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ASDA £2.93 webcam


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Do you have to remove the lense of the webcam as I have done what you have done but through welding although we left the lense on the fron of the camera?

You want to take the lense out completely and discard or keep for another project.

You want the light from the telescope to hit the naked square sensor chip. you also want a way to cover that up when not in use as it will get dust all over it, ruining it a bit.

The lense also has an IR filter which obviously blocks out all of the lovely IR light you want to capture. more light = good methinks.

No eyepiece is needed as this camera now becomes your eyepiece and the chip see's the focused image still becuase the telescope tube acts like a lense... or so I hear.

plug in to your laptop and focus telescope till clear image (moon is good).

DAMN CLOUDS!

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also of not is this is for 1.25" eyepices.

Forgot about this and set up my old newt which uses .965"... so ... yeah... that didn't work at all. ha!.

Also found it only fits in the other scope if I take off the tightening ring around the focuser...doh!

so.....

I did a bit of scrounging and found my friends metal broom handle had a black plastic tip... which is the perfect fit for .965" focuser... mod in progress... will update.

PS

broom is from Wilkinsons... take the tightening ring with you to test! also needed to saw off an annoying bit of plastic first but this took 20 seconds with a hacksaw.

Sanding edges level is pretty much done.

same instructions as my above post but using a tube that fits your scope instead of a camera film canister.

will complete tomorrow, so... pics tomorrow, going to bed.

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OK!

Name it!

GREEN PlanetCam AsdaCam Ken Mod (that actually fits in his Telescope's now) Digital Eyepiece For Pics Of Planets or P.A.K. -M- D.E.F.P.O.P. MK2 for short.

Spent all day fiddling with this mod as it took some clever thinking, luck, and random finding of things to complete the P.A.K. -M- D.E.F.P.O.P. MK2.

Most painfully difficult was the cap or dust stoppererer as nothing fit the tubing I cut from a broom snugly. Later found a rubber stump cover for a garden rake and this was too big... but only slightly... friction fit works a beauty thanks to amazing green tape.

Most importantly of all it the P.A.K. -M- D.E.F.P.O.P. MK2 is green and black.

Second most important is the P.A.K. -M- D.E.F.P.O.P. MK2 actually fits brilliantly in the scope but damn these clouds. mmmm green.

first pic is showing full mod including tube with dust free sensor and green tape with super green dust cap to one side.

second pic showing the cap's insane dust defying ability with full olympic level skill.

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post-19345-0-20074700-1339712441_thumb.j

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I have a play station 3 eye toy, I have removed the small lens, but replaced the cap, if you know what i mean, tomorrow i will remove cap altogether with just chip showing, thanks for the info

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I have a play station 3 eye toy, I have removed the small lens, but replaced the cap, if you know what i mean, tomorrow i will remove cap altogether with just chip showing, thanks for the info

Make sure you keep that sensor covered up when not using it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not all webcams, even from Asda, are the same. The one initially described in this post cost <£3 or 2 for <£3 when I got to Asda last May ! Mine works fine with W7 - see my earlier post for mod and sample pics/videos :Envy:

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Once again, not an asda cam. but what yo you all think of this??

post-22812-0-29385000-1341423903_thumb.j

post-22812-0-93262200-1341423918_thumb.j

its a cheap as hell 9MP happy snappy camera that has had the same treatment as the webcam. the idea it that it can take video without havig to take the laptop outside in the cold and damp. just record to SD card and then process later.

place your bets now please as to weather or not it'll work. i can't see any reason why not, but i guess if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

if i get anything good from it, i'll post it here. if these clougs ever do one that is.

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Once again, not an asda cam. but what yo you all think of this??

post-22812-0-29385000-1341423903_thumb.j

post-22812-0-93262200-1341423918_thumb.j

its a cheap as hell 9MP happy snappy camera that has had the same treatment as the webcam. the idea it that it can take video without havig to take the laptop outside in the cold and damp. just record to SD card and then process later.

place your bets now please as to weather or not it'll work. i can't see any reason why not, but i guess if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

if i get anything good from it, i'll post it here. if these clougs ever do one that is.

I look forward to your first light with that lol

Got a great look at the moon with my mod and it works brilliantly. Once I figure stuff out I will post the pics

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  • 3 weeks later...

I look forward to your first light with that lol

Got a great look at the moon with my mod and it works brilliantly. Once I figure stuff out I will post the pics

Well here it is. It works great for Luna work but i attempted to image Saturn with it the other day. not good at all. oh well.

post-22812-0-65735600-1343497092_thumb.j

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  • 3 weeks later...

I bought the Asda Webcam online but have since discovered it only works on XP or Vista. Has everyone here not got Windows 7 or have I bought the wrong one or is their a solution?

I bought the 'hires' one and it works fine on win7. You should be able to download software for win7 that will drive any camera. I found that wxAstrocapture works, even with an old cam I have from the mid 2000s.

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Once again, not an asda cam. but what yo you all think of this??

post-22812-0-29385000-1341423903_thumb.j

post-22812-0-93262200-1341423918_thumb.j

its a cheap as hell 9MP happy snappy camera that has had the same treatment as the webcam. the idea it that it can take video without havig to take the laptop outside in the cold and damp. just record to SD card and then process later.

place your bets now please as to weather or not it'll work. i can't see any reason why not, but i guess if it was that easy, everyone would be doing it.

if i get anything good from it, i'll post it here. if these clougs ever do one that is.

some them video mini cams not bad whats iso settings on it and any of the long exposures some them cams have. i have done similar to mini mpeg video recorded me travelar dv 3010 i also like to use quick easy imaging than bringing laptop outside so on.

i use mine on moon. i may do same to me nikon sometime once i get cable or i'll probably use that to look at stars normally as i have 8 second long exposure mod for it.

you want to google the cams make and see if they any long exposure's for cam.

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ok I filmed jupiter two nights ago with my asdacam, it worked brilliantly. I am in the same position though, the file is humongus, ie 3GB for one and 2.3GB for the other. 0_O

how do I shrink the size a lot or take a still?

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Just got my ASDA cam (the more expensive one, they don't seem to do the cheapo one any more) and when I took it apart I found a loose black wire inside. It looks like this wire should be soldered to the circuit board common with the other black wire, however the camera seems to work fine except that, when I use the Snapshot feature in SharpCap the program locks up. This might be a fault with the software or computer rather than the camera.

Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That's quite big. How long was was the capture ?

Peter

It was around 200 seconds for the 3GB file.I am manually guiding as well so it takes me some time finding the target(jup) and then focus and then press capture and watch it sail by. Finding the correct settings so jupiter shows banding was quite difficult and I have no idea which settings I changed either.I am just trying to get started so when I upgrade to a motor driven mount I will not be wasting too much time figuring this out.main problems = file size, what to do with my images(now an avi), best settings(ie gamma, brightness, contrast blah blah)

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You can get rid of noise i found sollution if recording to avi

use software avi to raw fits and then you just simple calibrate images using software imageviewca

and it gets rid of noise and hot pixels.

also another software thats pretty good is MaxIm DL 5 you use stretch and it gets rid of noise hot pixels also.

ideal these software for us usb camera user's :)

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It was around 200 seconds for the 3GB file.I am manually guiding as well so it takes me some time finding the target(jup) and then focus and then press capture and watch it sail by. Finding the correct settings so jupiter shows banding was quite difficult and I have no idea which settings I changed either.I am just trying to get started so when I upgrade to a motor driven mount I will not be wasting too much time figuring this out.main problems = file size, what to do with my images(now an avi), best settings(ie gamma, brightness, contrast blah blah)

For imaging Jupiter you should keep the length of the avi down to below 90 seconds, longer avis will start to show planetary rotation.

Peter

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stupid question but i am using the £7 asda cam in my 250px manual guiding but is ther anyway to change the mag so i could get the whole moon in the frame and do i need to change the settings on sharpcap like gamma rightness etc thanks sam

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stupid question but i am using the £7 asda cam in my 250px manual guiding but is ther anyway to change the mag so i could get the whole moon in the frame and do i need to change the settings on sharpcap like gamma rightness etc thanks sam

Not a stupid question but heres a stupid answer ... NO !

well, you could try a focal reducer but then we're talking money, but really I dont think there is a way, you just need a shortere focal length, the cam works roughly as a 6mm EP which gives 200 x mag in your scope.

So, just to recap - not a silly question - quite a silly answer - but quite a sensible answer hidden in there too !

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