ASDA £2.93 webcam

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Asda cam is now Infrared pick up ghosts or ufo's thats how i like to mod cams

as you can see on me pic using remote control box see the infrared light!

Removed IR circle red filter took some doing but removed it.

now shall test cam on it's own tonight with night sky see if picks up out

then possibly may use as a-focal or remove whole lens alltogether and attach bit tube so can use on telescope.

[knobby]

Nice work

Looking forward to some images with the ir removed

Sent from my HD2Droid

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I'm infact going to use this asda cam as normal sky cam for day use as it works exellent in day light as i dont have day cam

i have infact removed the original lens and put in a lens from ps3 cam

i just removed whole housing of original lens clipped away bit of front plastic and used bit blue tac to put on ps3 lens for the 75° field of view

now to put some pvc tape around it make it water proof

now to put outside.

probably give it another use sometime for now it's day cam.

needed cam for me garden ready for jubillee party.

Took pic but cams not outside yet

Gunna tidy it up bit then put outside bit solar filter over lens when suns in field of view stops damaging me cams

[sanmatt]

Mines still inthe box

[knobby]

Mines still inthe box

Well its not going to do much in there San ...

Sent from my HD2Droid

[c3po]

Mines still inthe box

San, if you let me have it back i'll mod it for you...just buy the SPC webcam adaptor on FLO and i'll get the pair off you for modding when The Witney Astro group meet next

[sanmatt]

San, if you let me have it back i'll mod it for you...just buy the SPC webcam adaptor on FLO and i'll get the pair off you for modding when The Witney Astro group meet next

ohh sweet thanks Si. Matthew said he do it but he got sidetracked doing my solar filter and his next job is collimating the thing.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Mines still inthe box

Be great to see some astro images from yourself sometime when you open box!

[sanmatt]

Be great to see some astro images from yourself sometime when you open box!

Will do (wont be any ghosties on them though ; p)

Mostly I stick to the DSLR for my imaging, though I will venture in to webcams soon enough

[nytecam]

Still having fun with Asdacam after a whole month - some more moon shots from last night include Apollo 11 astronauts' named craters @

[Hanuman]

I grabbed the £6 AsdaCam a few weeks ago and got round to hacking it this evening. Dismantled it, taped over the green LED, removed the lens. Cut the bottom of a 35mm film can and taped the whole thing together.

I set up while it was still light and took a look at the moon through the scope about half eight this evening before popping the AsdaCam down the eye-hole of my Skywatcher 130M. When I got the, frankly huge, image focussed up on the netbook screen I did have a wow moment. This cost £6!!

Had to work quickly because one of my other challenges is the sheer number of trees in our garden but managed a few shots before the moon disappeared behind the trees and then the clouds came in anyway.

Here's my favourite of Clavius and Tycho

More in the Flickr set- http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanuman/sets/72157629958622964

These were just snapshots in SharpCap. I need to get the hang of stacking next, especially as I want to try these with the recently made solar filter to get some images of the Transit.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Still having fun with Asdacam after a whole month - some more moon shots from last night include Apollo 11 astronauts' named craters @

Awesome moon video seems asda cam works super with moon

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Asda cam is epic

Using as day cam for now ufo scanning as it's infrared can move it around also and it ready to video me mini jubilee party lol what am i like hey ufo's

had to lower exposure to -14 for day use have quite few exposure settings to play with for night usage.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

Beam me up sunshine thats sun reflection on me lens

Time lapse vid of me beam me up sunshine how class is that beam from sun lol

http://cliffraves.hourb.com/skycam2/Beam%20me%20up%20sunshine.WMV

[Novarius]

Some very informative posts here, this thread has now been bookmarked, I shall visit my local Asda tomorrow for a look for one of the cameras.

[vimes]

No Asda near me so off to Tesco tonight for me. Bought a technika 1.3 MP webcam. Removed the lense, put the cover back on then gaffer taped the whole thing to a copper pipe fitting. Had to wrap the pipe in more gaffer to bulk it up a bit. Painted the inside black. Now its time to test.. may not be great tonight though as there it a light mist in the air. Still, worth a go I guess. If the pics are any good, I'll post them later.

[Stargazing_Cliff]

No Asda near me so off to Tesco tonight for me. Bought a technika 1.3 MP webcam. Removed the lense, put the cover back on then gaffer taped the whole thing to a copper pipe fitting. Had to wrap the pipe in more gaffer to bulk it up a bit. Painted the inside black. Now its time to test.. may not be great tonight though as there it a light mist in the air. Still, worth a go I guess. If the pics are any good, I'll post them later.

Nice one thats what all these posts with modding cams help how to mod any webcam and put them on tests

sounds cool make technika

[vimes]

hope these uploaded ok.. not done this before:icon_scratch:. ok first pic was taken wits T***o cam straight into the diagonal. secont pic was taken with a 2 x barlow.

now for the excuses!

the seeing was terrible with a light cloud cover. and I had a bit of a hard time focusing because of the lag on the camera. still, for a cam that I built in less than an hour and for under £17 (yes T***o are a rip off I know) I don't think its too bad at all. there were no fancy settings just snapshots taken using Sharpcap.

Ps. i used a 28mm copper pipe fitting bulked out with gaffer with the inside painted with black acrylic to attach the cam to the scope. this works very well as you can adjust how close the fit is by how much tape you use.

[Auntystatic]

ooow pink cheese how loverrly

Diagonal looks sharper.

[vimes]

Yeah. They were both taken using the diagonal but the second one was using a 2X Barlow as well. It's a shame, about an hour after these were taken the sky cleared up a bit. Oh well, that's our hobby I guess. I'm not sure why its pink. Maybe because I took out the IR filter or it could have been the cloud cover. I'm still pretty pleased with them for a rough and ready test. Just plonked the scope down and pointed it at the moon. I'm off to yeovil at the weekend for a party, the cam should come in handy there, everyone can see at the same time.

[nytecam]

Yeah.. I'm not sure why its pink. Maybe because I took out the IR filter or it could have been the cloud cover.

In SharpCap/options/video capture filter I find it best to reduce colour satuation to zero on moon for nice mono pic:hello2:

[Stargazing_Cliff]

I find with the asda cam when gets low light condition as i have my asda cam on test as skycam before i get round to modding to telescope.

i noticed when gets to low light night time with exposure on full -1 un ticked box i noticed if you tick box it kind of gives the cam a little boost of more exposure and it stays at that exposure quite interesting that extra boost bit when tick box hmm.

Has anyone else noticed this extra boost of exposure.

System i using windows xp using cam software i usually use to test cams and thats deskshare webcam monitor 5.

[nytecam]

Cliff - yes for exposure control I play with SharpCap's Options/Video capture filter/brightness/contrast/gamma and gain and under Camera control/Exposure slider - all effect contrast and brightness:hello2:

ps: superglue fumes tip - when glueing 32mm adapter in webcam mod superglue fumes can stain the sensor but are removeable with tiny amount of lens cleaning fluid and cotton bud using great care. I had to go this route:eek:

Best [on Asdacam mod] to glue adapter to lid only with sensor half removed until superglue has completely cured - say 12hrs min to keep sensor away from fumes:)

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

Yeah. I'm not sure why its pink. Maybe because I took out the IR filter or it could have been the cloud cover.

the IR filter is removed so your getting both focused light and focused IR.

pop the picture into something like gimp.

open color channels

in red channel : adjust red slider right down and blue slider right up.

in blue channel : adjust red slider all way up, and blue slider all way down.

select monochrome and ok.

your picture should now be correct and in monochrome.

same workflow works with daytime IR shots

[vimes]

Thanks Mr TamiyaCowboy. I have GIMP on the laptopamabob. I'll give it a try if it stays this cloudy. If it clears up though, I'll be out trying to get some better pics.