Has Anyone Modified A Logitech C270

[tich]

Hi everyone.

I was wondering if anyone has modified one of these as I have tonight but didn't get much time to try it out. I decided to modify it using the adapter I have for my Philips webcam. It's not a pretty modification but it sort of works although when I tried to image Mars allbeit briefly due to the Clouds coming over. (The met office said it was going to be clear tonight ) I was struggling with the settings in Sharpcap as I had the gain down to zero the brightness down to zero before I could see any detail on Mars. However I wasn't able to get any colour unless I move the saturation up a little. Before I could carry on the clouds came over.

I unclipped the front & removed 3 screws unscrewed the lens then the cover had the hole enlarged to take the adapter. I then put everything back together minus the lens.

The adapter will have to be glued to the camera but for now its in place with some PTFE tape to hold it solid as I dont want to waste the adapter as I can still use it with the Philips.

I also had to remove the surface mounted LED as that was glowing across the CCD chip.

If anyone has had any experience with these then I'd appreciate any input they could share with me. I just find as a webcam this picks out a lot more detail than the Philips ever did & as tonight seemed to prove is that it is able to collect more light too. Just a pity I couldn't get to use it for longer.

[mrnumpty]

i would be interested to know how you did this, as i have this cam too and would like to convert it to an astro cam. What were to pictures like, how did you remove the lens and what adapter did you use. this pictures in your post are very useful, just need that detail.

Cheers Mrnumpty

[JamesF]

Can you change the frame rate and the exposure in sharpcap?

James

[mrnumpty]

yep

[mrnumpty]

this is the settings i can see and change

[JamesF]

In that case for Mars I'd start by setting the frame rate to somewhere between 10fps and 20fps (you may need to experiment with this and I don't know what the camera supports), then increase the exposure time as far as possible for that frame rate and pull the gain back as far as possible until the image is visible and (hopefully) detail is occasionally visible, but not overly bright. Run captures for five to six minutes if possible, though you could potentially get away with anyhting up to ten.

Experiment from there.

James

[JamesF]

Having seen the image, in addition, turn off auto-exposure and set it manually as above. Turn off auto white balance and set it somewhere up around 7000 to 7500 if you can. If you can't get that high, go as high as possible.

James

[mrnumpty]

yeh i can change all of that, so now i need to get a nose piece and remove the lens. do all lenses screw off? i have the covers off ect. could see the lens but could not see how to remove.

as for the nose piece

First Light Optics - 1.25" nosepiece to webcam lens thread (ToUcam Pro SPC900NC)

would this do the trick.

[tich]

I just used the adapter off my Philips webcam & removed the lens from the Logitech. As the adapter would not screw into the webcam itself I made the hole on the clip on cover larger & fitted the adapter there temporary.

However I found it was a nightmare to get a decent image & took many captures with it. The best image I got was this;

However trying to find Mars using this webcam is a nightmare as you had to get the settings just right, using it on high gain or brightness didn't seem to work very well with it & focusing wasn't easy either. The Asda webcam modifications I've seen seem to be working a lot better so I'd stick with those if you can as most of the images I were getting were like this;

It's a shame really because as a webcam it's very good & picks out much more detail then the Philips......

[JamesF]

Is that a single frame, or a stacked image?

James

[tich]

All the images were stacked with registax & RGB aligned, the top image of Mars was the 5th image out of 10 I did. I ran the videos to up to about a 1000 frames for each image. The thing I found hard was to actually find Mars using the Logitech whereas using the Philips it was much easier to do.

[JamesF]

Perhaps it needs some more time on a night when the sky is clear for longer. Might just seem more difficult because you're used to the SPC, too. I have a modded Lifecam Cinema that I'm waiting to try for the first time, but part of me is not looking forward to it because after a lot of practice I've got to the stage where I'm quite comfortable with the SPC and the Lifecam is sure to be different.

James

[mrnumpty]

ok so i am looking for an spc 880 man they are hard to find

[JamesF]

They're almost unobtainable these days. The better bet is probably to mod a Lifecam Cinema, but as I've not tried mine yet I don't know how well it performs.

James

[JamesF]

If you just want to try imaging out with a cheap camera that works however, the ASDA camera looks ok, or there's the Xbox Live camera that's a relatively easy mod.

James

[tich]

Perhaps it needs some more time on a night when the sky is clear for longer. Might just seem more difficult because you're used to the SPC, too. I have a modded Lifecam Cinema that I'm waiting to try for the first time, but part of me is not looking forward to it because after a lot of practice I've got to the stage where I'm quite comfortable with the SPC and the Lifecam is sure to be different.

James

You're possibly right but I was out there for about 3 hours when I took these whereas with the Philips I could get a couple of captures quite easiliy within half an hour. I have put the Logitech back to normal-ish for now but I might have another go with it another time.

[mrnumpty]

i mean i am very new to this whole thing and imaging would mean i can share what i see with friends, when they are not around. just want everything so fast, i have seen a scp880 with mod on ebay.£30. may hold out for that.

[tich]

I'd also go with the Asda webcam mod as the Philips on eBay will go for silly money they usually do.

[JamesF]

The last SPC900 to go on ebay went for £117 in the end, unmodified. It's a shocking amount when you consider that a few months back they could be had for £5 each. You might get lucky with one listed as an SPC880 if people aren't searching for that, but I wouldn't hold your breath

James

[Reggie]

It's incredible when you consider a qhy5 isn't much more than that!!

[JamesF]

Yes, I did make the point at the time that after buying the nosepiece and paying for postage on both there'd be very little change out of £150, by which point you're well into second hand "proper" astrocam territory.

James

[Boomanchoo27]

I have this webcam that I took the lense off and am using an old film canister to capture images of the moon and jupIter. I have yet capture anything else as of yet.

[Omnipaulus]

Ts is a fantastic job that you have done and thanks for sharing it. I have just bought this camera and adaptor thinking of doing the same and wondering if it was going to be possible. And you have answered my prayers. Very neat job indeed. Thanks for it.

Paulo.

[joshyouarebaker]

how did you make the hole bigger? 

[tich]

I just used a round file to make mine bigger.