Lifecam HD as guide camera

[eddy]

Hey guys will the Lifecam HD work well as a guide cam? I tried with a cheapo webcam from Argos with nothing but 'FAIL' from the start....LOL

So im out to get a better camera and the lifecam seems a reasonable price until i can afford a QHY5 or something similar.

Anyone had any luck with the lifecam?

[Earl]

Hi Eddy, some forum members have has success with using webcams, its all depends on what your guiding on, a QHY will make life easier.

id be inclined to go ST80 and QHY5. I personally use a QHY6 (as I got it cheap and a ST80)

[eddy]

At the moment a 50mm orion guidescope and nothing else.

I have just reserved a lifecam at local PCWorld for £40 and i have an old 1.25" eyepiece i dont want here, so was thinking about bodging it all together and hoping for the best for a month.

[eddy]

Anyone know if the lens unscrews? or have i literally gotta rip it to pieces and do the full mod? lol

[dugpatrick]

I used a Lifecam HD Cinema webcam for autoguiding for a while. You can guide on magnitude 8 stars with a bright guidescope. In my case I was using a 9x50 finder. I think the 9x50 is 175mm focal length and f/3.5.

It's fine for starting but eventually you'll want a more sensitive guide cam.

Doug

[eddy]

Hi Doug thanks for the reply, the Orion guidescope is 50mm aperture, 162mm focal length (f/3.2). Mag 8 will do for now!

Im heading out this morning to pick one up, just hope i get a break tonight so i can test it out! lol

Thanks for the replies guys

[eddy]

Ok so i modded my lifecam, some of the screws were..well tight, and raised a few swear words thats for sure.

Anyway, just checked it all, still works and put it into my guidescope and can still find focus, WINNER! Right, the blue led, how do we get rid of that? Any suggestions?

I tried black nail polish with no luck, the blue LED is REALLY bright, any other suggestions before i stick a bit of electrical tape on it? lol

[Jessun]

That little LED shines in all directions despite being so flat so try attacking it with a few layers of pain instead. I went for Humbrol matte black from a model shop.

[eddy]

Right then off to the model shop it is! lol

There is always something, i wander if ill ever be happy and stop tinkering?

[Jessun]

Goes with the hobby I think. You buy something and immediately rip it apart...

[Earl]

I used some needle pliers and crushed it

[eddy]

Having major issues trying to get it working on XP with service pack 2, anyone else have any problems?

[WakeyTiger]

I've done a Lifecam mod today - went well, and I also used black Humbrol matte paint for the blue LED.

Not sure about WinXP, I'm on Win 7 - but I didn't use the MS Lifecam driver. If you install AM Cap (I think), this works better than the LifeCam software and drivers, and gives you the option of going higher resolution/framerates with the better codecs.

Best of luck!

Matt.

[eddy]

xp detects the camera, but fails to start it, ive tried various drivers etc with no luck

[eddy]

oh and PHD wont recoginise it either which it what i wanted it for

[dugpatrick]

Strange. I used the Lifecam cinema HD with Windows XP. The Lifecam software says it's version 3.22.270.0. But the part you really need is the drivers, not the utility software.

And it worked with PHD. I used the WDM driver in PHD. Give that a try.

Doug

[eddy]

Yeah i did try it and it wouldnt work at all i ended up dragging my PC outside LOL what a nightmare that was, only to find that i hadnt setup my 350D on this pc, BUT.....i managed to get my mount guiding which is a bonus!

So, Everything works on PC, but do i drag it outside everytime i want a session, or upgrade Laptop to Windows 7, OR try and get cam working on XP? lol

Decisions decisions, i think ill go with dragging PC outside everytime....its a lot faster and more stable than my laptop anyway.

But, few issues regarding guiding i have to admit. It finds a guidestar (eventually) calibrates fine, starts guiding, then the star drifts out of guiding and then PHD moans that its lost the star, even though its still on the screen....

Now, am i missing something? Or is PHD losing the star due to SNR or lack of magnitude?

[eddy]

Ok just discovered that the 350D is NOT compatable with windows 7, so i have no choice but to get the webcam working on XP.

What service pack are you using on XP? I just installed SP3 in the hope it would sort out the issue, so think its time to start from scratch....lol

[dugpatrick]

FYI here are the details on my laptop. All is working for me, and perhaps going through these steps you can find the problem...

OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2

After plugging in the camera I hear the normal "usb device" sound. Go to My Computer and I see Microsoft LifeCam Cinema. If you right click and go to Properties I can click on "Test Camera" to verify it works.

If I open the device from My Computer then I see live video.

Going to the device manager, I see a category for Imaging Devices. Within this category is Microsoft LifeCam Cinema. Right click, go to Properties: Driver date 1/27/2010, Driver version 3.20.240.0.

PHD on my laptop is version 1.12.4. Click on the Camera button and select "Windows WDM-style webcam camera". Then up comes a dialog for the Camera Mode, and I select something like 1280x720 RGB. (i forget which mode i used for guiding; you'll want to experiment)

Once the camera is selected you can tell PHD to sample the images. (it's one of the buttons on the bottom row). If the image is too dark or too bright then click on the rightmost button "Cam dialog". From there you can adjust exposure, etc. When I was guiding I would turn off "auto" exposure and then crank it up.

The good news is it should all work from Win XP. I just went through the above steps and all is working on my laptop. I'm not sure what is going wrong for you but perhaps going through the above steps you can isolate the issue. I would guess the driver is not installed? Or maybe a different version?

I hope this helps. Don't give up yet.

Doug

[eddy]

If i plug in my camera, i get the "failed" noise as though the drivers are not installed, i check device manager and its not recognised at all, even though i have installed it, im thinking about starting fresh tomorrow and reinstalling xp and starting again, ive had enough already! lol

[Gina]

I tried the MS LifeCam Cinema on my 9x50 finder scope and couldn't see any stars. I gave up and bought a QHY5 which is great. Very much more sensitive and wider view.

[Gina]

Now I've decided I need the finder to find things and get them well enough lined up to show in the main AP system. So I've ordered an ST80 to use as guide scope.

[eddy]

Superb! Well done Gina, i think ill be moving to the QHY5 as soon as money allows, but for the time being ill be trying my best with the lifecam, ive managed to get it all sorted.

I have a shed, with aPC in it (bit of a get away) plugged in the lifecam, has windows xp on it, worked first time, so decided to make that "Telescope Headquarters" got myself some USB extension leads so i can do everything from the warmth of a shed now via Computer (apart from move the mount as its only an ST4 mod, no goto, would be nice though!)

So just getting everything sorted now, will be posting success/failures this evening hopefully

[samtheeagle]

I hope it works out ok for you eddy. I've been using a HD Lifecam for guiding just recently, and apart from one night when it and PHD consipred to display pixelated trash, it has worked very well for me. I've managed to guide on stars in the Rosette Nebula, and that's just with the camera defaults, I've never made any attempt to mess with gain or exposure or anything, so I would expect to be able to get a bit more out of it needed. But I figure if it aint broke... All this is through a 50mm finder.

[idbvideo]

I am considering using a 50mm finder and MS Lifecam for guiding, mine is in a 1.25 billetparts adaptor. What would I need to modify the finderscope to make the camera fit?