labyrinths.

Basically, I'm limited to stacking in registax and relying on trial n error fiddling with the wavelets for the final picture. Anything beyond that and I'd need seriously dumbed down tutorials to get any decent results.

The main problem with the xbox cliffcam is a lack of colour, otherwise its not bad for the money. Without knowing much about the whole RGB thing I wondered if the use of colour filters with the cliffcam in b/w mode would be do-able? It would be a learning experience for later AP if nothing else.

But, your image has great detail and 'presence' compared to my one - and any hints and tips as to your method would be gratefully recieved

Cheers.

Regards

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Not been on this thread for a while as my xbox cam has not been in use for a while (been trying my hand at some deep sky imaging). Have to say, I'm pretty impressed with that Jupiter image and I must give my xbox cam a try on the next clear night. I did have a go at imaging Jupiter last weekend though, using my Toucam Pro II cam, image attached. Its my first ever attempt and I'm still playing around with the processing, but decided to post it as a reference, see how close we can get to it with xbox cam...

Brilliant jupiter awesome

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I put me Cliffcam back on roof.

[sausages]

Sausages, I like it.

Never used a to-u-cam - though i assume its similar in many ways to the spc900nc - and heard lots about them, so its nice to see your early results from it. I've not been at it long either and my shots of jupiter using the spc880/900nc still havent quite got the level of detail visible in your above pic. I had a go on photoshop today and almost immediately became lost and overwhelmed with its complexity, as well as my innate lack of tech skillz regarding such software labyrinths.

Basically, I'm limited to stacking in registax and relying on trial n error fiddling with the wavelets for the final picture. Anything beyond that and I'd need seriously dumbed down tutorials to get any decent results.

The main problem with the xbox cliffcam is a lack of colour, otherwise its not bad for the money. Without knowing much about the whole RGB thing I wondered if the use of colour filters with the cliffcam in b/w mode would be do-able? It would be a learning experience for later AP if nothing else.

But, your image has great detail and 'presence' compared to my one - and any hints and tips as to your method would be gratefully recieved

Cheers.

Regards

Aenima

Thanks, I'm pretty pleased for a first attempt myself, which used a 3x barlow to enlarge. The TouCam Pro II has the same components as the SPC900C and I have flashed the firmware (I needed to do this as I use Windows 7 and the TouCam drivers are XP only). In terms of processing the images, I'm only using Registax - I prefer 5 over 6, I've been getting better results! I have tinkered with Photoshop but I havent managed any significant improvements over what I get out of Registax. I did run one of the AVI files through AS!2 last night and used Registax just for the wavelets and, if anything, there seems to be a little more detail coming through - I need to spend a little more time playing with this though. As for Registax, like you, the process is pretty much trial and error for me too, especially the wavelets! I have watched a couple of youtube videos that helped (from Astronomy Shed) and found a couple of online guides that were also useful (try googling 'Starzonia Registax'), but I still very much trial and error!

I will give my Xbox cam another try this weekend, weather permitting, to see how the images compare to what the TouCam gave me - I'm particularly interested to see whether I get issues with colour like you have. In terms of any hints / tips, I must have spent 10-15 mins playing with the focusing (making very slight changes to the focus then watching the image on the laptop, then adjusting again etc until I felt I was getting the sharpest images - the image kept drifting in and out of focus due to the seeing and I only adjusted the focus when detail appeared in the image, making no adjustments when the detail was poor). I also used a 3x barlow, limited my avi files to 2 mins and tried a range of different frame rates (lowest 5, highest 60) to see what produced the best results, this particular image came from a 10 frame per second file. That's pretty much it to be honest, I'm not doing anything else!

[Aenima]

Hehe, cheers sausages, I believe you !

Appreciate the explanation either way, gonna try out reg5 now so maybe it will be useful info which I am grateful for.

Yeh dont think I'll be comfortable with photoshop until I know a bit more about what it does, and sure of what I'm doing with it. Looks to be a powerful editor/processor though, for those who can use it to its potential.

Thanks for the above post, though I always figured reg 6 had better wavelets etc than 5 but without really understanding either program I'm thinking that a quick experiment with reg5 cant hurt at this point - I kept the AVI's from two diferent sessions last week so will use those.

Let ya know how I get on...

Regards

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Another cool vid showing that cliffcam gadget i created

http://youtu.be/Zvnm7yKSwnQ

Hopefully one day capture nice shooting star/ meteor fly by or ufo for me little ufo hunting hobby.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

My next little project is going to be something simple

using xbox cams sensor with pin hole lens found from them asda cams as they seem to be doing pretty good lately. lets see what asda cam's lens can do.

will create little project soon and put on test.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

This simple project on test looking pretty nice with clouds

Using xbox cam sensor with pin hole lens from asda cam it seems to give quite wide view.

So anyone can make one as weather cloud cam it may even work on night sky

[Aenima]

Hi mate,

The xbox camera can be modded to fit a telescope by removing lens and fitting an adapter - see beginning of thread, its a long one soz. - or you can just aim it at the sky and use capture software to get images of stars.

You need to look through the beginning parts of this ththread for instructions for adapting for telescope use.

Regards

Aenima

[Aenima]

There are also a number of images that show what can be done with this cheap webcam.

Aenima

[Stargazing_Cliff]

they is number of ways you can use this cam

1 = Xbox camera mod take out lens and mod bit tubing same size of eye piece tubing and attach it to xbox cam make sure tubing is center with cams imaging square sensor and then put camera with bit tubing to where you would normally put eye piece on telescope.

you can either remove ir filter or leave it on.

2 = Xbox cam with normal lens put it up against your what ever mm eye piece on telescope your using and you can hold camera to lens

the things i create with xbox cam is i add different type lens from other camera's and put them to sensor. to use as all sky cam weather cam/ pick up stars without need of telescope or binoculars.

i also have xbox cam modded to telescope.

[Aenima]

PS. The adapter to use if you want the webcam as planetary imaging cam, is the same 'nosepiece' adapter that fits the spc900nc and toucam type webcams, it fits the xbox with a little bit of diy - it screws into the thread that the original lens was in and fits eyepiece/focuser hole perfectly and you can use regular filters like a better quality IR block to replace the glass one that comes with the xbox cam. Filters will screw straight onto the end of the nosepiece - these parts will also be compatible with any future webcams you buy.

Regards

Aenima

[Naemeth]

Okay, so whilst I don't have the Xbox livecam, I do have a webcam. I've got to the circuit board and it has three components that I can see: The main chip, another small lens which covers the chip (has no magnification that I can see), and a filter (I believe it's an IR filter).

If I just use it with the main chip without any of the lenses, I just get bright colour inside (haven't tried outside).

If I use it with the small lens as well, it doesn't do much to be honest, gives no more image.

If I use it with the filter, with or without the small lens, I can move it closer to the chip and further away from it to focus.

Shall I just put them all back on or not?

(Haven't broken the light yet!)

[The Sailor]

Hi Naemeth, when you have disabled the led you take the IR filter out and reasemble the cam case. Once assembled you put the adapter on instead of the lens and then the cam can be used as a guidecam, remember you don't use the orignal lens but keep it in case you wish to use it again .

Jim

[Naemeth]

Hi Naemeth, when you have disabled the led you take the IR filter out and reasemble the cam case. Once assembled you put the adapter on instead of the lens and then the cam can be used as a guidecam, remember you don't use the orignal lens but keep it in case you wish to use it again .

Jim

By adapter, do you mean the piping? Do I use the IR filter, or should the telescope act as a filter.

In addition, do I image from the eyepiece, or direct from focuser?

[The Sailor]

Okay, sorry but I thought you had the necessary adapter. Lets start again, you can adapt a cam two ways, one with a 1.25mm adatper to act like an eyepiece, inserted in place of an eyepiece you can have what the telescope sees on the PC. You focus the telescope as if there was an eyepiece, using the screen display to help focus. The other way is a different adapter which attached to the cam, screwed in in place of the lens, this attaches to the 9x50 finderscope and used again in the same way. Take the IR filter out, not required. I am not sure what piping you are talking about unless you are following something Cliff has said. Take a look at some of the photos in my link and you will see some of the adapters on the cams .

Jim

[The Sailor]

This is the adapter I am on about:

http://www.optcorp.com/product.aspx?pid=12610

Jim

[Naemeth]

Okay, sorry but I thought you had the necessary adapter. Lets start again, you can adapt a cam two ways, one with a 1.25mm adatper to act like an eyepiece, inserted in place of an eyepiece you can have what the telescope sees on the PC. You focus the telescope as if there was an eyepiece, using the screen display to help focus. The other way is a different adapter which attached to the cam, screwed in in place of the lens, this attaches to the 9x50 finderscope and used again in the same way. Take the IR filter out, not required. I am not sure what piping you are talking about unless you are following something Cliff has said. Take a look at some of the photos in my link and you will see some of the adapters on the cams .

Jim

Where would I get this adaptor, and how would I attach it? Would I still need the IR filter and the lens?

That would probably be what I wanted to do instead of using it in a finder.

[Naemeth]

This is the adapter I am on about:

http://www.optcorp.c....aspx?pid=12610

Jim

If that mounts on to the lens, which is 12mm for me, that will work perfectly, do you know of any UK suppliers?

[The Sailor]

I thought I had answered the question on the filter and lens, I'll repeat , filter out, not required, lens off, keep as you may want to use it again. Attach the adapter by screwing the small end into the place where the lens goes, once in you place the nosepiece into the telescope in place of an eyepiece.

Jim